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Culture: Ranma ½
Culture: Ranma ½
"Ranma ½ (Japanese: らんま 1/2; Hepburn: Ranma Nibun-no-Ichi, pronounced Ranma One-Half) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from September 1987 to March 1996, with the chapters collected into 38 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan. The story revolves around a teenage boy named Ranma Saotome who has trained in martial arts since early childhood. As a result of an accident during a training journey, he is cursed to become a girl when splashed with cold water, while hot water changes him back into a boy. Throughout the series Ranma seeks out a way to rid himself of his curse, while his friends, enemies and many fiancées constantly hinder and interfere.
Ranma ½ has a comedic formula and a sex-changing main character, who often willfully transforms into a girl to advance his goals. The series also contains many other characters, whose intricate relationships with each other, unusual characteristics, and eccentric personalities drive most of the stories. Although the characters and their relationships are complicated, they rarely change once they are firmly introduced and settled into the series..."
- Encylopaedia Americana entry for Ranma ½, 2016
Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China
A history of Modern China
Culture: Ranma ½
Ranma ½ has a comedic formula and a sex-changing main character, who often willfully transforms into a girl to advance his goals. The series also contains many other characters, whose intricate relationships with each other, unusual characteristics, and eccentric personalities drive most of the stories. Although the characters and their relationships are complicated, they rarely change once they are firmly introduced and settled into the series..."
- Encylopaedia Americana entry for Ranma ½, 2016
Ranma ½ gained no small measure of fame outside of Japan. The publication of the manga drew attentions from Chinese media, whom were interested in how China would be depicted in the manga series. The depiction of the cut-throat Amazon tribe in the Qinghai Province, along with the series centering around the Training Ground of Cursed Springs in the Bayankala range (Jusenkyō) endeared China to the series, leading to the domestic manga producer, Shogakukan, signing a deal with Yangtze Media Publishing to begin publishing Ranma ½ in both Mandarin and Cantonese as soon as possible. Where as the Japanese version ran from 1987 to 1996, the Chinese editions were in print from 1989 to 1998; accounting for the two-year release delay.
The anime also gained popularity amongst the fledgling LGBT movement in the United States. In 1990, the first volumes of Ranma Nibunnoichi were published in the United States at the behest of Manga America, a large company that was leading the way in manga/anime publication in the United States. Unlike other firms, whom had sparing control over a few IP, Ranma 1/2 was not censored by Manga America, as they did not believe in cultural censorship. This shows, as in the short-lived Pokémon series (1995-1996) in the United States, 4Kids (later bought out by Manga America) heavily censored most Japanese cultural items within the show, leading to Japanese-American backlash, and the revocation of their license by Nintendo--Manga America would later correct this by releasing Pokémon Adventure in 1997, completely uncensored and unchanged.
Ranma 1/2 did receive an anime adaptation, first airing on Japanese television in 1989, and running until 1997, fully completing the manga arc, including a few filler episodes to pad out the running to appease American and Chinese audiences. This number also included some arcs that were adapted to feature film, such as Ranma 1/2: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China, which charted at #1 in China for six weeks after it's release in 1997. Ranma 1/2 has gone down as one of the most well-remembered and classical animes of the 20th century by manga fans the world over, earning it's place next to other classics such as Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Urusei Yatsura, Lupin III and Dragon Ball.
Ranma Saotome, in recent years, has become the mascot of the fledgling Genderqueer Movement in the United States, China and Japan, whom paint the troubled young martial artist as one of the earlier examples of genderfluid people being included in the media. In 2015, he was named one of the "Digital Ambassadors of LGBT Awareness", along with a few other cartoon or anime characters.
The anime also gained popularity amongst the fledgling LGBT movement in the United States. In 1990, the first volumes of Ranma Nibunnoichi were published in the United States at the behest of Manga America, a large company that was leading the way in manga/anime publication in the United States. Unlike other firms, whom had sparing control over a few IP, Ranma 1/2 was not censored by Manga America, as they did not believe in cultural censorship. This shows, as in the short-lived Pokémon series (1995-1996) in the United States, 4Kids (later bought out by Manga America) heavily censored most Japanese cultural items within the show, leading to Japanese-American backlash, and the revocation of their license by Nintendo--Manga America would later correct this by releasing Pokémon Adventure in 1997, completely uncensored and unchanged.
Ranma 1/2 did receive an anime adaptation, first airing on Japanese television in 1989, and running until 1997, fully completing the manga arc, including a few filler episodes to pad out the running to appease American and Chinese audiences. This number also included some arcs that were adapted to feature film, such as Ranma 1/2: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China, which charted at #1 in China for six weeks after it's release in 1997. Ranma 1/2 has gone down as one of the most well-remembered and classical animes of the 20th century by manga fans the world over, earning it's place next to other classics such as Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Urusei Yatsura, Lupin III and Dragon Ball.
Ranma Saotome, in recent years, has become the mascot of the fledgling Genderqueer Movement in the United States, China and Japan, whom paint the troubled young martial artist as one of the earlier examples of genderfluid people being included in the media. In 2015, he was named one of the "Digital Ambassadors of LGBT Awareness", along with a few other cartoon or anime characters.
- Asami
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