Manga!!

So for this post I decided to read Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahasi. The manga is love comedy story between Ranma, an accomplished martial artist and the daughter of Ranma’s father’s friend, Akane. Aside from the comedy, there is also an action genre being played in this manga as all the main characters are quite an accomplished martial artist. The main trait that makes this manga unique is the ability of a person to change into something else when they were exposed to both hot water and cold water. In this case Ranma is able to change into woman when he is exposed to cold water and when he is hit by the hot water, he turns back into normal. This particular trait is not only limited to Ranma, several main supporting characters also had the same trait as they were happen to go to the hot springs where the source of this weird things happen. One of the examples is Ranma’s father who is able to turn into a giant panda, Ranma’s rival who can turn into a small, cuddly boar and many more.

In my opinion Ranma  is a very entertaining manga. The characters are well drawn, the design is very appealing and the story is really simple, even though it use a very unique concept. To be honest, when I read this manga, I often forget that the artist behind this manga is a female artist. Not to be prejudice or something. It is because the way the story portray and the character design of this comic is something that female artist usually explored. When I see a female manga artist, I always assume that the manga will be like shoujo manga where the drama is often more emphasize and the story. The character design that is often portrayed in her manga is interestingly different than other female manga artist as usually, the male and female protagonist is usually made more charming or like a supermodel. Here in Rumiko Takahashi’s work, the character design for most of the character is simple and also beautiful and they are not in a way a model beautiful.

For the genre itself, I have seen quite a number of female artists doing a shonen manga but I feel that her approach is really unique. I feel that she is one of the female manga artist who does the full frontal comedy and she did it quite well as well the way she approach comedy is more of an over exaggerated situation like Akane and Ranma kick one of the upperclassmen right in his face in a comedic way. This kind of exaggeration comedy also found in her other works, like Urusei Yatsura where the main protagonist trying to get rid of his rival by blowing the bazooka and in the end, the situation become really chaotic, in a way it is funny to see all their reaction

Overall, I really enjoy her works. It is charming, simple, entertaining. The romantic is not that complicated as the one we always seen in shoujo manga and all of her works is really funny which makes it easy to read.