On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, Sebastian Weinberg wrote:

On Tue, 24 Sep 1996, Richard Lawson wrote:

One sore point about _TIL_ in general is your treatment of the
_Musabetsu Kakutou_ school, based on the Viz translation "Anything
Goes".  It is not meant to imply dishonourable fighting techniques
(although Genma and Happousai are not above that), but rather
refers to the fact that it utilizes techniques borrowed from many
different martial arts.  Unfortunately, some rather large points of
_TIL_ hinge of the "Anything Goes" angle, and so you can't correct
that without detracting from the story, but I would be pleased, if
you'd refrain from mentioning the "unethical" fighting style in
future stories.

</Tearing>

I'd dispute that.  The anything goes school as pictured in Ranma 1/2 
seems to be very much an amoral philosophy, as practiced by Genma and 
Happousai, who make up two of the three elder practicioners of the 
school.  Soun doesn't seem to adhere to that philosophy so much, but 
certainly I'd expect any school of martial arts taught by Happy to have a 
rather twisted philosophy.  The fact that the Saotome secret techniques 
are mostly based on deceit reinforces this point.  Now the Anything Goes 
school as portrayed here doesn't necessarily reflect any larger school, 
but in the context of Ranma 1/2 his interp. makes sense.


John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu      bailesu@komodo.hacks.arizona.edu  
http://www.hacks.arizona.edu/~bailesu/falcon.html 
http://www.dhp.com/~wraven/john/index.html
"If Phillip II possessed a single virtue, it has eluded the 
conscientious research of the writer of these pages.  If there are 
vices--as possibly there are--from which he was exempt, it is because 
it is not permitted to human nature to attain perfection even in 
evil." --William Lothrop Motley