On Wed, 6 Mar 1996, Drew Ward wrote:

This was GREAT!  Ah!  Romance!  Heartbreak!  Intrigue!  Suspense(as in
who will Ranma end up marrying?)

Kasumi of course.

My main problem with this chapter is that Ranma isn't acting very 
Ranma-ish, in my opinion.  Is it a big problem?  Anybody see any ways to 
correct it other than changing the concept behind the series?

No, I think he's acting perfectly Ranma-ish.  He asks a friend for help
(ukyou), gets gutsy and asks Nabiki to marry him, then he's pissed as
hell when she refuses...and then when he finds out she hates him he
runs out(to ukyou's instead of under his favorite bridge => ) in
a huff.

OK, I sorta got the same feeling that Ranma wasn't acting like himself.  
Then I went back and actually re-read part 7.  OK, it seems that Ranma 
isn't actting Ranma-ish, is because of his sudden drive to ask Nabiki to 
marry him.  Getting angry later on after being turned down is Ranma-like, 
but the first scene with Ukyou under the tree seems to be sorta of a stretch.

First, I had to look at Ranma in this fanfic.  He's actually more 
mature and stable emotional than RT's Ranma.  But the stretch in the 
first scene comes from the fact that there seems to be no lead in to his 
decision to marry Nabiki.  I think a introspective scene from earlier in 
the day, when he makes up his mind to marry Nabiki before asking Ukyou 
for help would clear up the displacement that some of us feel in his 
character.

If anything was strange, I felt as though Ranma didn't give very
much thought to his other possible fiancée, Akane...what, did
he just totally forget about her?  In fact, Akane never once ran
through his mind once...

Didn't Akane slap him for kissing her in part 7?  As I read part 7, they 
never made up over that incident.  So, Ranma thinks that Akane really 
doesn't love him.  (I could be wrong here, I just skimmed over the parts 
before Nodoka shows up.)

Frank

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"Rei-chan, Rei-chan!  Rei-chan, where are you?"