See, that ep right there is why Ranma ½ can be a pain to write about. Was it funny? Sure. But what the hell am I supposed to say about it? Screwball comedies in general aren’t the easiest shows to cover but Ranma in particular is problematic. It’s good but when it’s in this sort of mode, it pretty much disappears like a whiff of perfume in a hurricane once the credits roll.

Basically yet another weirdo shows up and drags Ranma into some totally irreverent and irrelevant nonsense. This time it’s Fukuyama Jun as a “martial arts tea ceremony” nimrod who’s trying to avoid his engagement to a girl named Satsuki. Except Satsuki will turn out to be a monkey, by which I mean a literally monkey and not a tasteless send-up of an ugly girl. He also has a grandmother whose head randomly swells to the size of an inflated hot air balloon. Naturally he’s none too keen on marrying Ranma once he’s seen what hot water does to him, but Akane’s sheer brutishness makes her unsuitable for the scheme he intends to pull off, so any port in a storm.

That’s pretty much it. There’s a crazy horse too, and eventually it turns out that “Satsuki” is actually the pet monkey of the girl, who sent the monkey because she was too embarrassed to face her betrothed. Absolutely 100% non-essential to the story but funny enough for it not to be a major problem. See you next week.