Akane, the misunderstood

[Atlan]

Everyone always seems to have akane as a terible charecter, but have ANY of those poeple read the manga?
Akane gets mad ocaionsaly, its true. But ALWAYS with excelent Reason. She'll hit ranma, sometimes, when he does something stupid. Everyone seems to think that she hates him or sees him as a posesion. 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).
As for see's him as a posesion? Did anyone read the one where he rescues Nabiki and becomes engaged to her instead. Akane is sad, hurt, and crushed. Does she hunt ranma down for a beating? Does she even threaten nabiki once? No.
Or what about the one when Ukyo has the ultimate sauce, except ranma sabatouged it accedently. Does she scream about ranma cheating on her? no. She is sad. Those are not the actions of a girl who sees her trophy as being taken.
Is Akane the Worst Martial artist in Nermia? Sure, she got beaten by shampoo on the ONE time they fought properly. And she never fought Ukyo, properly. But look at the things she's done since then. I could list all these detales of the Martial Arts Skating, Shearleading, Takeout race, or the dojo destroyer, but just one will sufice: Ryugenzawa. The battle with the eight headed beast- jumping onto its back, the whole deal. Akane is a good martial artist- she looks bad compared to ranma and ryoga, but i'd bet on her against shampoo any day. Against Ukyo- well, she nearly beat ranma once, but my money's still on akane. But she isnt exactly brimming with selfconfidence, and was only prepared to go up against shampoo with the soup that made her strong (and hairy).
And the Big question: Does Akane Love Ranma?
Lets think about it:
She caried ranma home when his legs wouldnt work
She went on a training trip with him, knowing she wouldnt get to train, and missing out on free time with her friends
She stole happosai's pantyhose, tied them to a boulder, and risked her life to help ranma beat taro
She tried to trade her life for ranma when the Yamoto serpent tried to eat him
She always helped keep ranma safe against his mother (and her katana), even letting ranma steal her underwear and come into the bath with her (bathing suit included
She was toutched when ranma gave her what he thought was an engagement ring
She almost gave her life to help ranma battle safron when she was a doll, even throwing herself into his strongest atacks
She didn't blame ranma for the failed wedding, which she agreed to have (she could have stollen the Nanniichuan and given it to him, but she wanted to marry him).
So all you authers who keep trying to match ranma up with random people, be it Ukyo, Rygoa, Makoto, Ami, Minako, Brianna Diggers, Nuku Nuku, Raven or whoever- at least come up with a nother reason for ranma to leave nermia other than "being engaged to a pathologically violent girl who hate him, sees him as a prize, hits him for no reason, and is enept a martial arts" 'cause buddy- ain't NONE of 'dem reasons true.

[antimatterenergy]

