Intro

The second and third episodes of the Ranma 1/2 remake take their first steps in expanding the world of the anime by introducing new settings and characters. We get our first taste of this as we follow Ranma’s first day at Furinkan High School with Akane where he ends up making an enemy out of Tatewaki Kuno. Soon, he doubles as an unwanted admirer as he develops a crush on both Akane and Ranma’s girl form. As a result of their constant school battles, we also get to know Akane’s crush Dr. Tofu with every visit Ranma makes to his office. I get more detailed about their roles in the show in my breakdown for the second Ranma 1/2 remake trailer which you can read here. While this set of episodes maintains the same fun atmosphere and flaws pointed out in my review for the first episode, they also show improvement in some areas that make the remake’s success a bit more promising.

Episode 2: I Hate Men!

The opening for the second episode includes a reanimated version of the original anime’s classic situational recap explaining Ranma and Akane’s unwanted engagement as well as Ranma’s curse. While it was such a joy to watch, I was surprised that it seemed to copy every bit of the original version considering that the rest of the remake is chalk full of visually creative differences. In fact, this is something that’s expanded upon throughout the rest of the episode. The character close ups made to look like they’re moving paper cut outs, the cute icons that slide across the screen for a scene transition, and even the Tendo sisters’ first round of cute outfits all make for a strong variety in artistry that makes everything so much fun to look at.

While the humor in the remake has changed, having taken on a more western cartoon feel, there were a few moments in this episode that actually felt like a successful attempt at modernizing the original anime’s personality. My favorite moments were hearing the way Ranma asks “who are you?” while drowning in a crowd asking about his engagement to Akane, him flipping continuously in the air when trying to get away from Kuno, and seeing him turn to dust that blows away in the wind like a victim of Thanos’s snap upon hearing Kuno’s love confession. All of these moments came with a layer of shock as they were so perfectly unexpected in ways that worked so well for the show. Specifically speaking to that last moment, while lacking the romantic atmosphere from the sunset in the original, the scene finds its own way to be just as hilarious and dramatic.

There was a specific funny moment that showed Ranma and Akane arguing on their way to school and Genma quickly coming out of nowhere to hit Ranma before Akane could. This one scene, while small, is pretty special in terms of nostalgia as it nails the comedic timing of the original anime the best. While there weren’t any more moments that landed quite the same way, I am hoping that we get this kind of comedic timing more regularly as the series goes on.

Speaking of Ranma, this episode makes the most of his female half’s screen time as each of her scenes only get more fun to watch. From her attitude to the way she talks, there’s an obvious edge to her personality that makes her stand out from Ranma’s male form – something that was accomplished so well and a lot quicker than in the original.

This isn’t to say that Ranma’s male form falters in any capacity as he also gets so many moments that showcase the best of his skills and personality. His first fight with Kuno, for instance, was impressive right off the bat as he showcases how dominant and serious he can get during a fight. This was an aspect about Ranma that really shined in the original anime, especially towards the end when his relationship with Akane developed into something more serious. Seeing this strength already in the second episode had me eager to see more of it as it’s always served as a great way to prove just how refined his skills are after training so intensely all his life to become a great martial artist. In fact, it already seems to contrast so well with the boyishly careless personality he exhibits in his social life – which happens to include a lot more comical swearing in this remake compared to the original. While it doesn’t happen too often, it’s done in a creative way that compliments his character.

In the same ways I’ve been impressed with the quality of Ranma’s fight scenes so far, I also felt so satisfied with how Akane stole the show with one of her most iconic fight scenes in this episode. When it comes to her arrival at school where she has to battle the daily crowd of high school boys charging at her, the remake does an excellent job showcasing just how excellent of a martial artist she is in her own right. The camera captures her every move and the sheer number of boys she is able to beat up, making this scene almost more dramatic than the original’s despite her lack of signature brashness.

Throughout the episode, we get introduced to two new characters in more or less the same way as the original. The first of which is Dr. Tofu who makes his appearance sneaking up on female Ranma out in the street rather than in his office. Hearing it for the first time with this scene, I thought his english dub voice sounded amazing as it fully captures the demeanor of the classic character. However, I couldn’t say the same about Kuno’s voice. While it isn’t too bad, he does sound more like an older man compared to the original. What also threw me off was his dialect sounding less poetic and instead more dramatically articulate. While this differentiates him from his 1989 counterpart, it thankfully doesn’t come off as a weakness too much when it comes to his line deliveries.

Speaking of Kuno, there is a moment where Ranma sits in a tree in his female form grumbling over the way he grabbed her chest when she tried to save him in the pool. Compared to the original where she complains about how hard he squeezed, the remake really emphasizes Ranma’s distress over the action itself in her voice when she says she “can still feel it and it’s gross”. Given how much his manhood means to him, the emotional intensity over the general action really draws importance to Ranma’s experience with female struggles as well as his capacity to understand them. This made the scene rather exciting to watch as it shows that the remake is already hinting towards the more nuanced relationship Ranma is going to develop with his gender throughout the rest of the series. Personally, I feel that it’s a nice point of emphasis to make even early on especially for a modern day remake.

