b) Its Black in some manga because they were i) out of red ink or
                                            ii) out of time and missed
                                                it in checking the frames.
                                            iii) bored and wanted to start
                                                 a debate among Otaku.

It's black in the manga, 'cause the manga is in B&W. There's a very limited
selection of colors there. ;)

c) In the Ranma 1/2 Universe.. Coloured Hair is not that unusual.  Shampoo

           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You mean in many an anime universes! Colored hair is prevelent there
because most Japanese have black hair, and it serves to mark such persons:
'Yo! Look at me! I'm an important character!'

It's like bunraku, where the puppeteers dress in black. You can see them,
but you are supposed to ignore them (this, btw, is what Soun was dressed in
the Romeo & Juliet storyline, not a ninja costume). Because the hair isn't
black, your attention is drawn to them, rather than away.

  has smegging *blue* hair for typing underwater's sake.  (which raises
  another question... is Shampoo naturally that colour?  And the first
  person to pull out an obscure MASH reference gets shot ;) )

You mean the redhead episode? (SHIELDS UP!)

d) Kunou probably calls Ranchan 'pigtailed girl' probably because when he
  *first* saw her, he was slightly dazed and her hair was wet (which
  sometimes does look notreddish.)   (I'm talking about the pool scene in
  eps 1 or 2 where they jump out of a third story window into a pool)
  After he saw her (felt rather ;) ), he was thumped again.. so he
  probably didn't pick up on the hair colour.

Well, a lot of girls have pigtails over at Furinkan, but none of them are
redheads. Also, Kuno first called Ranma-chan "tree-borne kettle girl". It
was Nabiki that discribed her as "a girl with clothes having a pigtail."
Surely she would also throw in that she was a redhead in that discription,
as it marks her pretty well.

Besides, I know Kuno's stupid, but the above reason is just lame.

e) If you saw Ranchan in real life, what would you pick as her most
  obvious 'feature'(s) ? ;)

I donno. Twister ain't back yet! ;)

Hypothetically, if I saw Ranma-chan, I would either I would pick that as
the MOF, because you don't see hair THAT red in Real Life.

Unless, of course, she had black hair. Then I would find something else to note.

Verdict: Takahashi-sama probably has never even thought about it, just
figuring it was the same color as everyone else (Black). And as for the
anime creaters, they're just committing the same warp as all other
manga-goes-anime.

f) Its coloUr btw.

Not in America, it ain't! I spelled color that way before, and my 5th grade
teacher marked it wrong.

BTW. I write as if Ranma-chan had red hair. It's just how I'm accoustomed
to thinking of him/her. (Jeez, we need a new pronoun. :P ) However, I
realize that it's non-cannon (most likely) but screw it, her hair's ONE of
those colors!

                           ---------------------
-wyrm(AKA Tom Jefferys; Time Lord for Hire, "Have TARDIS; Will Travel.")
<wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>                       <JEFFERYSTR@rascal.guilford.edu>
Member of the AFSS          Depraived Kawaii Thing of the First Order, Martin
   =<SIG>= Wyrm-chan @_@ H-Wyrm @_@ Ten @_@ Chibi-Usa @_@ Azusa =</SIG>=
=<^_^>= R1/2#_#BGC#_#Sailor Moon#_#Dr Who#_#Star Trek#_#Monty Python =</^_^>=

"DINSDALE!!!" -Spiny Norman