Ranma 1/2 (2024) episodes 4 and 5 are here! This set of episodes holds so much excitement for me personally because my favorite Ranma 1/2 character of all time, Ryoga Hibiki (a.k.a. The Eternal Lost Boy) finally makes his appearance! After watching both episodes, I can confidently say that I was not disappointed with what he had to bring to this remake. If anything, his antics ended up improving so many aspects of the show in ways I didn’t expect. There are a plethora of great things to cover here, so let’s dive into everything that’s happened because of his arrival.
Episode 4 starts off with the situational recap, but this time with a retro video game style. Perhaps a clever nod to the “Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle” game for the Super Nintendo, this version of the recap was such a fun and cool new surprise to watch! In fact, it might actually be my favorite creative choice made so far. It was such a visually pleasing display that embodies the nostalgia and newness that’s bound to come from a remake of Rumiko Takahashi’s work. After the intro, the excitement only continues as we get a wild boar chase as the opening scene. With fast paced action and freeze frame visuals reminiscent of classic comic books, we get quite the dynamic lead up to Ryoga’s introduction where we see him stopping the boar in a single move.
Just within this opening scene, he ends up heightening the chaotic humor of this remake and bringing back some of the charm from the original anime. A big part of this is due to his phenomenal dub voice as, similar to Soun and Kasumi, he sounds almost identical to his original 1989 counterpart. I was thrilled to have noticed this as it works so excellently to maintain the spirit of the beloved character as he’s given new life in this modern era. The remake accomplishes this another way by making his personality and poor sense of direction shine. With every moment he asks somebody for directions, we see just how comically far away he is from Ranma. Yet, he maintains the intense face and calm tone that comes from his desire to get revenge on him regardless of how lost he is – which so effectively nails his over-dramatic and chaotic demeanor. The humor he brings to this opening scene sets the standard for that of the rest of the episode as we transition so smoothly into Ranma’s opening scene next – making us excited to see them interact.
More specifically, here, we see the Tendo sisters helping Ranma find clothes to wear for his female form much to his demise. As they decide to look through Akane’s closet to complete the task, I noticed Ranma and Akane have better comebacks for each other that only continue throughout the rest of the episode. From seeing Akane angrily chase him after school to seeing the two of them walk back to the house with groceries in hand, the familiarity they established with each other in previous episodes seemed to work wonders in making their bickering sound more natural and even reminiscent of the original anime. I was particularly happy to see how they revamped Akane’s response to seeing Ranma struggle to remember who Ryoga is by having her say “that brain’s really working overtime, huh?” as it was my favorite moment of hers in the original episode.
Speaking of Ranma and Ryoga’s first meeting, we see Ranma first sense his presence as bloodlust when he stops mid-air while running away from Akane after school. I thought this was a cool little detail as we seldom ever saw Ranma anticipate anyone’s arrival by sensing anything like this from them. I think it works to enhance his showcase of unique mastery in martial arts. What comes next is their first interaction which is rather interesting structure wise. Everything about them that’s covered in their first conversation from the original anime seems to have been spread out throughout the whole episode across different scenes taking place in different locations which I thought worked pretty well. Although it was a shame they got rid of the flashback where we see young Ranma wait three days for Ryoga to arrive to their fight. I also thought it was a loss in terms of humor to cut the part where Ryoga gets lost trying to find Ranma in the middle of their fight after their first conversation out in the school yard.
While the remake doesn’t even make the two of them fight in front of the school upon first seeing each other, opting to save it for the second half of the episode, we do get a pretty notable set of moments leading up to it. When Ryoga leaves after throwing Ranma a note of challenge, we get a simple yet impressive scene of him walking through the forest while reflecting on his plans to get revenge on Ranma for ruining his life. The remake’s attention to detail is at its strongest here when it comes to better visuals. Even though he is seen crushing two walnuts in his hands to symbolize how easily he’s going to break Ranma’s windpipes, I thought the animation and sound design made the whole sequence such a visually beautiful watch. It also stays memorable for its amazing lighting and series of close ups that combine to enhance the drama of Ryoga’s character – which is why I’m glad they added this as a brand new scene for the remake.
When talking to Akane about his overdue letter of challenge, I also thought it was hilarious when Ranma told her not to worry about it because Ryoga is probably lost again as they speak. The real kicker was following this scene with Ryoga in the middle of nowhere misunderstanding the directions of a farm lady. Pairing these two scenes together tells us just how bad Ryoga’s sense of direction is by proving even Ranma’s prediction correct. This was also the first instance where I noticed just how well the humorous background music is starting to work for this remake. While the original is still a bit more iconic, this modern version still manages to deliver a feeling of absurdity that comes with almost every funny moment in the show.
