English Dub Review: Ranma ½ “Not Your Typical Juliet”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Akane is asked to play Juliet in the school’s play after years of playing Romeo, and all the men who are after her audition for Romeo. Problem is, none of them know what this play is about.

OUR TAKE

I guess Ukyo and Ryoga are off the menu for this week as we turn to more school focused antics involving Kudo, Hikaru (the weirdo stalker from the beginning of the season who likes Akane too), and…Happosai, who is apparently bumming around a high school like it’s normal because this was written in the eighties. The main source of antics in this episode comes from all these guys trying to be in the Romeo role opposite Akane, though what I find interesting is that Akane apparently has a history of being recruited to be Romeo in the play for so many years. I guess the fact that she was a martial artist from an early age made her seem more masculine to folks and therefore a good fit for a traditionally masculine role (even though Shakespeare plays have a long history of doing genderbent parts, or maybe that was a deliberate choice here), but now she’s finally picked to be Juliet, which she jumps at a chance to do because she wants to be more feminine. Fair enough, it just then leads to all those guys wanting to be Romeo to get a chance to kiss her…EXCEPT for Ranma, who only ends trying out because there’s a prize trip to China involved and he wants to go there to try and cure his curse by finding the Spring of the Drowned Man.

What makes this interesting to me is that, whether intentional or not, this episode plays around with the idea of gender expression and perception between two characters who seem to be blurred between the opposite ends despite knowing who they themselves are. Ranma of course has his curse and despite sometimes having the body of a woman, he consistently identifies himself as a man, while Akane has apparently been dealing with being seen as more masculine despite always considering herself a girl. And incidentally, Ranma seems apathetic to the perception of those around him regardless of his transformations, while Akane is quite self conscious about this. And of course we can’t have this episode end without further confirmation that the two really do like and care about each other deep down, as Ranma gets a chance to kiss Akane but hesitates BECAUSE he likes her, which while initially offending her, she understands this is a sign of him caring and works around it for him. And I thought this would be the lead in to a two part finale set in China but I guess that’s not to be. So, two episodes left in the season (probably), let’s see if they’re also as solid as this. Based on how the last season ended, I have my doubts it will, but we’re only going to find out by watching it.