Phew! In the midst of all the nerdy happenings that have come up for me to write about as of recent, it sure has been a hot minute since I’ve caught up with the new reboot of Ranma ½. No matter, I’ve finally come back to do a breakdown of episodes 10 and 11 in which Ryoga and female Ranma continue their fight against Azusa Shiratori and Mikado Sanzenin in martial arts freestyle figure skating. Seeing how episode 9’s cliffhanger left our opponents on a newly destroyed rink full of icebergs, the rest of the battle was truly set up for things to go anywhere – and this set of episodes sure do take advantage of that.
Even better, all of that only served as a warm-up thrill to the main star of the show this time around which was the long awaited entrance of Shampoo! As Chinese law declares her both Ranma’s wife and sworn lifelong enemy whenever he’s in his female form, Shampoo’s relationship with him gives us yet another crazy dynamic that affects all the characters’ lives in a way that helps the story of Ranma ½ take proper shape. Between Ranma and Akane’s growing romance, the ferocious fight scenes, steady character development, continued humorous energy, new creative choices and more, there was just so much fun to be had at this point in the series. So let’s break it down.
The Kiss of Death
Episode 10 opens up with yet another situational intro, this time taking on a cool ninja samurai theme as Ranma and Akane are introduced as ninjas practicing different stealth skills around the neighborhood. The narrated explanation of their forced betrothal is visually represented with their sudden meet up in the Tendo household for a duel while their families watch. With an exclamation of their own arguments toward the situation, Akane shows off her skills by summoning a cloud above his head that pours cold water that transforms Ranma into a girl. With that, everyone disappears in a cloud of smoke which leaves Ranma frustrated with everything that just happened.
This intro was definitely one that I liked since it placed the characters in a compelling little alternate universe complete with creative outfits and displays of magic. Not only was it used so well to symbolize the show’s real plot as well as our main protagonists’ dynamic, the way it ends also highlights how Ranma is always caught up in a whirlwind of his life events. Following this creative sequence, we then get a recap of the last episode with random shots from episode 8 and rather nonsensical narration from the Furinkan High Radio Club’s very own Ichiro. While this is the first episode recap we’ve gotten in the whole series so far, it’s exciting and seamless nature succeeds in hyping us up to continue where we left off.
We begin properly with a few dramatic shots of the icy battleground as well as our two opponents. Combined with the music, this first set of visuals start up the remake’s iconic brand of humor by mixing intensity with the absurdity of the characters’ current circumstances. I know I was left giggling while thinking to myself “look at the rink…” at the sight of everything. Quickly after, the fight begins with female Ranma attacking Sanzenin who stands welcoming her with open arms. It’s clear that he’s still under the delusion that she is in love with him and thus continues his pursuit to give her another kiss. After she misses her attack, he takes her in his arms and mistakes her anger for jealousy over him displaying affection towards Akane. We instantly feel Ranma’s repulsion as we watch an over the top daydream of Sanzenin trying to kiss her on their wedding day, which transitions into Ranma’s point of view of his lips getting closer to her in real time. The terrible sight almost leaves us moving away with Ranma before we see her give him a headbutt from behind, leaving both of them yelping in pain. Visually, all of this happens so fast just within a minute or two which makes this entire part of the fight seem so stupid and funny.
Meanwhile, we have Ryoga trying to stop the fight with Shiratori by telling her the lie that he set Charlotte free out of sympathy for her situation. As she freezes, we’re made to think that she’s come to a tearful understanding, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth as she calmly tells Ryoga to give Charlotte back in an utterly demonic voice. Outside of the original “Oh, Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love! Let My Love Be Forever” OVA from 1995, this is the first time a character in Ranma ½ speaks in this specific voice which, while fitting, made for quite the surprise. Afterwards, she of course spins Ryoga around with an intense aggression while screaming at him over and over to give Charlotte back. In a haze of rapid spinning shots in distorted color, we hear him let out a blood curdling scream all the way through. It’s amazing that he manages to land safely from an attack that shows Shiratori at her craziest and most powerful.
