by Nekomata-sensei » Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:20 pm
As much as the points about Happosai's weaknesses and problems and Cologne's village's mystical advantages are true, I believe in a straight martial arts battle, where Happosai is serious, against Cologne, Happosai would win. This is because he not only seems to outmatch her in sheer power, but because he is powerful and skilled enough to have survived over the years all the powerful people he's likely pissed off with his theft of magic items and rare scrolls and harassment of young women and stealing of their undergarments. The sheer number of people Happosai has to have pissed off over the years must be huge, and some of those, given how high his skill level is, have to be at or near Cologne's power level.
In addition, there are indicators that Happosai is significantly faster than Cologne, as Ranma matches or beats her in speed by the end of the Phoenix Pill arc, but when Happosai arrives it takes some time for Ranma to catch up with him in speed, and it is still arguable if Ranma can really match Happosai's speed, but unless she is holding back a lot and playing at weakness and gullibility, she is slower than Ranma, although likely more skilled and experienced with more techniques and ki control and knowledge under her belt. Happosai also has some techniques that indicate great mastery of certain aspects of martial arts, including his finger block he uses against Taro, his maintained giant aura, and his ability to survive in the cave sealed up for all that time without food or water by entering a meditative trance, although Cologne, and soon enough Ranma seem to also have that re-direct technique for sending foes that attack them flying, that technique also indicates a pretty high level of mastery of certain aspects of martial arts. Happosai also did manage to train Soun and Genma, who can't really be considered pushovers, and outclass them so badly they are terrified of him even once they were masters themselves.
Next, while I'm sure Cologne is more dedicated to the martial arts than Happosai is, assuming that means she has a better arrangement of tricks and special techniques isn't the best assumption. Both of them likely have more techniques than they'd get through in a single serious fight, which negates most of the advantage of Cologne having more such tricks. Also, many of Cologne's techniques might only work in restricted conditions like the HSH, while Happosai seems to prefer more generalized and reliable techniques. Given the nature of the Anything Goes style Happosai created, I wouldn't underestimate the number of good tricks he has up his sleeves. Just because he is usually silly and unreliable doesn't mean his serious mode is incompetent.
That isn't to say that Cologne wouldn't stand a chance, she likely has far more ability than she has explicitly shown in the manga, and has held back appropriately to a martial artist of her level, and the fight would probably be close, but in the end if the fight were serious, I think Happosai would have the advantage.
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