Season
overview:
Shortly before it was announced that a new Ranma 1/2 series was in the works, the rumors had begun to swirl online. This was confirmed on June 25 in Shonen Sunday 2024 Vol. 31 that a new series was currently in production. Then on July 17th the series streamed its first preview of the series and annouced that Kappei Yamaguchi, Megumi Hayashibara and Noriko Hidaka would be returning to the roles they had originated in 1989. In the ensuing weeks more of the original cast announced their return to the series. Not everything was positive news, however. On August 7th the first 12 episodes leaked online, almost two months ahead of their intended debut.
Episode 1: らんまがきた
Ranma ga kita (Here's Ranma)
At the Tendo Dojo the mailman delivers a letter to Soun Tendo, the owner of the martial arts school. The letter says that Soun's old friend and training partner, Genma Saotome is coming to Tokyo with his son, Ranma. Soun rushes to tell his daughters, Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane the news, but Akane is out jogging. She rushes home, puts on her gi and smashes bricks as part of her martial arts training. After Soun gathers his daughters, he tells them that one of them will become engaged to Ranma and continue the Tendo Dojo into the future. Meanwhile, a large panda and red-headed girl bicker in the neighborhood streets as shocked bystanders look on. Eventually, the two begin to fight one another, and the panda is knocked into a street sign. The panda grabs the sign and bashes the girl over the head, knocking her unconscious. At the Tendo home, the girls here someone at the door and rush to greet their guests as the same panda and unconscious girl barge in. The girl regains consciousness and introduces herself as Ranma Saotome. Everyone is confused thinking that there must have been a mistake and that Genma had a daughter instead of a son. Amongst the confusion Akane offers to show Ranma the dojo and they have a friendly sparring match. Ranma easily outpaces Akane, much to Akane's amazement. Afterward, Ranma takes a bath and sighs, cryptically mentioning that eveyrone will find out sooner or later. Akane, unaware that Ranma is in the bath walks in and is shocked to find that she is a boy. Sound and a mysterious man sit in tears as the scream of Akane echos through the house. Everyone gathers in the living room and learns the truth. The red-headed girl named Ranma is in fact actually a boy, and the panda that brought her is Genma Saotome, Ranma's father. The two share the tale of visiting a cursed training ground known as Jusenkyo in China. The area is covered in small springs that have each been cursed by whomever or whatever drowned in them. As Genma and Ranma fought, they were knocked into the Spring of Drowned Panda and Spring of Drowned Girl respectively. Now whenever they are doused with cold water they revert into their other forms, while hot water transforms them back into their normal selves. Soun tries to make the best of the situation and says that Ranma can still marry one of his daughters. Nabiki and Kasumi instantly encourage Akane to be his fiancee since she "hates boys and Ranma is half girl. Akane protests and says she doesn't want to be engaged to a pervert who peeked at her in the bath. While Ranma says seeing a naked girl is not an issue for him as he sees himself all the time. He adds that h's proportions are much better than Akane's anyway, to which she slams a table down on top of him. Akane resumes her bath only for Ranma to walk in on her this time, getting a slap from Akane. Later Ranma and Akane frown at one another, as Ranma tells Akane that she is not cute.
October 5, 2024 was the broadcast debut of the first episode, however the episode was shown on August 24th at Anime NYC in New York City. Even before this, the first 12 episodes of the anime were leaked online on August 8th.
Rumiko Takahashi gave an interview to DaVinci magazine that was published on the eve of the anime's debut.
In the same issue the director Konosuke Uda and producer Hiroya Hasegawa discuss their approach to adapting Ranma 1/2.
The actors made a number of comments about their excitement about returning to the series. Additionally Kappei Yamaguchi and Noriko Hidaka did an interview talking about their memories of the original series and their excitement about returning to the characters decades later.
The sign outside the Tendo home reads "Tendo Dojo Anything-Goes Martial Arts" (天道道場 無差別格闘流/Tendo Dojo), or more clunkly and literal, "Indiscriminate Hand-to-Hand Style".
In Nabiki's room we see a poster that says "Here Come the Princes" which is meant to reference the Beatles A Hard Day's Night album cover.
"You study kenpo, right?" - Kenpo (拳法) is a Chinese style of martial arts.
The sign in the interior of the Tendo Dojo says いろは (iroha). In a literal sense it means the traditional ordering of the Japanese syllabary, but it should be interpreted more to mean "the fundamentals" or "the ABCs".
"There's a place called Spirit of Fist Mountain." - Genma explains that Jusenkyo is in Bayan Har Mountains in Quinghai province China. He further mentions "Spirit of Fist Mountain" (拳精山/Quanjing Mountain).
Genma falls into the "Spring of Drowned Panda" (熊猫溺泉/Shonmaoniichuan) while Ranma falls into the "Spring of Drowned Girl" (娘溺泉/Nyanniichuan).
Jusenkyo (呪泉郷) is written with kanji meaning "cursed spring village".
When the Jusenkyo Guide is explaining to Ranma about the Spring of Drowned Panda, the words "What the hell?" (そりゃ何だ/Sorya nanda) flash behind Ranma's head.
Genma pulls a string causing the ball to split open to say "true". The ball with the message inside is a "split ball" (割り玉/waritama).
Other than the main cast, the "Passersby" were played by Soushiro Hori (堀総士郎) and Sho Okumura (奥村翔).
Episode 2: 男なんか大っ嫌い
Otoko nanka daikkirai (I Hate Men!)
Genma tells Ranma that because they will be staying with the Tendos for an extended time, Ranma needs to enroll in school at Furinkan High. Ranma scoffs at this, but Nabiki explains this is the same school that she and Akane attend. Ranma and Akane argue on the way, and when Ranma gets splashed with water en route Akane takes him by Dr. Tofu's clinic to get some hot water so he can change back. While there Ranma realizes that Akane has a crush on the doctor. When they arrive at school, Ranma watches as Akane is attacked by dozens of boys from various athletic clubs. She makes short work of boxers, judoka, tennis players and others before the captain of the kendo club, Tatewaki Kuno, appears. However, rather than challenging Akane, he takes offense when he learns that Ranma is living at the Tendo Dojo and the two of them begin to fight. Kuno shows incredibly strength, but Ranma easily breaks through his guard only to be cut short when it starts to rain. Genma rushes in to hide Ranma, who has transformed into a girl, into the PE equipment room so no one sees him change and brings along a kettle of hot water. Ranma thinks he could have beaten Kuno with just a few more seconds, but Akane points out he has a bruise on his neck from where Kuno touched him slightly. However in Kuno and Nabiki's classroom it seems that Ranma was able to write "buffoon" on Kuno's forehead unnoticed. Akane and Ranma are late to class and have to stand in the hallway holding buckets of water. Back in Nabiki's class, Kuno learns that Ranma is not just a houseguest, but Akane's fiance and immediately gets sent out in the hall himself for disrupting class. Kuno dashes down the hall with his bucket of water and throws it at Ranma, while ranting about the engagement, revealing it to everyone at school. Everyone is excited and Ichigo, of the Furinkan High broadcast club, tries to interview them on camera about their engagement. Ranma and Kuno leap out the window to continue their fight and land in the school swimming pool. Kuno is briefly knocked out and Ranma, now female, uses his body as cover to swim out of the pool without being seen by the classmates watching from the window. Kuno suddenly wakes up and grabs Ranma's chest, squeezing her breast and making Ranma angrily slam him and run away. When Kuno comes looking for Ranma, Akane arrives with hot water and challenges Kuno to a fight to buy Ranma time to change back into a boy.
