Ranma ½
Random Rhapsody:
Watermelon Beach
Reviewed by:
Keith Trudeau (July 16, 2002)
I really liked the car race episode ("Tendo Family Goes to the Amusement
Park"). It was very funny. The Tendos and Saotomes take a trip to
an amusment park, only to find they have no food or money, so they
all enter in a go-kart race to win a free meal. Just about all of
the Ranma cast gets involved, and chaos ensues, resulting in a surprising
winner. A little on the corny side, but I'll trade that off any time
you can sneak Dr. Tofu back into an episode.
The "Case of the Furinkan Stalker" episode was good also. Girls are
being harassed by a guy in disguise hinting that he's Ranma Saotome.
Not bad, except it was a little too hard to believe that anyone would
actually BELIEVE the actual stalker was actually Ranma. Oh
yeah, and Gosunkugi is still the dumbest bad guy EVER. 3. Now,
the Watermelon Beach episode. I didn't like it. Not because of the
deleted bikinis, but because of the storyline. Exactly HOW MANY
TIMES are we going to put up with the redundant, "Kuno becomes
stronger than Ranma for a day" plot. This has happened FIVE times
now. 1. Kuno is posessed by a sword. 2. Kuno eats some dirt under
Happosai's fingernails. 3. Happosai makes Ranma WEAKER than Kuno (I'll
put up with it though because its part of a bigger storyline). 4.
Kuno becomes better by hitting Watermelons. And finally, Kuno hatches
a bird on top of his head. Please, for the love of God, NO MORE!
Anyways, the story is more or less true to the manga in the time alotted,
but I really didn't think much of the manga version either. This DVD
has three solid episodes, but no "must see" stories.
Where "Watermelon Beach" Ranks in season six:
1. The Demon from Jusenkyo
2. Wacky Winter Wonderland
3. For the Love of Akane
4. Ukyo's Secret Sauce
5. Pandamonium
6. Who do Voodoo
7. Watermelon Beach
8. The Way We're Not
Editors note:
The "deleted bikinis" referred to in this review are in relation to
the fact that the characters wore bikinis in the manga version of
this storyline. No animation was changed or edited from the original
Japanese broadcast.
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