I remember it fondly. Waking up at 4 in the godamn morning to watch it before school.
It is so bad looking back on it. But whenever I see it now I can't help but be glad I watched it.
Did you watch the last few episodes in the season they released to finish the anime? If not you owe it to yourself to do so.
It's his time of the month. In the anime half-demons have a "period" once a month. They loose all demon powers for one night. When it happens to Inuyasha he looses his white hair and all dog like features.
A lot of the older anime had that style and it kinda just kept happening. Gets a little old!
But, meh. Takahashi isn't really good at writing romance overall. She's better at comedy + action while romance is usually just a side part or a reason to fight in Ranma's case.
Eh, it's less the art style I was talking about and more so the ideas behind it. Let's go with Tsundere, for instance. The classic Tsundere is someone who is very violent but shows a lot of signs of actually liking the MC. The classic line of "You idiot!", y'know? A lot of the older ones did that.
Some anime ideas have stepped away from that as the years pasted. Making MCs either too amazing to be punched like that, or simply making the angry female tsundere a joke character or one that is simply ignored. Like Tornado or whatever her name is in One Punch Man. While she's, by no means, a romantic interest with Saitama or anything, she's still a classic arrogant Tsundere character. She was just ignored and called a child by Saitama instead of getting a hit off, or something.
There are probably other examples of this too... Maybe that Knight one where the MC starts the harem route, without his own choice, but then ends up picking only one girl and sticking to her on like episode 4-5 or something. It was a nice change of pace.
On the other hand, Ushio and Tora which was remade recently has the classic useless, yet still loved female character that insults and hurts the MC without warning. But she's nice 40% of the time, so it does kind of balance out.
Unlike post-Ukyo Akane who was cruel and loud 90% of the time. That got old real fast!
.. Your...really wrong, that was Rumiko Takahashi's style of animation, and it was actually pretty unique. she did a few shows that got popular though.
Ranma 1/2 is one of my favourite Anime and Manga of all time.
But not because of the Akane/Ranma romance, but their dynamic and well done comedy, I feel Rumiko knows of her inability to write romance in a dramatic sense, so she plays up her comedy.
Ranma 1/2 is still one of my top shows, if only for the comedy. But the idea behind it is something that has yet to be done again, even if the romance wasn't too good. It was the martial arts and the drama behind Ranma turning into a girl that really got my attention.
It's just a shame there wasn't really any "serious" arcs revolved around Ranma dealing with being a girl, excluding the whole mother thing. To be honest, excluding the mother thing, Ranma's girl form was just treated as part of the joke or a fighting asset after awhile. After the initial shock wore off, at least.
Meh! That's what stories are for, though! There are some great fan made stories out there that really expand the world, although most of them pass Akane off as a violent maniac.
Which she is, but y'know. I don't really like the 'bash' stories where she's treated like dirt but still acts violently. I like it better when she gets a clue. But anyways...
It'd be nice to see another show / manga like Ranma pop up. A show focused around fighting, potentially, where the MC turns back and forth between a guy and girl now and then. Usually turning the MC into a girl in comedy ones only lasts for like an episode or two.