Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

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Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby Crescent Pulsar R » Sun May 15, 2011 11:20 am

Many authors portray Akane as someone who has good acting skills, or has the interest and/or ability to become an actress. The only reason for this, that I can find, seems to be the story where Akane is keenly interested in playing Juliet. This tends to bleed into other situations in works of fan-fiction, with how she interacts with others outside of that context.

However, I was considering the story where Nabiki becomes Ranma's fiancee, and began to wonder if Nabiki made a better actress than Akane. After all, she's more expressive than a good number of authors are willing to portray her -- *Cough* Ice Queen lubbers *Cough* -- and has a lot more control over her actions than Akane does.

Ranma's not up for consideration because he's another kettle of fish entirely. There are far too many instances in which he puts on an act, and how one might gauge his ability is more likely to be skewed by irrelevant or trivial factors. Basically, he could easily be seen as being the better actress, or just as easily be seen as the worst. I think it'd make things a lot less complicated to keep it between Akane and Nabiki, though if one feels like another character (or characters) need to be addressed, you're welcome to start another topic.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby Cheb » Sun May 15, 2011 11:25 am

Hmm... If akane likes to do something that doesn't mean she is good at doing it. Cue the cooking.
Her participating as Juliet was more a repressed child dream coming true, IMO, not her wanting to be an actress.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby SpaceKnight of Chaos » Sun May 15, 2011 1:37 pm

In canon, Akane's only reason for accepting the role the drama club offered her was because it was the role of Juliet; a dream she had nurtured ever since she was a little girl and was considered so boyish that she was automatically given the role of Romeo. She doesn't like acting at all, she only took the role as part of her on-going efforts to prove that just becase she's a martial artist doesn't mean she can't be sweet, gentle, feminine and womanly like her beloved eldest sister.

Nabiki, on the other hand, is canonically shown as acting on a semi-regular basis, in order to either fulfil one of her schemes or to escape from the fallout. We know that in canon she's fairly skilled at acting, as evidenced by the fact that people keep falling for her schemes despite the fact that, as a senior who, for all we know, has been sharking the whole populace since she started High School, everyone in Furinkan should know you should avoid her. However, she also has something of a large ham tendency, as seen during her "acting" as Ranma's eager new fiancee in the appropriate story. From my perspective, I think directing Nabiki to take an interest in acting would be a good way to channel her deceptive impulses and talents in a more enjoyable fashion - both for her and for those she's close to.

And while Ranma may not be good at acting, it's possible to interpret him from the canon as having an interest in being a playwrite; note, for example, just how often he decides that playacting as somebody else (usually "random cute girl") is his best choice for a plan, or that his first plan upon getting Happosai knocked out in the Pantyhose Taro story was to put on an elaborate, enchantment-backed play to convince Happosai that he must change Taro's name. Thusly, if Nabiki does take up acting, they may end up bonding when Ranma tries to get her to take part in plays of his own design.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby mondu_the_fat » Sun May 15, 2011 3:25 pm

Akane can act, or at least, act/look good* enough so that people recommend her to the role (alluded to have happened multiple times in the past, except that previous roles had her playing roles like "sumo chick"), don't complain when she's on stage, and applaud.

*lots of professional actresses have this as their primary talent, rather than the ability to act

However, she doesn't really _like_ to act, except in certain roles (ie Juliet). She might deliver a craptastic performance if forced to act in a role she didn't like. Although, it could be argued that she says no most of the time because of the kind of roles she gets offered.

Nabiki cons people regularly*, so she knows how to act. However, acting in real life is not the same as acting on stage/cameras. A placid/poker face will go lengths IRL, a similar expression would look dead on screen or on stage. And the presence of an audience changes things. Just because a peron can lie convincingly doesn't mean he can act in front of an audience. The difference is like a great speech-writer and a great orator. Great speech writers may know what to say to rouse the crowd, but that doesn't mean you can stick them in front of a crowd.

*Likely fanon. The racket she does in canon are photographs of Akane and Ranma as well as providing info for various people, which doesn't require acting. The one time she is really shown acting her target was Ranma, who isn't the most observant of people, and Nabiki was hamming it up.

I'd say Akane would be a better actress, if you can get her interested in the role.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby three headed dog » Sun May 15, 2011 6:00 pm

The one time she is really shown acting her target was Ranma, who isn't the most observant of people, and Nabiki was hamming it up.


Actually Ranma is pretty damn observant usually the first person to figure things out. He figured out Akane's crush on Tofu quickly, he was the fist to figure out that Tatewaki was the principals son, figured out Lucky wasn't just a normal albeit weird child, etc. Even with Nabiki Ranma was not clueless about her he clearly was shown to be suspicious of her behavior.

