Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

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Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby AxelTheBunny » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:54 pm

Ok so I've seen this discussion crop up in other topics but figured it was still Relevant enough and not fleshed out enough to have it's own thread.
The simple question to ask is this HOW COMMON IS MAGIC/THE SUPERNATURAL WITHIN THE UNIVERSE OF RANMA 1/2

It's a question I've bounced around in my head a few times because the canon itself seems to contradict itself in some ways. Magic isnt the first thing most think of when strange situations occur, it's obvious that it's not the type of thing people pick up everyday seeing as how the normal people don't seem to think of it and you dont see magical items just sitting around in say the Tendo home as convenience items. (Such as you do in say, the wizarding world of Harry Potter.) At the same time magical items are rather easily available. From Mail order catalogues to being available at festivals and the like. Superpowered martial artists being present anywhere the cast seems to go in one form or another.

There are also other things that contradict. such as the seeming athletics curve of the Ranma 1/2 world. The sports based or hobby based martial arts styles such as Martial arts Figure Skating/Cheerleading as well as Martial arts calligraphy and tea ceremony. I also recall in the anime that there existed a martial arts school that specialized in toy based techniques such as someone who defeated using a top.

Then there are the reactions to martial artists. On the One hand, people are amazed by feats shown by the cast and often other martial artists. It happens numerous times in both the anime and manga i recall, where superhuman feats did inspire some degree of surprise at the very least. In addition, I recall that once or twice the dojo being contracted to deal with supernatural issues, and I'd point out that the strangeness does seem to appear in areas other than just Nerima and the Jusendo valley. There are also things like the Breaking point and Shi Shi hokodan, being techniques made primarily for the purpose of mining, a relatively mundane practice.

Alot of contradictions one could see from the manga and anime alike in terms of how common or uncommon these things are. Despite the fandom generally writing things as though these were in a mirror of our own world. At the same time, it's not one in which magic is necessarily conventional.

Essentially magic and the supernatural in the world of Ranma 1/2 somehow seems both common and uncommon.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Spica75 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:29 pm

Essentially magic and the supernatural in the world of Ranma 1/2 somehow seems both common and uncommon.


Agreed. It's definitely far FAAAR more present than in the real world(kinda obvious, but still...). Yet at the same time, it's clearly not "normal" or "everyday occurence".

Another part is how much trouble they tend to have when for one reason or another they TRY to find something magical.
Seems fairly obvious at least that it's very much a sellers market, and that if you want magic, you take what is on offer and lament the lack of the items you REALLY needed/wanted.

I also recall in the anime that there existed a martial arts school that specialized in toy based techniques such as someone who defeated using a top.


Old times martial arts or something IIRC.

It happens numerous times in both the anime and manga i recall, where superhuman feats did inspire some degree of surprise at the very least. In addition, I recall that once or twice the dojo being contracted to deal with supernatural issues


Indications both for that "super" is very rare AND that it is still common enough that people might know who to ask to take care of "super"-problems.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby AxelTheBunny » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:58 pm

Of course one has to ask just how common magical artifacts are. As well as where they come from.
Some have explanations, many that the chinese amazons use for instance, however others are implied to be mass produced, such as the Koi Rod and the instant Nannichuan. But like I said, usually the first thing people think is not "oh, it was probably some magical item that is doing this."

Also as said, they seem to be mundane in many ways still. The Wishing Sword was a prime example, with it being essentially a marketing ploy if I recall the episode correctly. You also have things like the age mushrooms, which is somehow both an unknown as to WHERE the forest was. The simple fact though was, such a thing wasn't being abused in the way one would expect, giving the impression that the mushrooms were either in an incredibly strange/difficult to find location (given Ryoga, a possibility) or simply an unknown.



I have to wonder if it isnt that magic is simply more common within certain circles, such as those of martial artists.

I usually use a policy within fiction, essentially that Magic attracts magic, which is to say someone with exposure to magic is infinitely more likely to stumble across more magic than someone who has never seen anything of a magical nature.

