Ranma ½: Chûgoku Nekonron daikessen! Okite yaburi no gekitô hen

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...

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.

i recently saw this and it was so funny! the story was your typical save akane routine, but in the beginning, it shows all of the characters in the past chase after ranma and haposai. a great opening. the animation is very traditional, the characters are funny as hell, especially panda, and ranma soups up his incredible fighting moves. see this one for hilarious laughs and good times.

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

I figure since no one's written on this yet, let me be the first. And this is from a fan, not a film critic, so hey. Well, it's Ranma, and for those of you who love Ranma, you must think this movie's like the toast of the town [or whatever phrases y'all use]. But, looking at it objectively, it's a horrid story. I am of the unfortunate few who don't understand Japanese and have to wait for english dubbed releases of movies, but when you get right down to it, this movie wasn't a great piece of writing. The beginning opens with I think just about every Ranma TV-show character ever made, but then they all vanish so you can get to the real story, which is your standard, "Girl gets kidnapped, it's up to Guy/Girl to rescue her!" It contains a few choice moments (prince Kirin eating meat!) but other than that, it's a pretty lame movie.

But to fans it's great!

I voted it a 4 because the second Ranma movie is better by leaps. [Not bounds, just leaps]