How Ranma 1/2 influenced gender dynamics and an entire generation of anime

Welcome to our Tendo Dojo, Ranma’s new home. As late as 2017, when asked about the most popular Chinese character in anime, Ranma Saotome of the series Ranma 1/2 (Ranma Nibun-no-Ichi) was the surprise survey topnotcher. Startling for at least two reasons. First, he was not even listed as an option, indicating he was an overwhelming write-in. Second, many in the fandom were not even sure if he was actually Chinese. At least, it was not specifically stated in the series. But somehow, one of its theme songs may give a hint: Etsuko Nishio’s Don’t Mind China Boy. Anyway, even more puzzling might be how the 1989 anime series continued to attract viewers as it became available in other platforms such as Netflix and Hulu. There was even a live action adaptation of Ranma 1/2 in 2011, more than two decades after it first aired in Japan. What could have been so special about a romantic comedy that had no remarkable plot nor animation style to begin with? Warning: spoilers ahead!

Confused or enlightened? Ranma’s representation of gender dynamics

With 161 episodes, Ranma 1/2 was easily one of the longest anime to ever be aired. To better understand Ranma’s impact, one should have a background of its premise. Ranma was the 16 year old son of Genma Saotome, one of the disciples of the Anything Goes Martial Arts School (Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū). While training in China, Ranma and his father stumbled upon cursed springs called Jusenkyo. Without paying much attention to the Jusenkyo guide, who was notably dressed in a Mao suit (Zhōngshān zhuāng), the two fell on different springs. In the process, they had to suffer the curse of the first one to die in a particular spring. For Genma, it was a panda. For Ranma, it was a woman. And so, when splashed with cold water, the curse was activated, and when poured with hot water, the curse was reversed for the time being. Things turn for the worse when Genma finally had to uphold his word to a fellow disciple of the Anything Goes School, Soun Tendo, to have his son marry Soun’s daughter. After a quick process of elimination, it was decided that the youngest and most trained of Soun’s three daughters, the tomboyish Akane Tendo, would marry Ranma to keep the martial arts school alive. After all, she was also 16, the same age as Ranma. It did not take long, however, before the Tendo family discovered their quirk, and so while Akane tended to like the female version of Ranma (in a platonic way), she had a rather bad first impression of the original male version.

That was the easy part, however. As the narrative began to introduce a great bunch of new characters, some of whom did not even have the chance of further development, the series became episodic with no real plot progression resolving the premise. Indeed, they were too numerous to even discuss one by one in a single review like this. Not only did Akane have her set of suitors, the two versions of Ranma also had their own as well. In a way, there would at least be three harems to consider for this series, a novel development for a 1980s anime. Not even its contemporary Urusei Yatsura (1981), notably having the same creator as Ranma and regarded as the forerunner of most harem anime today, had this level of uniqueness. To emphasize further, later anime considered to have harem themes (i.e., a character having multiple lovers, without necessarily having interest with most of them), such as Tenchi Muyo (1995), Ouran High School Host Club (2006), Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (2006), Hayate the Combat Butler (2007), To Love Ru (2008), The World God Only Knows (2010), Date A Live (2013), Saekano (2015), Oresuki (2019), and Rent A Girlfriend (2020), among others, did not have to contend with such a convoluted setup. This was not the only topic where confusion sets in. If one had been with Ranma long enough, seeing people pledging their crush for either one of Ranma’s versions, or both, would be an eventuality. Compounded with Ranma’s popularity outside Japan, it was a wonder how the anime’s role in portraying gender dynamics were not usually highlighted. Noting that both of the protagonists, Ranma and Akane, were adolescents, it was their particular age group when gender self-identification was usually pronounced. The revealing animation style aside, which somehow merited some level of conscious censorship overseas, this theme subtly carried on by Ranma might well be avant-garde for its time. And the audience may have noted Ranma’s gradual appreciation of the opposite sex even as he pursued his quest of reversing the Jusenkyo curse. He became more understanding of Akane, and the other ladies of the series for that matter, while lambasting his father’s apparently unjust treatment of them. How unjust? Genma left Ranma’s mother Nodoka for the excuse of training to be “a man among men.” Genma also pledged his son to at least three fiances. Besides Akane, there was Ranma’s childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji, and the Chinese Amazon Shampoo. Talk about realizing the value of women.