Cons

On a similar note, however, they also changed Akane’s wording when she explains her attitude towards men to Ranma while running to school. In the original, after noticing her crush on Dr. Tofu, Ranma expresses that he thought she hated guys to which she replies by saying that she hates boys while getting ready to fight a crowd of them at school. This distinction between men and boys is completely lost in the remake as Akane simply replies that she does hate men, especially the guys getting ready to fight her. I felt that this change reduced her character down to a simple man hater that aligns with a more ‘woke’ agenda. It diminishes the depths of Akane’s frustrations over boys’ immaturity and, in turn, fails to hint at the importance of the impending character growth she undergoes when her relationship with Ranma develops into something deeper than they both expected.

Another weakness in this episode are the overly simplistic lines that are delivered with such little emotion – which sometimes makes everyone sound like they’re just stating the obvious. I felt this the most when Akane tells Ranma the reason she caught up to him after he fell into the pool with Kuno was because she wanted to make sure he knew he was stupid for doing that. In all honesty, watching her say this makes me cringe every time because her tone and facial expression are so emotionless that it makes her presence there indeed feel very random and forced like Ranma mentions. In fact, there are so many times where we see her with such an uninterested demeanor and a poker face that it seems confusing as to why she follows Ranma around throughout the school day. That is, the subtle care and curiosity towards Ranma’s struggles is less apparent in this episode compared to the original’s version.

If the lines aren’t overly simplistic, they are sometimes lengthy and overly formal in ways that don’t feel right for the character. We get this from Ranma when he tries to tell Kuno how much he is not interested in Akane during their first fight by saying “there is nothing between us and there is not a single part of me that has any interest in Akane whatsoever”. It felt really weird to hear him give his explanation with such a long and specifically worded sentence. He also uses the word obstinate to describe Akane. Both of these things sound out of place for him to say given what kind of character he is.

We see a similar instance later on with Akane when she replies to Nabiki’s comment about not making a big deal over Ranma’s curse by saying “You can try and claim that it might not matter much to you, but have you considered that I’m supposed to be his fiancee so it might actually affect me? I don’t like the idea of people assuming I‘ve partnered up with a pervert who can’t even check to see if the bath is empty before going in.” No matter how many times I watch it, her response here always sounds like something that came out of a carefully worded essay rather than natural talking. It’s definitely a far cry from the original where she just states “that’s easy for you to say, Nabiki. My life may as well be over if I have to marry a stupid jerk like him. Why don’t you marry him if he’s so cool? Think about it, I’m engaged to my worst nightmare!”. Here, while her response is almost just as long, it at least uses simpler wording and a personal dialect that makes it sound natural.

I feel as though such overcomplicated lines would have sounded much more realistic if they changed the wording and made them slightly shorter, which is where giving the characters more of their trademark sass would have helped as it would have made their lines snappier. Doing so might have even helped regardless if the dialogue was too complicated or too simple as they would have at least been delivered with a tone that heightened the characters’ distinct personalities.

On top of Akane’s anger still sounding quite generic, without both of their attitude and sass, Ranma and Akane’s fun teasing dynamic don’t really transfer over from the original since their insults lack creativity in comparison. Even without it, however, using soft background music when they bicker would have at least compensated for their spotty dialogue and helped some of their fights come off as endearing. Specifically during the scene where they’re arguing in the hall, in the original, using this kind of music lightens the emotional load and makes their intense interaction seem like they’re just trying to get used to each other. Using it in the remake would have provided an intimacy that better sets up their bickering as the start of a friendship with a potential to grow rather than just treating it like another joke.

Out of curiosity, I ended up watching the sub and actually found that the episode showcases their attitude and snide remarks more strongly in a way that makes up for the lack of background music. This makes sense given that the characters were voiced by the original voice actors. Generally speaking, though, it’s moments like these that made me feel like the remake focuses more on hitting beats reminiscent of comedic western animation. There seems to be less slower and atmospheric elements belonging to anime that worked so well to establish the charm of the original version.

Speaking of the missed opportunities to show the subtle intimacy of their relationship, this episode also ends up cutting a whole sequence dedicated to showing just how much Ranma starts to care about Akane. That is, we get less emphasis on his desire to understand her since we don’t get to see him spend the night restlessly thinking about the different parts of her personality and how she ended up helping him at school despite her frustrations. Even if they took this away, having Ranma show more admiration towards Akane when fighting off the crowd of high school boys like in the original would have acted as a small substitution that showed he cares more about her than we might’ve thought. I didn’t realize until the end that this was because the episode is actually a combination of the original’s second and third episodes, which tells us just how much faster the pacing of this remake is going to be in an attempt to tell the whole Ranma 1/2 story in less episodes.

