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*lol* Yeah, about that. I was just taking a walk and thought "Wow, I'll be thirty when I finish this if I keep at it..." That's a little... frustrating!

The first thing I noticed after reading volume 1 again after such a long time was how different the art was compared to her more recent work. It seemed she used screentones a lot more, though it could just be my imagination due to the high number of color chapters that were in the first book (chapters 1, 2, 3 and 8 all had color pages reproduced in grayscale here). One thing I'm looking forward to seeing, and I think we've discussed it here a few years ago, is when Takahashi's art style changes. She's still very much in her "80s style" at this point, but by the end she's found her "90s style", which I suppose is what she's still working in.

Of course, originally Viz tried to recolor the series themselves since this was one of the first manga they licensed. You can see how that turned out here. Since they were coloring over black and white copies of stuff that was already colored, it made for some weird tonality issues. But Viz stopped doing it by chapter 6 and published the rest like the original Japanese versions (albeit mirrored so that it would read left to right).

I still laughed out loud at a few parts, particularly Ranma's dream of Kuno confessing his love (I really like the anime version with the multiple Kuno's as well), and Ranma trying to act tough after being injured by Kuno and then breaking down and sobbing after Akane touches his wound.

A few translation notes and general comments:

·In chapter two we see Genma attacking Ranma and Jusenkyo and saying "Oh Shoh Toh!" I checked to see what this was in the original Japanese and it was simply "Acha-chaaa!" I have no idea why they changed this. I thought "oh shoh toh" would have some significant meaning if I investigated, but it didn't.

·I'm always curious about the way the Chinese speakers are depicted. Of course in English, we have a stereotypical way of protraying the way Chinese people speak English, so linguistically I'm interested in how other cultures portray non-native speakers trying to speak a language. Looking at the Jusenkyo Guide's Japanese though, I personally couldn't see anything unusual. I know Shampoo's is a little odd though, but we'll save that discussion for when she shows up.

·The whole issue of "drowning" at Jusenkyo is important to discuss I think. The Japanese word used is "溺れる" which is "to nearly drown" or "to be submerged. It's very, very close to the Japanese word for "drowned" which is "溺らす" (Oboreru versus Oborasu, same kanji too). Of course this probably was an intentional choice the English translators made, because "Spring of Drowned Girl" sounds a lot snappier than "Spring of Submerged Girl" or "Spring of Nearly Drowned Girl". The only reason I bring this up is because in the final volume, when Akane falls into a blank spring, people have asked "Why did the spring become cursed if she didn't drown?" and of course this is the reason. Viz started their tranlsation long before that would have been an issue.

·Kasumi was a lot more feisty in the first few chapters! She was quite honest about her opinions on men and scolding Genma for taking Ranma to China. By the final chapter of this book we see her starting to be more reserved and private, I guess you could say. It's very interesting to see how these early chapters set things up. Let's pretend for a moment we don't know what was going to happen next... based on that I would think that the primary relationship going forward was going to deal with Akane's feelings for Dr. Tofu, and the difficult situation of having him being in love with Kasumi. To be honest, I think Takahashi had planned on exploring this plot element for a much longer time but in an interview she says she felt pressure to "have an immediate hit".

In an interview she did for the My Manga Method (Ore no Mangadou) book in Japan, Takahashi discussed the difficulties she had with the series at the beginning, and said she had to redo some things (she didn't elaborate on what) to try and get the story to go in the right direction. But she also said that she was very pleased with the introduction scene of Ranma being chased by Panda Genma.

·Because this was the first manga I read, I can remember thinking there must be a lot of nudity in all manga, but as I've read more, I think Ranma may have had a lot for storyline purposes. By comparison Urusei Yatsura and Inuyasha barely had any nudity (unfortunately!). Ranma's proportions were certainly smaller at the beginning, but funnily enough, Ranma addresses this of course in one of the later books.

