Ranma ½: The Movie — The Battle of Nekonron: The Fight to Break the Rules!
Okay, rewind your mind back to those glorious days browsing the 'Animation' or maybe even the elusive 'Japanimation' shelf at the local video store. Remember the thrill of finding something new, something vibrant and maybe a little weird? For fans of Rumiko Takahashi's gender-bending martial arts comedy masterpiece, stumbling upon Ranma ½: The Movie — The Battle of Nekonron: The Fight to Break the Rules! (or Big Trouble in Nekonron, China as the slightly more evocative Viz VHS title proclaimed it in North America) felt like striking gold. This 1991 flick wasn't just another episode; it was a super-sized dose of the Tendo Dojo chaos we craved, hitting the screen with the force of a Ryoga Hibiki surprise attack.
### More Mayhem, More Martial Arts Madness
From the opening frames, this movie throws you right back into the familiar, frantic energy of Nerima. There's no slow burn here; Prince Kirin and his Seven Lucky Gods Martial Artists crash Akane's pleasant boating trip (poor Akane, can she ever catch a break?), kidnapping her to become Kirin's bride, and it's off to the races – or rather, off to Nekonron, a floating fortress disguised as a pleasure cruise ship. The plot, let's be honest, is classic Ranma ½: Akane's in peril, Ranma Saotome (Kappei Yamaguchi voicing male Ranma, Megumi Hayashibara as female Ranma – both pitch-perfect) has to rescue her, and every other rival, friend, and nuisance from the sprawling cast somehow gets dragged along for the ride.
It’s essentially a greatest hits compilation of Ranma tropes packed into 75 glorious, hand-drawn minutes. You've got your obligatory transformations thanks to the cursed springs of Jusenkyo, Shampoo (Rei Sakuma) and Mousse (Toshihiko Seki) causing trouble, Ryoga (Kōichi Yamadera) getting hopelessly lost and turning into P-chan, Kuno (Hirotaka Suzuoki) delivering pompous declarations – it's all here. Did we need a deep, intricate plot? Nah. We came for the characters bouncing off each other and the inventive martial arts mayhem, and director Shūji Iuchi (who worked extensively on the TV series) understood that assignment perfectly.
### That Sweet, Sweet Hand-Drawn Action
Let's talk about that action. In an era before CGI smoothed every edge, the fight sequences here have a tangible energy. Remember how dynamic those hand-drawn battles felt? The animators at Studio Deen really put in the work. Kirin's "Lucky God" minions each have their unique, often ridiculous, fighting styles, leading to a series of increasingly absurd duels across the bizarre landscape of the Nekonron ship. Think Bishamonten's brute strength or Ebisu's deceptive dumpling attacks. It’s not always fluid by today’s standards, but there's a weight and impact to the blows, a kinetic frenzy that perfectly matches the series' blend of slapstick and genuine martial skill.
This movie landed right in the sweet spot of the Ranma ½ anime run, hitting Japanese theaters between the third and fourth seasons ('Nettōhen'). For fans watching the series unfold, often through painstakingly collected fansubs or those early official Viz tapes, getting a feature film felt like a major event. Fun fact: While Rumiko Takahashi obviously created the world and characters, the movie features an original story penned by Hiroshi Yamaguchi, designed specifically for the big screen (or, you know, our delightfully fuzzy CRT screens). It cleverly gives almost every major character a moment to shine, even if briefly, which was a treat for longtime viewers.
### Comfort Food Anime
Is it groundbreaking cinema? Probably not. Does it radically reinvent the Ranma ½ formula? Absolutely not. But that’s precisely its charm. Watching Battle of Nekonron feels like slipping into your most comfortable pair of worn-out sneakers. It delivers exactly what you expect: laughs, ludicrous situations, surprisingly well-choreographed fights (considering the comedic context), and that underlying layer of bizarre romance between Ranma and Akane (Noriko Hidaka). The voice cast, universally beloved by fans, brings their A-game, embodying these characters with the same infectious energy they brought to the series.
Seeing it again now, there's a definite warmth to the whole affair. The animation style, the character designs, even the slightly less-than-subtle humor – it's pure early 90s anime goodness. It captures a specific moment in time, both for the Ranma ½ franchise and for anime's growing presence in the West. I can almost smell the plastic of the VHS clamshell just thinking about it.
***
VHS Heaven Rating: 7.5 / 10
Justification: This movie is pure fan service in the best possible way. It doesn't aim for high art but perfectly captures the chaotic energy, humor, and action that made the Ranma ½ series iconic. The plot is thin, essentially an excuse to get the gang together for a big brawl, but the execution is fun, the animation energetic (for its time), and the character moments land exactly as intended for fans. It loses a few points for not being particularly ambitious, but gains them back for delivering exactly the comfort food anime experience we wanted back then, and still provides a nostalgic kick today.
Final Thought: Like finding the perfect technique scroll buried under a pile of junk, Battle of Nekonron is a concentrated blast of everything that made Ranma ½ a fixture on our VCRs – pure, unadulterated, gender-swapping martial arts fun.