On Thu, 10 Jul 1997, David Lerman wrote:

  The essential difference is that Shampoo and Ukyo usually give flying
lessons to Mousse and Tsubasa in reaction to either being glomped or to
prevent being glomped.  Akane whacks Ranma even when it is obvious that
Ranma is blameless.  BTW, is Akane as clueless on any other matter as she
is in regard to Ryoga/P-chan?  Even Ryoga's dog knows, and she hasn't had
Ranma repeatedly hinting to her.  

                                                                       dml

First off, my point was that all of these girls react with violence when
there are other options.  This _is_ anime/manga and I don't expect then to
act differently.  But I get tired of people verbally attacking Akane for
being violent when there are examples of Ukyou and Shampoo doing similar
things, if for different reasons.

As far as Akane's reasons are concerned, she usually hits Ranma when he
shoots off his mouth (and in this case I think he deserves what he gets)
or when he's found in an awkward situation.  What would most people think
if they found their fiance/fiancee naked in a bath with another girl/boy?
Akane is very insecure and when Ranma insults her or she sees him with
another girl, she reacts.  (Un?)Fortunately, Akane isn't the type to run
away crying when she's emotionally injured, she mallets.  It may be
obvious to the reader that Ranma is innocent, but Akane has seen Ranma in
a few too many situations that can't be easily explained.  (Any pervert
would claim that he didn't see in the sign outside of the bath, right?)

>From Akane's POV, her actions are just as justified as those of Ukyou and
Shampoo.  All of the girls (and Ranma) smash guys into orbit to avoid
getting glomped.  When Akane hits Ranma for being insulting her or
seemingly being unfaithful, people say she's violent.  (BTW, are there any
examples of Ranma really insulting Ukyou or Shampoo?)  I guess it comes
down to what you consider a good reason for violence.  Lum shocks Ataru
when he chases women.  Akane mallets Ranma when he gets caught in a
situation that makes him look like a pervert.  I've never heard people
complain about Lum's actions, but where's the difference in Lum's and
Akane's reactions?  Akane isn't omniscient and doesn't know that Ranma 
just has a case of bad luck.

Oh well, just my two cents.  Next I'll write a monologue about why Shampoo
glomps Ranma...  ;)

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    Josh Green, aka Pi -- SORT@BUCKET.UALR.EDU
       http://bucket.ualr.edu/~sort/fanfic.html
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