We then see Ranma meet up with Ryoga to tell him they need to work as a team to beat their opponents, to which Ryoga lets out the most hilarious disgusted groan. After seeing Ranma explain his plan to Ryoga in secret upon his agreement, we see soon enough their attempt to lure Sanzenin in for an attack by faking a dramatic break-up that leaves Ranma desperate for his love. Ranma’s act to express this is quite sincere as she manages to conjure up real tears, which goes to show how much more comfortable he’s gotten in his girl form during at point in the series. She then breaks character by bringing back the brashness in her voice once she gets the chance to launch Sanzenin towards Ryoga, who trips him into the cold water with a bored expression – rendering the boyish nature of their teamwork here quite humorous. Shiratori, while pulling a fake-out that demonstrates her menacing fighting persona, goes down quite easily with a flick on the forehead from Ryoga in mid-air which I truly did not expect.
While their victory seemed apparent, it couldn’t be more short lived as we’re soon shown a perfectly fine Shiratori and Sanzenin standing on the ice once again. While I personally found the speed of their recoveries quite shocking upon first watch, it truly is a moment most fitting for the antics of Ranma ½. The remainder of the fight only goes to show the true strength of Ryoga’s character – both physically and emotionally – as we get to see how powerful his desire to beat Ranma and win the heart of Akane makes him when Ranma asserts that fighting just to impress her is why he’s never going to beat him. Those words echo as he stands paralyzed in front of a background with traditional Japanese art in a shot that gets further and further away from him – which is where the intensity of his emotions start to form.
What follows is a dramatic change in art style when we see Ryoga quietly declare a fight against Ranma, where we get to see the magnitude of his ridiculous strength. Starting by attacking with a giant ice boulder, he steals the show in the end by enlarging his wolverine-style muscles and pulling together two walls of ice to trap everyone and win the overall match. As a whole, this entire sequence sets Ryoga apart from Ranma as a viable opponent. While he may not have as many skills as Ranma does, the strength of his feelings amplify his physical abilities on a rather impressive level which makes him unique as a martial artist – a staple in Ryoga’s character that this episode builds up pretty well. With that, however, the tournament ends on a lighthearted note with Sanzenin getting carried out on a stretch bed only to wake up to stop Shiratori from claiming his hospital blanket as yet another one of her cute collectables that she names Martin.
The fighting is far from over for Ranma and Ryoga, however, as they remain on the ice fighting over Akane. Even if they had been quarreling with visually impressive martial arts moves, their petty arguing leans into the toxic “girl as a reward” trope just enough for us to anticipate Akane’s intervention. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for her to do so in the most satisfying way possible by suddenly chucking a block of ice at the two of them. While having a girl stop two boys from fighting over her by asserting her own independence did seem like a bit of a cliche, it was actually so entertaining to see Akane do it here given how the series has developed her character thus far which is something I appreciated about this moment. Also, while their continued fighting inevitably causes the unfortunate sight of Akane drowning, the smooth animation in her frantic struggling and the crisp sound design managed to create a pretty excellent shot.
Afterwards, despite their frustrations towards each other, Ranma and Ryoga demonstrate how much they prioritize taking care of Akane above anything else with the way they rush into the water to save her. This then results in the most hilarious scene of Ranma calmly asking Ryoga what’s wrong with him since he is about to dive into cold water and transform back into P-Chan. Ranma’s questioning matches the audience’s reaction so well here and stands out to me as a moment that genuinely made me laugh. The humorous tone continues on with another new element to this remake where Ryoga screams out Akane’s name underwater as P-Chan. While a sensible creative choice for this remake, this moment shocked me a bit as this is the first time I’ve even seen Ryoga’s voice come out of his pig form.
By the time Akane wakes up within one of the school’s rooms, we then get a sweet showcase of a sneezing Ranma handing off P-Chan to Akane and telling her to thank Ryoga for saving her. Ranma did not show any anger over P-Chan getting all the credit for helping Akane, nor did he expose Ryoga’s secret even after all they went through during the ice skating tournament which I personally thought was really sweet. Despite how childish Ranma can be, it’s moments like this that show us his true heart and the thriving decency of his character.