This episode features a recreation of the Ranma 1/2 Nettohen opening narration "Ranma You Pervert" that aired before many episode summarizing the basic premise of the series. In the 2024 series the narrator is Kenichi Ogata (緒方賢一), the original voice of Genma Saotome. In the prior series the narrator was Tadashi Nakamura (中村正).
When Akane recounts that the reason she is attacked each moring is because of Kuno, it shows Kuno laying out this edict while kanji scroll behind him. This says "The Claims of Youth" (青年の主張/Seinen no shucho).
"He's as fast as the racer, Ayrton." - Ichiro is talking about the Brazilian race car driver Ayrton Senna who was active between 1984 and 1994. He died while racing and his state funeral was attended by an estimated three million people.
The kettle that Akane gives Ranma says "janitor" (用務員/youmuin) on it.
Akane catches Kuno's bokuto wooden kendo sword between her hands. Shinken Shirahadori (真剣白刃取り) is a fictional fighting technique mostly known in manga and anime in which a person catches a blade being swung down at them by clapping their hands together to prevent the blade’s downward motion. While this is named for an actual technique used to prevent an opponent from drawing their blade in the first place, the idea of catching a blade barehanded is entirely fictional.
Nabiki is reading "Nan-No" magazine at school. This is a real Japanese fashion magazine from the era, "Non-No".
The other voices for this episode include: Ichiro (関智一/Tomokazu Seki), Noriko (富岡美沙子/Misako Tomioka), Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto), Older Woman (所河ひとみ/Hitomi Shogawa), this is most likely the woman who speaks while fetching Akane's water at Dr. Tofu's clinic. The "boys" are played by: Joichiro Yoshida (吉田丈一郎), Seiyu Fujiwara (藤原聖侑), Sho Okumura (奥村翔), Yohei Hamada (浜田洋平), Genta Nakamura (中村源太) and Koichi Soma (相馬康一).
Episode 3: 好きな女がいるんだから
Suki na hito ga irun dakara (Because There's Someone He Likes)
Ranma finds himself in a elegant bath with no memory of how he got there, he decides to settle back and relax when suddenly a giant figure emerges from the tub. It is Kuno, who professes his love for Ranma! Ranma wakes up, realizing the entire thing was a nightmare. Later, at school, Kuno discusses his feelings for the Pigtailed Girl with Nabiki and she uses the opportunity to sell him photos she has surreptitiously taken of Ranma as a girl. Kuno ogles the photos as Nabiki comments that he must have given up on pursuing Akane. Kuno admits he has done nothing of the sort and loves both Akane and the Pigtailed Girl. Nabiki calls him a two-timer but is also willing to sell him photos of Akane, which he instantly purchases. Nabiki tells Kuno that if he wants to get close to the Pigtailed Girl by giving her a gift, he should give it directly to Ranma. Kuno does not understand but attempts to give Ranma a panda doll. The two get into an argument with Ranma saying that Kuno will likely never see the Pigtailed Girl again, before leaving. Kuno pursues him, and Ranma gets doused with water from an upper window and is forced to hide from Kuno. When Kuno spies the now female Ranma he embraces him, but Nabiki pours hot water on him, transforming Ranma male again. Kuno still does not understand what is going on, and so he and Ranma have another fight, which Akane witnesses. Ranma and Akane bicker before both Ranma and Kuno injure one another. Akane takes Ranma to Dr. Tofu's office to treat his injury and Ranma learns that Akane has a crush on the doctor. Tofu tells Ranma to be kind to Akane, and slaps him on the back, causing his legs to go out. This causes Akane to carry Ranma home, allowing the two some bonding time. The next morning Kasumi asks Akane to take a book back to Dr. Tofu, but she says she does not have time and rushes with Ranma to school. On the way, Ranma is doused with cold water and turns to a girl again, with Akane not realizing it until they arrive at Furinkan High. When they arrive, the boys who usually challenge Akane are all distraught and say they are giving up on her, because Kuno was defeated by Ranma. Kuno arrives wrapped entirely in bandages and protests his supposed loss to Ranma. Seeing both Akane and the Pigtailed Girl he excitedly claims to love them both, when Akane attempts to tell Kuno she will step aside so he can be with his new love. Kuno finds this noble and loves Akane all the more for it. Later that day, Ranma's classmates ask him how far he has gotten with Akane, Ranma denies being interested in her, but is distracted by how cute she is as she plays baseball, which leaves him open to getting smashed by a foul ball Akane misses. She takes him to Dr. Tofu again to treat his new injury, and the pair learn that Genma is working for Dr. Tofu. When a phone call from Kasumi comes through, Akane makes excuses to leave, and Ranma learns that Dr. Tofu is in love with Akane's older sister. Kasumi arrives and Dr. Tofu becomes so lovesick that he injures Ranma's neck as he is trying to do an adjustment. That night, Ranma is still suffering from his injury but spars with Akane, and tells her he's cute when she smiles. Akane thinks about his message before she goes to bed, but Ranma ruins the mood when he catches her looking at herself in the mirror and makes a comment about how silly she looks. Akane re-injures Ranma's neck in retailiation.
In the newest issue of Shonen Sunday this week, an interview was conducted with opening theme song singer ano.
After Ranma wakes up from his dream about Kuno he is surrounded by onomatopoeia reading "ぞ" (zo). This is the sound of shivering or shuddering.
The headbands of the boys attacking when Ranma and Akane arrive at school all say "天道あかね" (Akane Tendo) on them.
When Kuno decides that he will date both Akane and the Pig-tailed Girl, it shows two creatures floating over him. These are Fujin (風神) the wind god and Raijin (雷神) the thunder god. The particular pose and image of the two gods is taken from Wind God and Thunder God (紙本金地著色風神雷神図/Shihon Kinji Chakushoku Fujin Raijin-zu) a folding screen painting by Korin Ogata (尾形光琳). The image is meant to denote that to Kuno, Akane and the Pig-tailed Girl are an inseperable pair like thunder and lightning.
When Ranma comments on the color of Akane's panties there is an impact frame for a split second as she kicks him. This has a phrase that reads "一撃！" (ichi geki!) or "in one blow!"
The text on the wall in Dr. Tofu's clinic reads "第一診察室" (dai ichi shinsatsu-shitsu) or "first exam room".
The book Kasumi borrowed from Dr. Tofu is entitled, "The Vital Spots of the Human Body" (人体の急所/Jintai no kyuusho).
When Ranma steps out to confront Kuno the onomatopoeia "ずいっ" (zui) appears. This is the sound of intensity.
Ranma's budies Daisuke and Hiroshi (or Shingo and Kiichi as they are credited at the end) make their first confirmed appearance in this episode.
The guest voices in this episode include Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura) and Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada) which are perhaps the names being used for Daisuke and Hiroshi in this adaptation. The "boys" are played by: Seiyu Fujiwara (藤原聖侑) and Yuki Tamai (玉井勇輝).
