-----Original Message-----
From: ffml-bounce@fanfic.com [mailto:ffml-bounce@fanfic.com]On Behalf Of
AlphSailor@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 1999 10:45 AM

Ranma glared at Akane and shrugged out of her grip. "Akane,
I was raped! How would you know anything about that?"

Just as I had suspected when I read the opening scene. Sadly
enough, Ranma-
onna rape scene's all to common, and already dark. Ranma gets raped, then
finds out that 'she's' pregnant with a baby. Akane either fawns
over him and
marries him, or Ranma kills himself. Why not go for something else? - like
Ranma running off and join a monastery? ^_-

Hmm, I agree, but:  How would Ranma react to a violation of his female
half?  Perhaps by keeping away from it, denying it exists, etc.  It
might take quite a bit of investigation to discover why Ranma is "off
his feed" to use a horsey idiom.

I also agree that the discovery of rape needs to be some agency
other than Ranma just admitting it unless he has been placed under
huge and sustained pressure.  It's the kind of thing that might
get shelved under "can't happen to me, didn't happen to me", in
my opinion.


By the by, here's a little something I discovered last night:  I
was re-reading manga vol. 16 (17?), and realised that Ranma does
*not* see himself as *male*.

I was reading the start of the story arc dealing with the "hot spa
athletics competition", and Ranma said, when realising that the prize
was a trip to Jusenkyo, "otoko ni modoreru, otoko ni modoreru".
This is the phrase normally translated as "Ain't gonna be a girl
no more" but its literal translation is "I can return to being a
guy, I can return to being a guy".

I might be reading too much into a single phrase but I thought it very
interesting.

--
David Eddy - Senior Consultant, Progress Software Melbourne
dje@progress.com

Screening Coordinator and Subbing Bunny, Melbourne Anime Society
My home page is at http://nabiki.newberry.edu/DEddy