I have to wonder if, while the existance of magic is common knowledge in Ranma 1/2, if it's not also exceedingly rare for the average "normal" person to come across based on this.

Another possibility is that most magic items publicly available are rather "low quality" with magic thay is actually functional or useful being more on the rare side. Though
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Cheb » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:51 pm

Or, if most of the available magic items are so crappy that the general populace mostly dismisses them as scam.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Crescent Pulsar S » Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:04 pm

If you answer the question within the context of the characters being focused on, then magic and the supernatural are common. I'd say too common, considering all of the silly and impractical kinds that actually seem to be a thing (for the lulz). If you draw back your view beyond those characters, as much as we've been granted to see beyond them, it seems to be at odds with that more concentrated view, and the only way to reconcile the two perspectives is to take yourself out of the world entirely and rudely point your index finger at Takahashi.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby AxelTheBunny » Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:17 am

lol true, but i like to analyze things like this, as useless as it is xP

Id also point out you have people like the Golden Pair, who if i recall are relatively well known, and yet they themselves are relatively powerful to SOME degree, in comparison to the average athlete (as seen by their defeat of hockey teams and the like.)

Of course one could infer that while knowledge of SOME magic exists, not all of it is believed in. Which supports the idea people would write off most magic as either a scam still, or they would assume magical artifacts to not be capable of much.

Then you have the rarer magical items such as the Mushrooms of time or Jusenkyo which work as advertised without extra conditions or the like.

Takahashi has a tendency to do this, she really seems to prefer writing IN THE MOMENT it appears, which is a bit counter to how I do so, she probably wasnt thinking about this with the exception of "This is entertaining and/or amusing." As opposed to world building or the like.

The thing i notice is most people tend to write as though Nerima itself were just a weird place in an otherwise mostly normal world, when I dont think that really is accurate. But we never really see these implications used in a meaningful way.

The closest we get to normal characters are side characters like Hiroshi or Daisuke, or brief stints of normalcy that we see in the anime and manga.

But we can assume while the more colorful characters are "Normal" in that they appear to at least appear all over the place and be rather widespread, based on the frequency of encounters, we can also assume that there is some baseline, since many of these characters arent COMPLETELY shrugged off.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Crescent Pulsar S » Thu Feb 08, 2018 4:47 am

Well, from a reader's point of view, normal characters aren't exactly abnormal in a setting where the characters usually focused on (including characters with a major role in only one or two stories/events) are normally abnormal. That's because jokes typically rely on some kind of exaggeration, and normal characters and settings are an easy way to draw a distinction between that and the norm, and thus they end up playing a significant role. A series that's more concerned with the logistics or rationale of the exaggeration's degree will likely make that exaggeration -- and thus the joke -- a part of the story, and one of the common scenarios where that happens would involve any incident where the weirdness is hidden from the public by means that often turn out to be funny. Takahashi goes the nonsensical route by not addressing the discrepancy between reality and the piece of the world she's showcasing to us, so the exaggerations can go to extremes. Sometimes she even makes normal people do normal things in an abnormal way, like when we first see Genma and Ranma.

Also, it's not useless to analyze these things. Sometimes you never know what you'll come up with when thinking about something. It could end up being useless, but it could also end up being something useful and/or interesting.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Spica75 » Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:47 pm

Crescent Pulsar S wrote:If you answer the question within the context of the characters being focused on, then magic and the supernatural are common. I'd say too common, considering all of the silly and impractical kinds that actually seem to be a thing (for the lulz). If you draw back your view beyond those characters, as much as we've been granted to see beyond them, it seems to be at odds with that more concentrated view, and the only way to reconcile the two perspectives is to take yourself out of the world entirely and rudely point your index finger at Takahashi.


Well, there's always the possibility that figuring out how to make specific items(or any kind of magic at all) is extremely difficult and includes a large degree of random in the results, hence those who has spent the time "inventing" something they can "massproduce", they sell what they ended up with, regardless if it's sane or good, or not so much, because trying to make something better is simply far too much effort/time/something.