While personally I think Ranma would be the best actor/actress overall - he'd make an excellent method actor. I think Nabiki would be better at the more classical forms of acting, in which actors simulate the thoughts and emotions of their characters through external means, such as vocal intonation or facial expression. Akane I don't think would be that good either using method acting or the more classical forms but would probably be good at some specific roles. So overall Nabiki in my opinion would be better than Akane but for certain more specific roles Akane would be better than Nabiki.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby mondu_the_fat » Sun May 15, 2011 11:24 pm

While personally I think Ranma would be the best actor/actress overall - he'd make an excellent method actor.


Ranma can't act to save his life. See gambling king arc.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby three headed dog » Mon May 16, 2011 1:58 am

Ranma can't act to save his life. See gambling king arc.


Ok to counter that see pretending to be Ranko to his mother, or pretending to be Ryoga's sister, or acting in the play to get Happosai to change Taro's name, or manipulating Piccolotte Chardon III to give him clues to the technique, manipulating Tatewaki, or basically every single story arc in which he lied, told a falsehood, etc. that is not the gambling king arc. Basically the entire rest of the manga contradicts that arc including the part about not being able to play cards since we actually see him play and winning in other storyarcs for example he beat both Ryoga and Akane while at Ryoga's house while pretending to be Ryoga's sister. That arc even had glaring plot holes - the biggest being his gambling away the Tendo dojo years before he ever knew of it (or the Tendo's) existing.

Even if you were to count the inability to maintain his emotions/facial features (which only that arc has since we see him do that in other arcs -hell it is step one of the Hiryu Shoten Ha) that is the more classical type of acting not method acting. Method acting is different.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby mondu_the_fat » Tue May 17, 2011 5:30 am

Ok to counter that see pretending to be Ranko to his mother, or pretending to be Ryoga's sister, or acting in the play to get Happosai to change Taro's name, or manipulating Piccolotte Chardon III to give him clues to the technique, manipulating Tatewaki, or basically every single story arc in which he lied, told a falsehood, etc. that is not the gambling king arc. Basically the entire rest of the manga contradicts that arc including the part about not being able to play cards since we actually see him play and winning in other storyarcs for example he beat both Ryoga and Akane while at Ryoga's house while pretending to be Ryoga's sister. That arc even had glaring plot holes - the biggest being his gambling away the Tendo dojo years before he ever knew of it (or the Tendo's) existing.


And his acting in all those instances was either horrible, or his target was dense/smitten by him. In every instance where the target is not stupid/in love with him, his paper thin disguise falls apart.

Honestly, with female Ranma, why on earth would Nadoka suspect that he's her son? Ranma could be the worst actor in the world and Nadoka wouldn't think "This is actually my son Ranma." Happosai, Picollete, Kuno, Ryoga, random vendor are stupid/in love are smitten with her girl form.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby Lioconvoy » Tue May 17, 2011 1:13 pm

He has fooled Akane as well, such as the pretend Kiss with Kuno. The problem is a lack of consistancy in the manga with some of Ranma's traits. In both acting and drawing Ranma's sometimes shown to be good and sometimes shown to be bad. Personally I agree with the three headed dog, Ranma is a good actor.

Back to the orignal subject which excludes Ranma; I'd say Akane's the better actress. As mentioned there's a difference between performing in front of one person and performing on a stage. Still we really only see Akane act once, so chosing that a profession for her is odd/lazy. (I'm guilty of doing it once). I guess because it's the focus of an arc that it gets so much attention, but something that doesn't seem to get attention is that Akane plays Tennis. We don't know how good she is, but I can think of two times it's in the manga. First before the breaking point, and then as a trap for Happosai.
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Re: Who's the most qualified as an actress: Akane or Nabiki?

Postby three headed dog » Tue May 17, 2011 1:43 pm

paper thin disguise


First off they are most definitely not paper thin disguises. If going by TVtropes it would be closer to the trope Wig, Dress, Accent. Realistically how could Ranma improve his best disguises? He went female, wore female clothing, used a wig or altered hairstyle, used accessories (purse, jewelery like armlets, glasses), applied make-up (like face powder or lipstick), altered his speech pattern (Ranma usually uses masculine speech patterns but while in disguise used feminine word choices), etc. that pretty much is the extant that anyone can do in real life without hours of sitting having prosthetics, plaster, and make-up added.

Second the disguise doesn't really matter since actors generally do not wear or have any need for disguises. Ranma needed the disguises as props to hide his appearance acting ability or no acting ability if they were able to recognize him his plots would instantly not work (and they did work on those he targeted - when they failed it was most commonly from third party interference mostly Akane).

While you may not agree (which is fine since people have different opinions and viewpoints) I think Ranma makes an excellent method actor because he immersed himself into the roles he was playing acting as the character he created would rather than how he'd normally behave. Ranma was also manipulating people frequently (more than anyone else in the manga) which takes acting ability to do.
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