(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.
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