by SpaceKnight of Chaos » Wed May 11, 2011 4:18 pm
Well, looking at this objectively...
One problem with switching is that, if Ranma chooses a "normal girl", he puts her in serious danger from Shampoo, Kodachi and possibly even Ukyo (though I think that, even in the manga, she's normally the least violent towards her rivals). Akane may be kind of pathetic in terms of fighting skill, but she's still enough of a fighter that she could evade an attack and continue to hold off her assailant until Ranma arrives to help her. Kasumi, on the other hand, could be taken out effortlessly by even Kodachi, the one member of Ranma's fiancee pack who even Akane can defeat.
A second problem is that even if Ranma wanted to switch to Kasumi, nobody else would let him. Akane is, honestly, kind of spoiled by her family, who are quick to get up Ranma's case for any perceived hurt inflicted upon her. If Ranma tries to switch over to Kasumi, he'll have an outraged Akane (who'll be running on a combination of hurt that he would try and leave her and rage that he would dump her and outrage that he would chase after her pure, innocent, needs-to-be-sheltered-from-the-world elder sister), a livid Soun, and a furious Ryoga all on his case, making his life hell until he switched back.
And another possibility is that, while we would see Akane as a less than satisfactory potential mate, Ranma's own tastes are so screwed up due to his upbringing that she honestly seems like the best candidate. Though I will conceed Genma may not be entirely to blame, Ranma is shown in canon to actually be very shy and uncertain when it comes to intimacy; when people start acting nice and sweet towards him, Ranma's disarmed, confused, uncertain of how to act. Akane, in addition to fact she does make sincere gestures of friendship and caring from time to time, is normally a fairly quiet, reserved sort around Ranma; when things aren't crazy and they aren't fighting, Ranma and Akane just sort of lounge around together. To Ranma, that feels comfortable, and so the fights and temper tantrums are more like streaks of lightning in a silver cloud.
Plus, let's face it, Ranma is no exception to the rule of people in this series tending to just ignore things that they don't want to acknowledge. Right now, it's very much in character for Ranma to focus on the fact that he and AKane can be in each other's presence without killing each other and she can be nice and sweet and thusly assume that means that they can and will work out, totally ignoring other matters like her lack of trust in him.
Water, water, everywhere, and all was cursed and black!
Drowned ones cast bad spell and out come pig, girl, duck, panda!
Swirl, swirl, slithery pond, and join with magic spring!
Swirl, swirl, dirty pond, and rid the cursed sting!
Here my prayer, I beg you please!
Now turn these curses BACK!
http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-boys-names.shtml
http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-girls-names.shtml