The wall between Ranma and Kasumi

[Crescent Pulsar R]

I've noticed, in a lot of fan-fics, that Ranma rarely interacts, or is on any real speaking terms, with Kasumi. Usually it's pointed out how they're spending time together, for once, or actually having a conversation to begin with. I kind of find it... odd. While I have an idea or two as to why, I was wondering what others thought about it, whether they agreed with it or not, and if anyone had any ideas that I haven't thought of. (One, obviously, being that the interest or opportunity, or a mixture of both, prevents any significant interaction.)

Oh, right: I find it odd since there was that one time when Ranma was in Kasumi's room, sewing up one of his shirts, and they seemed to have had a conversation that led to him mentioning how Akane had gotten the part of Juliet. This kind of interaction isn't unusual in fan-fics, but it usually follows the circumstances aforementioned in the previous paragraph, which begins or leads up to them having a relationship.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I think it might be so common in fanfics because, while the two do speak to each other on occasion in the actual series, there doesn't seem to be much evidence that it's something that happens very frequently, or that it's anything more than idle small talk. Kasumi is kind and polite to Ranma, because Ranma is a guest and she is kind and polite to everyone, and Ranma reciprocates because it's in his nature to treat people the way that they treat him. They don't really seem to share much common interest, though, and so usually they just pass each other by while living out their own lives. Kasumi mostly is seen running errands or going out to visit friends (the latter especially early in the series), while Ranma has a... shall we say, more active life?

Ranma spends most of his time either alone or with Akane. While part of it is because they are engaged and so Genma and the other Tendos probably do force them to spend time with each other, they also have grounds to be with each other. They may be uncertain of their feelings for each other, but they do consider each other friends, they attend the same class and school, they share many of the same problems, and share at least some basic interests and hobbies. In short, Ranma has many reasons to spend time around Akane and interacting with her, while canonically he doesn't have any real cause to spend time hanging out with Kasumi (and she doesn't have any real cause to spend time with him, either).

The scene you specifically mention was most likely Kasumi offering to sew up Ranma's shirt, it being the sort of thing she does, and Ranma using it as an opportunity to ask why Akane was so worked up over the whole Romeo and Juliet thing; as her sister and the stand-in mother of the household, Kasumi is almost certain to know the answer, and talking to her is much easier and more pleasant than talking with Nabiki. Then again, so is driving nails into his eyes.

[Crescent Pulsar R]

Either way, though, it's obvious that he stuck around in her room and they struck up a genial conversation. At least, to me, it looks rather casual rather than awkward, terse or strained. And they were alone. All in all, they seem comfortable enough with each other, so that's why I don't really understand why people tend to think that there's a whole world separating them. Yes, they're very different people, and spend a lot of time doing other things, but they're far from strangers. That's why I find it hard to swallow when they're depicted as cold-ish acquaintances, or worse. More often than not it seems like they can't be warm acquaintances, or even friends, unless the author intends to illustrate their relationship further than that, as if there always has to be a bridge that needs to be built between them before they can begin to cross it.

I dunno. Maybe, as an author, I'm just over-analyzing it.

[three headed dog]

That is common in fan fics. Recently I came upon a fan fic in which Ranma started calling Kasumi big sis and everyone made a big deal about it. I found that to be extremely strange because Ranma calls Kasumi Oneechan (which means big sister) in the actual manga (for example prior to the Rhythmic Gymnastics match when Ranma eats the napkin).

In fan fiction it is strange for him to have conversations with anyone other than Akane. Whereas in the manga he repeatedly has casual conversation with a lot of people for example Shampoo (like when Mousse sent the tickets to the Chinese Acrobatic show or having tea with her), Ukyo (for example when he took her with him on the training trip to learn the Hiryu Shoten Ha or when Kasumi and Ukyo had a conversation ) or even Tatewaki Kuno (for example when Kuno shows him his photo book of the pig tailed girl). The thing is the manga focuses mostly on the active times and most of the conversations shown are only a few panels long easy to miss.

