Ranma 1/2 - Film 1: La grande bataille de Chine

A slight, forgettable episode script turned full movie is ruined by akane being just the worst love interest in anime history.

This movie tonally jerks back and forth from trying to have some kind of low level of stakes in terms of fighting and romance to bad jokes and Akane being insufferable, as she was in the bulk of the Ranma tv show after the first season or so.

There's fanservice in so far as all of the main cast shows up to say hi, but there's barely any plot to speak of and nobody really does much of anything. Akane get's kidnapped, the gang follows, and then it's quickly resolved in an unclever way very quickly.

The new characters are undeveloped even compared to the main cast of unchanging, status quo ridden poor fools, and they all are set up to be very strong but get handwoven away in 2 seconds at the end unsatisfyingly.

This movie came out closer to the end of Ranma's run, and it really feels zombified like latter seasons of The Simpsons and all the other modern shows that have all the life sucked out of them over the years, solely kept alive to make money.

The writers at this point must have been desperate, horrified even of being without work. I can't speak to how good or bad the economy was at the time, but it's pathetic. The only good thing about this movie is the animation looks nice, the one sole thing about the ranma series that didn't horribly degenerate over time.

This movie is worse and very silly with this Bad comedy, the characters are very silly, the action is totally useless, they don't know How feel good, they are totally demons. I Hate You Ranma ½. DAMNED movie.

Have you noticed, how every first theatrical animation of a series has to a) have every character appear at least for a split second and b) present a story that would like to be overwhelming (but is actually very poor) and tries to adapt the complete content of the original comic character development as if there was no intent of making another one ? And then the creators loosen up in the making of the sequel which then turns out much better ? This is a perfect example. The seriousness and the somewhat heroic-like behaviour of the protagonists just don't allow the typical "Ha-ha-Ranma-no-baka" feeling, especially towards the end. Sure, there are some laughs, but hardly anything new for the devoted Ranma-lovers. You don't have to be a Ranma-Fanatic to enjoy this movie, but being one doesn't help either.

In a case of sheer irony, Ranma 1/2 (specifically this movie) often suffers the indignation where most of the insults and bad reviews come from the Ranma 1/2 fans themselves. Whatever. Of course it can't compete with Takahashi's brilliant manga, and the 1st TV season is the best Anime adaptation of the series. Just leave this movie alone - its great.

Now I have one question... WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY does everybody think "Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine" to be a better film? Sorry, but my money is on this, the first film. Sure, the plot is hackneyed; how many times exactly have we seen "guy saves girl" in animated films? But, heck, if Ranma was a serious psychological drama, that would be a problem. Too bad it isn't, and so long as it features Happosai getting whacked around, Kuno getting clobbered, and Genma's "sign language," I'm just peachy. As for other reasons its better than the second... Its a lot longer, it flows more like a feature film should, the pace is infinitely faster, there are more gags and they're a lot funnier, and fanservice is dead-zero. ZILCH. So go ahead and watch "Silicon Beach" with Ranma-chan bouncing every five seconds (ever wonder why female Ranma fans dislike it?).

Synopsis... oh, shoot, just consider it as more of like a bunch of fun and cool stuff that just happens. You'll be a lot better off than the fans who were expecting a visual tour-de-force that questions the existence of humanity, it seems...

I kinda like Ranma... but the whole thing drags out waaaaaaaaay to much. whenever they run out of material, hey, let's add another character in love with Ranma and have a old one beat him up, or hey, let's add another character in love with Akane and have him beat Ranma up! This movie isn't funny. The Ranma jokes are old, old, old. We've seen it all before. Akane kidnapped, Ranma duels with the guy who did it, and whoever wins gets Akane. Yawn. Some pretty cool fights near the end though. We actually get to see Ranma bleed!

But after seing this movie, I just kinda feel: "what was the point?" There was nothing in here that was even remotely new, so what about this story was considered special enough to make a movie out of?

/Auryn