On Fri, 25 Jul 1997, Mr. Otakki wrote:

If anyone out there cares to, I'd appreciate some notes on what the more 
serious aspects of the characters in Ranma 1/2 should be/are (you can 
even include references for my sake).  Be it notes on just one or two, or 
a large novel of notes, I'd appreciate it.  I think it'd help me out a 
great deal in creating meaningful dialogue and character development.

	Well.  Despite Ranma being a light-hearted comedy, there's _lots_ 
of aspects of the show/manga that are easily expanded into something far 
more serious - stuff that's been explored in a number of really good 
fanfics as well.
	It's hard to list them, but here's some of the stuff that I find 
interesting, at least:

	-Sexuality.  This is an easy one.  You've got a guy who turns 
into a girl, who's had an extremely biased upbringing, and who, after 
months wanderingthe countryside, steps into a society with certain 
expectations concering both his genders.  There's obvious tensions to 
work with here...

	-Loneliness.  Despite being such a popular guy, Ranma really 
pretty isolated and friendless.  So Ukyou - she's invested so much of 
herself into her chase of Ranma, and into her business, where does she 
have time for friends?  Shampoo - cut off from her homeland, seen as 
nothing more than a bubbly, good-looking airhead.  And so on...

	-Violence.  Sure, Ranma's full of violence, but most of it's 
cartoon level stuff.  But every now and then, there's hints that some of 
it is kinda serious.  Zen explored an aspect of this in Bitter End.  
Other's have brought Ryoga's quest for revenge to its only possible, and 
tragic, solution.

	-Nodoka.  Poor woman.  Sure, she's great to inject a bit of 
tension into 'Ranko's' life - but the Saotome matriarch lives a lonely 
life.  Which also raises guilt in Ranma.  And causes tension between 
Ranma and Genma.  And forces the Tendo daughters to remember there own 
mother... and so on.  The whole family issue is a fascinating aspect of 
Ranma 1/2 that rarely gets explored in fanfiction.

	And there's more.  Lots more, I'm sure.  I didn't bother 
mentioning the _really_ serious and dark stuff - murder, rape, killing, 
legal intrusions - since that's an entirely different area...

	Hope this helps!

	-Mike Noakes

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