So, Ranma ½. I talked about last week, but this is a bit of a tough series to make a call on. Watch? Absatively. But coverage is the dilemma. As I mentioned last week it was doing quite well in the poll, and in fact it did finish second. And there were a couple patrons who said they actually liked it the best but they were voting for XXX. These posts are pretty popular too, even if they don’t draw a lot of comments. But it’s not the sort of show that lends itself to lengthy discourse, really. With Ao no Miburo making a bit of a comeback I suppose I could consider a digest post – the schedule lines up. Sure would be a pair of odd socks though. ROFL.

In that vein there’s not a lot to say about this episode, except that it was good. I do find Ranma ½ works better when it’s hardcore zany. The first half of this ep was the most serious so far, dealing as it did with Akane’s ponytailectomy and its Karmic aftereffects. And it was handled fine, especially the denouement with Tofu-sensei (and in fact this incident was for the best, in the end). But that’s just not what I’m on-board for, really. Not that it wasn’t nice to see Ranma and Akane draw a little closer, albeit sprinkled with random carnage to smooth the journey.

I was relieved when Ryouga showed up and things got all cattywampus again. Not least because it means another round of Yamadera Kouichi, but of course this would prove to be a special bonus edition. We find out why Ryouga is so pissed at Ramna – he followed him to China and got himself dunked in a cursed spring (not that anyone asked him to follow, but whatever). And that’s pissed not even knowing it was literally Ranma and Genma who knocked him into the “Black Piglet” spring. The best part of this was Yamadera’s Jusenkyo guide fixing to cook Yamadera’s Ryouga for dinner.

The whole sequence with piggy Ryouga (“See, it’s a boy”) at the dojo was as classic Ranma as Ranma gets. And there’s no doubt Ryouga was enjoying his piglet time a little too much. Why bother keeping that from Akane at this point, really? Like anything is going to surprise her, and she already knows Ryouga is a bit of an idiot. The fact that this series is fixing to be a long ride (though not as long as the first one, I’ll wager) also factors into my blogging decision. There’s only so many times you can make note of a show being funny, after all. I guess I’ll just play it by ear for now.