I can sympathize with Akane. Being around a person like Ranma would probably piss me off too. How would you be if you had a lot of problems with boys/girls and then get engaged out of the blue to a complete stranger? Find out the person your engaged to changes sex, gets in all kinds of weird and often unbelievable situations, and is better than you in damn near every way (Stronger, Faster, Smarter, Better at everything that you care about doing even things that shouldn't be possible like breast size and looks). Then whenever things seem to get better between you something new pops up. You find out that you’re not the only one he's engaged to and the others are better than you at the things that you think are important. Even though your engaged he goes on dates with others who aren't you and often with people of the opposite sex (The pervert who wouldn't take medicine, Kuno several times (wishing sword incident, cursed cherry tree, Ryoga, Panda ghost, His teacher (to try and learn her chi draining technique), Shampoo, Kodachi, and an old man.) Even though I can sympathize with her, I still think that Ranma should just hit her sometimes. Especially with that Ryoga/P-Chan thing. (I do not like that part of Ryoga's personality very much)
Akane is not a bad person. She is often shown as caring but she is not trusting of Ranma and sometimes she does hit Ranma for very bad reasons more often then she should. i.e. when it's not his fault. Ex. Shampoo saying she kissed Ranma could list more don't see reason to. Akane also when she gets an advantage over Ranma lords it over Ranma. Ex. super soba incident and magical doji comes to mind but she does it at least one other time in the manga. Akane also says very hurtful things to Ranma as often if not more often then Ranma says hurtful things about her. Akane generally insults, hurts Ranma, or is being dense, or not listening to Ranma's explanation before Ranma insults her.
Is Akane the worst martial artist in Nermia? No. Is she better then Shampoo? No way in hell. Shampoo is faster and stronger than Akane. Shampoo knows at least some special techniques (mind control and box breaker blow to name some). Shampoo was trained by Cologne and is considered the best in her village in her age grouping. When Shampoo fought Akane during the mind control story Shampoo subdued and mind controlled Akane incredibly fast. The only time that Akane fought Shampoo and didn't lose imeadiatly was when Akane had the Supersoba and shampoo didn't (yet).
Better than Uyko? Don't know but Uyko is a dirtier fighter using explosives and smoke screens as well as having a reach advantage in the form of her giant spatula and mini spatulas. Akane is probably stronger than Uyko though and might be faster.
Kodachi. Akane is definitely better than Kodachi in a fair fight. But it would be near impossible to get kodachi to fight a fair fight. Kodachi likes using paralysis agents, weapons that use electricity, and Razor sharp weapons. AKane's raw skill and strength are not enough to overcome Kodachi's deadly weapons and traps.
Does Akane love Ranma? Possibly but I don't think so. She doesn't trust Ranma and takes what other people say over what Ranma says. She does like Ranma though and many of the things you listed she would do for anyone.
She carried ranma home when his legs wouldn't work. Would do this for anyone who's legs didn't work.
She went on a training trip with him, knowing she wouldn't get to train, and missing out on free time with her friends. We do not know if this was voluntary or because her father told her to.
She protected Ranma from his mom. UM she does not hate Ranma and does not want him to die she is at least his friend.
While she was a doll during the Saffron battle we do not know for sure that she risked her life or that the doll fell out of Ranma's shirt in such away that it appeared to be her doing.
Was she sad that Ranma was going to be with someone else. Yeah but she does at least like Ranma. As for seeing Ranma as a possession your examples do not actually prove that she doesn't. She isn't likely to hit her sister and it is possible though not overly likely that she was sad about losing what she considers to be hers. Like a little kid might be sad if the child loses it's teddy bear or doll. Not all children throw tantrums some just cry for a little while and get over it.

[TerraEpon]

Akane gets mad ocaionsaly, its true. But ALWAYS with excelent Reason. .

Actually no....the old board in fact had a DETAILED account of each time Akane got mad (at Ranma or otherwise) and if she had a good reason or not to....IIRC it also comtained points where she did a good thing.
Sufice it to say, the ratio wasn't all that much in her favor.
Also, it's been said before (I think on one of the MLs I'm on, not sure about here), that if their roles were reversed, and Ranma was the one mistreating Akane, there would be pretty much universal scorn of Ranma's behavior, far worse than what passes for scorn from most of the members here.
That said, I agree that Akane isn't always a horrid bitch -- but yes, I've read the whole manga and I tend to agree with what most of the thoughts people here have.
-Joshua

[Drawde]

The list was posted on Tthe Rumic World Messageboard:
http://p216.ezboard.com/fperfectedition ... 2082.topic
As they said in the discussion of it there, I disagree with whether some of the Bs should have been Es. But everyone will have a different opinion on that.

[Yarrow]

Yes, a lot of those people have read the manga. Akane does always have a reason for getting mad (who gets mad for no reason?), but much of the time it's far from an 'excellent' reason. How good her reasons are aside, though, it's not the fact that she gets mad that makes so many people dislike her. It's the fact that she physically hurts people (usually Ranma) when she's mad.
If I'm mad, does it give me the right to beat someone up, even if they insulted me? How about hitting them with a table? Attacking them when they're in a fight against someone who could conceivably kill them? Akane seems to think so, and to a lot of readers, that makes her a self-centered, violent and vicious maniac who's willing to inflict bodily harm on someone because they hurt emotionally.
Does she have her good points? Sure—more than some of the other characters, in fact. Does that excuse her bad points? Not to me, and not to a lot of other readers.

[Lightspire]

Well, I tallied up what Ace had so far. And, so long as people agree with the reasoning, (which I do...) it all comes up to this:
Good: 291 counts
Bad: 278 counts
Ugly: 23 counts
Excusable: 139 counts
According to this tally, the bad and ugly technically outweigh the good. I'm uncertain how to count the Excuseable into all this...
But as for this topic, I agree that a writer should come up with a way of making ranma leave Akane without having to say she's a violent maniac. That said, I must state that I'm in the anti-Akane group. I just don't like her...

[Light02]

*raises an eyebrow*...who in there right mind thinks a spoiled brat like Akane needs any respect. Please note this my opinion of Akane from reading the manga that was how she came off to me.

