The big list of Clichés

[PepperJAQ]

I know these have been said to one effect or another, but after reading through the whole thread, I felt they didn't really get the treatment they deserved... so here I go:

Nodoka vs. swordsmanship:

It is cliché and fanon on both ends of the spectrum. She can be bad with a sword and is by no stretch a master... BUT, she isn't totally incompetent either.

Need proof? Here: http://ranmahentai.ranma.ws/RanmaManga/ ... 34-119.gif

you would have to at least be a decent swordsman (or woman in this case) to pull of slicing a tatami mat flying up at you like that. She can use a sword... she's just a bit of a klutz.

Ranma vs. weapons:

The idea that the school of anything goes (and -all- it’s practitioners) are in anyway against weapons is fanon. Specifically keying on Ranma, I went through the entire manga, and while I might have missed something, the number of events and the context they are presented in shows zero evidence that Ranma has any problem with weapons on any level. Here is the events that I did document (I had them once posted on this site, but I think that was either lost when the site crashed a year or two ago, or was lost to ‘thread prunning’). I’m not sure if it’s all of them, but the list of them should speak for itself:

(behold the power of copy pasta with a touch of editing :p when I originally made this list, it was for a review, so there were some spelling errors. That and I used the term ‘consider‘ way too damn much. ^-^; )

consider the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics match against kodachi, ranma has no problem with using the weapons when training with akane, or with ryoga, or during the match itself (though 'she' does try to attack unarmed at one point, but that's only because she forgot the rules for a moment).

consider the martial arts tea ceremony, ranma had to use spoons, 'brush' type stirers, and even a pot.

In u.s. book 6, page 92 and 93, with happosai pissed at ranma for putting the woman repellent on him, ranma executes the very same 'flip you up in the air' trick that happy loves to do using a fan. (incidentally, that book also proves that akane isn't the only one to use a mallet, as soun, genma, and happy use one... of course the one to first use the mallet in the manga was kodachi... Which is another cliché, that Kdoachi uses only the ribbon of hers. )

In the bout between ranma and ukyo when 'he' first appears, ranma uses her own yakisoba noodles against her.

the second major battle ranma has with mousse in j.p. book 10 (sorry, i don't know when this happens in the u.s. version as they arranged books 1-3 a little differently, making book 1 a little bigger then it originally was), ranma uses pinwheels against the lame duck after protecting a small group of kids from getting duck cursed. or how about their next fight soon after, where ranma uses a refrigerator on mousse's head... hehe.

then there was when principle kuno returned and had ranma all tied up, he use a peice of bamboo to make and attack... sadly it never connected as the nutbar sheered it into so much shavings. and in their next fight when principle had the gate shut, ranma fought with a pushbroom.

and then during the waterproof soap arc, ranma uses a chuck of a pillar to bap ryoga over the head (thought technically he used a bow and arrow earlier, i don't count this one as it isn't an attack)

an interesting fact, in jp book 14, ranma uses a weapon to defeat ryoga during the invicible tatto arc... the instument of defeat? a mallet.

don't forget the dragon whisker arc. ranma used his very hair as a weapon... a sort of makeshift flail. (Another cliché by the way: some fanfic writers don't realize that if they place their story after this arc, his hair is no longer under the effects of the dragon whisker and he uses a simple piece of string there after as the old men who were after him had shampoo use the dragon whisker to make the dragon whisker porridge... which is out of date and useless to them... hehe)

during the hot springs obstacle race (jp book 16), ranma uses a bamboo staff to defend himself and shampoo from mousse and ryoga. (another interesting fact, ukyo doesn't know about mousse’s curse, even when she has the lout tied to her leg and changed... oh yeah, and ranma's legs don't bend that way... hehe, i don't know the u.s. book number, but if you know the story arc i am referencing here then you might know what i'm talking about... hehe)

Heh, if you haven’t read enough of the manga, or still believe the cliché that Ranma needs a really good reason to put on a skirt and “even then is still reluctant”, your going to get a kick out of this: jp book 21 (i'm betting that’s about us book 19-ish) Ranma battles Mariko Konjou in… martial arts cheerleading... Wearing what can be considered a senshi fuku (minus the bows and the collar). And yes Ranma uses weapons: batons and (oddly enough) a horn (i guess in rpg terms that would be a sonic attack). And the motivation for this event… Mariko made Akane cry. Granted, that is a fairly decent reason in and of itself to be angry, the way most portray ranma, it‘s not much in comparison. It‘s a childish reason when compared to the idea of the lives of the world being at stake. (Heh, mariko is scary... and who girly ranma acts in this arc is scarier. though not quiet the 'fru fru' girly, but close enough... worse... ranma does the kodachi laugh... shudder.)

