<many many snips>
In your case, it seems to me that this idea has a bad case of "Still the
Same" syndrome. Your idea is basically a rewrite of the Ranma manga with
the name "Akane Tendo" erased and "Ukyo Kuonji" written in place of it,
and vice-versa. If you take into account the very real personality
differences between Akane and Ukyo, then you might have something, but
you run the danger of losing all the interesting conflict in the story.
Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics.html
Actually this idea has a lot of potential with everyone staying in
character. If the dowry has already switched hands, like it did in
the manga, then the Tendous have lost their home. If you set this
after Mrs. Tendou's death, then this is another serious blow to the
family. Soun, who depressed at his wife's death, made the deal to
ensure the continuation of his family's style of martial arts.
After they lose the house, he either will be a broken man (worse
than he is in the normal Ranmaverse), or he will be forced to start
being an actual father and support his family as they try to pick up
their lives. If it is the later, then when next he meets the
Saotomes, he will force Genma to honor the agreement, to try to
show that this wasn't a stupid idea in the first place, or he
will try to kill all of them, in typical Ranmaverse fashion; with
encouragement to his daughters to also do so. This is where it can
get very interesting. Can you imagine the three daughters going
after Ranma, trying to hurt him since none of them want to get married
to him.
Just my thougts on a neat idea.
Sean Taylor
slt1@ra.msstate.edu