Soon, it comes time for Ranma and Ryoga’s big fight at school field two. Asking questions about Ranma and Akane’s engagement and now setting the scene with their coverage, the Furinkan High radio club is a non-existent element in the original that is quickly becoming a fitting new gag for this remake. I didn’t even notice this until after a few watches, but the way people tell them to shut up in the background definitely adds another layer of humor they’re already bringing. While hearing them, we get a shot of Akane’s concern as she sits in the grass to observe their fight. I wanted to note that her presence in these situations are consistently making more and more sense as we now care that she’s there. That is, we understand that this is her wanting to be there for him during his fights since she is also a martial artist who now has a closer relationship with Ranma.
Right before their fight, we get a funny moment of Ranma offering a variety of different kinds of buns to Ryoga as he thinks taking them from him in the past is the cause of his current grudge. We get another nod to his poor sense of direction when Ryoga angrily asks why he would buy them when they’re already expired to which Ranma replies by saying he had to wait a week for him to arrive. The fact that Ryoga is so caught up in his own drama that he refuses to acknowledge any issue his poor sense of direction causes for others is ultimately what made this such a hilariously notable moment that defines his character so well.
With that settled, their fight finally begins. The first thing to notice here is the change in colors and shading to make the scene feel more dramatic. The editing, alongside intense music and commentary from the radio club, is also what gives their entire battle a rhythm with a steady level of quality suspense. Combined with swift character movements and interesting camera angles, such visuals are a creative way of distinguishing the experience of the fighters and that of the spectators. As for the action itself, watching Ranma take the lead at the start of the fight here was rather impressive as he immediately dodges Ryoga’s attacks so nonchalantly – with his hands in his pockets nonetheless! Easily coming out on top against another opponent giving it their all, the remake keeps on nailing it when it comes to showing off how astoundingly trained Ranma is. Even as we eventually see Ryoga put up a much better fight, Ranma brings his a-game alongside him by moving so fast to dodge his punch that he looks like he’s teleporting. On top of this, when a scratch from Ryoga manages to draw a bit of blood from him, he wipes it off and licks it – showing us a whole new display of his cockiness that was not apparent in the original. I’m glad they added it, though, as it amps up the excitement and simply makes him look so cool.
About halfway through the fight, however, there is an interesting change in Ranma’s behavior when Ryoga ends up making a sizable rip into the middle of his shirt. Ryoga ends up calling him girly for pointing out how that was his favorite shirt, and only then does Ranma seem to actually take the fight seriously. As he screams at Ryoga to take back what he said, we get yet another instance where Ranma showcases the complex relationship he is developing towards his gender – specifically due to how he holds on to his concept of manhood. It’s refreshing to get these kinds of moments more consistently as I feel like we didn’t get too many of them until the end of the original anime.
Following this callback to his female form, things only get worse for Ranma when he ends up passing through cold water and landing to continue fighting Ryoga as a girl. Cutting to Akane, we are able to sense so clearly the urgency in her voice both when she yelled out helpful tips to Ranma earlier on and now when she calls out his name from worry about his transformation. Both instances work to define her role here as a helpful friend standing by his side during the fight. At the same time though, she isn’t past giving Ranma a funny side eye when he describes the struggles of his curse to Ryoga and expresses that he just wants to live a “happy and honest life”. We feel how ridiculous she thinks that is for him to say given the kind of person she thinks he is.
When Akane tries to help Ranma, he ends up having to protect her in the midst of Ryoga’s fast paced attacks by holding her while leaping away from the fight. Once they land somewhere secluded, things soften up between them in very exciting ways as they take a moment to relax in each other’s arms. They share such a tender moment full of safety and relief before eventually coming back to their senses. We see them jump out of each other’s arms before Akane scoots away from Ranma as they both begin to blush – which leaves them staring almost fearfully at each other over what they were just feeling. This entire scene had me absolutely freaking out over how cute it was. This is their first official romantic interaction with each other, and it was such a delightfully satisfying watch that worked to progress the series’ overall plot. By the time this moment ends, we also transition so well into their trademark bickering which is an aspect of their relationship that I still think is done better in the original. However, at this point and time in the remake, I think we’ve witnessed their relationship develop enough that the modern version of it is starting to work well as something we can get used to. A rather notable accomplishment given the subpar way previous episodes have presented this to us so far.
