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Ranma ½ 2-in-1 #1
Ranma 1/2 (2-in-1 Edition), Vol. 1: Includes Volumes 1 & 2
One day, teenaged martial artist Ranma Saotome went on a training mission with his father and ended up taking a dive into some cursed springs at a legendary training ground in China. Now, every time he's splashed with cold water, he changes into a girl. His father, Genma, changes into a panda! What's a half-guy, half-girl to do? Find out what fueled the worldwide manga boom in beloved creator Rumiko Takahashi’s (InuYasha, Urusei Yatsura, RIN-NE) smash hit of martial arts mayhem, presented remastered and unflipped for the first time.
Years ago, Genma promised his old friend Soun Tendo that Ranma would marry one of Soun's three daughters and carry on the family's martial arts school. Except that the girl picked to be Ranma's bride doesn't seem to like him, Ranma keeps getting into fights, and did we mention that whole changing into a girl thing?
Years ago, Genma promised his old friend Soun Tendo that Ranma would marry one of Soun's three daughters and carry on the family's martial arts school. Except that the girl picked to be Ranma's bride doesn't seem to like him, Ranma keeps getting into fights, and did we mention that whole changing into a girl thing?
368 pages, Paperback
Published March 11, 2014
107 people are currently reading
547 people want to read
About the author
Rumiko Takahashi
1,580 books2,126 followersRumiko Takahashi (高橋留美子) was born in Niigata, Japan. She is not only one of the richest women in Japan but also one of the top paid manga artists. She is also the most successful female comic artist in history. She has been writing manga non-stop for 31 years.
Rumiko Takahashi is one of the wealthiest women in Japan. The manga she creates (and its anime adaptations) are very popular in the United States and Europe where they have been released as both manga and anime in English translation. Her works are relatively famous worldwide, and many of her series were some of the forerunners of early English language manga to be released in the nineties. Takahashi is also the best selling female comics artist in history; well over 100 million copies of her various works have been sold.
Though she was said to occasionally doodle in the margins of her papers while attending Niigata Chūō High School, Takahashi's interest in manga did not come until later. During her college years, she enrolled in Gekiga Sonjuku, a manga school founded by Kazuo Koike, mangaka of Crying Freeman and Lone Wolf and Cub. Under his guidance Rumiko Takahashi began to publish her first doujinshi creations in 1975, such as Bye-Bye Road and Star of Futile Dust. Kozue Koike often urged his students to create well-thought out, interesting characters, and this influence would greatly impact Rumiko Takahashi's works throughout her career.
Career and major works:
Takahashi's professional career began in 1978. Her first published story was Those Selfish Aliens, a comedic science fiction story. During the same year, she published Time Warp Trouble, Shake Your Buddha, and the Golden Gods of Poverty in Shōnen Sunday, which would remain the home to most of her major works for the next twenty years. Later that year, Rumiko attempted her first full-length series, Urusei Yatsura. Though it had a rocky start due to publishing difficulties, Urusei Yatsura would become one of the most beloved anime and manga comedies in Japan.
In 1980, Rumiko Takahashi found her niche and began to publish with regularity. At this time she started her second major series, Maison Ikkoku, in Big Comic Spirits. Written for an older audience, Maison Ikkoku is often considered to be one of the all-time best romance manga. Takahashi managed to work on Maison Ikkoku on and off simultaneously with Urusei Yatsura. She concluded both series in 1987, with Urusei Yatsura ending at 34 volumes, and Maison Ikkoku being 15.
During the 1980s, Takahashi became a prolific writer of short story manga, which is surprising considering the massive lengths of most of her works. Her stories The Laughing Target, Maris the Chojo, and Fire Tripper all were adapted into original video animations (OVAs). In 1984, after the end of Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi took a different approach to storytelling and began the dark, macabre Mermaid Saga. This series of short segments was published sporadically until 1994, with the final story being Mermaid's Mask. Many fans contend that this work remains unfinished by Takahashi, since the final story does not end on a conclusive note.
Another short work left untouched is One-Pound Gospel, which, like Mermaid Saga, was published erratically. The last story to be drawn was published in 2001, however just recently she wrote one final chapter concluding the series
Later in 1987, Takahashi began her third major series, Ranma ½. Following the late 80s and early 90s trend of shōnen martial arts manga, Ranma ½ features a gender-bending twist. The series continued for nearly a decade until 1996, when it ended at 38 volumes. Ranma ½ is one of Rumiko Takahashi's most popular series with the Western world.
During the later half of the 1990s, Rumiko Takahashi continued with short stories and her installments of Mermaid Saga and One-Pound Gospel until beginning her fourth major work, InuYasha. While Ran
Rumiko Takahashi is one of the wealthiest women in Japan. The manga she creates (and its anime adaptations) are very popular in the United States and Europe where they have been released as both manga and anime in English translation. Her works are relatively famous worldwide, and many of her series were some of the forerunners of early English language manga to be released in the nineties. Takahashi is also the best selling female comics artist in history; well over 100 million copies of her various works have been sold.
Though she was said to occasionally doodle in the margins of her papers while attending Niigata Chūō High School, Takahashi's interest in manga did not come until later. During her college years, she enrolled in Gekiga Sonjuku, a manga school founded by Kazuo Koike, mangaka of Crying Freeman and Lone Wolf and Cub. Under his guidance Rumiko Takahashi began to publish her first doujinshi creations in 1975, such as Bye-Bye Road and Star of Futile Dust. Kozue Koike often urged his students to create well-thought out, interesting characters, and this influence would greatly impact Rumiko Takahashi's works throughout her career.
Career and major works:
Takahashi's professional career began in 1978. Her first published story was Those Selfish Aliens, a comedic science fiction story. During the same year, she published Time Warp Trouble, Shake Your Buddha, and the Golden Gods of Poverty in Shōnen Sunday, which would remain the home to most of her major works for the next twenty years. Later that year, Rumiko attempted her first full-length series, Urusei Yatsura. Though it had a rocky start due to publishing difficulties, Urusei Yatsura would become one of the most beloved anime and manga comedies in Japan.
In 1980, Rumiko Takahashi found her niche and began to publish with regularity. At this time she started her second major series, Maison Ikkoku, in Big Comic Spirits. Written for an older audience, Maison Ikkoku is often considered to be one of the all-time best romance manga. Takahashi managed to work on Maison Ikkoku on and off simultaneously with Urusei Yatsura. She concluded both series in 1987, with Urusei Yatsura ending at 34 volumes, and Maison Ikkoku being 15.
During the 1980s, Takahashi became a prolific writer of short story manga, which is surprising considering the massive lengths of most of her works. Her stories The Laughing Target, Maris the Chojo, and Fire Tripper all were adapted into original video animations (OVAs). In 1984, after the end of Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi took a different approach to storytelling and began the dark, macabre Mermaid Saga. This series of short segments was published sporadically until 1994, with the final story being Mermaid's Mask. Many fans contend that this work remains unfinished by Takahashi, since the final story does not end on a conclusive note.
Another short work left untouched is One-Pound Gospel, which, like Mermaid Saga, was published erratically. The last story to be drawn was published in 2001, however just recently she wrote one final chapter concluding the series
Later in 1987, Takahashi began her third major series, Ranma ½. Following the late 80s and early 90s trend of shōnen martial arts manga, Ranma ½ features a gender-bending twist. The series continued for nearly a decade until 1996, when it ended at 38 volumes. Ranma ½ is one of Rumiko Takahashi's most popular series with the Western world.
During the later half of the 1990s, Rumiko Takahashi continued with short stories and her installments of Mermaid Saga and One-Pound Gospel until beginning her fourth major work, InuYasha. While Ran
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
August 11, 2019
Teenage martial artist Ranma has a particular problem: when he touches cold water, he becomes a girl! But that's not as big as his other problem: his arranged engagement to Akane, the daughter of a martial artist!
