Besides, I still don't really think Shampoo and Ukyou wanted to get
Akane with exploding food --Akane was supposed to have been left in
her room when Ranma dashed out to get the Nannichuan water, right? I
figure they were simply trying to (desperately) stop the wedding
altogether, not kill Akane.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Except, of course, for the fact that they specifically say (in the manga,
that is) that they were aiming for Akane.  Perhaps they meant merely to
injure her and not kill her.  However, I think the manga makes it clear that
Shampoo and Ukyou meant to do more than merely break up the
wedding.

NO IT DOESN'T.

Zen has the manga, and true, Shampoo tells Ukyou to aim for Akane, but no
one ever sees Ukyou actually throw one of those "Special Modern Yaki" at
Akane at all.  Indeed, Akane comes out of the whole ordeal without so much
as a scratch.

Feh.  This kill nonsense is all the delusions of infidels who hate poor 
Ucchan. 

How about actually looking at the pictures in the manga before trying to
tell the whole ML that everyone who's seen the manga is wrong and that 
you're right. If you LOOK, you can see two nikuman and one okonomiyaki,
both of which explodes, blowing up Ranma as he ran out of *Akane's*
bedroom. (If Ranma wasn't there, they would have got Akane) ... And, 
then in the NEXT panel, the ones holding the nukuman are Shampoo... and,
guess what? Ukyou's holding the pile of okonomiyaki she's ready to
throw ('There's still more left!' she yells, ready to continue throwing
more into Akane's bedroom, where Akane still is situated).

Don't try to mislead the ML with false information of what happened in
the manga. It clearly shows what happened, even if you can't read
Japanese! (Though you'll miss Shampoo saying 'Aiya! I was aiming at
Akane!' and Ukyou's response 'There's still more left!')

Zen is misleading. Kun-chan is right. ;p

BTW - the ending clearly shows that Ranma will marry Akane, in the
future ... who'd want to marry a wannabe murderess?

Kun-chan...