Something happened to me recently that made me realise how
far some of these fanfics have taken our preconceptions of
'in character'.

I was reading a fic that featured Kasumi, and while reading
it, I thought to myself, "Now, will this be the kind, wise,
all-knowing Biles/Lawson Kasumi, or the airheaded moron
Rutsch/Doenime Kasumi?"

After reading the story it occured to me that it was, more 
or less, the Takahashi Kasumi.  Now of course, many people
try every day to write the characters in the style of
Takahashi, but...

I found myself wondering why I assumed Kasumi's 
characterization would vary from the manga/anime.  There
have been many, *many* stories lately that use 'fanfic'
characterization as canon - the wise Kasumi, the smarter
than he lets on Kunou, the not completely bonkers Kodachi - 
abusing the originals, of course. :-)

Since I view Takahashi's characterization as, with a few
exceptions through the series, rather 2-dimensional, I
think this is not especially a bad thing.  Any other opinions?
Does anyone despair of the fact that fanfics are getting 
farther away from Takahashi's original creation?

(By the way, *completely* off the subject, I just read, in
a row, all of Donny Cheng's Life and Times series.  Now, it's
very well-written, don't get me wrong, but does anyone else
think this should be called "Ranma:  Studmuffin of the 
Multiverse?" :-)

--Sean Gaffney
--waiting for the Nadesico pilots to get a hold of Ranma...
--"OOOOOOH, TEEENKAAAAWAAA...um, I mean RAAAANMAAAAAA!!!"