Customer Reviews

Ranma 1/2, Vol. 3

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Just when it seems that things are going right for Ranma Saotome, they promptly go wrong again.

That's the way it is with the entrance of one of Rumiko Takahashi's most popular characters, the won't-take-no-for-an-answer Amazon Shampoo. The third volume of "Ranma 1/2" has Ranma and Akane reaching a new level of interest in each other.... only to have Shampoo shatter it.

The day dawns for the martial-arts skating competition, and Ranma is more determined than ever to beat womanizing Mikado Sanzenin (who gave him his first kiss in the previous volume). But Ranma is given a savage beating that almost kills him -- and soon Ryoga/P-chan/Charlotte has entered the rink, determined to beat the figure skaters as well.

No sooner have Ranma and Akane gotten off the rink than a new problem arises: A Chinese girl batters through a wall, announcing "Ranma, I kill!" She's Shampoo, a Chinese Amazon whom Ranma defeated in one-on-one combat in China. Now Shampoo won't be satisfied until (female) Ranma is dead.

But when she encounters Ranma in his male form, and he accidently defeats her, Shampoo falls in love with him. Now Akane is seething with jealousy, and Ranma is trying to evade a new fiancee who wants him as a guy -- and wants him dead as a girl. Even worse, Shampoo's devotion to her new "groom" extends to giving Akane selective amnesia -- she remembers everything except Ranma.

Before this volume of "Ranma 1/2," the romantic problems were pretty straightforward, and the only rival was a guy who is too shy to say how he feels. But with the arrival of Shampoo, the tangled web of love starts to form -- and poor Ranma is stuck right in the middle of it.

There's more romance than martial-arts in this volume, despite the long-awaited skating match. Poor Ranma is being pursued romantically by a womanizing skater and a deranged Amazon, and it's rapidly becoming a lot more than his limited skills can handle. And only Ranma could pull off a little frilly skating dress.

Romantics will get a few thrills in this volume: Ranma threatens Mikado for saying that he'll kiss Akane, and later vows that he will make sure Akane remembers him. And when Akane takes her jealous frustrations about Ranma out on a straw dummy, she remembers his threat, and them gently hugs the dummy.

Romantic problems get more intense in the third volume of "Ranma 1/2," with the arrival of Shampoo, Fiancee No. 2. And things only get more complex later on....

Ranma 1/2 is one of the many great mangas by Rumiko Takahashi. Can you imagine a boy who can turn into a girl with a splash of cold water and back again with hot water? Well even if you can't, Takahashi has. Filled with drama, suspense, endearing love, and great slap-stick comedy Ranma 1/2 is one of the best mangas out there! But warning to some: there is some nudity of character, nothing is really shown except the upper female anatomy but it's all in good humor, no sexual situations.

Living in Japan comes with numerous perks. First off, I can brush up on my marginally acceptable Japanese-speaking skills, but I also have access to some things that I just couldn't get enough of anywhere else. Well, Ranma 1/2 lurks near the top of that list.

Rumiko Takahashi, arguably one of the best and most creative writers of manga in history, presents us with the longest-running series of her impressive resume - the story of a teenaged martial arts master, Ranma Saotome, and his irresponsible trainer and father, Genma. Genma takes him to Jusenkyo, a collection of hot springs in China. If only Genma had known how to read Chinese, he would have known that the springs afflict those who fall into them with evil and seemingly irreversible curses - as Ranma and Genma unwittingly duel it out atop bamboo poles high over the springs, Ranma kicks his father into "The Spring of Drowned Giant Panda" ... surprise, out jumps a Giant Panda, ready to resume fighting. Bewildered, Ranma is hit by the panda into "The Spring of Drowned Young Girl", and meets the surface with the curse that haunts his life - you see, once Genma and Ranma make contact with cold water, Genma becomes a panda, and Ranma becomes a female version of himself. Not to completely worry though, because hot water will bring them back to normal every time. But that's only the beginning of the story. Genma trained with a man called Soun Tendo, the father of three teenage girls - Genma and Soun agreed to marry Ranma with one of his girls. The money-grabbing Nabiki and the impossibly-kind Kasumi, the elder sisters, elect the unwilling boy-hating Akane to become fiancees with this "hentai otoko", and this is the rocky start to the relationship that the series revolves around.