Ranma’s geopolitical significance: The popularity beyond the wackiness

Ranma 1/2 also rose to popularity at a time when foreign relations between China and Japan were quite amiable. Following the 1978 Treaty of Friendship between the two nations, the 1988 Bilateral Investment Treaty was finally concluded after years of negotiations. The amity between China and Japan ensured prosperity in their quarter of the world. Perhaps it was unintended, but Ranma’s origin story being set in China and Akane’s upbringing in Japan might well be seen as representative of such developments. Of course, other anime of the time also had Chinese characters like Oolong of Dragon Ball (1986), but they were usually seen in bad light. In fact, Oolong was an antagonist early on in the Dragon Ball story. But Ranma was different. He was the protagonist of a Japanese creation. This, along with the increase of Japanese media entering the larger Chinese market during the 1980s, had created a rather unheralded but real impact: the transformation of Japan’s image to the world. It was not long ago when China and Japan were at war. Yet a potential interpretation to be floated in a Ranma-Akane romance, the warming of China-Japan relations, was something that might have been largely missed. Sure, the two main characters had times when they did not get along well, and along with it came the several distractions brought by their many rivals, but it was eventually overshadowed by their growing love for each other. It has to be reiterated, however, that Ranma’s nationality was not explicitly stated in the series. In fact, while he was usually shown with affinity to Chinese clothing and practices, his name was written in the title card with the Japanese script Hiragana (らんま) than the Chinese Hanzi (乱馬).

And it was not only in China did Ranma become big. America was also enamored by Ranma’s antics, particularly during the 1990s. While anime has entered the American market earlier than it did with the Chinese, it did not blunt Ranma’s influence in any way. Again, Ranma was not alone in this wave, but it definitely came at a time when the United States had finally accepted anime as mainstream. Do not even get started with how it became a hit in Europe. There were Ranma dubs in Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, and German, among others.

Anything Goes, Literally

It was not only in Ranma’s martial arts where anything goes. Despite its cultural influence, Ranma’s “anything goes” style of progression was also part of the reason why it could not come up with a satisfying end for some people. The anime covered only a little over half of the manga content. Then again, even if the rest of the manga was animated, the ending of the 161st episode would have not been significantly different. Do not expect a Ranma-Akane wedding coming true, at least as far as canon was concerned. Besides, they would have more issues moving on than just their romance rivals. Some episodes already portrayed it to some extent, like the family’s income sources. It was not as if people would take martial arts lessons everyday. Anyway, that was the point of the romantic comedy that was Ranma 1/2. It was the predictable route of not ending up anywhere after going through all that trouble. But as they say, the journey is more important than the destination. This was what Ranma might have capitalized, and what later episodic anime having no real plot banked on as well. What Ranma did not have much of though was material to work parodies of, so much so that the anime had to make parody of itself at times. For instance, Akane’s sister Nabiki Tendo was seen in an episode reading a Ranma 1/2 manga volume.

Still, perhaps open-ended narratives have their own way to charm the audience. It makes one inspired, and think some more. How Ranma ended it might not be too contrasting with more recent romance anime which also did not indicate clear resolutions in their finales. Another point of contention was how long such an episodic format could have carried on, at least for the anime since the manga was already completed. Also, such tradition did not seem to be catching on with newer anime. Only 9 of the 100 longest anime by number of episodes were originally produced starting in the 2010s, and some of them were carried on from older franchises (e.g., Boruto).

Saibancho, the verdict

If Ranma retained relatively high ratings to this day, it owed this success in part to its “anything goes” mentality. The comedy might seem outdated for some (it was an era before phones and laptops, after all), and the revealing animation style might push the appropriate audience age higher up, but there were also commendable elements which might have not been easily observable. For one, it exhibited more realistic body proportions for most of its characters. They would not look too old nor too young for their age, except of course for a few exaggeratedly shrunk body forms as seen among its older characters (a running gag in itself). Also, the characters were not full of muscles despite their background in martial arts. A quick look at today’s animation style and character design would tell the difference.

Another memorable aspect was Ranma’s soundtrack, particularly the theme songs. Even though the first season consisting of 18 episodes almost doomed the franchise due to initially low ratings (apparently, a change in the time slot did the trick as they retained most of the staff anyway), it already featured music which proved quite enjoyable: Etsuko Nishio’s Jajauma ni Sasenaide (Don’t Make Me Wild Like You) and Kaori Sakagami’s Platonic Tsuranuite (Let’s Keep It Platonic). The rest of the series did not disappoint with its music choice. They even had their own orchestra perform Lambada Ranma, which came out just a year after the more popular Lambada by the French-Brazilian act Kaoma. And to add to that, the Philippines had an interesting concept. It used a song never actually used as a theme for the anime to promote Ranma, Pizzicato Five’s Sweet Soul Revue. Somehow, it worked and has permeated the culture just as well. Overall, watching Ranma may just be more than the nostalgia of the 1980s. Even as it helped shape a whole generation, it could probably be just as enjoyable for a younger audience three decades on. The operative word was “probably”, because perception could not be generalized entirely, and Ranma might be viewed just as unfavorably using another lens. Perhaps what Ranma should be more worried of would be how to deal with the renewed attention to the franchise. As Nabiki put it, “You know how I despise cynicism, but I don’t think Ranma is taking this well.”

(All photos from the series courtesy of Studio Deen, VizMedia, Madman Entertainment)