In a message dated 8/8/98 2:25:19 PM EST, you wrote:

As for Kodachi, she is not crazy despite what everyone seems to belive. 
 People have always associated her laugh with maniacal mad-scientist 
 cackling, and so went a step further and associated her with a crazy 
 women. Lawson's portrayal just fortified this bizarre interpretation, 
 and over the years, the Kodachi as mad women has become canon. Her true 
 character is that of a wicked women, a parody of a machiavellian court 
 maiden; she's as sane as she is underhanded, which is to say, very.

Well, the laughter does sorta have that association in Western literature,
and even more so in cinematic history... it's hard not to blame anyone 
for jumping to that conclusion.  (Does such laughter have different 
connotations in Japanese literature/cinema?)Certainly her talent for 
apparant self-deception (sorry, I've just been watching 'Tough Cookies') 
seems to border on the deluded... if such a conclusion about Kodachi 
is truly erronous (and I guess it must be - ahem), it is nevertheless an 
understandable and forgivable error.

Besides, it's so much more palatable to cast a character as crazy
or stupid as opposed to evil, especially in a series that is, after all,
ostensibly a comedy (::raises hand to quell objections:: yes, yes...
with the exception of darkfics, of course).  Personally, I favor the idea
of casting Ko-chan as an alcoholic -- she attends St. Dead Drunk
Girls' School, after all (well, that's the translation *I* have)... has 
anyone done a fic in that vein, BTW?  The one I started has been 
languishing for nearly a year...

Itsu mo,
Ucchan  ^_^

Also, while I'm typing... does your derision of SI extend to those of
us like Nabiki-san and I who try to drop ourselves into Ranmaversal
(or whatever manga suits us) characters, and write from that 
perspective?

UK  ^_~  (Beeedah)