The daily routine of young martial artist Ranma and his friends is interrupted when a Chinese girl named Lychee arrives with an enraged pet elephant to confront Happosai the trainer about a promise that he had made to her grandmother years earlier. At the same time a Chinese prince named Kirin, master of the martial artists of the Seven Lucky Gods, appears and through a case of mistaken identity kidnaps Ranma’s would-be fiancée Akane as his prospective bride. It is up to Ranma and his friends to fight Kirin and the martial artists of the Seven Lucky Gods in their home land of Nekonron, unite the lovesick Lychee with her handsome prince and rescue Akane.

A feature-length spin-off to the classic Ranma ½ TV series, Big Trouble in Nekonron, China is pricipally intended for existing fans rather than new ones. The full cast of characters they know and love is introduced within the first few minutes, which might be a little confusing for those of us who have not previously seen or read of Ranma’s adventures. However, the plot is pretty simple to grasp: the general theme of the whole affair is that of a gang of colourful characters having some comical adventures while trying to rescue a girl – not much depth but a lot of fun.

One important point to note is that of an incident that happened in the past, in which several characters transform upon contact with water. In Ranma’s case it is a redheaded girl with pigtails; his father turns into a giant panda; Ryuoga turns into a pig and the oddly-named Shampoo becomes a cat. It’s not explained here how this came to happen (you’d have to watch the series to find that out), but does lead to some comical scenes including Ranma or one of the others affected undergoing another instant change at the most inconvenient moments. For a plot (probably deliberately) as unoriginal as this, it is the cast that have to carry off the humour and fortunately here they do it well. There isn’t the space here to list them all but suffice to say Ranma is surrounded by enough odd friends, troublesome family members and awkward love triangles to make for very entertaining viewing.

The animation and quality of the English language dub are nothing spectacular but considering the film’s age this is to be expected and actually adds to the charm. The truth is that many viewers will be watching this for nostalgia value anyway; indeed, it is hard to believe that it has not been released earlier. A major plus to the DVD package is a Character Biographies section, which is invaluable in getting background info on the characters. Many of the relationships between them are very interesting and it’s a shame there isn’t enough running time to explore them all, although they all get at least a few seconds in the spotlight. Chances are fans will love it for this reason alone.

In Summary

Big Trouble in Nekonron, China is an old-fashioned kind of anime film with slapstick comedy and an engaging cast making up for what could be the most over-used plot around. While it might not give an insight into the characters and bigger picture of the series, it does give them all some screen time for the benefit of those who are familiar with Ranma, and makes for an entertaining film for those who aren’t.