Netflix’s Ranma 1/2 Opening Changes Each Week

Summary

• Ranma 1/2
  provides a unique opening summary before each episode.
• The opening changes weekly, offering variety like
  The Simpsons’s
  “couch gag.”
• A detailed list of opening summaries for each episode is available at the end of this article.

Netflix’s Ranma 1/2 reboot often uses the first minute of each episode to introduce its characters and circumstances to the audience. This introduction makes sense since the concept of changing one’s sex via cold water isn’t the easiest to catch onto without explanation. However, Ranma 1/2 changes this introduction each week, adding novelty to the otherwise tedious exposition.

If the practice of shaking up a TV show’s intro seems familiar, it’s because it is. The Simpsons has changed up its intro for over thirty years with its famous “couch gag.” Netflix’s Ranma 1/2 gives its unique touch to the “couch gag,” giving fans something to look forward to with each new episode.

Ranma 1/2 Explains the Premise Before Each Episode

The Opening Covers Ranma’s Curse and Engagement to Akane

After season 1, episode 1, “Here’s Ranma,” the Netflix adaptation needed a way to express the pilot episode’s concept in a more condensed way. Otherwise, viewers must watch the series from the beginning to understand what’s happening.

Summarizing your TV show before each episode may seem unnecessary for streaming. However, it’s important to note that Ranma 1/2 airs on Nippon TV in Japan a week before it streams on Netflix. Therefore, the series’s opening summary helps new viewers watching broadcast television join in on the fun, regardless of what episode they’re watching.

Each opening summary uses a similar structure that touches on these key points:

1. This boy is Ranma
2. This girl is Akane
3. Ranma and Akane are in an arranged engagement
4. Ranma transforms into a girl when splashed with cold water

And just like that, any TV viewer, whether a Ranma fanatic or someone watching for the first time, knows this sitcom’s relevant characters and circumstances.

The Ranma 1/2 Opening Changes Each Week

The Opening Echoes the Couch Gag From The Simpsons

Using a sitcom’s opening to provide exposition is a tradition as old as television. Sometimes, the intro uses verbal explanations, like The Brady Bunch or Gilligan’s Island. Other times, the exposition is primarily visual. For instance, the Friends intro features the core cast hanging out in Washington Square Park (Six friends who live in New York City. Ok, got it.).

Animated sitcoms feature expository intros as well, most notably The Simpsons. Each scene tells us all we need to know:

1. Bart’s the troublemaker. That’s why he’s writing on a chalkboard in detention.
2. Homer is a dad working a blue-collar job at a nuclear plant. And he just overlooked a glowing toxic stick falling into his hazmat suit – he’s probably a moron.
3. Marge is a doting housewife (see: grocery shopping). And look, there’s the baby (Maggie)!
4. What kind of eight-year-old can play the saxophone like Kenny G? Lisa must be the family’s overachiever.
5. And everyone comes together to watch television on the family sofa.

Any Simpsons viewer knows that the sofa shakes up this intro’s formula. The Simpson family encounters the couch via different scenarios and art styles at the end of each opening sequence. Sometimes, the family couch gets nixed entirely for a different ending scene. Fans know this trope as “The Couch Gag.”

Ranma 1/2 (2024) borrows from The Simpsons in this regard, animating its opening sequence in new and exciting ways in each episode. Examples include setting the opening inside a theatre during a magic show, portraying the opening with shadow puppets, and animating the opening with paper cut-outs.

Every Ranma 1/2 Opening So Far

Ranma 1/2 (2024) fans can find each episode’s opening summary in the following section. Expand one of the tables below to view that season’s episodes with brief descriptions of their opening summaries.

Season 1

Episode Number	Episode Name	Opening Summary Theme
1	“Here’s Ranma”	This episode doesn’t have an opening summary because it’s all exposition.
2	“I Hate Men”	This episode is the first with an opening summary. It’s done in Ranma 1/2’s art style and doesn’t stand out much.
3	“Because There’s Someone He Likes”	This episode doesn’t have an opening summary. Instead, there is a cold open where Ranma has a nightmare about Tatewaki Kuno.
4	“The Hunter”	This episode’s opening summary emulates 2D fighting games, specifically from the 90s. Dedicated fans will likely connect this opening to Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle for SNES .
5	“Who Says You’re Cute”	This episode opens with the theme song ( “Iinazukkyun” by Ano ). Unfortunately, there is no opening summary.
6	“Kodachi, The Black Rose”	This episode’s opening summary uses an art style inspired by shadow puppetry. Characters and objects appear as black silhouettes against colorful lit backgrounds.
7	“Hot Competition”	This episode’s opening summary depicts Ranma and Ryoga on a rope swing above the Jusenkyo springs. While the narrator explains the curse, the duo gets splashed with cold water.
8	“Darling Charlotte”	This episode’s opening summary depicts Ranma as a magician with the Tendos as audience members.
9	“I’ll Never Let Go”	This episode’s opening summary uses stop-motion animation to create a construction paper art style. For instance, Ranma crumples up and unfolds as he transforms into a girl.
10	“Kiss of Death”	This episode’s opening summary casts Ranma and Akane as shinobi. Akane uses a magic spell to form a rain cloud above Ranma, transforming him into a girl.