Needless to say this adds immensely to the weirdness. But it's still not enough, and it needs something to keep the story going outside of the domestics. Trying to graph the relationships in Ranma has brought many to tears. There's a huge cast, they're all talented and they're all knee deep in the delightful complexity that is the Ranma series. There's been martial arts tea ceremony, take away delivery, figure skating and french dining.
Nothing is too serious to be turned into a silly but entertaining martial arts.
Indeed even the personal conflicts are more like a slightly deadly game between this insanely talented assembly. The whole ambience is light and entertaining with a rich vein of humor and occasional delightful character moments. And Takahashi knows how to do this well. The popularity of this series, and its characters, being absolutely no suprise. And this is also the problem.