Excerpts from mail: 1-Nov-95 Re: bios?! by Charles Lewis@virtu.sar. 

I'm staying away from Ranma for multiple reasons, not the least of which
is the silliness addiction that seems to permeate its followers.

 
I own most of the Viz Ranma releases (one of the few benefits of working 
at an honest-to-god job while I'm still in school), and I like them quite 
a bit.  I'm also not generally a very silly person -- I'm on the Ranma 
ML, and I'm not a member of any of the profusion of godawful churches 
they seem so fond of.  I know that you, Damon, have read my fictional 
works to date ... they aren't <intentionally> silly.
 
        Ranma is, nominally, a light comedy.  It's sort of like MI-lite,
or perhaps UY on a load of lorazepam.  I highly recommend that you judge
the series on its own merits, rather than the behavior of a lot of 
perpetually giddy raa people (most of whom, incidentally, also happen to 
be generally excited newbies anyway).
        Besides, you're at CMU -- you can check out Ranma w/o having to 
buy it.  I highly recommend that you watch it -- if for no other reason 
than understanding the profusion of Ranma fanfics (many of which are 
really good, BTW) and Ranma jokes/comments/analogies which seem to 
permeate this list, and any other net resource dealing with anime.

As I mentioned above, I have other reasons for avoiding Ranma.  I've seen
snippets BTW, and I wasn't impressed, anyway.

If the story were such that it lost its main reason for me not watching
it, it would lose everything.  The plot, IMO, is centered around one
specific thing which I refuse to deal with.

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Dread Worf I still can't stand.
Ranma 1/2 being anime though it is, it's still no exception.

Hmmm... I partially agree on the Hitchiker thing -- the last two, or 
three, books definitely approached sub-par. (IMHO, of course).

They were okay *once*.  Once was plenty.

Damon Casale, dc56+@andrew.cmu.edu

* Maison Ikkoku * Kyoko Otonashi * Video Girl Ai * Amano Ai *
               * Blue Lightning * Kerin Gray *
Blue Lightning forever...Kerin, are you out there?