Akane, the misunderstood

[TerraEpon]

There's VERY good evidence of how much better Shampoo is over Akane -- the Super Soba story, Shampoo in fact manages to /equal/ Akane for a while, which Akane is 'enhanced'.
-Joshua

[Lightspire]

Chi reversed, eh? So, care to give us like on manga page when we can see that she reversed her chi flows?
Reserve: something stored or available for future use (Though I can see why you might have thought that was a misspelling...)

And about shampoo being better- all those incidents are in the first half of the manga.

She bad on begining of manga, and she bad on end of it IMO.
She 'was' bat 'at the' begining of 'the' manga, and she 'was' bad 'at the' end of it IMO.
PS. Sorry, english not my native language.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be jerk, just correct the mistakes, that way, you'll get better! It happens to me all the time with Japanese...
Though she was low on skill at the begining, she also stayed low compared to the others, so I agree with you on that.
As for her time as a doll.. well, she HAS had experience with being a doll before, so she may have an advantage over the others in that aspect...

[Climhazard]

Reserve: something stored or available for future use (Though I can see why you might have thought that was a misspelling...)

I dust misreading it .

Sorry, I'm not trying to be jerk, just correct the mistakes, that way, you'll get better! It happens to me all the time with Japanese...

Not a problem at all. I learned english using only a dictionary, logic and 'guts feeling', so i tend to do lots of mistakes.

[Atlan]

That brings up a point. Why dose shampoo suck so badly?
While there was never an obvious chance to use the Hiryu Shoten Ha, neither did ranma ever have an obvious opening. He always had to make one, and make one he did. But shampoo never used it.
And shampoo never went the breaking point training- she gets hit like anyone except ryoga- the only known person to use it other than the ghoul. Ranma kicked her off the log easy, and knocked her out with her own clubs. You think if she had been trained, she could have shrugged that one off like it was nothing. The bok breaker blow does seem like an adaption of the breaking point, but she totally lacks the iron skin which is the point of the tequnique.
And if she had the chestnut training, ranma-chan would have been toast at the begining fight, or later on it the hunt.
And when it comes to amazon tequniques, all shampoo can to is drug, brainwash, and poke preasure points. That makes her a pretty lame champon of the tribe.

[Climhazard]

And when it comes to amazon tequniques, all shampoo can to is drug, brainwash, and poke preasure points. That makes her a pretty lame champon of the tribe.

And Akane can't do even that, so she even more lame that Shampoo ^_^.

[Innortal]

Actually, Shampoo does know the Breaking Point. She used it in the takeout race.
Me? Personally, why do I hate Akane?
Trust. How often does she support Ryoga over Ranma?
Main reason: she hits him. I don't care what you say. Her solution to a good bit of their fights is smacking Ranma around. I'm sorry to say, but if Ranma was always female and Akane was a guy, no one would be saying "Oh, but he still loves him, so that's okay". The simple fact is that while Ranma is better at insults, Akane allows her temper to rule her reactions most of the times, and Ranma pays for it. Just because he does something stupid is no reason to beat him. If you aren't willing to explain it to him where he can understand, then you aren't going to change anything.
Yes, you all have listed some good points. I concede that she does like Ranma and he does like her.
However, most can agree that without some serious therapy, any marriage they might have is seriously doomed from the start.
Belting him simply because he has no tact and is unable to truly express himself does not a relationship make.

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

I'll agree with you Innortal. Any marriage between the two of them is indeed doomed from the start if we go by the rules of a normal universe, ours. However, if we go by the rules of the Ranma 1/2 universe, it may not be quite as bad.
Though in any of my fics that are Ranma/Akane, I have her growing up a little, hell in any fic I have with Akane, I have her growing up a little... Without her losing some of that anger, not necessarily all of it, she will drive whoever she ends up with away. Unless they are Kuno.

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

Oh and Innortal? Everyone in the anime/manga hits Ranma. It's a fact of life. How do we know that Ukyo and Shampoo don't hit him just as much as Akane does? They are perfectly capable. They just don't have quite as much screen time.

[Innortal]

Thank you.
I agree that most of the sad fanfics out there fail to provide the most needed element for their pairings: a reason for the change to make sense.
Jim Bader did this the best in his Tale of Two Wallets. While he started with anti-Akane, he even evolved her character into a better person over time.
Slider Ranma, which grew into a R/N pairing, even gave a great reason for Nabiki's change from canon to love interest.
The one thing that really irks me in R/A stories is that they offer no reason. "he confessed his love, and so did she."
Okay? Why? What changed?
Now, a few of those I have taken enjoyment in reading as long as they are explained.
I know R/A pairings aren't for me to write. I can't get that much behind them.
Reading? I could read any pairing as long as it is believable.

