Ranma ½

Ranma ½

らんま½
1989 -1992 Studio Deen Fuji TV 161 episodes Completed
Comedy Martial Arts Romance Supernatural
Details & Synopsis
Ranma Saotome is a martial arts prodigy. He is also, depending on water temperature, a girl. A childhood training accident in the cursed springs of Jusenkyo left him with a condition his father, who turns into a panda, considers a minor inconvenience. Cold water: girl. Hot water: boy. This is presented as a problem. It is actually the greatest comedic premise in the history of anime.

Created by Rumiko Takahashi, the architect of Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, and Inuyasha, Ranma ½ began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1987 and ran for seven years. The anime adaptation by Studio Deen aired from 1989 to 1992, producing 161 TV episodes plus a mountain of OVAs and three theatrical films. It is one of the foundational texts of the fansub era, one of the shows that built the underground tape-trading networks that eventually became digital fansub culture in the West.

The cast is enormous and every single member of it is insane. Akane Tendo is the fiancée who would rather hit Ranma than admit she likes him. Shampoo is a Chinese Amazon who becomes a cat when splashed with cold water, which is its own catastrophic problem. Ryoga Hibiki has the worst sense of direction in human history and turns into a small black pig. P-chan is not a pig. Everyone knows P-chan is not a pig except Akane.

The 2024 Netflix remake exists. It is fine. Watch the original.
Alt Title らんま½
Studio Studio Deen
Network Fuji TV
Aired 1989 - 1992
Episodes 161
Genre Comedy, Martial Arts, Romance, Supernatural
Status Completed
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Fansub & Scanlation History

1989-1996: The VHS Tape-Trading Blueprint

The Ranma Project: Where American Fansubbing Actually Started

May 1989 · The First Fansub With Real National Distribution

Ranma ½ isn't just an early fansub target, it's the reason organized American fansubbing exists at all. The Ranma Project formed in May 1989 specifically to subtitle the show, using genlock hardware to overlay English text onto S-VHS tapes of the raw Japanese broadcast. It's credited as the first coordinated subtitling effort to achieve real distribution across the country, screened at AnimeCon '91, and the fandom's own growth curve traces directly back to it: roughly zero fan-sub groups existed before it, about four by AnimeCon '91, and fifteen within another two years. The Project itself wound down by January 1992, before Arctic Animation's own run picked up the tape-trading torch.
[Ranma Project]

Arctic Animation & The Mail-Order VHS Network

Laserdisc Raws · Amiga Genlock Subtitling

During Ranma 1/2's original 161-episode Fuji TV run, Western fans accessed the series through physical S-VHS tape trading. Groups like Arctic Animation imported Japanese Laserdiscs, using Commodore Amiga computers with video genlocks to overlay subtitles before dubbing copies onto blank tapes mailed in by fans.
[Arctic]

Usenet Text-Script Translation (rec.arts.anime)

C-Ko Translation Scripts · BBS Distribution
Before image scanlations existed, Rumiko Takahashi's manga chapters were translated into plain ASCII text files posted on Usenet groups like rec.arts.anime. Fans printed these translation sheets and read them alongside imported raw Japanese manga volumes from Kinokuniya bookstores.

The Viz Media Commercial Licensing turning Point

From Underground Fansubs to Official Commercial VHS

Ranma 1/2 served as the ultimate proof-of-concept for commercial anime in North America. When Viz Video licensed the show in 1993, they famously worked alongside community translators to ensure domestic releases maintained the cultural humor and martial arts gags that tape-traders had popularized.

1996-2003: A Real Scanlation Cult Formed Around One Frustration

Doyama's Ranma 1/2 Project, June 1996

Same Person Behind This Site's Dragon Ball Project

Jason Satoru Doyama, already documented on this site for The Dragon Ball Project, launched a separate effort translating select Ranma 1/2 chapters on June 3, 1996. A distinct project from his Dragon Ball work, and unrelated to the anime-side Ranma Project fansub group from 1989 despite the similar name.
[R12P-Doyama]

Studio Robb, a One-Man Operation That Rivaled Full Groups

Studio Robb began translating Ranma 1/2 in 1996 as a solo effort, later expanding into other manga, one of the few individual scanlators whose output and following matched organized multi-person groups.

The New Ranma Project Finished What Viz Wouldn't

Completed the Second Half in One Year · Viz Was Still Using Comic Pamphlets in 2003

The New Ranma Project, run by two scanlators known as SHADE and EvlNabiki, formed with one explicit goal: translate the entire second half of the manga that Viz's official release hadn't reached yet. Viz's pace was genuinely glacial, still shipping the series in old comic-book pamphlet format as late as 2003. The New Ranma Project finished the whole back half of the story in a single year, faster than the licensed publisher managed.
[New Ranma Project]

What AniDB Actually Documents

anime.fin Completes All 143 Episodes, May 2004

DVD-Sourced · 5.21 from 41 Votes

anime.fin, the same early-digital group documented on this site for Read or Die, completed a full 143-episode Ranma 1/2 release in May 2004. AniDB records the set as DVD-sourced and rated 5.21 from 41 votes. More important than the score is the scale: this was not a short test release or abandoned project, but a complete run from a group working across multiple major titles during the same period.
[anime.fin]

Anime-Xtreme's Complete Release, July 2005

Anime-Xtreme completed a full DVD-sourced release in July 2005, rated 6.07 from 44 votes, the most engagement of any release from Ranma 1/2's traditional broadcast-and-DVD fansub era.
[aX]

Doki Stalled at 90 of 143, But Has the Highest Rating on Record

Stalled, Not Completed · 8.82 from 6 Votes

Doki, one of the scene's longest-running and best-documented groups, stalled its Ranma 1/2 release at episode 90 of 143 in December 2014. It never finished, but what they did release carries the highest rating any Ranma 1/2 fan release has on record, 8.82 from 6 votes.
[Doki]

GHOST Has the Widest Modern Reach

Complete, February 2025 · 30 Votes
GHOST completed a full Blu-ray-sourced release in February 2025 that pulled in 30 votes, more than any other Ranma 1/2 fan release on record, the modern go-to version by sheer reach if not necessarily the highest rated.
[GHOST]

1993–2006: The Manga Side, on Its Own Timeline

Viz Launches Ranma ½ as a Monthly Comic, May 1993

36 English Volumes vs. 38 Japanese Tankōbon

Viz began publishing Ranma ½ in monthly comic-book format in May 1993, running alongside the fansub and tape-trading scene rather than replacing it outright. Because English volumes needed time to accumulate enough serialized material, Viz grouped chapters slightly differently than the original Japanese release, resulting in 36 English-language volumes covering the same story told across 38 Japanese tankōbon.

Thirteen Years to the Finish Line

Volume 36 · Released November 14, 2006
Ranma ½'s English manga run became Viz's longest-running series at the time, spanning over 13 years from its May 1993 debut to its final volume on November 14, 2006. That long a commercial run overlapping the fansub and scanlation era is part of why unofficial scanlation activity for the title never fully disappeared even after official chapters were reliably available.