Except when she tries to get into his bed and into his pants and strips for
him... Never see any of the other girls doing that... not even Kodachi.

   (Ukyo, in the "Ukyo's sauce" story, actually did try to sleep in 
Ranma's bed when the Tendos let her stay over--Ranma spent the night on 
the roof. But then she wasn't quite in her right mind at the time...)

She was in the futon next to him, where Genma would normally sleep... And
she never once tried to move into Ranma's futon... and she said that they
did this when they were kids, anyway... I somehow don't see Ukyou as the
type to jump over into Ranma's futon in the middle of the night... even
after she started getting desperate...

I've never seen Kodachi do more than try to kiss him... Where did this
'shameless sexual aggression' come from? I think you're mistaking Shampoo
for Kodachi there.

   Hm. I don't know how you feel, but paralyzing someone for the purpose of 
kissing him and/or doing God alone knows what else to him (I'm not naive 
enough to think Kodachi would stop there, if let alone), _and_ taking photos 
of the proceedings no less, without his consent, strikes me as aggressive 
(in RL she could quite probably go to prison for such behavior, at least 
in the United States) _and_ shameless. The perversity of the Kunos is well 
documented; Shampoo's, if it exists at all, seems a bit harder to verify.
   (Mind you, Lady Kuno does seem to calm down a little--a very little--as 
time progresses. She was the only suitor not to try to blow Akane up, for 
instance. But that's another thread.)
   Think. Ranma finds Kodachi positively frightening. Shampoo's attention 
he finds at worst annoying and at best flattering. Why might this be?
(500 words, due Monday. :) )

Because Ranma doesn't like getting paralised, of course!

   Anyway, when did Shampoo actively try to seduce (as opposed to simply 
glomp upon) Ranma? I'm sorry, but what I've seen just has glomping and 
nothing else. (In the nude, occasionally, yes, but whether or not Kasumi 
ever did have that talk with her about bathtubs and men was never 
revealed.) You'd be much more convincing if I had a "Shampoo seduces 
Ranma" scene to fall back on. (No, I won't be satisfied with "every d**n 
time she sees him." Be specific.)

Well, I'd say that getting him, while his arms are tied, and putting a ball
and chain on his legs so he can't run away, then dumping him on a bed and
leaping on top of him is close enough to Shampoo's version of 'seduction'.
More like trying to rape the poor guy, if you ask me...

   To wit: Shampoo (if you haven't done anything to make her mad, like 
glomp onto a tree stump and call her name--face it, Mousse needs a kick 
in the pants) is generally cheerful and carefree, not to mention full of 
energy and--dare I say it?--playful. ("No go to school! Take Shampoo on 
date!" Does she really want to get in his pants, or just go play?)

So... she should be spanked and sent to bed without any dinner, and her
bonbori should be taken away from her. (Though she'd enjoy the spanking
too much, me thinks.)

   (Should I go there? Why not?)
   It would entirely depend on who was doing the spanking--even if she 
wre into that sort of thing. Besides, this is the actual comic here, not 
one of your fanfics. *duck* 

Heh...

   Physically affectionate? Definitely. Small children are. That means 
little if one has sex in mind. Trust me, if she'd wanted to molest him after 
the fashion of Kodachi, she's had plenty of chances and probably would have 
met with less resistance than Kodachi has. The question of whether Shampoo 
even makes the connection between cuddling (even in the nude!) and babies 
is an open one to me. It is also true that children are much less modest 
about their--umm--physiques than adults. In short, all that cuddling may 
be completely innocent.

I've still never seen Kodachi do more than try to kiss Ranma... Feh. If it
was innocent, she wouldn't bounce happily and start whisteling happily while
she tries to strip naked for Ranma.

   Huh? Where the heck _was_ that?

In the 'final chapter'

   All that may explain why Shampoo holds quite a bit of fascination for 
fans of Ranma 1/2. She's cute, because small children are cute. (It of 
course helps that she's attractive, but so is Hinako, and last I heard 
Ms. Ninomiya hadn't her own ML...)

So... All Shampoo lovers are into pedophilia?

