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challenging gender norms in anime
By <anchor>challenging gender norms in anime</anchor>, Ranma ½ is a large part of how “gender-bending” manga achieved such massive popularity over the years. Fans of shōnen manga can expect a perfect blend of sidesplitting comedy hijinx with some martial arts scenes that could give early Dragon Ball a run for its money. Even fans of the anime should check out the manga, just to get the full experience of the story.
How Ranma ½ Challenged Anime Gender Norms
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# How Ranma ½ Challenged Anime Gender Norms

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Published Apr 15, 2024

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Custom Image of Ranma in the center with the cast of Ranma 12 in the background

### Key Takeaways

- Rumiko Takahashi in Ranma 1/2 challenges traditional gender norms through body transformations for humor.
- Despite some outdated themes, Ranma 1/2 paved the way for modern anime to challenge gender norms more boldly.
- Characters like Nobara in Jujutsu Kaisen and Power in Chainsaw Man continue to subvert classic gender norms in anime.

Author Rumiko Takahashi is known for being one of the most successful and popular manga artists in Japan, and in particular, she is one of the most successful women in that field, too. Rumiko Takahashi has written and drawn manga for male and female readers alike, including the likes of Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, and the comedic series Ranma 1/2. The latter, in particular, presents some intriguing challenges to traditional gender norms, most of all from a Japanese point of view.

It's true that in some ways, the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime have aged awkwardly, and the characters often have highly problematic dialogue and attitudes, most of all from Ranma Saotome and his father Genma. That said, the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime, from the late 1980s and 1990s, were ahead of their time with its approach to the topic of gender, in terms of both traditional gender norms and blurring the line between male and female. It was evidently done mostly for comedy's sake, but fans can read deeper into the Ranma 1/2 franchise and get a little more out of it on this topic, especially when fans consider the decades in which the manga and anime were published.

## How Are Gender Norms Challenged in Ranma 1/2?

### Ranma is Cursed With a Sex-Swapping Ability

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In many ways, mangaka Rumiko Takahashi is a pioneer in the manga industry, since she helped popularize the harem concept and even the tsundere character archetype, both of which appear in Ranma 1/2, and fans may also cite this series as an early, if imperfect, example of Japanese manga and anime challenging gender norms, most of all from a Japanese perspective. The main example is protagonist Ranma Saotome himself, whose supernatural condition makes him an analogy for the genderqueer community in a way.

In the backstory of Ranma 1/2, Ranma and his father Gendo were training in China, in the middle of some cursed hot springs. The hot springs of Jusenkyo will curse anyone who falls into them, causing the cursed person to transform into a specific thing when exposed to cold water (and transform back with hot water). Ranma fell into the hot spring for girls, so he physically becomes a girl when he touches cold water. Ranma doesn't like his curse in Ranma 1/2, and he sometimes seeks out leads to cure it in the story.

A few times, he had a passionate confession about how uncomfortble he was with his ever-changing body, and his transformations led to plenty of comedic mishaps in the story. Still, Ranma made the most of it, and he sometimes had fun with his sex-swapping body, too. In bluntly comedic ways, Ranma 1/2 blurred the gender line with Ranma's body and how he presented it, anything from wearing opposite-sex clothes after transforming to tricking some characters into thinking his male and female halves were entirely different people. He even fooled his own mother into thinking his female side was a girl named Ranko, a cousin of Akane Tendo.

##### 10 Ways Ranma 1/2 Embraces Shonen Clichés

As a satire martial arts shonen anime, Ranma 1/2 is the perfect old-school anime to revel in familiar cliches and make them a joy to watch.

Ranma 1/2 challenges gender norms in other ways with its main cast, primarily the three Tendo sisters, who live with their widower father Soun in the family dojo. As some sources have noted, the three sisters represent different approaches to women's roles and perceptions in Japanese society, with the eldest daughter Kasumi conforming to female norms as the Tendo family's substitute mother. She is a typical housewife type and has a traditionally feminine aesthetic and personality.

The middle daughter, Nabiki, toys with boys her age to convince them to buy her lavish gifts, then ditch them, thus gaming the system of male-female courtship. That leaves the youngest daughter, Akane, as the rebellious one who represents defiance toward restrictive, old-fashioned gender norms. Not unlike Tomo Aizawa the tomboy in recent anime, Akane Tendo bucks traditional femininity with her lifestyle, and in general, the characters around her support her lifestyle, aside from the teasing-prone Ranma Saotome.

Akane is a passionate karate enthusiast and has her hair cut boyishly short early in the series, and her aggressive, blunt dialogue contrasts sharply with her eldest sister's own speech. Akane isn't necessarily trying to make a stand about gender norms — she is just being her true self, no matter what tradition says. From a design standpoint, though, Akane is probably meant to challenge traditional femininity in the late 20th century, a trend that modern anime series have certainly continued, often in shonen anime in particular. Between Akane and Ranma, the Ranma 1/2 anime has plenty to say about what "normal" and familiar femininity is and isn't, all in the context of a comedic martial arts series with a few harems in it.

##### Heavenly Delusion & Skip and Loafer Bravely Defy Anime's Gender Norms

Mitsumi's aunt is a man who wears feminine clothes and Kiruko is a boy in a girl's body, proving new anime is getting bolder with its representation.

## How Well Has Ranma 1/2's Gender-Based Narrative Aged?

### Ranma 1/2 is Direct About Its Narrative

Akane Tendo is cooking while looking annoyed

As a manga/anime series from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Ranma 1/2 will inevitably show its age to modern anime fans in many ways, some more serious than others. On the topic of gender norms and pseudo-genderqueer characters, the Ranma 1/2 anime definitely has its issues, such as Ranma's excessive mockery of the girls around him, such as criticizing Akane for being musclebound and un-feminine in many ways.

