Ranma 1/2 is based on the manga written by Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of "Urusei Yatsura" a series that defined the Teenage Sex Comedy genre for both manga and anime. Ranma Saotome is a near super-human martial arts prodigy. Raised by his father on the road for ten years all he has ever known is martial arts training. One faithful day, Ranma and his father arrive at the ancient cursed training grounds of Josenkyo. In Josenkyo there are hundreds of springs each with its own tragic story, and who so ever falls into a spring is doomed to transform into the what last drowned there when splashed with cold water. Ironically, being raised to be a man-among-men he is cursed to turn into a busty young redhead when he gets wet. This sets up all kinds of hilarious and embarassing moments in Ranma's life. On top of all this he finds himself engaged to a boy hating tomboy named Akane Tendo because it was a matter of family honor, a Chinese Amazon named Shampoo is pressed to marry him because of her people's laws, his father promised him in marriage to dozens of other girls, and there are several men who are out to woo his female half. All-in-all, Ranma 1/2 is by far one of the most hilarious and entertaining anime series to come around in a long time.

Those familiar with the works of Rumiko Takahashi know her penchant for creating dozens of characters. The anime adaptation of the manga does show some chracter development. It is not as noticable as in the manga, but by season six you can tell Ranma and Akane's relationship has changed considerably. Many of the characrters are a bit on the stereotypical side. This was done on purpose as many of the characters symbolize areas of Japanese society that Takahashi-san would like to see improved upon. For example; Happosai embodies the perverted nature of many of the membvers of the Japanese parlament, and Kasumi Tendo represents the problem of there being too many subvervient women in Japan and not enough getting out and trying to make careers for themselves.

Much of the music in the series is very happy and bubbly early on the first four seasons. The last two seasons sees a change in the style of the opening and closing theme music, but the background music in the series tends to remain the same throughout all seven seasons.

The anime quality of the series is A-typical of late 80's, early 90's anime productions. Certain scenes in certain episodes show more attention to detail than others while some episode look like they were thrown together. The overall quality of the series as a whole is on the good side rather than the bad.

Viz Video brought the anime series to the US originally on VHS. The DVD version features the original dubbed audio form the VHS release, the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and info pages on the English and Japanese voice actors and actresses from the series. All seven seasons of the anime series have been released on DVD, but ironically Viz has not released the entire manga leaving much of the story untold. Fans of the manga who found the scanlations of the volumes not yet released will be disappointed that some of the most important events in the relationship of Ranma and Akane are missing from the manga. There include the Musk Dynasty story where Ranma faces Prince Herb, and the epic Phoenix Mountain and Failed Wedding finale. Both movies and the OAV have also been released on DVD form Viz as well.

i love this series! It's the funniest thing I've ever seen (well, almost the funniest anime I've ever seen). You can't complain much about it because it is really old, made in like the 80's or somewhere along those lines. Akane and Ranma is the cutest couple put forth in anime. They act just like anyone today would considering that they do have a connection but act as if they were not meant for each other. I have the whole series + the OVA. You can't diss it until you actually see it. It is really long though, 7 seasons, and the beginning is sort of boring because they bring in the characters one by one. I recommend it if you want some comedy to laugh your pants out.

my opinion is animation crap story interestin but a bit confusin music gay....well to sum it up i don rly like it my opinion so yeh dunno bout u

You cannot complain when a reviewer uses a term given by the official translators. While 'Chinese Amazon' may not be entirely accurate, it is better than the alternative of 'Chinese warrior', which does not get across the point that Shampoo is a member of the Joketsuzoku (which Viz translates as Amazons). Unlike say, Taro, a character who is also a Chinese warrior but is most certainly not one of the Joketsuzoku.

What the hell is a "Chinese Amazon"? just because some idiotic self proclaimed otaku subbed it as amazon doesnt mean its a friggen amazon... twit- yes they used this in manga as well but cmon! just keep it as chinese warrior or sumthin... geez that translation pisses me off... oh, great series btw.