#despute some of the 'ew gross' or 'what the actual fuck' moments of the show

[apricotbuncakes]

Ranma 1/2 is an interesting show.

Clearly a product of it's time through very obvious homophobia and transphobia, but again is an interesting watch nonetheless. I need to make it known now though that I DO in fact love this show very much. Loving a show and being critical of it are not mutually exclusive. Some of y'all have piss poor reading comprehension so I'm stating it now. I LOVE Ranma 1/2, and I have criticisms of it.

The premise of Ranma 1/2 is that Ranma, his dad, and a handful of other people fell into cursed spring water in China where one is cursed to inhabit a body correlated with who or what died in the water previously. Ranma gets one of a young girl so whenever he is doused in cold water, his body transforms into that of the female sex, and only reverts back to its original male sex when he is doused in cold water.

(I'm going to note now that I'm using he/she/they pronouns for Ranma, based on how he identifies in a given moment, not necessarily what sex he has, as gender and sex are not the same, yada yada yada, you get the drill).

One episode is about Akane accidentally eating testosterone infused noodles and beating a girl named Shampoo who is out for (boy) Ranma's affection. Akane is now super strong because the noodles increased Akane's testosterone levels. And then as Akane is challenging (girl) Ranma in the same challenge to prove she is truly stronger than Ranma, she runs off because she's spontaneously grown small bits of facial hair and is embarrassed by it.

Like holy shit?? I WISH testosterone worked that fast!!! This is what you-know-whos think happens when trans people are in sports, which is so funny because this is a fantasy martial arts anime. So this is the mind of material we're working with here. ANYWAY!

A few episodes later Ranma hits his head and then wakes up truly feeling like a woman, and describes the VERY FEELINGS I FEEL ABOUT MY PAST SELF, how she feels that memories of her past self are someone else's memories and don't truly belong to her (she's just like me for real). There's a point in the episode where Ranma's father dumps water on her head to turn her body back to male, and the scene ends with her distraught and sliding down a door after hiding herself away, very clearly going through intense dysphoria and distress.

Akane later offers to take her shopping and Ranma goes to get changed into cute clothes only to realize that she still has dysphoria over her body, how she doesn't feel pretty wearing the cute clothes in her male body because she thinks they don't fit her right. I really hate how the music they played in the background is the same when a character is upset but the audience isn't supposed to take it seriously, the music played when a characters' emotions are meant for laughs, because Ranma is so clearly in distress and almost no one else is taking it seriously (except for Akane's older sister). And despite the small tidbits of encouragement and affirmation Akane gives Ranma, Akane still is at least a bit annoyed at how it's all playing out.

During the shopping trip, Akane even admits to being embarrassed by Ranma being excited about girls clothes because other people thought Ranma was being perverted (God forbid someone think a bra is pretty, and again I know it's a product of it's time but I'm still allowed to be annoyed by it). Instead of standing up for Ranma, Akane drags her away for them both to hide.

Ranma even struggles to use the men's restroom because she's uncomfortable with having to use a urinal, and Akane ends up dumping Ranma with cold water so she can use the women's. Then Akane buys Ranma a dress so she isn't in wet clothes. A rather expensive dress too. (Apparently it's okay for Ranma to like feminine things as long as she looks like a girl to everyone else...). Ranma loves it and wears it the rest of the outing.

The entire episode portrays Ranma in a very stereotypical "women do as men say, only like feminine things, doesn't like violence, cliché" sort of way, but that isn't inherently bad. Ranma even says that she wants to do a lot of these things because she genuinely enjoys them, and not just for bridal training. (Except in one scene where one of the side characters who is a perverted freak is trying to see Ranma in a bra and Ranma almost lets him because she doesn't want fighting, which is a weird thing even for Ranma to almost allow, but I digress). It is odd because Ranma is being portrayed during this time with different standards than Akane, the other main lead. Akane is frequently bullied by Ranma for being 'tomboyish' while the rest of the characters don't seem to have a problem with it. Even Ranma is presumably only picking on Akane in an effort to hide his romantic attraction to Akane, determined to not fall in love because their marriage was arranged.

By the end of the episode, Ranma has hit their head again and is again very firm in his identity as a guy (which is standard for the majority of the show).

Honestly, not on par with more modern representation, but it's still a fun watch and I'm slowly going to drag my friends into binging it with me. I started crying after seeing that episode because jesus fucking christ they hit the nail on the head and still seemed to miss the point.

Like, I'm not sure if the original author of Ranma 1/2 intended for this episode to be portrayed this way, if it was an effort to comply with social expectations at the time, or if they genuinely thought it was funny for Ranma to identify as a girl despite everyone 'knowing' she's 'really a boy' but it kinda hurt. This show is a really nice exploration of gender and sexuality, but it still feels restricted, playing a trans coded character for laughs or for being seen as annoying and perverted because the character is acting different than they did before. I love this show so much, and damn it I'm going to write so much fanfiction about this episode but gaaaaahhhh. I think I'm frustrated at what this episode could have been.

This isn't the only episode that irks me like this, but it is the biggest one so far. I wish we could have a more modern adaptation of this anime. I'm not sure every Ranma 1/2 fan would enjoy it, but I would love to see this anime portrayed with a more modern lense, where Ranma isn't made fun of by Akane and others for expressing part of their identity, something that affects his everyday. Where a lesbian isn't attempted to be pulled back to the 'straight and narrow', or said lesbian who is actually a cis straight man crossdressing isn't seen as perverted for enjoying different clothing (yes that is an episode).

Again, I love this show and greatly appreciated how many eggs have cracked thanks to it. Watching it with a modern lens makes it questionable and I really wish people in the past had been better in general about these things, but I love it for what it is.