“Nihao My Concubine” is an exceptional movie among the rest of the movies and OVA episodes that came out for the Ranma series.
It’s exceptional for it’s quality animation that is mainly focus on… you know.
The Plot in a Nutshell
The plot of the 2nd movie of Ranma, is pretty much the same as the 1st one.
- The cast encounters a group of bad guys
- One of the bad guys is a prince
- The prince kidnaps Akane
- Ranma must save the the damsel in distress
The movie does a couple of things differently than the 1st, and without spoiling too much, all I’ll say is that a lot of the main cast members have their spotlight, which is a very big plus.
Also, since the bad guys are more generic, the creators were able to add a one dimensional but still entertaining baddies for the main cast to tango with.
This is much better than the 1st movie which introduced 7 strong opponents, i.e. Shichifukujin, who had more potential
The “Plot” 😳…
( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°).. (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)
The highlight of the movie is really the animation.
The movie takes place on an tropical island in the middle of nowhere where our main cast is having fun right next to the beach,
and we all know how Anime media love to exploit those beach episodes.
The creators of the movie knew exactly what drove many fans to Ranma…
This is just the starting scene, by the way, and these are not the only outfits the movie exploits on Ranma’s lovely ladies.
I emphasized the word “exploit” because as I said in my bio page, I don’t wanna praise or endorse any type of media that exploits any kind of sexuality for views and marketing.
And since this movie does NOT hold back on the fanservice material, then I won’t hold back as well.
Ranma is a series that is more focused about slapstick comedy and Romcom rather than being a bland tasteless anime that uses fanservice to gain any attraction.
A quick example of such tasteless anime, that had great potential, is Rent a Girlfriend, which quickly derailed into an anime that exploits the female cast in the manga and the show to gain attraction.
I will cover this anime in the near future, since I have some to get off my chest
The Animation
Luckily, the budget for the movie was not over blown on the fanservice.
The animation for the actions scenes and the exaggerated facial animation are just as great.
Every action scene conveys tension between our heroes against the generic baddies.
And when the the movie needs to break the tension, it uses the comedy that is elevated by funny facial animations and slapstick T&M comedy
Bonus – mini capsulated character development 🤗
Ranma was and still is sadly, a series that does not wish to resolute any conflicts it setup way back when Rumiko Takahashi first created those things.
This might be interpreted as a lack of story telling skills, however, this was later debunked after Rumiko later created Inuyasha.
But I digress 😅, this movie hints HARD for the obvious shipping that the original show always had.
If this movie was canon, then the character development for the romantic rivals would have greatly benefited from the movie.
Shampoo x Mousse
A great a example of this would be with the shipping of Shampoo and Mousse.
The best “dramatic” fight scene has got to be for Shampoo and Mousse.
A couple of Chinese warriors that have a relationship since they were young, Mousse always adored Shampoo for everything she was for him since childhood.
Shampoo, being a proud Amazon woman warrior, is bounded by law to marry Ranma as he was a man that defeated her in combat, something which Mousse never could do.
Because Shampoo primarily is obsessed with marrying Ranma to follow her code honor as an proud Amazon warrior, she might not actually have feelings for Ranma.
Which is where Mousse comes in the picture to challenge Shampoo’s core values.
Both in movie and show, Shampoo always shows no concern for Mousse, but the show does hint that deep down, Mousse still has a place in her heart.
And in this movie, they revealed Shampoo’s secret side for Mousse and I really loved it.
It was a touching moment to see Shampoo not being schemer for once, and showing a genuine honest side of her for Mousse, a man dedicated to marry and only her.
Salute for the creators to actually care about characters that need some love in this series – God only knows how much Mousse needed this 😥
P.S. As I was writing this review + re-watching that specific scene, I had the urge to link this song that just popped in my head XD.
Conclusion
Nihao My Concubine is a much better improvement from the 1st movie.
It has everything any Ranma fan would want.
- It has great animations for both the action scenes & “THE PL🍑T”
- Provides cute character development for all the Cast
- And still delivers the the comedy we know & love
I recommended to have physical copy of this gem because it has that Vintage quality. If not, I recommend you do not skip on this movie at least.
It’s just that fun to watch.
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