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

Plot synopsis:
On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China, Ranma Saotome and his father Genma fall into the cursed springs at Jusenkyo (呪泉郷). When someone falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact with cold water. The curse will revert when exposed to hot water until their next cold water exposure. Genma falls into the spring of a drowned panda while Ranma falls into the spring of a drowned girl.
Upon returning to Japan, the pair settle in Nerima, Tokyo at the dojo of Genma's old friend Soun Tendo, a fellow practitioner of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū (無差別格闘流) or "Anything-Goes School" of martial arts which Genma passed on to Ranma. Genma and Soun agreed years ago that their children would marry and carry on the Tendo Dojo. Soun has three teenaged daughters: the polite and easygoing Kasumi, the greedy and indifferent Nabiki and the short-tempered, martial arts practicing Akane. Akane, who is Ranma's age, is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters with the reasoning that Akane dislikes men and since Ranma is only a man half of the time, they are perfect together. Both Ranma and Akane refuse the engagement initially, having not been consulted on the decision, but they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or saving each other on some occasions. They are frequently found in each other's company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that is a franchise focus.
Ranma goes to school with Akane at Furinkan High School (風林館高校, Fūrinkan Kōkō), where he meets his recurring opponent Tatewaki Kuno, the conceited kendo team captain who aggressively pursues Akane, but also falls in love with Ranma's female form without ever discovering his curse (despite most other characters knowing it). Nerima serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of Ranma's regular rivals, such as the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki who traveled halfway across Japan getting from the front of his house to the back, where Ranma spent three days waiting for him. Ryoga, seeking revenge on Ranma, followed him to Jusenkyo where he ultimately falls into the Spring of Drown Piglet. Now when splashed with cold water he takes the form of a little black pig. Not knowing this, Akane takes the piglet as a pet and names it P-chan, but Ranma knows and hates him for keeping this secret and taking advantage of the situation. Another rival is the nearsighted Mousse, who also falls into a cursed spring and becomes a duck when he gets wet, and finally, there is Ranma's impish grandmaster, Happosai, who spends his time stealing the underwear of schoolgirls.
Ranma's prospective paramours include the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion Kodachi Kuno, and his second fiancée and childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji the okonomiyaki vendor, along with the Chinese Amazon Shampoo, supported by her great-grandmother Cologne. As the series progresses, the school becomes more eccentric with the return of the demented, Hawaii-obsessed Principal Kuno and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult Hinako Ninomiya as Ranma's English teacher. Ranma's indecision to choose his true love causes chaos in his romantic and school life.

Tags: violence

Review:
Its Ranma 1/2...
in specialized Movie format!.
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.
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....
Below average Takahashi adaption.
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..
absolutely hilarious!.
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..
What's the point?.
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.
Here's my little movie summary.
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 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].
This movie does the "Ranma 1/2" name proudly.
The following may contain some spoilers...be advised.I have recently completed watching every season of the Ranma 1/2 anime, including the movies, OAV's and all of the Manga.I enjoyed this movie to a point.
One aspect I found as a let down, there really isn't any real comedy in this one.
While there are points at comedy, Suon & Genma provide some, and the "chase scene" (Our group trying to chase Kirin's Blimp with a small dingy, as an example).
I won't give way the main plot, which is a sort of a comic device of why Happôsai did what he did.
Yet in all it seems the movie tries to take a serious look..with a serious plot, something that was rarely done in the series.
Which is probably why most "Ranma 1/2" fans don't like it all that much.On it's own, the story holds up.
If you have not seen any of the anime after Season 3, you may just enjoy this one.
If you have seen Seasons 4-7, you will find a lot of what this movie is about is just part of a rehashed storyline that was over done in the anime.
One aspect that most "Ranma 1/2" fans have a problem with was the "Akane as the damsel-in-distress" story plots.
To many this was over done, and at one point, while Akane still has a fiery temper and can hold her own in a fight, she is shown in more ways to be less of a fighter...or needs help...or simply waits for Ranma to show up.
Something she blatantly states to Kirin almost word for word after she is kidnapped and told she will be his bride.However, we do see Ranma starting to come out of his shell about his feelings for Akane.
Backed up by Kirin's last words to Ranma before he leaves.It's not the best of the series.
But it can hold it's own.The opening sequence is a nice touch, featuring all, or nearly all, of the reoccurring characters from the series.
Another nice touch was the background cell paintings.
If you watch the series, then this movie...you can immediately see a difference in the background.
It is much more detailed, especially the Tendo home, and along the streets as Female Ranma chases Happôsai.
It gives the area in which the characters live much more depth and a nice rich color..
Severely Underpar.
Who can forget that opening scene...
I know I can't, Ten whole minutes of nothing happening, and in an inexplicable moment, the aura of an elephant fills joins the chase and beats everyone up.
Unfortunately we don't get to see her actually preform this type of manuver again, and on a whole, she does nothing else; besides settle 1 fight by flirting.Then on, there are more overly drawn out scenes and futile attempts at humor.
For instance, Akane serves her 'home cooking' to the prince, who has only eaten pickles and rice since birth because of a condition that only allows his metabolism to handle pickels and rice.
(Naturally, the pickels end up getting dumped out).
The thing is, this scene is only 'referenced' to, but has no part of the overall story, and end run, really isn't that funny.In the end, Ranma only faces two (I believe) of the seven opponents...
the rest beat him up and are distracted or knocked out by the others.
Heck, I thought Ranma was this egotistical fool who wouldn't accept defeat...
sure looked like he was defeated a lot.Heck, the 'final' boss was easier on Ranma then the other seven, having an impenitrable "chopstick" defense, Ranma brings forth a gyser and broke through by hurtling globlets of water at him.