Ranma ep 1.1: "A Strange Stranger From China (Here's Ranma)"

Summary | Dub & Animation | Notes & Comments | Screencaps

Animation (1 to 5):
I'll give it a 4, not for any technical flaws but because I don't like the earliest designs as much as what they do later in season one. The eyes are a bit too round (weird thing to say I know, but they change 'em a bit later), and the hair seems off to me. There are a few classic moments though: the animation of Akane running through the halls is fabulous, and Genma's face after Soun scalds him with boiling water could be blown up and put on a poster and I'd hang it in my bathroom. Well, maybe not, but in a closet somewhere. ;P

Dub (1 to 5):
I guess it's not as bad as I remembered it being - I would've given it a 2 before, but now I'll give it a 3. Mostly the problem is that the actors don't have the best sense of their characters yet.

• Brigitta Dau, as Ranma-chan, often sounds rather unnatural. Especially at the beginning. But the sound of her voice is better for the character, IMHO, than Venus Terzo, who got to finish out basically the entire series. :P She is excellent at Meek!Ranma during her first moments in the Tendo house... very cute.
• David Kaye as Soun... well, you can tell he's deliberately making an effort for the character, but it's too proper. He grows into it very well later.
• Willow Johnson on the other hand is just boring. No personality yet at all. She also "gets" the character pretty well later, so this seems to be just not having a clue what to do yet. ;) Kasumi herself isn't quite as well defined yet, either.
• Angela Costain as Nabiki has always been one of the highlights of the Viz dub, and although she's not up to par yet, she's still good in this ep. She just gets a lot better later. And she does, at least, have some personality.
• And oddly, Miriam Syrois starts off exactly as she stays for the whole series. Her Akane is okay - she's always been very good at Sweet!Akane, but her Angry!Akane is both overdone and overplayed. She gives the character the impression of having some kind of anger management problem (well, hell, Akane does have that but not quite as much as Miriam makes it sound). One wonderful moment that I don't think was intentional: Miriam's scream as Akane sounds like a tea kettle! :D Oh yes, and also: she and Brigitta both do a pretty good job laughing. Japanese actresses seem to tend to have the same problem forcing a laugh that American actresses have forcing screams.
• Sara Strange as Ranma-kun usually does a pretty good job as a boy. But she sounds like a girl in this ep, especially in her first scene. Actually any time she has to speak more softly she ends up sounding female - can't really help it, I'd imagine. ;) I'm still impressed that for three seasons she was able to keep Ranma sounding basically masculine (when he was supposed to anyway *lol*).
• Robert O. Smith as Genma needs some work, too. Same kinda deal as Soun: once he gets the character more, he's a hoot, but right now he's a bit flat. Of course he's up against Kenichi Ogata, who is a fantastic and seasoned character actor and started Genma out really well from the start, so...

In terms of translation, the dub stays pretty close to the subtitle lines they translated, which is sort of disappointing; sometimes there are real gems when they take liberties. ;) A few did pop out, most notably "Younger men are so... young" and "This gets more interesting by the minute." But some, like the change to Nabiki's line to Soun when the panda and girl show up, don't make any sense. Why would he shake his head when she says "Oh, so a panda just decides to show up, huh?" And Akane's comment to Ranma after they spar: "I'm really glad you're a girl!" "Huh?" "I mean, it's just... I'm really glad you're not a boy!" That explains nothing. In the original at least she explains that she'd have been pissed if she'd lost to a boy... *shrug*

From manga to episode:
Mostly, pretty faithful. They fleshed it out a little bit but primarily followed the source, even making sure to have Ranma's hair in a ponytail instead of braid during the Jusenkyo scene - I don't think, as this was being made, that they knew yet about the dragon's whisker plotline but it turned out important. The changes they did make, I think, were all in terms of fleshing out; I can't even really think of any, other than a couple of scenes of the panda sinking into the bath, etc. Can't complain; it's a great intro episode.