another quick break in this rant to tell you (those that are un aware, and to remind those that are) that right after that last match is when the infamous "ranma sort of meets his mom" incident occurs. this is after the first pantyhose taro arc and before the second (all of which occur before herb)(another amusing thing, during the second taro arc, the underware boy tells of some girls that he could have 'picked up'. each had introduced themselves, and asked for his name in return... one of these girls was named saffron. no relation of course, but funny none the less). just thought you ought to know.

during the coi rod arc, ranma uses the coi rod... though i'm not sure if you would call this a weapon situation... 'she' was effected by said rod and trying to use it on ryoga so that he would return her effections... thank God that all got worked out. (sorry, i am not a fan of yaoi... though if ranma stayed a girl, as she did for most of the arc...)

Back on track (man I got side tracked so easily when I was first writing this… :p )

there was a small stint during the invincible glasses of jeketsuzoku arc (jp book 27, possibly us book 25-ish)... but it's too silly and far to embarassing for all parties involved to discribe in detail... Please read it for yourself if you haven’t yet. (another note, the ryu kumon arc occurs just a bit after this in book jp book 28, us book 26-ish)

during the phoenix incident, ranma used a bird house agianst kuno at one point (a fitting attack if you ask me.)

also during the pink and link arc (29 jp, 27ish us), ranma is given a sword and a sheild which he tries to use... try being the opperative term.

in jp book 30, after a very interesting tale involving hinako and a couple of fish, ranma has to deal with a demented cherry tree, and is about to use an ax on it... not quite a 'weapon' situation, but i thought it an honorable mention... another in the same book would be the surce spatula... though ranma didn't have mush choice about that one. hehe.

in book 31jp, he used roof tiles against 'rakutaro' (by the way, the following event in this arc is a bit... well you have to read it for yourself...)

again in book 31, ranma uses noodles to wrap up kuno and ryoga during a twisted eating contest.

in jp book 33 ranma chibi chan (this is during the mushroom arc) uses a icecream cone display to knock out kuno... why do i mention this one? because it seems that neither ranma nor ryoga loses much, if any, of their strength in child form. ryoga even picks his umbrella up with one hand as per normal. just thought you'd like to know.

(one last of subject note if any are somehow still unaware: it is in book 36 that nodoka finally gets to meet the male ranma (pg 105), then is introduced to the curse (pg 110), and finally declares him a man amongst men (pg 112). oh yeah... this is also the book in which the saotome home is destroyed by ukyo, kodachi, and shampoo (pg 164) sadly it's little more then a foot note...)

never forget, last and most important! ranma uses the kinjakan to fight of kiima, then the gekkaja in the final battle against saffron. both times (especially with the kinjakan) it should be noted that ranma is PROUD of the fact that he is able to master these WEAPONS.

and i might add, that there was no trace of ranma ever saying that his style doesn't use weapons (at least not that i've found... if you find one, let me know)

of course this doesn't change the fact that, hands down, he is still at his best unarmed.

End copy pasta and edit.

Now if anyone wants to seriously contest this, I suggest reading the whole manga with a fine toothed comb and post the page or page number of the contrary evidence.

Of course, it goes with out saying that I have no clue if this all is the same for the anime, but I don’t really go by that canon when writing my fics. *shrugs*

Ranma vs. youma:

Much like the Nodoka/sword cliché, this one has always gone to extremes. Either he can’t do crap, or he wipes them out most of the time in one or two shots. It has already been pointed out both that ‘eating lifeforce and having it beat up side your head can be two different things’ and ‘youma usually use a medium’. I’d also like to point out that there already is a precedence that has been set that everyone seems to forget. Rei’s Shinto abilities. One could argue that is magic much like her senshi powers, but I’ve also heard it argued that they are ki based in a similar fashion to a martial artist taping their ki. If the later is the case, then ranma -can- effect youma without any doubt.

The thing is, considering it’s pretty easy to agree that canon ranma at the end of series still doesn’t have the same raw power that moon does, he may not be able to take out one youma as fast as most fics portray. Not that he couldn’t defeat one on his own, but it’d at least give him a bit more of a work out is all. And most fics don’t show that.


