Hi!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted.  This being Bridget, >rather than Jamie (who seems to post weekly...).  It's not the fic I

Good to see you're still writing!

had hoped to post next, but it's the one that got me writing again,

Guess we'll just have to wait a bit longer for the next chapter of Monotagari... but that's okay, since now I'm hoping you'll also continue this new series.

and I suppose I should be grateful that it's the least complex and >potentially shortest one I've got going... In any case, I do hope >you enjoy.

Disagree with you on that one, however: possibly short -- I don't know, I don't know where you're going with it -- but it's also possibly very far from being simple.

What I mean is... well, it's a familiar story, there's been other fics that have speculated on a Ranma being raised as a female, or being dunked in the spring as a child to make an unwilling daughter, and so on.  Yours is probably the best written of what's been seen, however - I still maintain you're one of the best fic-writers on the list - and it's the setup thats refreshingly different... and that seemed to hint at something I found totally unique.

I'm probably way off in left-field, here, but it seems like this fic could be retelling the Ranma story in a sort of de-mythic way; that is, stripping away a lot of the fantasy of the series and resetting it in a sort of 'real' world.  Nothing simple there.  So instead of a Chinese cursed spring, say, then a mother's oath to raise their son as a daughter, and the same gendered problem of the series.

Other interesting ideas: is Ranma's prediliction towards martial arts bred in the bone?  He's been sheltered from it all his life in your story - can he still learn and achieve what he has in the series?  Or could he learn anything with equal proficiency, and it was just his father's insistence that drove him to excel?  Looking forward to see where you go with it.

Although it's hard to imagine, in your story, that he could pull off the illusion for much longer.  He's a fairly cut guy in the manga; Nodoka's determination/insanity might have kept some of that down, but he's still not going to develop in a feminine way.  Ucchan was one thing - and she made a fairly poor guy at that - but I don't imagine that Ranma'd be able to pull the facade off much longer, especially if he doesn't _want_ to.

Well, anyway, nothing but idle musings here.  Very interesting story, and looking forward to seeing more.  Real nice detail work, too: I could picture the school scenes perfectly.  (On the side, I'm not sure about this, but I think there's a school regulation about hair-length, even for girls.  I don't think waist-length is allowed, at least not hanging freely.  But that's a real minor nit-pick.)

Heh.  Now you've got two series I'm waiting to read....
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