History YMMV / RanmaOneHalf

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* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Every single character gets one, and the deliberate alternate depictions (for some subtle, for others blatant) in the anime only add fuel to the fire. Not helping is that the manga and anime are significantly different to the point that they can be considered alternate universes [[note]]It should be noted that while the manga was written by the creator Rumiko Takahashi, the anime was written by a production team without Takahashi's input.[[/note]] These [[http://ranmarelated.blogspot.com/2007/06/anime-vs-manga.html two]] [[http://ranmarelated.blogspot.com/2008/03/ranmas-characterization-between-manga.html blogs]] list many of the differences between the two.

** Is Akane truly clueless about Ryoga liking her or is she aware that he likes her but is deliberately ignoring it?

** Another Meta-example [[{{Pun}} Ranma is Gender-]]''[[{{Pun}} fluid]]''

** For some reason, a lot of the fandom refers to Shampoo's signature weapons as "bonbori" (in reality a type of Japanese paper lanterns); this probably caused some confusion when listening to Akane's Baka Song, as she mentions bonbori. The round-headed maces are "chui".

* FairForItsDay: While the series has its fair share of ValuesDissonance (see the section below), including comments that would be seen as undeniably homophobic by today's standards, those comments generally have context, as it's often implied that the characters making them are hypocritical in some way and/or that it doesn't help their case. The case can be made that many of those comments have less to do with homosexuality being wrong than the fear of being ''perceived'' as LGBTQ, and a parallel can be drawn with the fear of being outed (something LGBTQ people can easily relate to). The series is perhaps more telling in what it ''doesn't'' say than it what it says: for example, Akane's fear of being seen as "perverted" proves unfounded when Ranma's secret is revealed to the school and he's locked in female form, and after girl-Ranma and Akane defeat cheerleader Mariko Konjo, she says that their victory was brought by the "power of true love".

* {{Anvilicious}}: The series' biggest recurring theme is pride, and it is repeatedly shown to be the root of basically all of its conflict. Ranma and Akane's inability to be emotionally honest with one another is rooted in the both of them being too caught up in their own egos to open up. Ranma himself doesn't even seem to be particularly passionate about martial arts beyond its use as a means of defending his pride or getting one over people who have wronged him, to the point that he's literally able to invent a new technique practically overnight that's fueled by his ego. Ultimately, in the final arc, several of the main characters throw away their pride in some regard. Ryoga honors Akane's seemingly final wish without lashing out at Ranma, Mousse rejects the opportunity to essentially brainwash Shampoo into an obedient lover, and Ranma is finally able to admit to himself just how stubborn he's been about admitting his real feelings for Akane even to himself.

** Akane: a funny and likeable character, or a hotheaded DesignatedHero with {{Jerkass}} SpoiledBrat tendencies coupled with [[NeverMyFault an inability to admit to being wrong about something she jumped to the wrong conclusion to]]?
*** Akane gets a second broken base over whether or not the anime version of her is a worse person than the manga version of her.

** Ukyo is likewise given a SatelliteLoveInterest in the form of Konatsu, a male ninja [[RaisedAsTheOppositeGender who had been brought up as a woman]] by his abusive step-family. Konatsu is even less developed than Akari, who at least have some chemistry with Ryoga in her handful of appearances, so it's actually rare to see anyone ship Ukyo with him. It's far more common to see Ukyo shipped with her beloved Ranma, or the aforementioned Ryoga.

** Any scene where someone goes after Ranma's pigtail, after it's revealed that he absolutely ''must'' wear his hair that way to avoid going bald (it's a long story). Thankfully, the curse wears off eventually.

* SelfFanservice: Akane suffers ACupAngst over her small chest and is envious over Ranma's female form having larger breasts. Fan artists tend to forget this and make her just as endowed.

** Another Meta-example [[IncrediblyLamePun Ranma is Gender-]]''[[IncrediblyLamePun fluid]]''

** As far as the series goes, it was quite popular in France and the USA. In the latter country its popularity was such during the heyday of early to late 90s anime fandom, being a GatewaySeries for many American anime fans during that period.

* GatewaySeries: Possibly ''the'' gateway anime, along with ''Anime/SailorMoon'' and ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', in the 1990s.

** As far as the series goes, it was quite popular in France and the USA. In the latter country its popularity was such to the point in the early 90s anime fandom, functionally every Western Otaku had watched Ranma at least once.
** As popular as it already is among older demographics in the USA, it is particularly prominent among Millennials in the Spanish-speaking markets--particularly since it ran on open-air TV channels throughout many Latin American countries, where the romantic entanglements proved as fun as the action, if not more, and a large segment of the audience considers it a childhood favorite.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Despite all the fanservice and sex jokes, the series is very much considered {{shonen}}.

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: The Latin American dub is considered this by many fans thanks to the [[StarMakingRole iconic voicework]] of ''Creator/RossyAguirre'' as Akane, ''Carlos Hugo Hidalgo'' as Male Ranma, ''Irma Carmona'' as Female Ranma, ''Araceli de Leon'' as Shampoo, ''Gabriel Gama'' as Tatewaki Kuno and ''Creator/JoseAntonioMacias'' as Moose. The dub also removed Shampoo's third person/broken speak and streamlined most of the Japanese expressions and knew when to be loyal to the original script and when to deviate.

* WTHCastingAgency: To some fans, Sarah Strange as the original Boy-type Ranma in the English dub. Some think the idea of casting a female in the role was an odd choice, especially since she didn't also voice Girl-type Ranma. It's also possible she just simply wasn't right for that part. Despite this, some fans do praise her actual performance, and some think she's actually convincing as a teenage male.