My wife bought this for me so I'd have something light to read while we were waiting for our son to be born. Somehow I didn't manage to get to it during the 40 hours of labor but I got enough sleep last night to finally read it in the aftermath just over a week later.
I've been vaguely aware of Ranma since the 1990s when the comic guy at the local flea market tried selling me on it. I bought Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes from him instead and never looked back. Anyway, this is great shit.
Ranma 1/2 is partly romantic comedy, partly martial arts fun. Ranma's affliction puts him in lots of precarious situations. Ranma's father is similarly afflicted, although he becomes a Panda. The sheer outrageousness of the premise lends itself to all kinds of comedy. When you throw martial arts into the mix, it gets even funnier.
The relationship between Ranma and Akane is the driving force of the story at this point. Forcibly engaged, they don't like each other very much at first. Ranma doesn't seem to be interested in sex at all and Akane is enamored with Dr. Tofu, the local physician. One of my favorite parts of the book is that Akane beats the shit out of a mob of potential suitors every day on the way to school.
While the comedy is front and center, the book is also decades ahead of its time in the treatment of the relationship between sex and gender, not as cut and dry as everyone once thought. Ranma acts like a man even when in his female body, raising all sorts of eyebrows, and Akane makes an effort to act more feminine to appeal to Dr. Tofu.
Ranma 1/2: Vol. 1 works on multiple levels. I don't plan on having another newborn in the house in order to read the next volume. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
My wife bought this for me so I'd have something light to read while we were waiting for our son to be born. Somehow I didn't manage to get to it during the 40 hours of labor but I got enough sleep last night to finally read it in the aftermath just over a week later.
I've been vaguely aware of Ranma since the 1990s when the comic guy at the local flea market tried selling me on it. I bought Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes from him instead and never looked back. Anyway, this is great shit.
Ranma 1/2 is partly romantic comedy, partly martial arts fun. Ranma's affliction puts him in lots of precarious situations. Ranma's father is similarly afflicted, although he becomes a Panda. The sheer outrageousness of the premise lends itself to all kinds of comedy. When you throw martial arts into the mix, it gets even funnier.
The relationship between Ranma and Akane is the driving force of the story at this point. Forcibly engaged, they don't like each other very much at first. Ranma doesn't seem to be interested in sex at all and Akane is enamored with Dr. Tofu, the local physician. One of my favorite parts of the book is that Akane beats the shit out of a mob of potential suitors every day on the way to school.
While the comedy is front and center, the book is also decades ahead of its time in the treatment of the relationship between sex and gender, not as cut and dry as everyone once thought. Ranma acts like a man even when in his female body, raising all sorts of eyebrows, and Akane makes an effort to act more feminine to appeal to Dr. Tofu.
Ranma 1/2: Vol. 1 works on multiple levels. I don't plan on having another newborn in the house in order to read the next volume. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
December 19, 2022
This is one of my favorite reads of the year omg!
So the story is about this boy Ranma who gets betrothed to this girl Akane but turns out he actually transforms/can transform into a girl because of some curse from drowning in some spring and its funny how he balances that plus the falling in love with Akane and the insane adventures in high school and balancing these dual identities too and getting new enemies/antagonists in Kuno and Ryoga and I love both of them, if one is that Macho over the top guy who falls in love with his female side then the other is born from grudge with maybe a similar curse but aside from that rivalry, its his weird life and the romance with Akane thats the main hook.
I love the character of Akane and like just seeing her evolve in this volume was so fine, like how she is such a masculine energy but also those feminine moments and having a crush on Dr Tofu, the physiotherapist and all and like how she gets so shy seeing him and all but by the end getting over it and accepting her real nature and maybe sort of accepting Ranma and it will be fun to read what lies ahead for these two, I freaking love them!
This is one of the strangest yet most fun manga and its the manga queen Rumiko-san's work and no wonder its kinda like that so I am excited to read deeper into it and he future volumes!
So the story is about this boy Ranma who gets betrothed to this girl Akane but turns out he actually transforms/can transform into a girl because of some curse from drowning in some spring and its funny how he balances that plus the falling in love with Akane and the insane adventures in high school and balancing these dual identities too and getting new enemies/antagonists in Kuno and Ryoga and I love both of them, if one is that Macho over the top guy who falls in love with his female side then the other is born from grudge with maybe a similar curse but aside from that rivalry, its his weird life and the romance with Akane thats the main hook.
I love the character of Akane and like just seeing her evolve in this volume was so fine, like how she is such a masculine energy but also those feminine moments and having a crush on Dr Tofu, the physiotherapist and all and like how she gets so shy seeing him and all but by the end getting over it and accepting her real nature and maybe sort of accepting Ranma and it will be fun to read what lies ahead for these two, I freaking love them!
This is one of the strangest yet most fun manga and its the manga queen Rumiko-san's work and no wonder its kinda like that so I am excited to read deeper into it and he future volumes!
June 23, 2022
I love how this story plays with gender, although some of the treatment of the curse is ofc dated. This would be great to adapt now.
February 22, 2025
Creo que no hay nadie que haya crecido en los '90 que no sea fan de Ranma
September 21, 2021
I think by now the plot of Ranma 1/2 goes without saying, but basically Ranma is set up in an arranged marriage to the physically capable Akane in order to inherit her father’s dojo. Other rivals for both appear out of the woodwork and there’s also a lot of people changing genders and species due to an incredibly grim amount of drowning.
Okay, it’s not that grim. This book’s goofy as hell and I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed the whole thing as I have tried Urusei Yatsura in the past and I didn’t terribly care for it. I’ve heard it gets better, but the first couple volumes were… not to my taste.
No such issue exists with Ranma 1/2, where I was pretty much invested from the get-go. I mean, any book where a guy transforms into a girl and is routinely clobbered by his father who’s switching back and forth between human and a giant panda is okay with me. I grabbed the two-in-one “first” volume and just devoured it. The omnipresent cursed springs which are sectioned off into many, many curses from all the drownings are the first serious indicator of how screwball this all gets.
Really the leads are fine, but I think Genma steals this volume, especially when he’s literally holding down a job AS a panda and using signs to communicate. There’s just something about it that tickles my fancy. He’s way into his tough love, but Ranma’s a bit of a dope so he often deserves it anyway.
Ranma and Akane have the basic love-hate relationship that starts out antagonistic and sometimes has a little more romance peeking through when they’re not being awful to one another. It’s hardly the point - this book’s just a bunch of goofing around with a relationship chart that would make most harem books blush.
It’s definitely an 80s manga - the style and the mannerisms and the attitudes are firmly of the era, which does make this vaguely old-fashioned. Yeah, some of its gender roles are a little dated but it’s not dire or unreadable by any stretch. I think the worst thing is probably a small bit of gay panic and the horrible writing for the Chinese characters.
I was surprised by the amount of nudity, not copious but certainly present, but Rumiko Takahashi’s art is so pointedly matter-of-fact than the more salacious habits of most other manga that I didn’t even blink twice at it after a while. It doesn’t need to be there but I don’t care that it is either.
It’s shocking that this book manages to be so much fun without really being about anything. Plots largely involve rivals showing up and chaos ensuing. Ryoga is a particular highlight - beyond his ridiculous transformation, he fights with an umbrella (I always approve of this) and his hopeless sense of direction is a great character trait (I love how when he isn’t at the dojo we see him wandering around somewhere new every time).
Yeah, the female characters could use some work. Akane is the basic man-hating tomboy, but outside of being unable to best Ranma she is a pretty strong fighter which I like. I cannot recall the names of her sisters for the life of me, but everybody seems an appropriate level of absurd for a story like this.