·I had forgotten that Dr. Tofu was "a great martial artist". It's a shame he disappared from the series. I think he was initially being set up to be a more serious rival perhaps. Maybe a rival isn't the right word, but I think the series would have explored Akane's feelings for him and maybe fleshed out his feelings towards Kasumi more, in a similar way with how things played out with Godai/Kyoko/Mitaka in Maison Ikkoku. Tofu's weirdness around Kasumi is certainly comparable with Mitaka's inital fear of dogs.

·Reading the English volume, Kuno introduces himself as "Upperclassman Kuno". I was a little surprised at how haughty that was, and so I checked the Japanese version to see if he did it there. In the Japanese he says "I'm 2nd year class E, Kuno Tatewaki." Interesting enough, they left out his first name in the English version. I'm not sure when they finally got around to saying "Tatewaki Kuno". Similarly they did the same with Dr. Tofu, and never mentioned his last name, "Ono". In fact, because of his few appearances, I don't think Viz ever mentioned his last name. I can remember finding this one a Japanese site way back when I first got online in 1998 and being somewhat skeptical if that was correct. *laughs*

·The translators hadn't settled on a name for the Musubetsu Ryuu Kakuto style of marital arts practiced by the Tendos and Saotomes. Initially it was the "School of Indescriminate Grappling" which was eventually changed to "Anything Goes Martial Arts"

·The gag about Ranma writing on Kuno's forehead is pretty much the same in Japanese. In English they use the word "buffoon", which Ranma misspells. In Japanese Ranma writes "baka" and leaves a small mark off the top of one of the kanji. When Kuno is talking to Nabiki about the proper spelling he adds two lines to the side (which is wrong), and Nabiki spells it correctly.

·Maybe Tachihaki can talk about the punishment of standing in the hallway and being made to hold buckets of water? I wonder if this is still done in school, and if not, how are students punished? Of course over here they paddle you, or at least they used to. Shortly after I graduated from high school (1999) they finally made my school stop paddling kids. I think it's probably been abolished totally by now. Anyone in high school know?

·The other thing that always stood out was Ranma's refusal to wear a school uniform. I suppose this was done to make him stand out in panels, similar to how Ataru wore a Tomobiki uniform, yet Mendo always kept the white uniform he wore from his previous school. Anyway, I always wondered why they Principal was so bothered by Ranma's hair, yet never comments about the fact he never wear's a proper school uniform. I imagine this would be a big problem in real life, most likely. Tachihaki, what would happen if you refused to wear a uniform to school?

· In the English version, Nabiki is reading a magazine called "Vague" (a pun on Vogue). In Japanese in's a magazine called "Nan-No". I'm not sure if that's based on anything real or not.

·In the anime version, they depict female Ranma with red hair. To distingish male and female Ranma in the manga, Takahashi always draws female Ranma with a shiny spot in her hair.

·When Kuno talks about keeping both Akane and Nabiki for himself, it shows a picture of him hugging both while two creatures fly over head. This is taken from a rather famous Japanese painting, "Fujin Raijin Zu" by Tawaraya Tosatsu, and the two creatures are Raijin the god of thunder and Fujin, the Japanese god of wind (you can see him carrying his sack that contains the wind in it)



·One thing I've always noticed, and it really sticks out from all the manga that Takahashi has ever done... the drawing of Hiroshi when he is talking to Ranma and asking about the various sexual stuff he imagine Ranma and Akane have done. The drawing of Hiroshi is terrible looking! Well it turns out after comparing it with the Japanese version that Viz redrew it!



Check out Japanese volume 1 page 173, compared with the English version. It looks like what happened was the Japanese version had Hiroshi listing off a list of things he thinks Ranma has done with Akane (sexual stuff, they are obscured in the Japanese version like in the English version). But Viz translated it as a "I bet you've %*#&, huh?" rather than "I bet you've #**#* or #*( and #$@@(, huh?" So because of this, the bubble was too large, and needed to be shrunken. So Viz redrew the part of Hiroshi's face that was obscured in the Japanese version, and did a very poor job of it.

·And finally I would just like to voice my appreciation for Japanese girl's gym shorts. I am in awe of the fact that Japanese schools can actually get girls to dress in such a skimpy outfit. Thumbs up!