Episode 4: 乱馬を追ってきた男
Ranma o otte kita otoko (The Hunter)
A mysterious boy wanders through a rural village and asks for directors to Furinkan High School. The villagers are shocked to find that his map is a map of Tokyo and he is far from there. Meanwhile, Ranma is arguing with Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane about what he should wear since all his clothes are in the wash. They suggest he wears some of their clothes and it seems the closest fit is Akane, but Ranma complains that the chest is too tight for him while the hips are too baggy. Akane attacks Ranma for his insult. Days later the mysterious boy arrives at Furinkan High and reveals he is looking for Ranma. As Ranma and Akane leave school the boy immediately attacks Ranma. Akane asks who he is, and it takes Ranma a few moments to remember that the boy is named Ryoga Hibiki, a fellow student from his previous school. Ryoga says that Ranma no-showed a fight they were supposed to have, but Ranma comments that he waited three days for Ryoga to show up. Ryoga says he got there on the fourth day, due to his terrible sense of direction. Ryoga challenges Ranma again. Back at the Tendo's house, Ranma explains that the only thing he can think of that would make Ryoga mad at him is that at their all-boy's school, lunchtime was a battlefield and Ranma consistently got the last bread at the cafeteria, leaving Ryoga hungry. Kasumi points out that Ryoga's challenge letter to Ranma was dated yesterday, but Ranma says he's sure Ryoga has gotten lost and will not show up on time anyway. In fact, Ryoga finally arrives at Furinkan High School again the next day, but Ranma is prepared. He offers bread snacks to Ryoga to make up for everything he took from him, but Ryoga curses Ranma, saying that isn't why he hates Ranma. Ranma is confused but Ryoga immediately attacks, showing off his great strength. Ranma fights back with his speed but after Ryoga draws first blood, Ranma prepares to get serious. During the fight Ranma and the other students dodge Ryoga's flying bandanas, and his umbrella, but a water fountain is damaged and Ranma is soaked, transforming into a girl. As Ryoga learns that Ranma transforms to a girl when wet, Ranma laments his life, while Ryoga says changing into something as cute as a girl is no curse, attacking Ranma once more. Ranma grabs Akane to escape from Ryoga's stray attacks and lands on the roof of a walkway at the school. Ryoga slices the support beams with his belt while Ranma and Akane are distracted having another argument. As Ranma insults Akane again, she slaps him before the come tumbling down due to Ryoga's attack. Ranma kicks his belt away, sending it flying like a blade, while Akane walks away, telling Ranma to stay away from her, as she does, Ryoga's belt whirls back and slices through her hair, leaving it much shorter, much to the shock of everyone.
When the villagers tell Ryoga he is in Shikoku, this means that not only is Ryoga roughly 750 kilometers from his destination, he is also on the wrong island of Japan.
When Ranma complains that the clothes he's borrowing from Akane are too tight in the chest an onomatopoeia pops up from Akane which says "むかっ" (muka). This means "grr" or "grumble".
When Ryoga asks again about Furinkan High, he finds that he is Hokkaido, which is the northernmost island of Japan. He is now roughly 1,280 kilometers north of Tokyo.
The places Ryoga wandered to were Enoshima, which is a small island in Kanagawa prefecture. Then he found himself in Harajuku, an entertainment district in Tokyo. Lastly he went to Asakusa, particularly he found himself at the Kaminarimon (雷門) with its giant paper lantern.
"Is this Ganryujima or Kawanakajima?" - Garyujima (巌流島) is the famous location where Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵) battled against his rival Sasaki Kojiro (佐々木小次郎). Miyamoto was victorious. The Battles of Kawanakajima were a series of military confrontations between Takeda Shingen (武田信玄) and Uesugi Kenshin (上杉謙信). There were a series of five battles fought over the course of eight years which were ultimately inconclusive but have become legendary in Japanese history.
"Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's a bandana." - This is a reference to the famous line "It's a bird? It's a plane? No, it's Superman!" about the legendary DC Comics superhero.
The additional voices in this episode include Koichi Yamadera (山寺宏一) returning in the role of Ryoga Hibiki, Ichiro (関智一/Tomokazu Seki), Narrator (緒方賢一/Kenichi Ogata), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura) and Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada), the villagers were played by Yuki Tamai (玉井勇輝), Kanako Sakuragi (桜木可奈子), Shinnosuke Musashi (武蔵真之介), Joichiro Yoshida (吉田丈一郎), and Koichi Soma (相馬康一). The dairy farmer was Taisuke Nakano (中野泰佑), the soccer club member was Takeo Hirose (廣瀬武央) and the Auntie (likely referring to the lunchlady) was Mika Kanda (神田みか) who played a number of small roles in the 2022 adaptation of Urusei Yatsura.
Episode 5: かわいくねえ
Kawaikune (Who Says You're Cute)
Everyone looks on in shock at Akane's lopped off hair. Ryoga and Ranma plead with Akane to hit them both in order to make herself feel better and she quickly complies. As she leaves school, she punches a post and realizes that her ankle is sprained. Deciding to go to Dr. Tofu's clinic to get it checked, she remembers visiting him when she was younger, and realizing that he liked Kasumi, deciding to grow her hair out like her older sister in order for him to like her more too. When she arrives at his office, Dr. Tofu is surprised to see Akane's new haircut, but tells her that she always looked cuter with short hair. Ranma and Genma look on as Akane bursts into tears and cries as Dr. Tofu sits with her and comforts her. Later, she and Ranma walk home together. Akane says she feels better after crying, and Ranma attempts to apologize again, telling her that he thinks she looks cuter with short hair as well. Akane is cheered up, but uses Ranma's nervousness to push him into a drainage ditch, transforming him into a girl. Meanwhile, Ryoga is on a beach vowing to get back to Tokyo, break into the Tendo Dojo and avenge himself against Ranma. Soon enough, that very thing happens, as Ryoga enters the house late at night and attempts to wake up Ranma to continue their fight. Ranma dodges Ryoga's punches in his sleep, but Ryoga's noise wakes Genma up, and he tosses both Ranma and Ryoga out the window and into the rainy night. Ryoga covers himself with his umbrella, but Ranma gets soaked, turning into a girl. Ryoga curses Ranma and reveals that he followed him to China after Ranma stood him up for their fight. Ranma asks if he followed him to Jusenkyo, but Ryoga simply curses at him again before beginning his attack. The noise wakes up both Akane and Kasumi, and they go down stairs. Kasumi mistakes Ryoga for a prowler and encourages Akane to throw a barbell at him. When he's hit, Ryoga drops his umbrella and gets soaked. As he starts to transform, he dashes over the garden wall and into the neighborhood. Ranma follows and finds Ryoga's clothes but no Ryoga, seeing a dog nearby, Ranma thinks this must be Ryoga. Meanwhile, Akane goes back to her room but senses someone there, as she throws a punch she hits a small black piglet. Thinking it's cute, Akane goes downstairs to nurse the bump on its head, and finds Ranma talking to the dog he found. Ranma is curious as to why she has a pig, while she asks him about the dog, pointing out that it looks like the neighbor's dog Bess. Ranma tries pouring hot water on the dog, to no effect. Fed up, Ranma decides to go warm up in the bath, and Akane tells him to take the piglet with him to clean him as well. When Ranma tosses the pig into the tub, it transforms into Ryoga. Ranma is shocked, and Ryoga tells him of the trouble he went to, following Ranma to Jusenkyo and how a panda and a girl knocked him into a spring, before the panda saved him from drowning and then attempted to eat him. Ranma tells him he should be mad at the girl and panda and not him, but just then, Genma walks into the bathroom as a panda, and Ryoga realizes the girl and panda were actually Ranma and Genma. As he's about to fight Ranma again, Ranma sprays him with cold water to transform him back into a pig. Taking him back out to Akane, Ranma is shocked that Akane plans on sleeping with the pig, and gives it a kiss on the snout to cheer it up. Ryoga is instantly smitten with Akane and sleeps with her in her room. Ranma is furious and tries to sneak into Akane's room to transform Ryoga and reveal his new form to Akane, but Ryoga is able to dodge and push Ranma on top of Akane, waking her up. Akane is furious that Ranma snuck into her room and begins to bash him over the head with a boken. The next morning Nabiki, Kasumi and Soun all think Ranma was trying to sneak into Akane's room for sex, while he cries that they've got it all wrong. Akane holds her new pet pig in her arms and complains about how weird her family is.
