----- Original Message -----
From: <JJang13977@aol.com>
To: <ffml@fanfic.com>
Sent: Monday, May 29, 2000 7:46 PM
Subject: [FFML] Ranma question
I was wondering, why does almost all the fanfic writers say that Ranma
doesn't hit girls? I've never heard it or read it in Ranma 1/2. He hit
girls fine. He hit Shampoo when he first met her, he hit Kodachi fine,
he
hit Rouge fine, he hit Kiima fine. So I don't understand, please
enlighten
me.
It's what is known as a "fanfic convention". There are still quite a
few fic writers out there whose knowledge of the series is based on what
they read on the Internet, since the tapes/ LDs/ DVDs/ comics can be hard to
get in various places.
Some common Ranma-fic conventions that are false:
1. Ranma has an iron-clad sense of honor and responsibility.
(Ranma usually tries to do what's right, but he's not fanatical about
it. He was raised by Genma, after all.)
2. Ranma is desperately seeking a way to solve all his problems, but can't
find a way out.
(Ranma actually gets an ego boost by the girls attention, and reacts
strongly when they stop showing interest. See the "Reversal Jewel" incident
for an example.)
3. Kasumi is an airhead, oblivious to everything happening around her.
(Kasumi is mainly a background character, and was Rumiko Takahashi's
poke at the stereotyped ideas of what constituted a "perfect Japanese wife".
Every so often, she's brought forward to give various characters a few words
of wisdom.)
4. Kasumi is a genius, secretly pulling strings in the background.
(She's portrayed with average to high intelligence when she's brought
forward.)
5. Nabiki is a financial wiz, with a budding financial empire and lots of
employees (usually called "factors").
(Nabiki has a few scams she runs at school, but none of her schemes that
I can recall ever involved anyone except her classmates. She doesn't have
assistants, and her average weekly "take" is probably less than $100- $150.
Most of her schemes seem to revolve around Ranma, and occasionally Kuno.)
6. Nabiki gets her kicks by manipulating everyone.
(She's actually fairly lazy, and usually only gets involved with Ranma's
misadventures. Everyone else is fairly safe from her. She seems to spend a
lot of time goofing off around the house. IIRC, she's the most likely
person in the Tendo home to be caught reading comic books at any given
time.)
7. Akane constantly hits Ranma, and can pull a mallet out of nowhere.
(She's actually fairly civil to Ranma for the most part. She doesn't
hit him all that often, and it's usually because he provoked her. When she
does, she usually hits him with whatever is closest to hand, and the item is
almost always in the background scenery in the scenes leading up to the
incident.)
8. Akane is always angry.
(Most of the time, she's fairly calm and polite. What IS true is that
she's very jealous of Ranma's other fiancees, and will automatically assume
he's instigated any sort of physical contact with them.)
9. Ukyou is more feminine than Akane.
(She grew up denying her femininity, and while she has very strong
drives towards marriage and motherhood, she acts like a boy so much that
many other girls in Furinkan think she IS a boy. In one incident I can
remember, she walked into the girls locker room and all the other girls
freaked out.)
10. Ukyou and Shampoo feed Ranma for free.
(He usually pays for his food, or gets credit by helping out. When they
give him free food, it's because they're trying for some kind of short-term
goal.)
11. Ryouga and Akane would end up together if Ranma weren't her fiance.
(Akane thinks that Ryouga is nice, and is a good friend, but she never
had any romantic feelings for him. She went out on a date with him early in
the series, and was terrified by his strength; he hugged a telephone pole
that was part of a playground sculpture, thinking it was her, and broke it.
She was grateful when Ranma "rescued" her from the date, and her comment was
something like "whoever takes on the job of Ryouga's girlfriend will have to
be made of sturdier stuff than I am".)
12. When Ryouga gets lost, he travels all over the world, sometimes
instantaneously.
(He never gets anywhere faster than is reasonable considering he can
probably walk 30 miles a day easily. Most of the time, he is always on
Japanese territory, although IIRC he once wound up in Russia.)
Needless to say, there are endless other examples.
Ja mata,
LarryF
http://lwf58.tripod.com