Rivals to Lovers - Ranma 1/2

 

On October 6^th 2024, Netflix brought Ranma ½ back into the light of the anime world, though I don’t think it ever really left. Ranma ½ seems up there as a timeless classic like Inuyasha. Unlick Inuyasha though I’ve never seen more than clips of the original Ranma anime. I did try to watch it at some point and loved the soft early '90s, but something about the plot didn’t jive with a younger me. Watching this remake, however, had me yelling at my computer screen in a good way. I had fun with the Netflix adaptation of Ranma ½ and I think you will too.

Ranma ½ is a staple of the anime community, at least it was when I was younger. There was fan art and clips all over the internet, and even if you never saw the show, you knew something about it. Ranma is the main male lead with the worst kept secret, when hit with cold water he turns into a girl. This creates one of the main gags for any character who changes when they’re hit by cold water, keeping their other identity a secret from someone. Ranma has to keep his female identity secret from basically everyone, and the love rival Ryoga has to hide his identity from Akane. Ryoga turns into a pig who Akane thinks is her pet. I am shocked by how long they’ve gone without that one slipping out.

The setup to this rom-com is an arranged marriage between teens Ranma Satome and Akane Tendo. The happy couple-to-be isn’t exactly happy about the arrangement and declines the future suddenly thrust upon them. They start spending most of their time together, but they can’t stand each other yelling and fighting about anything, the family thinks it’s blossoming young love. With the way the story slowly goes, they’re not wrong. Between each fight, there are small moments where you see the two start to develop feelings for each other. Ranma cruelly says Akane isn’t attractive often, but one time when he says it can you can see it causes his heart to ache as much as it does Akane’s. When Akane is truly mad at him, blaming him for an impromptu haircut Ranma tries to play it off, but he knows he messed up big time. He tries to get back in her good graces instead of flat-out not caring.

With romance of course comes love rivals, because Ranma and Akane are both martial artists we get an interesting twist on our rivals. They’re all professionals in a specialty of martial arts, each love quarrel is actually a fight. Usually, the rival wagers the hand of either Akane or Ranma as the prize. This fires the non-couple up and both are extremely jealous people. These constant fights do bring Akane and Ranma closer together. I think it’s also the reason why this anime has stayed as popular as it has. It’s got a little bit of everything for everyone. I’ve been watching it with my boyfriend who isn’t a fan of romcoms, but the fights keep it engaging. There were a few nail-biting fights where I thought they were going to lose. Technically Akane does lose one and it’s a devastating blow.

When the fists aren’t flying and there’s no ice skating to the death, there are some moments that tugged at my heart in positive and negative ways. There’s thankfully more positive, like Ranma protecting Akane when she could have seriously gotten hurt during a fight. He basically breaks every bone in his body for her, and I think that’s kind of romantic. More importantly, there is a lot of growth with Akane. She tends to be seen as hot-headed, but she keeps a lot of her more meaningful feelings bottled away to wade through on her own. Akane is sensitive and actually has a crush before Ranma, one that will never be reciprocated. She doesn’t tell anyone about the crush and it’s hard to watch her break her own heart so she can get over the crush and be happy. Akane powers through her disappointment and heartbreak alone. It’s such a metaphorical episode for change, while Akane is moving past this crush she also gets her hair accidentally cut. A haircut can be seen as getting rid of old memories and starting new. I thought it was a great look into a different side of Akane and honestly, I want more like that. There were a few times I saw a different side of Ranma that I was not a fan of. I understand that Ranma is a dumb teen boy and just trying to seem tough and girls are icky, but he is always going after Akane’s looks. He calls her ugly multiple times, and I think it does chip away at her self-esteem whether she’s noticing it or not. I think he could maybe be little nice to her sometimes, and not just in life-or-death situations. I’ll give him some credit, he does attempt to compliment Akane after her hair is unceremoniously chopped off and it’s cute, but in the ice-skating episode, Ranma was harsh with his words. Ranma also gets a demotion for saying it was a waste to let Shampoo go-a love rival. I don’t think Akane would be a fan of it either if she heard, she seems like the jealous type, and I support it.

Season one of Ranma ½ has officially come to a close on Netflix, and it’s left me wanting more. I’ve seen people talk about how the original manga and anime explored shaking up gender norms more. I feel like Netflix’s version has its moments of that.  There are moments where Akane fights to be Ranma’s equal, and Ranma experiences what it’s like to be seen as an object when he’s a woman. A lot happened in that ice-skating episode. A lot happens in the episode with Shampoo too. For Shampoo being beaten by a woman who is an outsider to her people is seen as a disgrace and Shampoo has to kill Ranma to get her dignity back. If an outsider who is a man beats Shampoo it is her custom to marry them. It’s an old way of thinking for sure.

If you give this anime a watch, for nostalgic reasons, to compare the two shows, or like me you just wanted to check out a piece of anime history I need to know one thing. Would you choose a love rival for Ranma or Akane over the canon outcome? Lowkey between us, I’m kind of more of a fan of Ryoga for Akane after the Shampoo episode.