First off, apologies if this has been done already.

I'm re-reading Jane Austen these days (hey, it's do-able), and began 
noticing similarities between characters in her novels (especially 
"Pride and Prejudice") and those inhabiting a certain well-loved 
manga--a fic idea, perhaps worth running by the list, evolved from this. 
I'll leave it to others to judge how demented it is.

What if our good old Ranma 1/2 had been written by Jane Austen rather 
than Rumiko Takahashi--keeping the characters and their personalities, 
and the basic outline of the dramatic situation, but set in Regency 
England, and in JA's instead of RT's style? I don't mean a plugging-in 
of Ranma characters straight into the plot of "Pride and Prejudice"--I 
don't think that can work--but more along the lines of an alternaverse, 
plotted along JA's typical lines.

Here's how it _might_ go:

Mr. Soun Tendo of Tendo Hall, gentleman and widower, blessed with three 
daughters but unfortunately no male issue, mourns that his estate is 
entailed upon the male line, and thus that, upon his death, it will go 
to his nearest male relation, leaving his daughters unprovided for. That 
male relation, a rather distant cousin of the family, is Mr. Ranma 
Saotome a young man of means and a confirmed bachelor, much to the 
despair of Mr. Genma Saotome, his father, by a singular coincidence one 
of Mr. Tendo's oldest friends. The elder Mr. Saotome writes to Mr. 
Tendo, suggesting that their separate problems would find a mutual 
solution if Mr. Ranma were perchance to fall in love with and marry one 
of the Miss Tendos. Mr. Tendo writes back that this is a splendid idea, 
and promptly invites the Saotomes, father and son, to visit Tendo Hall, 
ostensibly to enjoy a few weeks of shooting and fishing. And thus the 
stage is set...

As far as characters go, Ranma would make an excellent Darcy, cold and 
arrogant. Akane, too, would be a perfect Elizabeth Bennett (can't you 
just hear her delivering lines like "I had not known you above an hour, 
Mr. Saotome, before resolving that you were the last man upon earth I 
should be persuaded to marry!"). Kasumi, warm-hearted, gentle, and 
unwilling to believe ill of anyone, seems an ideal Jane Bennett. She 
would be in love, of course, with the penurious Doctor Ono Tofu. Her 
younger sister Nabiki, unsentimental and calculating, would have no use 
for such romance. A thorough Charlotte Lucas in matters of love, she 
waits for the opportunity to make the best match her limited fortune 
will allow. Pursuing Miss Akane we have the handsome but caddish militia 
Captain, Tatewaki Kuno, champion fencer of his regiment and would-be 
poet, and the far-wandering naval Lieutenant Ryoga Hibiki, who 
periodically returns to England from distant corners of the Earth to 
pursue his obscure feud against Mr. Ranma Saotome. Mr. Saotome is of 
course, not without other pursuers of the female gender, interested in 
his value as a wealthy young bachelor. Foremost among them is Miss 
Shampoo, beautiful and eligible and thick as two short planks, whose 
cause is supported by her great-grandmother, the redoubtable Lady 
Cologne, a dangerous woman to cross...

Phew.

Is this idea at all worth following, or is it at best a momentary 
curiosity? A chance for some well-meaning silliness, or a "serious" 
parody? If it has promise, how would you (or just "would you") suggest 
working in other characters from the series? Any feedback, comments or 
ideas would be most welcome indeed.

BTW, I hadn't considered working in the Jusenkyo curse, but let's say 
that while on the Grand Tour in France, Mr. Saotome happened upon the 
Vallee des Sources Maudites...

Jim Champagne
jwc70@hotmail.com

Akane: Ready, Ranma? This one's for the game... Kick the BAKA!
Ranma (despairingly): ...Don't kick the baka...
Akane: KICK the baka!
WHAM!

- Just another day in South Nerima...

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com