Ranma 1/2: one page per volume, part 1

[rainsometimes]

(Art runs left to right for it is flipped)



Part one of this repost series from Tumblr where I picked one page per volume of Ranma 1/2. Most of my volumes are from the original, flipped translation of the series, so the art on them will run left to right as above. But I have filled the gaps in my collection with the new omnibus editions, which are unflipped. For each post I will mention which is which.

The pages picked are just down to my own whims: a drawing I particularly like, a characterisation moment that lingers for me, a type of page composition I want to point to, nice shippy Ranma/Akane moments... There's unavoidable character bias. Ranma/Akane is my favourite ship and almost my only ship in fact, while Ryoga and Akane are my two favourite characters. [Although I didn't wind up with quite as many Ryoga pages as I might have thought, so I think I could keep my bias at least a little in check!]

Here, I picked one of the very first pages of the story, from the very first chapter. Back when I first read this, I had never seen this way of laying out a page before. Akane is off to the right -- left in the Japanese original -- and is running sort of above/on top of several other panels, perceived as either the second panel on the page or alongside the middle and bottom panels as a kind of "meanwhile" image. Or both. You could say she breaks out of the strict chronology of the panel flow in order to be introduced to us properly.

I think this is something Takahashi had picked up from shojo comics? (I could well be wrong.) But I remember it stood out for me when I first browsed through the comic book in the comics shop, way way back then.

I would love to hear what other people think about this! Whether or not you like Ranma 1/2 or are just interested in what goes into a comics page.

Comments

[sarashina_nikki]

Oh, that's an interesting note about Akane breaking the page layout! I guess it's a convention I've become used to in shoujo, so I didn't think anything of it at first glance, but upon reflection I don't think they do that kind of thing much in Western comics. Or even in shounen comics. I seem to recall shoujo often "breaks" the standard panel layout in different ways, although I've never analyzed it on a deeper level before.

[rainsometimes]

Yeah, I have seen reviewers/critics mention that shojo artists tend to break the standard layout for effect, ever since the Year 24 Group; but the mentions rarely point to specific techniques apart from showing a page or two as examples. So I wasn't completely sure it originates from shojo, but it seems likely! And I too think I've mostly seen it in shojo since, apart from in other Takahashi works.

[tonko]

Ooh I remember this. Looking forward to (re-)seeing what you say, even though I don't have much I can add in commentary. I wish I could remember which was the first Ranma volume I ever saw, for me it was a French translation owned by a classmate when I was about fourteen, and I was boggled that there were (!!!!) NAKED BREASTS in it. This was also the year I discovered Sailor Moon and anime/manga in general so I was not familiar yet with Japanese culture, or at least as it appeared in those media.