So.
I mean, they're still taking down The Untamed. That's definitely a mark in the "they must hate me" box. (Though if they'd put up the "Special Edition" version instead, that would go a long way towards removing that mark. I've been very curious as to how in the world they can try to make it work at only twenty episodes long.)
But...
When the first episode of the new (Netflix-exclusive and at least partially Netflix-funded) anime of Ranma 1/2 went up, I checked out what it said regarding the cast list. I already knew it was confirmed that both seiyuu for Ranma and the seiyuu for Akane were back, but...wow. Just scanning the cast list, I saw that it wasn't just those three: both of Akane's sisters, Ranma's father, and--most importantly after Ranma him/herself!--Ryoga were all back! I couldn't recall the names of the seiyuu who played Akane's father, Kuno or Shampoo, though, so I wasn't sure about them.
Anyway, with that encouragement, I decided to give it a try.
The opening credits visuals were fantastic, though the song accompanying them was merely so-so. Unlike the opening credits of the original anime, which had one of the best OP songs ever, in my humble (or not so humble) opinion. (I did not care for the new show's closing credits, visually or musically. They weren't fitting for a fast-paced comedy in a martial arts setting. They'd be fine for a more tame, slower-paced rom-com, though.) Hopefully someone will post an edit of the OP to Youtube, pairing the new visuals with the original song. That would be epic.
For the most part, the episode was pretty much exactly the manga, as I recall it. (Admittedly, it has been a great many years since I read the manga.) But as I recall the first episode of the original anime was also pretty manga-accurate. (Again, it's been many years.) It wasn't until much later in the show that it started going off-book. (To the extent that they changed the eventual love interests of at least two characters!)
The first thing that made me sit up and go "whoa!" was when the Jusenkyo guide spoke.
He's no longer using horrible, broken Japanese. He's still got an accent, but it's not as egregious, and his Japanese is no longer broken. (And yes, I don't speak the language, but I can recognize when the speech patterns are radically different.) Likewise, the subtitles for his lines were not in broken English. This is an enormous improvement, and I am desperately praying it will extend to Shampoo. (He otherwise sounds the same, so I'm assuming that Koichi Yamadera is voicing him again, because why wouldn't he, when he's already back as Ryoga?)
As the episode progressed, I became pretty sure that Mr. Tendo is indeed being played by someone new, but...I mean, it's been a very long time since the original anime. His original seiyuu might not still be active (or even living; I know both Happosai's and Cologne's seiyuu have passed away, though Cologne's passed away so early that they had to recast her for the OVA, so that's a slightly different issue), but in the long run that doesn't matter. Mr. Tendo is not a central character, and the original performance did not particularly shape him in any way.
The various returning cast members sometimes have very different performances, other times remarkably similar ones. Like, Kasumi in episode one could literally have been the same voice clips from Kasumi in the old episode one, because what need is there to change anything about her old performance? Her voice was basically perfect from the start. Kasumi is mostly an open book of a character, so it's not like there was anything to learn about her from later seasons and layer that into her first season performance. On the other hand, Nabiki's performance (across the first two episodes) ranged from "basically identical" to "nuanced by knowledge of where the character is going" (especially in terms of her interactions with Kuno).
Where there were major changes, unsurprisingly, were with the two leads. In addition to the fact that both of Ranma's seiyuu were still early in their careers when the original anime was made and thus have naturally improved their craft over the decades since, there's the fact that they know so much more about the character now. Particularly in terms of everything that's revealed by the return of Ranma's mother later on, things that the character himself is obviously painfully aware of at all times. (The same deeper knowledge is likely part of the reason that the performance for Genma Saotome is also much differently nuanced.) Akane's performance is likewise more nuanced, in her case not due to secrets to be revealed in the future (she really doesn't have any to speak of) but just being able to better understand the character due to having seen how she behaves and reacts in response to the myriad future events of the show. Her lines to the doctor in the second episode were definitely Akane's performance highlight so far.
So, yeah, this seems like a super-encouraging start so far. Admittedly, the original anime didn't necessarily need a remake, because even where it went off the rails it still fit the tone of the original manga. (Unlike the anime of Urusei Yatsura which by the time I stopped buying the DVDs (about halfway through the series) rarely even visited the original wacky, frenetic comedy of the manga. It was still good, usually, but...very different. I just don't know if I can watch the new version of that because the characters' voices were so integral to them, particularly Ataru's, and...well, Hi-dive doesn't have an app on Switch or Playstation, so it's not even an option for me at the moment.) But getting the later seasons right and gently correcting some of the material that was mistakenly seen as acceptable in the '80s...yeah, I can get behind that.
However.
It still has a serious problem.
One that is wholly Netflix.
Namely, names.
More specifically, how the subtitles handle those names.
It is, sadly, not uncommon for translators to decide to "adjust" how characters interact with each other. It's not unusual to hear the seiyuu use someone's family name, only to see the text onscreen use their given name.
This is carried to an extreme in the Netflix subs for Ranma 1/2, particularly where the character of Kuno is concerned.
No one--and I really do mean no one--ever calls Kuno by his given name. No one uses it but he himself. His peers call him "Kuno," his kohai call him "Kuno-sempai," Nabiki calls him "Kuno-chan," Kodachi of course calls him "oniichan" (or was it "oniisama"?), and as I recall his father calls him "Tacchan" or something similarly humiliating. No one other than Kuno himself uses "Tatewaki."
Everyone in the subtitles was using "Tatewaki."
Even Akane.
Literally everyone.
No one used "Kuno" except Kuno himself when he was listing his whole name.
This is completely backwards.
That is deeply, deeply wrong.
Deeply.
If they keep that up, it's going to make watching the show particularly painful.
So...
...yeah, the jury is still out on whether or not Netflix actually hates me.
(Pretty sure Kuno was recast, btw. He definitely sounds radically different from how I recall him sounding. But the performance was good, and the voice is fitting for the character, so that's not a problem.)
