Product Details

• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Japanese (Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Viz Media
• DVD Release Date: January 16, 2007
• Run Time: 450 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000JVT28G
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,581 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The 18 episodes that comprise the first broadcast season of Ranma offer an appropriately zany introduction to the popular transgender martial arts comedy. These episodes form a single extended narrative, unlike the OVA installments, which can be watched in any order. The pacing is a little slower, the violent martial arts encounters are more clearly staged, and there's more nudity, but the mixture of slapstick humor and reluctant sentiment remains the same. When the Saotomes join the dojo-home of the Tendo family, fathers Genma and Suon decide son Ranma and daughter Akane are engaged, despite the participants' objections. Ranma and Genma have to explain why they turn into a girl and a panda when hit with cold water--the result of a disastrous visit to the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. Before they can establish any semblance of domestic tranquility, the geographically challenged Ryoga arrives to continue a quarrel with Ranma that dates back to junior high school. It's taken him this long to find Furinkan High. Kuno, the school kendo champion and windbag, discovers he's as smitten with Ranma's female form as he is with Akane, while his loudmouth sister Kodachi falls for Ranma as a male. Shampoo the Chinese Amazon is equally dedicated to killing girl-type Ranma and marrying boy-type Ranma. When the overwrought Suon Tendo tells Genma, "With you and your son in the house, there's never a dull moment," he makes a rare understatement. Not rated; suitable for ages 12 and up: Slapstick violence, nudity, mildly risqué humor. --Charles Solomon

Product Description

THE HISTORIC FIRST SEASON!

Now you can own the complete collection of Ranma 1/2, Season 1 for one low price with the Ranma 1/2 Digital Dojo DVD Boxset!

A compilation of the entire first season of Rumiko Takahashi's wildly hilarious martial arts romance comedy! Now you can own the entire historic first season on four disks for one low price!

Romance, comedy, martial arts mayhem, multiple personality changes, devilish dolls, haunted caves, magical phoenixes, evil ogres, legendary monsters and more!

It's not easy being teenage martial artist Ranma Saotome, but it's even worse when your martial-artist father Genma takes you from home at an early age to go on a decade-long training mission. He doesn't speak a word of Chinese, and yet he insists upon bringing you to the cursed training ground known as Jusenkyo, where falling into one of the many springs there instantly turns you into whoever-or whatever-drowned there last. And then, the two of you have this little accident...

From now on, a splash of cold water will turn your father into a giant panda, while you...well, you turn into a red-haired (and problematically well-built) female version of yourself. Hot water will reverse the effect, but only until the next time. What's a half-guy, half-girl to do?

Bilingual: English & Japanese

English Subtitles

Parental guidance suggested. Rating - 13+

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Saotome School of Anything Goes DVD October 23, 2001

By Bryan Weber

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I first heard of Ranma 1/2, the premise alone made me steer clear. A boy, cursed in an ancient Chinese spring, turns into a girl whenever splashed with cold water. Hot water undoes the curse, but only until the next time. I wanted nothing to do with this gender bender series billed as a martial arts sex comedy.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
A good friend made me watch it, and I was hooked. In a series that pokes fun at gender stereotypes, with martial arts hijinx, a mismatched marriage engagement between the hapless Ranma Saotome, cursed to become a girl in cold water, and the boy-hating Akane Tendo, who would sooner die than admit her feelings for Ranma, this is a hilarious series.
Season One introduces us to the amazing characters; Ranma, Akane and her sisters, Kasumi and Nabiki, and several rivals for both the hearts of Ranma and Akane. As we watch Ranma struggle to deal with not one, but two engagements, as the Chinese Amazon warrior Shampoo enters the scene. And marvel at the antics of the eternally lost boy, Ryoga Hibiki, Ranma's rival for Akane's heart, and bearer of a "dark secret".
Let me put it this way, if you want a great laugh that you know will always be around to treasure, then you can't go wrong getting Ranma 1/2 on DVD. Your sense of direction would have to be worse than Ryoga Hibiki's to pass this up.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Start to a Very Entertaining Series September 1, 2003

By DaveTan

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ranma 1/2 is by far the most entertaining anime series I have watched to date. Having watched Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Dragonball (Z), etc. I have to say that Ranma 1/2 is easily the most original and hilarious. Although there is plenty of martial arts action, it is also refreshing that no-one ever gets killed. The premise of the Ranma 1/2 series lies in the hilarious situations that occur due to the love interests of the many colorful characters. Needless to say Ranma is in the center of the whole convoluted scenario being the "unwilling" recipient of affections from both female and male suitors (while in his female form). The fact that Ranma is able to turn into a girl makes for some of the funniest situations imaginable.

I have now watched the first 4 seasons of Ranma 1/2 in chronological order and I think seasons 1 and 2 are the best. Season one introduces you to the main characters and sets the background for following episodes. Yet each episode is entertaining and usually adds a new character or interesting story element. Someone who is very familiar with the series may find some of the first few episodes "thin" because many of the main characters don't get introduced till later. However, for those who are relatively new, I think the build up in history and character development is perfect. Enough time is devoted to each new character introduced to give them some depth. In the season 1 set, the story line is relatively linear from episode to episode (each episode continues where the last left off). In seasons 3 and 4 this no longer occurs quite as much with the some episodes becoming almost completely "stand alone".

In conclusion this is a set that all Ranma fans should have and anime fans that haven't yet watched Ranma should definitely start here.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A DVD boxed set that's truly worthy of the format May 5, 2002

By Joseph Rodriguez

Format:DVD

Just in case you've never seen Ranma 1/2, here's the plot in a nutshell: on a training mission with his father, Ranma falls into a cursed spring and now turns into a girl (who happens to be red-haired and...er, well-endowed) when doused with cold water, and back into a boy with hot. Everything else is just a zany, ever-expanding web of elaboration on this main theme. It's closely based on the long-running, successful Japanese manga (comic book) of the same name.

The show has a huge cast of characters, including but not limited to: Ranma's reluctant fiancee, Akane; his father, Genma, and his rival, Ryoga, both of whom have their own curse; Tatewaki Kuno and his sister Kodachi, who are in love with female and male Ranma respectively; and about a zillion other characters who are introduced later in the series.

This first DVD set has the entire first season of the TV show. All of the episodes are good, with the exception of the last one (which is a "lousy clip show," to quote the Simpsons). It takes you through many of the major events of Ranma 1/2: Ranma and Akane's first meeting and the introduction of Ryoga, the Kunos, and Chinese amazon Shampoo.

The DVD format is ideal for anime, and this is no exception. Allowing you to see it both subtitled and dubbed, letting you skip to your favorite chapter, and creditless opening and closing segments are just a few of the perks with the DVD version. Just keep in mind that the animation (which was done about ten years ago) was not terribly high-quality to begin with - don't be disappointed if it doesn't look like more modern, glossy animation, and rest assured that it still looks much better on DVD than it ever did on VHS.