"She's not hurt, which is good." "She may not be hurt, but her hair met a shear disaster." - The word play of this joke works well in Japanese but is difficult to translate with the same humor into English, but "shear disaster" is a good attempt. In Japanese Ryoga says, "ケガなくて良かったじゃないか。" (Kega nakute yokatta janaika.) to which Ranma replies, "ケガはなくても毛がなくなったんだぞ。" (Kega wa nakutemo ke ga nakunattanndazo.) The pun is "injury" (ケガ/kega) and "hair is" (毛が/ke ga). The joke has a nice repetitive rhythm where it sounds like "X is not, but X is," while having two different meanings.
In the original 1989 adaptation of Ranma 1/2 Dr. Tofu and Akane were played by Yuuji Mitsuya and Noriko Hidaka respectively, who were known as a prior iconic anime couple- Tatsuya Uesugi and Minami Asakura from Touch. In this adaptation, Akane is still played by Noriko Hidaka, but Dr. Tofu is now portrayed by Toshiyuki Morikawa. he duo of Hidaka and Morikawa are known for playing the twisted, obsessed love/hate relationship between Inuyasha's Kikyo and Naraku.
The hibiscus flowers and coastline that Ryoga is walking along suggest he is likely in Okinawa.
In addition to P-chan's debut, we also have the debut of Bess (or "Beth" as the dog's name is translated in this adaptation).
Ryoga falls into the "Spring of Drowned Black Piglet", "Heitowenniichuan" (黑豚溺泉), which is 1,200 years old.
The ending theme has been visually updated to show Akane with short hair.
The guest characters for this episode include Koichi Yamadera (山寺宏一) as both Ryoga and the Jusenkyo Guide, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Dr. Tofu, Noriko (富岡美沙子/Misako Tomioka), Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura) and Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada).
Episode 6: 黒バラの小太刀
Kuro bara no Kodachi (Kodachi, The Black Rose)
Ranma walks home with a bag full of steamed buns thinking that his girl-form is definitely good for getting extra food for free. On his way home he spies a group of girls wrapped in bandages preparing to attack a lone stranger. The girls call out to her and say they are from Furinkan High School, and that their opponent is named Kodachi. Kodachi easily dispatches the girls and severely beats them with a gymnastics ribbon, before Ranma intervenes and forces Kodachi to leave. The girls go to the Tendo's House and meet with Akane explaining that Kodachi is from Saint Hebereke's School for Girls, and is scheduled for a match in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics against them, but has used sneak attacks to injure them all. If they can't convince Akane to step in and replace them as representative of Furinkan High School, they will have to forfeit. Akane feels compelled to help and begins training in rhythmic gymnastics in earnest. Unfortunately, she is ungraceful with all the tools used to compete. Akane's pig shows up and she explains to Ranma that she has named him P-Chan, and sleeps with him every night. Ranma becomes jealous and tries to beat up the pig, knowing that it is actually Ryoga. P-Chan rushes away, and climbs into the bath, turning back into Ryoga so that he can volunteer to train Akane in rhythmic gymnastics. Later that night, Kodachi has learned of Akane becoming the replacement on the gymnastics team, and sneaks into her room to assault her. Akane holds her off, but the fight wrecks her room before Kodachi escapes. As she dashes across the rooftops, Kodachi is smashed in the head with a kettle of hot water that Ranma is carrying as he chases P-Chan. Ranma stops to check on her and realizes she's the girl he fought against earlier in his girl-form. Kodachi is instantly smitten with male Ranma and embraces him, declaring her instant love before paralyzing him with some of her trick black roses. Akane finds them just in time to stop Kodachi from kissing Ranma, but after chasing Kodachi away leaves Ranma to shiver on the rooftop until his paralysis wears off. The next day at school Kodachi attempts to attack Akane again, but admits she is only there to see her beloved Ranma. Meanwhile, Kuno is carrying a bouquet of roses as well, meant to cheer on Akane in her match. Ranma kicks Kuno before he can give the roses to Akane, and tells Kodachi that he cannot date her because he is Akane's fiancee. Kodachi suggests that if she defeats Akane in their match, she should give up her engagement to Ranma, which Kuno also thinks is a good idea. After Kodachi escapes once more, Kuno tells Ranma to take good care of her, as she is his little sister. Both Ranma and Akane are shocked. That evening Akane continues to train for the match, when she injures her ankle after tripping on the gymnastics ball. Unable to continue, Akane, Kasumi and Nabiki suggest that Ranma will have to substitute for her in the match in his girl form and Ryoga arrives to begin Ranma's brutal all-night training.
The opening narration is told in the style of Seiji Fujishiro (藤城清治), a Japanese artist who practices a form of papercraft known as "kamikiri" (紙切り) or "kiri-e" (切り絵).
Akane is also shown with short hair in the opening now.
This is the first appearance of Kodachi Kuno. Her voice actress, Ayane Sakura, conducted an interview a few days before this episode debuted to discuss the character and the challenge of replacing Saeko Shimazu, Kodachi's original voice.
Kodachi's moniker, "The Black Rose" is likely taken from the name of the girl gang in the 1973 film Terrifying Girls' High School: Animal Courage (恐怖女子高校 アニマル同級生/Kyofu Joshi Koko: Animaru Dokyusei) where the girl gang is known as "The Black Rose Society".
St. Hebereke - In Japanese "hebereke" (へべれけ) means "dead drunk/blotto". In the they sometimes try to address this by saying "St. Hebereke, also known as St. Bacchus" after the Roman god of wine to try and impart this alcoholic connotation.
As Kodachi makes her escape we seeHanae Ichinose and Kentaro Ichinose from Maison Ikkoku in the background (in what is likely supposed to be Ikkoku-kan).
When Kodachi first sees male Ranma after he saves her from falling off the roof she imagines him as a typical shojo manga character.
The weapon Kodachi attacks Akane with at Furinkan High is a shinai (竹刀), a flexible bamboo sword used for kendo practice.
Momiji Manju and Nama Yatsuhashi - Manju (饅頭) is a confection with a sweet, red bean center covered in a soft outer layer made of flour-based pastry. It is different than mochi which uses a rice-based outer layer. Nama Yatsuhashi (生八ツ橋) is an unbaked mochi-like sweet that also has red bean paste in the center. As Ranma says these are associated with Hiroshima and Kyoto respectively.
Animation director Yasuo Muroi (室井康雄) has published books on drawing and has a YouTube channel to teach drawing techniques.
