OK, today I finished the fifth part of Ranko 1/2 thereby ending
the first, expositional arc.  The first three parts are written in
a very script-like way with camera angles and panel descriptions.
Beginning with part four I tried out a more descriptive style.
Let me know if that works better for you.

All five parts follow the first five parts of the manga *very*
closely.  Perhaps a little too closely - you decide.

Beginning with part 6 I will take the series a bit further from
the original.


But enough of that.  Onward, ho!

  --------------------------------------------------------------

                         RANKO 1/2

                           Part 1


<Piyo, piyo!>

The birds are chirping in the trees of Nerima, Tokyo.

Closeup on a postcard superimposed over the aerial view of the
city.  The card says

Card:  Bringing Ranma from China.  Saotome.

Cut to an inside view of a living room.  A dark, moustached man is
reading the card weeping.  It is Tendou Souun, to whom the card is
adressed.

Souun:  Ranma coming here?  Oh how I've waited for this day.

Shot of the Tendou dojo from outside.

Voice:  Nabiki.  Kasumi.  Akane.

Voice:  Akane?  Where is that girl?

Souun is walking through the house gathering his daughters Kasumi
and Nabiki.  He finds Nabiki in her room reading and Kasumi is in
the Kitchen preparing a water melon, but Akane, the youngest
daughter, is nowhere to be found.

Cut to a beautiful athletic girl in running gear just entering the
dojo.  Running down the hall without slowing down she throws of
her jogging clothes, grabs a gi, ties it and begins stacking
building bricks.

Girl:  Hyaaah!

<KRAK!>

She splits the bricks with her hand.  She smiles.

Girl:  Aaah.  That was nice.

Nabiki:  [entering from behind] There you go again, Akane.  No
         wonder all the boys think you're weird.

Akane (the girl) smiles a bitter little smile before turning to

Akane:  [to herself]  Hah!  I wish.  [to Nabiki] What is it,
        sister?

Nabiki:  Father has gotten a postcard.

It's a little later.  We see roof of the Tendou dojo from below
and a slice of sky above it.  Voices from inside can be heard.

Voice:  Fiance?

Cut to the inside, Souun and his daughters are gathered around the
table in the living room.

Kasumi:  Father, you never told us that we have a fiance.

Nabiki:  Yeah, but he should have.  At least a *little* earlier
         than this.

Akane:  Father, how could you?

Souun:  It is my greatest wish to see the Tendou martial arts
        school preserved.  If one of you could marry my friend's
        son Ranma and carry on the legacy, I would be so happy.

Nabiki:  What kind of guy is this Ranma anyway?

Souun:  I have no idea.  Today will be the first time I see him,
        too.

Cut to a street somewhere else in Tokyo (The sun is shining, by
the way.  I just thought I'd mention that :) where a dripping wet
panda is chasing a young man.

Boy:  Get of my back, pop!  You've made some mad plans in your
      time, but this is ludicrous.  I'm not going along with it.

Panda:  Growf!

The boy whips around and assumes a fighting stance.

Boy:  So, you wanna fight?  I'm ready.

The onlooking people "aaah" and "oooh" as the exchange of blows
grows more and more furious.  Finally the Panda is thrown
backwards and crumples to the ground.  The boy snorts derisively.

Boy:  I'm not doing it.  I..  I'll go back to China, that's what.
      Heh, perhaps I'll undo this and then you can find another
      boy to press into your schemes.

He turns to leave and is knocked down from behind by the panda who
apparently wasn't all that knocked out.  The panda shoos away the
crowd that has gathered, shoulders the boy and is on it's way.

Cut back to the discussion in the Tendou living room.  Apparently
no time has passed during the interlude.

Akane:  You promised to marry one of us to some boy that you never
        even saw?!

Souun:  Ha ha ha, We will meet him all together when he arrives
        here with his father.  Then we will know.

Kasumi:  Oh, I hope he is not too young.  Younger men are rather
         boring to me.

Akane:  You are going along with this?

Nabiki:  Well, I'm going to check out my potential future iinazuke
         before I say no.  Don't knock him before you know him.

Akane stays back while the others file out of the room.

Akane:  [muttering] All that fuss because of one *boy*.  Hmph.

Just then there is a knock on the front door and Akane turns her
head.

Kasumi:  [offscreen] Oh my, could that be them already?  I have
         not prepared anything yet.

Souun:  The Date of Arrival was today.  Oh Genma my old friend I
        will see you again and Ranma will marry my daughter.

Akane:  Father!

Meanwhile Nabiki has opened the door.  Before it stands the boy we
have last seen fighting the panda, alone.  All the members of the
Tendou household stand before him now.  Souun looks like he is
about to cry from joy again.

Souun:  Ar.. Are you...?

Boy:  Um, Saotome Ranma, yeah.

He looks around self-consciously a hand behind his head.  Behind
Souun's back Nabiki wispers to Akane

Nabiki:  Hey, didn't I tell you to wait?  Cute city, or what?

Akane elbows Nabiki in the ribs, but not very hard.  She doesn't
take her eyes from Ranma.

Akane:  [thinks] He *is* cute, though...

We see Ranma from Akane's viewpoint now, which is slightly to the
back and left of Souun who is standing right in front of him.
Ranma wears his usual chinese clothing, his pony-tail and is as
handsome as ever (Does Takahashi-san know how to make 'em
gorgeous, or does she know how to make 'em gorgeous :)

Souun:  Where is Genma my old friend?

Ranma:  Uh, he's around here, too.  He might be at the back door.

Right at that moment we hear sounds from the kitchen.

<Growf>

<klong> (typical kettle-falling-over Souund)

<splatter>

Suddenly the door shifts open and a man with glasses and a
scarf covering his head emerges.  There seem to be some wisps
of steam around him, but they evaporate quickly.

