At 09:54 PM 5/2/97 -0400, you wrote:
Okay read this if you don't know the question, skip to the bottom if you do.

I'm sending this to both the Ranma and fanfic mailing lists.  The subject came
up, in reference to my fanfic Tendou 2/3, of whether the book about the
Cat-Fist says that throwing someone into a pit of cats doesn't work.

The only "translation" I could dig up was this old article by Hitoshi Doi
where he answers some questions.  Anyone know if this is really right or
not?

# 31. What's with the book on pg 34?  Why is Ramna's father pointing to
# that passage?
# 
#         The book is a training book on the "cat-style" method of
#         fighting.  The book says that throwing the student down among
#         a bunch of starving cats will [next page] have no effect so
#         don't do it.  But, Ranma's father did not turn the page!

Alright, I'm taking my info from the viz comic translated series, so if you
think that it is an invalid source, then this won't do much good.
First off, the book was on advance training meathods, the cat-fist style was
just somthing in there.
Secondly, there is not mention that it wouldn't work, it just said that it
the teaching technique shouldn't be used.  I believe that it was capable of
working (as seen in Ranma) but it is just so vicious and causes the side
affect of the phobia of cats, that it was a banned technique.  
It seems to me that it does, and did, work.  Of course, don't leave out the,
*hungry* cats and fish cakes tied to his body, parts.  Anyone is welcome to
dispute me though, I've been known to be wrong quite often ... okay
extremely often.

                                                                            
    Josh