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The "Akane has a crush on the local doctor, who has a crush on Kasumi" arc was pretty early on, which established that she's into guys, just not this particular guy.
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Aug 18, 2022 20:54
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She was initially excited because she really really wanted a girl friend who was into martial arts, as she had to constantly deal with boy martial artists constantly, and she was devastated when Ranma turned out to be a dude, as she had to constantly deal with boy martial artists constantly.
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Aug 18, 2022 20:59
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And also he saw her naked.
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Aug 18, 2022 21:37
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Kuno being a disgusting creep made her into a misandrist, but she was always portrayed as being into at least guys. I was looking up individual Viz comics as I'm missing a single late one, and discovered my set may be worth close to $1K. WTF?
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Aug 18, 2022 21:40
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Anyone else think Ranma was best at the beginning before the cast bloat?
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Aug 19, 2022 05:54
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I appreciate all the freaks. It's a comedy series, it generally benefits from their being around.
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Aug 19, 2022 05:55
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Man this show was literally one of my favorites growing up. I need to rewatch it even though over the years I have seen like the first 50 episode maybe 2-3 times. Love the 90s animation and Takahashi's character design is just adorable.
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Aug 19, 2022 22:51
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Covok posted:Anyone else think Ranma was best at the beginning before the cast bloat? Oh, definitively. The cast grew way too big with time, leaving barely any focus or development for the side characters.
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Aug 20, 2022 04:19
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I feel like that's a problem for most long running Takahashi series, and not just Ranma. You definitely could have trimmed some characters off of UY or Inuyasha and it wouldn't have changed much
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Aug 20, 2022 04:44
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Ranma benefits from being more episodic than a lot of her later stuff. There's not even any pretension of progression, apart from learning new special moves.
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Aug 20, 2022 06:59
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Nebrilos posted:I can't really understand Akane's character. When she first meets Ranma she thinks Ranma is a girl and she is interested, but loses interest immediately when she learns that Ranma is a boy. Is she lesbian? I think she even says something like "I'm not interested in boys" a few times. But then they end up getting married anyway? What qualities about each other do they love? Other posters have covered Akane's sexuality, but as to her character and why she and Ranma get together, well... I feel like the easiest way to describe Akane's character is to imagine Ranma if he were born a cis woman and traded a lot of martial arts experience for female socialization training growing up. Akane and Ranma are very similar in a lot of ways, like their short tempers, their pride in their strength, their jealousy when someone flirts with the other, and their quickness to forgive threats and try to help them. Akane is much better than Ranma at figuring out social cues and taking the initiative, but they both prefer a problem they can just punch into submission. The fragility of her self-esteem and how she frequently compares herself to others is a major part of her personality and is a good reminder of how young she is, but she isn't defined by it or any other single issue. Their attraction to one another is based on their similarities and common interests and ideals leading them to like each other and consider themselves friends, even when they won't admit it. Please try not to begrudge Akane her domestic violence too much, Ranma is all but begging for her to commit injury upon him 24/7 and is verbally pulling her pigtails endlessly so she unleashes at him Akane's most iconic scene, to me, is when Pantyhose Taro kidnaps her. Taro has been skulking around, ambushing and beating up Akane's loved ones (and Happousai), has a weird thing about pantyhose that hasn't been explained yet, KIDNAPPED HER, and has been, and will continue to be, an abrasive, threatening, self-important rear end in a top hat about all of it. And almost the second Akane wakes up, she starts offering to help bandage Taro's wounds and asking him what his whole problem is so she can help. She's violent and clumsy and exasperated while she helps, but the second she thinks she can help someone, even someone who has hurt her before, she does, and I feel like that's a major part of Akane's character that a lot of people overlook. (It's not even her best kidnapping scene! The one in Phoenix Mountain where she gets thrown in a cell, and as she's collapsing tearfully declaring her despair she breaks the bars of her cell out of the wall and frees herself, is just perfection.)
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Aug 21, 2022 00:25
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But Ukyo is still better tho
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Aug 21, 2022 07:51
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I feel like the author takes great pains to show that Akane is a terrible cook. This comes up multiple times. The author also shows us multiple times that Akane can't swim and can't learn to swim. She's just kind of bad at everything and prone to fits of violent rage. So what is she good at? Fighting? Except that she is easily defeated by Shampoo during their first fight. Is Akane's fighting prowess demonstrated anywhere? I guess she's stronger than Kuno at the beginning of the story.
