RANMA 1/2
From AbsoluteAnime
Ranma 1/2 is about a young man named Ranma Saotome, of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. His father, Genma Saotome takes Ranma on a training mission to China. There, Ranma and his father fall into the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo. Each spring has it's own individual curse, depending on what drowned in it many years ago. When splashed with cold water, Genma becomes a rather large panda, Ranma however, turns into a rather buxom red-haired girl. When splashed with hot water, they return to their original form.
To complicate matters, Genma has promised his old friend, Soun Tendo,to marry his son Ranma off to one of Tendo's three daughters. Kasumi age 19, Nabiki, age 17, and Akane ,age 16. When Ranma and Genma arrive in cursed form, nobody knows WHAT to think. To make things worse, Akane ,a tom-boyish young girl, gets defeated in practice by Ranma-chan (female form), then stumbles onto Ranma's secret when she encounters Ranma-kun (male form) in the shower, both of them naked.
After sorting things out, Kasumi and Nabiki decide Akane should be Ranma's fiance, because "Akane hates boys, and since Ranma is half-girl...". Akane and Ranma get in a fight immediately, which ends up with Ranma calling Akane "un-cute", and Akane smashing Ranma over the head with a table. A beautiful start to a beautiful relationship.
Ranma 1/2 is a romantic comedy, and things only get worse for Ranma as fiances and people continually pop up to fight Ranma. Will Ranma ever get rid of his horrible curse?
Ranma 1/2 lasted 7 seasons on Japanese television, and then spawned 11 OAV episodes and 3 movies. The first two movies (Big Trouble in Nekonron, China and Nihao, My Concubine) were feature length films, while the third movie was only a half-hour in length.
Note From Little Mouse:
The character I like to write about is Mousse.
He's blindly (literally) following his one true love, Shampoo, who hates him. She's from the Chinese Amazon O_o culture, where women are more important than the men. She's one of the many - many, many, many! - girls who declares herself Ranma's fiancee.
Mousse has terrible eyesight; even with his thick, bottle-lens glasses, he mistakes statues, telephone poles, and bystanders for other characters.
Mousse fell into one of the cursed pools, too; his alternate form is a very small, white duck. (How a duck managed to drown, I do not know)
Mousse is beautiful; has long black hair and is a Hidden Weapons expert. He can and does hide ridiculously huge objects in his sleeves. I love how determined he is and I hate how Shampoo treats him. She's abusive, both physically and verbally, and her and her grandmother, Cologne, treat him like slave labor in their resturant, the Nekohaten.
Quick note about names - Shampoo is really Shan Pu, and Mousse is Msu Tsu. It's just a gag. Everyone from their part of China has a name like that. Panyhose Taro, Eyeliner, Lipstick...
As time went by, the characters of Mousse and Ranma still fought, but it gradually became more fun instead of angry. Ryoga, one of Ranma's other enemies, who adored Akane, also become more friend than enemy.
I've paired Mousse with Ranma, so far. Future stories will have him with Ryoga, Taro, and maybe Kuno. |
