On Tue, 16 Jun 1998, Nikholas F. Toledo Zu wrote:

 Tsubasa as a recurring character.  (He appeared in one manga story and

left.)

And, there's also the point of "so what?"  I personally saw Tsubasa's 
situation as a unique scenario that had to be explored.  I mean, look at 
it.  Ukyo doesn't like Tsubasa and for a while thought that he was a guy
chasing a guy (Ukyo is surprised that Tsubasa knows that she is a girl.).
She knew that he was cross-dressing, knew that he was a guy all along, 
while Tsubasa knew all along that Ukyo was a girl.  Why did Tsubasa not
approach Ukyo as a guy, and court her in a straight-forward manner?

I don't so much have an objection to Tsubasa returning as a character
(bringing back a favorite can be a reasonable element in a fic -- I know
that on the rare occasions I'm tempted to write a Ranma fic, Asuka the
White Lily occasionally features in the ideas, and she was as much a
one-shot character as Tsubasa) as much as the fact that almost every
author using him seems compelled to regress him to the way he was when he
first appeared -- i.e. madly, persistently, and annoyingly in love with
Ukyou.  Even as early as halfway through his story, he'd given up on Ukyou
and switched focus to onna-Ranma, and was preparing to go after Akane
shortly before he left.  Whereas most authors using him have him chasing
Ukyou as a matter of course, offering no explanation for why he's returned
or why he's hanging around Ukyou again.  I even vaguely recall reading a
story supposedly set after the end of the manga that returned Tsubasa and
made no mention of Konatsu, but I don't remember anything more than
that.  Still, that's just my Tsubasa pet peeve...  That and the fact that
Konatsu, a much more interesting character in my opinion, has often gotten
ignored in favor of him.

Agreed.  In the part where Shirokuro (aka Checkers) appears, his room is
stocked with the souvenirs he's gotten, which all come from Japan.  He's
also never seen anywhere outside Japan, except (someone has said on the
list) in the end, where he's in Moscow.

Nope, didn't fall for that one.

It's true, although there were special circumstances.  He was already in
China, and was riding one of the magical staffs that feature prominently
in the last chapters, I believe, which apparently flew at quite high
speeds... (This is from memory, though.)

-- 
Scott Johnson |
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