General Questions mk 2

[Ezvir]

None of the Japanese I know refer to themselves in third person. It's a pattern of speech mostly used by young girls to sound cute - a form of baby-talk.

Yes, mostly used by young girls; I wouldn't call it baby-talk, though. Acceptable <> standard. I must admit that I foremost thought of referring to other people by name rather than pronoun, and referring to yourself was a bit of an afterthought, but while somewhat unusual it's not as unusual as some typical anime usages like ore-sama (I think that's used exclusively ironically in the real world).


Another thing I just remembered: Shampoo uses yoroshii all the time. So do Pink and Link. I have no idea why.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

A few questions about Mousse's first appearance:
-What, precisely, is he meaning when he declares that Ranma "will give up his woman (points to Akane) if he (Mousse) wins"?
-Secondly, in the dubbed anime, Shampoo clarifies her 'dark magic' comment to mean "Mousse have many-many tricks", while in the subbed she says "he have hidden weapons"; which of these is the better translation of the Japanese?
-On that topic, is Shampoo serious about Mousse practicising Dark Magic, or was that comment basically a gag on how Mousse's fighting style resembles stage magic and relies on hiding stuff where it's dark and using it too quickly for his opponent to see, block or dodge?
-Is Mousse using the Japanese names for his techniques in the dub and the Chinese names for them in the subbing, or am I mistaken?

And on a different note, shouldn't Soun & Genma be a little more interested in this fight that Ranma has apparently staked his engagement to Akane on than on their stupid shogi game?

[Kilich]

A question about Happosai.
Are his pipe trick and bombs his only combat techniques?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

No, they aren't his only techniques- they're his favorite ones, but if he needs to, he can pull out a wide variety of other moves. He can punch and kick if he feels like it, or use his pipe as a mace, but when motivated to combat he tends to favor flashy stuff. Depending on canon, he can use his battle aura to assume the guise of a giant version of himself, burn his foe with a moxa-mark that will permanently reduce their strength to 'non-existent', use a mold-variation of his Fire Burst attack, project his aura as a kind of 'super ki blast', become invisible, and a lot of other stuff too. I actually listed all of his attacks from the anime (and Jupiah promptly added his attacks from the manga) in the "Cologne Vs. Happosai" topic in this very forum, if you want a more detailed look at his combat capabilities.

[Kilich]

Maybe i'm using the wrong topic or should ask only myself this, but after rewriting about 20k words of my fic, i got hit with an idea to make it Fate\stay night crossover with Ranma as Rider or cursed with her body.
And here is my question: is it better to rewrite most of it again or it's better to write this crossover from scratch? These two stories will, most likely, resemble each other a lot, since this my current fic is my first one, and i don't want this to happen.


And another question for my current fic where Ranma's girl side is a ghost.
Would Ranma want to remove his curse if:

His cursed form is treated with respect or actually cared for, or at least people a lot less like to try and use him due to various reasons.(fear, religious beliefs since his cursed form is a spirit(a Kami) and as i understand they are rather respected if not worshipped). And with that he has a lot less trouble when dealing with results of Genma's actions.
He can eat ice cream.(it's silly, but still)
Happosai only agrees to teach him in his cursed form( he is the only one who trains Ranma in my fic, after he arrived in Nerima) and when he's not trying to bribe him, they treat each other rather well.
He can fly and has access to two new fighting styles(melee fighting in mid flight and the one based on energy manipulation)
He's basicaly invulnerable to usual weapons thanks to his cursed form's immaterial state.

But the bad points are:
He turns into a girl.
His senses are changed (improved sight but no taste(with exeption of ice cream)and his touch is limited to sensing pressure, no warm\cold or any other)
Everybody treats his girl form very differntely from him and thinks that she has her own personality (not that Ranma would want others to know that he turns into a girl, but he dislikes being treated differently)
There's never a dull moment. And if there is, then something big is on it's way.
The Amazons and Musk think that his girl side is a 400 year old spirit of vanished Musk princess.
He's afraid that he'll be splashed with hot water while passing through solid objects of that his curse would lock itself and lose ability to speak, touch other people and such.