Soon, we get to see the importance of their growing relationship speak volumes when Akane slaps him hard across the face right after Ranma essentially calls her an idiot for making him worry about her. There’s a moment of silence here as Ranma is seen shocked and Akane goes from angry to tearing up with sadness while expressing how upset she is that her concern is inconveniencing him. The deeper meaning behind her hurt here becomes clear as, given previous episodes, we understand that Ranma is the only boy she’s let herself actually care about. When he ridicules her so severely for showing it, her intense disappointment tells us that she expected him to act better than someone who would treat her just as stupidly as the rest of the boys she’s had to deal with. As we see this softer side of Akane, we get to see just how much Ranma means to her despite how much they fight and how early on they are in their friendship.
I was absolutely pulled into the final few moments of this episode as it emphasizes, in so many ways, just how much Ranma truly does care about Akane. The most powerful instance where this is shown is when Ranma watches Akane walk off then fends off Ryoga’s attack so aggressively when he tries to continue the fight. Screaming wildly at him to shut up while kicking his weapon into the air so harshly, this is the only other time we’ve seen Ranma fight Ryoga with true malice outside of reminding him of his curse. Afterwards, when Akane turns around and screams that she doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore, we can see the look of genuine worry on his face over hurting her feelings so much. It was honestly so sweet to see both of these reactions from Ranma play out as they show just how much he values Akane and wants to keep her in his life.
While the episode ends rather abruptly with a striking chop of Akane’s hair from one of Ryoga’s flying weapons, combined with seeing her frozen in the midst of silence, the drama gives justice to what a pivotal moment this is to the overall series. It’s the instance that forces Akane to redefine her self-concept and sets up her signature short hair look that goes on for the rest of the series. On top of this, however, the care Ranma shows towards Akane is only heightened here when he freaks out at the sight of her chunk of hair on the ground. Given the way Ranma’s character has been presented to us so far, I don’t think audiences would have expected him to care so much to see something like this happen to Akane. The fact that he does confirms that, despite how he acts, he is capable of caring about things even if it only matters to Akane which was so endearing to watch as well.
The next episode takes place right where the previous one leaves off, with everyone watching as Akane stands frozen in shock over her cut hair. Given Ryoga’s behavior throughout the entirety of the previous episode, it was as a rather pleasant surprise to see him concerned over Akane’s wellbeing alongside everyone else despite the fact that he had no idea who she was. It sort of seemed like good foreshadowing for his adoration of her in the future. However, Ranma definitely takes the lead when it comes to caring about Akane. What showed this fact the most was when he silenced everyone who was wondering about the whereabouts of male Ranma by saying that now isn’t the time to get so caught up in the small things and that he’s more worried about her. His look of genuine worry comes back here before Ryoga joins in to point out what a relief it is that she is otherwise unharmed – to which Ranma agrees.
However, the sweetest moment of this whole scene was when they came together to get serious with Akane about taking her anger out on them to help her feel better. While this was yet another shocking gesture coming from Ryoga, seeing Ranma initiate this offer and commit to it with him was special to watch as it proves what he’s willing to do for those he truly cares about. Akane then ends the scene off just right by breaking out of her trance to deliver a satisfying slap across both of their faces before walking off. Watching that play out had me cheering for Akane as, not only was it a more excellent display of her anger, but I was rooting for her to let it out in her signature unabashed way rather than just walking off without doing anything. The remake very much stayed true to her character here which I appreciated.
The scenes that follow, however, so excellently explore the complexities of Akane’s character. Seeing her walk back from school, we see her face a clear internal struggle over her hair. However, she doesn’t engage in real introspection until she sits alone in her room where we are treated to a flashback of Dr. Tofu taking care of her when she was little with short hair. Seeing him get nervous around Kasumi, we then see her looking at Kasumi’s long hair accessorized with a bow and wanting to be more like her by styling her hair in a similar fashion. I think this is one of the few important sequences that the remake actually does a bit better than the original as, next to introducing her crush on Dr. Tofu, they are just able to spell out her more nuanced feelings about meaningful subjects as well as the conclusions she comes to about them more clearly. I feel like I am able to understand what makes Akane such a complex female character upon the first watch of this remake compared to my first watch of the original anime.
