Mark, I hope you don't mind me cc'ing the list on this, because you've
brought up some very good points that I'd like to share with everyone.
Please note that my comments may be aimed at misdirecting all of you.
None, some, or all of them could be valid suppositions of the real
killer's methods and motivations.
Mark Doherty wrote:
At 04:41 PM 10/09/98 -0700, Jamie and Bridget Wilde wrote:
Mark Doherty wrote:
Interesting tale. Nothing like a murder mystery to get the mind going.
Of course, like everyone, I wildly suspect someone on flimsy grounds. ^_^
That's okay, I haven't given up anything solid yet.
Lack of evidence should never stop an accusation. ^_^ (I was watching an
old detective movie from the early forties a week ago, the detective was
this guy called the Falcon who, over the course of the movie, accused almost
every member of the cast of committing the murder. He got it right...
eventually.)
Ah, but how do we know that he wasn't just accusing people in order to
unsettle them into saying something that would lead him closer to the
real killer? A classic tactic of the hard-boiled murder mystery pulps.
Dr Tofu comes to mind: he's a trustworthy figure in the neighbourhood(I
can't see the girls trusting a nekoed Ranma), he has a thing for the younger
girls (he'd obviously fallen for Kasumi in that flashback where she was
about fifteen or sixteen). He's got a real problem with women that may
indicate psychopathic tendencies(anyone who twists people into pretzels
just because a certain person's around has problems. The frustration at not
being able to get over such things... and being written out of the manga too
^_^... could get to the good doctor.)
All very good reasons. Tofu is becoming a popular suspect.
The problem is, the evidence and suppositions collected tends to eliminate
several people fairly quickly. Ryouga, for instance, doesn't live around
others, so he has no need to dispose of the bodies the way that the killer
has(besides, the one time he tried to dispose of a koi-struck Ranma, he went
for a burial - he wanted to hide the death, not 'publicise' it).
Unless Ryouga isn't alone in this. Who, you might ask, would help the
lost boy? Could be anyone with enough hatred for Ranma to help Ryouga
frame him for murder. It could also be that Ryouga has really gone off
the deep end, and found someone who could identify with his new found
pleasures. (Any particular cast members come across as really sick
puppies?)
Lack of a struggle in a sexual situation means really only one of two
things: they were unconscious/paralysed, or they were willing participants
(barring more exotic solutions).
Good assumptions.
Considering that, you can knock out a lot of the cast. Mousse(maybe), Ryouga,
all the girls except Cologne and Shampoo(hey, this is _Ranma_, semen does not
mean it had to be a full-time guy, and they do have instant boy powder),
In the manga there is a magic mask that Mousse gets from Cologne that
makes anyone who opposes the wearer bow down and prostrate themselves
before him. Cologne took it back at the end of the story arc, but that
doesn't mean he couldn't find it again. He could also get hold of a
scroll or something that would teach him the necessary pressure points.
Mousse is also a very handsome guy; he could very well be charming these
minor and non-characters into trusting him.
Instant boy-powder would have meant that the transformed femme would
have left semen if he(she) did in fact get enough sexual gratification
to have an orgasm. At least in the Ranma world as I see it.
and Kunou don't appear to have access to the pressure point techniques
You can argue that this would be out of character for him, but he could
also have a twisted sister who decided that hot sex with her brother
wasn't kinky enough -so she adds the victims into the mix. Kodachi could
find a way, and wouldn't have the least qualm about using it. It might
make good practice for the real victim: Akane...
that would require the Tofu Solution(tm). Mikado is the only one who may
have the natural charisma to convince the girls into sexual situations
without knocking them out. Tarou, while having the skills, projects way
too much of an arrogant attitude for me to believe he'd ever skulk around
like this, even for thrill-kills.
Just because a character doesn't have canonical evidence to suggest
knowledge, doesn't mean that I haven't found a way to give it to them in
the story. I might not have released that necessary clue just yet.
Mikado is a valid suspect. He has the looks and the charm. He has
enormous strength (being the base of the "Good-bye Whirl" would prove
that point.) He could have a pathological hatred for women. It's been
argued by critcs of the Ian Fleming novels that James Bond, who bags
several women in each 007 Book/Movie, has an intense hatred of women.
For these kinds of men, sex isn't a mutual act of love, warmth, trust,
and affection -it's a way to have power over women, to dominate them,
and to assert their own superiority over them. This sounds like Mikado
to me...
Tarou is also enormously sexually frustrated because of the constant
rejection from women that he receives. Who knows how he is coping, if he
is coping...
Shampoo and Cologne can be eliminated as too unlikely. While Shamps might
go off the deep end, and might even molest girls who have called her a
Chinese slut/etc before she killed them, I couldn't see her using a male body.
Maybe not. But I don't think that is a strong enough argument to
eliminate 'Poo.
Happosai, while nominally the second-best suspect, does have the small
problem of being a hundred plus man. I mean, if that boy could still
perform in that way, why would he bother with panties and such - there
are plenty of prostitutes in Japan. He could always send the bill to
Soun/Genma.
Why indeed?
As for Ranma... if he developed such a hatred of women, I couldn't see
it being such a faceless hatred. If he were to kill, surely it would be
the women he knows who annoy him most - Nabiki, Shampoo, Kodachi, etc.
Depends on if he's in his right mind or not... The transformation to his
girl form might be an intense psychic shock to him. In the neko-ken, the
only people he seems to identify with are Akane and Genma. No-one else
means anything to him.
Mikado's problem is that he appears to 'love' women too much to kill them
out of hate. Still, he does rank as a fair suspect.
For the reasons outlined above.
So, with the 'evidence'(there's really very little evidence, the theory is
partly based off the suppositions of the cops, which could be quite unfounded)
so far provided, that leaves Tofu as most likely.
A possibility.
Or, I guess there's always that monkey that Martial Arts tea ceremony guy
almost married. The way it attacked onna-Ranma, it obviously had some deep-
seated grudges against girls. ^_^
*ack!*
It didn't really take much thought at all. And it's a mystery - it doesn't
matter whether I'm right or not, just that I've loudly expressed my opinion
on who the killer is as long before the 'final reel' as possible. ^_^
True enough. And who's to say that I've even picked the killer yet? :) I
may just be sounding out the responses from the Mailing List, and
picking the one I like best... (I love Nick Leifker's motivation for
Ranma killing girls because he's trying to kill his girl side. Chilling
genius, that.)
Jamie