Youma vs. enemy of the day/week/whatever:

This one I just realized today, and then I spotted a post on this thread along the same lines, but I thought to make it more clear. In the whole of the sailor moon series, the youma (beryl arc) and the cardians (‘doom tree’ arc… I know, silly u.s. version. But in this case I think it just sounds cooler :p ) are the only minions that gather energy… at least in the form of ‘life force’. The Dark Moon Family were just trying to ‘poison’ everything with negitive energy more then gather, the Death Busters are after pure heart crystals, the Dead Moon Circus went after dream mirrors in search of Pegasus. And finally Galaxia was after ‘sailor crystals’ a.k.a. ‘pure star seeds’. None of the villains from these group did any energy gathering and their minions didn’t seem capable of such that I know of.

What really makes this a cliché is that most of the time, if the fic is not using an already established plot line (like in the case of ‘the juban incident’), then the monsters of the day/week/whatever will tend to be youma or some derivative there of.

Wee… that enough reading for ya all? :p

[Comartemis]

What really makes this a cliché is that most of the time, if the fic is not using an already established plot line (like in the case of ‘the juban incident’), then the monsters of the day/week/whatever will tend to be youma or some derivative there of.

I think the reasoning for this is that the Senshi only killed Beryl, the Generals, and whatever youma were sent at them. There's still an entire kingdom's worth of youma who are suddenly without any kind of leadership, so naturally they will occasionally show up in Tokyo looking for a snack long after the Dark Kingdom has been defeated. Either that or they'll all starve.

[PepperJAQ]

true, but that is the point... it's used to often, and folks should really try to use some more of their imagination... which i'm glad there are some out there that do :3

not that it's a bad thing to use now an then within a plot line, just not have it be the whole dang thing... :p

[antimatterenergy]

Really? I thought that was canon- what do you call inviting all of Ranma's rivals & other fiancees to Ranma & Akane's wedding in order to get the resultant presents/gifts/money donations if not being greedy to the point of stupidity?

This is a bit late in posting (the quote is from august) but something can be both cliche and cannon.

Ranma attracts girls, guys, and spirits who want to date/marry him is both cliche since it happens often but is also cannon since Ranma has multiple girls after him (kodachi, Shampoo, Ukyo, others especially in Anime), multiple guys have gone after him (sick kid, old man, Kuno, tea ceremony guy, etc..) , and several spirits did go after him (spirit of cherry tree that possessed Kuno, Swim suit spirit, panda spirit, magical/spirit created clone of himself).

Another cliche that is cannon. Everyone tries to kill Ranma at one point, to the point that it is practically expected that they try and kill him at least once. In the manga just about everyone has tried to kill Ranma (or at least made him suffer some -even Kasumi who helped put cat's on him).

[Zwzn]

cliche
In sailor Moon you have to have a power level equeal to or higher then Sailor Moon to take down the the monster of the week, Dark generals, or higher ranking things.

Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter will support me on this.

[Vilkath]

Sorry for not sorting these out, but I wrote them as they came to me. Come from Ranma, SM, and OMG series.

Ranma giving up his male side willingly to become a Senshi, because it’s protects the weak. A whole different level of the Ranma gets locked as a girl story, but he chose to be a girl just to fight?

Pluto or the other Senshi let Ranma become a fellow Senshi either by reclaiming past memories or being made into one, with at least Pluto knowing he will become locked a girl without telling him. Usually end up giving him a choice in the end, but after greatly encouraging him to accept.

Immediate acceptance of Ranma’s curse by the Senshi gang. Followed by them teaching him how to be a better girl. Totally ignoring any protest or feelings he might have against it, because it’s for his own good.

Ranma trains the Senshi, combined with them turning out to be super strong martial artist second to Ranma without their powers in almost no time at all.

The Senshi transformation has built in quirks like speeches and poses that Ranma can’t stop himself from doing

All the Senshi have castles lying around on their planets, even new scouts like Sun and they are in working order thousands of years later.

Ranma some how getting raped or hurt by normal or weaker people, some how losing all his martial arts training and strength to fuel the plot device.

Ranma becoming divine angel, god or goddess and still being stuck as female, usually because Kami-sama feels he should.

Urd Responsible for all of Ranma’s bad relationships, and Kami-sama letting Urd get away with almost anything normally punishable when it relates to Ranma’s love life.

