Ranma 1/2 - Episodes 1-2: "This is Ranma!"

She was a girl who scorned boys, he was a boy who turned into a girl – could I make it any more obvious?

He was a martial artist, she was also a martial artist – what more can I say?

Oh, hello there. In case the miserably mangled lyrics of a 2002 Canadian pop-punk hit weren't enough of a giveaway, I'm pretty sure I qualify as an old hand in the anime community by now – with over two decades of fandom under my belt. And Ranma ½ was the series that set me on this terribly terrible path.

But! The series I'm talking about here – the one with two episodes on Netflix – isn't the Ranma ½ I grew up with. Not the Ranma ½ you might know from your childhood, you could say. Except I really shouldn't have said that, and I'm truly sorry.

It seems unbelievable to me that there are fans out there who don't know the basic premise – but if you're one of them, here's the summary: Years ago, Genma Saotome and Soun Tendo agreed that their children should marry to ensure the "Anything Goes" school of martial arts continues for future generations. But when Genma and his 16-year-old son Ranma are supposed to appear, a panda and a teenage girl show up instead. It turns out that a few weeks prior, Ranma and Genma were training at cursed springs in China and fell in. Now, whenever he's doused with cold water, Genma turns into a panda, and Ranma turns into a well-endowed female version of himself – warm water changes them back.

Into this mess walks poor Akane Tendo, Soun's youngest daughter. A beauty who's also a victim of her own attractiveness – she absolutely loathes boys. Her older sisters, Nabiki and Kasumi, insist that the match is perfect, since Ranma is half a girl. Never mind that Ranma is rude and vain and saw her naked, or that Akane feels betrayed because he only explained what was going on after she discovered his penis. Their voices are overruled, and they're now engaged.

The problems pile up when Ranma enrolls at Akane and Nabiki's school – Furinkan High. He learns that Akane has to fight numerous boys every day because the village idiot, Tatewaki Kuno, has declared that anyone who wins a fight against her can buy the right to ask her out. Naturally, Kuno is less than thrilled about Akane's engagement to Ranma, and the two boys engage in a brawl. But Ranma jumps out of the second-story window, not noticing there's a pool below, accidentally triggering his transformation. He flees the school to avoid being caught in the act – with Kuno hot on his heels.

But here's the thing: Kuno is dumb. Really, really dumb. Still, you can't fault him for not realizing that the boy he was fighting and the pantyless girl he encountered outside the school were the same person. Ranma, on the other hand, probably should have figured things out when Nabiki handed him a letter addressed to "The Girl with Braids," inviting "her" to meet him at the school. Instead, he's caught off guard when Kuno presents him with a bouquet of roses instead of attacking him.

While MAPPA has chosen to set the series in the 80s – one of those stories where the availability of cell phones would have significantly changed the paradigm – the visual style has been modernized. Yes, that means we don't see nipples or – in a curious case – Ranma's butt crack. I'm a little conflicted about the change in style. On the one hand, it's a more faithful recreation of Rumiko Takahashi's expressive character design than in the old anime, where the characters seemed a bit more stoic. On the other hand, for some reason, more cartoonish backgrounds and manga-like sound effects have been added, which only serve to make the visuals more cluttered.

I also know that the first two episodes of the old series are nearly beat-for-beat, almost word-for-word, the same – and aside from the updated art style, the first episode is almost an exact replica of the original. That's mainly because the old first episode stayed true to Takahashi's manga; if anything, some of the old series' brilliant comedic timing was lost. Not that newcomers – or probably even most long-time fans – would notice, but I missed little details, like Genma moving out of the way as Akane picks up a table to beat Ranma with.

But then the second episode proved that this new version also has its own charm. Kuno walking into a closet in his uniform and reappearing seconds later in his hakama while his classmates ask if he's Superman was a completely new gag – delightful in its unexpectedness. On the other hand, the episode introduced a new character, voiced by legendary voice actor Tomokazu Seki, who's there exclusively to comment on what's happening. Man, how I hate it when anime explains everything on the screen to me as if I have audio descriptions activated. It remains to be seen whether this character actually contributes more than just commenting on the obvious.

Conclusion

The first two episodes don't offer too much substance in this regard, but for better or worse – Ranma ½ is a series with a serious gender theme. It's a pioneering series, not only for the anime and manga community as a whole, but also for people who have learned something about themselves through contact with a story that offers a more flexible approach to what it means to be a boy or a girl. Not that it's particularly progressive in its ideas – well, I'll talk about that when we get there.

Ranma ½ – Episode 1 is now available on Netflix.