I will say, though, I feel like her interaction with Ranma when he shows up outside her window could have been better by adding more emotion in Akane’s voice and facial expression. While the dialogue was okay and the way she threw her lamp at his face was very humorous, she sounded very monotone and had a poker face in an instance that didn’t work for it. This is where I feel like her sass could have come in handy again as it would have helped make the scene feel a little less awkward. The following scene brings more humor though as Kasumi takes one look at Akane’s cut hair in the kitchen and immediately sends her cooking setup flying, which Ranma comes out of nowhere to save. This was such an over the top reaction, especially coming from Kasumi, but I also thought the shocked pose she went into in front of Akane was so cute.
The next scene shows Ranma on top of the roof in a blue shirt, which was a pleasant treat personally as that has always been my favorite of his outfits from the original. The moment we saw Akane walk home from school, we also saw Ranma follow her around as if watching over her to make sure she’s okay. However, this scene shows him remembering how upset he made her during the fight with Ryoga while looking down at the cut off chunk of Akane’s hair in his hand – something I thought was so sweet to see him care enough to do. It is here that he gets serious about apologizing to her, which is what he tries to do in the following scene where he finds her walking down the street by herself. Suffice it to say, however, it is kind of endearing to see how much he sucks at it. He only manages to say a quick sorry, and doesn’t know how to handle her calm and standoffish attitude. Yet, what he can’t convey through words, he expresses through actions as he continues to follow close behind her – the soft background music making this moment sweeter.
By the time they make it to Dr. Tofu’s office, he comments that she cut her hair short again which is followed by hearing Ranma say “again?” in his head. While it was rather small, both in this remake and in the original, I just love seeing instances where Ranma gets to know more about Akane and her life before him. Not only is it a more intimate way of showing his care for her, it also adds importance to his potential role in her life.
The best part of this scene, hands down, is when Akane cries after Dr. Tofu tells her that he likes her short hair better while taking care of her sprained ankle. This crying scene is drawn out to highlight the significance of this moment. What really carries the emotional weight of watching it, though, is hearing the intensity of her sobs. While her lines and deliveries have been a bit spotty throughout this remake so far, the emotion in her crying is so realistic and shaky here. It’s simply powerful, especially with the soft background music. With all that, we can’t help but care so much about her in this moment – which is the exact experience we see Ranma have as he stands by the door watching her with one of the most serious expressions we’ve seen from him so far. To see him care as much as we do makes us root for him to become a source of comfort for her in the way he clearly wants and for their relationship to progress further as a result. This is almost what we get in the next scene, although not in the way I expected upon watching it for the first time.
The entire interaction Ranma and Akane have while walking back home from Dr. Tofu’s office definitely stands as another one of the remake’s flawless scenes displaying the intimate side of their relationship. On Ranma’s side, it’s so cute to see him so unsure on how to talk to her yet remain persistent in trying to be there for her and express how much she means to him after seeing her cry. Meanwhile, seeing Akane express her lighthearted mindset about getting over Dr. Tofu with such a playful attitude was equally as cute and refreshing to see from her. It adds so much depth and maturity to her character when we watch her make peace with her situation in her own way. I also thought it was so great to use close up side shots of Akane to hone in on Ranma’s perspective of her as she sorts out her complicated feelings all on her own. After witnessing this, we feel his urgency to tell her something important when he jumps in front of her to speak. It is endearing once again, though, to see him hold back and mess up in so many ways as someone who clearly just isn’t good with words.
Akane brushing past the compliments he gives her, however, leads to him accidentally telling her that he loves her – and that makes Akane stop in her tracks. In all honesty, when I heard him say that, I screamed. In fact, no matter how many times I watch that part, I still end up freaking out and fanning myself excitedly. This was such an amazing shock to hear since, from what I can remember about the original anime, we only ever heard Ranma accidentally tell Akane he loved her once and it was way later into the series. To get it this early on delighted me to no end. While I had issues with the pacing in episode 3, this moment made me realize that something great is coming out of it as well. In the original, we hardly ever got any real romantic moments like this from Ranma and Akane as they were spread out across so many episodes. With fewer episodes to work with, the remake’s faster pacing works to give fans at least one of these moments almost every episode which I think makes the remake so much fun to watch.
However, at the same time, I can’t help feeling that this confession is rushed given what awaits them later on in the series. It makes me wonder how intensifying their relationship this much this early on will affect the impact of romantic moments they have in the future. Still, the moment was so good that it makes this seem like a rather minor issue that can work itself out in the same way this scene did. It ends with Akane using Ranma’s distracted state of mind of thinking she’s cute as an opportunity to push him into the cold water below and turn him into a girl. Here, Ranma snaps out of his trance by telling her that she isn’t cute to which Akane expresses a happy-go-lucky carelessness for – a rather cute ending that suited them both and sealed the deal on Akane’s newfound self confidence.