Overall, for Ranmaverse, i tend to assume that average people have little or more likely no more knowledge of magic/supernatural than someone in the real world, but that anyone who tries looking will generally find at least something fairly soon.
Basically trying to "agree" with canon, the magic is there, very much present, but unless you happen to be in the middle of it(or at least close to the edges), you probably just dismiss it as unreal or plain superstition.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby AxelTheBunny » Fri Feb 09, 2018 12:03 am

Overall, for Ranmaverse, i tend to assume that average people have little or more likely no more knowledge of magic/supernatural than someone in the real world, but that anyone who tries looking will generally find at least something fairly soon.

IDK if I agree simply based on the fact that while certain individuals were noteworthy, they weren't exactly treated as though they were an impossibility. I do usually write under similar assumption, that people are just not aware of the supernatural. But I was rewatching a few episodes of the anime recently and it came to mind a few things.

A. While individuals such as Akane, Kuno, and presumably many of the single appearance challengers, live or lived in a more or less normal environment, they still showed physical feats beyond human capacity. Hell Kuno was able to break statues with air pressure and it only left Nabiki only marginally surprised if I recall, this scene was mostly the same in both Anime and Manga.

B. As stated before you have school sports specialized in Martial arts Cheerleading, Martial arts Figure Skating, And Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics. AND all introduced from different high schools if i recall. This implies these activities are at least relatively accepted and that there is at least some distinction between a normal athlete and a "Martial arts" Athlete. Even given that those we are exposed to are essentially the top of the crop, at least within their division, and assuming there is no after high school variants of these sports events. Which I would find unlikely.

It tells me that the Ranmaverse is at least marginally aware of things that would be supernatural.

I do agree with the idea behind the magic products however, since that'd make the most sense in this respect. It does give the impression magic in this universe is also extraordinarily unwieldy, causing a lot more randomness than other universes where magic is present.


I can understand people assuming that the Ranmaverse outside of the story is largely like our own, hell i've made this assumption in a couple of my own fics i'm sure, But I don't really believe that to be accurate given what we know, and can infer from what we do see. Not that I really care, after all people are going to, and are free to write how they want.
Besides the assumption DOES make things like crossovers so easy to mesh with the Ranmaverse, and there are plenty of good fics that utilize that idea so. Pretty much most of them in fact so. :|

Takahashi goes the nonsensical route by not addressing the discrepancy between reality and the piece of the world she's showcasing to us, so the exaggerations can go to extremes.

She does do this alot doesn't she. It makes it hard to peg what is "reality" in the universe of Ranma 1/2, but then that's also part of the fun of it xP Because we can utilize that to have a lot more flex room there as far as how WE write.'

Also, it's not useless to analyze these things. Sometimes you never know what you'll come up with when thinking about something. It could end up being useless, but it could also end up being something useful and/or interesting.


I suppose I phrased things wrong xP I've been thinking about a lot of this stuff in respect to some plot bunnies dancing around in my head that haven't QUITE fully formed yet. I suppose i meant as useless as some others might see it xP. I've always been the type of writer that enjoys world building, the setting is just as much a character as the actual characters often enough.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Fri Feb 09, 2018 11:24 am

When events don't spill over into alien territories, if they're moderately similar, all the manga/anime we consume exists. Minato is relatively far. The events at Graviton High don't come around causing trouble. Tenchi and company are in Okayama. Belldandy and company try to be unobtrusive. I'm not sure where Devil Hunter Yohko spends her days and nights. Gunsmith Cats are way off in Chicago, and Harry Potter is in Scotland most of the time. Let's not get involved with mecha, though Nuku Nuku is okay.

Think of it like the pools of Jusenkyo -- separate clumps of magic, but things get really interesting if they mix. And we don't have a Guide. Or if we do, he's teaching at Ohtori, and that's really hard to find.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Spica75 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:18 pm

A. While individuals such as Akane, Kuno, and presumably many of the single appearance challengers, live or lived in a more or less normal environment, they still showed physical feats beyond human capacity.


