all right...let's do this, one of the most important manga ever for the American fandom and one of the anime that got popular on VHS were going to do my first big manga dive on the legendary Ranman 1/2.....I have the first opening stuck in my head....help...

Now to explain my anime fandom I'm a toonami kid for better or for worse and Ranma is sandwhich between that era of the early fandom and mine, it was also very big on the internet and I wonder what the hell is it.

It was also one of the first manga Viz released over here, now my first Viz anything was the pokemon released in a comic book format, and I saw the original printing of the manga's around.

Now some kid in my high school requested EVERY volume at my library. And being the man of action that I am I took to reading it. Some people over here went to the manga first or anime first and I was a manga first person.

Now as a kid this was not my first...harem series...Ranma technically isn't a harem but it did inspire later works in the genre. I would call it more a screwball love comedy then a Harem but by this point I already saw Tenchi Muyo...I still wonder how the fuck it aired.

Because I know there are now more people unfamilier with this series now I feel like a brief summary is needed, Ranam is the fiance to Akane and they like classic Rumiko characters bicker, but Ranma is a martial artist who is cursed with turning into a girl.

The main thrust of the story is Ranma and Akane's relationship which again this is a screwball comedy. Because of Ranma's curse causing a misunderstanding early in the story it's cause a friction which is smooved over time in the manga...because let's talk about the anime.

See the anime is an incomplete adaption. Which is shocking because most Rumiko Takahashi work at this point it mostly complete, I can't think of any series of her where they didn't finish out the manga at this point.

Plus if you though Naruto filler was bad well if you ever want to feel sad look at how much filler comprises the anime. The anime ended 3 years before the manga finished out and well it never finished the rest out, like Inuyasha did with Final Act.

So while the anime is fun and important I feel like you should read the manga first, one because Rumiko is a great manga creator and she can do killer panel work,her comedy is spot on. But I'm going to pay attention to one trait that I think makes Ranma special.

The entirety of the supporting cast. I think the reason Ranma sticks with people is it's amazingly big and quirky supporting cast, your bound to find one character who you like or find funny, or your happy to see get clowned on.

You have Ryoga who can't help but get lost, also can turn into a pig that Akane is completely unaware about and he uses it as an excuse to sleep in her bed.

Akane's sister Nabiki is greed incarnate and will destroy your life if it meant she got more money....that's it this comes up more then you would think.

Now I could go listing characters but I do want to talk about the most interesting and over analyzed aspect about this show, the transformations because oh boy this is the main mechanic for all the misunderstandings and everything. The cursed springs.

The cursed springs cause the person who dipped into them to transform into whatever creature or thing from that spring if your exposed to cold water and you return to normal with hit water. The plot when it shows up is used to add another layer of comedy and drama.

Ranma at it's heart is a comedy and while sometimes there is drama it's meant to be screwball and your not supposed to think of everything this entails. For one Rumiko herself wonder why fans ask if Ranma can get pregnant.

I have one or two trans friends who say this helped them figure themselves out a bit. Not going to lie there is an appeal there. But modern fans who come to it should not expect A DEEP look into these issues, it's meant to be fun first.

if you want Ranma to look into those issues....go to Fan fiction dot net, and look at all that fanficton that I'm sure at least 500 cover. This was also the reason Ranma was infamous was because of how for a long time it ubiquitous in fanfiction.

I would now Harry Potter has taken it's place but I'm not kidding that it was big in the fandoms. To the point that TVTROPES, listed a sub genre of Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2 crossover fic as a tropes page. Man it's weird.

Honestly when I was getting into "hardcore" anime it seemed like the series that kept coming up was Ranma, Bubblegun Crisis and Dirty Pair. Again this was ages ago on old internet. You can find musings here and there.

But let's talk about why you might want to read it and I will give my reasons. First it might be one of the first true martial comedies of manga. The nature of the fun battles that no one seems to talk about makes it stick with me.

At time I would say it's a Jackie Chan movie by way of Rumiko Takahashi, and that is fun. You have rivals, tournament arcs but there is always a screwball aspects that you will either groan or laugh...might be both. I mean look up this guys name.

Now let's get to the biggest criticism of the series, that sometimes it's kind of repetitive. and I will talk about that because it's very easy to have memory's kind of get jumbled.

See the anime had tons of filler leading to the anime being much more of a standard sitcom and when you become a sitcom you become one joke rather then a character. Akane and Ranma being the leads mean that they end up stalling compared to the manga.

Like not to say every character in the manga was a great well developed character but there is a difference in interpretation in the anime vs the manga. Different enough that it does stick out. Everyone is kind of more one note to not catch up to the manga.

For one they replaced Hikaru with Sasuke Sarugakure and this causes some issues in terms of stories. While they serve the same purpose they go about in different enough ways. Hikaru later shows up in anime anyway. It's kind of bonkers.

Ranma 1/2 heyday is now done and older fans hold nostalgia for it. It's kind of weird to think this series latched on over here. Because it never aired on tv or at least not on major networks, it was VHS or nothing, and man the manga went through some changes in style.

People were still trying to figure out the manga format and for the release over here it was FLIPPED. This was before Tokyopop started to release manga unaltered so it felt a bit more old school by comparison even when I started manga.

Now Viz is releasing a bunch of classic Rumiko manga and if you want to now if the chance because they are fixeding Ranma's manga and you can now read it unflipped. Any of her works are classics but this is the one American remember reading first I find. That or Inuyasha.

I love this manga and I hope people give it a chance. Who knows maybe you will write the next great Sailor Moon crossover that we all cringe at. Or I don't know have the cast go to Hogwarts. You do you.