Art: 10/10
Sound: 7/10
Characters: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10
I've said this once before, but I absolutely love Rumiko Takahashi's content, & Ranma is no exception. I was absolutely hooked from the start knowing that I was already gonna love this show, since it was created by my favorite manga artist, & starring one of my favorite seiyuu's: Kappei Yamaguchi. And on top of that, I have a very soft spot for old school anime, because not only do they not tease me as much as modern anime, but its just fascinating watching old ass anime that's like 25+ years old. So starting off with story, this show has a very solid premise: A young man named Ranma is cursed by a cursed spring from China that turns him into a lady while being hit with cold H20, & turns him back into a man while being hit with hot H20. This show is very unique when it comes to how its structured, because unlike most anime this one is an episodic anime. Now granted, it's still a story with time moving forward throughout the episodes, but every episode stands out in its own way with the occasional 2 episode stories here & there, but nonetheless 98% of the anime is episodic stories which is something you'd expect from a western cartoon. Rumiko Takahashi's art style may be just one of my favorites, I absolutely love her character design, (especially on Mousse) because unlike most anime I've seen, she draws male pupils the same exact size as female pupils. Now, I'm not against drawing male characters with smaller pupils than the females, because it makes it easier to tell who's who. But I really appreciate Takahashi sama's choice of drawing the male characters with big pupils with the exception of Kuno & Soun, but I digress, because everyone in real life has the same pupil size. Really the only character design I don't like much is the fact that Ryoga & Ranma share the same haircuts minus the braid, & they have somewhat similar fashion making it a lil tough to tell who is who whenever both characters are on screen, but that's just a tiny lil nitpick that doesn't really matter, since Ryoga wears a headband unlike Ranma, & both the characters have voices that are different enough to tell the difference. Despite when this show was released & its episode count, the animation is very solid. Of course there will be extremely little error's here & there, but I believe that's forgivable considering that this anime was made in the late 80s to early 90s, & that it was 161 episodes long. The soundtrack is rather decent. There are good op's & ed's here & there, but nothing crazy slapz to write home about. I very rarely talk about sub vs dub, because #1 I believe its a very repetitive subject, & #2 I mostly stick to sub at least 86% of the time, simply because I prefer to listen to the original Japanese cast. But I just gotta say dawg, I really love the performance that the seiyuu's put into this. As for the dub, I seriously wish they didn't cast a lady to voice both male & female Ranma. I understand why they did it, because it would be a hell of a lot easier for them, but then again the female voice just doesn't fit male Ranma since he's a 16 yr old dude, & not a lil kid. I've heard a very small clip of Richard Ian Cox dubbing the male Ranma, & he seriously fits the dub role for Ranma much better, since both Richard & Yamaguchi Kun voiced Inuyasha & Ranma. Unfortunately, I can't find the dub that stars Richard Ian Cox anywhere, so if anyone has access to it, I'd love to see it. But its not like it really matters since I prefer watching this show in Japanese. The characters are absolutely outstanding in this anime. By far my favorite side character is Mousse, because I believe he's underrated as hell, I love his appearance, his humor, his curse, his crush on Shampoo, & I also really love his seiyuu Toshihiko Seki. I heard that guy was tested positive for covid a few months ago at the time I'm writing this review, so I wish him well & seriously hope he's doing alright today. I love Kuno's running gag of him calling female Ranma "pigtailed girl", & how he always has to bring up his personal bio in every conversation he's in. Ryoga is a good character as well. He may not be one of my favorites, but it's easy to understand why he's the most popular supporting character in the show, because not only does he have a very mature personality, but he's like the only character that's both equal & slightly higher than Ranma when it comes to strength, which makes sense since the two dudes are basically rivals. Ranma & Akane are of course the two characters that shine the most since they are the only 2 main characters of the whole show, seeing two tsundere's being shipped is always interesting since it's not something you see very often in anime, & it's really only something you see Rumiko Takahashi do with both this show & Inuyasha. To be dead ass, the only character that I don't like all that much is Happosai. And before you say it, no it's not because he's an elderly pervert, because I enjoyed Masher Roshi from Dragon Ball despite the fact that he was an elderly perv, because unlike Happosai, Roshi actually pays the price for spying on ladies, & gets a good beating, he was a very humorous character which I enjoyed. Happosai on the other hand is always escaping & getting Scott-free with his actions always dashing away with a bag full of panties, & its not extremely rare, but pretty damn rare that we ever see him get his short ass kicked for being the panty thief that he is. But what's even worse is when he staples his pervy actions on others. Perfect example is in episode 40 where Happosai pictured Ranma to be someone that he's not right of front of all the ladies, therefore Ranma wrongly got his ass beat by all the ladies at the bathhouse, when in reality they should've been beating Happosai's ass instead. Then a few seconds later, he asks Ranma why Ranma always gives him a hard time while squirting soap in Ranma's eyes. I forreal don't understand why Ranma never stands up for himself or ever defends himself in conversations half the time, sometimes he does, but typically he doesn't. I'm lowkey surprised Ranma didn't respond back saying "That's what I should be asking you." because I know for a fact that's what I would've dont if I was in Ranma's shoes. Sorry that I got a lil ranty, it's not like I think Happosai is a badly written character or anything, I just don't think he's very likable, but it's easy to get over him fast since he is just a supporting character at the end of the day, & he's very overshadowed by all the other great characters in this show. This show is entertaining af, almost every episode is absolutely outstanding, & the fact that this is an episodic anime only helps that more seeing something new happening every time not knowing what's coming next. Overall, this show was great af, entertaining af, & in general just another reason why I love Rumiko Takahashi so much, & why I believe she's such an incredible storyteller. Sure there were lil issues here & there that I had with this show, but all those tiny ass flaws are completely overshadowed by everything that's great about this anime. If your into classic old school anime with that sort of old look to it, & if your really into Japanese content or Martial Arts type shit like I am, than I can guarantee you dawg, this show is right up your alley. I just spent 2 hours writing this review down, & it's been about 3 months since I finished this show, so I'm very happy that I finally got my thoughts & opinions on this show off my chest, so if you've read my review till the end, thanks for sticking around, & you have a goodie.