Even if i forgot anything because it's 4 am now, i'm sure it's not important -.-

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

This is really more of a question for Fic Research, but I might as well give you my opinion.

Ranma despises his girl-side in canon, and basically grows to tolerate because B: it comes in handy sometimes and A: he hasn't been able to get it cured. He would still do almost anything for a cure though. Likely thanks to Genma's efforts to ensure he wouldn't get called on the seppuku contract, Ranma's identity is firmly fixed in the concepts of 'heterosexual male' and 'manly man'- as such turning into a woman mentally grates on him. "This is not me!", that sort of thing. While a power increase in his cursed form might make it a little more attractive, Ranma thinks of himself first and foremost as a guy and tries to avoid combat in his female form unless he has no other option, so it's questionable thing whether that would interest him.

Personally, I'd say he'd find it more useful, but he'd still try and get rid of it. Bad enough the way it wounds his sense of self, but as Ranma is, at heart, something of a hedonist (as in he relishes whatever physical pleasures he can get), the fact he loses almost all tactical interaction with the world would be annoying as hell. One treat that he eats rarely does not make up for the inability to bask in the sun, sleep, enjoy any other sort of food, or even take pleasure in the bio-chemicals produced by a good fight/workout.

[Zwzn]

This is really more of a question for Fic Research, but I might as well give you my opinion.

Ranma despises his girl-side in canon, and basically grows to tolerate because B: it comes in handy sometimes and A: he hasn't been able to get it cured. He would still do almost anything for a cure though. Likely thanks to Genma's efforts to ensure he wouldn't get called on the seppuku contract, Ranma's identity is firmly fixed in the concepts of 'heterosexual male' and 'manly man'- as such turning into a woman mentally grates on him. "This is not me!", that sort of thing. While a power increase in his cursed form might make it a little more attractive, Ranma thinks of himself first and foremost as a guy and tries to avoid combat in his female form unless he has no other option, so it's questionable thing whether that would interest him.

Personally, I'd say he'd find it more useful, but he'd still try and get rid of it. Bad enough the way it wounds his sense of self, but as Ranma is, at heart, something of a hedonist (as in he relishes whatever physical pleasures he can get), the fact he loses almost all tactical interaction with the world would be annoying as hell. One treat that he eats rarely does not make up for the inability to bask in the sun, sleep, enjoy any other sort of food, or even take pleasure in the bio-chemicals produced by a good fight/workout.

Don't we also see Ranma get hot and bothered as a girl at the sight of other nude girls bathing in a hot spring at some point in the manga? I think the fire burst arc.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Yes, we do see that, and it's in the anime as well (in both cases the Happo Fire Burst story). That's why I mentioned part of his 'persona' is the concept 'heterosexual male'- even in a girl's body, he's still attracted solely to girls and is turned on by seeing them naked. Why bring that up?

I'd also like to point out here, because I forgot to do so earlier, that it makes no sense that Happosai will only train Ranma in his cursed form. It's a canon fact that Happosai will not train anyone except men, perhaps because women can't get the so-called "benefits" of his perversion-based training.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Some new questions from me...

*Now, I know that "reason" and "Ranma 1/2 character" are pretty much opposing forces, but what characters could be considered the most reasonable in Ranma 1/2? And does this change between the manga & anime canons?

*Ranma's morals take a pretty big hit when a potential cure for his Jusenkyo curse is on the line, but what sort of things would he not do to try and claim a cure?

*What are the most positive things that Genma, Happosai and Soun have done, depending on canon? For example, Genma came to the rescue of "Kanna" in that weird episode where he found himself in an isolated village primarily populated by exact physical replicas of people from Nerima, taking on the Kuno-counterpart and his mob of mooks. Anime-Happosai tries to give up on being a pervert for Midori's sake. Both versions of Soun offer themselves as a sacrifice to the Oni possessing Kasumi. Etcetera, etcetera.

