I guess this is a good warm-up for Medalist.

When a show gets rebooted this many years later, it’s interesting to speculate on why certain roles get re-cast and others don’t. Obviously in a few cases the seiyuu are no longer with us – it’s been almost 40 years. But Shiratori Azusa and Sanzenin Mikado are an odd case. In Aoi Yuuki and Miyano Mamoru we certainly got good actors as replacements. But Matsui Naoko and Inoue Kazuhiko are still active – Inoue extremely busy in fact. Not only that, both of them are excellent chameleons. I can’t imagine their casting would be any more absurd than Hidaka Noriko or Yamaguchi Kappei (and I would have loved to hear the incomparable Inoue go to town on Mikado). Maybe they just weren’t into it.

Having accomplished the unlikely mission of recasting rhythmic gymnastics as a blood sport, Rumiko now turns her attention to figure skating. I love the fact that she takes the most un-GAR sports imaginable and does this to them (not to say the folks who compete aren’t great athletes, but the disconnect is strong). And of course she has to bring two new nutjobs into the equation. It all starts with Akane bringing P-chan to the skating rink (which seems an odd choice to begin with). There, he gets pignapped by the aforementioned Shiratori Azusa, who promptly re-names him Charlotte.

Akane is actually pretty distraught about all this – she’s in tears when she begs Ranma for help at the ramen shop. Fortunately P-chan walks in immediately thereafter (well, is carried in by Azusa). Azusa a a real piece of work, a true terror of selfish random violence. Her partner Mikado comes in and gives Ryoga back to Akane, which incurs a horrific beating from Azusa. He then moves in for an unsolicited kiss on Akane, who’s so shocked she seems to freeze. Fortunately Ranma intervenes via fish cake and the whole thing ends with a challenge for pork possession to take place on the ice in two weeks.

I have to say, Mikado forcing himself on a girl that way is thoroughly disturbing. I tend to think Akane would have done what she says and split his head open once she gathered herself, but Ranma having intervened certainly changes the dynamic there. Eventually Akane takes Ranma to practice skating in prep for the big battle – which is a good thing because while she’s as good as skating as she is bad at rhythmic gymnastics, Ranma is totally clueless on the ice. He even transforms himself into his female self because it’s more lame for a guy not to be able to skate (or so he thinks).

I certainly have no issues with Miyano and Aoi in these roles. He’s about as on the nose for the part as it gets and she’s just generally great, but I did find myself longing to hear the originals take a hack at this all these decades later. Mikado kissing Ranma just confirms his scumbag status, and even on ice Ranma still manages to give a lot better than he gets when he returns in boy form for revenge. That kiss is yet another trigger moment for Akane and Ranma, who certainly come as close to an intimate moment as they have yet. But with a martial skating match coming up, he’d be better to keep his mind focused on that.