The guest voices for this episode include Kodachi Kuno (佐倉綾音/Ayane Sakura), Narrator (緒方賢一/Kenichi Ogata), Noriko (富岡美沙子/Misako Tomioka), Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto), the Rhythmic Gymnastics Club Members (松田週水/Shusui Matsuda), (高橋雛子/Hinako Takahashi), (池田海咲/Misaki Ikeda) and students (杉村ちが子/Chigako Sugimura), (天野ユウ/Yuu Amano).
Episode 7: 熱闘新体操
Netto shintaiso (Hot Competition)
Ryoga begins to train Ranma in preparation for filling in for Akane for the Rythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts match. Both Ranma and Ryoga encourage Akane to go to bed as they stay up late practicing against one another. As soon as she leaves Ryoga admits he plans to injure Ranma so that he will lose the match and have to date Kodachi, leaving Akane free for him to pursue. Ranma says he has no plans on losing and the pair attack each other. The next morning Akane wakes up to find the pair still barely standing but attempting to continue to deal blows to one another. Worried that Ranma will be too exhausted to be affecting in the match, Akane watches as Ranma munches on a tea towel during breakfast and then escorts him to St. Hebereke's to get ready for the match. Amazingly, Ryoga finds his way to the school on his first try as well, feeling guided on by his love for Akane. As soon as everyone arrives, both Ranma and Akane are faced with numerous traps set by Kodachi in an attempt to give her the advantage before the match. Meanwhile, Ryoga gets doused with water from a classroom window and transforms into P-Chan. As a group of girls' fawn over him, Kodachi finds him and plans to put him to use in the match. As the combatants head to the ring, Kuno is shown in the audience, keenly eager to see the results of the match. After introducing Kodachi, the announcer asks the Pig-tailed Girl for her name, and without hesitation, Ranma gives his actual name of Ranma Saotome. The audience filled with Furinkan High students are shocked and confused but ultimately settle on the idea that two people could have the same name and look similar. As the match begins, Kodachi distracts Ranma and cuffs him to a chained-up P-Chan, who serves as a handicap. Unfortunately for Kodachi, Ranma has no love for the pig, and immediately uses him as a tool to deal blows to Kodachi. The match becomes immediately intense as Kodachi uses all manner of trick gymnastic tools in an attempt to injure Ranma. Ultimately throwing chairs, her own brother and even boiling hot water at Ranma. Ranma and Ryoga both transform back into men but are concealed by a cloud of steam before Akane saves them both with a firehose blast of water. The water almost pushes Ranma out of the ring, but he saves himself, before knocking Kodachi out, only for the ring itself to move in order to catch Kodachi. Shocked, Ranma punches the ring mat and finds the St. Hebereke Rhythmic Gymnastics team under the ring, to give Kodachi an added hand in the match. With no ring left to fight in, all that remains are the corner posts. Ranma finally deals the winning low by destroying the post Kodachi stands on, sending her falling to the floor and losing the match. As Ranma is declared the winner, he momentarily feels sorry for Kodachi as she laments losing "her" Ranma, but then immediately vows to burn with a new love for her paramore. Ranma collapses in exhaustion.
A more literal translation of this chapter's title would be "Fierce Fighting Rhythmic Gymnastics".
Hiroko Kazui (数井浩子), who handled the storyboards for this episode, is a veteran animation director from Ranma 1/2 Nettohen having worked on episode including "Am I... Pretty? Ranma's Declaration of Womanhood" as animation director.
The week this episode came out, Saeko Shimazu, the voice of Kodachi in the 1989 adaptation of the series would discuss how she was cast for the role and what it was like working on the series as well as her enthusiasm for the 2024 adaptation.
The opening sequence with Ranma and P-chan is referencing Heidi, Girl of the Alps (アルプスの少女ハイジ/Arupusu no Shojo Haiji).
The object with the streamers and the "へ" ("he" for Hebereke) hiragana on it is called a "matoi" (纏). In the Edo period they were used by firefighters who would climb atop a rooftop next to a burning building to signal firemen where they should come and to warn off bystandards. Today they are purely ceremonial.
The text behind Kodachi when after she attempts to drug Ranma reads "by any means necessary" (手段選ばす/Shudan erabasu).
The signs behind Ryoga are annoucing the rhythmic gymnastics match and also say "beware of panda".
The wash basin falling onto someone's head is an old Japanese slapstick gag. Called "basin punchline" (たらい落ち/tarai ochi), it is unclear who originated the gag but it is often associated with The Drifters comedy team, particularly on their show It's 8 O'Clock, Gather Around Everyone! (8時だョ!全員集合/Hachiji da yo! Zen'in Shugo).
Ichiro comments that Kodachi's club attack is like the "thousand-armed Kannon", a reference to the multi-armed Buddhist bodhisattva.
"The desk dances in the air as if a Tosa angler catching a bonito with one line!" - The bonito fish is the specialty of the Tosa Bay in Kochi provence. A famous 1855 ukiyo-e print by Hiroshige is titled Tosa Province, Bonito Fishing at Sea.
The guest voices in this episode include Ichiro (関智一/Tomokazu Seki), Narrator (緒方賢一/Kenichi Ogata), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura), Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada), Announcer (青耶木まゆ/Mayu Aoyagi), the female students (河瀬茉希/Miki Kawase, 松本沙羅/Sara Matsumoto, 廣瀬千夏/Chinatsu Hirose, 廣田悠美/Yumi Hirota, 田辺留依/Rui Tanabe, 社本悠/Haruka Shamoto), and the male students (藤原聖侑/Seiyu Fujiwara, 玉井勇輝/Yuki Tamai, 小林大紀/Daiki Kobayashi, 江頭宏哉/Hiroya Egashira).
Episode 8: 愛しのシャルロット
Itoshi no Sharurotto (Darling Charlotte)
Akane visits the local skating rink with some friends who encourage her to join the skating club. She dismisses the idea as most clubs are now asking her to fill in and accept challenges from rival schools in their competitions. As she talks to her classmates, she realizes that she left P-Chan on the ice and goes in search of him, but before she can find him another girl skates up, and decides to adopt him, calling him Charlotte and leaving the building. Meanwhile, Ranma is at a local cafe eating with his friends who question him about the mysterious pigtailed girl in the Martial Arts Gymnastics match. They ask why she's good at martial arts like Ranma, why she shares his name and also has a pigtail. Ranma dismisses all their questions as they proclaim that they want to date her now that he's taken Akane for himself. Just then Akane bursts into the restaurant in tears telling Ranma that P-Chan has been kidnapped. Just then Ranma spies P-chan in the arms of a girl, and Akane rushes over to try and snatch him away, but the girl keeps him until a handsome boy comes and takes the pig from her to give back to Akane. The girl immediately gets upset and begins to bash the boy over the head with increasingly heavy objects before he snaps and screams at her. The pair are Azusa Shiratori and Mikado Sanzenin from Kolhotz High School, and they are luminaries in the figure skating world. Mikado attempts to kiss Akane to apologize for Azusa's behavior but Ranma interrupts by throwing a fishcake at him, which Mikado takes as a challenge. Azusa decides that their pairs figure skating match will be to decide who gets to keep "Charlotte," forcing Akane and Ranma to pair up. Later Ryoga demands to be Akane's partner instead of Ranma, but the only problem is that both Ranma and Ryoga cannot skate. As they practice at the skating rink, Ranma transforms into a girl to hide his embarrassment as he learns to skate. Ryoga as P-chan is once again found by Azusa who locks a pretty pink collar around his neck. As Akane rushes to deal with Azusa and save P-Chan, Ranma is left flailing helplessly on the ice, before Mikado rescues him. As he begins to flirt with Ranma, Azusa knees him in the head telling him to focus on their upcoming 100 man battle. The pair take on 100 oppoents all at once, easily defeating them all, while Akane and Ranma look on in surprise. However, Ranma is excited, realizing that the skating match is a martial arts battle on ice, and thinking he can actually win this time. However, as soon as he does, he's back in Mikado's arms, who wastes no time in stealing Ranma's first kiss as "thanks" for saving the cute pigtailed girl earlier. Ranma is enraged and rushes to a hot bath to transform back into a boy before going back to attack Mikado. Unfortunately, his poor skating skills leaves him open to Mikado's "Dance of Death" attack. When the attack is over, Ranma is injured but Mikado is unconscious on his feet, leaving Azusa and all 100 of his opponents to scribble on his face in revenge. Back home, Ranma sulks over the kiss, and Akane tries to cheer him up, leading to the pair of them almost sharing a kiss, before they are interrupted by Soun, Genma, Kasumi and Nabiki all watching. Meanwhile, Mikado recovers from his fight with Ranma swearing revenge.