*All of the Ranma 1/2 characters (but especially the fiancees) need a good dose of maturity. What kind of things might be able to penetrate their egos/delusions to give them their desperately needed "wake up calls"?

*I know that regardless of canon, all of Ranma's so-called fiancees treat him pretty shabbily. However, comparatively speaking, which version of a given fiancee treats Ranma better? For example, would you say the manga version of Ukyo treats Ranma better than the anime version of her, or the other way around?

*I'm positive I once read, in at least one fanfic, the speculation that Shampoo initially hoped to use her cat-form to get closer to Ranma by pretending to be his pet- only for this to be shattered by his ailurophobia. Could this be at all likely?

*Everybody has their limit. What do you think it would take before Ranma finally got tired enough of Nerima that he would seriously contemplate leaving? Not neccessarily going through with it, but considering it?

[Kilich]

Hm. I thought that he would be reluctant to give up being treated nicely by others since it seems to be valuable to him.
With Happosai, i guess it's back to the drawing board.


*Ranma's morals take a pretty big hit when a potential cure for his Jusenkyo curse is on the line, but what sort of things would he not do to try and claim a cure?*

I doubt he would kill anyone. He might forcefully remove them from his way without caring much about their injuries, but not outright kill. I also doubt he would sacrifice anyone he thinks of as a friend for gaining a cure.

*Everybody has their limit. What do you think it would take before Ranma finally got tired enough of Nerima that he would seriously contemplate leaving? Not neccessarily going through with it, but considering it?*

Maybe it's cliche i got from reading fanfics, but ruining his second wedding by demanding to take the rest of so-called fiancees as his mistresses?
It may seem perfect to Genma since Ukyo=food, Kodachi=money, Shampoo=more food and a potential cure.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

He may get treated better, but didn't you say they also see him as being a different person in ghost-form? Which basically means that they aren't treating "him" better at all- they're giving their respect and friendship to the ghost-girl, and Ranma just happens to receive the benefits. In fact, that would probably make things worse than the pure-girl curse, because it wouldn't be hard for a person in that situation to start thinking "they don't give a damn about me, it's the curse they're interested in". Couple that with Ranma's existant 'problems' with loneliness, and he'd despise the better treatment more than he'd enjoy it- he doesn't think of the curse being himself to begin with, so if he's only getting the better treatment as a ghost-girl, he'd grow to hate and resent it all the more.

Really, there is pretty much nothing that could ever endear a female-based curse to Ranma. Particularly after he finds out about Nodoka and how his life depends on his being 'manly' in her eyes. Genma had bound up Ranma's idea of who he is, his sense of self, heavily into Ranma's gender- any male or gender-neutral curse would probably be simply accepted, but Ranma will always struggle against a female curse. That's why Ranma is so set on finding a cure in the series and is always the one to deliberately go after a cure, while Genma is content to lounge around as a panda and restricts himself merely to trying to steal a cure if it's convinient- Genma's curse doesn't offend him the way Ranma's curse offends Ranma, so he doesn't give a damn overall. Ranma would be the same with a curse like "Drowned Child"- neither Saotome really gives a damn about 'normal', in fact they could easily be said to avoid it, but prick their egoes with something and they'll move heaven and earth to try and avenge the wound.

[Kilich]

Yes, you're right, i'm contradicting myself. Even though everyone knows that Ranma shares memories and body with the ghost-girl, they Do believe that they are different people and that doubles his hatred towards the curse.

Ah, well. That's what you get when you try to improve fic written on inspiration and improvisation alone.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

*A few questions about Mousse's first appearance:
-What, precisely, is he meaning when he declares that Ranma "will give up his woman (points to Akane) if he (Mousse) wins"?
-Secondly, in the dubbed anime, Shampoo clarifies her 'dark magic' comment to mean "Mousse have many-many tricks", while in the subbed she says "he have hidden weapons"; which of these is the better translation of the Japanese?
-On that topic, is Shampoo serious about Mousse practicising Dark Magic, or was that comment basically a gag on how Mousse's fighting style resembles stage magic and relies on hiding stuff where it's dark and using it too quickly for his opponent to see, block or dodge?
-Is Mousse using the Japanese names for his techniques in the dub and the Chinese names for them in the subbing, or am I mistaken?

