The 1st movie of Ranma ½ was released in 1991. “Big Trouble in Nekonron” is an action packed whacky movie that features the main cast and pins them against the famous “Seven Lucky Gods” known as Shichifukujin (七福神) from Japanese folklore.
How the story kicks off
The story begins with our favorite happy master running around town looking for panties.
Along the way, he manages to piss off both Akane & Ranma making them chase him down.
The scene immediately spirals out of control, making everybody in the cast chase after Ranma and Akane for the dumbest reason you could ever think of.
The creators of the movie tease us with something grandiose that involves all the cast of Ranma.
However, right after the chase scene we encounter a new set of characters.
And with out spoiling too much, all I will say is that the story happened because of the old happy master.
The new characters
The new characters introduced in the movie fill their basic roles for the plot of the movie
Lychee – The poster girl next to Ranma
The 1st is the young girl that isn’t attracted to Ranma?! Well, that’s a first!
Anyway, this new character comes out of no where to find the happy master.
This character really ain’t special to talk about and is really there to hold a plot device that will begin the movie’s main plot.
I honestly couldn’t tell you much about her besides that she’s seeking a prince to come and marry her.
This brings us to the next characters
The 7 (Un)lucky gods
The Shichifukujin are characters directly inspired by Japanese folklore.
And yet, their potential could have been much greater if they were given the entire arc of episodes to build their abilities and personalities.
Yes, this movie ain’t canon at all to the manga, but Ranma is known as a slice of life show and feature small battle arcs of Ranma and the cast trying to defeat a greater enemy.
So honestly, this shouldn’t have been a movie, honestly
An example of this would be “Pantyhose Taro,” whose feature in a couple of episodes establishes his goals and threats against the cast.
Or, if the creators wanted to give each luck god a more rounded character, they could have done something similar like to the Band of Seven from Inuyasha.
But I am kinda stretching my expectations since Inuyasha wasn’t out yet.
The only god that has any character to him is Kirin
Kirin – “the big baddie”
Like most of Ranma’s foes, Kirin makes his appearance out of nowhere and takes Akane as his princess for the dumbest reasons ever.
Like seriously, there are 2 main babes in the show, but somehow Akane gets all the guys anyways – where is the love for Ukyo? XD
Anyway, don’t expect me or anybody else to talk a lot about this character since he’s so undercooked as the rest of the Shichifukujin band.
He’s not worth diving into.
All I can say is that he can only eat rice and that other thing I forgot.
Yes, that’s how good the movie was overall
What are the highlights of the movie?
The only highlight in the movie is when Akane is confronted by Kirin.
This a serious moment in the movie where Akane, for the first time, can’t enter her Looney Tunes mode.
So it’s kinda existing to see the tensions rise up. The animation really conveys it well.
The other highlights are the tower fights in the climax of the movie.
They provide good actions and sometimes funny moments to break the pace
This movie, in particular, features minor “bloody” scenes in some of those fights, which is quite rare for Ranma anime. They are not over-the-top bloody and dramatic like in Inuyasha, but for some reason, it’s there to build up the tension
So, is the movie worth buying or renting?
As I said previously, “this shouldn’t have not been a movie“. This non-canon movie could have been an Arc of 20 episodes that would focus on its own characters, mainly the Shichifukujin & Lychee.
But, alas, it wasn’t.
So my recommendation is to find some streaming service that has the movie if you still wanna watch it.
P.S. 🏝
While the 1st Ranma movie doesn’t live up to the hype, the 2nd movie ,on the other hand, is quite a blast to watch instead.
It has better animation, and its plot is pretty much the same as the 1st one.
I made a full review on that movie, which you can check 👉 here 👈
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