** Less obviously: the name of the martial arts style that Happosai, the Saotomes and the Tendos practice translates directly (more or less) as "School of Indiscriminate Grappling", and this is what the manga used to refer to it. In the anime, it was translated as the somewhat looser, but arguably catchier, "[[CombatPragmatist Anything Goes]] Martial Arts", and this is how it is most commonly referred to.

** A minor example. Because the 33 chapters that originally contained color were converted to gray scale in the Japanese tankobon and the English release of the manga was only in black and white (VIZ did do one volume in color), Ranma's female form became establishasamied in the majority of fans' minds as being a redhead. Any fanfic or fanart that portrays Ranma's female form as having black hair is more likely to receive a barrage of questions asking why the author changed the hair color than compliments from hardcore fans thanking them for going with the original depiction.

*** The manga has the infamous scene from the final "Ranma must hide from his mom" story where Genma ''attacks his wife'' to steal a cheap family heirloom to pawn for some money.

* EvilIsSexy: Nabiki is one of the most amoral characters in the series, yet tends to easily get the biggest share of this among the readers, due to the mischievous sarcastic wit and worldwise hedonistic sex appeal. Shampoo is also one of the most villainous girls in the original manga, isn't exactly innocent in the anime (although much nicer than in the manga), and is typically regarded (in series and out) as being pretty hot-looking.

* MisaimedFandom: Nabiki is easily one of the most distinctive and compelling characters in the series. However, in at least the manga, she is also the one who is most uniformly shown as genuinely amoral and malicious, whereas even characters like Pantyhose Taro, Shampoo, and Happosai are given a few PetTheDog moments. Among several other things, she let Ranma and her family take the fall for her debts during a "let's make the opponent pay for everything" duel and took no responsibility herself even as the accrued debts ruined them, blackmailed male Ranma for a staged apparent rape for the fun of it, and repeatedly swindled kindergarten kids. Yet, she is recurrently greatly favored and far-fetched rationalized in simultaneous contrast with ones that are generally nice, with the bad moments as an exception, and much stronger contrasts, whether due to EvilIsSexy, OppositesAttract, lack of other cerebral or relatively sane characters, sense of style, or a strict familiarity with the anime and fanon. Takahashi herself, while personally amused by her, continuously drew Nabiki as a devil.

** The majority of fanfics where Ranma suffers an irreversible ModeLock is almost certain to ship Ranma-chan with Ryoga.

* SlowPacedBeginning: The first season suffers from lot of padding and odd pacing. Story arcs would take an extra episode to be resolved compared to season two and onwards. The lack of frenetic pacing makes the comedy scenes fall flat.

* BrokenBase: Fans of the English dub can't decide whether they prefer Sarah Strange or Richard Ian Cox as Boy-type Ranma. Both have their fans and haters, and the casting and re-casting caused a bit of controversy in the 90s. Sarah has the advantage of voicing Ranma during the better era of the show, though Richard is obviously much closer to the Japanese voice. Some newer fans are distracted by the fact that Richard also voiced Inuyasha, even though he was actually Ranma first.

* DependingOnTheArtist: The TV series has 161 episodes, styles will depending on the Animation Directors.
** Atsuko Nakajima. Being the series character designer, her episodes are the most consistent and detailed among the animation directors.
** Asami Endo. The characters eyes and faces are rounder with wacky expressions used on occasion.
** Masako Goto. The hair are drawn bigger while the faces are more narrow.
** Hiroko Kazui. A handful of scenes make use of strong lighting and shadows.
** Satoru Isono. The style sports more triangular features with fairly tame expressions.
** Katsumi Hashimoto. The characters are drawn noticeably looser. The faces expression tend to be more squiggly when the characters are distressed.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Or RonTheDeathEater, take your pick. The entire cast can be subjected to this -- it doesn't matter which one you choose, someone somewhere in the fandom will be fashioning some nice leather pants for them, and likewise someone else will be portraying them as Satan's Little Helper.

* HilariousInHindsight: Akane Tendo, in the first volume/episode, is effortlessly tagged out by [[GenderBender female Ranma]] in their first sparring match. She then states that she's just glad that she lost to another girl, because she'd hate to be beaten by a boy...

** Yuka Kudo. The faces are drawn more square with more narrow eyes.

** Yuka Kudo. The faces are drawn more square and bodies drawn more petite.

** Katsumi Hashimoto. The characters are drawn noticeably looser. Sometimes the heads will be bigger in proportion to the rest of the body. The eyebrows tend to be more squiggly with distressed.

** Hiroko Kazui. A handful of scenes make use of strong lighting and shadows.

* DependingOnTheArtist: The TV series has 161, styles will vary in how the characters are drawn depending on the Animation Directors.

** Asami Endo. The characters eyes and face are rounder with wacky expressions used on occasion.

** Satoru Isono. The style sports more triangular designs with fairly tame expressions.

* ArtEvolution:
** The anime starts off with a soft rounder look for the characters, reminiscent Manga/MaisonIkkoku. Then becomes more angular as the series progresses.
** Shampoo was given green hair in Season 1's intro, which makes her similar to [[Manga/UruseiYatsura Lum Invader]].Till it is settled down to purple by her introduction.
** Happosai. In the Season 2 intro, Happosai was pale skinned and wore black. Then darkened his skin tone and dons red by the series introduction. Also in his introduction episode, he wears a green kosugi underneath in his till he loses it in the later half.

** The anime starts off with a soft rounder look for the characters, reminiscent Manga/MaissonIkkoku. Then becomes more angular as the series progresses.

* Art Evolution:

** Happosai. This all happens in the same episode. He wears a green kosugi underneath in his introduction till he loses it in the later half. Simplifying his design.