Temporary Analysis 6/17/01.
Special Intro
What’s nice about “Ranma 1/2″ for this site is that all of the anime forms seem to be in the same universe so I don’t have to worry about differing character motivations, history and development. When I discovered “Ranma 1/2″, I pretty much got my hands on all of the DVD released material and any TV episode which seemed interesting, watching them completely out of order for the most part. And I know I’ve missed some key “romance” episodes since my video places didn’t have those copies for rent. Since I know the first seasons are being planned for bulk DVD releases, I will definitely give more analysis time then, but since this is my beta reader’s favorite series, I feel compelled to write something about it for now. (Plus, she jogged my memory on certain things that were pretty significant, and thus have been incorporated into my comments below.)
Lesbian Analysis
“Ranma 1/2″ franchise is obviously secure in the fact that you know what’s going on when you watch its episodes or movies, especially later in its history. Plus you must have a good understanding of its cast of characters and their relationships which would put any soap opera to shame. My first exposure (only knowing the barest concept of a boy who turns into a girl with the cold water curse) was the movie “Nihao My Concubine”, where in the first ten minutes of mayhem, I only saw Girl Ranma teasing Ryoga in front of Akane in a rather sexy way, and being fought over by Ukyou and Shampoo, and fighting with Akane at which Nabiki comments “It MUST be love.” If you didn’t know the red head was originally a boy, you would’ve had no clue that weren’t watching some major lesbian soap opera in process. And I admit, I like watching the girl version over the boy version any time.
Ranma: Boy who turns into Girl when cold water is splashed on him. And hot water turns him back.
# Special listing here because of the fact that, well, he IS a boy and a self-professed macho one at that. However, I would add that when he’s a girl, especially in the later part of the series, he does some extremely girlie things quite naturally and quite well. It is clear however, that he uses his cutesy girl-charms on any nearby male to get what he wants rather than overt flirting of any nature.
# Except for some really brief moments in the beginning in his dealings with Kuno (like having nightmares thinking that he could be gay in a very homophobic reaction), Ranma maintains his orientation for girls/women no matter which form he takes.
Akane: Known as the First (Official) Fiancée by all and “Uncute Tomboy” by Ranma
# Ranma and Akane were unwillingly set up in an engagement by their overzealous fathers. It’s a case where similar tempers with Ranma and a bad start lead to probably one of the most torturous romances in anime/manga, where both are too stubborn or embarrassed to be open about such feelings or attraction.
# Now, I don’t question the fact that I firmly believe Akane truly loves Ranma. What I question is that fact that she loves Ranma, and Ranma’s a girl half the time.
# Openly admits accepting the fact of “not minding” Ranma’s girl side and there are some moments depicted where you watch the two of them interact and it would seem completely lesbian if you didn’t already have prior knowledge about Ranma.
# Professes to hate boys, but that statement receives some clarification when you realize she has a long standing crush on Dr. Tofu (a “man”.) Still, that falls into the idea of her being bisexual.
Shampoo: Known as the Second Fiancée by all, and an Amazon warrior who is (happily) bound by honor to marry Ranma
# First of all, she’s an AMAZON! If any of the main Three Fiancées should be open to lesbianism/bisexuality, it should be her.
# However, openly professes loving Boy Ranma, even though she’s not above getting excited or jumping on Girl Ranma when the opportunity presents itself.
Ukyou: Known as the Third Fiancée by all, and “Spatula Girl” by Shampoo
# We meet her when she’s impersonating a boy, quite effectively I might add since she has a female admirer of her own. [Special addition: some readers have pointed out that Ukyo's admirers have turned out to be men in drag, which causes some different kind of analysis in terms of how the "gender bending" goes. When I've watched those episodes during the seasonal DVD releases, I'll add more comments then.]
# Again, when either Boy or Girl Ranma appears, that thrill is there.
# When told about Ranma’s curse, is quite thrilled and fascinated by the instant changeovers. Hmmm….
Nabiki: Akane’s older sister (The middle one) and Tendo Resident Capitalist
# When we meet her, she has no boyfriend or love interest. And continues not to for almost all of the episodes that I’ve seen so far.
# Although when it comes to pairing and interactions, she is often combined with the manly man Kuno, but we could argue that it could be attraction to just his money. And if she’s bisexual, then Kuno’s fair game for her.
# When she’s first introduced to Ranma, she grabbed his breast at first to obviously validate what she’s seeing, but then keeps groping “her.” This is obviously questionable not only for the length of time she takes to do her “validation” but also because Nabiki is one of the most observant members of an otherwise oblivious cast and you wouldn’t think she’d need a literal hands on approach.
# And then grabs Ranma’s boob again to point out the obvious to folks. It’s like Nabiki can’t keep her hand off “her.”
# Thinks it’s cool that Ranma is a girl half the time and actually uses that rationale for why Ranma would be a good match for Akane since the latter professes not to like boys. This last point shows that she’s aware of lesbianism as an option, but whether or not she partakes of it hasn’t been shown in any episodes I’ve seen.
Ranma½: The Digital Dojo (Season 1) TV Series
All 18 episodes, Review written 12/29/01
Summary
First collection of episodes in the “seasonal” releases for the Ranma ½ mega-saga, of the boy who turns into a girl every time he’s splashed with cold water whereas hot water turns him back. Apart from Ranma, Akane and the regular members of the Tendo household, we’re introduced to such prominent supporting characters as Dr. Tofu, Kuno, Ryouga/P-Chan, Kodachi and Shampoo.
Review
Since I saw a lot of episodes of various seasons completely out of order, this was a welcomed opportunity to feel like I was watching the series from scratch, and not missing episodes in the process. The stories felt fresh and character development seemed to be the priority as opposed to setting up a status quo situation comedy formula that seemed to be the basis for episodes of later seasons. If you want to discover the charm of the series but hadn’t yet had the opportunity, this is the perfect place to start.
The watching of this season in another marathon season reaffirmed the fact that the Ranma/Akane/Ryouga/P-chan “love”-rectangle is my personal favorite!
No additional comments for lesbian analysis that I haven’t cited already.
18 volumes of Manga Series.
Temp review written 1/16/02.
After feeling like I’ve had a scattered intro to the “Ranma ½” universe through watching anime episodes completely out of order, I had the opportunity to finally sit down and burn through the 18 volumes currently released in English. I was a fan before, but this reading experience definitely committed me to recommending “Ranma” to other potentially interested folks. In fact, I’ve found I have an immense preference for the manga over the anime for quite a few reasons.
First of all, the art quality doesn’t waver as the anime does, and in fact gets better over time in the portrayal of expression and posture that compliments well the individual characters and the storyline of the moment. The T.V. series also tends to stick in goofy tangents or belabor a point whereas the manga version has a much cleaner and focused execution for the tale being told. And for this, it felt less and less like a status quo story concept because I was able to enjoy all of the subtle nuances of characterization and art that the artist invoked into each story with an elegantly playful execution to each tale.
The humor is still very much based in violence/bawdiness but one gets used to it if you read enough “Ranma”. And while I felt extremely sensitive to the more blatantly homophobic elements that seem to carry at least in the English dub of the anime shows, it doesn’t feel so obvious in the manga itself. Or it could be that I’m just desensitized to it, as in the case of the comedic violence used to a great degree.
Definitely a classic and recommended reading. Will work my way through the rest of the volumes… some day.