Sebastian wrote:

: Is that the future you want? Respected, feared, hated? To
: manipulate those around you, to use them with little regard for
: their feelings, your needs all that matter? The old ways are
: dying, and she with them. Don't let her use you to try to carry
: the old ways into the new world, or it will destroy the Amazons.
: You know this.
:
: She felt tears coming from her eyes. She had kept so much
: repressed, so much buried. She remembered her childhood dreams, to
: be the strongest of the Amazon warriors and to lead her people
: into a new millenium. Why had she given up on those dreams to
: chase after a man? Because one old woman had sought to use her, to
: avenge an imagined slight on the honor of the Amazons. It was time
: to set that right, to put her life back on track.

Sebastian:  And there it is.

You forgot the other big change in that scene, when she
realises what Mousse is to her. i.e. sanity. Actually, I'm
not too familiar with his character, but he certainly doesn't
seem this "modern" to me. Granted, Richard does propose an
explanation (the communist's guns threat) to some Amazon
people thinking differently about their traditions, but this
Mousse still diverges significantly from his manga counterpart,
without any explanation on the change.

: A game of shogi
: or go was good for Soun whenever he became overwrought.

Sebastian:  Oh, by the way, can someone tell me more about that
      game?  Genma and Souun are often portrayed to cheat by
      turning the board around.  I don't know about Shogi, but
      that tactic certainly won't help with Go:  The white pieces
      stay white and the black pieces stay black, no matter how
      you turn the board.

Shogi is the Japanese equivalent of chess. There are no colors
on the pieces, just characters indicating their rank. The pieces
themselves have a wedged end, that indicates whom they belong
to, the wedge being pointed to your adversary's camp.
So, yes, indeed, turning the board around is not immediately
noticeable if you're as dense as Soun or Genma are portrayed.

Sebastian:  Oh, yes, thanks for reminding me, Jennnifur.  There's
      a little problem I have with Shampoo's diction.  Shampoo's
      "Bimbo speak" is a result of her unfamiliarity with the
      language (in dubio pro reo) but Richard often has her use
      some expressions and constructions that are pretty
      indigenous to the language and not normally known to
      beginners like Shampoo.  Sometimes her sentences are just
      normal sentences with the verb transformed to the infinitive
      form.  I just thought I'd mention it.

Actually, in most Chinese languages, conjugation of verbs
does not exist, and so it is logical mistake for a Chinese
speaker to make. Mind you, Japanese conjugation is not nearly
as complex as in most European languages, so Shampoo's
mistakes are not translatable. Agreed, though, that she speaks
too fluently here. Besides, she also speaks perfect French,
as all the Manga I've read and eps I've seen seem to prove 8-)

: "This is not honorable combat, child." One of them spoke in a
: quiet whisper that seemed to be in Ranma's mind more than in her
: ears. With a start, she realized they were speaking Chinese, but
: somehow she understood them.

Angus:  Cheap ploy to make Ranma able to follow the conversation
      without Mousse for translations.

Sebastian:  And us, too.  Cut him some slack, or we couldn't
      understand this scene either.

Angus:  Ooops.  I accept it!  Of course, very logical - They're
      ghosts after all, they have supernatural powers.

Yes, magic explains all, especially in Ranma 8-)
Anyhow, on the ghost scene, I might add that, in Chinese storys,
ghostly apparitions are always accompanied by various effects
indicating the Yin forces are at work, like flames burning
lower, chilly drafts, mists, clouds obscuring the sun etc...

: Kasumi looked down. "I told him my family needed me too much. They
: depended on me for so much; I couldn't leave them. He understood."

Angus:  Whoa!  Major retcon!

Sebastian:  This is the point where I think Richard is most out of
      phase with the manga.  Even if you accept that Kasumi is not
      really oblivious, I strongly doubt that she would have
      talked about this with Toufuu-sensei.

Angus:  It's not as if he plays any role in the manga after the
      first few volumes.

Yes, indeed, both are quite mono-dimensional in the manga.
However, this particular piece of dialogue has bee written in
"Heart of the Home", the Kasumi fic that Richar wrote before this
and "right side of the ledger".
For the record, I think Kasumi's a Marauder mage who's caught
all of Nerima and parts of China in her Quiet, but that's
irrelevant 8-)

: The bandana. She should have known by the bandana.

Angus:  Yep, she should have.

Sebastian:  I never understood how she could *not* know.  I
      strongly suspect that she knew very well, subconsciously,
      and denied it because she knew it made Ranma jealous.

Nah, that was Kasumi's magick at work 8-) We call it "plot devices".

Sebastian:  <sniffle>  Help!  When is this happy ending finally
      over?!

Actually, THIS is my main gripe about the last installment.
The author is waiting all this time to let his characters go their
separate ways, and thus we end up with this massive wedding
scene where every cast member puts the final touch to what was
begun sometimes in part 3 (Ukyo). After a while, it really
feels like someone is crossing off a list of names somewhere
in the background, and yelling NEXT! from time to time.
I think, especially, that Shampoo's and Mousse's appearances
are not justified. The resolution and their leaving could
have occured earlier.

A+

J.