Jusenkyo: Cure or not?

[Knight of L-sama]

Yes thats exactly what I was saying before. It's called magic because we can't explain it. If you can't explain something how can you accurately predict it?

Quite easily. Just becuase one can not describe the underlying physical principles does not mean that one can't make accurate predictions based on observational evidence. There was a whole set of very accurate laws of optics a couple of centuries before scientists started to get a handle on the true nature of light with the advent of quantumn theory.

Similarly the ancient Greeks and Egyptians had very accurate charts of astronomical observations and could tell you were any given celestial object was at any point in time but it wasn't until Newton's Law of Universal Graviation nearly two thousand years later that anyone could explain why the planets moved like they did.

Between them the Musk, Phoenix people and the Amazons have been living around Jusenkyo long enough to accumulate a fairly decent amount of observational lore.

As for the instant Jusenkyo water, it's true you can't dehydrate water but there are certain minerals that will absorb water and lock it away in their crystal structres. Pour some Jusenkyo water of the desired type on one of them, wait for it to be absorbed and then crush it up so when exposed to water again the Jusenkyo water trapped in it's crystal matrix can be released. Voila! 'Powdered' Jusenkyo water.

[FriendlyEL]

I'm just wondering on the topic of this, where is it mentioned that the Spring of Drowned Twins remains permenant and the clone does not dissapear once the original touches hot water?

Also as mentioned before, if I'm right Miss Takashi did in fact mention herself that Ranma's curse would be cured with the Spring of Drowned Man. The greatest proof I have seen of this is the Instant Nannichuan story when Ranma and Genma did in fact stay human until it wore off. As someone I think mentioned before, it seems that the results of the spring will only result in a mixture of curses if the next curse given was not the original form of the curse victim.

It seems to me that the reason Taro has tenticles only on his back rather than turning entirely to an octopus is because with the combination of the two curses he would need to retain properties of the two lesser forms.

Not knowing much genetics myself, I really can't explain this very well.

-Instant Nannichuan-

NOT THE SAME AS JUSENKYO. First off, you can't dehydrate water.

Maybe it was some sort of substance in the water that they extracted. I find it odd myself that simple H2O would somehow alter your DNA like Jusenkyo curses would. The only people who knew the actual science behind it would be the makers and the Jusenkyo Guide.

[Suikie]

I would be willing to chalk jusenkyo up to one thing and one thing only... NANOMACHINES! An ancient civilization created the nanomachines for some purpose. Perhaps they were meant to replicate certain matter but when the civilization fell all that was left were some nanomachines. The pools themselves aren't water but nanomachines! That's what jusendo "Water" is! And upon coming in contact with matter it replicates it. How exactly the temperature activation came around who knows... As for the difference between the Akaneniichuan and spring of drowned girl... perhaps they are different forms of nano machines? Or just that the phoenix don't count as humans and humans would merely change gender which would explain animals coming out of the springs as a replica of the last being that fell in. Just thought I'd throw out one of my insane ramblings.

[claymade]

Between them the Musk, Phoenix people and the Amazons have been living around Jusenkyo long enough to accumulate a fairly decent amount of observational lore.

And therein lies one of my biggest problems with the "SoD man will actually mix with Ranma's curse" theory. We know Jusenkyo has all kinds of funkiness. We know that some of the springs can have different effects in all kinds of situations. There's all kinds of possible twists and variations that can be applied to it, and there's huge gaping holes in our knowledge of how it works.

But. It's the unanimous testimony of every character in the series that SoD man will in fact cure the curse. Including the Guide himself. I'd take the Guide's lifetime of "observational lore" over our (extremely incomplete) knowledge of how all the rules work together any day of the week.

[Suikie]

Actually, they never state as a matter of fact that it will indeed cure them. If in fact it did, I'm sure the guide would have originally suggested it to any customer that fell in a spring. Afterall, who WANTS a curse? It's not like Ranma and Genma fell in the spring and ran off abandoning the guide. Apparently, the guide neglected to mention any facts regarding the spring. Also, Ranma never mentions the fact he wants to jump in the spring to "Cure" himself to the guide. Perhaps the guide thought Ranma wanted it for someone else? All the senior characters skirt around the issue but never actually say anything about it being a cure or not. So, you can't just assume they said it's a cure. They never said it was or wasn't! Therefor, still open for interpretation.

[three headed dog]

The guide didn't know where the boy spring was at the beginning and was taking Ranma and Genma to the Amazons to get the curse cured but the guide does think that it will cure them because later he sends boy water.

[Suikie]

My point is, it never states it. That is all assumptions and conjecture. At no point does it say the guide didn't know where the spring was. If it does in fact please point out the issue number and page number of the manga. He never said he thinks it will cure them. All he knew was they wanted some spring of drowned man water and so he sent it as a thanks for helping at Jusendo. Pure manga facts based on the readings. Conjectures and theories aside, it never said as a matter of fact, that the springs would cure each other.

Then you have to think about it. If you are in your cursed form and splashed yourself with water what would happen? We don't know how the curses work. Does the magic merely initiate the change or does it maintain it? Would splashing yourself in cursed form cause your natural form to be overwritten as some fics has claimed? If it is indeed a cure, would you need to be in your natural form for it to work? Maybe If you were in your cursed form and used it you would instead be a girl that turns into a man with cold water and back to a girl with hot? Who knows! Like I've said, we can only go by what is stated AS A FACT in the manga. Which is very little mind you.