[Innortal]

I know they hit Ranma.
Shampoo nails him with her bike, Ukyo with his Big Spatula.
I never said I was for their pairings either.
Ukyo usually hits him more if she feels slighted by him, as does Shampoo.
It's more reasoning for why they don't love Ranma, but are more in love with the idea of being in love with him.
Shampoo wants Ranma to go back to China with her.
Ukyo wants him to help run her business with her.
Does Ranma want any of this?
Do they even care to ask?

[DBHay]

No one asks what Ranma wants, that's the darker side the the whole Ranma 1/2 saga.
Akane is violent and untrusting.
Shampoo wants him cause Amazon law says so, this after she tried to kill him for the same reason.
Uyko goes from revenge driven psycho to lovebird after he says she's cute, that doesn't show much in the way of emotional stability.
The real thing is Ranma didn't choose any of them, they were all thrust on him by fate or his Father.
So we have a socially incompetent boy being hounded by three girls, two of whom demand he love them and the third who declares she doesn't care yet reacts violently if she thinks he's getting too close to another girl.
None of them are healthy relationships, and the collection of idiots and jackels surrounding the mess just make it worse.
One thing that surprises me is the common theme of Kasumi being nice and one person Ranma can feel is a friend?
She's always come over as more oblivious and indifferent to him in my view, she doesn't treat him with anything more than the bland cheer she shows to everybody else.
Ranma is far from perfect but the number of people who use him as their excuse for anything stupid, cowardly or dishonorable they do, plus the females who simply expect him to solve the mess by picking them regardless of the damage to his or other families honor make him the best of the bunch.
I can't see any real chance of a successful marriage with any of the girls.

[Zwzn]

No one asks what Ranma wants, that's the darker side the the whole Ranma 1/2 saga.

That is very true

Akane is violent and untrusting.

She can also be as bad as Nabiki. Just look at the failed wedding and the bust battle arcs. Akane made sure to punish Ranma for having a bigger bust then she does by setting up the shopping trip. She also was willing to use the possible cure for his curse to black mail him in to marrying her. She also tries to not be seen hitting Ranma in front of people she wants to look like she is a nice girl to.

The real thing is Ranma didn't choose any of them, they were all thrust on him by fate or his Father.

He also does not have the authority to break any of them.

One thing that surprises me is the common theme of Kasumi being nice and one person Ranma can feel is a friend?
She's always come over as more oblivious and indifferent to him in my view, she doesn't treat him with anything more than the bland cheer she shows to everybody else.

She can be as nasty as any of the other N.W.C..

I can't see any real chance of a successful marriage with any of the girls.

Same hear.

[Randa_The_Kitsune]

I just down right hate akane. I hated her ever since ep one where she 1st wanted to be ranma's friend thinking he was a she then turns around and hits him with a table hatting himn for being a guy.

[Zwzn]

I just down right hate akane. I hated her ever since ep one where she 1st wanted to be ranma's friend thinking he was a she then turns around and hits him with a table hatting himn for being a guy.

She hit him with the table trying to kill him for saying he had a better body then some unnamed person. This is after she and her sisters threw mortal insult at him for no reason what so ever. Akane was even calling him a pervert when she was the one who checked out his goods.

[Atlan]

one might even wonder if akane suffers from skitzophrenia or bipolar.
I mean, some of the time she acts- well i hesitate to say psycho, (being an akane fan) so i'll go with.... pationate. But the rest of the time she acts sweet and kind, and almost Kasumi -ish.
Hmmm, mabey when Nabiki and Kasumi said "she's realy a very sweet girl. She's just a violent maniac.", they meant it literally.
And while akane hits ranma, she never did it during the Ultimate Weakness Morxibustion. And she never hit him hard enough to do anything- never a broken bone, or even a noseblead. And on several occasions she does it (right) before he can say something incredibly stupid. Like the martial arts cheerleading. With someone like ranma, does anything short of a blow or a girls tears make him take anything serously?

The one thing that really irks me in R/A stories is that they offer no reason. "he confessed his love, and so did she."

That bugs me no end. I like seeing them togther (like noone could have guessed by now!), but like the fics where they split up forever- the reasons almost always suck. I mean, a fic where ranma loves someone (anyone), i'll like it if there is a reason for them to get toghter. Like my favoutie of all time- the shaddow chronicles. Ranma and akane get togther, but it takes a ranma from another universe who lost his akane and misses her so much that he'll take this akane of he can. (yes, i described it teribly, sounds like crap, but read even one chapter and i bet you'll love it shadowchronicles.net )
I want to reach my hand through the computer screen and spraypaint all over storys that have the over used Clichés’- even ranma randomly addimting his love, and everything is solved two chapters later.