Well written, as before, but really embodying my problems with this
story as a whole.
As I said in response to the first part, I have a problem with the
initial depiction of Ranma compared to what we see of him/her in the
manga, but given that this apparently takes place rather earlier in the
manga than I had thought, and that prior events didn't go quite as they
did in the manga (we have no idea how things went, which is another
problem, but never mind) I'll give that a pass. The problem is that I
really don't find this version of Ranma at all interesting. She can't
apparently handle stress or conflict of any sort, preferring to dissolve
into tears at the least provocation. When she gets into trouble, she has
to wait for her friends to bail her out, instead of doing anything on
her own. I've known people like that in real life, and I don't find them
particularly interesting either. And her friends - Akane seems to be
on mood-stabilizing drugs of some sort, but then so does everybody else.
Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, Nabiki, Nodoka - where are the little quirks and
flaws that made them interesting characters, and made them different
from each other? Sanded away, apparently. There are a number of places
in the story where you could swap names with abandon and not notice
anything wrong. Now a good deal of this is a matter of personal
preference - others may well have found canonical Ranma rude, crude,
and boring, and much prefer the kinder, gentler version. The thing
is, people say of her, "Well, she's still the same person." No,
she's not. Unless the Ranma before the story opens was already radically
different from the one we know, this Ranma bears little resemblance
to the sex-changing martial artist who showed up at the Tendos'. No,
Ranma had it right when she reflected that the old Ranma was dead.
Seriously, what of this new Ranma is in any way like the old, in terms
of basic personality? Nothing that I can see. Genma's right earlier
on. His son is gone, and now he's got a stranger claiming to be his
daughter. I mean, when I envision a Ranma that's decided to live as
a girl, for whatever reason, I see something like a cross between
Haruka Ten'ou and Sana Kurata. Heh. Instead, we get a girl who seems
like the worst parts of Miaka from FY and Usagi Tsukino, without
any of their good points (and don't get me wrong, I like both of
those characters).
It leads to a more general problem though. Where is the conflict
is this story? I don't just mean fighting - conflicts take place on
many levels, and not just between people. Here we see a number of
conflicts appear, but they all simply disappear, sometimes within a
matter of a few pages. And the worst part - without the protagonist
having done anything about it! Ranma has taken only one decisive
action in the entire story - deciding to live as a girl, and even
that ended up being forced upon her by the dissolution of the spells
on her. The Amazons decide to stop pursuing her. Kodachi loses interest
in Ranma. The feud with Ryoga is simply over. There's a possibility
of a conflict with her father, but it simply fades away when we find
out he's not really such a bad guy. The girls don't accept her - well,
after a few well-chosen words, now they do. The guys have trouble
accepting her - again, one conversation, and the problem's solved.
Will Ranma and Akane have trouble accepting the change in their
relationship? No, apparently not. What about Ranma's sexuality?
Will she have trouble deciding on a new role, and living up to it?
No, apparently that's simply going to take care of itself. What
about the Principal - without Ranma to fight him, will he run amok
throughout the school? No, a convenient off-stage accident takes care
of him. Everything that might provide some sort of conflict just
vanishes. The whole story seems to be melting into a puddle of treacle.
Next thing we know, Happosai will either fall into a volcano or
join a monastery.
I know there's an explanation in the story for why this is
happening, but that doesn't remove the problem, as I see it. Unless
the whole thing is some evil plot by the Martial Arts Tea Ceremony
school to remove the only threat to their domination of Japan, of
course.
Reid Carson
rcarson@rcarson.com