Akane, the misunderstood

Discuss the Ranma series in this forum.

Postby Cyber_Skaarj » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:02 am

Hiryo wrote:I have to disagree with you there with Akane being the 'originated' 'mallet girl' since it was Kaori from 'City Hunter' or even a girl before (I don't know of) that is true being called to having 'mallet girl' popularised.

I may have made a slight error in that statement actually. I'd forgotten the exact details, so here they are from wikipedia (I knew that Ranma 1/2 popularised something, just got what it popularised wrong):
wikipedia wrote:Hammerspace draws its name from a semi-common cliché in humorous anime and manga: Male character Y offends or otherwise angers female character X. X then draws a wooden mallet—ranging in size from large to downright ludicrous—out of nowhere and bashes Y with it. The act is purely for comic relief, and neither advances the plot nor causes permanent damage. The term was largely popularized by fans of Ranma ½, as character Akane Tendo is a particularly vigorous malleteer.
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Postby Drawde » Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:29 pm

About Ukyo's future plans with Ranma. During the moxibustion arc, Ranma was weak, so of course Ukyo's plans took that into account. We only ever see two of Ukyo's plans, and both take into account special circumstances: Ranma being weak for the rest of his life, or his agreement to help her after loosing the Tendo dojo (and her plan to get him to marry her through it). We don't know what her plans are when everything's "normal".
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Postby Acey » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:34 pm

We do know that she's willing (if not actually capable) of giving up being an okonomiyaki chef if it meant being with him. So I doubt she has any plans set in stone.
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Postby TerraEpon » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:49 pm

Acey wrote:That is disconcerting. But I think Shampoo fell for a man because he was able to better her,

And if you think about, it's very likly that's a cultural thing -- "A man that can beat you is prime beef", just like in most Western cultures, prime beef tends to be the money maker.
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Postby Cinnamon » Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:52 pm

Thank you for that list, Acey... it was most enlightening reading, and I find myself in near total agreement with almost every point you make.
And people wonder how some authors develop unreasonable pro-Ukyou biases - even when she's far from perfect herself. 8)
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Re: Akane, the misunderstood

Postby FOG3 » Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:19 am

But she ONLY hits him if he insults her, or does something so compromising that it seems there is no rational explanation for it (like when he snuck into her room to get ryoga).
I think a proverbial classic incident would be one that occured during the Breaking Point arc. Akane has decided to tag along, and cook. Ranma and Genma eat this, and when they're supressing the natural reaction she threatens him with a BUTCHER'S KNIFE if he so much as dares to say anything, while looking downright murderous. If my memory is not to hazy from time, she even admits later, or has by this point admited her cooking is lacking. At the same time she's doesn't really feel guilty about her actions.
That kind of stuff usually qualifies one for the high security section of an Asylum. At least where people who are considered a danger to society actually get locked up. She certainly belongs in there more then Sarah Connor. :wink:
That said, it is true that the vast majority of fanfiction in general takes itself way to seriously. Is even 1 in a thousand, tongue in cheek enough to even approach the proper conditions they'd need to mirror the manga? The fan idea of combat is also just a symptom of this, really. Especially as like comic book writers or writers of childern anime Takashi clearly seems to fall into the category of "doesn't really care to bother about maintaining continuity." They do not maintain the spirit, nor in many ways the characters, such that I can hardly recognize the characters as being related except for the names, personally.
Of course, another tangential thing going on here is people for some reason enjoy to turn Ranma into a Mary Sue, and all to often an aliased SI. Part of the Mary Sue architype is that they have had some big bad evil thing happen to them in that past, making others sympathetic towards them, while simultaneously their uber skills bring the wrath of others who are cast as evil.
So is she misunderstood? I'd say not, even Metoranime and Zen give her a lot more leeway then they need to. I suspect many authors aren't really sure what to do with her, or don't want to write her. Even her fans tend to just turn her into mini-fan Kasumi, instead of herself.
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Postby Dark Magic » Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:42 am

Akane seems like she knows she's not good at something like cooking. But wants everyone to tell her how good at it she is, even if it's false. Even to the point were she will physically harm you if you go against want she wants at the time.
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Postby Acey » Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:23 am

IIRC, my summing up of Akane on the old board noted that she was always almost more comfortable with an agreeable lie rather than an unpleasant truth.
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Postby MacShimi » Sat May 06, 2006 4:11 pm

If we follow this up I think we have in a nutshell the main reasons why Akane has such a bad reputation in fannon.
Akane wants to believe that she is a nice girl who is a good cook, martial artist, swimmer... (insert random skill here). Akane also wants others to share her opinion of herself.
Rather than perform the hard work, put in the effort required to be good at these various skills, she simply states that she is, and performs a perfunctory effort. Any person who disagrees with her self-image she responds to by verbal or physical attack.
Now, I have no problem with someone wanting to be a good martial artist. I don't even have a problem with someone thinking they're the best martial artist around. But while Akane may have had reason to think this at the start of the Manga she is confronted with absolute proof that she is not the best, not a nice person, not tolerant, not a good cook and the list continues.
Her response: Denial, often followed by violence to anyone trying to force her to see the truth. In these circumstances it should be no surprise that Kasumi sugar-coats everything, that Soun lives in a fantasy-world and that Nabiki is money-grubbing and duplicitous.
Akane has major problems. I agree that she could overcome them. But it is clear that she does not believe she has any problems to overcome. Indeed as far as she sees it the real problems consist of other people's refusal to admit just how great she is. So, I believe there is ample reason for Akane's poor reputation. After all, she's earned it.
For the record, Yes: I know Ranma 1/2 was intended to be a comedy. I have taken that into account in writing this. Were I to take her actions seriously My opinion of her would be far far worse.
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Postby crystlshake » Sun May 07, 2006 2:08 am

Its kind of a viscous cycle. What with the affirmation of nonexistent skill and dangerous (to herself or others) attempts to prove it. To her credit, the people whose opinions would do the most to help her realise or confront the truth, her family doesnt do much to shake her from her dissillusions. Her mothers death coupled with her fathers (assumed) change in training her probably helped to facilitate the violent aproach. Its just unfortunate that she is well enough trained to be dangerous. Not that any of the other characters are in much better condition or less to blame for fostering the situation.
I agree in that she has the potential to be the person she believes she is already, but I think it would take something to shake her into realizing and admiting, at least to herself, that she has flaws. After that she can finish growing up and become her ideal. I figure she is somewhere around halfway their personality wise with perhaps her temper, ego or impatience holding her back. A little more work in either of those areas and she would probably start making some headway in the skills she wants to excell in (most notably the domestic skills), and would probably help her overcome the plataue she hit in the martial arts. Of course to become an expert in any of those she will have to realize that she may have to settle for just good on some of the others.
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