[Lightspire]

Y'know, I don't get how people say she acts worse in the Anime, because she also acts a LOT better in the anime, too. Going off of the manga, she's not as nice as she is in the anime... And the anime I've seen really hasn't portrayed her that badly... Maybe I just see the episodes where she's nice a lot...

[Atlan]

True, she isnt always right to hit ranma. BUT- have you noticed something? If she thinks ranma is cheating on her and thinking with his heart, she's sad. If she thinks ranma's cheating on her, and thinking with his ...... lower head..... then she gets mad. Looks like a hangover from her problems with the boys at school- she automatically assosatiastes lust with bad.
As for shampoo beating her- i dont think so. Shampoo could never beat ranma. At the tournement where they met, ranma had only had his body for a week, and was still comparativly inept in it when he fought mouse the first time, and later Tarou. And shampoo never had to deal with the sheer varity of chalanges that came to the tendo household.

[Zwzn]

Well, I tallied up what Ace had so far. And, so long as people agree with the reasoning, (which I do...) it all comes up to this:
Good: 291 counts
Bad: 278 counts
Ugly: 23 counts
Excusable: 139 counts
According to this tally, the bad and ugly technically outweigh the good. I'm uncertain how to count the Excuseable into all this...
But as for this topic, I agree that a writer should come up with a way of making ranma leave Akane without having to say she's a violent maniac. That said, I must state that I'm in the anti-Akane group. I just don't like her...

I would pretend that the Excusables aren't there.

[antimatterenergy]

How does the fact that Shampoo couldn't beat Ranma make it so that Shampoo can't beat Akane? That makes no sense.
Akane can't even touch Ranma most of the time. While sparring in the dojo Akane is attacking Ranma all out while Ranma is reading a manga. The only time Akane was able to actually fight Ranma was when Akane was wearing the dogi and if Ranma really had wanted to defeat Akane he could of done so in a variety of ways. (starting with actually hitting Akane and throwing ki blasts.)
As for the tournament I don't think Ranma was in his body for a week he got the curse earlier that day.
Ranma wasn't inept when fighting mouse. Ranma was forced to spend much time dodging because mouse was using blade weapons i.e. things that can kill or permanently damage. Ranma came off as being inept because he didn't take into account the differences in his bodies height. Which is a non-issue while fighting Shampoo and Akane because the reach difference doesn't effect the fight as much because there is less of a reach difference.
As for Tarou, while fighting Ranma was forced stay out of Tarou's traps as well as making sure Tarou was not hit by cold water so that he wouldn't have to fight Tarous cursed form. The fight with Tarou can in no way be linked to how a fight between Ranma and Akane or a fight between Ranma and Shampoo would turn out since it was a very differnt circumstance and Tarou is stronger, taller (reach advantage) and more skilled then both Shampoo and Akane. Without having to worry about Tarou changing forms and dealing with traps that fight would of probably been very different and if Ranma was in his stronger, faster, and taller form (i.e. male) the fight would have been completely different.
Is Ranma less skilled while female? probably. Ranma seems to spend less time training while female and his female side is weaker than his male side in most ways. (slower, less reach, differently balanced, physically weaker, less ki (as shown by Herb), etc...) and Ranma has not had that body for nearly as long as his normal form.
Everything in the manga seems to point to Shampoo being better fighter than Akane. Akane has not been shown to do anything that Shampoo can't do but we have seen Shampoo do things Akane can't. We are shown that Shampoo is stronger than Akane (Shown during super soba incident), Shampoo is faster than Akane (shown during Martial Art Takeout Race where Shampoo and Ranma ran around fighting (really Ranma was playing with her) while Akane on a skateboard which should of increased her speed just made it at the same time as Ranma and Shampoo.). Also as stated earlier Shampoo knows some special techniques and we see no special techniques for Akane except for maybe breaking bricks which every martial artist in the Ranma manga can do. Also Shampoo was trained by Cologne in a society that considers martial art to be very important where as Akane was taught by Soun and does not spend an overly large amount of time training. Now show me something from the manga that even implies that Akane is a better fighter than Shampoo. Akane's most impressive feat by my reakoning was catching an arrow shot at her back. Shampoo did something more impressive that was similar in that cologne threw a half dozen knives at shampoo's back while Shampoo was serving food at a table and Shampoo managed to knock all the knives back and pin two people to the wall with them with out turning around or even stop serving the people she was giving the food to.

