Ranma ½
Ranma Forever:
Initiation Nite
Reviewed by:
Keith Trudeau (July 16, 2002)
Ep#1: "Tatewaki Kuno, Acting Principal." The Principal leaves Furinkan
to "get Jiggy with it" (is anyone else here annoyed by the increasing
Americanization of Viz's translations?), and leaves Kuno in charge
(haven't we been through this before?). Now, if you can handle people
living in terror of Kuno, feel free to watch this episode. Still,
its pretty predictable (Kuno challenges Ranma, and gets beaten up),
at least until the cameo by Happosai and the Ghost Cat. I really didn't
dislike this episode, but it wasn't my favorite either.
Ep#2: "Howling at the Moon." Ranma is summoned for a HIGH-stakes
match of martial arts "Kick the Can," and Happosai trains him for
it (no, not THAT kind of training). Still, if you thought Cologne
was a tough teacher, Happosai is WORSE. There's a nice fuzzy
moment before the fight, and the fight itself is pretty dramatic.
The ending is somewhat surprising, and when you find out who Ranma's
opponents were, he was VERY overmatched in this fight. I REALLY
liked this episode. Not a "top-ten", but still one that impressed
me.
Ep#3 The Jusenkyo guide visits Nerima (By the way Mike Donavan does
an OUTSTANDING voice acting job, you can't tell its really
him) with a metal detector, looking for something, and as you can
imagine, he's quite popular with the Ranma cast. As it tuns out, he
wants to connect Jusenkyo to the Tendo koi pond (yeah, its a reach).
Some nice side-stories. Ranma and Ryoga discuss their future, (Ryoga
has second thoughts about not sleeping with Akane again) and Soun
and Genma try another round of "Operation: True Romance." Of course,
the plan doesn't work. Neither does the cursed spring idea, which
goes without saying.
This DVD gets high grades from me, because it finished pretty well.
The first episode was kind of a rehash, but the last two more than
made up for it. If the rest of season seven is this good, I think
Ranma will have a fitting sendoff season.
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