In a message dated 97-07-10 13:21:11 EDT, you write:

David Bateson wrote:
 >
 > > Carries a naginata (a staff with a blade on the end,
 > > fot those of you who don't know what that is).
 > >
 > Very unlikely this, Ranma is not into weapons and the Naginata is a
 > traditional Japanese weapon that no one in her family is likely to know
 > much about.
 
 It's also not a weapon that is particularly well suited to
 to extremely agile movement.

On the contrary, if you've read the novel 'The Tokkaido Road' which was based
on a true story, you'd see that the naginata can, in the hands of a skilled
user be *very* fast and agile.  Using the forward hand as a fulcrum and the
back hand to move the weapon, and it can be considerably faster and more
agile than a sword would be.  It might have it's disadvantages compared to an
unarmed attacker in terms of agility, but pure damage potential and reach are
on the side of the naginata wielder (unless, of course, the opponent is
superhuman or something). 

~ ShadowJack