A new Ranma ½ anime series will arrive in October.
The new series comes right on the heels of the 2022-2024 anime remake of Urusei Yatsura, an adaptation of the classic Rumiko Takahashi manga. The remake aired its manga canon grand finale episode in June.
New Trailer, Familiar Voices
Manga magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday announced the new series at the end of June. But anime fans didn’t get their first glimpse at the new Ranma until a couple of weeks later.
On July 17, MAPPA released a trailer for the new series on its YouTube channel. (Netflix Japan also released a trailer on its YouTube channel.) The trailer features voice actors from the original Ranma series.
Yes, most of the cast will reunite to do the voices. The video specifically mentions Kappei Yamaguchi as Ranma; Megumi Hayashibara as female Ranma; Noriko Hidaka as Akane; Minami Takayama as Nabiki; and Kikuko Inoue as Kasumi.
Although they are not seen in the video, the YouTube notes for the video state that Koichi Yamadera will return as Ryoga; and Rei Sakuma will return as Shampoo.
So far, the main exceptions to this nearly-perfect cast reunion will be the two fathers, Genma Saotome, and Soun Tendo. Akio Otsuka will play Soun, instead of Ryusuke Obayashi. Cho will perform Genma. Genma’s original voice, Kenichi Ogata, will stick around as the narrator.
Otsuka’s recent roles include All For One from My Hero Academia, Daisuke Jigen from Lupin the Third, and Rin’s Grandfather from Laid-Back Camp.
Among other roles, Cho was Jaken from Inuyasha, and Brook in One Piece.
According to reports, Ogata, who turned 82 in March, is “semi-retired,” although you can still hear his voice as Gran Torino in My Hero Academia. Obayashi has apparently retired from voice acting at the age of 78.
What Can We Expect From the New Ranma Series?
If the first trailer can be trusted, the new Ranma anime series will feature an artstyle which is somewhat similar to the Urusei Yatsura remake/ reboot. In both cases, the art updates the series for the Reiwa Era, while remaining very true to Takahashi’s distinctive manga style.
In a couple of subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the creators really emphasize the manga aspects of this anime adaptation. For example, you can see what appear to be typical comic book Ben Day or halftone printing dots (which are stylish, but completely unnecessary for an animated format, of course). The trailer also uses manga-style onomatopoeia sound effects spelled out in hirigana for comic effect.
More importantly, the Urusei Yatsura remake eliminated a lot of filler from the original anime series, leaving behind only the canon parts from the manga. If the new Ranma series follows this same pattern, we can expect to see very little filler.
Another question is, how will the new series handle scenes such as the classic gag from the first episode, when Ranma discovers that he is now a she?
It seems that the answer (if the teaser is accurate) is to do an MTV-style cut, where the scene is divided into little squares. The trailer also suggests that there may be other cuts of things that were appropriate in 1989, but not in 2024.
Ranma ½ Basics
Ranma ½ started out as a manga by Rumiko Takahashi. Weekly Shonen Sunday published the series, starting in 1987.
Throughout the years, Takahashi has been a frequent contributor to Weekly Shonen Sunday, with Urusei Yatsura, Mermaid Saga, Inuyasha, Rin-ne, and Mao also appearing there.
Ranma ½ features a mixture of school romantic comedy, martial arts parody, and touches of fantasy. The main character, Ranma, is a martial arts expert who lives under a curse. Whenever he is splashed with water, he turns into a girl. Hot water changes him back to a boy. Quite a few other characters suffer from similar transformation curses. (Because Ranma ½ is a comedy, these often activate at the most inconvenient times.)
When Ranme was little, Ranma’s father, Genma, got him engaged to marry the daughter of Genma’s friend Soun Tendo. Unfortunately for Ranma, Akane grows up to be an athletic tsundere who hates boys. And when she meets Ranma, she takes an immediate dislike to him.
The series features multiple love triangles, and many of the potential mates are expert fighters.
Ranma Anime History
The manga was adapted into an anime series in 1989. Unfortunately, the series was canceled after one season.
Later that same year, the staff made some changes to the series, which was renamed Ranma ½ Nettohen. Nettohen doesn’t retell the story from the beginning, but continues the action roughly about where the original left off.
From 1989 to 1992, the series had a combined 161 episodes in seven seasons. (Note: The number of episodes, and the order in which they are arranged, can vary somewhat from the original broadcast order because North American distributor Viz Media made some edits.)
In addition to the TV anime series, Ranma ½ had three films and a dozen OVAs.
Technically speaking, the new series will be the “third” Ranma series. It will also be the first bit of Ranma animation since 2008, when the 12th OVA came out.
According to reports, the new series will stream weekly on Netflix.
Conclusion
The manga reached a satisfying conclusion with Next: The Final Chapter in 1996. It’s a little open-ended, but it hints at a happy future for the bickering protagonists. Because it came out after the anime ended, it was never animated.
Since the final chapter gives Ranma and Akane a happy ending (sort of), hopefully the new series will include an adaptation of it.
Whatever they decide to do with this new Ranma series, I am looking forward to it.
