Ranma 1/2 - Random Rhapsody, Vol. 7:
Ukyo’s Secret Sauce (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Junji Nishimura
Written by Trish Ledoux and Terry Klassen, based upon the manga by Rumiko Takahashi
Cinematography by Mitsunobu Yoshida
Produced by Fuji TV and Kitty Film

Features:

• English and Japanese audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• irksome ghost
• Kuno taking matters into his own hands
• Akane cooking for Ukyo

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Buy it for the first storyline.

The first two episodes on this disc tell a single story. It seems that when okonomiyaki master Ukyo and Ranma knew each other as children, she set out to make a special master sauce using her father’s recipes. Ranma, unwilling to wait the ten years necessary for the sauce to mature, tried to taste this special sauce, and in the process dumped the contents. He replaced Ukyo’s sauce with a weird combination of his own. The end result is that now ten years have passed, and Ukyo, tasting Ranma’s horrible sauce and believing it to be her own, plunges into a depression and pledges to give up making okonomiyaki forever. Much to Akane’s horror, Ukyo intends to recover from her depression living in the Tendo dojo.

In the final episode on this disc, “A Teenage Ghost Story,” Akane tries to return a notebook she bought to the secret school store, only to find that it is not only old, but haunted. The young girl ghost cannot move on to her final reward until she finds something she left behind, but she can’t even remember what she’s looking for.

The Ukyo-sauce double episode is a fun story that focuses on one of the secondary characters, the “cute” fiancé, Ukyo. It is good to see her getting this much play, especially as she is the least annoying of Akane’s rivals. Unfortunately, the other story on this disc is more problematic. It comes across very rushed, as if it, too, should have been a two-parter. While Ranma is often pretty silly, the ending of this one comes across as particularly lame. Given the quality of other ghost episodes, like “The Tunnel of Lost Love,” it has been shown that this comedy can handle supernatural elements, but this tale just falls flat.

I detected no problems with either the audio or video; Viz has been doing good work on this series in general, and that continues here. Both the English and Japanese audio tracks are just fine.

In short, if you are a big Ranma 1/2 fan or especially fond of Ukyo, then you will want to have this disc; one flat episode on the disc does not make the whole disc a failure, after all. If, on the other hand, you are new to this series, try not to judge it as a whole from the third episode on this disc--it does get much better than this, so just watch the Ukyo special and stop there.