OK, I've got volume 28 open in front of me.

*(SPOILER AHEAD!) In volume 28, the infamous Ryuu Kumon storyline, there
are... what? One and a half jokes? 

1) Ranma in dress
2) Bear on display (Pretty common thing in Japan, My freind Yuki thought it was
   funny because of that)
3) several frames of Akane finding food where her clothes should be
4) The hole in the newspaper
5) the floorboards
6) Soun and Akane hammer Genma
7) Akane and Ranma share a touching scene, punctuated with a hammer.
8) Ranma practicing on Akane's drawers (and bras) (No hammer, use chair)
9) (Sign) Don't break the Buddah
10) Ranma bites hand in self defense
11) Ranma takes Ryuu's clothes, Akane covers eyes (Kiya!)
12) Ranma takes soun's clothes
13) Soun Sneezing (hakushyo-)
14) Soun recovers clothes
15) Akane, Ranma and Sound bury Genma to his head after the revelation its a
"sneak thief" technique.
16) Ranma shaped hole in well roof
17) (Sight gag) Genma as "The Scream"

OTOH, you get to see someone's life
getting torn to pieces utterly and irrevocably, on such a scale that even
Ryouga would feel sorry for Ryuu,

	Torn to pieces? I don't see it. Better to find out now that he was
	practicing sneak thief-martial arts, rather than later.

	Perhaps someone would like to write a fict about Ryuu,
	He finds the second scroll... What then?

and what's worse no epilogue was given
whatsoever.

	
	Not for him, but we do find out the final disposition of the second
	scroll.

How do we know that Ryuu didn't commit suicide right after
his fight with Ranma? As far as dark and gritty goes, the end of the Ryuu
Kumon

	Kumon translates to "Anger or Anguish"

storyline is the darkest and most depressing I've seen in the manga
canon.

	Agreed. 10 of 418 total parts of Ranma 1/2
	That's 2.4% of the pages, roughly.
	No one was killed, and the all of the "Akane hits Ranma"
	were comic, not because of jealosy.

And yet, it's one of the finest plots ever assembled by Takahashi.

	I'd give it a 4. 
	I prefered the love bracelet, and Nabiki is Ranma's fiance, and
	the Hypnosis Mushrooms and......

The way she orchestrates illustrations and panel flow reminds me of
artistic cinema, especially the scenes between Ryuu and Nodoka. We also
get to see much more of Mrs. Saotome's personality, and how deeply she
cares for Ranma.

	PinPon! Sounds like a good reason for the story, ne?

This is one of my favorite story arcs, right after the
Musk Dynasty arc.

	I'd give that a 4 as well. But I liked Ranma's welcome home. :)

But that doesn't negate the fact that this was a very
dark story.

	What did Shakesphere say through Jaques? (sp?) Something like:
	"I can suck the melancholy from a song the way a weasel sucks eggs."
	I don't see it as dark enough to color the rest of the series,
	It adds contrast though. 

	I also suspect that Takahashi was under some pressure from Shonen
	Sunday to put more fight scenes into the series. We'll never know,
	but I wonder how the series would have looked if it had only been
	a series of Manga, rather than a weekly serial in a boys magazine.
	(P.S. much of the the rest of Shonen Sunday is a LOT like your
	favorite arcs, page after page of angst and darknes.)

So dark, in fact, that Takahashi needed to write the "Ranma's
Tears" oneshot right after it to recover some of the series USUAL
lighthearted tone.

	Since the series runs weekly, I don't think that was the reason,
	since someone finishing the Ryuu arc would not see the "tears"
	story for a week anyway.


J.