On Sat, 26 Apr 1997, Anthony Woo wrote:

It seems that whenever I read a Ranma 1/2 fanfic, Ranma and Ryoga always
use the same techniques.  Ranma _always_ uses the (kachu) tenshin
amaguriken, the hiryu shoten ha, or the moko takabishya at least once, and
Ryoga always uses the shi shi hokendan, and the buksai tenketsu.  Don't
they have any _other_ special techniques?  They don't use those _that_

	Well... those _are_ the main 'special' techniques they use.  The 
variety tends to come in how those techniques are applied (many varient 
Hiryu Shoten Has, or double Mokos, etc...)  Most other 'special 
techniques' are one-shot deals or funky names for moves Ranma makes up on 
the spot.

often in the anime and manga, do they?  Those techniques have to take a
lot out of them but they throw them around like they were free (Ranma only
used the chestnut fist four times in the breaking point episode before he

	Actually, after that the Chestnut fist dissapears as a technique 
(at least in the manga).  It seems more like all his attacks are at a 
higher speed.

got tired, their respective chi bolts must take a tremendous amount of
emotion _and_ energy, how can they keep throwing them around like that,
and I don't even want to think about what the hyru shoten ha takes...).

	But by the end, Ranma has a _lot_ of chi (or whatever).  In the 
big climatic fight with Saffron, he's just tossing those specialty Hiryus 
left and right, without getting winded.  <shrug>  Maybe it's his love for 
Akane fueling him on (to get corny for a moment...)

Yes these are powerful techniques and yes they use them but they're not
the only techniques that they use and they're not the best techniques in
every situation, but they seem to be the only ones that the various fanfic
authors use.  

	That, I'd agree.  The technqiues get a little overused in 
fanfics.  Then again, the pattern of 'Ryoga-learns-new-technique, 
Beats-up-Ranma, Ranma-learns-countertechnique' is used a lot, too.

blast and the resulting smokescreen isn't enough to fool him.  Ryoga's
also not always depressed enough to shoot off shi shi hokendan's look what
it took for him to shoot a _normal_ one in the second movie.  He had to

	Well... I'm not sure on this one, but I'm guessing that that 
chi-blast there was a _wee_ bit more powerful than normal.  There's 
depressed, then there's 'the world is a dark and lonely place...'.  Then 
there's the ultimate shi shi hokodan...

Let's have some variety folks...three special techniques for Ranma and two
for Ryoga isn't doing justice to these two martial arts elementals.  

	What's eve better is less special techniques, and more 
interesting moves applied in a well-choreographed, dynamic fight scene - 
a scene where the special moves punctuate the martial arts, not dominate 
it (which is my theory for anime, too.  That's why the SF II movie was 
good - and FF bites).  Well, in my opinion, anyway.
 
	-Mike Noakes