[Atlan]

about shampoo not beating ranma, I (though i said it poorly) was trying to point out that shampoo dosent seem to have much in the way of amazon tequniques- at least not the realy usefull ones. She can drug as well as kodachi can, but can she throw 500 punches in a second? Can she do a tornado? (all though i've never seen the anime, ive also heard of the spliting cat hairs tequnique, and i bet only the old goul did it) Can she blow up inanimate objects with her finger? It truly seems ridiculas that shampoo is the best of her generaltion in her tribe.
And about shampoo being better- all those incidents are in the first half of the manga. Plus, akane was so badly outclassed in their first encounter that i bet she was convinced that she could never catch up- note that the same thing happened with her skills compared to ranma.
Ranma fighting mouse wasnt primarilly about the difference in reach between them- several of ranma's oponents have a reach advantage. The problem was a foreign body. The feamale skeliton is reckognizably from a male one, plus the change in size and the addition of breasts would all contrubite to his cursed body being the problem in that it was different to the one he had been training for his entire life.
And you asked for one impresive thing Akane has done? Well, she got turned into a doll, and had the chi reserves to keep herself alive far longer than she had any right to. And, if that dosent count, the battle against the Yamoto serpent- she was able to jump all over its first seven heads, (and this beast was killing men and eating women, or trying to, so despite the cross dressing, it would have wanted her for one or the other). Then, when the eighth head came up, and wrapped her in its tounge by suprise, she managed to smash it on the nose, and get the moss to shinozuke. Had she not been trying to save him so badly, she could have stabbed the broom through the tounge that held her, or poked it in the eye.

[Climhazard]

Well, she got turned into a doll, and had the chi reserves to keep herself alive far longer than she had any right to.

Chi reversed, eh? So, care to give us like on manga page when we can see that she reversed her chi flows?

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.
PS. Sorry, english not my native language.

[antimatterenergy]

Shampoo has not gotten into a situation in which she could initiate the spiral needed for the Hiryu Shoten Ha. So it is unknown as to whether she knows that or not. Also once Ranma, Akane, Uyko, Ryoga, ect.. knew the basics of the technique it became much harder to use on those people because they would know to stay calm and not to be lead into a spiral. (Ranma is adaptive enough to make that less of an issue but Shampoo might not be.) Shampoo may or may not know the breaking point technique because she does tend to go through any wall she wants to but it could be just brute strength and it's possible that her box breaker blow is just a variation on the breaking point. Many ki techniques seem to need some type of prep time even the ki blast need a few seconds to power up. In a fast passed battle she may just not of had the time. Shampoo knows at least some pressure points as well as demonstrated by the remote control acupuncture she did on Akane. If we are counting the anime I believe that Shampoo had thrown a ki blast during one of the movies but I haven't watched them in a while so my memories a bit fuzzy. Shampoo was the village champion because she beat all the other amazons in her age bracket before Ranma beat her during the tournament. Part of the reason Ranma beat her so fast during the tournament is because shampoo was over confident and didn't believe an outsider could possibly defeat her.
Yes Ranma had other problems during the battle vs mouse besides reach but reach was his primary problem (that and the need to dodge forcing him to fight a defensive battle.) Quite simply Ranma is just about always at a disadvantage when fighting female. Hasn't had the body as long, differently balanced, physically weaker, slower, slight difference in location of weak spots, less ki, etc... But during that fight Ranma's main problem had been reach. If Ranma had decided to fight dirty or use a weapon he would of most likely have won without needing to become male. Ranma under estimated Mouse and fought like he would have had he been male.
About Akane turning into a doll and managing to stay alive longer than believed possible. We have no measurement of any characters chi so it is unknown as to how long anyone would of stayed alive.
Akane's jump over the heads of the orachi was impressive but it is no more impressive than the jumps shampoo performed at other times during the manga (like during the martial arts takeout race chasing Ranma). All it really shows is that like many of the high end martial artist Akane is able to jump pretty high. That fight shows more of Akanes courage than her fighting ability. Given the same situation we do not know how Shampoo would react but it is entirely possible that Shampoo would of said something like "Shampoo kill stupid monster now" and then pulled out that sword she had been using to try and kill girl type Ranma while chasing him from china.
About the incidents all being in the first half of the manga. What does it matter if the feat is performed at the beginning of the manga or the end the feat itself is still valid. Rumiko Takashi just gave Akane more screen time.
To prove that Akane is better you have to show a feat that is more impressive than what Shampoo has done and the feat must have been done during a time where Akane wasn't unaturally powered up like during the super soba incident or magical Dogi.

[Light02]

plus the one thing I do know that Takahashi did in the manga...Akane was always right, even when she was derinaltly in the wrong that lead me to the spoild brat view of her that I have now.