Ranma 1/2: Throwback Thursday Review

Ah the glory days.  The afternoons and evenings gone by, growing up on anime of yore.  Ranma 1/2 is by far one of my favorite animes of all time.  I am a huge fan of rom coms anyways.  I mean love, laughter, you just can't go wrong that combination.  So here is a very biased review of Ranma 1/2.

We open on a young girl fighting a panda in the streets of Japan.  The girl is arguing with the panda during the spar as if the two are very close.  Ultimately the panda defeats the girl and hauls her off to an unknown location. Then we are introduced to the Tendo household.  A father with three daughters, Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane. He announces his good friend Genma Saotome is bringing his son Ranma, to whom one of the girls will be betrothed.  Then our panda and girl show up.  The girl introduces herself as Ranma Saotome.  These are words of relief to the daughters, as now none of them would have to be in an arranged marriage because of course they can't marry a girl.  During the evening bath, Ranma goes in on her own.  The next scene shows a male, obviously Ranma, still in the tub.  Akane announces she is going to enter the bathroom, and the now male Ranma is caught with Akane walking in on him. Hilarity ensues and poor Ranma now has a lot of explaining to do. 

Ranma and his father Genma, now reverted to human from panda, explain that they have been studying martial arts in China.  They happened upon Jusenkyo, the training ground of cursed springs, where every spring has a tragic story to it.  During their training they fell into the spings.  Ranma into the spring of drowned girl and his father that of drowned panda.  And now when splashed with cold water they are cursed to transform into their springs' matching namesake. When in hot water they revert to their original selves. 

If this doesn't seem funny enough, Akane, the youngest daughter, is a skilled martial artist with little interest in boys. It's immediately decided against her and Ranma's wishes that THEY should be the ones to be married. After all, Akane doesn't like boys, and Ranma is half girl.  This starts a very hot/cold relationship between the two.

The series progresses in a very episodic fashion.  Ranma accumulates more fiances, never intentionally, and always accidentally.    Ranma and Akane of course can't help but have a budding romance as they are forced into ridiculous encounters and situations. And so the series progresses for a gazillion manga and anime episodes. The two are so similar - the anime and manga, that you could take your pick and enjoy either. 

Rumiko Takahashi is known for her characters, no matter how shallow or complex, giving them interesting angles and outlets.  She practically invented the tsundere and few are more subtly complex then Ranma. 

In fact, it's here where I'm going to comment on cultural significance of the series.  And I daresay it has cross Pacific resonance.  Ranma is a world class martial artist, dedicated to his craft by practicing each and every morning and seeking challenge after challenge to test his mettle. Honorable and having a desire to protect those that can't protect themselves, Ranma is also unmistakably a teenage boy.  Around the other female characters he is hopelessly lost and sticks his foot in his mouth as if its natural place was protruding from his chin for easier access.  His arrogance and brashness is only amplified as he uncomfortably fumbles around Akane.  In short he is a fairly straightforward young man we'd find in many stories, anime or otherwise.

When he becomes a girl, he becomes far more... vitriol?  Watch the show closely.  Rarely does he talk smack when in boy form.  As the series progresses, in spite of his protestations, he uses his girl form to get away with more and more actions that no boy would ever do - including flirting for free food.  Only some of his "girlish" behaviors leach over to boy type Ranma and Akane is happy to point it out for the viewers pleasure.  So there is a clear attempt at pointing out "girl" and "boy" stereotypes.  Several episodes play on what should be the 90's role of a woman in proper Japanese society.  These include episodes from comparing hip sizes to cooking competitions. Truly its not too different then archaic and persistent western ideals. Always with a martial arts twist and always with Ranma's half girlness being dragged along. 

There are other differences the show points out.  Ranma never fights a "real" fight in his girl form.  Girl type just is not strong or fast enough, he rationalizes.  And he never attacks a girl while in boy form, though there are several formidable female martial artists as the series progresses. None of this bothered me - it seemed right, until recently.  You see I like my women to be strong and beside their men, never behind. 

And that lastly brings me to Akane.  She starts as the tsundere strong female match for Ranma. Sadly she degenerates into a love interest/trophy and often gets cast as the damsel in distress rather than Ranma's equal.  To me this just makes her... less. 

At the end of the day, it wasn't Rumiko Takahashi's purpose to comment on the differences between male, female, and gender roles - as far as I'm aware at least.  She was writing an entertaining work of comedy spiced with fun martial arts zaniness. I think its the assumed that tells us most about our cultures, whether on that island of the pacific or here in the states. And strangley enough the assumed works so well here that Ranma is indeed a very entertaining piece with surprise and fun to be had.

