Last month, on June 21st, MangaReporter’s Twitter revealed Inuyasha and Urusei Yatsura’s creator, Rumiko Takahashi announced she will share information about the Ranma ½ reboot on June 17th at 6 PM JST. Fans from the West received a trailer while the livestream went live on Rumiko’s Twitter (now X). The trailer featured bright new visuals, a gorgeous soundtrack, and an energetic young voice cast. The anime’s release date is also sooner than expected with an October release set. So who did Rumiko Takahashi hire for Ranma ½ 2024 production?
Studio MAPPA Visuals
Studio MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen) will be in charge of Ranma ½ 2024 animation. In charge of the cast’s updated visual direction is Hiromi Taniguchi who’s known for their Gurren Lagaan and One Punch Man key animation. From what fans noticed, Ranma looks significantly different compared to his original style based on the manga. The announcement revealed many changes to the other characters as well including his female half.
Instead of orange-red hair, Female Ranma’s hair is now bright pink. The change was made to represent his feminine side and give contrast to their signature red top. The training and fight scenes have changed drastically with cleaner art making them pleasing to watch. The characters’ eyes have been updated to a more modern anime approach for better expressions. It’s a welcoming site to see how much change this series went through by looks alone.
Faithful Writing And Direction
Rumiko entrusts Ranma 1/s 2024 with the drama and action sequence direction from One Piece’s director, Konosuke Uda. The show’s direction in the trailer shows promising efforts with the fighting sequences are shown to have multiple dramatic angles that are more fluent compared to the original’s static movement and odd zooms. Certain scenes from the manga are portrayed better here such as Female Ranma fighting Panda Genma in the middle of the street while attempting to flee from his arranged marriage meet.
As for the reboot’s script, the greenhorn Kimiko Ueno will be offering the expertise she gained from Dungeon Meshi. Her writing works well with Rumiko’s comedic style as the timing of the humor is now fixed from the awkward silence and slow pacing. The same can be said for the emotional development of the characters like Ranma practicing her ribbon gymnastics with determination and cries wondering if she can beat her competition.
Returning And New Voice Cast
The casting of Ranma ½ 2024 is amazing to think about. For Ranma, both male and female, will have returning voice cast members from the original anime. Ranma will be voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi (Teddy/Persona 4) while his female counterpart will be voiced by Megumi Hayashibara (Rei Ayanami/Evangelion). Akane Tendo also has her voice actress, Noriko Hidaka (Ursala Chariot/Little Witch Academia). What about the rest of the voice cast?
Some of the original main cast are making a return alongside the main three voice actors. So far, there are only two new voice actors for their fathers, Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome. Soun will be voiced by Akio Otsuka (Solid Snake/Metal Gear Solid) while his panda co-star will be voiced by Cho for his first anime voiceover. The original Genma, Kenichi Ogata will be returning with a much higher role to play as the series’ narrator for the late Tadashi Nakamura.
Ranma ½ 2024 On Netflix
The series is set to air in Japan on Nippon TV on October 5th. After the first episode finishes airing, it will then air on Netflix worldwide. Ranma ½ 2024 shows the returns of the 90s martial arts romcom by mangaka Rumiko Takahashi. Prepare yourself to meet wild fighters and terrifyingly strange foes for the sake of the love!
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