Ranma 1/2 - Film 2: Rendez-nous nos copines!

To my taste, this film was better than the first (Big Trouble in Nekonlon, China). The jokes are funnier and more silly. The animation is pretty much the same. The story is rather lame and could have been told in about 2 or 3 comic-chapters. The plot girl-guy saves girl isn't really that much different from Movie No. 1. The women's breasts are bigger and the legs are longer, and since all takes place in an exotic beach-environment, the creators have the opportunity of pointing this out to the viewer fairly often. Better than the first, but still not that great. Oh, but I must admit, I thought the main theme was kinda cute.

I enjoyed "Nihao My Concubine", and thought it was both fun to watch and had some good non-obvious humor in it. Take the title - to "get it", you need to both be aware of the Chinese film "Farewell my Concubine", and know that nihao means "hello" in Chinese.

Although there was some (very minor, very brief) nudity, I didn't feel it was gratuitous or offensive. YMMV.

I will grant the plot is tenuous at best, but I don't approach any of the Ranma 1/2 anime with an expectation of deep plotting. They're just fun to watch. Lighten up.

Ahhhh, Ranma. For those of you not familiar with the Ranma situation, here's a quick explanation: It's the typical old boy meets girl, boy turns into girl, girl gets engaged to girl routine.

Anyway, Ranma is a fine martial arts comedy based around a boy, Ranma, who changes between male and female form because of a curse laid upon him while training in the mountains of China. This is the second Ranma movie (based on the TV series, which, in turn is based on the original manga).

The Ranma 1/2 series is top-notch hilarity from start to finish, every time. This movie, however brings a bad name to the name. Nihao My Concubine is full of gratuitous breast shots, lame non-humour and a severe lack of plot. The american dubbed version is (believe it or not) worse still, having ridiculous puns strewn about, thoroughly distracting and annoying to say the least, not to mention the acting standard. As for the actual animation, it's more or less regular Ranma standard - that is, high quality, but relatively simple artwork, that does the job well. If you must see this movie, make sure it's a fan subtitled edition, but better still, miss this movie altogether and pick up some of the original Manga ;)

I must disagree with Techno Panda. Though I haven't read the manga, I've seen much of the series (subbed and dubbed), and for me anyway, this movie was just the icing on the cake. Albeit there were many breast shots, but it's not like you don't see many of those in the series as it is. Every part of this movie was in keeping with the spirit of the series, especially the end, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone so I won't go into detail. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

I'm not an otaku, so take that as a preface. I'm more a casual fan who got exposed to Ranma years ago and I enjoy it. The romantic dodecohedrans (rather than triangles) and the slapstick humor is always good fun. And call me shallow but for an adult male skimpy bathing suits on the girls is no minus. I write for those who don't follow anime so closely and say this is a fun movie and worth a rental if not a purchase.