It would really be useless for me to argue with you, since it's obvious 
you know a lot more about RANMA than I do.  I still say RANMA is a 
slapstick comedy, even if it did wax dramatic every now and then.  
Hell, even a goofy sitcom like "Night Court" was capable of jerking the 
the occasional tear.  And I still think even you'd have to admit that 
such dramatic moments are the exception, not the rule.

I don't want to drift away from the point of this thread, which is 
already slipping out of my grasp.  From your innumerable examples, I 
have to concede that some "depth" is hinted at in the manga.  However, 
I would still have problems with fanfic that spends so much time 
exploring the "serious side" of RANMA, getting so serious and involved 
that it forgets to make you laugh.  Again, I don't read much RANMA 
fiction, but if it's anything like some of the "serious" UY fiction 
I've read, I wouldn't care for it.  The authors often completely missed 
the fact that UY is supposed to be funny.

As for Kei and Yuri?  You're right, there's nothing particularly deep 
about them, but, as I said before, most of the unique depth I've 
written came from my own characters.  My Kei and Yuri fall in love and 
care for people, but so do most 19-year-old girls, ne?

What I enjoyed the most about writing DP fanfic was the flexibility of 
the series.  It's usually called an "action-comedy", but the emphasis 
can be on the action or the comedy.  There were a few DP episodes that 
weren't even funny, "Nolandia", for example.  I could write dead 
serious for a chapter without feeling like I was writing some 
"un-DP-like", as long as I stopped every now and then for some brief 
comic relief.

Whatever.  I don't want to drag this out forever.  Again, I don't have 
any problems with people who write RANMA.  I'm sorry if that's the 
impression you got.  I just think that all writers should challenge 
themselves every now and again and for a RANMA-only writer, a good 
challenge would be to try writing something else.

------RM