On Mon, 9 Sep 1996, Sebastian Weinberg wrote:

:     Several blocks away, the boy ducked into an old-fashioned phone
: booth with an "Out of Order" sign on the door.

Whoa, it's Clark Kent!  Ooops, just Tsubasa.  I don't know why so
many people use him, even though he only appeared in 3 parts of one
volume.  Kinda like the Golden Pair.

Why Tsubasa gets used:
HE fills a story role.  He's the only person who ever pays any serious
romantic attention to Ukyou before Konatsu shows up.  (And Konatsu bears
a suspicious resemblence to Tsubasa in behavior :)

He's also in some ways an antithesis of Ranma...Like Ranma, he is a
shapechanger of sorts, putting on and taking off a different
identity...but unlike Ranma, he accepts this, and indeed, revels in it.

And he's just cool :)

   *giggle!*  The obscure characters can be the most fun to write about.
After all, they weren't used a lot in the manga or anime, fanfiction is a
way to make the details of the characters more elaborate.  And since many
characters got very little actual 'air time' it's sometimes easier to write
them as they're not quite so etched in stone, like Ranma or Ryouga who have
a pretty definate personality.  Characters like Tsubasa, Konatsu, Akari,
Gosunkugi, and even Pantsuto are fun to write in, and sometimes you get
tired of seeing the same old characters, why not throw in someone obscure?
Especially if it progresses the storyline in an interesting way.  It often
has good results.  Mihoshi STILL loves your use of of Gosunkugi in PYHitRP,
John, *HUG!*.  And what RPM did with Tsubasa... Mishima Tech??  Waaaah!
Kowai! o.o  And never EVER let Willmore use Akari in a fic again.  NEVER!!
@.o

*********
* Mihoshi@still hunting Tsubasa stuff to scan. o.o