Ranma is stupid due to some training accident as a child, solved by healing from silver crystal, removing bone fragment etc.

Ranma getting a wish, and messing it up

Ranma’s enemies like Kuno or Ryoga getting a demonic wish to use against Ranma and having nothing really bad happen to them in exchange.

The Norns protecting Mara or other demons from Ranma after they did something horrible to him like locking him as a girl.

The goddess’s unable to undo a wish, divine or demonic that was done to Ranma.

Mass System bugs infection in the Nerima area, responsible for their behavior

Nabiki has some worldwide connections into all levels of crime and government, able to find Ranma anywhere and get any level of legal issues solved instantly.

Ranma making fun of the Senshi outfit, random comments about how people can see up their skirts during their fights.

Hotaru’s weakness solved by receiving some Tai chi or other soft martial arts training by Ranma.

Ranma applies science and logic to the Senshi attacks that they never used before, not even Ami. Coming up with combinations of Rei and Ami to make twisters or other plays on elemental combinations that not even the smart girl with a computer ever thought of.

Kasumi, Nabiki and others secretly see Ranma as their little brother/sister and truly care about him but some how still can’t be bothered to help the boy with any thing.

Ranma and Kasumi have secretly been best friends for months or years. Kasumi teaching Ranma manners, cooking and what not to make him a well rounded person without any one noticing.

[Drawde]

The goddess’s unable to undo a wish, divine or demonic that was done to Ranma.

By canon, they'd be unable to undo any spell without the caster's permition. Which mean's they'd they'd pretty much have no way to undo a demonic wish at all

As for Ranma messing up a wish, that would be in character with the series itself.

[Zwzn]

Ranma applies science and logic to the Senshi attacks that they never used before, not even Ami. Coming up with combinations of Rei and Ami to make twisters or other plays on elemental combinations that not even the smart girl with a computer ever thought of.

They are basically ki attacks, and this is Ranma we are talking about.

I think people give Ami and or the Mercury computer to much credit. She rarely shares any useful information with the group, and isn't good at thinking on her feet.

Here's some annoying cliches.

Sailor Mercury is smart, and has her nice technomagic palm top so she understands the forces at work dealing with the senshi powers, the enemies they are facing at the moment, or whatever else.

Hotaru is weak and ill anytime after Mistress Nine's death.

[Vilkath]

Well I would say Ami is smart, her amazingly good school grades seem to indicate that to some degree or at least having a very good memory. But I suppose a lot of people exchange being able to memorize facts with being creative and that is where Ami fails badly at being the group’s brain. She doesn't really come up with plans, training methods or even new benefits herself. And to be honest the Mercury computer has to have some serious holes in it's information if it couldn't even give something as basic as a more complete history of the Moon kingdom then Luna's swiss cheese memories could.

I always felt it was just a battle computer, maybe has an ancient game of Tetris on it for when she got bored but seems to utterly lack non-combative information. Which in itself is another cliché I suppose that the mercury computer is super amazing and best thing on the planet. Which might been reasonably true at start of season one but I have to wonder that without any upgrades or ability to make new technology herself (as we never see anything beyond the communicator watches) if the thing isn't so out of date by time Super S and such end. Almost the entire use of the computer was scanning and comparing it against some ancient database that never heard of enemies stronger then the Youma of the first season. How would it know anything about most the later enemies?

[Spokavriel]

Urusei Yatsura (うる星やつら)

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

but half the time it isn't "how much this stands out in the dark" question. Its how much it blends in question. Taken to its logical conclusion, according to most authors, any leaf-nin who isn't wearing forest camo is mentally retarded.

Orange is used in natural camouflage -- think "tiger". It blends with dry grasses, which I'm sure ninjas encounter. What Naruto really needs is black stripes to go with it.

[Spokavriel]

Naruto needs allot of things. Including learning to be still. I'm not sure he ever gets that one. Then again my exposure to the series is limited.

[Crescent Pulsar]

Okay, I was reminded of another: when the author illustrates Akane as the best martial artist in Nerima. Particularly if she sees it that way herself, and especially if she actually tries to claim that she was or still is. (I don't even know where people got the idea that Akane cared about being the best martial artist, in Nerima or otherwise. It's pretty clear that she intends to live like a normal girl, and how her strength and skill were a source of grief (along with being tomboyish) to her when she looked back at several events in her past.)