4 stars - I’m well aware that Happosai exists and my tolerance for pervert characters is incredibly low, but I have no such issue here to worry about. This is just a fun little throwback that has aged a lot better than I expected - sometimes revisiting classics doesn’t work, but I sure feel like it does here.
Okay, it’s not that grim. This book’s goofy as hell and I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed the whole thing as I have tried Urusei Yatsura in the past and I didn’t terribly care for it. I’ve heard it gets better, but the first couple volumes were… not to my taste.
No such issue exists with Ranma 1/2, where I was pretty much invested from the get-go. I mean, any book where a guy transforms into a girl and is routinely clobbered by his father who’s switching back and forth between human and a giant panda is okay with me. I grabbed the two-in-one “first” volume and just devoured it. The omnipresent cursed springs which are sectioned off into many, many curses from all the drownings are the first serious indicator of how screwball this all gets.
Really the leads are fine, but I think Genma steals this volume, especially when he’s literally holding down a job AS a panda and using signs to communicate. There’s just something about it that tickles my fancy. He’s way into his tough love, but Ranma’s a bit of a dope so he often deserves it anyway.
Ranma and Akane have the basic love-hate relationship that starts out antagonistic and sometimes has a little more romance peeking through when they’re not being awful to one another. It’s hardly the point - this book’s just a bunch of goofing around with a relationship chart that would make most harem books blush.
It’s definitely an 80s manga - the style and the mannerisms and the attitudes are firmly of the era, which does make this vaguely old-fashioned. Yeah, some of its gender roles are a little dated but it’s not dire or unreadable by any stretch. I think the worst thing is probably a small bit of gay panic and the horrible writing for the Chinese characters.
I was surprised by the amount of nudity, not copious but certainly present, but Rumiko Takahashi’s art is so pointedly matter-of-fact than the more salacious habits of most other manga that I didn’t even blink twice at it after a while. It doesn’t need to be there but I don’t care that it is either.
It’s shocking that this book manages to be so much fun without really being about anything. Plots largely involve rivals showing up and chaos ensuing. Ryoga is a particular highlight - beyond his ridiculous transformation, he fights with an umbrella (I always approve of this) and his hopeless sense of direction is a great character trait (I love how when he isn’t at the dojo we see him wandering around somewhere new every time).
Yeah, the female characters could use some work. Akane is the basic man-hating tomboy, but outside of being unable to best Ranma she is a pretty strong fighter which I like. I cannot recall the names of her sisters for the life of me, but everybody seems an appropriate level of absurd for a story like this.
4 stars - I’m well aware that Happosai exists and my tolerance for pervert characters is incredibly low, but I have no such issue here to worry about. This is just a fun little throwback that has aged a lot better than I expected - sometimes revisiting classics doesn’t work, but I sure feel like it does here.
August 14, 2014
Originally posted on my blog, Misprinted Pages:
I found this series after watching an episode of Geek & Sundry’s web series “Talkin’ Comics,” and I think it may be my favorite manga ever. Seriously, it’s that good.
My experience with manga is limited (I’m more of an American comics kind of girl), but over the years, I’ve added collections like Fruits Basket and Cardcaptor Sakura to my library. Ranma 1/2 reminds me a bit of the former (both feature humans shape-shifting into animals and are overall endearing), but it stands out for a few noteworthy reasons:
This is an unusually progressive manga. Chinese martial arts wonder Ranma is a boy who becomes cursed so that whenever he touches cold water, he turns into a girl. Vice versa with hot water. His father is similarly afflicted, only he turns into a giant panda. (Aww.) So the romance that ensues between the betrothed Ranma and a dojo owner’s third daughter Akane is interesting because it addresses issues of sexual and gender identity in a very insightful way.
I’m only two volumes in (there are 38 total), but I admire how deep and intelligent the commentary here is even though Ranma 1/2 is also one of the genuinely funniest comics I’ve read. Though Ranma experiences life as both genders, he identifies more with being a boy. Akane is a tomboy herself, so while she’s endlessly pursued by the boys at her school, she’s often the object of criticisms like, “Aren’t you supposed to have more grace?” — often from the brash Ranma, who has no room to talk. The societal rules of the sexes are rigidly upheld by these gender-bending characters just as they’re called into conflict.
Akane and Ranma struggle against the feelings of affection they feel for each other. Some situations are made awkward and strained by the gender Ranma is at the time, but in scenarios where their gender is the same, they feel more comfortable with the events that occur (like seeing each other naked). But both characters understood the worlds of male and female, and that’s what makes their relationship special despite their difficulties relating to each other.
To me, all of us have a little of the opposite gender inside us, and though we might clash with the opposite sex, it’s when we’re able to find a common ground between us on a mental and emotional level that we can communicate and get along.
VIZ Media just started releasing the 2-in-1 Editions (that’s two volumes in one book) of Ranma 1/2 in March, and there are three volumes out now, with a fourth arriving in early September (so each a couple months apart). Although the series itself ended in 1996, I’m excited to follow along with it as each 2-in-1 Edition is released.
I found this series after watching an episode of Geek & Sundry’s web series “Talkin’ Comics,” and I think it may be my favorite manga ever. Seriously, it’s that good.
My experience with manga is limited (I’m more of an American comics kind of girl), but over the years, I’ve added collections like Fruits Basket and Cardcaptor Sakura to my library. Ranma 1/2 reminds me a bit of the former (both feature humans shape-shifting into animals and are overall endearing), but it stands out for a few noteworthy reasons:
This is an unusually progressive manga. Chinese martial arts wonder Ranma is a boy who becomes cursed so that whenever he touches cold water, he turns into a girl. Vice versa with hot water. His father is similarly afflicted, only he turns into a giant panda. (Aww.) So the romance that ensues between the betrothed Ranma and a dojo owner’s third daughter Akane is interesting because it addresses issues of sexual and gender identity in a very insightful way.
I’m only two volumes in (there are 38 total), but I admire how deep and intelligent the commentary here is even though Ranma 1/2 is also one of the genuinely funniest comics I’ve read. Though Ranma experiences life as both genders, he identifies more with being a boy. Akane is a tomboy herself, so while she’s endlessly pursued by the boys at her school, she’s often the object of criticisms like, “Aren’t you supposed to have more grace?” — often from the brash Ranma, who has no room to talk. The societal rules of the sexes are rigidly upheld by these gender-bending characters just as they’re called into conflict.
Akane and Ranma struggle against the feelings of affection they feel for each other. Some situations are made awkward and strained by the gender Ranma is at the time, but in scenarios where their gender is the same, they feel more comfortable with the events that occur (like seeing each other naked). But both characters understood the worlds of male and female, and that’s what makes their relationship special despite their difficulties relating to each other.
To me, all of us have a little of the opposite gender inside us, and though we might clash with the opposite sex, it’s when we’re able to find a common ground between us on a mental and emotional level that we can communicate and get along.
VIZ Media just started releasing the 2-in-1 Editions (that’s two volumes in one book) of Ranma 1/2 in March, and there are three volumes out now, with a fourth arriving in early September (so each a couple months apart). Although the series itself ended in 1996, I’m excited to follow along with it as each 2-in-1 Edition is released.
January 25, 2025
This was a fun read, I just started watching the anime so I wanted to read the manga first.
March 8, 2022
I never planned to read something by Rumiko Takahashi but here I am after hearing that Ranma 1/2 is probably her best work. Gave it a shot and I really enjoyed reading this.
The only media I consumed by Takahashi was the Inuyasha anime a few times because my older sister used to watch it many years ago. I will definitely read more of this. Should have read it sooner! Love what's going on in the Tendo Dojo where anything goes martial arts.
The only media I consumed by Takahashi was the Inuyasha anime a few times because my older sister used to watch it many years ago. I will definitely read more of this. Should have read it sooner! Love what's going on in the Tendo Dojo where anything goes martial arts.
