The story of Ranma is not a very deep or complex one, it doesn't even have a conclusion. Ranma is majorly episodic and has very few two part episodes. Ranma has constant conflicts in his life between rivals,love interests and his own personal goal of removing his curse.This premise sets of the show for hours upon hours of laughter and excitement with lots of surprising moments. The show is simple and sweet which is all a romance comedy action anime like Ranma should be. Being set in the 80s the show tends to have lots of wacky and silly humor poring out of it which can be unappreciated by some people. I love anime of this generation cause of its boldness and just ability to be unpredictable cause it was the start of the industry's explosive growth.
As far as characters go Ranma is riddled with bizarre characters that never cease to amaze me. The supporting cast is full of original and funny characters that almost make it feel like some kinda odd themed game show at times. The show used to catch me off guard by throwing in standard character types but with a wacky twist or just by making them goofier than they were ever meant to be. One of the best things about Ranma is all the characters are really original and don't feel like rip offs from another show. They also did not hold back on the soft color pallet full of primary colors. It can be really hard to talk about Ranma characters since they are very 1 dimensional but they are all fairly memorable and even the show acknowledges this at times with some of the gags. The only characters that are every really expanded upon deeply or at any length are Ranma and Akane and it usually is about there subtle and tsundere emotional connection.Even if it lacks a lot of character development i grew to love all the characters a lot.
There is at least a dozen frequent minor characters that are all noteworthy and important to the series but my personal favorite has always been Shampoo. Shampoo is the Chinese amazon with the unrelenting love for the main character that drives her to try wacky and mystical love schemes a like. She was also my favorite character visually cause it always just felt like she was special, when you saw the way she was drawn in the first season it was obvious she was not just my favorite. Compared to most other character she stands out quite a bit with her blue hair and Chinese clothing.
When i watch anime from the 80s time period i'm always given a warm fuzzy feeling from the way everything looks but Ranma used to give me this really vibrant feel of joy when i watched it. I was always enchanted by the backgrounds even if some were recycled too often, it always just seem to set me in the right mood for the show and i could forgive it easily. I was also very glad to see the usage of color was so utilized as compared to other shows of the time. A lot of shows got away with just changing characters hairstyles and wearing school uniforms but in Ranma most characters get quite a few different uniforms that really show off the colors of the rainbow. Another great thing i liked about the show is that only a few characters had strange hair colors, with the exception of Ranma and Shampoo everyone has natural hair colors like black or brown. I like that the show used the color of there surroundings to emphasize the characters more than eye catching neon hair colors.
Audio wise Ranma has a lot of standard sound effects from that period of anime but its soundtrack was pretty catchy. I remember season ones soundtrack being so charming and cute that i listened to it more than a few dozen times. As for voice acting, i enjoyed it pretty thoroughly. I have seen both Ranma in English and Japanese and i can say that both are pretty fair to amazing in voice talent. I did however resent the change in voice for Ranma in the English version as it was somewhat drastic. All in all the audio is very good though i feel it was strongest in season one.
Overall i enjoy Ranma more than anything i have ever seen before which is saying a lot about it. I love to laugh, i love bright and warm shows and I like too see things that i haven't before. Ranma offered me a lot of new things and if you have seen tons of anime and then watch it you may not see the originality as much as i do but it is there. I still wish a studio would remake or continue from where the first one left off even if they gotta recast the voice actors and add actual plot. I cant help but gush about how happy it makes me to watch this show. Season one was definitely the best season overall before they did the changes for big time production but the rest of it is great too.
Ranma 1/2 is Outstanding to me and i think people can still get lots of entertainment and enjoyment from this show.
