Genderflipping Fun: The Return of Ranma 1/2 – Fascinating Fiction
#ranma½ #anime #fascinatingfiction
Fascinating Fiction is a scripted video essay series in which Pokeprof goes over various forms of fictional media to give his personal thoughts, analysis and opinions on what brought these characters and stories to life.
I return from being sick talking about an old anime made new! Ranma 1/2 is one of those things that I’ve held a long time love and hate relationship with for many reasons, but we’re mostly chatting to see what makes it interesting!
If you’ve got a suggestion for what you’d like to see on Fascinating Fiction, leave a suggestion in the comments or message me on Twitter!
Thumbnail by @FPSGamerz3
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3 Comments
This was a good vid.
My first exposure to Ranma 1/2 was a video essay by BonsaiPop about this anime & he made really interesting points that I decided to give it a try during the summer of 2023, though I only watch the first half of the show. It was fun & charming even if I’m aware of many moments that have not age well. As for the 2024 remake, I think it’s alright; I just don’t feel the charm that I do with the original. Though I do agree the original anime portrayed the relationship between Akane & Ranma as a bunch of jerks compared to the manga, where they bicker yet have strong chemistry. Sadly, I think this is the case with most of Rumiko Takahashi’s anime adapted works where the relationships between the main leads are mostly jerks with little reasons (I’m talking to you, Inuyasha & Kagome).
Any chance will other works from Rumiko like Inuyasha?
Not sure how well it's known, but Lum was going to be a one-off for Urusei Yatsura. After her attempt on Ataru and Shinobu in episode 2/3, she was meant to disappear and the series was going to be a gag manga about Shinobu and Ataru running into various other aliens. In fact, if you stop to look at it, Shinobu, Akane and Kagome (and many other female main leads) could be interpreted as not only the same character, they could also be seen as the author's self insert, which is likely why Lum and Ataru rarely have romantic scenes and why Rumiko made sure to nip any growing romance ships in the bud when it came to later series.