The narrative, from a modern point of view, didn't do enough to soften Ranma's attitude over time, and the narrative did too little to punish Ranma for his hurtful words, even if Akane kept hitting him as a typical example of the "violent tsundere girl" archetype, which itself is problematic. Fans might also say that Ranma 1/2 was too blunt and clumsy with Ranma Saotome's analogy for genderqueer characters, whether or not Ranma was meant to be a stand-in for such characters.

That said, anime fans must remember that just because something is humorous, doesn't mean it's a total joke. When done right, humor is actually the best way to address and explore a controversial, sensitive, or tricky issue to help people feel more relaxed and open-minded while laughing and thinking at the same time. Humor can help people see a difficult issue through a softer, more palatable lens, from satire to stand-up comedy routines.

There are some modern anime that do such a thing. As for Ranma 1/2, the sex-swapping of Ranma's body may be harmless fun for some fans and may be a highly questionable queer analogy for others, in ways no author in the late 1980s could have anticipated. Fans may agree that Ranma 1/2 and its queer analogy are rather dated, and it's understandable if some fans pass on it as a failed exploration of queer identities, whether or not it was intended as such.

##### 10 Best Anime That Break Gender Norms

Anime characters who break gender norms complicate their world and invite readers further into the conversation, like in My Dress-Up Darling.

Still, other fans may appreciate what Ranma 1/2 was trying to do, and interpret it in modern ways and thus get something more out of Ranma Saotome's sex-swapping body. If nothing else, the Ranma 1/2 anime is refreshingly direct about a character contending with a confusing gender identity and body, and it comes up quite often in the story in various ways. The series thus helped make the idea a mainstream one, laying down a foundation that later anime series could build upon with more finesse and knowledge.

The most positive spin is that Ranma 1/2 is a daring, flawed, and necessary pioneer for normalizing gender-bending characters in manga and anime. Ranma 1/2 may not be the very first example out there, but it still ranks among the earliest examples that still matter and have some visibility today. Also, the story's challenges to feminine gender norms with the three Tendo sisters have aged fairly well, since Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane all approach traditional Japanese femininity in different ways, and none are presented as right or wrong, just equally valid ways to consider the topic.

Fans are clearly meant to decide for themselves whether the traditionally feminine Kasumi Tendo is an excellent Rumiko Takahashi waifu for being a classic lady, or whether Akane is the better waifu because she's a fighter with beauty and brawn. Such a multi-pronged challenge to Japanese femininity is remarkable in a series like Ranma 1/2, and later series have done something similar to great effect, sometimes with the power of subversion in hand.

##### 10 Anime Characters Who Defy Gender Norms

Gender is a social construct and these anime characters love to play with the concept of gender.

## How Do Modern Anime Series Continue What Ranma 1/2 Started?

### Jujutsu Kaisen Tackles Gender Norms Head-On

Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki romantically pose in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Even today in the 2020s, topics such as gender norms and LGBT identities are not addressed that often in Japanese anime when compared to Western fiction, but within the anime industry, all taht is becoming more prominent, nuanced, and normalized than ever, so proponents of such narratives can take heart that Japanese anime is taking part in this conversation. While Ranma 1/2 was a martial arts comedy series that may have had subtle commentary on genderqueer identities, more recent anime series are definitely challenging gender norms, and some characters and series are becoming famous for it.

The action/fantasy anime Jujutsu Kaisen is definitely tackling the topic of gender norms head-on in ways that not even Ranma 1/2 would have tried. Characters like Nobara Kugisaki give the story a feminist edge, arguing that girls, in particular teenage girls, don't have to conform to any societal role or gender-based archetype, which rings even truer in a tradition-minded nation like Japan. In fact, Nobara delivered a short yet passionate speech on the topic when facing Momo Nishimiya during the sister school event.

Nobara declared that she cared nothing for masculine or feminine norms or expectations — she would be her authentic self, paying no heed to gender-based boundaries anywhere. Nobara's personal narrative had some meaningful context, too, since the conservative sorcerer world had serious sexism in place, such as with the Zenin clan. Thus, Maki's quest to defy her family and become a powerful sorcerer on her own merit.

Modern anime also uses comedy, albeit a different kind than Ranma 1/2's, to challenge gender norms and make it clear that today's world has room for more than one type of girl. Chainsaw Man, for example, is a highly subersive anime series not just with its twisted action scenes and punkish tone, but also how its main characters are written. While Denji is a low-brow yet sympathetic teenage boy who dreams small, his new friend, Power the fiend, tramples all over gender norms, partly because she is a part-devil.

Power's personality, sloppy lifestyle, and general crudeness are a total middle finger to feminine norms, yet even then, she manages to have feminine charm to fans who adore her as a waifu. Paradoxically, Power appeals more to fans as a waifu after shredding the femininity playbook, strong evidence that anime producers and consumers alike are done with set-in-stone gender norms and want to mix things up in new ways.

Ranma 1/2 1989 anime series with the cast in the forefront

##### Ranma 1/2

TV-PG

Action

Comedy

Ranma Saotome, the boy who turns into a girl with a splash of water, always has his hands full fending off crazed admirers. One of the most fanatical is Shampoo, a girl from a tribe of Chinese Amazons who tried to kill girl Ranma, was defeated by boy Ranma, and then proposes marriage to him due to her clan's rule.

Release Date April 5, 1989

Cast Megumi Hayashibara , Noriko Hidaka , Kappei Yamaguchi , Sarah Strange

Seasons 7

Studio Studio Deen

Creator Rumiko Takahashi

Number of Episodes 143

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