Ranma ½: Chuugoku Nekonron Daikessen! Okite Yaburi no Gekitou-hen!!

I am putting this out here only because this film seems to have a couple "Not Recommended " and a "Mixed Feelings" at the time of this writing.

The release of this film in the U.S. coincided with Viz Media release of Season 3 and Season 4 of the Ranma 1/2 series. I highly recommend watching this film after Season 5 of the regular series; this gave me the strong impression of where this movie falls within the timeline.

I felt this film was incredibly funny and has the usual Ranma 1/2 tropes. This involves the characters traveling from Japan to Mainland China to pull Akane from ... yet another problem that can only be experienced in this particular Anime. The large cast of Characters that join Ranma always seem to impede him in some way, but he still surmounts the odds to reach his beloved Akane.

The fight scenes are really great. The ending fight feels like the original Bruce Lee's Game of Death with Ranma having to pass a specified number of gates (instead of climbing floors as in "Game of Death"), battling foes until he finally reaches the "Big Bad Guy". Ranma faces the "Baddie" one-on-one and figures out a unique way to defeat the enemy that is signature of this series.

Honestly, what is one hour of your time? I promise you will enjoy this film and have as much as good time as I did along with the regular series.

The most incomprehensible film that I have only seen, you think the introduction is over, but it continues, 70% of the entire film they fly to the Non-Crown and only the remaining 30% there is at least some kind of character activity, while the film runs for only 1.17 hours.
I can't get rid of the feeling when you keep thinking "it's about to start", but it still didn't start the movie ended, and you spent more than an hour of your time, saw a couple of characters whose role boils down to being a massophile and will appear at the right moment, most ... of the time, which as I I emphasize that they are doing something, we see how Kirin eats his vegetables almost all the time, fucks Ranma and tries to please Akana.
Ranma in the film seems to have forgotten about "Roasting chestnuts" and pretty much lost his plot shields, in fact it's good.
The only thing I don't understand is why to make a separate film based on this arch, or whether it's better to make an ova or a special. The author himself, in my opinion, fucked over all this miracle;)

I should preface this review by saying that I have not seen the series Ranma 1/2 I actually saw the VHS at a garage sale and recognized it as one of the movies advertised at the end of the Pokemon VHS tapes; thus, my expectations of this movie fell in line with what was portrayed in the trailer. The trailer outlined what the movie was about and showed every good scene in the movie. Every other scene was rather sub par.

Story:
The story revolves around Akane getting kidnapped and Ranma... and company going to save her. This concept isn't too interesting or original but it had ... potential if they had spent as much time developing the story and characters as they did writing bad jokes. Yes, I realize Ranma 1/2 is a comedy, but this movie wasn't funny. Every single joke fell flat and often intruded upon what should have been very serious scenes. Every time the movie started to take it self seriously it felt the need to throw in a joke to lighten things up and it took all the suspense away.

Animation:
The animation at first looked passable for a movie made in the early 90s but it appears they spent the entire animation budget in the first half of the movie. When it came time for the climax the best the movie had to offer was cartoony flashes of colour on the screen. Almost any episode of Dragonball looks better with a tv budget then this looked with a movie budget. At least the characters designs were nice.

Sound:
As I watched this movie on an English VHS tape it should go without saying that I watched the Dub, and I don't believe any of the actors gave a damn. The performances almost all fell flat especially male Ranma when ever he screamed or shouted. The facial animation would tell one story while the sound coming out of his mouth would tell a completely, less believable, sound. The only performances I could stand were Girl Ranma and Akane and even they sounded phoned in. The music was mostly forgettable aside from the song "It's Love" in the end credits. In fact the credits were the best part of this movie.

Overall I won't hold this movie against Ranma 1/2 in general, in fact I'm interested in checking the show out now. That being said, don't watch this movie, It's not worth it.