On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, Kevin D. Hammel wrote:

1. I suppose Genma doesn't *need* to die...

Leave him dead.  I think it's more interesting that way.

Mike Koos pointed out he would totally derail the plot, but
Metroanime came up with a wonderful way to bring him back...
The story is probably better off with him dead.

Of course, since he drowned, someone could easily use the Pool of Drowned
Genma to impersonate him :)

I think Ranma's characterization is fairly good, the one problem is that I
think she caves in to going to school as a girl too easily, and I think
you might want to stretch the timeframe a bit;

How long? It would be hard for Ranma to go to school one day (and
maybe even get changed) then 'Kikuko' come the next...

I mean, he ought to put up more resistance to the idea in the original
scene; Ranma isn't a person who caves in easily.  And when I say stretch
the timeframe, I meant of the entire week; a lot happens in this week; I
think a lot of the attitude shifts come too fast.

 > >he/she seems to go through

psychological changes a little too fast.

It has been about a month since he was cursed. He has already
been exposed (for two weeks, in cursed form) to some people
who disproved most of what his father said about women.
Then he traveled alone for a couple of weeks...

Given how you portray him on arrival, he comes to acceptance too quickly,
I think.  Especially since you say he already spent some time as a woman,
but that didn't change his attitude.

4. I'm not sure where to fit this on the Sailor Moon timeline. My pre-
readers asked about where it fits, but I'm still debating...

Depends on if you invent your own villains or use standard ones.  If
Hotaru is not a baby, this has to be either during Stars or after Stars.
Or else changing the events of SS.

If the Senshi are 16, it's definitely Stars.

That was what I figured. Though I do get the impression that Stars isn't
the most popular series...

I like the ending of Stars, but it's not as good as the first three
seasons.

John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that
was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the
Marring be amended, Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it,
and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
--Final Line of The Silmarillion