That night, we get Ryoga breaking into the Tendo household in the middle of the night to settle his fight with Ranma while he’s asleep. He is, of course, awakened when they end up getting thrown outside into the rain. Now transformed into a girl once again, I thought it was such a funny moment to see Ranma take a moment to point out how ridiculous it is that Ryoga is still holding a grudge about something he doesn’t even know about. Once again, Ryoga’s inability to properly acknowledge others’ concerns in the midst of his dramatic rage heightens the humor almost more effectively than in the original. While they end up fighting, Akane and Kasumi sneak around the house in fear that all the noise is coming from an intruder. What made this bit so funny was Kasumi first telling Akane not to beat him up before randomly placing a heavy dumbbell in her hands for her to use so that she doesn’t get hurt. Given Kasumi’s innocent personality, it was a riot to see her act rather out of character again by encouraging the crazy antics of other characters and taking her responses to situations a little too far.
Later on, we see Akane find a little black pig in her room, which is really just Ryoga who also ended up transforming from the cold rainwater outside. As she enters the living room to approach Ranma, who is sitting next to a dog he thinks is the transformed Ryoga, we see how previous events helped their casual banter return in this scene and establish their relationship as annoyed friends once again which was nice to watch. However, when Ranma asks Akane about the random pig in her hands, she ends up having to calm the little animal down by holding him close to her chest. I was super shocked to see that they kept this element of the story in since, next to the Jusenkyo guide’s offensive voice, this was another controversial problem within the anime. Here, Ryoga essentially takes advantage of Akane’s ignorance of his transformation by using it to get physical affection from her without her full consent. I suppose it is a pretty big plot point since it acts as leverage for Ranma to expose Ryoga to Akane whenever things get too intense between them within certain episodes. Still, given what they’ve toned down and fixed so far, I thought the remake would have found a different way to work around this.
Ryoga is then exposed to Ranma as the little black pig after he submerges him in a tub of warm water per Akane’s request. This entire scene of Ryoga explaining how he got cursed in Jusenkyo is full of great comedic timing from the moment Ranma notices Ryoga’s human body. The greatest instance of this comes right when Ranma tells Ryoga that he should be mad at the girl with the panda who knocked him into the spring of drowned pig and not him. He doesn’t even get to finish his sentence before realizing that he was likely the girl who kicked him into the spring, and to make matters worse, Genma comes in as a panda to use the bathroom before deciding to leave them alone. This moment plays out so hilariously as we watch Ryoga slowly turn back to Ranma with a crazy look in his eye upon realizing that it was indeed him who is responsible for his curse. Right after Ranma tries to look all girly and innocent, of course the impending fight between them ensues and we are left to enjoy watching since it was built up so excellently. Even after watching it several times, that moment still leaves me laughing and stands as one of my favorite parts of the episode.
Although, there is one issue that has resurfaced from the first episode during this sequence which is the Jusenkyo guide’s dialogue in Ryoga’s flashback. I thought his explanation of the spring of drowned pig was far too wordy which made it a bit of an awkward watch. Still, this was a rather minor issue that didn’t end up spoiling the entirety of the bathroom scene.
Although her dialogue could have been more creative, Akane’s display of anger is also stronger again in the scene that follows, where she is seen stopping Ranma from attacking the pig – not knowing it definitely attacked him first. Afterwards, we see her holding the pig in bed pondering why Ranma was so upset at her attachment to it. I think adding a bit more emotion to her inner voice here as well would have been a great opportunity to bring out the best of her character one last time and make this part a more entertaining moment. The rest of the scene makes up for this, though, as we get to see her beat up Ranma after he accidentally ends up on top of her when trying to grab Ryoga from her arms. I thought this moment had such great execution and delivered when it came to heightening the humor before watching the final events of the episode.
Ryoga’s introduction definitely amped up the chaos and humor in this remake and brought it closer to a feel more reminiscent of the original. This might sound biased, but it’s almost as if his antics brought out the best in all the characters and pushed their entertainment factor to new heights. Of course, the developments made in the previous episodes contributed to this progression. It makes me happy to see that the quality of the remake is getting better with the addition of more characters since, to my surprise, I had much fewer issues to point out when watching these two episodes. Seeing how the remake has told the story so far, I’m left excited to see how other developments improve the show with a modernized touch.