Man:  Souun!

Souun:  Genma!  My heart leaps with joy.  You have brought Ranma and
        the promise will be fulfilled.

Genma (the man):  Uh, Yes!

Ranma:  [Suddenly rather grumpy] Yeah, the *promise*.

Kasumi aproaches the two crying men facing each other.

Kasumi:  Father don't you want to invite your old friends in for
         tea?

Cut to later.  Everybody is sitting at the low table in the living room,
drinking tea and eating the little things that Kasumi has created
out of thin air.  The children look rather bored with the old
men's reminiscences and Kasumi asks Ranma

Kasumi:  So you were in China?

Ranma:  Uh, yeah, on a training trip to Ju.. some old chinese
Training ground.  Pop has been training me in the martial arts
ever since we left home years ago.

Nabiki:  Hey, if that's so, why don't you and Akane work out a
         bit?

Akane:  No.  Err, I mean why should we?

Nabiki:  Don't tell me you are not bored.  [thinks] And it would do
you good to interact with a boy *without* breaking his bones.
Even if it has to be a sparring session.

Akane:  Oh, OK.

She flashes Ranma a little smile.

Akane:  Let's go, then.  [thinks] At least he doesn't seem too
        bad.

Cut to the Practice hall of the dojo.

Akane:  [offscreen] So, you trained Karate, too?

Ranma:  [offscreen] A little.

The two enter the hall.

Akane:  Then let's have a little match, OK?

Ranma:  Huh?

Akane:  Just for fun.  I won't hurt you.

Ranma:  OK.

Akane assumes a fighting stance while Ranma just stands and
watches.  Akane runs up to him and makes the first strike - into
thin air.  Ranma has jumped straight up.  Without a pause Akane
presses on with a high kick after him, but it also fails to
connect.  Ranma has dodged in mid-air.  This repeats for the next
few blows - Akane attacks and Ranma dodges.

Akane:  What's wrong?  Swing at me.

Again she fails to score any hit.  Ranma just isn't where her
blows fall.

Akane:  [thinks] Why can't I seem to get through his defense?  Is
        he reading my moves?  All right.  Let's see him dodge me
        when I'm doing it... *for real*!

She launches another attack, putting everything she has into it.
Ranma barely evades her aproaching fist and vaults over Akane
whose fist punches a hole into the dojo wall.  Ranma touches her
lightly on the back of her head as he lands softly behind her.
Akane looks stunned.  Slowly she turns around, a look of seething
rage on her face.

Ranma:  Uh.. um, well..

Kasumi pokes her head in and asks

Kasumi:  Oh, Ranma, if you are finished, would you come over for a
         moment?

Ranma:  [thinks] Whew, saved by the bell.  [out loud] Sure,
        Kasumi.  [to Akane] Later, Akane, thanks for the match.

He flashes her a smile and hurries out after Kasumi.  They walk
down the hall together.

Kasumi:  You won?  Oh dear, Akane will not like that.  She takes
         losing a little hard.  And you are a *boy*, too.

Ranma:  What does that mean?  Why does it matter that I, uh, I'm a
        boy?

Kasumi:  Oh, you'll see tomorrow, when you go to school.

Ranma:  [thinks] School...?  [out loud] Err, where are we going?

Kasumi:  To the bath, of course.  You must have worked up quite a
         sweat.

Ranma:  Well, actually...  Err, I mean thanks.

Cut to the practice room where Akane talks with Nabiki.

Akane:  I still can't believe it.  He didn't even seem to make an
        effort - [she smiles grimly] except that last time.  But
        he dodged even that one.

Nabiki:  Come on, sister.  It's not as if the world is ending
         because you didn't win for once.  Tell you what: the bath
         is ready, why don't you take one?  You know that relaxes
         you.

Akane:  Hmph.  Well, all right, thanks big sister.

She gets up and heads in the direction where Kasumi led Ranma.

Akane enters the foreroom of the bath with a towel and undresses
quickly.  Within the bath we see Ranma from the back sitting in
the steaming water.

Ranma:  [thinks] Should I?  Oh, well, they are going to find out
        anyway.  May as well just go out like I am.

In the very same moment that Ranma gets out of the bath Akane
comes in.

The shot widens and we see them both clearly.  Akane is slightly
covered by her towel but Ranma isn't.  And there is no mistaking
that Ranma is clearly female.  She looks smaller than before as a
boy and is *definitely* more curved, but the face and hairstyle
are almost identical.

Akane finds her voice back first.

Akane:  Who are you?  What are you doing in our bath?

Ranma:  Uh, Akane.. I can explain...

Akane:  I bet you can.  Get out of there at once.  And get
        dressed!

Akane leans back out of the door calling

Akane:  Father!  Kasumi, Nabiki.  Come here everyone!

The others (including Genma) arrive.

Nabiki:  Akane, what is it?

Akane:  I surprised a stranger in our bath!

Kasumi:  How strange.  Ranma was in the bath just now.

In the same moment the female comes from the bath.  She's wearing
Ranma's chinese clothing and with her pony-tail the similarity to
the male Ranma can not be overseen.

Girl:  Um, I *am* Ranma.  Sorry 'bout this.

The others look on speechless.

-- End of part 1.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------

Continued in part 2.

Oh yeah, it would be nice if you'd suggest titles.  I didn't want
to swipe them, too.  :)

C&C highly apreciated.  Especially corrections of spelling and
grammar, since english isn't my native tongue.


Sebastian
--
       <http://enterprise.mathematik.uni-essen.de/~bastian/>
                         Comics reviewed
--
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it.
        - Donald Knuth
��������