Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep

I have watched the newest Ranma Oav, Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep, since I have last mentioned it (this is the third mention of it on this blog). It can now be downloaded from several places such as BakaBT. While I like that it exists and would like to see more Ranma anime made, I like the manga a lot more. There are several things I liked about the Oav. Thing I liked the most is Akane's dream sequence in which she was a soldier, don't really know why, it is just what stuck in my head the most.

There are two things in particular I did not like. The first is Ranma flashing Happosai to stop his panty raid. I like fan service as much as the next person but I disliked it because it seemed forced and tacked on purely for the fanservice. Flashing someone to get an advantage is a tactic Ranma would, and had, used; though in the manga Ranma does not do that to stop Happosai's panty raids. The most common means by which Ranma stops Happosai's panty raids in the manga is a surprise kick to the back of the head knocking Happosai face first into the ground (see picture below); Ranma never had any trouble stopping Happosai's panty raids. The second thing I did not like was that Nabiki added the mosquito repellent to the debt Ranma owes her. The reason I disliked that is because Ranma being in debt to Nabiki is one of the things that the anime added in that annoys me the most. In the manga there is nothing even implying that Ranma has any debt to Nabiki and when she does manage to get money from him he pays it off immediately (it is also much more difficult for her to get money from manga Ranma than his anime or fanfiction counterparts). While on that I also disliked that it had Ukyo and Shampoo in debt to Nabiki when neither of them are in the manga. In fact Ukyo and Shampoo are far too dangerous for Nabiki to even try to swindle (damn near got her killed when she tried it in the manga).

Ranma Robot Chicken Sketch

At the 2009 Anime Expo, which is an American anime convention, a Robot Chicken preview was shown that had a mention to Ranma ½ (can be seen in the video above). I have never been to an anime/game/comic book/star trek/etc. convention. I don't really know what the experience would be like, considering I really dislike crowded places, I probably would not enjoy it all that much (that and they cost money, which I do not have very much of). While most of them are thousands of miles away, in places like California, there have been some at hotels in my area (less than 10 minute drive) just a few years ago. While I don't know of any that close in the last couple of years, there was an anime convention, at the beginning of June, a little more than an hours drive away.

As for Robot Chicken; I don't really like the show. I like when Ranma is mentioned/referenced in other media though. I also like that they didn't really attack Ranma ½ like they often do other shows.

Ranma New OVA preview

The above video is a preview of the newest Ranma 1/2 OVA that I mentioned in an earlier post. Even though I am not a big fan of the Ranma anime, preferring the manga continuity, I still liked this preview and would like a new Ranma season/OVA's/Movies. If for no other reason than to drum interest in Ranma fan fiction, which I have not been reading very much of lately. The image quality on this is much better than the series was and I like that the characters have more fluid movements in this than they were in the TV series. Newer does not always mean better but in this case it was (for example I like the original Slayers Animation - season 1 and 2 - more than the newest ones).

update 2/3/2010 longer preview:

Youtube videos

Since I recently have had access to high speed internet, I've been spending far too much time on youtube and browsing forums. Having dial up, I used to avoid topics such as favorite youtube clips, amusing pictures, motivational poster threads, etc., now that I have high speed internet I've been going through those threads, finding quite a bit of amusing things, along with stuff I have no idea as to why people like it.

Internet video sites are pretty addictive and I find myself watching weird things. For example, I spent six minutes watching an Australian girl making and drinking Milo (a chocolate milk). Afterwards I thought, why did I just watch that?

Having high speed internet has also allowed me to catch up with some shows and watch shows I wouldn't have as easily otherwise, such as cable television. I only have antenna television, I had people record the shows for me or got them from the library before. So I've been watching things like South Park, Kim Possible, and Mythbusters.

I had already seen a lot of the good older videos on Youtube. I used to do fansub trading via the postal service when high speed internet was less common and it was common for people to add amv's and other videos as filler/extras/bonus's and occasionally someone I know would see a video they liked a lot and have me watch it later.

Here is a Caramell Dance (Caramelldansen in Swedish) also known as Uma uma dance in Japan, with Ranma characters (I didn't make it). I really like this one because the characters look so very happy and I like seeing people, or in this case animated characters, happy.

New Ranma 1/2 Episode

In Japan there is a celebration of Takahashi's 30th anniversary creating manga. At this event a new episode of the Ranma Anime is to be released. The new episode will be based on the Spring Sleep storyline from Volume 34 of the manga. Which was one of my favorites. I like the art style in this, I like the character interactions, and I like Ranma's ki blast (which appears to be a combination of the ShiShihadoken and Moko Takabishi). Overall the opening video is very good. It would make an awesome crossover.

For more information check here: "It's a Rumic World" Event Coverage

Here is a video of the opening sequence:



Here is the video with fan subtitles:

Ranma Anime on-line

Of the Ranma ½ Anime I'd suggest you watch the first season and the Oav's the rest is much lower quality (though I do like the opening/endings). They can be purchased in a variety of places such as amazon.com. If you are unable to afford them (the price for them has gone down a lot) you can watch them online in a few places such as Ranmastream, Youtube has many of the episodes, and it can be downloaded from bit torrent in a few places such as Isohunt. I'd watch a lot more Anime if I had high speed internet (dial-up sucks though I do some times use other peoples high speed internet).

The Ranma ½ manga is my favorite manga. The Ranma ½ anime is not my favorite anime. The Ranma ½ anime is not even in my top ten favorite anime (Slayers is #1 if you were wondering).

This isn't that uncommon for me. I find that the books/manga that the anime/Movie is based on to be better than the Anime/Movie quite often. Of course this isn't true of everything off the top of my head V for Vendetta movie was better than the comic and Thank You for Smoking was better than the book.

Ranma fan made live action musical

The above video is a clip from a live action Ranma musical that I found somewhere.

Ranma Music Videos

There are many very good Ranma music videos on the internet. Youtube and Anime Music Videos have quite a few and there are some on Ranma Romance. I'd list my favorite ones but I don't really feel like doings so at this time.