Ranma 1/2: OVA Series Viz 375 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles 05/16/2000

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You know my stance on Ranma. It's pretty plain. Thusly, I was pretty uninterested in watching something this long and, as it is, I'm pretty nonplused as to what I'm going to say about it. The only reason I sat down and forced myself to view the thing at all is because I just managed to sell it via half.com and it just didn't feel right to unload something this long (and popular) without giving it some sort of cursory review. So, it got to be 2 AM last night and I had nothing on the charts. My irregular sleep schedule prompted me to find something to do and so I did. It kind of sucks that what I did find to do (Ranma) was both five hours long and, you know, Ranma. I think I could've planned things out better than I did.

You know what Ranma's about, I'll spare you the details. The OVAs come in at some point during the continuity, I'm sure it doesn't matter when. Much like the rest of Ranma, nothing changes during them. The only way you'd be able to discern what place this has in the overarching timeline is by judging the quality of the animation and, seriously, I'm just not that much of a fan. So this could've taken place during the third season or the eight season, I really wouldn't know. And I really wouldn't care. What we have here is a series of twelve episodes, totally unrelated save for one two parter somewhere in the middle. You might not know how I am with continuity, but I generally like it. Episodic plots have their place, as all things do, but usually I like my stuff like that to be in space, with or without giant robots. There's a terrible, terrible lack of stuff like that in Ranma. Ranma just have people who turn into ducks and pandas. When you have robots, they generally blow things up. When you don't have robots (or space) the stuff tends to resort to comedy. Japanese comedy rarely makes me laugh, and I think a lot of that is because shows like this that reuse the same jokes over and over again. Jokes I don't understand.

When the panda holds up a sign the first time it's sorta funny, kind of funny, the second time... it's still a little okay. I think the turning point, where it starts to wear a little thin is when it's broken out for the FIFTEENTH TIME IN THREE EPISODES. Maybe comedy needs to be in small doses. Maybe I wouldn't like to watch The Simpsons if I had to watch twelve episodes in a row. That's a possibility, probably, but I never feel like The Simpsons is going to take advantage of a direct to video release by throwing cartoon knockers at me like Hooters was having a fire sale. That's not cool. Also, I don't think The Simpsons was originally conceived by Rumiko Takahashi, so that might (or might not) help my case. How often does Homer strangle Bart? Like, once every third episode maybe? In rare instances, when it's intricately related to the plot... maybe like two or three times. There are jokes in Ranma that occur like clockwork and, frankly, many of the ones that happen pretty rarely I still don't get. Yes, Happosai is a lecher and he steals girls panties. Why is this funny? Why are panties ever funny?

They're not! If there's one thing I want you to take from this lesson it's that panties aren't funny. Calling people perverts and slapping them, that's not funny too. Karaoke numbers about sunshine and love, okay, that's pretty funny and chasing after seven headed dragons in search of moss, that can be kind of humorous too, fine. But the tomboy thing works so rarely I could just puke. Where and why, I don't know. It doesn't matter. I don't get it, but Ranma has this infectious sort of humor that's just hard to get rid of sometimes. Yes, Ranma can be funny, but it's usually when it's not using jokes (or character designs) recycled from Urusei Yatsura. I really just can't endorse Ranma for any reason. Yes, it's better than a host of other anime comedies, sure it contains nothing that could be construed as a maid robot, but these should be rules of courteousy, to be punished if they're not observed not lauded if they are. Ranma is generally pretty innocuous humor, which I suppose is better than the disturbing, debasive stuff that comes out nowadays, but I honestly think the cigarettes and beer I'll be able to buy with the $40 will provide me with more entertainment. Barring that, I've always got some utilities to pay, that's pretty fun... in its own right.