On Thu, 26 Sep 1996 21:39:20 -0500 (CDT) Ranma Al'Thor said:
: On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, Sebastian Weinberg 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.
:
: 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.
Ah, but the difference is that the dishonor does stem from the
*individual* practitioners, not from the school itself. Two
practitioners are dishonorable (Happousai and, to an extent,
Genma) and two others are not (Souun and Ranma). The *Technique*
is not the source of unethical methods, as implied in _TIL_.
The Viz translation further the impression that it's the School
itself that demands this behavior: "Anything Goes" sounds a bit
ruthless, and "Indiscriminate Grappling" carries undertones that
are positively hentai! But at no place in the Manga it is ever
said that the teachings of the Musabetsu Kakutou style have
anything to do with the morals of the practitioner, and it's
certainly not implied in the original name.
This means, that you can certainly interpret the Musabetsu Kakutou
Ryuu as an immoral school, but you can't act as if it's a fact
from the original.
Sebastian