Ranma 1/2 is the story of a boy who turns into a girl when he gets hit with cold water and the ever growing crazy cast of characters who become a part of his life after it happens. Nonsense ensues and thats pretty much all there is to the story which is where everything started falling apart for me. I know Im in the minority but I really didnt like Ranma 1/2. At first I enjoyed it enough for what it was but it became apparent that not much of anything was going to change over the animes entire run and that became a problem. Ranma 1/2 is just too long. Its too long because its just the same thing over and over and over again for 161 episodes. Ranma and his fiance Akane will fight and then hell probably fight with one of the other characters who either likes boy Ranma and hates girl Ranma or vice versa rinse and repeat. Nothing ever happens and what was kind of fun and funny at first quickly became annoying and frustrating. I like to see some kind of progress being made in the longer series I watch story arcs and the like and Ranma 1/2 has very little if any progress being made from the beginning of episode 1 to the end of episode 161 with the final episode basically ending with Ranma and Akane being like We out adios everyone and I couldnt help buy ask myself in that moment What on earth was the point of all that? The biggest problem though is the fact that I dont care about almost every character on the show especially the main characters. If I liked any of the main characters Id probably be more tolerant to the shows lack of interest in pushing the story or any of its characters forward but I didnt so the show quickly became a slog and ultimately bummed me out. Also I watched the dub and while its solid overall some of the voice acting is terribleIm looking at you Shampooand I do wonder if I might have disliked it just a little bit less had I watched the sub instead. I didnt hate everything though. While dated in ways I generally enjoyed the art and really liked most of the character designsI wasnt a fan of Happousai or Colognes lookbut for me when it comes to anime story and character is more important than art and animation so while Ranma 1/2 succeeded in one way it failed miserably in another and the significantly more important way. All that said despite my disliking it I do think its worth checking out because one I am in the minority and two and more importantly if you find yourself liking the cast of characters which again wasnt the case for me I think theres a good chance youll enjoy the show and its gender bending shenanigans. It didnt end up working for me but that doesnt mean it wont work for you.
50 /100
24 out of 55 users liked this review