Sailor Ranko
is a comedic graphic novel based on Ranma ½ / Sailor Moon fanfic series of the same name. Fathers force Ranma and Akane to move to a different Tokyo ward, away from the accumulated fiances and seppuku oath. The couple ends up in the same school as the majority of Sailor Scouts. Meanwhile, Jadeite is trying to resurrect Beryl.
The fanfic novel that started it all was written by Duncan "Fire" Zillman. The first sequel was written by Kevin D. Hammel. Rebecca Ann "Burger Becky" Heineman wrote eight more novels, and she is the writer behind the webcomic. The current (as of 2022) lead artist is Erwin Prasetya, better known for Blade Bunny. Some of the older pages were drawn by Connie "Asuka" Daidone.
The comic was active in 2008-2009, went through several artists (becoming infamous for bad art of some chapters), replaced cringe-worthy pages with decent ones, stopped updating in 2011 (because of RL troubles of the artist and the writer), but suddenly came back from the dead in 2021 and is still going strong as of September 2022.
Contains examples of
- Achievements in Ignorance: Ryoga routinely visits other worlds without noticing. Or maybe Ranma was hallucinating. Judging from Ryoga's reaction later, she wasn't.
- Animesque: The art imitates the style of Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon pretty well.
- Art Evolution: The art changes noticeably over the first chapters, but not much. Perhaps, even less than Ranma anime. Interestingly, the style of covers of early chapters is closer to the 1st chapter.
- Ass Shove: Tatewaki got his wooden practice sword. His father, supposedly, got a pineapple. Don't mess with Pluto, and don't cut her hair.
- Bad Boss: Jadeite routinely mistreats his servants. They still prefer him to Beryl.
- Cat Fight: At one point Akane gets so angry, she drops her martial arts and goes strait for Ranko's hair. Despite armed youmas approaching.
- Cell Phones Are Useless:
- Inverted for cell phones. While the source material is so old, it had no cell phones, the webcomic characters do use modern smartphones. Cologne even calls them "modern human magic". At another point, Senshi pretended they were speaking of cell phones, when somebody overheard them mentioning their magic communicators.
- Conversely, Senshi communicators and Mercury computer don't have Super Cell Reception when Ranma and Ami are stranded in another world. Communication is only possible with an active portal in sight.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Martial artists can develop their physical and Ki techniques to almost match Senshi magic. Ranma, being an overachiever, surpasses them even before getting the fuku. And then he gets unlimited recharging.
- Crossover:
- Ranma ½
- Sailor Moon
- The Karate Kid: Ranma and Akane are sent to train under Miyagi-sensei and live at his dojo.
- Slayers: Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev were contemporaries of Serenity. Ranma is the reincarnation of their daughter.
- Cute Monster Girl: Most youmas look like vaguely reptilian young women, usually with lizard tails. Of those, who don't, most are still female and curvaceous.
- Dumpster Dive: Tsubasa is good at wearing trash cans. He gives Ukyo incriminating evidence about Nabiki's creative use of Exact Words (see below). Namely, the text she wrote for Genma to read, for her to sell the information she "heard from Genma".
- Enemy Mine: To delay Beryl, Nabiki enlisted help not just from the usual Nerima wrecking crew, but also a number of Ranma's adversaries like Taro, Gambling King or Tsubasa.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Assumptions about Ranma, as usual. He/she is not gay, lesbian or transsexual. He is not Sailor Jupiter. He is not a cat that has become a Senshi. He does not have access to doomsday-capable ancient weapons of Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev. Girl's school uniform in his room has nothing to do with training under Happosai. Ranko's photo is in Ranma's file not because of a misfile.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Konatsu and Sasuke prove to be excellent spies, who hear and record everything. Justified by them being ninjas and having a lot of time to lie in wait, while Senshi and youmas drop their guard, believing nobody can infiltrate their buildings.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Ranma, several times. This includes shooting what looks like the youma controlling other youmas or projecting illusions. More often than not, he's right.
- Exact Words: Nabiki wants to help her sister keep Ranma's Unwanted Harem out of her hair as long as possible, and profiting off it is a nice bonus. But she has a reputation to maintain. Solution: she can give wrong address and say she heard it from Saotome Genma, if Genma reads her the text she wrote. But that leaves her vulnerable to Dumpster Dive (see above), since she didn't destroy the paper and, apparently, kept her trash for months.
- Familiar: Sailor Sun in her previous life seems to had had a bird similar to Artemis and Luna. She had put the bird in stasis.
