Here comes the second reply.  I'm making htis public so as to answer some
questions that I'm sure MANY would have been puzzling over.

At 02:07 PM 7/1/97 -0600, David Johnston wrote:

A problem with this series as a whole is Kaneda's tendancy to 
hand out physical abuse to his fiancee.  Having finished reading
the whole Ranma archive, I have to say that that hammer long since
stopped being funny for me but that's beside the point.

Know what, it isn't funny to me either (surprise) :)
BUT,  the Akane that Rumiko-san created DOES indeed have a thing to hand out
Physical Abuse to Ranma even when he didn't deserve it.  That much is
*undeniable*, especially if you have seen the Anime where she seemed even
more violent than the manga.

Now just because I have changed Akane to Kaneda (F to M), I don't think it
is realistic to assume that this abusive tendency would go away.  Rather, I
think it simply means that this particular quality of Akane, which so many
thought of as *cute* (I don't know why), could now be shown as it really is
now that the female mask is replaced by the male one.  

Ranma won't fight back against Akane because he has an ethic against
striking females.  I can think of no reason why Ranko wouldn't demolish
any man who raised a hand...or a hammer to her.  And Kaneda would be 
far more likely to attack the men dallying with his fiancee than to 
attack her in the first place, particularly knowing she's better than
him.  

Believe me, when a girl actually feels something for a guy, she should have
trouble hitting him.  Besides,  girls have a tendency to only hit guys who
are capable of getting hit *without being angry*.  Kaneda, a male version of
Akane, is NOT one of them.  Besides, Ranko IS living UNDER the Tendo roof,
and I don't think it would go well for her if she returns Kaneda's violence
with her own.  The way I see it the other reason that Akane can hit Ranma so
much is because he was dependant on her family.   
Sounds dark, eh?   It's what's presented in the anime even if only Zen seems
to pick it up . . .

At the same time, not handicapped by a sparring partner who 
won't strike back Kaneda would have a better chance of attaining 
higher levels of skill than Akane will.

If Ranko did strike back full strength in their sparring, I think Kaneda
would have been dead . . .

However, at this point the die is probably cast for the series, so
I should probably discuss more specific issues.

Such as the fact that although Kaneda doesn't realise it yet, as
soon as LinLin and RanRan fight it out, he's automatically married
to one of them as soon as they come of age by Amazon standards.
Heck, Mousse and Shampoo had a binding marital challenge at the 
age of three.  

You're right, either LinLin or RanRan has a right to marry him.  I might
even bring it up again in future parts.

Mousse's Jusenkyo curse cured his eyes in his unaltered form?  
How does that work?

Read on the future parts and find out :)

Might have been interesting if Kodachi had been hit by the fox water.
It's almost unbelievable that in the mob scene, nobody was.

Sorry, but I've already intended for somebody else to have the fox curse :)

Thanks for the points that you've brought up, David, they're REALLY helpful
for the final draft of Chapter six!!