In commemoration of Season 3 of the Ranma 1/2 remake, I wanted to do something that’s been on my mind for a hot minute. I want to do a ranking of every Ranma 1/2 OP from the original anime, OVAs, and Remake. There’s basically no strict criteria for this, but keep in mind I am considering both the song and the visuals. If it was just the songs, the ranking would probably be pretty different.
#1. Iinazukkyun
Remake- OP 1
The best Ranma OP by a good stretch. The song is very fun and fast paced, matched with an equally propulsive OP chock full of references whilst still maintaining a focus. This thing moves so quickly with a ton of blink and you’ll miss it gags. Similar to the first OP of the Urusei Yatsura remake, this feels like it has such a reverence for Ranma 1/2 as a series. It knows how big of a deal this story is and wants to celebrate it. The final sequence with the massive Genma panda as the song reaches its climax is astounding. Easily the strongest note any of these OPs end on.
#2. Sunaomiman
Remake- OP 3
The newest Ranma OP is an incredibly strong showing. It’s basically exactly what I wanted from a remake OP following the first. All the characters here are at their best, carried by frenetic animation and a super catchy rock song. I really like the more complex shots used to introduce Shampoo, the Kuno siblings, and Ukyo. I also really like the TV world Ranma gets absorbed into at the start. The fight at the OP’s climax is a little dizzying and disjointed, but it’s animated so well that I can easily forgive that. I even like how the OP slows down near the end as you go into the episode.
#3. Don’t Make Me Wild Like You
Original- OP 1
This OP feels so quaint looking back at it. The visuals are mostly just characters chasing each other and dancing in a colorful void. Yet this remains one of the most memorable and iconic OPs the series has. The more rounded out 80s character designs are adorable. The song is also very fun and fairly offbeat. It sticks in your head even after just hearing it once.
#4. Love Panic
OVA- OP 1
The only OP in the OVAs to be used more than once and, frankly, the only one that deserves it. The song in question is really fun with its laid back music but relatively fast-paced vocals. It’s also maybe the OP to focus most on Ranma and Akane out of the whole series, with the extended cast only showing up at the end. There’s also a lot of great shots of animated clouds. The only thing holding this one back is a fairly odd ending both visually and musically.
#5. Earth Orchestra
Original- OP 5
While this OP has a strong, if very simple, visual identity, I do think it’s mostly carried by the song. This will kind of be a running theme for the rest of the original anime’s OPs for me. There’s a lot of fun visuals here, but a lot of them aren’t animated that much. The song does keep the pace strong, but I desire a little more out of this one.
#6. Zettai!- Part 2
Original- OP 4
The fact this OP opens with a classical orchestra hook reminds me of that one 90s Sonic show that uses only old classical music as its motifs and that alone puts it under Earth Orchestra. I’m only partially joking.
This OP has a really fun song and I like the paint aesthetic it goes for. The sequence of the entire cast stumbling on top of each other is some great animation and it deserves to be repeated near the end of the OP. This one’s a lot of fun.
#7. Full of Memories
Original- OP 3
I really, really like this song. Unfortunately the OP otherwise is just kind of okay. This is the first instance of something that plagues Ranma ops going forward. The visuals are good and well animated, but there’s almost no consistency. The climax of this OP is especially weird with its disjointed shots of characters. I like the sunrise at the OP’s start and there’s a really good shot that zooms in on Akane. This is honestly kind of where we enter the mid-tier OPs.
#8. Don’t Cry Anymore
Original- OP 6
I really like this song a lot. That sort of glittery 80s Jpop fits so well, especially with a lot of the background shots of shopping centers and bookshelves. I’m going to complain a lot about later OPs having static shots, but this one has so much atmosphere that really clicks with me. Some of the character stuff is less appealing to me. Not really too much of note here. I like the scribbled animal forms near the start.
#9. Wo Ai Ni
Remake- OP 2
Wo Ai Ni is a massive step down from the first Remake OP if you ask me. I’m not too big a fan of the song, as much as I’ve tried, and the sports theming doesn’t really do anything for me. This one just feels disjointed and strange to me. I also dislike how as the song reaches its chorus, the visuals turn into mostly static (if very complicated) scenes. I do really like its ending with Akane waking up from a dream though.
#10. Little Date
Original- OP 2
This OP has some of the strongest opening and ending shots of any out here. I especially love the start with some of Rumiko’s manga art. Unfortunately the middle part of this OP is a little too much “characters doing stuff in a color void” for my liking and I’m not in love with the song. From what little discussion there is out there on Ranma OPs, I expect this might be the most contentious ranking, but it’s just not an OP I particularly love.
#11. Love Seeker (Can’t Stop It)
Original- OP 7
Easily the worst song of any OP from the original run. This one is mostly held above the next handful for having some fun visuals. This OP brings back some of the more “fun colorful shapes” aesthetic from Zettai and the character animation is very stretchy. Still, the fall off in quality compared to the rest of the original anime’s run is pretty pronounced.
#12. The Sparkling Sky and Your Voice
OVA- OP 5
Every OVA episode from episode 7 onwards has its own OP and they’re all pretty bad. This part’s going to suck because a lot of these OPs are bad for the same reasons. They’re all okay songs sung by the cast with visuals of the main cast just doing stuff usually without interaction with the rest of the cast. Sorry if my descriptions get more vague.
I actually don’t mind this one a whole lot. I like the song okay and the shot of the entire cast looking on in horror at Ranma jumping off a diving board is kinda funny. There’s also a fun shot where the cast is singing, Shampoo puts her hand on Ranma’s shoulder, and he looks at her like “Who the fuck just did that?”. Outside of that, it’s a disjointed mess.
#13. Mutual Love is Complex
OVA- OP 7
This is one of the only late OVA OPs to have a consistent theme, being the female cast singing at a live concert. This is the only thing this OP has going for it. The song is utterly forgettable and the actual visuals are mostly just characters close to a microphone. There’s even a lot of cutaways to random stuff, so this OP doesn’t even beat the disjointed allegations.
#14. Full of Memories (OVA)
OVA- OP 6
The only Ranma OP to reuse a song from a previous one and that song is doing even more heavy lifting than before (especially considering this version is sung by the cast and is just overall not as good). The visuals are almost entirely characters walking to then being at school. It’s just so boring. Akane has a dream where an airplane gets frighteningly close to her.
#15. Where Do We Go From Here (You and Me)
OVA- OP 2
This OP just narrowly escapes the true bottom of the barrel for a lot of shenanigans in the Tendo household. It’s insane that the bar is this low, but I was surprised to watch this one again and see the characters interacting in an OVA OP. The song is completely forgettable.
#16. Neverending Summer
OVA- OP 4
This is an OP consisting entirely of Nabiki at the beach with some dude. She doesn’t scam him out of money. F tier.
#17. In the Middle of Elementary School
OVA- OP 3
The worst Ranma OP by a mile. The song, like the rest, is completely inoffensive. However, this OP is almost entirely static images with some of the cast singing overlayed on top. There’s also a weird, barely animated storyline about a guy and girl who have nothing to do with the show. There’s some images with a rougher artstyle, but this OP just feels thrown together more than most.
If you want my thoughts on the EDs for some reason, I think the Remake EDs are all great, but I like them less and less as they go on. Antanante is one of the best EDs ever, pandagirl is a blast, and Kawaiikunai is pretty chill. I like them all a lot. I like Lambada Ranma from the original and the ED from the cave episodes of the OVAs. I don’t know if I like any more than that.