Remakes have a bad reputation these days. This is because of the many absolute crap film remakes of good films just to capitalize on a recognizable name. But there were times that it was appropriate to do a remake. Say, technology improved that allowed the story to be done as it was more intended before concessions! Or in this case, the original story never got properly finished and more than enough time has passed.

Ranma 1/2 came out in 1987 and had an anime adaptation in 1989. Said adaptation though had much filler even early on. What’s more it never adapted the later chapters ending with nearly 200 chapters of the manga unadapted.

The new Anime released on Netflix has 12 episodes at the end of its first season. That covers roughly the first 36 chapters of the manga.

Ranma 1/2 is the story of  Ranma Saotome who has been entered into an arranged marriage by his father and his fiancé Akane Tendo’s. BUT there’s a problem. While on a martial arts training excursion, Ranma and his father went to some cursed hot springs in China. Now when touched by cold water, Ranma turns into a girl, and if then doused with hot water, turns back into a guy. This is all said right at the start of each episode.

So we have a gender bending Romcom that started many shipping wars as potential suitors for both Ranma and Akane show up all the while the will-they-won’t-they tension between the two leads continues to grow.

The animation is beautifully done for this new adaptation of the manga. bright vibrant colours that makes each character pop out.

I do have some issues with the show, though they come from the story itself. My main issue is that Akane is meant to be the secondary protagonist right? Yet every arc where she’s about to be able to do something, she gets sidelined and replaced by other characters. They make a point that she’s a skilled martial artist that was able to beat all the boys at school, yet the times she’s supposed to get a big showing of how good she is at fighting, instantly she’s replaced. When it’s a show that the action is all this fancy martial arts often with comical twists, such as ice skating or rhythmic gymnastics, Just… kind of dont like a character constantly being side lined like that especially this early on and I suspect that to continue.

Fortunately best girl (not counting female Ranma) Shampoo shows up near the end so the series does end on a high, but ooh it makes you wait for Shampoo.

The current Ranma 1/2 series was very enjoyable to watch, I must admit I watched it with the dub and never saw the sub, but the dub was done very well. It was funny, and given this is a comedy that’s important, nothing is worse than an unfunny comedy, so thank Primus this avoided that fate. We’re all currently excitedly waiting for season 2 which has been announced.

Rating: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️