Someone told me you'd be the person to ask about this.

<bows modestly>  I sent the reply to the FFML too, in case anyone else
is interested and/or wants to argue (take it to e-mail if you do, tho).

I want to use Pansuto Tarou in a fic of mine, but I need some insights
into his characters.  I was hoping someone could help me.

1) It's quite clear he has very little use for Ranma, although as far 

as I

can tell it's a mild dislike rather than a full fledged hatred.  How 

does

Nope.  Tarou and Ranma despise each other like no other characters in
the series.  Although they give some grudging respect for each other's
combat abilities, both are utterly convinced they are superior, and
any time they are around each other they are almost certain to get 
into a fight (usually by Tarou taunting Ranma).  Tarou continuously 
refers to Ranma as "fem-boy" or other similar insinuations, while 
Ranma tends to use Tarou's full name as often as possible.

he feel about the other characters (especially the Saotome Family, The
Tendo Family, Ryoga, Ukyo, Shampoo, Mousse, and Ukyo's transvesite
admirers)

Tarou hasn't met all of those people (though, due to spying, he 
probably knows OF virtually every Nerima character at the time):

Genma: Genma and Tarou are basically indifferent to each other, though
Genma is more than a little scared of him and would rather avoid him 
if at all possible.

Soun: Soun does not like Tarou, considering him disrespectful and 
power-hungry.  However, like Genma, he is somewhat frightened of
the young man's power and ruthlessness.  Tarou couldn't care less
about Soun, and tends to address him as an equal if he talks to him
at all.

Kasumi: Indifferent, from both sides.

Nabiki: Nabiki hardly knows Tarou, but due to that is not really aware
of what he is capable of, and has a low opinion of him that might come
back to haunt her if they ever come in conflict.  Tarou, likewise,
does not know her very well, and we're not sure if he would similarly
underestimate her.

Akane: Akane feels sorry for and pities Tarou; she will put up with a
lot more from him than she would from most people, and sometimes calls
him "Pansuto Tarou-kun".  However, she will work against him when she
has to, and has gotten angry at him.  For his part, Tarou's feelings
for Akane are a mystery, but she is the only person he even slightly
trusts, and he has never tried to take revenge for her interference
with him.  It's _possible_ he actually loves her, but for lack of
self-confidence or because he noted her feelings for Ranma, he chose
not to do anything about it.

Ryouga: Ryouga doesn't like or trust Tarou, but not enough to actually
care unless tarou provokes his wrath.  Tarou is utterly contemptuous
of the lost boy, mostly due to his gullibility.

Shampoo: Shampoo respects Tarou's ability, but doesn't care much for
him.  Tarou knows about the amazon laws, knows Shampoo is one of them,
and has consciously avoided defeating her in the past.  He has also
tricked her rather easily, and probably doesn't think much of her
due to this.

Mousse: Mousse doesn't like Tarou, but like the others, is respectful
and a bit fearful of his ability.  Tarou is indifferent to Mousse.
It should be noted that Ryouga, Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse most 
likely do NOT know about Tarou's new, improved cursed form.  

Cologne: Indifferent.  Tarou is a snot-nosed punk just like all the
other "kids" in Nerima, and if he's more powerful than most of them,
she could still easily have handled him.  If she heard about his
new form and how he mulched Happousai, however, she might be a bit
more cautious.  Tarou, for his part, almost certainly knows _of_ the
powerful Amazon matriarch, and is likely to excise caution and respect 
should he have to deal with her, and would never directly confront her
except as a last resort.

Happousai: Happousai is sort of fond of Tarou, his 'godson', but can
be angered by him for short times.  He really doesn't seem to care that
Tarou beat him, but is utterly determined through some perverse 
stubborness not to change his name.  As for Tarou, he lost most of
his hatred for Happousai after crushing the old man in combat, and now
only cares about him in order to change his name.

