on 3/17/2000 12:59 PM, David Johnston <rgorman@telusplanet.net> wrote:
The first two things aren't really noticeable just because it's a rare
teenager who doesn't have those problems. Her lukewarm
commitment to martial arts pretty clearly indicates that she's
going to go the violinist route. Perhaps worse is that how easily the
external problems that arise are resolved. By rights the girls should
be dividing up into pro- and anti- Ranko factions and there would always
be some girls who would refuse to see her as anything except a freak and
a pervert.
Yes, this would probably happen in real life. Maybe I should say there are
some girls like that, but they're too afraid of Akane to speak up.
As I said, I wanted to focus on Ranko. Certainly it would be valid to have a
lot of external conflicts as well, but I just didn't want to bulk up the
story any more.
It bothers me that it turns out that Ranma had little real competitive
drive just because he was a girl. How could he have gotten so good
without any personal investment? The desire to please one's parental
unit only goes so far. If not being competitive is inherent in being a
girl, what is Akane's malfunction?
I don't believe at all that girls are not competitive. Otherwise, how could
so many women succeed in sports and in business? I think we are competitive
in a different way. I tried to point that out in the PE scene on Ranko's
first day of school. Maybe I didn't express myself well.
You have to remember, too, that Ranko is in shock. She may appear to be
functioning more or less normally, but she has not fully recovered from the
changes in her life. In part 4 you will see Ranko's drive coming back, but
not in the same way it was expressed as Ranma.
I'm not especially thrilled by the idea that Ranma's curse is
responsible for the Nerima weirdness either. The principal was shaving
heads at school well before he arrived, and every jock in school was
trying to half kill Akane so they could date the other half.
True enough. But I thought the principal hadn't been seen in five years
before Ranma showed up, because he was in Hawaii trying to get US
citizenship?
I just thought the chaos thing was funny...
Deborah