Having seen what REAL people can do when hypertrained, i think most people need to revise their estimation of "beyond human capacity". Yes, the Ranma series DO go well beyond that as well, but with clearly more people trained like that, a lot of people will just not see the difference.

I also myself officially belonged in the "superhuman" category for a while, from when i once as a kid tested reaction times and reliably scored well below what was supposed to be the human limit, they guy doing the test eventually just gave up.
10-15 years later however, by chance i found and read an article about it, explaining that a small percentage of people was capable of this by the body hi-jacking the hot/cold nerves for signals they're not supposed to be used for, which have a faster responsetime than other nerves.
Or something like that, i long since don't recall details.
I tried to find something online about it, but the closest i got was a short mention that burn/freeze nerves have up to about 10 times faster "transmit" speed.

Hell Kuno was able to break statues with air pressure and it only left Nabiki only marginally surprised if I recall, this scene was mostly the same in both Anime and Manga.


And i got far enough with kiai-jutsu to put out a candle-flame at about 3-4m. And that's barely amateur level for the rare few people that are really good at it. Yes, again it's a difference in magnitudes, but my point is that there's a lot of things that are really perfectly possible in the REAL world, that you wouldn't think was realistic at all.

It tells me that the Ranmaverse is at least marginally aware of things that would be supernatural.


Or they are more aware of just far you can go before you really do get into "superhuman" territory, and have overall pushed towards that much more?

I do agree with the idea behind the magic products however, since that'd make the most sense in this respect. It does give the impression magic in this universe is also extraordinarily unwieldy, causing a lot more randomness than other universes where magic is present.


It does seem like a fairly plausible explanation yeah. Or at least part of one.

I can understand people assuming that the Ranmaverse outside of the story is largely like our own, hell i've made this assumption in a couple of my own fics i'm sure, But I don't really believe that to be accurate given what we know, and can infer from what we do see. Not that I really care, after all people are going to, and are free to write how they want.
Besides the assumption DOES make things like crossovers so easy to mesh with the Ranmaverse, and there are plenty of good fics that utilize that idea so. Pretty much most of them in fact so.


I wouldn't say that it is "largely like our own", BUT, for the average person in the street, i think it is, or at least not far from it.
And that then you have a minority, maybe even a decently big one, that go far further beyond that.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby WG_Writer » Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:29 pm

I think in the Ranma 1/2 universe "magic" is common enough BUT the most encountered versions are usually passed off as a trick or something similar, slight of hand and such. Most only really take note when its something over the top. Like the curses, the magic mushrooms, and so on. The Koi rod for example could be passed off quite easily on all sides, it could be called anything and still be acceptable. Dr. Tofu basically had no reaction to the curse when exposed and after the curse is exposed everyone basically just gives a pass on it, Ukyo being the most noteable exception (the Kuno's are twisted examples of crazy)

Personally from what I see in the series it seems more that magic is common enough that its existence in and of itself are accepted and maybe proven naturally. But rare enough that actually encountering it is usually a surprise.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Cheb » Sun Mar 04, 2018 2:20 am

I'd go with analogue of robotic prosthetic limbs and means to cure cancer. Intellectually you know that both already exist today, but seeing one in real life? And good luck if you need one for yourself.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Pata Hikari » Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:57 am

It's absurdly common to the point where magic items are mass produced and sold in souvenir shops.

WG_Writer wrote:I think in the Ranma 1/2 universe "magic" is common enough BUT the most encountered versions are usually passed off as a trick or something similar, slight of hand and such.


No it's not.

Cheb wrote:I'd go with analogue of robotic prosthetic limbs and means to cure cancer. Intellectually you know that both already exist today, but seeing one in real life? And good luck if you need one for yourself.


You can get order powered armor that makes you nearly a strong as fighter as Ranma in the mail. With said power armor being advertised in the back of comic books.
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Re: Commonality of Magic in Ranma 1/2

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Mon Mar 05, 2018 10:42 am

Pata Hikari wrote:You can get order powered armor that makes you nearly a strong as fighter as Ranma in the mail. With said power armor being advertised in the back of comic books.

Acme?
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