On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, allyn yonge wrote:

HI,
just a brief observation. I have ,in one of my various
books, a story concerning a Japanese family....

(snippy snippy)

While I do agree with you to a certain point, I believe that Ms.
Takahashi has a great deal of fun with bringing old Japanese customs
and lore to the modern day and having her characters confront them
in their own context. She thought it would be funny for Ukyo to be
engaged to Ranma for the price of a food cart. Quite a few Japanese
children/teenages face the prospect of an arranged marriage, but the
modern version is quite dull and more akin to a blind date arranged
by your parents. (ick!) Wouldn't it be crazy if this person turned
out to be a martial artist that changes gender? Or if this person
turned out to be the very opposite of a traditional Japanese woman?
Or wore boys clothes, or was a sexy Chinese amazon? What about them
all at the same time? It would be exciting and funny and very 
readable material. :) Anyway, it is the Takahashi spin on modern
meets traditional, and should only be read from a traditional Japanese
world view so you can see how she spoofs it. Her characters are
individuals and while samurai giri may lay in the very underpinnings
of their souls, it's about as relevant to the way they act as our
equivalent western world view of "honor thy mother and father" or
"do unto others as they would do unto you." 

Being fanfiction writers it is our job to read between the lines and
interpret meanings to use personally. By expecting characters to
behave by certain rules in manga is limiting yourself and insulting
the original work. You rule your fanfiction, but the work exists
and is absolute, whether you like it or not. :)

I guess in all these wanderings my point was that while the Japanese
framework exists and should be considered, should haves and could
haves (even tradition based ones) are irrelevant when faced with
Takahashi's work. Ranma's giri is about equal to (insert televangelist's
name here) religious principles. That's what makes it funny!

Minty.
--
(oh, and all of this is my opinion and should not be considered a flame
 or incitement to start a long character argument thread. I'll cry, 
 really I will.)