#If they're faithfull to the manga

[the-sprog]

Ranma 1/2 episode 1 review (?)

The first episode of the Ranma 1/2 reboot came out and BRUH they gave him magical eyeshadow that shows up when he turns into a girl. I thought the pink instead of red hair would be the (overall) insignificant change that would piss me off the most but the "putting eyeshadow on him because he's a GGGGIIIIIIRRRRLLLL now" kinda worse. At least the pink hair paralleled Akane's blue.

I've been made aware it was probably supposed to be an omage of the illustrations that the magaka did of Ranma in girl mode, but to me it's different when it's a one off static illustration where the assumption is that he dolled up, and the eyeshadow magically appearing when he turns girl mode. And if you don't know about the old Ranma stuff, the vibe it gives you is just those cartoon animals sexual dimorphism. And the fact the eyeshadow is pink is an aggravation. It could've been purple, like some of the illustrations. But no. Doubling down on the pink.

I do appreciate that they didn't try to set it in 2024.

NOW here's some differences I noticed while going through the old and new anime ep 1. (I don't have the manga, but it seems like the new version is a more faithfull, with less (but not void of) gratuitous nude scenes, of the manga.

The old one starts with Ranma and his dad fighting and the fight is a lot less grandiose. It ends a lot quicker and the slapstick is less cartoony.

Akane is at the dojo demolishing some cinder blocks (karate chop not even punching like the new one) from the get go instead of out running.

The general dialogue seems to be the same, but I can't tell since I'm watching online fansubs and the netflix new one has closed captions for the dubs instead of translated subs for the japanese, which is bound to have some differences.

Nabiki is dressed in traditional clothing in the scene where dad explains who Ranma is. It's cute but ultimately not really part of her characterization, so it's not a big deal that they changed it. I'm not even sure why she's dressed like that in the old one.

I do like that they've made Ranma a little more cutesy and bashful in the new one with the expressions and the camera angles. It parallels Akane being a tomboy. It wasn't something necessary, and it would've been fine if they hadn't do it, but I welcome this change. It's not that big, but there's some.

They took away some of the pervy scenes. Or lessened them. Like, instead of outright groping him they just point or poke.

As I said, the fights seem to be more shonen-like in the new one. They're faster with cooler sound effects and camera angles and movements. Good change tbh. I'd have to check again but I think they made the clothes less wrinkly. I think they looked a lot... stiffer and smoother in the new one. I'm noticing because in the old one it's obvious girl!Ranma's clothes look a little too big on him, but in the new one it didn't give me that impression.

They seem to have cut out some fluff. Instead of showing Nasumi showing Ranma around they just have it implied with later dialogue. here we have directly a scene of the older sister going "this is your room, you can go take a bath". They condenced it but it's fine because we aren't really losing anything of value. There was no funny joke sacrificed, no information or character development.

They did keep some of the gratuitous nudity of no nipples Ranma, which I think we could've gone without.

In the old one, for the bathub scene Akane knew that Ranma was in there because she saw the clothes, but in the new one she didn't know and didn't, rightfully so, just assume that this random girl she just met would be ok with bathing together. Improvement!

All new voices are a little more shrill.

Akane is also less curvy. I remember she got called flat and all that a lot in the old one but looking at it... she's really not. In the new it makes a little more sense. Again, I really like that Ranma is a little more bashful and cutesy, even in boy mode.

The animation of Ranma getting thrown in the pond is funnier in the new one, even if it's more dynamic in the old one.

They really hammered down the "it's so shameful to have a son like this" in the old one oof.

They shortened the time line it seems. In the old one they were like that for a few months, the new like 2 weeks (as far as the italian dialogue is concerned at least). They also cut the joke about them swimming to China and went directly to talking about the cursed ponds.

The scenes seem longer in the new, but more fast paced. There's more slapstick and the fighting lasts longer, but the pauses between dialogues and the silent scenes are less or shorter. They condensed the exposition a lot. There's some unnecessary details in the old (like the EXACT location of the ponds and it's told once in narration and once by the chinese tour guide), and they say that the ponds are explicitly a training ground while in the new they're the weirdos for doing training in a cursed place (although they had that guide book that told them it was such, the tour guide was like "??? what the fuck are you two doing???").

Also the Chinese tour guide speaks... yeah. they didn't seem to do it in the new one, but I don't speak Japanese so I can't tell if it's a sub translation decision or not. In the old they at least listen to a bit of what the guy says instead of rushing to do their thing. Which makes admittedly less sense. It makes more sense that they just ignore him since it's established later that they don't speak chinese and that they didn't know about what the ponds really were. Also again this fight scene lasts very little. Genma falls in the panda pond immediately.

There's more toxic masculinity in the old one. Which I'm torn about. On one hand, it was one of the themes of the OG, on the other, it seems to have been an addition to the anime that wasn't there as much in the manga, and that they didn't really learn anything from in the OG. So, I'm hoping it's not a "Avatar live action series but we took away Sokka's sexism to be progressive" and more toning it down to be more accurate for the manga. I hope they'll do something with it though.

The actual exposition of Genma not knowing chinese is better done in the new! it was very much show not tell, while in the old anime we're getting a bunch of monologues by Ranma to explain why it's all Genma's fault. improvement!

I like some of the dialogue in the new one more, but that might be because of quality of translation.

More exposition of Nasumi having to tell us that Akane is sweet but violent, which in the new was done more show not tell with Ranma's flashback to "let's be friends" and him thinking about her hitting him (which still happens in the old! For some reason they thought we needed it explained twice).

Akane's flashback was more mocking in the new version. They also added nipples in the second bathtub scene. To both Ranma and Akane. Why. Doesn't happen in the new anime! Thank you!!!!

I do like that we see Akane's slap connect to Ranma's face in the old, and I prefer the less exaggerated redness on his cheek of his old one. They really upped the cartoony anticks in the new one ahhahaha.

While rewatching the old anime I got so much nostalgia for the old opening. I don't really like the new song. The visuals are AMAZING, but the song is a little more... chill? The og was HYPE, and had a lot of word play with Ranma's name.

You can see it in the op too how much more bashful and girly they made Ranma in his mannerisms. He gets blushy a lot and he poses more bashful-like. Though he still stays mostly confident, he has some moments and it is paralled to Akane being more tomboy-ish in some scenes in the op. I'm ok with this.



[drabblesfromthegraniteinn]

Alita second movie when? And it better be good