*And on a different note, shouldn't Soun & Genma be a little more interested in this fight that Ranma has apparently staked his engagement to Akane on than on their stupid shogi game?

*I've heard here and there that Azusa Shiratori is rich, or at least is well-off financially. Is this true?

*How was Azusa, who knows nothing about Jusenkyo curses, able to recognize that Ryoga was "Charlotte" after seeing he was wearing the same collar? Then again, she evidently believes in Tanukis (however it's spelt) -as is made evident in her second appearance in the anime- so maybe she does believe in magic in general.

*Is it possible to depict Azusa in a more 'sympathetic' angle than the canonical spoiled kleptomaniac? If yes, how?

*How on earth did Mikado and Azusa manage to start working together, let alone win 950 consecutive victories, when neither of them really likes the other?

*If Ranma had lingered behind after that first meeting with Dr. Tofu, so he wasn't standing right beside/in front of Akane when his legs gave out, would Akane have noticed Ranma's loss of mobility? If no, would Ranma have been willing to call out to her and ask for help at that early stage in their 'relationship'? And if Akane hadn't noticed, and Ranma hadn't called out for her help, what might have resulted?

*Is it me, or does Daikoku Senior appear startled that Genma is actually accepting his offer in the dubbed anime?

*In one episode of the anime, Mousse actually attacks a guy who flirts with Shampoo- does this seem like behavior he might have pulled offscreen in the manga, and/or in the past of both canons?

*Speaking of which, why does Mousse blame Ranma exclusively for Shampoo's not loving him, when Mousse has been trying to get Shampoo to fall for him for about 12 years (from the time they were 3) before they'd even met Ranma?

*Also, how did Mousse hear about Shampoo's engagement to Ranma anyway?

*How do you think Ryoga's life would have gone if Ranma had never been sent to the same Junior High as the Eternally Lost Boy?

[Zwzn]

*And on a different note, shouldn't Soun & Genma be a little more interested in this fight that Ranma has apparently staked his engagement to Akane on than on their stupid shogi game?

Unless they could somehow tell Ranma was more then good enough I agree

*Is it possible to depict Azusa in a more 'sympathetic' angle than the canonical spoiled kleptomaniac? If yes, how?

You basicly have to depict her as such a lonely girls that the only way she ever gets attention is by acting out. Basicly her missbehavor is a cry for help/love.

*How on earth did Mikado and Azusa manage to start working together, let alone win 950 consecutive victories, when neither of them really likes the other?

They work well together on the ice during a fight and practice.

**Speaking of which, why does Mousse blame Ranma exclusively for Shampoo's not loving him, when Mousse has been trying to get Shampoo to fall for him for about 12 years (from the time they were 3) before they'd even met Ranma?

That is like asking why Ranma gets blamed or punished for alot of the stuff that is not his falt. There is likely no reasonable answer.

***How do you think Ryoga's life would have gone if Ranma had never been sent to the same Junior High as the Eternally Lost Boy?

From what we see Ranma is the closest thing to a friend Ryoga has. Ryoga would be even more lonely.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

While my other questions still stand, I have one about Happosai: while his midwifing Taro is a kink in the timelines, what reason could he have for being in China in general and being near Jusenkyo specifically? Given what's implied about his breakup with Cologne in the manga (and given we've actually seen what went down in the anime), why would he risk coming anywhere near the Joketsuzoku village, given what he's likely risking if they catch him?

Speaking of which, in the anime canon at least, what would have happened to Happosai if he'd been caught by the Chinese Amazons? In the anime, we're shown that Happosai 'left' their village at the head of an angry mob, courtesy of his plundering all the valuables (including bras, panties, gold, jewellery and magical items) he could get his grubby little hands on.