Ranma 1/2: Volume 1-2

“When Margaret Atwood asked women what they feared most from men, they said: ‘We’re afraid they’ll kill us.’ When men were asked the same question, they said: ‘We’re afraid they’ll laugh at us.'” – Naomi Wolf 

This latest release from Viz Media is quite notable for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is a highly popular series, created by Rumiko Takahashi, the same woman who created series such as InuYasha, RIN-NE, One-Pound Gospel and Urusei Yatsura. The other is that this is the first time this series has been published in the original right-to-left unflipped format.

This 2-in-1 collection follows the story of Ranma Saotome, a teenager who is a skilled martial artist, and his father Genma. The two have returned from a trip to China, and arrive in Tokyo, where Genma has promised his old friend, dojo owner Soun Tendo, that Ranma can marry one of Soun’s three daughters. There are several problems with this, namely that neither Ranma nor the daughters have agreed to the arrangement. 

However, the biggest problem is that during the trip to China, Ranma and Genma fell into a cursed spring. As a result the two of them now suffer a transformation curse. When Ranma comes into contact with cold water he changes from a boy into a girl. Similarly Genma turns into a panda when he is splashed with cold water. Only contact with hot water returns them back to normal.

Ranma ends up being engaged to a girl called Akane, and both of them keep getting into fights with the other boys at their school. Some are fighting over Akane’s affections, others because of their hatred of Ranma. Whatever the reason, the reader can be assured that fighting will ensue and water will be splashed.

Ranma ½ is best when it combines both the martial arts battles and the humour. Yes, the battles can be exciting, and the way that Ranma changes gender can be funny, but when it all comes together, this results in the best of what this manga has to offer. For example, Ranma often battles people who also have odd eccentricities. One person, Ryoga Hibiki, is fighting against Ranma partly because he believes Ranma chickened out of a fight they were meant to have long ago. However, it turns out that Ryoga has such a terrible sense of direction that despite the fact he lived 500 yards from where the fight was scheduled to take place, he arrived four days late, by which time Ranma had already left the location after waiting for three days. 

There are some issues that deserve to be highlighted. The main one is that whenever they flashback to the Chinese springs they feature the same man dictating the scenario. The problem is that he talks in what can be seen as rather politically incorrect. For example, when Genma falls in the spring the Chinaman says: “That is ‘Spring of Drowned Panda’! There is very tragic legend of panda, who drowned there two thousand year ago!” The poor grammar used could possibly be said to be racist.

Some may well be put off by this, but other than this Ranma ½ is still a decent manga. It is the one rather annoying blot on a fine work.