- First Period Panic: Ranma gets one after some 40 days in Senshi shape without reverting. After a particularly nasty clash with youmas, bleeding refuses to stop and Ranma believes she's going to die. Akane calms her down.
- Fuku Fic: Sailor Ranko novel may be the oldest example of Ranma becoming Sailor Senshi.
- Funny Background Event: While Ranko is having dramatic conversation with Senshi about being humane to enemies, in the background Ryoga is up to his usual antics: looks for Ranma in wrong places, gets it Right for the Wrong Reasons, doesn't realize he did and becomes pigified accidentally.
- Godzilla Threshold: Demons invade Tokyo? Sic Happosai on them and their underwear.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Depicted on chapter 11 cover, but didn't actually happen. Akane wielding a mallet, and Sun wielding a youma, facing each other as if ready to duel.
- Handy Mouth: When Ranma is in cat mode, she carries Ami to safety by her collar, like a cat would carry a kitten.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ranma in her previous life. Which proved she held duty above revenge and earned her the Senshi rank posthumously.
- Horrifying the Horror: Taro's cursed form sent youma running scared.
- How We Got Here: The 1st page after the cover is Ranma together with Sailor Senshi dressed like them and fighting some familiar-looking monster. Next, he quickly shuffles through his biography, stopping at the scene of his father sending him away from Nerima to practice school subjects with a private tutor.
- Hulk Speak: Rock golems.
- Human Hummingbird: When Sailor Sun forcefully denies being in love with Akane.
- Identical Stranger: Tuxedo Mask to Tatewaki Kuno, especially the way they speak. Ami/Mercury to Akane, to the point that youmas kidnap her by mistake.
- Impossible Thief: Happosai can steal a woman's lingerie without undressing her. Even if the woman is a youma or Beryl actively tryng to kill him.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: When the end of the world draws near, Soun and Genma decide to open their sake stash. Subverted: it's a Godzilla Threshold to release Happosai kept inside it.
- Like an Old Married Couple: The way Ranko and Akane look to outsiders.
- Love Dodecahedron: All Senshi find Ranma hot, despite their other commitments in this and previous lives. Though, they quickly back off after finding he's taken or gay.
- Montages: 40-something days Ranma and Akane spent in another world.
- Mistaken for Gay: Ranma and Ranko. Ranko is less restrained expressing "her" love toward Akane (and Akane is less hostile); while Ranma was seen holding tight half-dressed Ryoga and calling him "Charlotte".
- Nominal Importance: Youmas are Cannon Fodder, yet at least four of them are given search tags on the website: Jadeite's secretary, a Large and in Charge warrior, an infiltrator and a headhunter. The former two survive until the end of the 1st volume. There's at least one more named youma, but her name appears after she is killed and there's no tag. There are also rock golems, who constantly mention their names speaking of themselves in 3rd person, but they don't last long either.
- Nude Apron: Chapter 15 ends with Ranma wearing nothing but boxers and suddenly becoming a girl. By the ruins of Tokyo Tower. With armed Nodoka approaching. Chapter 16 starts with Akane lending him her cooking apron.
- Pass the Popcorn: Youmas watching Akane attack Ranma. Even though they don't eat human food.
- The Plan: Soun and Genma send Ranma and Akane to spend some time together away from distractions, hoping they'd fall in love. What could go wrong?
- Required Secondary Powers: Senshi uniform heals its wearer and cleans itself. Ranma already has an unnatural Healing Factor.
- Running Gag: Usagi likes jewelry and ice cream. Akane is a Giftedly Bad cook. Assumptions about Ranma are Entertainingly Wrong. Miyagi asks to "fix wall".
- Sailor Earth: Actually, Ranma is Sun. The source fic was, supposedly, the first to come up with the idea. Akane will be Io.
- Speak of the Devil: Miyagi is afraid of speaking "Happosai" aloud.
- Training from Hell:
- Ranma describes his previous life that way. With Akane's cooking listed as an integral part of said hell.
- For Akane it's trainig in hell, which she gets under Ranma while they try to escape the world of youmas.
- Wax On, Wax Off: Miyagi uses Obfuscating Stupidity to make Ranma teach him using carpenter's tools. Because Ranma is no good at teaching others and needs to be trained in teaching.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Youmas. Senshi, Jadeite and even youmas themselves see them as expendable. Ranma is shocked that Senshi don't hesitate to kill them, and shocked again when a youma kills herself to avoid being captured. Then Naive Newcomers from Nerima treat youmas like they would treat young girls, (this being a slapstick comedy, of course).
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Ranma. Miyagi sees that as an obstacle to him training Akane. Twisting arms and other forms of restrainig are OK, though.