Episode Staff:
Director: Nobuyushi Arai (新井宣圭)
Animation Director: Kyoko Kametani (亀谷響子), Shiro Shibata (柴田志朗), Hideyoshi Furihata (降籏秀吉), Mi Young Lee (李美英)
Chief Animation Director: Nao Otsu (大津直)
Script: Misaki Morie (森江美咲))
Storyboards: Nobuyushi Arai (新井宣圭)
Originally Aired:
November 24, 2024
12:55 am - 1:25 am on Nihon Terebi, shortly thereafter on Netflix
Kolhotz High School - Kolhotz (コルホーズ) is a Russian loan word meaning "collective farm".
Thanks to labeling their photographs as they speak to Ranma, which of Ranma's friends is which is established. Kiichi is Daisuke from the original series while Shingo is Hiroshi. Shingo's photo says "Her name was Ranma Saotome" while Kiichi's says "with a pigtail just like yours."
The text that appears on screen repeats what Ranma says "...I don't mind... say what?" (別にかまわな。。。なに/Betsu ni kamawana... nani). Then the words "help me find P-chan!" (P-ちゃん捜して!/P-chan sagashite!) appear.
The restaurant's sign says "Rapid Delievery" (出前 ジンソク/demae jinsoku) and the name of the restaurant is "Great Joy" (大歓喜/Daikangi). The red banner simply says "Ramen" (らあめん).
Ranma throwing the naruto/fish cake and hitting Mikado's face with it is likely a reference to an identical scene at a ramen shop in the 1985 film Tampopo (タンポポ) directed by Juzo Itami.
The text that appears during Mikado's special movie is "Dance of Death" (死霊の盆踊り/shiryou no bon odori), literally the "Bon Dance of Death".
The guest stars in this episode include Mikado Sanzenin (宮野真守/Mamoru Miyano), Azusa Shiratori (悠木碧/Yuki Aoi), Narrator (緒方賢一/Kenichi Ogata), Noriko (富岡美沙子/Misako Tomioka), Hiroko (大下菜摘/Natsumi Oshita), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura), Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada), Shopkeeper (玉井勇輝/Yuki Tamai), Club Members (藤原聖侑/Seiyu Fujiwara, 山根雅史/Masashi Yamane, 若林佑/Yu Wakabayashi), Girls (三浦千幸/Chyuki Miura, 根本京里/Kyori Nemoto) and Male Customer (黒田浩一/Koichi Kuroda).
Episode 9: この手ははなさない
Kono te wa hanasanai (I'll Never Let Go)
At Kolhotz High School, Ryoga approaches after a long journey to find the school once more. As soon as he thinks through his plan to team up with Akane and replace Ranma in the Charlotte Cup, Ranma surprises him, splashing him with water to ensure he stays shacked to the trophy as P-Chan. In the men's changing room, Ranma and Mikado exchange words. Mikado admits that he plans to kiss Akane during the match, which worries Ranma. Before the beginning of the bout, Ranma warns Akane to stay away from Mikado, knowing that he's going to try to kiss her, however Akane is adamant that she needs to get in close in order to strike at him. As soon as the match begins, Mikado does indeed try to go straight for Akane and almost manages to kiss her before Ranma interrupts. As Mikado continually goes after Akane's lips, Ranma finally delivers a punch that brings Mikado to his knees. Ranma boldly proclaims that Akane is his fiancée and if Mikado lays a hand on her, he will kill him. This only inspires Mikado and Azusa further, as they unleash their special attack that is guaranteed to split up any pair, the Couple Crusher. Azusa grabs Ranma's legs as he holds hands with Akane, and then Mikado holds onto Azusa's legs, lifting all three into the air as he begins to spin, causing centrifugal force to whirl Akane round and round, creating a technique known as the Good-Bye Whirl. The move encourages the male partner to let go of his female partner either willingly or unwillingly, and this breach of trust and injury will cause the couple to split up forever. Unfortunately, Azusa gets too dizzy and releases both Ranma an Akane, while Ranma turns in midair and takes the impact of the fall entirely, protecting Akane. Ranma is briefly unconscious, but as Akane weeps over him and calls him stupid he wakes up, but is severely injured. Just then, Ryoga breaks free, turns off the lights and jumps in to replace Ranma so he can skate with Akane. However, he is confused in the darkness, turns Ranma female and sends Akane to the sidelines so that when the lights are back on, Ryoga and Ranma are on the ice. The audience protests that Ryoga and female Ranma's costumes aren't sexy enough and so after they get changed, Azusa and Mikado begin their attack once more, putting Ryoga and Ranma into the Good-Bye Whirl. However, this time, Ryoga and Ranma are already bickering, and Ryoga punches Ranma to send him flying. Mikado lets go of Azusa and Ryoga and Azusa tilts to cause Ryoga to crash into the ice, while Mikado rushes to catch and kiss Ranma once more. Ranma escapes Mikado as Ryoga curses his own lack of skating ability and punches the rink in frustration, causing the ice to crack and create an ice flow, as the entire rink is built in a swimming pool. Ranma points out that as he's already a girl nothing will happen to him if he gets wet, but Ryoga will transform into P-Chan in front of Akane if he falls in. With that, the match continues, and Ryoga vows to team with Ranma to beat Mikado and Azusa and keep his secret.
The scene of Mikado putting on lipstick in the dressing room is not in the original manga, it is borrowed from the Ranma 1/2 Nettohen anime adaptation (Nettohen episode 8) which showed him putting on lipstick (and eyeshadow and blush).
"In 1242 Alexander Nevsky led his army and defeated the Livonian army on a frozen lake." - This was a battle between Russian prince Nevsky and the Livonian Confederation (modern day Estonia and Latvia). Russians typically attribute the battle as between Catholics (Livonian Confederation) and Russian (Eastern Orthodox).
On social media Mamoru Miyano (Mikado) and Noriko Hidaka (Akane) referenced Mikado putting the moves on Akane in a photo they took together. Kappei Yamaguchi (Ranma) replied that Akane "is my fiancée" to the post.