However, this is merely a calm before the storm that is Shampoo making her dramatic entrance by breaking down the wall with utter bloodlust at the sight of female Ranma. Despite my disdainful feelings towards this character, there was so much about this scene I was excited about. Apart from making the choice to have her break into the school instead of the Tendo household like she did in the original anime, presumably due to this remake’s more condensed storytelling, I was definitely not the only one looking forward to hearing how she sounds. Since her broken English was always a notoriously problematic aspect about the original anime, upon hearing her speak, I’d say they fixed the issue in a noticeable enough way. Her sentences are simple, but more complete this time around which made for more realistic sounding communication. Her voice also lives up to its expectations as well as it is close enough to remain faithful to her original counterpart, but possesses a slight difference that works to define this Shampoo as a more modern version of her.
Her fight scenes are also just as crisp as everyone else’s when she immediately goes to attack Ranma, if not more given the impactful strikes she makes with her unique Chinese weapons. Although, in such a short lived fight, Akane also steals the show by remaining calm while standing on the sidelines protecting her classmates. Once Ranma seemingly disappears, Akane even lies by telling Shampoo that she left the building. Only then does she walk over to the smashed lockers and forcefully tear out one of the doors to ask a trembling Ranma how she knows her. The fact that all of her actions are done with such a casual demeanor truly showcases how used to her relationship with Ranma she has become, which helps the anime take its proper form and thus stands as a pretty satisfying thing to watch. What intrigued me further, though, was this remake’s experimentation with Akane’s more playful dialogue towards Ranma by having her tease the story out of him a bit. Not only was it another aspect of the modern adaptation of their relationship to look forward to, it also stood as a moment that helped me properly warm up to Akane’s english dub voice.
Immediately afterwards, we then cut to a flashback as Ranma explains how he met Shampoo and why she’s out to kill him. In short, female Ranma beats Shampoo in a martial arts competition and receives the kiss of death on the cheek from her in accordance with Chinese law stating that Shampoo must spend the rest of her life trying to kill Ranma. Outside of general changes made in the remake mentioned in my previous episode reviews, the explanation of events and their accompanying visuals mostly remain the same here. There’s a few minor exceptions such as the rapid blur of movements in Shampoo’s competition fight and the shot of Ranma and Genma eating her prize buffet having enough detail to look more accurate to their manga designs from afar – the latter of which I appreciated.
However, the most significant change has to be hearing Shampoo speak in perfect Chinese while the Jusenkyo tour guide translates for Ranma and his father. In light of the previously mentioned controversy surrounding her broken English, by giving Shampoo the chance to speak in her native language, they treat her character as well as the culture she’s supposed to represent with so much more respect. It also works to make her character come off as more authentic. I also love the impressive still shots we get of Shampoo and all the instances where she found female Ranma in her pursuit to kill him. The former does such a great job defining her as such a feared and reputable Chinese Amazon warrior, while the latter captures the humor that her intense skills add to Ranma’s life when she tries to run from her.
With the flashback over with, we cut to present time where male Ranma comes back home with Akane… only to find Shampoo drinking tea with Kasumi and Genma in the dining area. After Ranma gets angry at his father upon hearing that he let her in, his fear takes over as Shampoo analyzes his male form – confused that he has the same name as the girl she’s trying to kill. He thinks he’s in the clear from her wrath with his male form for now until Ryoga inevitably joins in to try and reveal his girl form in front of Shampoo so that she may start attacking her again. While this entire dining room scene is fairly short, Ryoga’s smug attempts at this come up throughout its entirety which makes for quite the hilarious display of his friendship with Ranma. However, when Shampoo begins to attack out of nowhere, all attention is directed at Akane when she manages to block off her strike with impressive strength. After witnessing her martial arts skills at play, Ranma then swoops in to protect her which causes him to beat Shampoo in yet another fight.
