Ranma 1/2 (1988)

[らんま1/2]

Volume 3

Author/Artist: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Shounen Sunday Comics

Synopsis:
When Akane sprains her ankle, Ranma has to step in to challenge Kodachi. Later, Ranma and Akane take on the formidable martial arts ice skaters known as the Golden Pair.

Story/Characters:
Kodachi latches on to Ranma (literally and figuratively) as the first female member of his unwanted harem. It's amusing how she's the inverse of her brother, hating one side of him and obsessing over the other. (Should Ranma wind up in Hell for his many sins, I'm pretty sure he'll have to divide his time between her and Kunou.) Compared to some series, I suppose it's not so bad as the count only goes up to three primary suitresses outside Akane. Anyway, the match with Kodachi is pretty good. Just about everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown in (and if they had a similar expression in Japanese, a kitchen sink probably would've been thrown in too).

While Kodachi becomes a recurring character, she established the pattern for much of the series, as demonstrated immediately with the Golden Pair arc. Take some random activity, put "martial arts" in front of the title, introduce some weirdo competitor who fixates on Ranma or Akane (or both), have it go badly for Ranma until he figures it out and wins. Your mileage may vary on how effective any particular variation of this formula works. Being early in the series, the Golden Pair is pretty entertaining. Mikado and Azusa aren't the greatest characters, but they're one-shots, so they do their job well enough. Ranma's bold declaration at the end of this volume, threatening Mikado if he touches Akane is one of the most effective teases of their relationship going somewhere in the entire series. A bit of a shame we don't see much in the way of concrete progress from this point. (I speak as someone who's been through all 38 volumes twice. It looks like a good pace of progression now, but you'll find that the tires will lose traction really soon.)

Art:
We get some nicely varied action set pieces between the Kodachi fight and the first half of the Golden Pair fight. That's one nice thing about the oddball scenarios is that it provides for some inventive action. Also, as a side note, I really like Ranma and Akane's ice skating costumes.

Conclusion:
While you may get tired of the standard formula later on, it plays out well here both in the Kodachi and Golden Pair fights. And even if it goes (mostly) nowhere, there's some good teasing of Ranma and Akane's relationship getting more serious. Give this one a read.

Rating:
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