Gate: First Impressions

Gate: Thus the Japanese Self Defense Force Fought This anime has been a bit of a pleasant surprise.

I was browsing Crunchyroll trying to find something new to get into and seeing the juxtaposition of fantasy on a modern day soldier and Humvee I wondered what could this be about. 

The blurb is simple.  A fantasy army travels to modern Tokyo through a magical gate.  After a bloody battle, the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF) pushes that back through the gate, and then pursues, finding themselves in a fantastical land of magic, swords, and dragons. 

Our hero, an otaku, is the leader of one of the JSDF recon squads.  Youji Itami is a standout for anime heroes, in his lack of... standing out.  You see, your anime heroes tend to be over the top in some way.  Because he is an otaku you immediately think he is going to be a loveable loser - theses heroes are awkward and incompetent. Loveable losers have some core trait or value that makes them worthy of the title: hero. It could be a latent power, or just the plain old power of friendship that they dedicate themselves to completely.  Surprise, surprise! In the first episode Itami shows himself to be quite capable as he saves several people and dispatches one of the attackers. This brings us to the other end of the anime spectrum.  The hero that is so bad ass he is the "superman" of that show, perfect in almost everyway, but with some fatal flaw.  Itami disappoints us here as well, atleast so far.  He is... capable.  That's the best word. I've seen three episodes and he hasn't done anything extraordinary.  Which moves me to my impression of the anime itself.s

Itami's character summarize quite nicely the whole feel of the anime; Interesting, likeable, but a bit confusing.  The show has introduced three female characters, as picture above in the promo shot.  So is this going to be an epic fantasy, a love harem, a military anime... I don't know? I'm resisting the urge to read ahead, as the anime has both a light novel and manga already in release.  And I guess that's the charm though.

The confusion of exactly what's going on, is EXACTLY what has made the show entertaining.  Like the characters being invaded by this strange fantasy realm, I the viewer am engrossed in the world building taking place. There is a likable hero to follow as we discover the mysteries of this strange fantasy realm and what kind of place our JSDF friends have found themselves in. 

Everything else about the show is solid and supports the entertainment value - art, music, pacing etc. It appears we are in for a treat, and I can't wait to catch this weeks episode. 

I'll be watching late, enjoy ^.^
じゃ、また。

K-On: After School Tea Time rocks!: Review

Ah!  The joys of being young,  Of having a passion.  Of working hard to fulfill your dreams.  Long nights of grinding hours of practice to reach the skill level to achieve your goals.  What more could an anime about 5 high school girls that create a pop band teach us?  Well... Anything but that actually.

K-on is about four friends that do indeed resurrect a dying rock band club from near extinction at their school.  Later to be joined by a fifth student,  Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, and Azusa meet every day after school for club activies.  You would think these would involve writing music, practicing their craft, and generally rock out in their sugary j-pop ways. But alas, mostly they just... drink tea and eat snacks.

So how can you possibly create a show about tea and snacks?  By adding in some mischief, friendship, and comedy routines of course.  There is a plot - albeit a meandering one- that does involve problems that need to be solved, and yes the occaisonal gig.  The plot and themes of this one mostly revolve around what its like getting through school with close friends and savoring each and every moment, not matter what you may be doing.

The characters themselves are simple, but avoid cliche.  I mean if meyers brigg is to be believed there are only 16 base personality types anyways.  The typical anime tropes are cleanly avoided; what you have instead are 5 girls each with very distinct personalities, dreams, hopes and fears. This is a good thing. There isn't much growth, as this isn't a coming of age story, and therefore doens't leave one disappointed.  The characters ultimatly stand on their own and keep the show moving along with their antics and responses.

I think my favorite part of the show was the opening and closing credits.  The opening credits were poppy and fun, while the ending credits were a little more rock and edgy.  All four tracks were good in their own ways. 

If you are looking for an epic rock story, than this anime isn't for you.  Its about girls being girls in cutesy ways that make you chuckle. There is no fan service, no male to trip and fall on these lasses, BUT there is a turtle. And that makes everything alllll right. 

Personally, I like a little more plot and drama in my high school anime.  I've seen my fair share of the "slice of life", but this one was hard to get through.  Each episode was enjoyable - not really fulfilling but enjoyable.  It certainly didn't keep me up wanting to watch the next episode though, and I think that is where this one leaves much to be demanded...  I also have the feeling that K-on was never meant to be a page turner.  Like the girls of After Noon Tea Time, the name of the band, you are meant to just sit back, relax, and enjoy.