As everyone stares at a knocked out Shampoo amidst a rising fear that she will now go after male Ranma too, an unaware Kasumi lightens the mood by giving Ranma such a wholesome congratulations for having won the fight. This is something Ranma denies when Shampoo comes to, but it’s proven too late when Shampoo gives Ranma a soft smile before giving him a kiss – but this time on his lips. This moment grants us Ranma’s first kiss by a woman in the entire remake thus far, which in turn evokes Akane’s first official burst of fiery jealousy. Of course, an ending like this is left on a rather panicked and confused note given the music and the way all the characters react. Both of which make for the perfect cliffhanger that sets the next episode up to explore more of Shampoo’s character.
You I Love
Rather than a situational intro variation, episode 11 revs us up with yet another recap of the events from the previous episode which serves as great momentum going into the first scene. In it, we open with a ticking clock that lets us know Shampoo’s lips have stayed on Ranma’s for a quite a long time. Basking in the hilarious awkwardness of everyone having various reactions at the sight in uncomfortable silence, it’s quickly broken by Akane when she delivers a swift strike at Ranma with one of Shampoo’s weapons. This excitingly brings the dramatic rivalry shot sequence between the two girls standing over his injured body.
With how similar the emotional delivery feels to Ranma and Ryoga’s rivalry over Akane, the sequence does a great job defining Shampoo as the main girl after Ranma’s heart to antagonize. This, combined with Akane angrily calling off the engagement while stomping away, shows how much she’s come to care for Ranma and how much stronger her feelings for him have become. Also, while the use of demonic voices on the characters is still fairly new, I will say it is quite fitting for Soun to use it on Ranma as a reaction towards him jeopardizing his engagement with his youngest daughter. It emphasizes how much Ranma is at the mercy of Akane’s beastly father whenever this happens, which has always been my favorite part of their dynamic throughout the original.
With Shampoo wearing a cute expression while introducing her book of Chinese Amazon Law, the characters soon break into calamity over their inability to read the Chinese text that’s supposed to explain why she’s suddenly fallen for Ranma. That is until we’re left giggling at the sudden appearance of Nabiki who just comes out of nowhere to translate it perfectly – a moment that adds a unique star-quality to her character. After she explains that the one who defeats Shampoo is to become her husband if he’s a male, we then zoom out on a traditional Japanese drawing of a girl holding corn and a boy holding a fish while children shout “yay!” in the background. While yet another lively creative choice added to the remake, I personally felt that such visuals were a bit random and the sound effects were a little too reminiscent of modern media for an anime that’s supposed to take place in the late 80s. Although, ending this scene with a slow zoom in on a panicked Ranma with Shampoo snuggling by his side was a funny enough sight to bounce back from it.
With a literal punch, we then cut to the next scene where Akane takes all her anger out on a training dummy she pretends is Ranma. Right off the bat, her display of anger is so satisfyingly intense and brash which is a huge improvement to this side of her character compared to previous episodes. What’s truly special about this scene though, is the way it slows to a silence as she takes a moment to reflect on her relationship with Ranma. She realizes that she shouldn’t care if Ranma takes an interest in Shampoo since they don’t like each other and are only forced into an engagement by their fathers. That is until she remembers the aggressive vow Ranma made to Sanzenin that he would kill him if he ever touched her again. While I didn’t notice this on the first watch, her hesitant choice to go back and fix up the dummy perfectly represents her decision to give Ranma the benefit of the doubt after believing his true feelings for her despite the situation. In general, it also foreshadows the more overall feelings she’s going to have towards Ranma throughout the series. While she may get mad at Ranma every time a girl chases after him, she also knows him truthfully enough to know that she’s the one he really loves deep down – and so she will always find a way to forgive and come back to him. Such introspection also helps to build upon the complexity of her character.
Not long after, she gets a moment that gives validity to her warmer contemplations when she watches Ranma avoid Shampoo while pointing out how ridiculous her Chinese laws are. She comes so close to forgiving him after finding out that Ranma is a victim of such laws until she sees Ranma become more flustered than she’d like when Shampoo calls him her husband and that she loves him. Considering his apparent temptations, we understand Akane when we see the cartoonish sight of her pulling away at dummy Ranma’s straw insides. This is then quickly interrupted by Panda Genma sending Ranma flying into oblivion while screaming with one hit of his wooden translation sign. The speed at which the first moment cuts to the other contributes to the show’s funny random energy.
