At 03:53 PM 8/25/98 PDT, The Critic wrote:

The idea that the Axis won a world-wide victory is ridiculous beyond 
words, but the alternate world is interesting. It needs to be fleshed 
out more, but mind you don't get distracted.

	Critic, I don't think you looked at the rest of the story. In chapter 3, 
it's noted that the Axis world and our own diverged about (thumbs thru fic 
file..) about 320 years ago. If I recall my world history correctly, that's 
1678, or about the time Spain and England were duking it out for world 
domination. There's also a mention of the Empire controlling some _former_ 
British colonies in North America.

	From this, I'd assume that in this reality, the USA as a superpower never 
existed, and therefore, the production capabilities that enabled the Allies 
to win the war never existed. Those production capabilities were the ONLY 
reason we won the war. Our weapons weren't better, our soldiers weren't 
stronger, we simply outspent and outnumbered the enemy. If the Nazis built 
one tank, we built five. If they sank a ship, we built three to replace it. 
I do NOT mean to dengrate the courage of the American fighting man, but to 
put it in a painfully blunt manner, we BOUGHT our way out of WW2.

	Trust me, there were SEVERAL points in WW II where the Axis should have, 
and WOULD have won. For the most part, the reason they did not was due to 
Hitler's personal belief that he was a great general. He was a skilled 
politician, but an inept bungler as a millitary commander, and several of 
his orders damaged the German cause, enabling the Allies to have the time 
they needed to win.

	Just a few quick examples are his refusal to use nerve gas in the warheads 
of the V-2 rocket, his insistance that the ME 262 jet fighter be changed 
over to a fighter-bomber (which delayed production JUST enough <1 year> to 
keep it from being useful in driving back the American bombers, delaying his 
attack on the Soviet Union by 4 weeks, thus allowing the harsh Russian 
winter to save the Russian army and people.. 

	I could go on and on, as this is a subject that I have personally put a 
_great_ deal of time into on a professional basis. It sounds harsh and 
callous, but I *was* a soldier, and war was my business. I'd be a poor damn 
professional if I didn't study my profession. Trust me.. I *know* whereof I 
speak. I'd lay good odds that I have more books convering war in the 20th 
century than White Wolf has anime tapes.

The possibilities of this fic could have been explored better--a direct 
personality exchange would have been more conductive to what you were 
doing in these chapters, and it would have provided a great vehicle for 
that world description I mentioned earlier. Perhaps you can work that in 
in later chapters. Don't limit yourself to Ranma, get the whole cast 
involved.

You're off to a good start. Don't lose the trail. I would like to see 
this fic continue.

	Now here I find I agree with you strongly. This is a great story, and I 
find it quite entertaining. I hope Jurai-Knight continues with it.

	My kudos, Jurai, and I hope to see more of this excellent story in the near 
future.

	Ed Becerra


	"Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal.."