Ranma 1/2 (1991)

[らんま1/2]

Volume 15

Author/Artist: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Shounen Sunday Comics

Synopsis:
Kunou gets a sword that will grant him three wishes. Ranma and Ukyou are challenged by the Gambling King. Three mystery men from China attack Ranma over the secret of his pigtail.

Story/Characters:
The Manganmaru story is fairly funny with Ranma trying to work just about every trick in the book on Kuno and it going about as well for him as you'd imagine. The Gambling King story is even better just for how silly it is. (Nabiki revealing the King's tell remains one of my favorite gags in the entire series.) And if you're a Ranma/Ukyou shipper, him staying over at her place gives fuel to the fire. (The scene of them coming back from the sentou together is so simple and naturalistic that you almost wish this wasn't such a comedy-heavy series and you could actually get a decent love story out of it, but I guess that's what Maison Ikkoku is for.) That leaves the Dragon Whisker story, which I found rather lackluster.

Art:
The art is as good as ever, but special mention goes to how nice Ukyou looks in her yukata in the scene I mentioned above.

Conclusion:
The strength of the Gambling King story offsets the comparative weakness of the Dragon Whisker story in this volume, so I'm going to recommend you give it a read.

Rating:
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