Things slow down in the next scene where Ranma lies on the roof while looking up at the night sky, the same way Akane did previously. The artistry of the sky is so beautifully detailed here, you can even see the small lights flashing from the airplane slowly soaring through. As he contemplates, we’re made to think that Ranma might actually have feelings for Shampoo for a moment. However, whether he knows it or not, this is proven wrong with his desire for Akane to be more upfront with her feelings for him in the same way she is. Mirroring this scene with Akane’s earlier moment of introspection reveals a significant mutual awareness of their own feelings towards each other even if they’re far from addressing it further – marking an overall progression in their relationship compared to when they first met. Such atmospheric shots and moments of deep thought are executed quite well in this episode. It almost seems reminiscent of the old anime’s slower style where we got more moments of silence reserved for getting to know the characters’ thoughts.
What makes this scene even better is the way it’s balanced out with Ryoga’s comedic relief where he splashes cold water on Ranma, turning him into a female again. He then proceeds to argue with him, expressing his jealousy over the fact that he was able to get such a strong reaction out of Akane with his situation. It’s a funny moment when they end up throwing the empty bucket back and forth at each other until Ryoga decides to deliver a few strikes at Ranma himself. It was even more fun to see Ranma’s playful side when he avoids all of Ryoga’s attacks with an eventual ease.
By the time they make their way down to the backyard in their transformed states, they have a brief encounter with Akane that’s both intense and calm in the best way. That is, given what she saw between Ranma and Shampoo earlier, Akane happily denies his accusations of her jealousy by reiterating their called off engagement. She then immediately shuts down his attempt to argue by shooting him a dramatic death glare before yelling at him while slapping his face. As her happy smile quickly comes back upon taking P-Chan back to her room, we are left as dumbfounded as Ranma at the strong switches in her personality she is able to exhibit. This reaction is something they carried over and revamped from the original so well given how riveting it was to watch – even for a short while. The intensity of the moment only continues when Shampoo comes back attacking Ranma with ferocity seeing him in his female form. From her red eyes glowing through the ashes of her damage to female Ranma’s desperate screaming, this moment took every opportunity to amplify the emotions arising out of such a beautifully animated fight scene by delivering on voice acting that executes the necessary chaos so well.
By morning, the use of demonic voices makes a return with Akane when she refuses her father’s request to respond to Ranma and Shampoo’s situation with more maturity. While it makes sense to seemingly make this feature a staple in the remake, specifically for moments like this to heighten the characters’ intensity, I personally found that it doesn’t really match well for characters like Akane. What did work, however, was Ranma and Akane’s bickering over the Shampoo situation on their way to school. Ranma’s immature mockery and Akane’s frustrated attempts to keep hitting him as he walks ahead of her both deliver the same childish fighting they would always engage in during the original which was so nice to see.
What follows is the sight of Ryoga watching over them from a nearby rooftop, saddened at Akane’s obvious feelings towards Ranma seeing how much she cares about Shampoo. Something new that also worked for this remake was seeing the cute devil and angel on Ryoga’s shoulders arguing over how to win Akane’s heart while removing Ranma from the picture. Combined with his vision of Akane choosing Ranma over him in a vintage film, it’s so clear here that the creators take every chance to express something important in more creative ways. He decides to leave to embark on his supposed next journey, but then quickly turns into a pig by an old lady cleaning the streets with cold water. This is when we get to see a cuter side of Shampoo as she bends down and beckons the pig to come to her in a soft voice. This is the first time we ever see Shampoo act somewhat normal and likable all on her own in the remake thus far, which felt genuinely nice to watch given all that’s happened previously.
Things sure do change once we cut to Ranma and Akane’s lunch period at Furinkan High. After Shampoo breaks through the wall right behind Ranma, she presents him with a bento box surrounded by steam that eventually clears to reveal a cooked P-Chan at the center. We are encouraged to become as shocked as Akane at the sight of this, until Ranma repeatedly slaps him in a panic until he’s awake. With this, P-Chan bites his finger which of course angers Ranma but relieves Akane as she takes her pet into her arms. This moment not only gave us yet another delightful display of Akane’s softer emotions but, given that he didn’t resort to yelling, also showcased that Ranma cares more about what’s important to Akane than petty rivalries that he’s so often enticed to engage in.
