The Ryoga introduction-arc makes a lot of things from the second series more clear. For instance, it's much more obvious now why it is that Ranma feels an obligation to keep Ryoga's secret.

One of the trope pages is "Pillars of Moral Character". It explains some things about the series which isn't apparent to a western viewer, due to the Japanese concepts of giri and gimu, which I only dimly understand. In essence, part of why the series is funny to the Japanese is that Ranma is an honorable guy, but primarily because of his father's dishonesty, Ranma is caught in a monstrous ethical bind. For all intents and purposes, there's no path available to him that doesn't involve acting dishonorably to at least someone and probably igniting a full-scale bloody feud as a result.

After reading it, my thought was that Ranma should elope with Akane and the two of them should open a dojo in Denver under assumed names.

Meanwhile, I just noticed a piece of visual shorthand that Takahashi uses pretty consistently. When anyone splashes water on Ranma or the other cursed people, whether deliberately or by accident, if it's cold water it will be in a bucket. If it's warm water it will be in a tea kettle.

And it even makes some sense, a lot of the time. Not always, however; how would Akane end up with a tea kettle at school?

UPDATE: Ep 11, and we have yet another nutty fighting style: Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts. This one isn't quite as nutty as the ice skating martial arts, but it's a close call.

UPDATE: Halfway through ep 12, and they certainly telegraphed this punchline. Akane is hurt, and Ranma is going to have to represent the high school in the girls' rhythmic gymnastics martial arts tournament. I knew this was coming. It was obvious.

Ryoga gets the upper hand, for a change.

UPDATE: Jeeze, the Kodachi story arc is turning out to be stupid. I can't believe this. I'd start using the 10-second skip button, except that Viz has mastered the disk with settings that disable it. (Bastards. I hate it when they do that.)

Even the sight of Ranma-chan in a leotard doesn't save it.

UPDATE: Yeah, that really, really was stupid. I'm glad it's over.

I think the Kodachi story arc is as bad as this series has been so far, in all the episodes I've seen. I'm beginning to understand why they sacked the production team after the first season and restaffed, and why the new team changed the overall feel of the series so much.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:58 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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