June 14, 2015
Soun Tendou, a widowed martial arts instructor in the Nerima suburb of Tokyo, has three daughters: gentle Kasumi, cunning Nabiki and fiery Akane. They are surprised to learn one day that their father made an agreement with his old friend Genma Saotome to marry one of them to Genma’s son Ranma. Akane is unimpressed with the old-fashioned idea of an arranged marriage, especially as it turns out Mr. Tendou has never actually seen Ranma and knows nothing about him.
Imagine their surprise when a panda shows up at their door with a young girl in tow, who claims her name is Ranma Saotome! Akane immediately takes to her fellow martial artist, who is endearingly shy. However, when Akane walks in on Ranma in the bathtub, it turns out he’s male after all! Also, the panda is actually Genma Saotome. A couple of months ago, the two of them fell into cursed pools in a training exercise gone horribly wrong. As a result, they change forms when splashed with cold water, returning to normal when exposed to hot water.
Soun decides that the engagement is still on, so Kasumi and Nabiki immediately dump the arrangement on Akane. Citing Akane’s difficulties with boys, Nabiki points out that Ranma is a girl some of the time. Akane objects, and Ranma makes a rude remark that gets him hit with a table.
The engagement stands, and the quarrelsome couple must learn to deal with each other while coping with other transformees, wacky martial artists, a love dodecahedron and the continuing fallout of Genma and Soun’s terrible life choices.
This romantic martial arts comedy manga ran in Shonen Sunday from 1987-1996, and spawned an anime series, several movies and OAVs, and relatively recently a live-action TV film. It (particularly the anime) was a gateway series for many American fans in the early 1990s.
Much of the comedy in the series comes from the fact that Ranma is a very macho young man, who is exaggeratedly masculine and often trapped in a short, busty girl’s body. Raised in relative isolation by his none-too-socially-ept father, Ranma has heroic instincts but is rude and uncultured, often setting off Akane with unthinking insults. Over the course of the series, Ranma learns how to use his female form to his advantage, but never fully reconciles himself to it or the social role it’s supposed to play.
Akane also struggles with social roles. She’s very attractive (though you will need to take the story’s word for it) which has caused her problems with boys and other perverts, and exacerbated her hair-trigger temper. She’s amazingly bad at most traditional feminine domestic skills, and her best strong point, her martial arts ability, is routinely overshadowed by Ranma and his opponents. Since both the main characters are stubborn and cantankerous, even as they slowly fall in love they can’t admit it.
It should be noted here that most of the people in this series are jerks to one degree or another. Much of the nonsense that drives Ranma and Akane apart even as they draw closer together could have been avoided if someone hadn’t decided to be a jerk at the wrong moment. Even normally adorable Kasumi has her off moments.
Overall, the series is a lot of fun, with enjoyable art, funny jokes and silly characters. And once in a while some tense action. Like many long-runners, it sags some in the middle (the “introduce new wacky character” gimmick only works so many times) and the ending doesn’t really resolve anything. But hey, it’s a comedy.
Given the premise, there’s quite a lot of nudity in the series; if your child is too young to be shown that girls have nipples, they’re too young to be reading this. (One of the running jokes is that Ranma has no body modesty.)
More problematic is that “girls hitting boys that make them angry, even by accident, is hilarious” is driven into the ground in this series. Akane is the worst offender, being the female lead, but most of the other girls are just as awful proportionate to their screen time. Even by the 1990s, social attitudes were shifting, and by now it can make for some uncomfortable reading. Also, some of the things Genma does to Ranma as “martial arts training” would get him arrested for child abuse, and the perverted old master Happosai is treated as an annoyance rather than a sexual offender.
The series does not so much deconstruct Japanese gender roles so much as poke them repeatedly with a sharp stick.
The anime is also good (and has a lot of nice music) but relies heavily on filler (episodes that are anime-only and often have continuity issues) and ends when Ranma’s long-lost mother shows up (about 2/3rds of the way through.) Later season have poorer animation quality as production was moved to cheaper studios.
Viz originally brought Ranma 1/2 over using the flipped-artwork process to make it read left-to-right; between that and their then deliberately slow release of volumes, it took forever to come out in the U.S. (so the anime was a bigger influence on the fanfiction.) It’s now being reprinted in the otaku-friendly right-to-left format, with each volume containing two of the Japanese volumes.
In Volume 1-2, the one to hand, the main characters are introduced. Ranma is assigned to the same school as Akane, and we meet Dr. Tofuu (a practitioner of traditional Japanese medicine and Akane’s first crush) and Tatewaki Kunou, the belligerent and amorous upperclassman who’s done the most to cause Akane’s attitude towards boys. Kunou starts a feud with male Ranma while falling in love with female Ranma (this does not stop him hitting on Akane, and Kunou never fully grasps that the two Ranmas are the same person.)
Just as it looks like Ranma and Akane’s relationship might be warming up, Ranma’s martial arts rival Ryouga appears. Although he’s very strong, Ryouga has a terrible sense of direction, and is cursed to turn into a cute little piglet. Ryouga blames Ranma for that last thing (for the wrong reasons) and is bent on revenge. He also falls in love with Akane. In this first story arc, Ryouga is a clear “heel” but eventually has the most positive character development of anyone in the series.
Ranma and Ryouga have reached something of a stalemate when a new challenger appears, Kodachi Kunou (sister of Tatewaki), who is a mistress of Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and plays very dirty. After she cripples the Fuurinkan High gymnastics team, Akane is called in to save their honor. Too bad she doesn’t know anything about rhythmic gymnastics! A teacher appears, but Kodachi is determined to end the match before it begins….
Highly recommended to fans of Inu-Yasha and those with an interest in poking fun at gender roles.
Imagine their surprise when a panda shows up at their door with a young girl in tow, who claims her name is Ranma Saotome! Akane immediately takes to her fellow martial artist, who is endearingly shy. However, when Akane walks in on Ranma in the bathtub, it turns out he’s male after all! Also, the panda is actually Genma Saotome. A couple of months ago, the two of them fell into cursed pools in a training exercise gone horribly wrong. As a result, they change forms when splashed with cold water, returning to normal when exposed to hot water.
Soun decides that the engagement is still on, so Kasumi and Nabiki immediately dump the arrangement on Akane. Citing Akane’s difficulties with boys, Nabiki points out that Ranma is a girl some of the time. Akane objects, and Ranma makes a rude remark that gets him hit with a table.
The engagement stands, and the quarrelsome couple must learn to deal with each other while coping with other transformees, wacky martial artists, a love dodecahedron and the continuing fallout of Genma and Soun’s terrible life choices.
This romantic martial arts comedy manga ran in Shonen Sunday from 1987-1996, and spawned an anime series, several movies and OAVs, and relatively recently a live-action TV film. It (particularly the anime) was a gateway series for many American fans in the early 1990s.
Much of the comedy in the series comes from the fact that Ranma is a very macho young man, who is exaggeratedly masculine and often trapped in a short, busty girl’s body. Raised in relative isolation by his none-too-socially-ept father, Ranma has heroic instincts but is rude and uncultured, often setting off Akane with unthinking insults. Over the course of the series, Ranma learns how to use his female form to his advantage, but never fully reconciles himself to it or the social role it’s supposed to play.
Akane also struggles with social roles. She’s very attractive (though you will need to take the story’s word for it) which has caused her problems with boys and other perverts, and exacerbated her hair-trigger temper. She’s amazingly bad at most traditional feminine domestic skills, and her best strong point, her martial arts ability, is routinely overshadowed by Ranma and his opponents. Since both the main characters are stubborn and cantankerous, even as they slowly fall in love they can’t admit it.
It should be noted here that most of the people in this series are jerks to one degree or another. Much of the nonsense that drives Ranma and Akane apart even as they draw closer together could have been avoided if someone hadn’t decided to be a jerk at the wrong moment. Even normally adorable Kasumi has her off moments.