The guest voices for this episode include Ichiro (関智一/Tomokazu Seki), Narrator (緒方賢一/Kenichi Ogata), Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto), Hiroko (大下菜摘/Natsumi Oshita), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura), Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada), male students (篠原彰宏/Akihiro Shinohara, 藤原聖侑/Seiyu Fujiwara, 玉井勇輝/Yuki Tamai), Stylist Club Boy (鹫见昂大/Takahiro Sumi) and Stylist Club Girls (福田芽衣/Mei Fukuda, 珠木のぞみ/Nozomi Tamaki, 星乃葉月/Hazuki Hoshino).
Episode 10: 死の接吻
Shi no seppun (Kiss of Death)
The Charlotte Cup battle continues as Mikado attempts to kiss Ranma, while Ranma fights back, leaving Mikado to think Ranma is simply jealous that he was pursuing Akane. Mikado assures Ranma that he loves all women equally. While Azusa confronts Ryoga that he is, in fact, Charlotte, based on the fact that he is wearing the choker that she locked on Charlotte. Ryoga tells Azusa that he freed "Charlotte" and kept the choker as a memento. This enrages Azusa and she attacks Ryoga, delivering a blow the brings him down. Ranma breaks free from Mikado and tells Ryoga that the two of them have to get serious and start working together, or they will be unable to defeat the Golden Pair. With Akane looking on, Ryoga begrudgingly accepts Ranma's plan. Ranma begins to cry, saying that Ryoga has abandoned her, leaving Mikado to move in again. This opens up Ryoga and Ranma to trip Mikado up and send him into the icy water of the broken rink. The pair team up to face Azusa next. She uses her cutesy attitude to lull both Ranma and Ryoga into hesitating, while she gets the drop on them. But ultimately Ryoga flicks her forehead and drops her into the water as well. The Golden Pair climb out and launch one final offensive attack while Ranma and Ryoga continue to argue with one another. However, Ranma's harsh words to Ryoga inspire him to rip up huge chunks of ice and crush Mikado between them, completely defeating him. With the pair defeated, Ranma and Ryoga are declared the winners of the match. Mikado is carried out on a stretcher, while Azusa immediately tries to take his cute blanket from him, before knocking him out when he protests. Now that they are the winners, Ryoga and Ranma begin to fight one another again to settle their own score over Akane. Confused, Akane enters the rink to the stop them from fighting, but falls in the water herself. Seeing her struggle, the two of them realize that Akane cannot swim. Ryoga and Ranma both dive in, with Ryoga realizing too late that he will turn into a pig as soon as he hits the water. Nevertheless, he continues and swims under the icy depths to save Akane. Later, Akane wakes up and is reunited with P-Chan. Ranma grudgingly tells her that it was P-Chan who pulled her out of the water to safety. Before any further explanations can occur, the wall of the room grumbles and a purple-haired girl bursts in attempting to attack Ranma. Ranma calls her Shampoo and immediately hides in a locker to escape. Shampoo leaves, and Ranma is forced to tell Akane who this beautiful foreigner is. Months previously, while still in China, Ranma, Genma and the Jusenkyo Guide came upon the village of Amazon women as they were conducting a martial arts tournament. As they watched Shampoo win the tournament, Ranma and Genma filled their bellies with a feast that was meant for the winner. Shampoo is furious and Ranma offers to challenge her, easily defeating Shampoo. After suffering this loss, Shampoo gives female Ranma the "Kiss of Death" which means she will follow Ranma anywhere in order to kill her for this offense. Ranma and Genma spent the remainder of their time in China trying to escape from Shampoo. After arriving home, Kasumi announces that Ranma has a visitor. It seems Shampoo located Genma and forced him to bring her there. Ranma, now a boy, stops Shampoo from attacking Akane and inadvertently knocks her unconscious. As Shampoo rises, Ryoga shoves Ranma to her, and Shampoo kisses male Ranma on the lips, enraging Akane.
The opening narration is built around a ninja theme in this episode. The water-walking shoes that it shows Akane use are called "mizugumo" (水蜘蛛/water spider).
Ninja Akane summons the rain storm to transform Ranma by making a gesture. These hand signs are called "mudra" (印契/ingei).
Ichiro does a long list of rhyming word play in Japanese during the previous episode recap, a lot of it is nonsense when translated literally such as "やけのやんぱち 日焼けのなすび 色が黒くて食いつきたいが" (yake no yan pachi hiyake no nasubi iro ga kurokute kuitsukitaiga/sense of desperation, burned eggplant, it's black and I want to eat it). The rhyming/wordplay that he is quoting is specifically taken from the character Tora-san in It's Tough Being a Man (男はつらいよ/Otoko wa tsurai yo). In English they adapted this by translating it as a number of TV show catchphrases like "knowing is half the battle" (from G.I. Joe and "Nanu Nanu" from Mork and Mindy).
When Ranma is sharing her plan with Ryoga and slaps him it says "buri buri" in the background. ぶるぶる (buri buri) is the sound of violent trembling.
A moment later, the words うるうる (uru uru) appear behind Azusa. This is the sound of "eyes watering with tears".
When Ranma and Ryoga are declared the winners a string is pulled to make a ball to split open to say "congratulations" (おめでとう/omedetou). The ball with the message inside is a "split ball" (割り玉/waritama).
Shampoo's village is called "Joketsuzoku" (女傑族) in Japanese, though in Mandarin it is pronounced "Nujiezu". It is written with kanji meaning "Amazon clan".
Series director Konosuke Uda confirmed that Seira Ryu (a Chinese born voice actress who played one of the Amazons in this episode) helped Rei Sakuma with the Mandarin she spoke in this episode.
The guest voices in this episode include Rei Sakuma (佐久間 レイ) who returns as Shampoo, Ichiro (関智一/Tomokazu Seki), Narrator (緒方賢一/Kenichi Ogata), Noriko (富岡美沙子/Misako Tomioka), Hiroko (大下菜摘/Natsumi Oshita), Edo Era Constable (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada, 奥村翔/Sho Okumura, 藤原聖侑/Seiyu Fujiwara), Judge/Referee (玉井勇輝/Yuki Tamai), Joketsuzoku Villagers (衣川里佳/Riku Kinugawa, 劉セイラ/Seira Ryu).
