On Sun, 10 Nov 1996, Sebastian Weinberg wrote:

 On Tue, 5 Nov 96 13:44:44 -0600 Travis Butler wrote:

	<scene where Noriko beats Kuno snipped>
: Frito: I dunno. Sounds kinda fishy to me. 

: Windir: I suppose this was the only feasible way of engendering her 
: victory, but it still seems implausible. Although Kuno is defeated by the 
: regular cast on a regular basis... one must remember that to the rest of 
: the school, he is a formidable force; not one person challenged him when 
: he set his conditions for dating Akane. To have her defeat him in a 
: straight martial arts battle seems odd. I would recommend either an 
: attack more strongly based on intelligence -- pitting her strength 
: against his weakness -- or <sigh> a deus ex machina, something that 
: distracted him and left her an opening.

    Darn it, Windir! You're making this short reply a long post! :P

Wasn't that *exactly* what he did?  I liked this fighting scene
especially because Noriko won not through superior proficiency
(like Ranma) but through intelligence and analysis.

It's simple physics:  The far end of a swinging bokken will
inflict more damage than any other point.  Noriko realized that
Kunou was far to strong a fighter for her to hope beating him
conventionally, so she figured out how to circumvent his
strengths.  Instead of staying where he expected her to stay - at
the outer reaches of his bokken range, where he would eventually
be able to land a few devestating blows - she moved in, where he
was sure to hit her, *but* the blows would not incapacitate her
immediately due to decreased leverage, so she could take him out. 
She decided to do the unthinkable and take the damage, because she
had analysed his strength and weakness and could weigh her chances
of success against the losses she would have to sustain.  An
intelligence-based victory, if I ever saw one.

    Well, yes, that's what I had in mind when I wrote that part. The 
torque right where Kuno holds his bokken is *much* less than at the far 
reach (most people would try to move *out* of the range of the bokken, 
increasing their chances of getting clocked at the optimal damage distance). 
    But, since Travis wasn't the only one to protest against Noriko's 
victory in chapter five, I'll probably be altering it somewhat to ease 
credibility. <sigh> 
    But thanks for the vote of confidence, Sebastian. :)

: Windir: I would retain the same level of detail -- I doubt you could 
: achieve the effect you wish without it -- but I would, as we noted above, 
: find a somewhat more realistic way for her to beat him. Someone with 
: Noriko's stated lack of experience should *not* be able to charge head-on 
: into his attack and emerge successfully, I would believe.

As you noted yourself, she emerged successful, but by no means
unscathed - and the author knew and acknowledged this.  I liked it
a lot.

    Unscathed by no means is right. She barely won, and there's no 
telling if she could win a second time if she and Kuno tried it out 
again. I'm glad you liked it.

    But enough people have protested Noriko's victory that I'll have 
to take a good hard look at it again. But don't worry; I'm not going to 
make Noriko lose (I like my character too much for that, call it bias or 
something). :)

Sebastian (So when's the next part out, huh?)

    Oooeer... before the end of this year?? That last part is going to be 
tricky to do without making it seem like a deux ex machina. But I will 
finish it, I promise. 

---
Raphael See