Rouge: Rouge and Tarou despise each other at least as much as Ranma
and Tarou do.  It would be virtually impossible for them to stay
near each other for any length of time without fighting, and they 
would both be trying to outright kill each other.  Rouge would have no
compunctions about attacking Tarou from behind, in his human form, or
with help, and Tarou has none about smashing Rouge in her (virtually 
defenceless) human form.  They simply hate each other.

Konatsu, Ukyou, Kunou, Kodachi, Gosunkugi and anyone else I didn't
mention have never met him, although they may have heard of him.  Tarou
probably knows OF most of the Nerima crew (not Konatsu or Nodoka, tho, 
who weren't around), but hasn't met them either.  As far as Ukyou 
goes, his initial impression would likely be negative ("She's gaga 
over fem-boy?  Pathetic."), but any prolonged contact between the two 
would likely lead to at least a grudging respect for her intellegence 
and self-sufficiency.
  

2) How good a fighter is he?  I gather in human form he's rather good,
placing him somewhere on par with Mousse but worse than Ryoga and 

Ranma.

Uhh...no.  I wish the Ranma FAQ guy would update his listings since
we talked about it... <grumble> Tarou is superior, in human form, to
Mousse, Ranma or Ryouga.  He can and has outmatched Ranma in 
overall speed, agility (although ONNA Ranma is more agile than him),
toughness, intelligence and overall strategy and tactics.  The two
are fairly well-matched on skill (Tarou has more depth, but Ranma
more variety), and Ranma wins on adaptibility, strength (although
this is iffy, since Tarou's foreknuckles hit harder than ordinary
punches and he's stronger than Onna-Ranma) and recovery time.  Tarou 
is likely to win at least 2 out of 3 matches, and possibly better.  
For more in-depth info on Tarou's martial arts style and more 
comparisons and examples of his abilities, I recommend you check out 
my Shrine to him at www.wizard.net/~deva.  Or you could just ask me
to babble some more about it, if you like.  ^_^

As far as I can tell, in monster form, he's only matched by Ranma.  Is
this right?

Uhh...in monster form, he is FAR beyond Ranma.  Ranma has never even
come close to beating the minotaur even originally, and after Tarou
went back to Jyusenkyou and gained the tentacles, the gap only
widened.  Tarou can knock out Ranma with one or two good blows, he
can fly surprisingly nimbly, he has 10 limbs (and his tentacles are 
amazingly fast), he can shoot ink, and his mental advantages hold
just as true here.  But the biggest difference of all is just in the
SIZE differential.  Tarou-minotaur is about half again as big as
an elephant, and Ranma would fit comfortably in the palm of one huge
hand.  Virtually none of Ranma's attacks can even HURT the gigantic
monster; it could stop a Moko Takabisha with one hand and barely even
feel it.  Only the TRULY powerful Ranma 1/2 characters, like Herb, 
Rouge-asura, Happousai, Kiima, Saffron and Cologne are a threat to 
Tarou-minotaur.

3) Does all of the Nerima crowd know of his real name? How do they feel
about him?  Especially: Ranma, Ryoga, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane, Ukyo.

All those that know him know his name, while those who do not may or
may not have heard of him.  He is generally disliked by those who know
him, except for Akane, who is a lot closer to him than the others.
It's also notable that there's a dozen or so girls in China that fell
in love with him, and may be looking for him... ^_^

4) How do I refer to him in monster form?  I mean the -chan suffix 

doesn't

even come close to being right.

Certainly not.  "Tarou-minotaur", or "the monster", or some such
usually works.

5) Am I right in saying his charcter can be sumariezed as a rather
sarcastic, bitter guy, who's uncomfortable around women, but isn't all 

in

all a bad guy?

That's pretty close, for a paragraph.  I could go on for pages about
the intricacies of his character, but only if asked.  ^_^  Just a few
things you SHOULD know, though:

-Tarou, unlike virtually every other male in the series, can and will
fight girls just as viciously as boys.  He doesn't pick fights with 
them, tho, but he WILL defend himself if attacked.

