Ranma ep 1.8: "School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryouga"

Summary | Dub & Animation | Notes & Comments

Animation (1 to 5):
Three again, which to my memory is about as low as season one gets. Nothing really bad this time but nothing stands out as particularly good, either. The only good parts are the fight in the schoolyard, which looks pretty nice - but only briefly, and a lot of the animation is reused. Once they leave the schoolyard they don't use much of Takahashi's original art as references and so nothing is as dynamic.

Dub (1 to 5):
Hmmm, hard to say. I'll give it a four, though I'm tempted to give it a three for the same reason as the animation; it's got the best cast (with a decent Nabiki role) and yet very little stands out. Nothing is out and out bad, it's just not stellar in any way - but I think I lean towards 4 because of Mike Donovan. ♥

Okay, this is a good ep for Myriam Sirois. She's not focusing as much on Akane being pissed off - though that makes sense, since until the end Akane really isn't particularly pissed, but sometimes Myriam just chooses that interpretation and runs with it - and so she gets a nice range. Venus Terzo is just not a good actress to start out here, though she gets better. Her "big scene", when Ryouga finds out about the curse and girl!Ranma whines about it, is just lousy in the dub. Too bad.

Surprisingly, Angela Costain falls flat in this one. Nabiki's "step right up!" scene when she goes into Bookie Mode is fine in Japanese, but Angela simply isn't that good at making Nabiki sound animated (which is a must for the scene). All of her sarcastic deliveries are always spot-on, but a genuinely excited dub-Nabiki sounds fake. Go figure.

Robert Smith, Willow Johnson, and David Kaye do pretty much nothing in this one since their characters have almost no lines: Genma is a panda throughout, Kasumi has only one line, and Soun only has two scenes with maybe two quick sentences per. However, David's deliveries on said lines are pretty good, all things considered. His chuckle when he's winning at Go is a very nice touch, full of personality. Ah yes, and Ted Cole has much the same problem, though he has a few more lines than the afore-mentioned cast members. He's sorta wasted in the ep, although "I LOVE YUUUUU" is funny.

And finally Mike Donovan.... Gee, why might I have saved him for last? Because he's awesome, that's why. Yep. He loves hamming it up; I love his crazed voiceover about sending Ranma to Hell, for one. :D He also adds a nice touch after the landslide, repeating "Ranma...!" in a strained voice, something that Yamadera doesn't do in the original. Anyway, yeah, lots of fun.

Changes in the dialogue are all over the place in this one; I'll try to limit myself just to a few that stand out. First of all, Kasumi might have only had one line, but I liked the way it was phrased in the dub more than in the subtitles: "It's from someone named Hibiki" is just a nice structure for some reason.

There are a few changes worth pointing out with Ryouga, in part because they again change the character somewhat - taking some of the "attempts at dignity" out of him, in particular. First one is when Ryouga wanders down the wrong road, after having the right one pointed out to him several times; the original has him saying "My thanks" (not once, but THREE TIMES - the hell?! *g*) whereas the dub changes it to Ryouga apologizing for his thickheadedness... yes, three times. I like him wandering off in a daze, but the "my thanks" repeated three times follows the characterization I prefer for Ryouga... the one where he thinks he's some great dramatic hero with a lot of nobility. There's something really funny to me about Ryouga playing it so straight that even when you know he's a dope, he doesn't know it. Donovan plays him more obviously dumb, which is good too, but ultimately I prefer Yamadera's deliveries.

Secondly, Ryouga's line in the subtitles when the fight starts is "Your confused babble won't start this fight!" In the dub, it's changed to the far less dramatic "I've heard enough of your talk already!" This is akin to the loss of "I'll never forget how I hate you for that curry bread!"; it removes Ryouga's tendency towards melodramatic phrasing. I suppose this is to separate him from Kuno, who in the dub does more pretentious melodramatic speechyifyin' than he does quoting (like in Japanese), but it reinforces the change I mentioned in the previous paragraph.


Cute little line changes that work: "What is WITH that guy!?" is a better line than "What's he doing?" when Ryouga is hit by the soccer ball; Nabiki's "Gotcha covered!" is actually a good delivery; and "Since when is having a beautiful body like yours a curse?" is great, in part because it's excellent foreshadowing: of course Ryouga accepts the curse pretty quickly, we just don't know why yet. And if you do know why, it's clear that he's a good bit jealous. *G* Oh yes, and "Of all the nerve... picking up a girl now!" is a good one too. ^_^

Dumb line changes: "Hey, I just thought of something!" says one of the chem club geeks, before suggesting that they use their landmines to get rid of Ranma and get Akane back on the market. So - if this just occurred to them, why did they make these landmines, and why were they carrying them around, coincidentally to this schoolyard brawl? :P And Nabiki telling Ryouga that the vitamins she gives him are steroids? Tacky, tacky, tacky. Hate it. Ryouga's dumb enough to think that vitamins could give him super-strength, especially with Nabiki talking him up that way. The steroids element is unnecessary. Speaking of the "pep talk", that is naturally better in Japanese (Nabiki actually says "You are great!" in English to him in that one), but "Hercules was a wimp compared to you!" is a good line.

My biggest loss is over the slashy elements. The fight in this episode is the biggest slashfest I've ever seen on this show, and this show loved to play with homoeroticism. ;D The manga did not push the envelope this way, but when Ranma has Ryouga pinned on his hands and knees the subtitles broke my brain. "Okay, Ryouga!" says Ranma, sitting on Ryouga's back and handcuffed to his wrestling partner, "How do you want it?" *dies* This line remained slasheriffic in the dub, translated into "So Ryouga, what should I do with you now?" But Ryouga's response just becomes "Curse you Saotome!" which is a huge loss. I weep. The subtitles gave me "How DARE you place me in this position?!" With a line like that it's hard to tell if he's trying to tell Ranma that he doesn't like him that way, or if he's simply insisting that no one ever tops but him. *gringringrin*

From manga to episode:
Whereas normally most episodes are a chapter and a half with some fleshing out, this one is actually nearly three chapters long, with more fleshing out. The anime rearranged the sequence of events a little bit so that the bread feud flashback came in last episode, whereas in the manga it comes when Ranma gets the challenge letter, but other than that we have a full 2 1/2 chapters before it cuts out in the final quarter or so of the last one. And, as I said, there are a bunch of additions - mainly the Chem Club Geeks, and Nabiki's involvement. Which, as stated before, is something I don't actually like. Fixing the fight, sure, but steroids?! O_o