Ranma 1/2 23
らんま1/2
Ranma 1/2 Season 2 Episode 11
Spoiler Summary/Synopsis
Akane wins a large, pig plushie at the market district raffle. A mask-wearing Mousse steals the plushie, thinking he’s kidnapped Akane. He leaves a ticket to the local festival’s Chinese circus event as a challenge to Ranma. When Akane informs the training Ranma, he’s not interested in getting involved. Akane gets angry and figures on going alone. Soun and Genma force the couple to go to the festival together.
At the festival, Shampoo arrives with a ticket as well. He’s shocked when he sees that he hasn’t kidnapped Akane at all. In the Chinese circus, the Ringmaster offers up the pig plushie as a prize for a volunteer. Akane “volunteer’s” Ranma-chan, who gets cuffed to a target board. A duck in glasses shows amazing prowess with knives. The act wows the audience, which ends with the duck throwing a lot of firework bombs.
Outside the circus, Ranma returns to male form and the duck becomes Mousse. He reveals falling into one of the cursed springs at Jusenkyo. As such, he has a ton of the spring water to change Ranma’s curse to become a duck. In doing so, Mousse hopes to win Shampoo. During the subsequent fight, Mousse turns back to duck form. Ranma angers Shampoo when he angrily blames Mousse for Shampoo chasing him. As such, she turns herself into a cat and chases Ranma.
Mousse manages to kidnap Akane to force Ranma into saving her within the circus ring. Ranma desperately tries to save Akane and the audience from the duck curse. When Shampoo helps Ranma, Mousse becomes depressed. Ranma tries to help him, but Mousse uses this as an opportunity to attack. Akane fends off Shampoo, but while Ranma tries to stop Mousse, the hose with the spring water hits Akane.
Thoughts/Review
It really is a shame that Netflix’s subtitles are poor and strip out Japanese honorifics. Nevertheless, Ranma 1/2 23 was quite the hilarious episode. For some reason, I don’t remember the original version of this story being as funny.
Regardless, the summer festival story is a fairly common trope in Japanese manga and anime. The unique element here was the Chinese circus tent, complete with a tiger, acrobats, and of course, Mousse (Mumu the Duck). I do remember Mousse in his duck form making me laugh in the OG anime adaptation. That did not change here.
Shampoo changing into cat form to angrily chase Ramna made me laugh as well. The biggest laugh for me came from Akane freaking out when she encountered Mousse hanging upside down in the tree at night. This was one of those slapstick gags that got funnier the longer it went on.
As to the ending of the episode, I have to admit that I didn’t expect a cliffhanger. Obviously, Akane won’t get turned into a duck ’cause “plot.” Or if she does, Ranma will let her have the cure. I honestly don’t remember this bit from the OG anime, so I’m curious to see how it will go.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Let me wrap up my review of the episode with some final thoughts.
- Although she doesn’t have a huge role in the episode, I always love it when I hear INOUE Kikuko’s voice. She may be in her sixties now, but she hasn’t lost a step.
- Likewise, HAYASHIBARA Megumi continues to just rock as Ranma-chan.
In the end, Ranma 1/2 23 made me laugh out loud as well as chuckle several times. That’s a huge plus for me!
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