While I was impressed with how naturally they managed to combine these two episodes into one, cutting off this sequence gave the scene where he attempts to knock on Akane’s door to thank her a lot less meaning. Instead, seeing him back out after hearing her make fun of him is played off as another quick little joke rather than a display of hurt feelings. As this whole sequence was supposed to emphasize his capacity to care about her on a deeper level throughout the show, already cutting off important scenes like this makes me a bit worried about how the pacing will affect the way other important moments will hit emotionally for the audience.

Episode 3: Because There’s Someone He Likes

Episode three presents to us some rather notable improvements starting with a very creative opening. We see a dream sequence of Ranma relaxing in a hot spring before getting attacked by a monstrous Kuno expressing his love for him. This opening sequence is unique to both the remake and the original, and I found it to be a visually pleasing creative choice that was executed nicely when it comes to shock value. On the topic of visually pleasing, this episode’s variation of art is another thing I enjoyed watching. From the shots where we see Kuno’s head turn into an active volcano out of rage to Akane drawn in an overly romantic art style when we’re shown his perspective of her, brand new creative displays like this give the audience something different to look forward to with each episode. Something else that brought a smile to my face was getting to see Nabiki bribe people with her questionable pictures of Ranma and Akane once again. Even though I’m still trying to get used to her voice, this was such an iconic staple of her personality that carries into this remake so nicely.

It was rather nice to see Ranma relax a bit more as a character in this episode as we get to see him act nonchalant and curious in more natural ways. At the same time, the remake also brings back just the right amount of his trademark cockiness and fighting urgency from the original. Speaking of his fight scenes, I thought it was refreshing to see the way he can actually falter in a battle against Kuno. Staying true to Akane’s conclusion from the previous episode that Ranma and Kuno are almost evenly matched opponents, the remake dedicates more specific shots to showing this off which actually works to broaden Ranma’s display of skills – especially his limits.

As for Akane, her character gets better in so many more noticeable ways throughout the episode. It’s more obvious that her efforts to follow Ranma this time around are based on genuine curiosity as we actually get a scene where we witness her confusion overhearing Nabiki asking Ranma to meet Kuno outside. This makes her appearance observing Ranma’s fight with Kuno later on seem less random and much more intentional. It doesn’t seem like she’s there for no reason compared to the last episode.

Outside of this, though, we get a wide array of Akane’s different personality traits which worked very well to flesh out her character. While she’s remained generally upset so far in the series, in this episode, we get to see her act happy and lively playing a game of ball with her friends as well as kind towards Ranma by carrying him home when his legs give out on the road.

More importantly, however, this episode takes the time to explore her insecurities regarding her crush on Dr. Tofu as we see her in a state of deep thought whenever she and Ranma visit his office. Grappling with the fact that he sees her as just a kid and likes her big sister Kasumi instead, we’re able to understand how much it pains her that she’s not good enough for someone more mature than the boys she has to deal with in her life. When she accidentally lashes out at Ranma in front of him, we also see how frustrating it is for her to know that he’s out of her reach because she still retains parts of her youth that makes him see her as just a kid. While she still displays more anger, particularly whenever Ranma brings up her crush on him, it still isn’t as unabashedly intense or full of attitude as the original. However, understanding these struggles made it easier to get used to in this episode as we’re able to see the deeper reasoning as to why she is acting that way.

What the previous episode lacks when it comes to Ranma and Akane’s relationship, this episode makes up for as their fighting finally has a banter that feels reminiscent of the original anime. While the creativity of their insults still have room to improve, it’s the rhythm of their interactions that made it feel like this remake was establishing the dynamic that will last them the rest of the series. I felt this the most when I saw how unfazed Ranma was when Akane kicked him into the air in the middle of his fight with Kuno and especially when they were bickering about his modesty at the breakfast table.

This episode also succeeds in showcasing how much they care about the other during a fight, something intimate that happened frequently in the original. We see this during Ranma’s fight with Kuno when Ranma gets distracted worrying about Akane’s safety after Kuno delivers a blow that almost knocks her out – leading to Ranma almost getting hurt by him. Akane shows her care in return when she tries to protect Ranma by telling him to keep his eyes on the fight, which seems to heighten his instincts to prevent Kuno’s finishing blow and defeat him. As if he was not only protecting himself, but fiercely protecting Akane as well. While these moments of concern for the other are brief, with the stakes at hand, they also help to showcase a deeper connection between the two of them.

