Ranma ½: Set 5 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Ranma ½: Set 5 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 9, 2015

Sentaro, successor to Martial Arts Tea Ceremony, makes Ranma battle the grand master as his wife to break off his arranged marriage meeting. Does Ranma have what it takes to master this new form of martial arts? After that, the world of martial arts gets even bigger with the introduction of Martial Arts Shogi, Martial Arts Dining, and Martial Arts Calligraphy. The hijinks continue as the true identity of the principal is revealed, Ranma's friends and family are turned into frogs, and okonomiyaki master Ukyo faces hot competition from Crepe Joe! Lastly, a new student at school named Gosunkugi, who instantly falls in love with Akane, tries to use curses to eliminate Ranma so he can have her all to himself!

Like Sets 1-4, Set 5 (episodes 93-115) has been meticulously restored and is faithfully presented. Initially cancelled in 1989 after just 18 episodes, the iconic 161-episode anime series was almost cut down as quickly as it cropped up. Ratings were abysmal. The series wasn't; a small glimmer of hope that led to a stay of execution. Reworked and re-planted in a different time slot, the next incarnation of Ranma, Ranma ½ Nettôhen, proved far more successful, delivering 143 episodes over the next three years. Even at the end of its run, Ranma ½ wasn't done. In addition to 11 OVAs, the series was one of the earliest to arrive stateside, where it served as the first spark of many that ignited North America's mid-90s anime firestorm. And it's still going strong today. VIZ has tackled an ambitious franchise-wide resurrection, remastering and releasing the original right-to-left Rumiko Takahashi manga (with a new, more accurate translation, among other improvements) and revitalizing the series -- both the original 18-episode first season and the subsequent 143-episode series proper -- via 7 restored and remastered Blu-ray sets, each one presenting the series in its original 4:3 cropped aspect ratio with lossless Japanese and English audio.

But enough about VIZ. Let's focus on the episodes featured in Set 5...

Episodes 93-115 encompass the rest of the series fifth season ("Martial Mayhem," 1991, episodes 89-112) and dive three-episodes deep into the sixth season ("Random Rhapsody," 1991-92, episodes 113-136). Though dividing the series perfectly by seasons might have been more helpful, completists will easily shrug off the staggered season breaks. You're buying the entire collection anyway, right? It's a small irritation at most. Unfortunately, "Martial Mayhem" still comprises the bulk of Set 5's episodes, and "Martial Mayhem" is difficult to fully enjoy or embrace; at least as eagerly or enthusiastically as previous seasons. Ranma and the gang are as delightful and charismatic as ever, solid laughs still await fans willing to overlook the fifth season's flaws, and the various characters all get their proper moments in the spotlight, without sidelining anyone for too long a stretch. However, the storyline and subsequent subplots go nowhere fast -- nowhere at all actually -- and the lack of narrative momentum takes a toll. There's a debilitating "same-iness" to the episodes that deprives the series of much of its usual surprise and spontaneity. What remains borders on a chore; as if the creative team ran out of ideas, steam and the drive to excel.

If that sounds a bit harsh, it's because it very well may be. Having re-watched more than a hundred episodes now in roughly eleven months, these kinds of issues -- repetition and redundancy in particular -- are bound to strike Netflix-bred bingers more pointedly than those who take their time and savor each season, a few episodes at a time. That's not to say the problems aren't there; just that they're more irritating when rocketing through the entire series in a relatively short period of time. Expectation plays a major role too, as earlier seasons set a bar portions of the series' later seasons simply fail to reach, much less exceed. The saving grace being the unbridled lunacy of it all paired with the show's lineup of memorable characters. Good company and good humor go a long way, especially as things become rough and plodding, and keeps the comedy chugging along, in spite of all the bumps in the road. My advice? Either push through the fifth season as fast as you can or take more time; either way, weather the bumpy patches. The whole of the series makes the trip worthwhile.

Ranma ½: Set 5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

If you think Ranma ½: Set 5's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation looks a little worse for the wear, rest easy: it's a product of declining quality in the original animation, not a sudden lapse in VIZ Media's commendably faithful remastering of the series. Grain remains pleasant and consistent throughout, without any sign of the egregious noise reduction, heavy-handed techniques or unsightly anomalies that are currently making a mess of the Sailor Moon releases. Colors are renewed, contrast is lovely, black levels are satisfying, and detail is as revealing as ever, to the point that imperfections in the animation are more visible than ever. However, in no way have these improvements been achieved at the expense of the animators' original intentions. The line art is as crisp and clean as it could be, the slightest nuances have been perfectly preserved, and print specks are kept to a manageable minimum. Moreover, significant macroblocking, banding, aliasing, ringing and errant noise are nowhere to be found, making Set 5 every bit the technical showstopper VIZ's first four Ranma sets continue to be.

Ranma ½: Set 5 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like VIZ Media's previous Ranma Blu-ray releases, Set 5 offers strong Japanese and English DTS-HD Master Audio stereo tracks. Voices are nicely prioritized and intelligible, sound effects are bright and punchy, and each effect has been granted as much crystal clear life as is possible given the series age. Music doesn't overwhelm the two-channel soundscape either, nor does it sound cramped or crowded. The original audio elements naturally present certain limitations, and tininess, slight hiss and other unavoidable mishaps do find their way into the experience from time to time. If you require classic anime to sound as if it were produced in 2015, though, you're doomed to disappointment no matter how much VIZ Media's lossless tracks accomplish. Fans will continue to be pleased with the results.

Ranma ½: Set 5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• We Love Ranma, Part 5: We Love Collecting (HD, 9 minutes): The "We Love Ranma" featurettes continue with a look at more super fans, this time collectors, who discuss their collections and all the oddities and rarities they've accumulated over the years.
• Next Episode Previews (HD, 6 minutes): Twenty-three original, surprisingly entertaining "Next Episode" previews, presented in English or in Japanese with English subtitles.
• Clean Opening (HD, 3 minutes): Two clean openings, with optional English and Romaji subtitles.
• Clean Endings (HD, 3 minutes): Two clean closings, with optional English and Romaji subtitles.
• VIZ Media Trailers (HD, 1 minute)

Ranma ½: Set 5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No surprise here. Other than a dip in quality in the episodes themselves, Ranma ½: Set 5 is as impressive as the four volumes that precede it. More substantive special features would certainly be appreciated -- so far, the sets' supplemental packages have offered almost nothing in the way of must-see bonus content -- but between VIZ's outstanding remastering of the classic series' original animation, another terrific video presentation and another solid set of lossless audio tracks, the latest Ranma ½ release will leave you excited to get your hands on the final two volumes of the series later this year.