Ranma ep 1.3: "A Sudden Storm of Love... Hey, Wait a Minute!"

Summary | Dub & Animation | Notes & Comments | Screencaps

Animation (1 to 5):
Still with the three. This ep didn't even have many great gag faces, though the general animation was for the most part pretty consistent. They dont' seem to have a good handle on Kuno's face in some scenes. The fights looked awesome, though. Akane gets to move in these episodes!

Dub (1 to 5):
Mmmm... I can't decide between a two and a three. In general everyone is better than they were in the first two, except for some reason Ted Cole drops the character in spots. I guess three. A low three. A three-minus. ;)

• A lot of the things that tend to bug me aren't here as much in this ep. Brigitta doesn't have a whole lot of lines, really; Ranma tries to stay a guy for most of this one. Brigitta's lines are still a little dumbly straightforward: "Ranma Saotome's even BETTER than ME." Her line about how Kuno is late - "What a LOOOOSER!" - sticks with me as her quintessential line, it's the one I remember her for. I still say that generally the sound of her voice is better than her acting; she has a great talent for making "BLEAH!" sound effects when Ranma's pulling a face at Akane.
• As I said, Ted Cole drops Kuno a couple of times, especially at the beginning. I can't figure out why. He sounds like a nebbish. "Neeevverrrr, Ranma Saotome!" All whiny and eehhhhhh. :P BUT he wins all his points back for his insane laughter at the end. Man - you win, Ted. You win. :D
• My first thought about Genma's big "your father has failed" speech in the dub was that it didn't work; there's not really a precedent for that in english TV/movies and I felt like the actor didn't quite know how to deliver it. BUT I retracted that statement towards the end. It's not easy to trail off in a speech like that, especially in a dub, and keep the pacing sound natural; Robert Smith actually pulled it off, and was really pretty funny. And the rewritten lines weren't bad, either. :D
• Not enough Nabiki, but by here you can tell that what I said about Angela Costain from the start is absolutely true. Three episodes in and she owns that character. Willow Johnson on the other hand - well, this ep has almost no Kasumi at all, but nobody can take over any of Kikuko Inoue's characters. She just has the sweetest-sounding voice. Sorry, Willow, you lose. ;)
• I have very little to say about Miriam, Sara, David Kaye, and so on in this one. Sara does a good job of sounding like a boy, but doesn't have many good lines, and a LOT of Kappei's subtleties are lost. Miriam is her usual self; when she's teasing Ranma about the water she's so much better than when she's being pissy. *sigh*

Line changes are starting to happen more often. Akane's "Baka!" at the beginning when Ranma jumps into the pool is, for some reason, changed to "OH my -!" Maybe they thought it was too harsh for her to insult him when he could conceivably be dead. ;) In the same theme, however, her line when Ranma's going to thank her - the "engaged to my worst nightmare!" one - is WAY worse than in Japanese, which is just "I hate that pervert", something she says to his face all the time.

Best line in English over Japanese: towards the end when Genma can't stay human for more than five minutes. Kasumi: "Oh, did you stay like that all night?" Soun's line in Japanese is simply "He said he was going to stay like that all day", but in English is the entirely appropriate (and far funnier) "Not worth the effort of changing back, he said." And HOW did the panda tell Soun that? He's not using the signs yet, at least not that we see... :D

Shakespeare, Shakespeare, oh that wacky Shakespeare:
I tried to find the source of what Kuno was saying in his last scene [in Japanese], but couldn't. If anyone can find this for me I'd be appreciative - this is how the subtitles translated it:
"The countryside lies in ruins;
And yet the mountains and rivers remain as they were.
Pride goeth before a fall.
It shows that all which prospers, must also decline."
It might be a translation of a Japanese translation of another foreign source, which would be why I can't find the source material through Google; but I keep just putting in keywords and coming up blank. :P

In any case, that's what Kuno says as he enters during the sunset; once again, I can't find any particular relevance in what Mr. Melodrama says in terms of what his intent is in that scene. 9_9 Anyway, the Shakespeare they use in the dub is from "Much Ado About Nothing":
"For it so falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours."
Any significance to this as relates to the scene is lost on me, too. *lol* Poetry, especially the Bard.. not my strongest suit. ;)

Kuno, naturally, peppers other references into his speech at all times, some actual Shakespeare and some paraphrases or just Shakespeare-like. "That man is no man! he is NOT a MAN!" "Cowards die so many times before their death..." "Beauty itself doth persuade!" was one I couldn't find. My favourite quote in this ep, though, is from "The Tempest", as Akane challenges him to a fight. "Lest too light winning make the prize light..." he muses to himself, before accepting. That one is extremely well-done, and fits the animation better than the Japanese. The entire line from the play is this:
"They are both in either's powers; but this swift business
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light."

From manga to episode:
So last ep stuck two chapters together and fleshed out a couple of scenes; this ep took one chapter and streeeeetched it out as much as it could. *LOL* There are two or three unnecessary recaps, including Kuno's extended flashback to the footage in the pool a minute and a half after the footage in the pool was first shown; there are long moments of stillness as characters silently contemplate things. The second half of the episode takes one or two panels at a time from the manga and creates entire full scenes out of them. And as before, the stuff with the Panda is all added. Just like in last ep, I think the episode is better for the extra stuff... it's nice to get to see a bit more into the moments we're shown.