Ranma 1/2 TV Anime: Season 7 DVD Box Set
At the end of its seventh season, theRanma 1/2broadcast  series  concluded with its 161st episode. Although the filmmakers' imaginations were  clearly flagging at times, this final collection offers very funny and oddly  touching moments. The gentler side of the  characters emerges in "Run Away with Me,"  as an old man revisits his lost youth with girl-type Ranma. "Meet You in the  Milky Way" plays off the Asian sky myth of the Weaver Princess and the  Cowherd. Princess Ori and Kengyu the herder visit Earth as martial artists, although  the story may be a dream of Akane's. In "Mushroom Temple," Ranma and Akane inadvertently eat "love mushrooms"--and  decide to marry. The perpetually quarreling duo addressing each other as  "pretty baby" and "honey" may set a new standard for improbable humor, although  Kuno, Ryoga, and Mousse turn their love feast into a free-for-all. More typical are  the slapstick incidents: ghost cat Mao Mo Lin busts up a  seaside beauty pageant and falls for Tsubasa, not recognizing his true gender.  Nabiki and Sasuke sell scandalous photographs of "the pigtailed girl" to Kuno.  Ryoga discovers the "Lion Roar Blast" technique, which grows more powerful as  the practitioner grows more depressed, forcing him and Ranma to stage a misery  contest.  Rumiko Takahashi'sRanma 1/2ranks among the undisputed classics of  anime, and few animated series can match the chaotic hilarity of its more  inspired moments. (Rated 13 and older: brief nudity, risqué humor, slapstick  violence)--Charles Solomon