-Despite Tarou's general contempt and distrust of other people, he
displays a rather Raistlin-esque tendancy to pity and help those
in need.  He will help strangers or even midly disliked aquantances
in danger, but is not likely to want thanks and will generally quickly
leave (especially if they ask for his name :).

-Tarou is very honourless by most standards, but he does have a code
of conduct that he follows strongly, related possibly to the above and
a bit of general chivalry.  He is not actually cruel except to someone
who has enraged him (see below), and (especially where a woman is
concerned) will actually go through inconvienance when in the wrong.
An example would be that when he saw Rouge bathing, he ALLOWED her to
beat him up (even though it wasn't his fault) for several minutes,
before asking her if she was satisfied and attempting to leave.  
However, when she later murderously attacked him, she gained his wrath
and he would have killed her at the Tendo Dojo had Ranma and Soun not
interfered.  He also does not, oddly enough, seem to lie, and if
distrusted by others (even those he doesn't much like) he is clearly
hurt by it.  

-Tarou has low self-esteem, due to his name and horrible childhood.
He is utterly convinced that noone could love him with his name, and
is also rather prone to paranoia.  He will flee before telling a
stranger his name, will erupt in anger if it is mentioned, and will
not trust anybody until they can gain his respect and get close
to him, which is very hard to do (he only barely trusts Akane).  
Above all else, he wishes to get a new name and lead a normal life.

-In correlation with the above, Tarou acts the ultra alpha-male.  
Because his self-esteem is low, he has a driving need to prove himself
utterly superior to any other males.  If thwarted, he becomes
obsessively vengeful and will even forget his name in a drive to
prove himself the better man.  And his revenge will be far more than
a simple fight or even death; Tarou desires to harm his opponent in
the msot vicious and humiliating ways possible, as Ranma found out
to his cost.  After incurring Tarou's ire by seriously hurting him
at the waterfall, Tarou dropped his plans for the name and concentrated
his efforts on Ranma.  Thereby, he lured his foe into the Water Citadel,
disposed of all his allies and forced him to meet Tarou in single 
combat, where he proceeded to crush Ranma in the most humiliating way
possible, defeating him more utterly than he had ever been defeated,
making him look like an idiot and an incompetent at every turn, and 
forced both Akane and Shampoo to watch just to make the defeat more 
painful for Ranma.  This pattern has continued ever since, as Tarou
and Ranma both strive to prove their utter physical and mental
superiority over each other.  The fact that Tarou DOES almost invaribaly
win their encounters, but Ranma is either bailed out by help or Tarou 
wins when noone is around has only inflamed the Chinese warrior's
rage even further.  On Ranma's side, it's pretty well-known that he
despises losing, and his continual defeats and near-defeats at Tarou's
hands enrages him almost as much as Tarou's continual insults and
taunts about his ability and his manhood.  He, too, would do almost
anything in order to gain a real win over Tarou, or even to make Tarou
look bad.  Bluntly, the two are virtually irreconcilable enemies.

I think that's it.

For those of you dying to know, I'm trying to use him as a possible
romantic interest for one of the characters.  Right now I'm waffling
between Nabiki and Ukyo.  

Could you send the fic to me?  I'd love to preread for you.  Anything
with Tarou in it... ^_^

<Hide> DON'T KILL ME! <cringe>

I won't!  Ucchan is my favourite choice for a Tarou matchup, though
I also think Nabiki, Kodachi and Kiima are good possibles.

                                       Blade

Blade
*********
High Priest of the Goddess Ukyou 
Official Fanboy of Pantyhose Tarou
Founding member of the Viz-basher-bashing Club
Author of unbelieveable talent
Debater beyond compare
Really humble guy  

"Reality is for those who cannot handle fantasy."






______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com