Air Date: December 9, 2011 on NTV with a rating of 7.9%
Main Cast:
Yui Aragaki as Akane Tendo
Natsuna Watanabe as the female Ranma Saotome
Kento Kaku as the male Ranma Saotome
Kento Nakayama as Tatewaki Kuno
Katsuhisa Namase as Soun Kendo
Kyoko Hasegawa as Kasumi Tendo
Maki Nishiyama as Nabiki Tendo
Arata Furuta as Genma Saotome
Shosuke Tanihara as Tofu Ono
Ryosei Tayama as Kamoyo Okamada
Reason I say it shouldn't be a long review as I'll bet quite a few of you know the story of Ranma 1/2 either by the anime or manga. There's 38 volumes of the manga, have read ten or so of them but there were just way too many to finish but the story is okay but not an essential read.
Briefly Ranma and his father Genma had traveled to China to pursue martial arts training, Ranma is quite good at it but wants to be the world's best. There the pair fall into a cursed spring, the result is when Ranma is doused with cold water he turns into a female! And his father is also cursed as he turns into a Panda, when they get doused with hot water they return to being males.
The main star is Akane(Gakky) who is a high school senior and is the youngest of three daughters living at home. Akane's future is already planned out as she's scheduled to take over the duties of running the family dojou. Though an excellent fighter Akane is not much of a teacher as she's driven all the students away, really have no clue then how the family manages to survive as the father doesn't work at the dojou any more.
On to the story in which Ranma and his father travel back to Japan to visit the Tendo family, his father is old friends with Akane's father. The big surprise for Ranma and Akane is that they've been set up to be married, neither knew of this but the fathers had set this up many years prior. That was one reason for the visit, the other is that there is a rumor that the dojou also has a special spring, though that one is not cursed and supposedly the magic water in it will take the curses of Ranma and his father.
Akane is certainly anything but pleased to learn that she has a fiance, she has taken no liking to Ranma right off the bat. Shortly after their initial meeting Akane learns of his curse and watches him transform into a female. Akane actually likes the female Ranma much better, in a way she wouldn't mind being with that side of Ranma though that's impossible.
Not going to go into every detail, quite a bit was packed into this movie even though it was just a little over 90 minutes, most movies longer than this don't have as much going on. Akane and the male/female Ranma go through many little adventures, she seems to get into trouble all the time but Ranma seems to always be there to protect her. The person that gives Akane the most trouble is her classmate Kuno who also is very good at martial arts, him and Ranma duel it out a few times though they never fnish their fight to see who is the strongest one. Kuno has a big crush on Akane and never stops asking her out, so far she's been able to refuse him and really wants nothing to do with him hence why him and Ranma have had a few unfinished duels.
The rumored magic spring is the biggest part of the story, it's not a rumor as it actually does exist. Ranma though can't find it and though Akane says she knows it's location won't tell him. The biggest difference between the manga and this movie is the well along with a new character named Okamada who is also the vice-principal at Akane's school. He's the leader of a 'drag queen gang' who are also looking for the magic spring, Okamada wants to use it for evil purposes.
The spring is finally found by everyone and it's in the basement of the high school. Akane and Ranma had been captured by Okamada's gang but he managed to escape while Akane is brought to the magic spring to force Ranma to come chasing after her. Ranma does appear as a male but by now everyone knows the secret and after a bit of fighting Ranma has cold water dumped on him.
Turning to a female also naturally makes Ranma weaker, looks like it'll be impossible now for Ranma to defeat the gang, save Akane and douse himself with the magic water. However Ranam against all odds is able to overcome the gang, the female side also had a bit of help from Akane who managed to escape the clutches of the gang and the pair were able to defeat the 'drag queens'.
And with that it was time to use that magic water from the spring, dousing yourself with it will permanently change you to the opposite sex. Akane though has water sprayed on her first but after they waited a while she remained a female, the whole magic spring story was a hoax. The movie ends there but the question remains, will Akane and Ranma end up getting married, can someone like him/her ever get married?
Tried to condense the recap as so much happened, there's no need to write a 5,000 review and out everyone to sleep. Like I mentioned bet quite a few of you know the Ranma 1/2 story and for the most part it followed the manga except for a few parts here and there. Certainly not a must watch film or a masterpiece I did end up enjoying it quite a bit, wouldn't have minded seeing a part two to this movie to see how the pair ends up.
Would recommend watching this, sure it's cheesy and way over the top but you know it's going to be like that going into it. Gakky was fine in this and think was her last role as a high school student, she was 23 at the time of this movie's release. Next post has many more screenshots of her from the movie and they'll probably help you follow this movie better.
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