Sunday, August 11, 2019

Ranma 1/2 2 in 1 Volume 1

Ranma 1/2 (2-in-1 Edition), Vol. 1: Includes vols. 1  2Ranma 1/2 (2-in-1 Edition), Vol. 1: Includes vols. 1 2 by Rumiko Takahashi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Teenage martial artist Ranma has a particular problem: when he touches cold water, he becomes a girl! But that's not as big as his other problem: his arranged engagement to Akane, the daughter of a martial artist!

My wife bought this for me so I'd have something light to read while we were waiting for our son to be born. Somehow I didn't manage to get to it during the 40 hours of labor but I got enough sleep last night to finally read it in the aftermath just over a week later.

I've been vaguely aware of Ranma since the 1990s when the comic guy at the local flea market tried selling me on it. I bought Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes from him instead and never looked back. Anyway, this is great shit.

Ranma 1/2 is partly romantic comedy, partly martial arts fun. Ranma's affliction puts him in lots of precarious situations. Ranma's father is similarly afflicted, although he becomes a Panda. The sheer outrageousness of the premise lends itself to all kinds of comedy. When you throw martial arts into the mix, it gets even funnier.

The relationship between Ranma and Akane is the driving force of the story at this point. Forcibly engaged, they don't like each other very much at first. Ranma doesn't seem to be interested in sex at all and Akane is enamored with Dr. Tofu, the local physician. One of my favorite parts of the book is that Akane beats the shit out of a mob of potential suitors every day on the way to school.

While the comedy is front and center, the book is also decades ahead of its time in the treatment of the relationship between sex and gender, not as cut and dry as everyone once thought. Ranma acts like a man even when in his female body, raising all sorts of eyebrows, and Akane makes an effort to act more feminine to appeal to Dr. Tofu.

Ranma 1/2: Vol. 1 works on multiple levels. I don't plan on having another newborn in the house in order to read the next volume. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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