Ranma 1/2 Filler Guide:

Dragonball got a remake, Hunter x Hunter got a remake, Sailor Moon got a remake -- but Ranma 1/2 has been abandoned.  For some reason the anime gods have decided that Ranma 1/2 will remain as a series made on a shoestring budget, over 20 years ago, with more episodes of filler than episodes that follow the manga, that stops halfway through the manga source and never even shows the ending.

Ranma 1/2 has to be the most popular, acclaimed series to have ever been so mistreated.  Fans were overjoyed by the 2008 Ranma 1/2 oav, they jumped at the live action Ranma 1/2 movie that came out last year, and yet no remake announcement has followed.  What does it take?

But given that we aren't getting a remake, at least action can be taken to make the Ranma 1/2 series we do have into the best viewing experience possible.  The way to do this is to avoid filler at all costs.  For people who want to understand why Ranma is so beloved, to enjoy a twenty year old series with practically no budget, they need all the help they can get, they need to watch the real Ranma, such as it was, buried beneath all the nonsense.

So here is the actual Ranma 1/2 series, the series based on the manga.  You need only watch these episodes to watch Ranma, anything else will only drag your experience down:

http://fillers.free.fr/ranma.html

(Going by the order they are listed in this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ranma_%C2%BD_episodes  :)

Season 1:

Eps 1-13.

Eps 15-17.

Season 2:

Eps 1-16.

Eps 18-22.

Season 3:

Eps 1-5.

Ep 7.

Ep 13.

Ep 21.

Season 4:

Ep 1.

Eps 3-5.

Ep 9.

Eps 12-13

Eps 16-17.

Ep 19.

Ep 22.

Season 5:

 Eps 1-2

Ep 6.

Ep 8.

Eps 18-20.

Ep 23.

Season 6:

Eps 9-10.

Ep 13-14.

Eps 16-17.

Eps 20-21.

Ep 24.


Season 7:

Eps 5-8

Ep 10.

Ep 13.

Eps 19-20.

Eps 24-25.

Plus all the OAV's (yes, two are filler, but they were overseen by Rumiko Takahashi herself so they're not really filler) and the three movies (yes, the movies are filler, but they're fun anyway, and have such a higher budget!).

The good episodes are thus very front loaded.  Season One has 16 episodes, Season Two has 21, Season Three has 8, Season Four has 11, Season 5 has 7, Season Six has 9, and Season Seven has 10.  The OAV's total 12 eps and there are three movies.  Thus the 'true' Ranma 1/2 anime series is 94 episodes and 3 movies long.  All in all, around 25 out of Ranma 1/2's 38 volumes have been animated, or 66% of the story.  Without a remake, the remaining 1/3 of the story will be lost forever.  But if we don't watch the 2/3 of the story we do have, we only have ourselves to blame.

Ranma 1/2 is #36 in my rankings because it has 91 episodes and three movies of zany fun.  To be more precise, it has a sweet romance story, great action elements, a good sense of humor, and an endearing cast of characters (i.e. Ranma, Akane, Ryouga, Shampoo, and Ukyou.  The rest, not so much.)  That's a lot of content, even for a series which was mostly filler.  The trick is to not wear yourself out before you see all the content by watching too much bad Ranma 1/2 in a row.  Follow the guide, or you'll never make it to the end.  Follow the guide, and enjoy one of the best series ever made -- at a time when practically no other good anime existed at all.