LawOhki wrote:Anyone, even in real life, trained to do something and has done it long enough to be good at it can see when others are else well. If they are good enough it doesn't take much more than a glance. Ranma may not be able to know the full extent of someone's ability but he should be more than capable of picking up that they aren't some amateur. If he can't then he's a terrible martial artist.
Quit trying to split such worthlessly fine hairs.
I'm not splitting hairs. You're just failing to understand the difference and chasing a red herring. This is about determining someone's skills by look alone,
first, not after picking up other clues that help that deduction along, and especially not after they've already gotten a taste of what someone can do. It's a large leap in logic to assume that being sneaked up on, which gives Ranma a good enough idea of how good Tofu is as a martial artist, means that he would be able to come to that conclusion if he had seen Tofu moving around without the intention to sneak up on him before getting to experience what he is capable of firsthand.
Hence, if someone knows whether Ranma has ever gauged someone's ability just by looking at them, outside of them actually demonstrating their ability at the time (instead of, say, just walking, for example), then I'll accept it. How accurate Ranma is, if he is shown to do it, is not important.
False, the point of the umisenken is to not be noticed and there's nothing that supports them using 'ki' to track movements.
Incorrect. It's true that the point of the umisen-ken is to be subtle, but it does involve hiding ki so one can't be tracked. This is clearly illustrated by Soun, who said, "Saotome's 'ki...' his
presence... just vanished," even though he could not see Genma, who was some distance away in another room. Also note that presence and ki are used synonymously, here.
If there was it would have came up in the quintessential story for that, the cats tongue arc.
How so? If you're referring to following hand movements, that was a matter of physical speed. Even if Ranma could sense Cologne's movements, that doesn't mean that he's physically capable of making adequate use of that information.
No, Akane does not mention sensing ki, but that Ranma's presence is vanishing or being extinguished. This is the
ki that she uses. And the use of it is 'to go out' or 'to vanish'
Akane says, "Ranma's ki just vanished," and I said, "she no longer feels the presence of Ranma's ki." How do they not express the same idea? Plus, for her to say that something vanished, she must have sensed it in the first place.
Repeatedly fights in Ranma where ki is mentioned at all, show that it's simply a by product of being 'heated by battle' and the HSH arc puts it plainly that being excited like that produces a hot presence by default which creates an air around the person that can be felt. The umisenken arc illustrates that by default people produce an aura of notice unless actively suppressed. So throughout the manga when Ranma is sneaking up on people, he's partially doing that, and then put in that situation he takes it to the extreme.
That's arguable, and any inconsistency should be laid at Takahashi's feet, or -- perhaps -- the translator's. A lot's done with ki throughout the series, though, and ki is clearly tangible, not (just) a byproduct of a nebulous nature. When it came to those emotion-fueled attacks, for instance, that was ki. If ki is not the cause for one's presence, battle aura and the temperature and weight changes, then what -- pray tell -- is behind all of that phenomenon? If not ki, I'd seriously like to know the key piece involved with how the mechanics of these things work.
I overstated on the eyes thing, which I think is the anime now that I consider it. Either way, nothing to support him reading Genma by some kind of ki signature.
Maybe. I did say "
seems possible," as it was not the one thing that I felt sure about, and I did offer an alternative explanation.