Having already read the entire Ranma 1/2 series, I can honestly say that the third book (fourth in Japan, somehow) was one of the best. It begins with the continuation of the ice-skating competition, with not only one, but TWO of the cutest scenes you'll ever see, plus a great appearance by Ryoga, who is lovestruck with Akane. It's after the competition ends that we're introduced to the sexy Chinese Amazon warrior girl, Shampoo. Female Ranma defeated Shampoo in a tournament of sorts while he was back in China. That's wonderful and all, but the only problem is that Shampoo gives "The Kiss of Death" to all females who defeat her - it's the vow that she'll hunt them down and kill them, whatever it takes. Well, she's followed Ranma into Japan, and now he's on the run again. Just one thing - she has never seen the male-version Ranma. He ends up defeating her as well. Expecting the worst, the terrified Ranma is pushed into another "Kiss of Death", but, somehow, this one is a bit different: Shampoo kisses him on the lips, and means it. The other half of Shampoo's vows are that if a male defeats her, she vows to marry him. And with that, Shampoo is trying to kill one half of Ranma, while trying desperately to seduce the other half. The irony here is obvious and hilarious, and it's situations like these that Rumiko Takahashi has the ability to work with flawlessly.

As you can imagine, Akane (although she won't admit it) is quite jealous and annoyed by Shampoo's advances towards her fiancee - and although Ranma and Akane would rather die than admit any sort of more-than-platonic feelings for each other, we can start to see the sweet silhouette of some sort of attraction between them when Akane meets her first rival suitor for Ranma. Akane, being the violent tomboy, picks a fight with Shampoo. Ranma realizes that Akane is no match for Shampoo, so he comes to her rescue to find her lying on the ground - she wakes up with part of her memory gone - the part of her memory that has anything to do with Ranma, that is. Of course it's Shampoo's wily tricks that did this to her, and Ranma is determined to find the '911' formula shampoo that will bring her memory back. He ends up successful in bringing Akane's memory back, and all is well for everyone. Well, except for Shampoo. It's then that she discovers the shocking secret that Ranma keeps, and is devastated. She leaves (presumably for China) with tears in her eyes ... but distance makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.

If you're as in love with this series as I am, you must read on, it's definitely worth it. The beginning is all about introducing main characters and building the foundations of their relationship with everyone else, but as we progress through the story, the relationships start to develop and Rumiko Takahashi can leave us all with endearing smiles on our faces at this very sweet, hilarious, and exciting action-packed romantic-comedy.

Volume 3 is one of my favorites. It introduces Shampoo, my favorite character, and deepens the plot as Ranma gains a new fiancee.

Read at your own risk cause ramna 1/2 books are so funny and addictive you just have to get them all.Like Chips you just can't read one cause even if your the not laughing type the antics of ramna and gang will keep you amused for many hours and you'll find yourself back here again ordering the next 3 volumes.Take it from someone who's already caught the ramna bug.

I love Volume 3. It was funny and hilarious. Don't Ryoga and Ranma-girl type make such a cute couple? I think they do. All I have to say for Ranma is...RANMA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This manga was published as a flipped version, meaning that it reads like an American book instead of a traditional manga.

In this volume, we see the conclusion of the martial arts skating duel between Azusa and Mikado and Akane and Ranma. This volume also introduces the character of Shampoo, and the reader learns how Ranma and Genma met her in China. Because of a change made in the anime series, Shampoo's introduction is a little different in this manga volume when compared to her introduction in the anime. A rivalry develops between Akane and Shampoo over Ranma, and several confrontations take place involving boy-type Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, and girl-type Ranma. Ryoga also has a role to play in this manga volume as well.

I found something kind of amusing in this volume. At the beginning of the book, there's a list of characters, with a description and a drawing. For whatever reason, the characters of Mousse and Cologne were included on this page, even though they don't appear anywhere in this manga volume.

Unlike the first two volumes that I read of the Ranma 1/2 manga series, there were no speech bubbles cut off at the edge of the pages. Also, the quality of the reproduction of the images is noticeably better in this volume. While there might be a couple of pages where the reproduction quality is a little on the "bad" side, it's nowhere nearly as pronounced as in volumes one and two of the series. Hopefully, the artwork reproduction quality will continue to improve with subsequent volumes of the manga series.

