<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Ranma 1/2 began as a serial manga in 1987, published in the weekly magazine Shonen Sunday through 1996. The animated television series, which started airing in 1988, ran to 161 half-hour episodes and three telefilms. It was followed by 11 OAV (Original Animated Videos) released from 1993 through 1996. One of Japan's best-known manga artists, Rumiko Takahashi was born in 1957 in Niigata, Japan. She had two successful manga titles already—Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku--when she started Ranma 1/2, a fantasy martial-arts series that also falls into the romantic comedy category.

The number of important characters in the series increases over time. To start with, there is the eponymous hero/heroine Ranma Saotome, a martial artist who has fallen under a curse that causes his gender to flip male when he is doused with hot water, and female when doused with cold water…