Some of you want to know the books I was talking about... Here they
are:


Buruma, Ian. A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture.
(London: J. Cape, 1984)

Condon, Jane. A Half Step Behind, Japanese Women Today. (Japan: Charles
E. Tuttle Company, 1992)


Now, here's another topic. Someone brought up Ranma's disrespectful
behaviour towards Genma:

Okay, from what I remember in the "Japanese Mirror" book, a Japanese
family is the mother and her children, and the man is there to get
the money and support them. Since the father is always out - working,
drinking with other guys from work, going on business trips, playing
pachinko, maybe going to find bar girls, or whatever, the father is
doesn't really have much to do with the children. In "A Half Step
Behind", it says "Although interest is growing in 'my-homeism,'
meaning men want to spend more time at home with their families, so
far it's just a catchy phrase and far from a full-fledged trend."
About the only time a father gets to spend time with the family (the
Japanese family being the mother and children - a father is just an
"attachment") is on his day off - Sunday. Then they all go out for
a day, maybe to a zoo or a park.

Seeing that the children don't get to spend much time with their
father, the mother is the head of the family to the children. And
so in Ranma 1/2, it's probably a way of satirising this. Although
Genma raised Ranma for ten years of his life, Ranma's still more
interested in his mother, and he only shows love towards her, and
only disrespect towards Genma. Maybe he's upset that Genma stole
him away from the mother-child relationship that he should have
gotten?

But it may just be making fun of the situation. In "Japanese Mirror",
it talks about a manga called "No Good Daddy" where the mother and
children just beat the father and do bad things to him all the time.
No respect there for the father, either!

I guess it all comes from being an "attachment" to the family, rather
than the head of the family... The Japanese head of the family is
the mother!

Kun-chan...
--
************************************
* http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~caseawr *
*++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++*
* High Priestess of Ryouga         *
************************************