Ranma 1/2 - Outta Control - The Complete Fourth Season Boxed Set
The fourth broadcast season of this popular transgender comedy feels less  inspired than the third (collected in theHard Battleset). Ranma's  duel with a feline specter in "My Fiancé, the Cat" plays like a retread of  "You ReallyDoHate Cats!" from the second season. In episode 17 Kasumi encounters a  childhood friend after many years, but the reunion doesn't  really go anywhere. Although series creator Rumiko Takahashi says the  three-part "Ranma Gets Weak" story line is a personal favorite, it's not much  fun. A trick of Happosai's deprives Ranma of his strength, so everyone  pounds him intomochi. Ranma is funny when he's undone despite his  strength, not when he's just a punching bag. Another problem is that Richard  Ian Cox, who's taken over the voice of boy-type Ranma, sounds less like a  petulant teenager than Sarah Strange did.But the better moments in this  collection are still great fun. In episodes 15 and 16, a Martial Arts  Calligraphy master leaves Ryoga with a pattern on his stomach that looks like  Betty Boop's face. This story reveals the grudging affection Ranma and Ryoga  share, despite their ongoing rivalry. (Only the perpetually lost Ryoga could  dramatically bid everyone farewell--then set off on a loop trail.) Happosai's  incurable fetish for girls' underwear severs the student-teacher bond in  episode 10 and blights the old lecher's nascent romance with a pretty  preschool teacher in episode 13. (Unrated; suitable for ages 12 and older: slapstick  violence, nudity, mildly risqué humor)--Charles Solomon