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Netflix's Ranma 1/2 anime remake has somehow become my new favorite remake of anything, ever
Rumiko Takahashi's classic anime Ranma 1/2 is back with all the charm and a distinctly modern animation style.
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Remakes are tricky things. You have to walk a fine line between being true to the original and bringing something unique to validate the existence of the remake. It is hard to get that balance right but anyone considering it should look at how MAPPA is approaching the Ranma ½ remake on Netflix. It isn’t just one of the best anime of the season but it might be my favorite remake of anything… ever.
That is a big claim but hear me out, because, in the depths of my soul, I need you to understand why the Ranma ½ remake is so good.
Ranma ½ started as an iconic manga by Rumiko Takahashi, who is something of an icon herself for having created Urusei Yasura, Mermaid Saga, and Inuyasha as well. It ran from 1987 to 1996 and was adapted into a pair of anime series from 1989 to 1992. It follows Ranma Saotome, a young martial artist from the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts who, due to a series of comical disasters, has been cursed to turn into a girl whenever he is doused in cold water and back into a boy when he is doused in hot water. He tries desperately to navigate his curse and his multiple (often unintentional) engagements while also trying to be a semi-normal high school student.
Despite not covering the full story from the manga, Ranma ½ was a formative series for many fans in the US, which is why the remake carries such lofty expectations. Yet, here I am, seven episodes into the 2024 remake of Ranma ½, ready to extol its virtues to anyone who will listen. While my expectations were high, it has managed to exceed them in a way that most remakes never manage. The animation is cleaner and more fluid, with MAPPA managing to maintain the original’s style while bringing an undeniably dynamic sense of motion to the characters. The voice acting is more even and they even managed to eliminate the uncomfortably racist tropes of the Chinese hot springs guide that were present in the original. It is, dare I say it, better than the original.
The fight scenes in particular are far more interesting to watch than in the original Ranma ½. Other than the rhythm gymnastics martial arts fight in episode seven – this anime manages to somehow make everything about martial arts – which had some strange edits and cut-aways that didn’t serve the action, there is a consistent sense of motion in Ranma ½ that wasn’t there in 1989. There is an effortlessness to how Ranma flips, kicks, and jumps around the screen. There is a sense of power to each of Ryoga’s powerful strikes.
But it isn’t just what Netflix has improved with the Ranma ½ that makes it such a great remake – it is as much about what they have kept intact. The characters still ooze the charm that made Rumiko Takahashi the legend that she is. The facial expressions are perfect recreations of the late 80s to early 90s anime that fans grew up with. Even the opening theme song and sequence would have been perfectly at home in the original. Somehow MAPPA created a show that feels nostalgic and modern at the same time, capturing the spirit of Ranma ½ and giving it a 2024 sense of polish.
When you say it out loud like that, it feels like making the perfect remake should be easy. Just take the original’s spirit and give it a modern twist; it’s so obvious, right? And yet, we’ve just seen a Gundam series on Netflix that somehow tried to make the obvious fascists the good guys, a live-action Saint Seiya film that was so unremarkable that I somehow forgot Sean Bean was in it, and a CGI-animated Berserk series from 2016 that somehow made Kentaro Miura’s iconic series feel bland and stale.
And do I need to remind you all of Tim Burton’s attempt at Planet of the Apes? Or that weird remake of Lost in Space starring Joey from Friends (which I think is Matt LeBlanc’s legal name)? Remakes are hard to do as well as Ranma ½ is. It isn’t enough to slap a beloved name on the front cover if you’re not going to try to capture the spirit of the original. Get it right, however, and you’re left with something that reminds us that even our favorite shows can be given new life and find new audiences.
Each episode of the Ranma ½ remake has been a joy to watch. If anyone wants to breathe new life into a beloved classic anime, Netflix has provided a pretty solid blueprint to follow.
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