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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37865 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 600 minutes

Customer Reviews

Awsome
the 3ed season is great i love it this season is very very funny i laughed my butt of on some of the episodes in this season the charitar ukyo is introduced there are not many mutli episode arcs but i it has lots of episodes that are just fun after seeing this season i can wait till the next season comes out

Where did the story arcs go?!?
The one thing that I was really enjoying about the first two seasons of Ranma ½ is the fact that they both had a certain season long `theme' to each.

Also, I enjoyed the story arcs that were present in each season, although to be honest, I found that the arcs were getting smaller and smaller during season two.

So, here we have season three.

There were no story arcs to speak of. Pretty much each and every episode was a stand alone episode, with very little in common to the previous episodes of the season.

Although I do have to admit that if season three had any sort of common theme, it was the supernatural theme.

The episodes of this season delved far more into magic and the supernatural than any of the previous seasons. Some of the highlights of season three supernatural episodes included Ranma's female side being brought out of him, a bra that happens to contain the ghost of a vengeful witch, time travelling back almost three hundred years into the past, a soup that makes the person who imbues it super strong, a cursed kendo sword, and three versions of a love potion.

Whew!

Oh, and lets not forget that Ranma gets yet ANOTHER fiancée in this season, although she's now where near as obsessed in getting him to marry her as Shampoo or the black Rose.

Yes, there was plenty of humour to be certain in this season, but I am left to wonder, just how closely does the animated series follow the manga? Did the story arcs slow down in the manga as well? Somehow I doubt that happened.

Also, maybe it's just me, but I noticed a distinct drop in the amount of nudity on screen. That's not really a bad thing, after all, if you get too much nudity, the show risks becoming yet another Japanese Henti.

Man, does that make me sound prudish or what?

A couple of highlights from season three - first, Ranma getting conked on the head and having his female side take over. It was almost painful to watch him (her?) act so feminine! Then there was Kuno's ninja man servant leaving the Kuno estate after a particularly bad day of humiliation. And finally, my personal favourite, the episode where Ryoga finally got his wish and he was able to go on a date with Akane.

After having watched three full seasons of Ranma I have to say this... there are quite a few questions that keep popping up in my mind.

Why is Genma so dishonourable? He's obsessed with teaching his son Martial arts, and yet he's made numerous promises to people he's met (such as exchanging Ranma to be someone's fiancée for food. He's a very poor role model for Ranma, and it's surprising that Soun Tendo is his friend.

Truth be told, Soun isn't much better than Genma, but at least his heart's in the right place and he seems as baffled as Ranma at some of Genma's actions.

How did Cologne, shampoo's great, great grandmother get to be so short? And for that matter, how did she manage to live to be over three hundred years old? And how about Happosai? Since they happened to know one another from their youth how come he's so old as well?

Here's hoping that some of these questions will be answered in the later seasons.

Overall, it was quite enjoyable, but I have to admit that I'm getting a little bored with the stand alone episode format. I will be picking up the forth season soon enough, but I'm not holding any hope that this format of stand alone episodes that are only loosely tied together will be broken.

Oh, and the other downside to this DVD set is the fact that like the previous season, there were no special features present.

3.5 out of 5

Easy to watch, will bring a smile
As long as you don't expect plot and great story you will find yourself enjoying the Ranma 1/2 series. I find myself watching them when I just want to relax and smile. It is an easy series to sit down and watch an episode or two.