Episode 11: 我愛你
Wo ai ni (You I Love)
As Akane angrily confronts Ranma over Shampoo kissing him, Soun finally comes in demanding an explanation for what is going on. Shampoo hands him a guidebook to the laws and cultures of her tribe. Soun pretends to read it before admitting he cannot read Chinese, and so Nabiki takes over. She explains that if a woman defeats an Amazon tribe member, she will receive the Kiss of Death, however if a man defeats a member of the tribe, he will become betrothed to the warrior he defeated. As Shampoo continues to cuddle up to Ranma, Akane announces that their engagement is over and storms off. Later that day she takes her frustrations out on a training dummy made to look like Ranma. After she pounds it, she overhears Ranma talking to Shampoo and trying to get out of their engagement. Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi all listen in, but Ranma is overcome by Shampoo's flirting and overall cuteness and fails to convince her not to marry him, enraging Akane all the more. Ranma escapes from Shampoo and hides out on the roof of the Tendo Dojo that night to escape from Shampoo and everyone else's accusations of him. Ryoga finds him and confronts him, splashing him with cold water to transform Ranma into a girl before confronting him about his mistreatment of Akane. The pair fight and fall off the roof into the pond in the backyard, where Shampoo sees Ranma and attacks him. The next morning Kasumi tells Akane to wake Ranma up for breakfast, as she is searching for P-Chan. Akane grudgingly goes ot his room to find Shampoo asleep next to Ranma. She splashes Ranma with water to wake both he and Shampoo up, and sets Shampoo on the attack first thing in the morning. After escaping from her, Ranma and Akane walk to school angry at one another. Ranma attempts to explain himself to Akane, but gives up and calls her uncute. Akane angrily argues with him as they continue to walk. From a nearby rooftop, Ryoga watches them and suffers a moral crisis about how he can use the situation to his advantage to become closer to Akane. Leaping off the roof, Ryoga is splashed by the old washer woman and turns into a pig, where he is spied by Shampoo, who calls him over. Later at Furinkan High, during lunch, Shampoo arrives to give Ranma a meal. It turns out she has cooked P-Chan. Akane is overcome and saves P-Chan from the plate he's on, making sure he's still alive. Shampoo is outraged that Akane ruined her meal for Ranma and gives Akane the Kiss of Death. Ranma tries to interrupt, but Akane shoves him out of the second story of the building and accepts Shampoo's challenge. By the time Ranma gets back to the classroom, Akane and Shampoo are both gone. Ranma rushes around the school in search of Akane, imagining what horrible things Shampoo could do to her. He frantically searches all over the school grounds before hearing P-Chan crying, and finding Akane unconscious. As Ranma wakes her up she stares at him blankly and asks "Who are you?" for him.
The sound effects coming from Soun are "shiku shiku" (しくしく) which means "boo hoo".
The sign on the trash outside says "Please don't put this out until Tuesday" (火曜に出して下さい/Kayou ni dashite kudasai).
The additional voices in this episode are Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto), Hiroko (大下菜摘/Natsumi Oshita), Shingo (奥村翔/Sho Okumura), Kiichi (浜田洋平/Yohei Hamada), and boys (梅田修一朗/Shuichiro Umeda, 粕谷大介/Daisuke Kasuya).
Episode 12: 必殺シャンプー
Hissatsu Shampoo (Shampoo Cleans Up)
Akane awakens from her fight with Shampoo and has completely forgotten Ranma. Ranma questions her, but the only thing she can remember about the fight is that when she regained consciousness, she felt refreshed. The rest of the class rush over to check on her and are also shocked that while she remembers everyone else, she has indeed forgotten Ranma. Ranma grabs P-Chan and questions Ryoga about what happened during the fight. Ryoga does not want to answer, so Ranma threatens to show him naked to a group of passing girls. Afterwards, Ryoga says that Shampoo kicked him in the face so he was unable to see anything when she attacked Akane. Ranma rushes to take Akane to Dr. Tofu who admits that her memory loss must be due to Shampoo using acupressure to trigger the loss of specific memories related to Ranma, causing her to forget only him. Genma says that he saw the entire fight and that Shampoo literally shampooed Akane's hair as she pressed her pressure points. Akane reveals that is why she felt so refreshed. Back at the Tendo household, Kasumi, Nabiki and Soun are all concerned about Akane, and Akane even teases her father pretending that she forgot him as well. Dr. Tofu arrives with a book of ingredients to make the shampoo that will reverse Akane's amnesia, but as soon as Kasumi speaks to him, he rips it up the book in a daze of happiness. Ranma is outraged and immediately begins to pack his bags, telling everyone he is going to travel to China to buy the shampoo they need to help Akane. Even though she cannot remember Ranma, she is moved by his dedication to helping her. On his way down the street, Ranma decides he will have to swim to China like he did on his previous trip, but Shampoo interrupts him. She shows him that she has the shampoo Akane needs. When Ranma tries to take it from her, she hides it between her breasts and screams as Ranma tries to grab it. Ranma says that he will grant Shampoo one wish if she gives him the bottle, but it cannot be to kill Akane or to marry her. Instead, Shampoo makes him promise to kill female Ranma. Ranma goes back to the Tendo Dojo and begs Ryoga to beat him up so that he can grant Shampoo's wish, however Ryoga refuses, as he wants Akane to continue to forget Ranma ever existed so that he can be with her instead. Ranma starts to hit Ryoga, which finally enrages him enough to fight back, however Ranma defeats him accidentally. Genma and Soun rush in and start to attack Ranma in an attempt to "help", but Akane ultimately sees them and saves Ranma, telling her father not to pick on the weak. Ranma gets defensive and tells Akane that she is not cute which seems to trigger something inside her. Soun coaches Ranma to continue to repeat his insults, and as Ranma does, something inside Akane snaps and she lashes out at Ranma, but her memories come back. Just as this has happened, Shampoo crashes into the dojo and prepares to kill Akane but Ranma stops her. When Shampoo goes to hug him, Ranma decides to tell Shampoo the "truth". Dumping cold water on his head, he transforms into female Ranma and tells Shampoo that his girl form is his real self, the boy side is a disguise. Everyone is shocked at him saying this, but Shampoo begins to cry before telling him goodbye and leaving. Later that night on the roof, Ryoga tells Ranma that he can stop Shampoo if he wants, but Ranma tells him to be quiet, while thinking it is a bit of a waste for her to leave forever.
Episode Staff:
Director: Yoji Sato (左藤洋二)
Animation Director: Miya Takaku (髙久美弥), Kana Iwasaki (岩﨑夏奈), Mari Tominaga (とみながまり), Erina Ano (小野玲奈), Miyuki Honda (本多みゆき), Riko Kaneda (金田莉子), Yukie Suzuki (鈴木幸江)
Chief Animation Director: Nao Otsu (大津直)
Script: Kimiko Ueno (うえのきみこ)
Storyboards: Ikuo Morimoto (森本育郎)
Originally Aired:
December 22, 2024
12:55 am - 1:25 am on Nihon Terebi, shortly thereafter on Netflix
A more literal translation of the chapter title would be "Killer Shampoo".
When Akane is told Ranma's name she mistakenly misassociates it with a number of other things. The first is a decorative wooden transom carving above doors, also known as "ranma" but written with the kanji "欄間".
She then mistakes his name for "rumba" the Cuban dance style.
The Sai Fang Heng Gow Shiatsu (or Xi Fa Shiang Gao Shiatsu) Attack (洗髪香膏指圧拳) translates as "Hair Washing Balm Shiatsu Fist".
When Akane pretends to forget who Soun is the sound effects "しくしく" (shiku shiku) appear. This is the sound of sobbing.
"Could you be that ramen topping? - Ranma replies that Akane is referring to "menma" (めんま) which are bamboo shoots that are preserved in salt.
In Japan, 110 is the phone number to contact the police. 119 is the number to contact the fire department or an ambulance.
Hair Formula 101 - The item Genma asks Ranma to purchase for him (translated as Grecian Formula) is an actual Chinese product that is supposed to regrow hair. In Chinese it is known as Zhang Guang 101.
The guest voices in this episode are Noriko (富岡美沙子/Misako Tomioka), Tomoyo (神本綾華/Ayaka Kamimoto) and Hiroko (大下菜摘/Natsumi Oshita).
Immediately following the release of this episode, the confirmation of the next cour/season was announced by both Rumiko Takahashi and the official Twitter of the anime.
