Anime DVD

Amazon.com
The sixth broadcast season of Ranma 1/2 includes some of the silliest entries in a continuity known for its silliness: a seaside resort is terrorized by a ceramic octopus trap, and upperclassman/school gasbag Kuno is stricken with amnesia after a watermelon gets stuck on his head. But at times, the premises feel decidedly thin. When Akane is kidnapped by a Minotaur-like monster (the adult version of a baby Happosai bathed in the most accursed spring at Jusenkyo–the one in which a Yeti riding an ox carrying a crane carrying an eel drowned), Ranma and the gang discover there are worse fates than turning into a girl–or a monster. Director Junji Nishimura spoofs Japanese monster movies in “Scribbled Panda,” as a Kabuki-style spider and demon emerge from a Chinese scroll to attack a carnival. But the most horrible beast is an icky-cute little drawing who develops a crush on Ranma: it’s like Hello Kitty on a rampage. Ranma’s furious when a newcomer who practices Martial Arts Calligraphy won’t accept a challenge because Ranma’s handwriting is so atrocious. The filmmakers balance the slapstick by making kindness an element in the way Ranma, Akane, and Ryoga defeat a Snow-Woman (Yuki-onna) and a bizarre Abominable Snowman who threaten to turn Furinkan into an outdoor icebox. Telepathic boy Satori sums up the series when he visits the Tendo-Saotomi household and screams, “The people in this house are weird!” (Rated 13 and older: brief nudity, slapstick violence) –Charles Solomon

Product Description
It’s not easy being teenage martial artist Ranma Saotome, but it’s even worse when your martial-artist father Genma takes you from home at an early age to go on a decade-long training mission. He doesn’t speak a word of Chinese, and yet he insists upon bringing you to the cursed training ground known as Jusenkyo, where falling into one of the many springs there instantly turns you into whoever–or whatever–drowned there last. And then, the two of you have this little accident…

From now on, a splash of cold water will turn your father into a giant panda, while you…well, you turn into a red-haired (and problematically well-built) female version of yourself. Hot water will reverse the effect, but only until the next time. What’s a half-guy, half-girl to do?

Bilingual: English & Japanese
English Subtitles