Cinderella Boy

If you ever wanted to see a more romantic team up of Lupin & Fujiko, then this anime is the closest you’re gonna get.

Cinderella Boy is sort of a mix of Lupin the 3rd, Birdy the Mighty, Baron Ashura & Ranma 1/2. From Monkey Punch, the creator of Lupin the 3rd , brings a really odd idea for a story. Originally made as a one shot manga in 1980, Cinderella boy is about a pair of private detectives; Ranma & Rella. What makes it akin to Lupin are the obvious character designs and the similarities stop there. The characters don’t have much in common with ... the familiar Fujiko & Lupin outside of appearances.

The main story is these two botched a job & are in a car accident. A mysterious scientist operates on them; fusing them together. And this is where the other comparisons come in. Following the story of Cinderella when the clock strikes 12 they switch bodies & have no memory of the other person’s activities. Obviously, this means a lot of awkward situations during the sudden strike at midnight hence the Ranma ½ similarities, especially when certain characters have crushes.

The anime is 13 episodes long each focusing on different jobs but the pair Ranma & Rella have enough energy to make even the simplest of cases very entertaining. There’s an ongoing mystery as we do learn who operated on them and why. A organization is involved creating legitimate intrigue in its sci-fi undertones of the final episodes. It’s very interesting how it evolved from a detective story. The 13 episodes do work well in keeping me engaged to the story & once again it’s mostly because of the characters.

Ranma Hinamatsuri is a good guy with a big heart & passion for justice. His hobbies include collecting classy toy car models & has a fear of heights. Despite looking like a brown jacket Lupin, Ranma isn’t really a professional but he manages to get the job done. It’s his unpolished skills that made things really funny for me. Rella Cindy Shirayuki kind of steals the show. Both Ranma & Rella do have their share of dramatic episodes but Rella has a more assertive yet selfish personality. Actually, Rella has a bigger backstory themed episode than Ranma. She’s very motivated & easily angry allowing for a lot of energy in her scenes. Rella is a rich girl and her maid creates multiple gadgets for the ongoing episodes. Despite being wealthy, Rella seeks thrills but isn’t as heroic as Ranma. I wish there was more flashbacks or episodes where we got to see both of them together but given the plot of sharing a single body it’s an impossibility. Rella is the life of the party while Ranma offers a more comical approach to the series.

Cinderella boy manages to create it’s own underworld in Kirin Town with some recurring characters. It’s not very clear if this city has advanced technology such as flaying cars or this was just a clever way to save budget by not drawing tires but whatever I’m cool with that. Cinderella boy is the type of show aimed at fans of odd job agency anime. Series like City Hunter, Get Backers, Hurricane Polymer, & Gintama, etc. Meaning comedic adventures or some serious story lines. There isn’t much action then again this is a 2003 anime. Something about the mid 2000's seems to be a transition phase before the world went to hd as many anime around this time would experiment with some early CGI and the colors could range from looking kinda ugly to very pretty. The animation is also very… stiff in the early episodes but the rest of the series did show better mobility as it kept going. Episode 6 is the animation standout of the bunch as it was the 1st episode I noticed improvements and utilized a lot of fast paced action mixed in with the occasional colorful backgrounds. What I’m trying to get is the anime looks better as it reaches the ending but the early stuff does appear rough. I assume this is why a lot of attention was put into the characters and the writing since the animation wouldn’t be able to deliver outstanding work.

The short stories are well told playing on Ranma & Rella emotions towards their clients and being intimate with each other. It’s a very strange yet almost sad relationship as they can’t see or interact with one another except via recorded messages. I was really into the start of the anime as we saw how Ranma & Rella reacted to their partners supposed death only to find out they’re alive but I can’t see him or I can’t see her. There’s definitely some romantic tension but I wished we saw a little more of this. The anime manages to have some tragic episodes mixed in with the goofy antics of monkey punch. There’s not really anything too perverted in the anime but there’s a few topless scenes in the beginning. I’m assuming the show couldn’t keep doing that as the nudity vanishes in later episodes.

In a way, Cinderella boy could also give an insight to how a Lupin the 8th anime would be like had it fully existed but for what we got Cinderella Boy is worth watching.

Ranma(Broke Detective) and Rella(Rich, Bored Thrill Seeker) run a R&R detective agency to solve mysteries, crimes and lost pets. One night while breaking in to a Mafia Boss casino and being chased down a broken highway road they get into a accident which changes their lives. Dr. Grimm who find them uses their bodies has a experiment for his future idea of saving the earth. Thus both Rama & Rella are unified in one body & at the stroke of midnight one will vanish and the other will takeover. Viewers will witness the history and relationship of Ranma & Rella while they go on there ... new found journey. If you like the feel of Lupin & Cowboy Bebop(similar character designs) you enjoy this anime. This also has a mature sexiness/ comedy to it. Wish there was a season two with the cliffhanger that was left behind. If you are looking for a quick enjoyable anime to pass time you will enjoy this.

Cinderella Boy is average in many things. And it is a quintessential anime for it's time (early 2000s). From the art, the sound and the background, it just screams late 90's / early 2000s.

But to start of: Cinderella Boy is a series made out of a 1980 one-shot by Monkey Punch, author of Lupin III. And the style of the characters is very reminiscent of that. Especially the male lead, Ranma, has a very goofy side to his movements. The female lead, Rella, on the other hand doesn't bring very much to the table.
Together they're flung into an incident which alters their bodies to fuse ... into one and switch body functions, personalities, and so on, on a 24-hour basis.

Therein lies the biggest weakness of Cinderella Boy: two leads which share the screen time. Since the leads can't interact which each other because of the fusing, we follow two protagonists, which can't express any chemistry with each other, except for the first episode. The only exception to this is when they record videos in which they blame each other or fill the other in on details regarding their situation prior of the transformation. This routine happens in all the later episodes and gets tedious pretty fast. Luckily the anime has a good pace, but mostly struggles with its direction.

In the earlier episodes the main duo has to solve crimes/disappearances within their detective agency in a crime infested city. But the later episodes mostly ignore this setting and they have to fight a paramilitary group. While it certainly increases the stakes of the story, it was very carelessly done as the city itself offered a wide variety of story threads which could have been followed. But in the end, most actions of the side characters and enemies had extremely minor motives or simply weird points of view and explained them poorly.

Nonetheless, Cinderella Boy is an okay anime if you want an okay time-sink. It doesn't convince the viewer with the story or the characters, but with the pace it takes the viewer on a nice trip.