Story and Art by Takahashi Rumiko
Adaptation by Gerard Jones
Copyright © 1998 Takahashi Rumiko/Shogakukan

Not having read any RANMA for some time, I was curious to see how the series was doing. While I enjoyed the manga and the anime during the earlier volumes, the later volumes of the series seemed to grow a bit on the repetitive side.
This issue opens on the conclusion of the Gambling King story. Ranma has challenged the King, who looks like he literally walked out of a deck of cards, to a game of Old Maid. If Ranma wins, he gets the Tendo doujo back, but if he loses, then the King will also possess Ukyo's Okonomiyaki restaurant. This is Takahashi at her best—taking a seemingly ordinary event like betting on a game of cards, and adding several layers of weirdness (playing Old Maid, playing against a guy who looks like a card) until it's completely surreal and yet somehow believable.
Of course, Ranma does his best, but the Gambling King, it seems, doesn't keep his throne by playing fair. Still, with a little bit of luck (or is it skill?), Ranma manages to come out on top.
The second story, "Target: Pigtail" has a bunch of tiny little people chasing after Ranma to recover the "Dragon's Whisker." What is it and why is it so important? We'll have to wait to next issue to find out. This story seems to set up a longer story arc. However, once again, Takahashi manages to make the mundane funny. The little men after the Dragon's Whisker aren't exactly normal. In fact, their heads look like Bao (chinese steamed buns). Only a few artists can handle drawing such bizarre characters and making them fit effortlessly into the rest of the story, and luckily this is one of Takahashi's strongest talents.
Since RANMA comes well after Takahashi's art style has solidified, there is not a lot of evolution in the art or the drawings of the characters like there is in URUSEI YATSURA. Instead, the polished style that fans have come to expect from the beginning of the series is as strong as ever.
These two installments are a transition between story arcs and as a result don't allow a lot of room for plot development, but by now the main characters are so well-established that it doesn't really matter. At least not for a little while. The only characters who have any major roles in these stories are Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo, all of which are familiar to RANMA fans. These stories are entertaining and will probably provoke a chuckle or two, but they're not Takahashi's best stories.
While this issue is certainly not the best issue to introduce someone to RANMA ½, fans who know the story will get more of what they have come to expect: an entertaining story with some humorous twists and some very nice art. And I have to admit that now I'm wondering what the secret of the Dragon's Whisker is.

Ranma 1/2
Published by Viz Communications
Monthly issue
32 black & white pages
Available now
$2.95