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Aug 21, 2022 20:51
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I think she's supposed to be a normal person who does martial arts as a hobby and not a wacky martial artist who lives for fighting.
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Aug 21, 2022 20:54
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Pictured: a normal person who just does martial arts as a hobby 
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Aug 21, 2022 21:26
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She just has the unfortunate luck of being the weakest of the freakishly powerful martial artists in her area. The big fish taken from the small pond and thrown into the ocean.
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Aug 21, 2022 21:38
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Yeah, basically. She's a Robin in a world of Batmen
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Aug 22, 2022 01:42
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Nebrilos posted:I feel like the author takes great pains to show that Akane is a terrible cook. This comes up multiple times. The author also shows us multiple times that Akane can't swim and can't learn to swim. She's just kind of bad at everything and prone to fits of violent rage. So what is she good at? Fighting? Except that she is easily defeated by Shampoo during their first fight. Is Akane's fighting prowess demonstrated anywhere? I guess she's stronger than Kuno at the beginning of the story. Akane is bad at basically everything traditionally feminine, and I do wonder if Takahashi drew from her own experience as a professional manga author, a traditionally unfeminine lifestyle, to fill in some of Akane's struggles with her gender and not conforming to feminine ideals. We also do get to see, eventually, that Akane improves as a cook, and the jokes about her bad cooking stop. Akane's a low-tier fighter in the world of Ranma 1/2, but that also means she's a superhuman combatant in real world terms, if only barely. She's got a protagonist's resourcefulness and quick understanding of combat situations and how to turn them to her advantage, when she's not having a normal teen reaction to things. And we do get a late arc where Akane gets a magic item that unlocks a user's full martial arts potential, and Akane is stronger than Ranma for the entire arc. That suggests that Akane could be as strong or stronger than Ranma if she ever truly stepped up her martial arts game. Kuno is stronger than Akane at the start of the series. Doesn't Akane actually point out herself that Kuno must have been holding back when he fights her? We don't know how Akane beat Kuno the first time, but she definitely did, because Kuno does what Kuno does every time a girl kicks his rear end: declare his undying love and beg her to step on him.
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Aug 22, 2022 02:57
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Nihao My Concubine leaves me endlessly conflicted. On the one hand, I think its hilarious, and I've literally used quotes from it for decades now... "It was a mistake to make me unhappy!", "Once more I've hit the jackpot!", "Your fate depends on how you answer!"; on the other hand, the super-sexualisation of the girls, and their complete absence from the plot as anything other than screaming damsels... Shampoo as a helpless bride-to-be is particularly galling. Even watching this in the 90s, it was a little disconcerting. But then that last sequence on the rails, the pounding "uh-uh, uh-uh" soundtrack, Ranma's confession... I don't know, maybe I'm a sap. I cant hate or even dislike this movie, even acknowledging its defects. It's just too much... fun!    
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Aug 24, 2022 12:04
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Man, I wish I still had all my VHS tapes to just rummage through. I had quite a collection going, I think my favorite thing from the series was the orochi TV special. It just felt like a really good story that (to my memory) didn't waste any time.
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Aug 24, 2022 20:32
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Moreau posted:Nihao My Concubine leaves me endlessly conflicted. I often have to settle disputes between children, and I use one of Akane's quotes from this movie almost verbatim, just changing the names as necessary. "Ranma, quit picking on Ryoga! Ryoga, quit encouraging Ranma!"
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Aug 25, 2022 00:00
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I don't watch much of anything these days, but I enjoyed Ranma back as a teen - both as manga or anime - enough that I actually bought them on the newish DVDs. Genma and Happosai are the worst; the former just gets away with it by now mostly being a panda. Also, what did Akane ever do to deserve ranking beside the perverted old man? Maybe I just liked Megumi Hayashibara, as the handful of other DVDs I bought were also shows she voiced (ex. Slayers), but she is a prolific voice actress/singer (I also just watched shows because of the OP). Some years later, while looking at her other work, saw a series called 'Cheeky Angel' (Tenshi na Konamaiki), which on watching felt like Ranma with more of a story. That series was enjoyable if a little over the top later on, is lesser known, and it might be of interest here.
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Aug 27, 2022 20:00
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