   Ah-hah. No. That is precisely what I do not mean.
   (It is true, by the way, that in my part of the United States, at 
least, and most likely in your part of Australia as well, most of the 
principal characters in _Ranma 1/2_ would be in RL below the age of consent. 
Even Ryoga...but anyway...)

Yeah, they're all 16.

   I wasn't very clear about which Hinako I was referring to (that was my 
fault entirely); I should have said that the "powered-up" Hinako was sexually 
alluring. Ordinary Hinako, of course, is just a little girl, at least 
physically (it's not clear just how old she is chronologically).
   Let me try again; I admit I wasn't very clear.
   Joe Torres on the Ranma ML asked after reading volume 25 of the 
Japanese manga whether it was permissible to prefer small Hinako to big 
Hinako. He seemed afraid that to do so would imply he found small Hinako 
sexually exciting--which was assuredly untrue. I might like small Hinako 
and not big Hinako (I don't--I find small Hinako, and Shampoo for that 
matter, rather annoying, but best to put that aside for the moment); I 
might even think small Hinako is pretty or cute (_kawaii_?) in the way 
small children are. It doesn't follow that I find her sexually exciting or 
that I think dirty thoughts about her late at night.
   Same with Shampoo. She's a bit too bouncy and affectionate (and silly, 
I'll grant you that)--too childish--for my taste. Some others like the 
bouncy, affectionate, childlike nature. (It helps that she is pretty, of 
course, in the ways young girls are.) Are they thus pedophiles? I doubt it, 
and sincerely hope not.
   I think what is getting on some people's nerves, Ms. Seawright, is that 
you seem to be implying that the bulk, if not all, of Shampoo's fans are the 
stereotypical sex-starved otaku perverts for whom Miss Shampoo personifies 
the mentally vacuous, sexually shameless, totally submissive female of their 
erotic fantasies. I admit the target audience of the comic was originally the 
Japanese version of the spotty schoolboy (12 to 15 years of age), on whom 
Shampoo's physical charms would not be lost. But to tar Shampoo's English 
speaking fans, most of whom are much older, of college age at least (and many 
of whom are female!), and actually do have love lives (which schoolboys 
really don't) with the same brush as spotty Japanese schoolboys is a bit 
much, even for someone like me who isn't that impressed with Shampoo either. 
You'll make no friends that way. 
   Analogy: Do I like the character of Ukyo? (Is she interesting and 
appealing to see and read about? Am I sympathetic to her? etc.) Yes, very 
much. Is she attractive? (Do I find her so?) Yes. She's supposed to be. 
(They all are. Even Kodachi can be quite pretty now and again.) Do I thus
approve of everything she does or believe her to be "Ranma's best babe"? 
Not at all. (I find much of her behavior very disturbing indeed. That, 
however, is another thread. I suspect Ranma _needs_ Akane to keep him in 
line.) Do I prefer her to real girls? Of course not. Does my thinking she 
looks her best in her boy's uniform (which is true) imply that I am 
secretly bisexual? God, I hope not.
   One can like Ukyo without desiring her sexually (if one can be said to 
desire a fictional character). With most Shampoo fans it is just the 
same, and you're annoying them no end.  

But I still see Shampoo as a muderous bimbo who doesn't wear underwear under
those dresses... and I don't see anything to like in her apart from how she
looks, physically. *shrug*

   But this has nothing to do with fan fiction. I move that this discussion 
be moved to the Ranma ML.

I'm not on the Ranma ML as I can't take all that mail.

   It's improved immensely. Really. Kevin Lew has even started posting again.
   Long and the short of all this: Please, tone down the Shampoo bashing- 
and more important, the Shampoo fan bashing. One's liking Shampoo's character 
does not imply that one is dense, perverse, or in denial. One is permitted 
to not like Akane (I dare say I don't) and to find her unpleasant and 
Shampoo pleasant, and in many ways they'd be justified. Please keep that in 
mind.

Ah, well. Did I say 'Shampoo fans' or 'Shampoo fanboys'? There's a big
difference between the two... and I was talking about the fanboys.

Kun-chan...