Overall, the series is a lot of fun, with enjoyable art, funny jokes and silly characters. And once in a while some tense action. Like many long-runners, it sags some in the middle (the “introduce new wacky character” gimmick only works so many times) and the ending doesn’t really resolve anything. But hey, it’s a comedy.
Given the premise, there’s quite a lot of nudity in the series; if your child is too young to be shown that girls have nipples, they’re too young to be reading this. (One of the running jokes is that Ranma has no body modesty.)
More problematic is that “girls hitting boys that make them angry, even by accident, is hilarious” is driven into the ground in this series. Akane is the worst offender, being the female lead, but most of the other girls are just as awful proportionate to their screen time. Even by the 1990s, social attitudes were shifting, and by now it can make for some uncomfortable reading. Also, some of the things Genma does to Ranma as “martial arts training” would get him arrested for child abuse, and the perverted old master Happosai is treated as an annoyance rather than a sexual offender.
The series does not so much deconstruct Japanese gender roles so much as poke them repeatedly with a sharp stick.
The anime is also good (and has a lot of nice music) but relies heavily on filler (episodes that are anime-only and often have continuity issues) and ends when Ranma’s long-lost mother shows up (about 2/3rds of the way through.) Later season have poorer animation quality as production was moved to cheaper studios.
Viz originally brought Ranma 1/2 over using the flipped-artwork process to make it read left-to-right; between that and their then deliberately slow release of volumes, it took forever to come out in the U.S. (so the anime was a bigger influence on the fanfiction.) It’s now being reprinted in the otaku-friendly right-to-left format, with each volume containing two of the Japanese volumes.
In Volume 1-2, the one to hand, the main characters are introduced. Ranma is assigned to the same school as Akane, and we meet Dr. Tofuu (a practitioner of traditional Japanese medicine and Akane’s first crush) and Tatewaki Kunou, the belligerent and amorous upperclassman who’s done the most to cause Akane’s attitude towards boys. Kunou starts a feud with male Ranma while falling in love with female Ranma (this does not stop him hitting on Akane, and Kunou never fully grasps that the two Ranmas are the same person.)
Just as it looks like Ranma and Akane’s relationship might be warming up, Ranma’s martial arts rival Ryouga appears. Although he’s very strong, Ryouga has a terrible sense of direction, and is cursed to turn into a cute little piglet. Ryouga blames Ranma for that last thing (for the wrong reasons) and is bent on revenge. He also falls in love with Akane. In this first story arc, Ryouga is a clear “heel” but eventually has the most positive character development of anyone in the series.
Ranma and Ryouga have reached something of a stalemate when a new challenger appears, Kodachi Kunou (sister of Tatewaki), who is a mistress of Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and plays very dirty. After she cripples the Fuurinkan High gymnastics team, Akane is called in to save their honor. Too bad she doesn’t know anything about rhythmic gymnastics! A teacher appears, but Kodachi is determined to end the match before it begins….
Highly recommended to fans of Inu-Yasha and those with an interest in poking fun at gender roles.
March 19, 2025
Everyone in this book would love bisexuality.
TWs: misogyny, sexual harassment
TWs: misogyny, sexual harassment
September 15, 2025
Qué recuerdos 😹🫨
March 1, 2022
My first real experience with Japanese anime was when I heard about a show called Ranma ½ and endeavored to seek it out. At a somewhat exorbitant price (especially for a teenager scrabbling for cash), I was able to purchase a VHS dub of the first several episodes, and I was immediately hooked. This genre of creative fantasy wasn't really a thing in American media at all, so it was an especially enlivening experience.
Reading the original manga for the first time, one might wonder how it holds up to the animated adaptation and even my especially nostalgic memories of that adaptation. The story has stayed with me all these years, so the manga is fortunately much of what I expected. Perhaps your mileage might vary if you encounter this anew in 2022, but as for me, I was happily transported back some decades to a world of gender-bending martial arts rom-com fantasy.
Reading the original manga for the first time, one might wonder how it holds up to the animated adaptation and even my especially nostalgic memories of that adaptation. The story has stayed with me all these years, so the manga is fortunately much of what I expected. Perhaps your mileage might vary if you encounter this anew in 2022, but as for me, I was happily transported back some decades to a world of gender-bending martial arts rom-com fantasy.
August 31, 2017
This is one of the first manga I'd ever read and it still doesn't disappoint. I still love the simple designs and 80s aesthetic of this manga. It's charming, funny, light-hearted and ok...a little weird. Akane will always be one of my favorite anime/manga heroines. Also the dad jokes in this are amazing!
This manga isn't for everyone but it hits the right spot for me.
This manga isn't for everyone but it hits the right spot for me.
September 22, 2021
3.5/5
Silly shenanigans. This is an older manga, so there are more naked bits than I would like (which is essentially 0 - I have delicate sensibilities lol). It can get a bit repetitive at times, but the comedy helps pull it through. I probably won't continue reading the series, but I did start the anime.
Silly shenanigans. This is an older manga, so there are more naked bits than I would like (which is essentially 0 - I have delicate sensibilities lol). It can get a bit repetitive at times, but the comedy helps pull it through. I probably won't continue reading the series, but I did start the anime.
July 31, 2023
This is one of my FAVOURITE manga and one I’m constantly returning to! The style is gorgeous while remaining simple, and the situational comedy is so well done! Rumiko Takahashi is so talented, it’s insane!!
December 13, 2022
Ver primero la serie y luego leer el manga me ha demostrado que este último es tanto o más entretenido que el animé... ¡una maravilla!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2023
Favorite ♥️
March 17, 2023
It was fantastic. Continuing with the series.
October 17, 2024
I. Could’ve. Had. This. My. Whole. Life!!!!?????
February 18, 2025
The easiest five-star rating I’ve ever given to any book!! A SCREAM!! I adore this book, and will be continuing the series AS SOON as my copy of the second book arrives tomorrow. I’ll be buying out all copies from my local bookstore ASAP.
This series makes this genderfluid reader indescribably joyful.
Takahashi-sensei and I are going to get along swimmingly.
This series makes this genderfluid reader indescribably joyful.
Takahashi-sensei and I are going to get along swimmingly.
November 18, 2025
I don't feel like this has necessarily stood the test of time. But there's something so light and goofy about Ranma ½. I love watching their relationship unfold.
October 16, 2019
I have to say that of all the manga I recall reading in middle school and high school that I've considered revisiting, Ranma 1/2 was definitely not one I ever thought would make that list. However, due to the enthusiasm a friend of mine has for the series, I have decided it's time to give this "martial arts rom-com" another go-round, and see how my opinions have fluctuated over the years many times. Side note: bless Viz for taking the time to start releasing this series in omnibus editions; the original editions I recall reading many years ago had taller dimensions, averaged around 170 pages, were in the "flopped" format, and cost the exact same price (around $15, not including tax) as this omnibus edition. I appreciate the restored format and the omnibus form, as I do feel like I got my money's worth with this volume.
So let's take a quick second to help familiarize those among my friends and followers on here who read my reviews with what Ranma 1/2 is, in case there are those among you who are wondering. This was a series created by the same manga-ka who made InuYasha, and it is about a boy, Ranma, who fell into a cursed spring during martial arts training with his father. His father fell into another spring (they were in China, and training in a location with hundreds of these cursed springs were various people or animals drowned in each pool,) and now when Ranma is doused with cold water, he turns into a female version of himself, and his father likewise turns into a panda when doused with cold water. They revert back to normal under hot water, and the story opens with them traveling in "switched" forms to a town in Japan to a place called the Tendo Dojo. Ranma's father promised his friend Soun Tendo years ago that Ranma would marry one of Soun's daughters to carry on the Tendo Dojo, an arranged marriage that neither Ranma or his selected fiancée Akane are thrilled about. Ranma finds Akane to be too masculine and tomboyish, and Akane notoriously hates boys to begin with; Ranma happens to push her buttons more than most. And to top things off, Ranma notoriously gets into fights, often at points getting doused with cold water in the process and causing confusion when he physically switches genders as a result.