I really enjoy Takahashi's art style and character designs. One of my favorite things I saw a bit in this volume is Genma Saotome in his panda form, using his signs to communicate with the other characters; while this device had appeared in the previous two volumes, it was used a lot more in this volume of the manga. When it comes to any nudity, there a couple of pictures where it's hinted at, but there's no actual nudity that appears in this volume.

Ranma 1/2 continues to be a very enjoyable series, and I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to read future volumes to see how it compares with the anime series.

Ranma 1/2 is rated "T+," which means that it is being aimed at older teens.

I wrote this review after reading a copy of this manga volume that my older daughter checked out through the King County Library System.

This is my favorite book of all five books I have.You see it starts out with a couple skating competition that Ranma and Akane are in. Exept not only are they doing this to prove that Ranma can do any materials arts (even skating!) they also compete for the cute pig side of Ryoga who was captured by this new character (I forgot what her name was) during the time Akane was skating in the ice rink in volume 2.The new girl (who when ever finds something cute picks it up and names it)is also competing for what she calls the cute pig side of Ryoga Charrelote! Akane being mad at the fact gets into the competition. But during the competition there is a black out! I don't want to ruin the surprise and tell you the rest so i geuss you will have to figure out yourself buy it I'm sure you will love it . Oh! and it also has the first apperence of Shampoo! The kick butt chinese chick!

Just when it seems that things are going right for Ranma Saotome, they promptly go wrong again.

That's the way it is with the entrance of one of Rumiko Takahashi's most popular characters, the won't-take-no-for-an-answer Amazon Shampoo. The third volume of "Ranma 1/2" has Ranma and Akane reaching a new level of interest in each other.... only to have Shampoo shatter it.

The day dawns for the martial-arts skating competition, and Ranma is more determined than ever to beat womanizing Mikado Sanzenin (who gave him his first kiss in the previous volume). But Ranma is given a savage beating that almost kills him -- and soon Ryoga/P-chan/Charlotte has entered the rink, determined to beat the figure skaters as well.

No sooner have Ranma and Akane gotten off the rink than a new problem arises: A Chinese girl batters through a wall, announcing "Ranma, I kill!" She's Shampoo, a Chinese Amazon whom Ranma defeated in one-on-one combat in China. Now Shampoo won't be satisfied until (female) Ranma is dead.

But when she encounters Ranma in his male form, and he accidently defeats her, Shampoo falls in love with him. Now Akane is seething with jealousy, and Ranma is trying to evade a new fiancee who wants him as a guy -- and wants him dead as a girl. Even worse, Shampoo's devotion to her new "groom" extends to giving Akane selective amnesia -- she remembers everything except Ranma.

Before this volume of "Ranma 1/2," the romantic problems were pretty straightforward, and the only rival was a guy who is too shy to say how he feels. But with the arrival of Shampoo, the tangled web of love starts to form -- and poor Ranma is stuck right in the middle of it.

There's more romance than martial-arts in this volume, despite the long-awaited skating match. Poor Ranma is being pursued romantically by a womanizing skater and a deranged Amazon, and it's rapidly becoming a lot more than his limited skills can handle. And only Ranma could pull off a little frilly skating dress.

Romantics will get a few thrills in this volume: Ranma threatens Mikado for saying that he'll kiss Akane, and later vows that he will make sure Akane remembers him. And when Akane takes her jealous frustrations about Ranma out on a straw dummy, she remembers his threat, and them gently hugs the dummy.

Romantic problems get more intense in the third volume of "Ranma 1/2," with the arrival of Shampoo, Fiancee No. 2. And things only get more complex later on....

I was having dinner with my boyfriend at his parents house and after dinner i noticed his sister had this book sitting out. As an avid book lover who devotes her entire being into reading a book, i naturaly inquired about it. My boyfriend and his dad gave it rave reviews and his sister was so far very amused and impressed. Such high ratings from non-book lovers! The sarcasm and humor (yes on every page) are a riot! What can i say - I'M HOOKED! :D