Outside of being one of the strongest plot points of the episode, Akane’s complex struggle with her crush on Dr. Tofu is also the catalyst that develops Ranma and Akane’s connection further as it opens the door for slower moments of sincerity between them. It is here that the episode finally makes use of the soft background music to highlight this growing sincerity within their relationship. Throughout the episode, when her guard is down in the midst of her deep thinking and low mood about her situation, it makes Ranma curious to know more about her when she isn’t in such an aggravated state. We get our first taste of this when the two of them are walking back from Dr. Tofu’s office and Akane doesn’t bother with attacking Ranma when he lies about Dr. Tofu thinking she’s a tomboy. Surprised at this reaction, he ends up obnoxiously trying to see her face no matter how many times she turns away while expressing his confusion over how quiet she is – becoming satisfied with the returned normalcy when she does try to attack him afterwards. However, when Akane surprises him again by carrying him the rest of the way home when he suddenly cannot walk, he thinks about what Dr. Tofu said earlier about how Akane is actually a really nice girl. With the peaceful atmosphere and a beautiful starry sky, this scene acts as their first intimate moment as well as Ranma’s first time taking in the more sensitive side of Akane.

While this scene delivered when it comes to showing the potential for a genuine loving nature within their relationship, the scene where Ranma tries to cheer Akane up is ultimately what confirms that it’s there. Understanding how upset she is that Dr. Tofu likes Kasumi instead of her, when Ranma sees Akane destroying cinderblocks to blow off steam, he makes a funny face to try evoking her anger. While Ranma freely lets his concern for her show by checking up on her in both scenes I’ve mentioned so far, finding out that he’s actively trying to make her feel better now ends up shocking Akane as it’s her first time understanding that he cares about her and not just about annoying her. I think it was also meant to show her how another seemingly immature boy can treat her when she doesn’t act so aggressively.

The scene where he lets her fight him in the dojo is where the tenderness of this moment is at its highest, though. While Akane comes at him with everything she’s got, Ranma dodges all of her attacks with so much ease that all he focuses on is wondering why she’s always so angry. He ends their fight by admitting that he thinks she’s cute when she smiles, which causes her to pause for a bit before getting frustrated with him for distracting her at which he whistles carelessly while walking away. Combined with the music, this was probably the softest scene of the whole remake so far as it symbolizes how much Ranma is willing to stay grounded for Akane when she loses her temper given how much he knows about her at this point.

We get to see how much it means to Akane to be seen and not just plainly sought after for her strength when she lies on her bed wondering if Ranma meant it when he called her smile cute. When she picks up her desk mirror and smiles into it, we then see how Ranma’s words encourage her to start seeing herself as someone who is still beautiful even if Dr. Tofu doesn’t like her back and everyone sees her as a tomboy. Of course, this sentiment is taken more lightly when he barges into her room to make fun of her again by calling her smile creepy. At this, she hilariously breaks the mirror while still smiling and delivers a huge slap to his face that Ranma fails to take seriously. Surprisingly, the comedic timing here made this scene excellent for the ending as it gives us one of the better displays of Akane’s anger and compliments the previous tone of the scene.

Cons

The improvements made in this episode were so huge that I personally didn’t think there were as many cons this time around. The most prevalent issues I had with this episode involved the way some of the scenes ended off. For instance, by the end of the scene where Ranma defeats Kuno, Ranma states that Akane doesn’t have as much sex appeal as his female form does. Then, right after, we cut to both of them sitting in Dr. Tofu’s office to heal Ranma’s ache. The episode ends a couple scenes in a similar way, which I found random and abrupt. They don’t really give any one of them much of a clean ending and it makes the transition into the next one feel a bit messy.

Similarly, during the scene where Akane carries Ranma home, he remembers Dr. Tofu telling him that he’ll understand one day that Akane is a really sweet girl. This might be a bit too nit picky, but the way he says “nope, still not gettin’ it” so nonchalantly disrupts the soft atmosphere set up by the scenery and music. I feel like the mood would have remained consistent if the line was delivered with a more thoughtful and curious tone.

I’m also still having more noticeable issues with the pacing. This was most apparent when watching Ranma and Akane during their gym period. From the moment we cut to this scene, every shot felt rushed, especially when we see Akane enjoying herself with her friends. Every shot there is so short and quick, Ranma ultimately ends up getting hit with her ball just as abruptly which sends us right back into another scene in Dr. Tofu’s office. Spreading the action out across longer shots with fewer cuts, rather than jam packing the scene with several short shots, would have allowed us to take our time with the scene a bit more and given the audience a little more room to breathe.

Conclusion

To my surprise, these two episodes are wildly different in terms of quality. Overall, though, they do a good job exploring the two new characters as they impact the plot in ways that’s already making significant changes to Ranma and Akane’s relationship. While there are new and old issues still left to fix, there are also some strengths that I hope remain consistent throughout the rest of the series. The way the remake showed improvement in some areas, though, gives me hope that the remake will keep getting better at delivering the heart of the original anime despite having fewer episodes to tell it.