With that, you have the set-up for a lot of wackiness regarding a steadily growing cast of characters, many of whom have also fallen into one of the random cursed springs and thus transform into some animal or other, and may or may not know Ranma's secret...and many of them either want to kill or marry Ranma or Akane or both. The gags and fanservice are played up to the max in this series, and it is considered very much a beloved classic in the anime and manga community.
If you happen to be a fan of Ranma 1/2, I advise you turn away from this review because while I did very much enjoy this re-read, I do have quite a few things to say and I can't promise that I won't offend someone with my opinions or analysis.
We'll start with the fact this series, despite featuring many female characters who are martial artists in their own right, has a lot of toxic masculinity and misogyny [and internalized misogyny on the part of many of the women as well] written into it, especially into the character of Ranma Saotome himself, and that, at least this early on in the series, these things are not addressed in any form or fashion. While I had enjoyed the series as a fun, wacky manga read in my school days, it's these elements that kept me from going back to Ranma for so long due to looking back in retrospect and realizing how prevalent they were, to have stuck with me like that. Again, I decided to give this another shot due to my friend Gar's enthusiasm, and I'm going to try to take this with a grain of salt as I move forward in the future. Why? Because if memory serves correctly, a lot of those same issues also occur in InuYasha, and I'm starting to wonder if it's just an aspect of Rumiko Takahashi's writing that just reflects the age of the work, her own environment, and the possible chance she also could have internalized misogynistic views. Who knows for certain? I also don't remember if these issues are ever addressed further in either series in a long-drawn-out effort to show growth, but I can hope, and if I can hope, then I can suspend judgment a while yet. Of course, if you feel like this is a deal-breaker for you, I don't recommend trying Ranma 1/2.
Additionally, due to the age of the series and a lot of the issues in it, the tropes, the visual gags, the fanservice and the oversexualized things that follow with such fanservice, I also have to say I do not recommend Ranma 1/2 as anyone's first-time first manga experience. Back in the day it wouldn't have been such a controversial or worrisome gateway into the experience, but these days and due to the various shifting culture among Western audiences, reading Ranma 1/2 as your first manga would be a bit much. A lot of long-standing "anime/manga" tropes saturate this particular title, and I think for some people that can be too much to take in all at once. Culture shock is my concern there. I grew up watching anime from the age of 7 and started reading manga when I was around 10 years old, and I got very jaded to the experience and just considered a lot of these tropes and types of gags very typical of anime/manga. When I revisit some of this as a now-30-year-old, I can absolutely see why many things in anime and manga, particularly in a title like Ranma, would be shocking to newcomers who don't have an experience similar to my own, and there are obvious issues that go along with some of the long-standing tropes that newer manga-ka of the decade are working hard to abandon or subvert. So again, not something I would recommend as a gateway manga. However, if you've gotten a good handful of titles or so under your belt by now and you're considering reading a "classic", it's worth a shot. Just be aware that it has its flaws and they are numerous.
But now that you've [hopefully] read through that exhaustive mountain of text, I'll try to give you some positives.
I will say that comparing the first handful of episodes of the anime to the manga has given me some additional points of note, and one is that Ranma [the character] seems to have more overt or pronounced misogyny and toxic masculinity written into his anime portrayal than in the manga. While his relationship with Akane is chaotic and hostile more often than not (and is meant to be a very, very long slowburn of the Enemies to Friends to Lovers trope throughout the series,) in the manga it does feel as though Ranma tries often to work towards an amicable friendship with Akane. When they initially meet and Ranma is a "girl", Akane offers him her friendship, until the moment when he's doused in hot water and she learns he's actually a guy. And it seems from what I could read in this first omnibus that Ranma does have his moments where he's trying to salvage that potential bridge of friendship with her and make amends for their usual hostility. It's usually a case of one step forward and two steps back, but that's probably just how Rumiko Takahashi prefers to write her intended ships.
Another thing I would like to note is that while my inner artist wants to gripe about the Sameface Syndrome throughout the series, the characters are all fairly unique individuals with memorable, fun personalities, and I think the fact they're all [most of them, anyway,] so endearing is what makes the series entertaining. The plot itself feels very rambling and slice of life, and at times like it's going nowhere. Thankfully the characters are written in such a way their interactions bounce off one another and tend to stay mostly dynamic, and I think that's the series' biggest strong point that can keep someone invested. We're not here for the ultimate end goal of Ranma and Akane getting married after finally falling in love; it's obvious from point one that that's where the series is headed. We're here to see how off-the-wall absurd the journey to that point gets with so many more wacky characters joining the fray all the time, vying to either kill or marry Ranma or Akane or some weird tangled in-between of those goals. They're all so over-the-top exaggerations that manage to be charming and memorable, and I absolutely love that.
The final point I would like to note is that Ranma 1/2 doesn't take itself very seriously, and for that reason we all (myself included) have to remember to take reading it with another grain of salt. It's just meant to be fun. I will admit, I'm at a stage of life where my sense of humor is hard to tickle, let alone pinpoint in the first place, so while I might have considered Ranma hilarious as a teenager, it's less "ha-ha" funny for me and more amusing in the sense of wanting to see where it goes and how much more absurd it gets in the process by this point. But it's still a fairly fun read, provided that you don't take it any more seriously than it takes itself. At least that's the case this early on in the series; it needs time and more installments for you to see it find its footing. It's for that reason I'm hoping to continue with it myself and give more thoughts along the way.
Thank you for sitting and reading this entire review, if you have. The final thing I will say here is that the character of Tatewaki Kuno is one of my favorite examples of a character who embodies what I call Big Dumbass Energy, and I remember him getting a lot of crap from the readers (myself included) back when I read this as a teenager. These days on the other hand, he's the character that I find the most entertainment in and is the one that makes me laugh the most readily, and I do think he deserves a little more appreciation and recognition among the cast of characters he usually gets ignored for.
So let's take a quick second to help familiarize those among my friends and followers on here who read my reviews with what Ranma 1/2 is, in case there are those among you who are wondering. This was a series created by the same manga-ka who made InuYasha, and it is about a boy, Ranma, who fell into a cursed spring during martial arts training with his father. His father fell into another spring (they were in China, and training in a location with hundreds of these cursed springs were various people or animals drowned in each pool,) and now when Ranma is doused with cold water, he turns into a female version of himself, and his father likewise turns into a panda when doused with cold water. They revert back to normal under hot water, and the story opens with them traveling in "switched" forms to a town in Japan to a place called the Tendo Dojo. Ranma's father promised his friend Soun Tendo years ago that Ranma would marry one of Soun's daughters to carry on the Tendo Dojo, an arranged marriage that neither Ranma or his selected fiancée Akane are thrilled about. Ranma finds Akane to be too masculine and tomboyish, and Akane notoriously hates boys to begin with; Ranma happens to push her buttons more than most. And to top things off, Ranma notoriously gets into fights, often at points getting doused with cold water in the process and causing confusion when he physically switches genders as a result.
With that, you have the set-up for a lot of wackiness regarding a steadily growing cast of characters, many of whom have also fallen into one of the random cursed springs and thus transform into some animal or other, and may or may not know Ranma's secret...and many of them either want to kill or marry Ranma or Akane or both. The gags and fanservice are played up to the max in this series, and it is considered very much a beloved classic in the anime and manga community.
If you happen to be a fan of Ranma 1/2, I advise you turn away from this review because while I did very much enjoy this re-read, I do have quite a few things to say and I can't promise that I won't offend someone with my opinions or analysis.
