[KOR/Ranma] "Orange Half"
By Henry J. Cobb
...
Oh, boy... ^_^;
Genma Saotome is training his son Kyosuke at a remote shrine in China.
Genma manifests his spirit form, a panda and then Kyosuke manifests his
spirit form for the first time and it's Ranko.
So far, so good. What's the meaning of the spirit forms? The closest
Kyousuke has ever come is an electrical-looking lightshow, in some of
the later TV episodes and OAVs. I'm sure there are a lot of
interesting possible explanations, I'm just curious to see which one
you'd pick.
Genma is very disappointed. He didn't train his son to be a girl.
Kyousuke can't even decide on a gender. Typical. ^_^
Next they climb up a hundred steps and arrive at the apartment building.
Unless he's going to meet Madoka there, I'd leave out the hundred
steps, at least for now. It's (IMO) one of the best openings in
anime, but that's because of all the things it represents --
especially after one's seen the entire series. Take away the meeting,
and you'd lose almost all of the meaning.
Inside are Grandpa Saotome, his son in law Takashi Kasuga and his three
daughters, Akane, Manami and Kurumi.
Heh.
It's revealed that Kyosuke is to be engaged to Akane despite her
being his cousin (Akane's mother was Genma's sister. She married a
mundane (Takashi).)
...Erm. I'm sure Genma wouldn't have a problem with it, but Grandpa
Kasuga is quite a bit smarter than that, and so is Takeshi. Unless
the clan has some way of psychically eliminating those nasty
double-recessives, that is. (Which it might. Espers marrying normals
seems to be a relatively rare occurence, if Grandpa's reaction is any
way to judge.)
Genma and grandpa believe that there is a coming crisis that will
require all the power that the psychics can apply and so it is
absolutely necessary for Kyosuke and Akane to have lots of kids,
despite their close relation. (And Akane's lesbianism. Akane is
really affected when Kyosuke shows his spirit form.)
If this is KOR Akane, no problem. If it's Ranma 1/2 Akane, she's not
a lesbian. If it's a fusion, Nabiki might work better; Ranma 1/2
Akane isn't a schemer on the level KOR Akane is, and KOR Akane's
temper manifests itself much more subtly.
Kyosuke has about twice as much raw power as any other known psychic
and Akane has an unusual talent.
This is a change, then; though Kyousuke becomes rather powerful toward
the end (and far more so in the novels, post-series), throughout most
of it, he doesn't hold a candle to his grandparents. I believe it's
been suggested that being half-human has "diluted" his powers. (And
the twins', presumably.)
When they go to school, they run into Tatewaki Kuno, who hits on
Akane and later they meet Modoka Ayukawa and Hikaru Hiyama
("Darling!") who know Kyosuke from Junior High.
Hmm. Could work. Though the thought of having both (anime) Hikaru
and Shampoo after the same person... poor Kyousuke.
Ryouga and Shampoo are other psychics with the obvious spirit forms.
For some reason, I have trouble imagining Ryouga as a psychic. Nice
touch, though.
Kyosuke will have to protect the other girls from Shamp. (Especially
Hikaru!)
While keeping his powers secret? That could pose some problems, all
right...
It will turn out that Kyosuke's mother died in childbirth and
Kyosuke's twin sister was lost at the same time.
Hmm.
Akane will play the "boyfriend" tactic on Michi and Chie and later
explain that if they accept that Akane has a boyfriend then she
obviously isn't a lesbian and so it's OK to sleep with her.
Heh. By the way, who are Michi and Chie? Are you using those two
names for Akane's friends, or what?
Hmm... Would Zen like it, if in the midst of all this mess, Kyosuke
winds up with Modoka, or will he not see the parallel?
Argh... I really don't like that parallel. IMO, Madoka is such a
terrific character as she is (in either version); Ukyou is... okay.
There are some similarities, but...
Scott Schimmel http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~schimmel/
Ex ignorantia ad sapientium; "You really aren't normal, are you?"
ex luce ad tenebras. -- Miki Koishikawa