It also probably has something to do with the fact that Ranma is a rather quiet (in the conversations we do see he rather listen than talk exception being heated arguments) and a secretive person who only really makes small talk. Akane the person he is shown to talk to the most often even complains in the manga about how he never really tells her anything.

They probably do have things in common though it just that Kasumi is not shown doing anything other than leaving to visit friends or cleaning/shopping. The only hobby she is shown to have is knitting (shown doing that in multiple arcs). Those are activities Ranma does as well (Ranma is shown to clean up around the Dojo and has a compulsion to clean large messes - demonstrated by Miss Hinako's apartment where he had to think about it to stop cleaning and he is shown to go shopping for example he goes with Akane to do the New Years grocery shopping in the manga).

I once had an idea for a rather surreal conversation between them where Kasumi and Ranma discussed clothing (female form Ranma has worn a lot of girl clothing some of which are expensive as hell), make-up (Ranma is shown to put on make-up occasionally in the manga for example lipstick for date with Tatewaki or face powder while pretending to be Ryoga's fiancee), and jewelry (Ranma wears jewelry on occasion for example upper arm bracelets on a date with Tatewaki or the necklace during martial arts dining arc) with her wanting his/her help getting ready for a date and borrowing some.

[LawOhki]

That is common in fan fics. Recently I came upon a fan fic in which Ranma started calling Kasumi big sis and everyone made a big deal about it. I found that to be extremely strange because Ranma calls Kasumi Oneechan (which means big sister).

Oneesan actually. :p

But I'd echo pretty much everything you said. There's no reason to think they're complete strangers and it wouldn't be weird for them to converse when things were quiet.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I wasn't saying that it doesn't happen in the anime and manga, it quite clearly does, I was just saying, as Three Headed Dog has done, that fans are less likely to notice Ranma talking with Kasumi, Shampoo, Ukyo, or whoever, simply because such scenes tend to be short and subdued and usually Ranma is shown as either primarily listening or only having gone to/been approached by those people because of problems. The fact so many fanfics tend to involve Akane heavily as a main character is another reason why Ranma talking to others tends to be ignored/forgotten about... of course, Ranma is shown talking to (or at least being talked at by) Akane the most in canon.

[Crescent Pulsar R]

I wasn't arguing with you. XD I just figure that the evidence against the trend, in regard to their relationship in fan-fiction, is strong enough to curtail its continuance. Between the four of us we've already said enough to support such an occurrence.

There's only one reasonable explanation that I've been able to think of, that could explain the trend. The problem is that it's rarely ever brought up as a reason in fan-fiction, and leaving it unspoken isn't justifiably acceptable. What I'm referring to, of course, is when they keep their distance in order to prevent their fathers from getting the idea that they're interested in "that way." For whatever reason that they may have for doing it, beyond simply not liking each other to the point that they'd be agreeable to the idea of being engaged.

Oh, and about this "onee-san" thing. Exactly under what sort of terms is it used? "Onee-chan" is a much more familiar term, I imagine, so would "onee-san" be something formal/respectful, or somewhere between that and "onee-chan?" Or could it be used either way?

[Shanami]

Pure speculation on the proper use of Japanese follows as I really don't know what I'm talking about and relying on possibly faulty logic.

I'd imagine that onee-san would be used for bigger age gaps or to denote additional respect for the older sister but I'm not exactly sure exactly when the Japanese suffixes are appropriate anyway. I'd assume that oneesama would also be acceptable to denote tons of respect for the older sister to an extent beyond either of the others assuming that it is even a real term (seen it in a few fics but that really doesn't mean much).

I'd also guess that for more formal circumstances you'd use the san versus chan in a more informal setting. I know in Spanish I'd refer to the same person as usted at a formal occasion when i would refer to them as tu (too lazy to look up accent coding) under any other circumstances. Since there are so many more rules as to when you use different suffixes in Japanese, I'd wager that there's specific circumstances under which you'd refer to the same person by all of the available sister terms. It's also possible that if you were of a family of multiple siblings that you'd use chan/san designations to differentiate. Purely speculation, but it seems possible that Akane might refer to Kasumi as oneesan and Nabiki as oneechan to give them an age order.