We'll start with the fact this series, despite featuring many female characters who are martial artists in their own right, has a lot of toxic masculinity and misogyny [and internalized misogyny on the part of many of the women as well] written into it, especially into the character of Ranma Saotome himself, and that, at least this early on in the series, these things are not addressed in any form or fashion. While I had enjoyed the series as a fun, wacky manga read in my school days, it's these elements that kept me from going back to Ranma for so long due to looking back in retrospect and realizing how prevalent they were, to have stuck with me like that. Again, I decided to give this another shot due to my friend Gar's enthusiasm, and I'm going to try to take this with a grain of salt as I move forward in the future. Why? Because if memory serves correctly, a lot of those same issues also occur in InuYasha, and I'm starting to wonder if it's just an aspect of Rumiko Takahashi's writing that just reflects the age of the work, her own environment, and the possible chance she also could have internalized misogynistic views. Who knows for certain? I also don't remember if these issues are ever addressed further in either series in a long-drawn-out effort to show growth, but I can hope, and if I can hope, then I can suspend judgment a while yet. Of course, if you feel like this is a deal-breaker for you, I don't recommend trying Ranma 1/2.
Additionally, due to the age of the series and a lot of the issues in it, the tropes, the visual gags, the fanservice and the oversexualized things that follow with such fanservice, I also have to say I do not recommend Ranma 1/2 as anyone's first-time first manga experience. Back in the day it wouldn't have been such a controversial or worrisome gateway into the experience, but these days and due to the various shifting culture among Western audiences, reading Ranma 1/2 as your first manga would be a bit much. A lot of long-standing "anime/manga" tropes saturate this particular title, and I think for some people that can be too much to take in all at once. Culture shock is my concern there. I grew up watching anime from the age of 7 and started reading manga when I was around 10 years old, and I got very jaded to the experience and just considered a lot of these tropes and types of gags very typical of anime/manga. When I revisit some of this as a now-30-year-old, I can absolutely see why many things in anime and manga, particularly in a title like Ranma, would be shocking to newcomers who don't have an experience similar to my own, and there are obvious issues that go along with some of the long-standing tropes that newer manga-ka of the decade are working hard to abandon or subvert. So again, not something I would recommend as a gateway manga. However, if you've gotten a good handful of titles or so under your belt by now and you're considering reading a "classic", it's worth a shot. Just be aware that it has its flaws and they are numerous.
But now that you've [hopefully] read through that exhaustive mountain of text, I'll try to give you some positives.
I will say that comparing the first handful of episodes of the anime to the manga has given me some additional points of note, and one is that Ranma [the character] seems to have more overt or pronounced misogyny and toxic masculinity written into his anime portrayal than in the manga. While his relationship with Akane is chaotic and hostile more often than not (and is meant to be a very, very long slowburn of the Enemies to Friends to Lovers trope throughout the series,) in the manga it does feel as though Ranma tries often to work towards an amicable friendship with Akane. When they initially meet and Ranma is a "girl", Akane offers him her friendship, until the moment when he's doused in hot water and she learns he's actually a guy. And it seems from what I could read in this first omnibus that Ranma does have his moments where he's trying to salvage that potential bridge of friendship with her and make amends for their usual hostility. It's usually a case of one step forward and two steps back, but that's probably just how Rumiko Takahashi prefers to write her intended ships.
Another thing I would like to note is that while my inner artist wants to gripe about the Sameface Syndrome throughout the series, the characters are all fairly unique individuals with memorable, fun personalities, and I think the fact they're all [most of them, anyway,] so endearing is what makes the series entertaining. The plot itself feels very rambling and slice of life, and at times like it's going nowhere. Thankfully the characters are written in such a way their interactions bounce off one another and tend to stay mostly dynamic, and I think that's the series' biggest strong point that can keep someone invested. We're not here for the ultimate end goal of Ranma and Akane getting married after finally falling in love; it's obvious from point one that that's where the series is headed. We're here to see how off-the-wall absurd the journey to that point gets with so many more wacky characters joining the fray all the time, vying to either kill or marry Ranma or Akane or some weird tangled in-between of those goals. They're all so over-the-top exaggerations that manage to be charming and memorable, and I absolutely love that.
The final point I would like to note is that Ranma 1/2 doesn't take itself very seriously, and for that reason we all (myself included) have to remember to take reading it with another grain of salt. It's just meant to be fun. I will admit, I'm at a stage of life where my sense of humor is hard to tickle, let alone pinpoint in the first place, so while I might have considered Ranma hilarious as a teenager, it's less "ha-ha" funny for me and more amusing in the sense of wanting to see where it goes and how much more absurd it gets in the process by this point. But it's still a fairly fun read, provided that you don't take it any more seriously than it takes itself. At least that's the case this early on in the series; it needs time and more installments for you to see it find its footing. It's for that reason I'm hoping to continue with it myself and give more thoughts along the way.
Thank you for sitting and reading this entire review, if you have. The final thing I will say here is that the character of Tatewaki Kuno is one of my favorite examples of a character who embodies what I call Big Dumbass Energy, and I remember him getting a lot of crap from the readers (myself included) back when I read this as a teenager. These days on the other hand, he's the character that I find the most entertainment in and is the one that makes me laugh the most readily, and I do think he deserves a little more appreciation and recognition among the cast of characters he usually gets ignored for.
February 12, 2023
Very cute! I love Takahashi-san’s drawing style and I think the story and characters are very cute.
March 13, 2015
I originally started reading this series several years ago (13 years ago I believe). However I missed many volumes so it was very scattered. The thing with this series is that, for the most part, that is okay as it is filled with several individual stories. However, reading this I got to see a bit more of the flow and character use and introductions that I missed previously. Especially early on. A lot more ties together here.
Also, I will admit I have seen most of the anime. So my opinion coming into this is a bit bias as I am already a fan. Still I found this a great refresher and will tell you from the start-this is a favorite of mine! A comedy you should not miss!
The cast of characters in this series perfect for the story.
Ranma- The lead male. Martial Artist for "Anything Goes Martial Arts". Fell into a cursed pool of water when training with his father and now turns into a girl when splashed with cold water. His character is fantastic, especially as the story moves along. He is cocky and arrogant yet has a rarely seen soft side as well.
Akane- Ranma's new-found fiance. Has unique trouble with guys. Very tomboy. While Ranma seems to be the fighter in the series, she somehow always beats him. I have always liked her, even if she does have violent tendencies (which most everyone does in this series). She seems to often see things for what they are. Although one thing that surprised me is that Akane’s features seem softer and even more feminine than the anime here.
Genma- Ranma's father. Honestly his dad is a loser to me but does add comic relief. He, too, fell into a cursed pool and turns into a panda!
Soun-Akane's father. He is suppose to be a martial artis as well but I don't get it. Wish I had a better feel for his character.
Nabiki-Akane's scheming sister. Manipulative for making a profit wherever she can. Often causing trouble for Ranma.
We get other characters too that will add their own twists to the story but I don't want to spoil any of them for you.
This story had me regularly laughing at the situations. The eccentric characters really make this compilation of stories worth reading. Rumiko Takahashi does an amazing job blending so many unique aspects and situations together to make this work, it is very creative!
Warning: This series is for older teen-adult. There is violence. Not bloody violence but still lots of it. A main theme is the "Anything Goes" martial arts! Also nudity. Ranma has no modesty in his female form and runs around topless. So we get breast shots. If this bothers you, do not read. It is not done in a high sexualized standing, and is part of the comedy acts but it is there.
I really do recommend this series. If you are looking for a good laugh, check it out. Even if you are not a Manga/anime fan, if you liked the movie Hot Chick, or The Three Stooges, check this out!
