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rainsometimesOnwards to Volume 16! Art runs from left to right as it has been flipped.
I love the Onsen Race arc! While it doesn't have the feel of one of the more epic arcs - the stakes aren't high enough for that - it's the only longer story featuring Ranma, Akane, Ryoga, Ukyo, Mousse and Shampoo together from start to finish, the "Big Six" of the regular cast, and it's rollicking first-class entertainment. The premise of a three-legged race in a dangerous water-themed terrain is brilliantly used, with the running pairs switching with each other while ignoring some threats (the martial arts athletes barely even notice the snapping crocodiles) but getting troubled by others. There's a pleasant rhythm between relentless drive forward when everyone's running (conveyed well in art and page composision), and more quiet breather pages when the characters temporarily slow down or take a break. The humour is great as always (Ryoga suddenly attacking Mousse with the warcry "No man may insult Akane's legs!" is golden, for instance); and there's a neat scene with Ranma and Akane in the sinking sand. My favourite part is Akane's badass moment where she refuses to save herself at Ranma's cost and instead dives down into sinking sand to lift up a concrete pillar that Ranma was chained to in order to shake him loose. SO AWESOME.
So at first I thought I'd use the page where that happens, but it turns out to be one of those things where you really want the preceding page as well. I had several other possible options, including one with close-ups of Shampoo and Akane that I remember interested me for formal reasons in how Takahashi chose to draw them both. But in the end I'm going with the above page instead because I like the movement in the first two panels (following on Akane mashing Ranma into that rock at the end of the preceding page) and how everyone is re-united in such a typical Ranma ½ fashion.
(This story is also where Ukyo first meets Mousse and Shampoo and she and Shampoo start to fight. Good for discussions of power levels, if you're into those! Ukyo seemed to handle herself well.)
I love the Onsen Race arc! While it doesn't have the feel of one of the more epic arcs - the stakes aren't high enough for that - it's the only longer story featuring Ranma, Akane, Ryoga, Ukyo, Mousse and Shampoo together from start to finish, the "Big Six" of the regular cast, and it's rollicking first-class entertainment. The premise of a three-legged race in a dangerous water-themed terrain is brilliantly used, with the running pairs switching with each other while ignoring some threats (the martial arts athletes barely even notice the snapping crocodiles) but getting troubled by others. There's a pleasant rhythm between relentless drive forward when everyone's running (conveyed well in art and page composision), and more quiet breather pages when the characters temporarily slow down or take a break. The humour is great as always (Ryoga suddenly attacking Mousse with the warcry "No man may insult Akane's legs!" is golden, for instance); and there's a neat scene with Ranma and Akane in the sinking sand. My favourite part is Akane's badass moment where she refuses to save herself at Ranma's cost and instead dives down into sinking sand to lift up a concrete pillar that Ranma was chained to in order to shake him loose. SO AWESOME.
So at first I thought I'd use the page where that happens, but it turns out to be one of those things where you really want the preceding page as well. I had several other possible options, including one with close-ups of Shampoo and Akane that I remember interested me for formal reasons in how Takahashi chose to draw them both. But in the end I'm going with the above page instead because I like the movement in the first two panels (following on Akane mashing Ranma into that rock at the end of the preceding page) and how everyone is re-united in such a typical Ranma ½ fashion.
(This story is also where Ukyo first meets Mousse and Shampoo and she and Shampoo start to fight. Good for discussions of power levels, if you're into those! Ukyo seemed to handle herself well.)