Ranma 1/2: One Page Per Volume, Part 36
Dec. 14th, 2018 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesComing close to the end... I'll post the two last posts, for the two lasts volumes, tomorrow. Now we turn to volume 36 and the resolution of the long-standing Nodoka plot.
Art reads from left to right.
Volume 36 is where the resolution for Ranma's estrangement from his mother finally happens. Nodoka Saotome, very serious about upholding her husband's promise to make Ranma a "man amongst men", to the point of enforcing seppuku if he fails, finally meets Ranma face to face and learns about his Jusenkyo curse, after having spent a good amount of volumes thinking Ranma's girl side is a cousin of Akane's called "Ranko Tendo".
At the end of the last Nodoka-heavy story, the truth was still hidden, but she had started to realise that Ranma and Ranko truly were connected in some way. Nodoka has been completely kept out of the loop at this point, and has no clue that Jusenkyo curses exist; but while she may not be super-perceptive, she's nowhere near the level of delusion that the Kuno twins show, nor does she have the curious character-specific blinders that would prevent her from drawing conclusions (looking at you, Akane *ahem*). And in this story, a family heirloom that draws out Genma's greed which in turns provokes Ranma's anger and protectiveness is the final catalyst that leads to the truth coming out.
Nodoka calling Ranko "almost... manly" here makes Akane go "eep", but even though Nodoka is in general very rigid when it comes to gender roles, this time she's not disapproving. She feels protected by Ranko almost the same way as if it was her son... as it turns out to be. She will in the end conclude, after Ranma's saved her life dramatically and then revealed the curse beyond all powers of denial, that "this child’s heart is manly" - even when his body turns female.
Now, it's possible that Nodoka would in fact have felt the same way about the matter if they'd been honest with her when she first turned up back in volume 22. But personally, looking at how she talks and behaves in the series in general, I doubt it... I fear that she would at the very least have been quite suspicious, uneasy and worried, and that she would have demanded a great deal of proof of manliness before being able to accept Ranma. I think the time spent getting to know "Ranko" and Akane, and to a lesser extent the Tendos as a whole, have made her change, if only a little. She's slightly less rigid, slightly more open to new perspectives now.
Visually speaking, Nodoka's impression of "Ranko" in this scene is underlined by the way Ranma is drawn here. Takahashi's art often emphasises the shortness of Ranma's female form compared to his male form and to other male characters but also to most of the female characters, even. Here the art takes the opposite approach, like on this page where the long lines of the trouser-clad legs and the sleeveless top makes girl-Ranma look taller than usual, with no body language where the legs are tucked in and no longsleeved shirt that looks oversized and bulky on the girl form.
Art reads from left to right.
Volume 36 is where the resolution for Ranma's estrangement from his mother finally happens. Nodoka Saotome, very serious about upholding her husband's promise to make Ranma a "man amongst men", to the point of enforcing seppuku if he fails, finally meets Ranma face to face and learns about his Jusenkyo curse, after having spent a good amount of volumes thinking Ranma's girl side is a cousin of Akane's called "Ranko Tendo".
At the end of the last Nodoka-heavy story, the truth was still hidden, but she had started to realise that Ranma and Ranko truly were connected in some way. Nodoka has been completely kept out of the loop at this point, and has no clue that Jusenkyo curses exist; but while she may not be super-perceptive, she's nowhere near the level of delusion that the Kuno twins show, nor does she have the curious character-specific blinders that would prevent her from drawing conclusions (looking at you, Akane *ahem*). And in this story, a family heirloom that draws out Genma's greed which in turns provokes Ranma's anger and protectiveness is the final catalyst that leads to the truth coming out.
Nodoka calling Ranko "almost... manly" here makes Akane go "eep", but even though Nodoka is in general very rigid when it comes to gender roles, this time she's not disapproving. She feels protected by Ranko almost the same way as if it was her son... as it turns out to be. She will in the end conclude, after Ranma's saved her life dramatically and then revealed the curse beyond all powers of denial, that "this child’s heart is manly" - even when his body turns female.
Now, it's possible that Nodoka would in fact have felt the same way about the matter if they'd been honest with her when she first turned up back in volume 22. But personally, looking at how she talks and behaves in the series in general, I doubt it... I fear that she would at the very least have been quite suspicious, uneasy and worried, and that she would have demanded a great deal of proof of manliness before being able to accept Ranma. I think the time spent getting to know "Ranko" and Akane, and to a lesser extent the Tendos as a whole, have made her change, if only a little. She's slightly less rigid, slightly more open to new perspectives now.
Visually speaking, Nodoka's impression of "Ranko" in this scene is underlined by the way Ranma is drawn here. Takahashi's art often emphasises the shortness of Ranma's female form compared to his male form and to other male characters but also to most of the female characters, even. Here the art takes the opposite approach, like on this page where the long lines of the trouser-clad legs and the sleeveless top makes girl-Ranma look taller than usual, with no body language where the legs are tucked in and no longsleeved shirt that looks oversized and bulky on the girl form.