*I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a fair/honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are strictly my own*
Also, I will admit I have seen most of the anime. So my opinion coming into this is a bit bias as I am already a fan. Still I found this a great refresher and will tell you from the start-this is a favorite of mine! A comedy you should not miss!
The cast of characters in this series perfect for the story.
Ranma- The lead male. Martial Artist for "Anything Goes Martial Arts". Fell into a cursed pool of water when training with his father and now turns into a girl when splashed with cold water. His character is fantastic, especially as the story moves along. He is cocky and arrogant yet has a rarely seen soft side as well.
Akane- Ranma's new-found fiance. Has unique trouble with guys. Very tomboy. While Ranma seems to be the fighter in the series, she somehow always beats him. I have always liked her, even if she does have violent tendencies (which most everyone does in this series). She seems to often see things for what they are. Although one thing that surprised me is that Akane’s features seem softer and even more feminine than the anime here.
Genma- Ranma's father. Honestly his dad is a loser to me but does add comic relief. He, too, fell into a cursed pool and turns into a panda!
Soun-Akane's father. He is suppose to be a martial artis as well but I don't get it. Wish I had a better feel for his character.
Nabiki-Akane's scheming sister. Manipulative for making a profit wherever she can. Often causing trouble for Ranma.
We get other characters too that will add their own twists to the story but I don't want to spoil any of them for you.
This story had me regularly laughing at the situations. The eccentric characters really make this compilation of stories worth reading. Rumiko Takahashi does an amazing job blending so many unique aspects and situations together to make this work, it is very creative!
Warning: This series is for older teen-adult. There is violence. Not bloody violence but still lots of it. A main theme is the "Anything Goes" martial arts! Also nudity. Ranma has no modesty in his female form and runs around topless. So we get breast shots. If this bothers you, do not read. It is not done in a high sexualized standing, and is part of the comedy acts but it is there.
I really do recommend this series. If you are looking for a good laugh, check it out. Even if you are not a Manga/anime fan, if you liked the movie Hot Chick, or The Three Stooges, check this out!
*I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a fair/honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are strictly my own*
December 3, 2021
Esta es una de esas series que casi todo el mundo de mi generación conoce por su anime. La familia Saotome espera con inquietud a un amigo del padre cuyo hijo será el prometido de una de ellas. En su lugar, aparecen un panda y una chica pelirroja. Resulta que Ranma y su padre, en un entrenamiento en China, cayeron en unas fuentes termales malditas y cada vez que les toca el agua fría se transforman, él en chica y el padre en panda. Con agua caliente, vuelven a la normalidad. El planteamiento da lugar a muchas situaciones absurdas y me parece que Rumiko Takahashi las aprovechará todas.
En mi caso, en cuanto salió esta edición kanzenban, la quise tener completa antes de ponerme a leerla, porque sabía que sus tomos se leerían rapidísimamente y que me iban a dejar con ganas de más... Pero tardé tantos años para terminar la colección, ¡tantos años!, que cuando se acabó por fin, ya ni me apetecía leerla, le había pillado hasta manía...
Pues bien. Hoy, 10 años después de empezar a coleccionarla y 3 años después de terminarla, he empezado a leerla desde el principio y ya me siento enamorada de la historia, de los personajes, de sus escenas de acción y, sobre todo, de su sentido del humor. No tanto de sus desnudos, que parece que cualquier excusa es buena para mostrar las tetas de Ranma chica, pero me hace gracia igualmente la poca vergüenza que tiene al ser hombre de mostrar su torso desnudo.
Además, hay detalles que no recordaba de la serie y que estoy disfrutando mucho. Akane, por ejemplo, me provoca mucha ternura, y estoy contenta de que desde este primer tomo aparezca ya mi personaje favorito: Ryoga, tanto en su forma humana, como en su forma de cerdito.
Así que estoy contenta de haberme puesto con ella por fin. ¡Nunca es tarde!
En mi caso, en cuanto salió esta edición kanzenban, la quise tener completa antes de ponerme a leerla, porque sabía que sus tomos se leerían rapidísimamente y que me iban a dejar con ganas de más... Pero tardé tantos años para terminar la colección, ¡tantos años!, que cuando se acabó por fin, ya ni me apetecía leerla, le había pillado hasta manía...
Pues bien. Hoy, 10 años después de empezar a coleccionarla y 3 años después de terminarla, he empezado a leerla desde el principio y ya me siento enamorada de la historia, de los personajes, de sus escenas de acción y, sobre todo, de su sentido del humor. No tanto de sus desnudos, que parece que cualquier excusa es buena para mostrar las tetas de Ranma chica, pero me hace gracia igualmente la poca vergüenza que tiene al ser hombre de mostrar su torso desnudo.
Además, hay detalles que no recordaba de la serie y que estoy disfrutando mucho. Akane, por ejemplo, me provoca mucha ternura, y estoy contenta de que desde este primer tomo aparezca ya mi personaje favorito: Ryoga, tanto en su forma humana, como en su forma de cerdito.
Así que estoy contenta de haberme puesto con ella por fin. ¡Nunca es tarde!
October 23, 2016
I know this is a manga classic, but I just couldn't get into it. It's not bad exactly, just not very interesting.
The hook of the story is that the eponymous Ranma has a curse upon him that means whenever he gets splashed by cold water he transforms into a girl. This is treated about as maturely as you'd expect of a series aimed at teenagers.
The rest of the story is essentially one martial arts scene after another, interspersed with the main female character slapping the male lead after he says/does something atrocious. It might have interested me as a teen, but not as an adult. I kept finding excuses to put it aside.
The hook of the story is that the eponymous Ranma has a curse upon him that means whenever he gets splashed by cold water he transforms into a girl. This is treated about as maturely as you'd expect of a series aimed at teenagers.
The rest of the story is essentially one martial arts scene after another, interspersed with the main female character slapping the male lead after he says/does something atrocious. It might have interested me as a teen, but not as an adult. I kept finding excuses to put it aside.
June 26, 2021
I could never get into Ranma as kid, even though it is gender bender genre, but as an adult i really appreciate the comedy and setting and concept of Ranma 1/2. I find it very progressive to write shonen where males become balanced out with some other element, in this case having a basically sort of transgender protagonist become aquatined with other women be it romantically in this case, really allows males to integrate themselves into a story inspite of outdated ideas of masculinity. Ranma really does keep up with humor and story development. As basically a sitcom it carries itself easily as the charcters all get to know each other and themselves.
November 11, 2017
Por mucho que lo intento, o más bien intentan mis amigos y conocidos, no logro interesarme por los comics y me resulta particularmente insulso el manga y el animé. encuentro el formato del comic limitado y simple. El formato, como es obvio, está centrado en el dibujo y la trama es demasiado escueta en la mayoría de los casos. Si además el estilo japonés de dibujo te parece muy irritante como a mí, lo que termina pasando es que lo mejorcito apenas se puede calificar de tolerable.
Pasable, pero no lo suficiente como para seguir con los siguientes tomos (este fue un regalo)
Pasable, pero no lo suficiente como para seguir con los siguientes tomos (este fue un regalo)
May 1, 2016
This book is exactly what it says on the tin. If you want to read about a guy who shapeshifts into a girl whenever he gets splashed with cold water, his father who shapeshifts into a panda, and a girl who finds these strange people living in her house because her father has questionable decision-making skills, this is the book for you. If you want a serious examination of gender roles (or anything, for that matter), it probably isn't.
March 13, 2016
Super funny !! This series just doesn't get old !
I just couldn't stop reading it, and after having a lot of good laughs and enjoying the nice artwork of this manga (which by the way, I'm quite impressed how close it is to the anime) I'm just looking forward for more :P
I just couldn't stop reading it, and after having a lot of good laughs and enjoying the nice artwork of this manga (which by the way, I'm quite impressed how close it is to the anime) I'm just looking forward for more :P
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