Editing Ranma ½ (section)

== Production ==
[[Rumiko Takahashi]] stated that ''Ranma ½'' was conceived to be a martial arts manga that connects all aspects of everyday life to martial arts.<ref name="ComestoAmerica">{{cite web|url=http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi10.html|title=Inuyasha Comes to America|last=Yoshida|first=Toshifumi|website=Furinkan.com|access-date=May 18, 2014|archive-date=October 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002144508/https://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi10.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Because her previous series had female protagonists, the author decided that she wanted a male this time. However, she was worried about writing a male main character, and therefore decided to make him half-female.<ref name="Italian">{{cite web|url=http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi8.html|title=Interview in Italy|last=Acres|first=Dylan|website=Furinkan.com|access-date=May 18, 2014|archive-date=October 18, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041018103236/http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi8.html|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Takahashi, the idea of making Ranma "just kinda popped into [her] head", and she looked for a way to make it possible for him to go back and forth between genders.<ref>{{Cite web|title=らんま１／２ １ {{!}} 高橋留美子 – 小学館コミック|url=https://shogakukan-comic.jp/book?isbn=9784091272706|access-date=July 18, 2024|website=shogakukan-comic.jp|language=ja}}</ref> It was then when she had a vision of a bathhouse's cloth entrance sign. She considered Ranma changing every time he was punched before deciding on water for initiating his changes. That decision led her to feeling that Jusenkyo had to be set in China, as it is the only place that could have such mysterious springs.<ref name="MemorialBook">{{cite web|url=http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi2.html|title=Memorial Interview|website=Furinkan.com|access-date=May 18, 2014|archive-date=October 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002144508/https://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> She drew inspiration for ''Ranma ½'' from a variety of real-world objects. Some of the places frequently seen in the series are modeled after actual locations in Nerima, Tokyo (both the home of Takahashi and the setting of ''Ranma ½'').<ref name="furinkan">{{cite news|url=http://www.furinkan.com/ranma/misc/inspirations.html|website=Furinkan.com|title=Miscellaneous – Inspirations|date=April 25, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224115426/http://www.furinkan.com/ranma/misc/inspirations.html|archive-date=February 24, 2007}}</ref>

In a 1990 interview with ''[[Amazing Heroes]]'', Takahashi stated that she had four assistants that draw the backgrounds, panel lines and tone, while she creates the story and layout, and pencils and inks the characters.<ref name="Retrospective">{{cite web|url=http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi3.html|title=Career Retrospective|last=Smith|first=Toren|author-link=Toren Smith|website=Furinkan.com|access-date=May 18, 2014|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126032036/http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi3.html|url-status=live}}</ref> All her assistants are female; Takahashi stated that "I don't use male assistants so that the girls will work more seriously if they aren't worried about boys." In 1992, she explained her process as beginning with laying out the chapter in the evening so as to finish it by dawn, and resting for a day before calling her assistants. They finish it in two or three nights, usually utilizing five days for a chapter.<ref name="Italian" />

Takahashi purposefully aimed the series to be popular with women and children. In 1993, an ''[[Animerica]]'' interviewer talking with Takahashi asked her if she intended the sex-changing theme "as an effort to enlighten a male-dominated society". Takahashi said that she does not think in terms of societal agendas and that she created the ''Ranma ½'' concept from simply wanting "a simple, fun idea". She added that she, as a woman and while recalling what manga she liked to read as a child, felt that "humans turning into animals might also be fun and {{lang|de|italic=no|[[:Wiktionary:märchenhaft|märchenhaft]]}}... you know, like a fairy tale."<ref name="Takahash7">{{cite web|url=http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi7.html|title=Animerica Interview|last=Horibuchi|first=Seiji|website=Furinkan.com|access-date=October 5, 2009|archive-date=January 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117184644/http://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/takahashi7.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2013, she revealed that at the start of ''Ranma'' her editor told her to make it more dramatic, but she felt that was something she could not do. However, she admitted that drama did start to appear at the end. She also sat in on the voice actor auditions for the anime, where she insisted that male and female Ranma be voiced by different actors whose gender corresponded to that of the part.<ref name="35anniversary">{{cite web|url=http://natalie.mu/comic/pp/rumic35/page/2#contents2|title=35th Anniversary Interview|website=Natalie.mu|access-date=May 18, 2014}}</ref>