Shockingly, we then see Shampoo give Akane the kiss of death for ruining the meal she made for Ranma. As we’re meant to get ready for a dramatic stand-off, it’s sweet to see Ranma concerned for Akane by trying to find a way to avoid the situation. However, it’s even more hilarious to see her punch Ranma right out of the classroom twice as well as get hit by a ball. It’s such perfectly timed slapstick humor that takes him out of the central picture and reserves the moment for Akane and Shampoo.
We get the two girls’ official stand-off as they get ready to battle it out in the school’s courtyard amidst gloomy and windy conditions – letting us know that this will be quite the serious fight. While Akane’s desire for revenge has helped her become quite confident, we suddenly cut to black on a shot of Ranma’s point of view as he wakes up from all the hits he took from earlier. From here onwards, he is severely focused on nothing but finding Akane in fear of her death at the hands of Shampoo – establishing rather high stakes for the first season. In a dramatic sequence, he is off running as fast as he can all over the school with a frantic aggression and asking anybody where they saw her last. After a while, he then grows so desperately worried about her – which is emphasized by his voice and the intercutting slow motion shots of Shampoo taking Akane out quite hard. Even after bursting through the supply closet and tripping on a bike, he doesn’t even take a moment to acknowledge the fall and instead calls out her name in a blood-curdling scream in hopes of finding her. Here, P-Chan’s distant squeal becomes the most sacred clue that finally brings him to the courtyard where he finds an unconscious Akane. As he struggles to wake her up with such worry, he screams out her name again thinking that she is indeed dead.
However, she eventually wakes up – with the appearance of the sun shining through the clouds nonetheless. While Ranma stares tearfully at her in such awe and relief, he eventually catches himself and goes back to scolding her for going through with the fight. However, when he’s met with silence, he gives her yet another dumbfounded stare that allows his worry to resurface. Soon we find the validity in this reaction as we come to find out that Shampoo had just knocked Akane out so hard that she lost her memory. Aside from this sudden ending, everything from the moment Ranma wakes up defines his character with such a captivating progression when it comes to how he feels for Akane. Above any other act he tries to put on to avoid admitting it or his general inability to address it, this entire sequence is the greatest showcase of his immense love and care for Akane in the whole remake so far. Not only are we left rooting for them to reunite all throughout, but watching such a strong reaction come out of him leaves us excited to see how else he might express these feelings in other dire situations in the remake’s future. Altogether, everything that happened here served as an amazing ending that’s so fitting for leading us into the final episode of the remake’s first season.
Conclusion:
These two episodes give us such a satisfying mixture of new and old elements in the midst of further developing the characters and introducing new dynamics with the introduction of Shampoo. While I wish we got to see more instances where this happens, it is clear that the creators recognize the value of certain attributes from the original anime given how they’re brought back to enhance some of the scenes in this remake. On the other hand, while some fall a bit flat, there are also some new elements that work to add different layers of comedy into the episodes as well. What’s most notable is the character work as Ranma and Akane’s feelings for each other are further solidified with such interesting contemplations and displays of affection – despite the central conflict that came with Shampoo. In fact, this remake keeps us on our toes by successfully revamping such a new situation in a way that balances out Ranma and Akane’s respective rivalries with those who get in their way. With impressive fight scenes as well as jokes that show what the characters are made of, the story goes on to expand alongside all the characters’ journeys in such amusing ways. Just within these first season episodes, we are seeing signs of quality execution of Ranma 1/2 ‘s most meaningful moments, which is a huge strength in the midst of the remake’s flaws. Overall, I very much enjoyed watching episodes 10 and 11 of the Ranma ½ remake. Given the changes made to how they’re telling the entire story due to fewer episodes, I remain at the edge of my seat to see what note they decide to leave off on for the final episode.