[Goldarmy]

Also another thing to consider is that the Guide has a very interesting idea of being helpful. He didn't bother to tell the obivous two fighters about the traditions of Amazons. And when Shampoo gave the Kiss of Death instead of the sensible thing trying to explain matters, he just made the two runaway. So it isn't too improbable for him to send something that will make Ranma a futanari.

[Southern Cross]

What's a futanari?
And it's been stated before that Takahashi has stated in a interview that water from the "spring of drowned man" would cure Ranma.And it was shown in one of the manga that the instant version temporarily negated the curse,it seems perfectly reasonable to me that the real stuff should be able to break the curse.(Every good curse should have a way of breaking it).
This is one of the fanfiction cliches that should have been put down years ago.
However this does not necessarily mean that Ranma would be cured soon,if at all.Look what happened at the wedding disaster,for example.

[TerraEpon]

What's a futanari?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futanari


-Joshua

[Uldihaa]

Actually, they never state as a matter of fact that it will indeed cure them. If in fact it did, I'm sure the guide would have originally suggested it to any customer that fell in a spring. Afterall, who WANTS a curse? It's not like Ranma and Genma fell in the spring and ran off abandoning the guide. Apparently, the guide neglected to mention any facts regarding the spring. Also, Ranma never mentions the fact he wants to jump in the spring to "Cure" himself to the guide. Perhaps the guide thought Ranma wanted it for someone else? All the senior characters skirt around the issue but never actually say anything about it being a cure or not. So, you can't just assume they said it's a cure. They never said it was or wasn't! Therefor, still open for interpretation.

I think this is a case of Takahashi skating, very quickly, over some weak points in her story. She wanted and needed Ranma and Genma to be cursed, so she avoided the issue of curing them while they were there by moving them on to the Amazons. In my opinion, Takahashi never intended for the characters to get cured.

For me, what a writer states in an interview doesn't matter. The important information should be contained in the body of what he or she writes. What we have in Ranma is a contradiction. On one hand, the temporary curses do stop the victim from changing; however, we also have Taru and the way he was able to mix the curses. Yes, he used only a little water to get the tentacles and ink, but it did blend with his cursed form. What we have are one instance where the curses seem to cancel out, but then we have one that shows that they don't. Is it simply a problem of the amount of water used? We just don't know. The characters that are 'in the know' have never come right out and stated that a curse can be cured by another curse (not that I remember anyway). So, ignoring anything from outside the body of work, we can't really know if boy-water would cure Ranma or not.

[Goldarmy]

And it's been stated before that Takahashi has stated in a interview that water from the "spring of drowned man" would cure Ranma.

You know posting what she said and when she said it would be helpful, since she didn't bother to demonsrate it in the manga.

And it was shown in one of the manga that the instant version tempoarily negated the curse,it seems perfectly reasonable to me that the real stuff should be able to break the curse.

Okay think of a magical powder that is made from grinded dust of a desert rodent's bones. When the powder is mixed with water it becomes a potion that temprorarily grants the drinker strength of 20 man and helps drinkers indigestion.

Now think of a lake inside a thick jungle. The water permanently grants the drinker strength of 20 man, causes total hair loss, covers the whole body with pus and does nothing for indigestion.

The water is Nyanniichuan, and the powder is Instant Nyanniichuan.

(Every good curse should has)

On the contrary a good curse doesn't has a cure or even if it has the cure is far worse than the curse. Curses exist to make people suffer.

[Togashi Gaijin]

You know posting what she said and when she said it would be helpful, since she didn't bother to demonsrate it in the manga.

The interview in question was in Japanese in a Shounen Sunday issue published sometime in 1996 - which makes it somewhat difficult to quote directly. While I personally have never seen the issue in question (and, given that I don't read Japanese it wouldn't matter if I did), there have been enough trusted sources who have stated that they have either seen or owned the issue where this was stated to satisfy me to its veracity.

[Drawde]

For me, what a writer states in an interview doesn't matter. The important information should be contained in the body of what he or she writes.

So you're saying that, if an author explains something in an interview or such, but doesn't put it in a published book, that that's not how things work in that author's stories?

[Suikie]

So you're saying that, if an author explains something in an interview or such, but doesn't put it in a published book, that that's not how things work in that author's stories?

What I believe he was implying, is that Rumiko should have mentioned it in author's notes somewhere to make it more official and connect it with the series. As it stands, none of us here can site the article. If you were to submit to an english professor a paper including such details, you would be marked down due to the fact you could not site it properly. Literary works should have no need for outside explainations. We all know that Rumiko obviously didn't completely think things through as she was creating the manga, she leaves plot holes and doesn't ever wrap up the story which gives us free reign on exploiting any of those for our own fanfiction works. Given that fanfiction didn't start recently and has been being written since the manga had become popular enough, I'd say even if she did state such in an interview, it was already too late to take it back. She had finished the manga by then. What you say and what you MEANT to say can be two completely different things and it's incredibly hard to take it back. Look at George W. Bush for crying out loud... What he says and means to say are never the same!