English Dub Review: Ranma ½ “Darling Charlotte” - Bubbleblabber (2024)

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Ryoga (in pig form) is taken suddenly by Azusa, a prodigy ice skater, leading to a fight between her and her partner Mikado against Ranma and Akane.

OUR TAKE

Hey wait a minute, didn’t we just do this? A new character appears with skills in a niche athletic sport with a crush on Ranma while another has a crush on Akane, forcing the two of them to suddenly train their butts off while continuing to have the romantic tension between them heat up little by little, and also Ryoga is involved in some way. It was novel enough the first time with the Tendo siblings but now we’re getting it for another pair of characters who are not nearly as interesting and will likely disappear from the show once defeated. Speaking of Ryoga, why exactly has Ranma not outed him as the pig to Akane yet? LIke I get not doing it out in the open since that would give away things for Ranma and his own condition (and we see him already getting some weird questions about his girl self from a couple guys who are connecting the dots about him sharing a name with a nearly identical girl with equal martial arts skills), but Ranma is still seeing Ryoga sleep with Akane and act as Akane’s pet for multiple days and has said…nothing. Which is increasingly weird and confusing, especially now when him being snatched by a random girl has now led to yet another romantic rivalry.

That aside, I suppose the main distinct difference with dealing with these skaters is that it’s a guy and a girl who are working as a team, even if this pair doesn’t really like or care about the other, which is meant to be a foil to Ranma and Akane, who do like and care about each other (even though they won’t admit it quite yet) but are not a coordinated team quite yet. I guess we’ll see next episode if that’s the main hurdle they need to overcome, and we are at least seeing this being the catalyst for the two of them to be more open to becoming closer. Of course, the reason for THAT mainly comes from Mikado, the guy of the group, getting a crush on girl Ranma and straight up kissing him, giving Ranma his first kiss…but with a guy. Maybe he can form a support group with Naruto, whose first kiss was also with a male rival. But anyway, we’re here in another two parter which will seemingly conclude next time, I just think I’m becoming weary of this formula by now, which is not a great sign since that’s supposed to be the big appeal of the show.

Score

5/10

Green Lynx (David Kaldor): Aimless 20-something given a paid outlet for his thoughts on cartoons. Fears being boring slightly more than being outright disliked.