Since I gav him the idea, I may as well make the first response as to why I
came up with it.
Hmm. Rather unconvincing plotline, I must admit.
Akane, better than Ranma, training at home? Very, very
hard to swallow. Even if she went on a same training
trip as he did, I doubt she would be as good as him;
she doesn't seem as talented.
I agree, canon Akane isn't as talented as and makes no serious effort to
match Ranma, however You are not waiting to be told what the change in the
backstory is.
There was an story idea posted some months ago that put forward the concept
of Akane being a half-demon from an unfortunate encounter her mother once
had. If this author has something similiar in mind it would not have been
revealed yet.
There has to be a reason why Soun pushed Akane this hard, and it may well be
the reason Soun is described as being a skilled martial artist capable of
beating Akane, something completely beyond canon Soun. Remember, canon Soun
lost to canon Akane quite early on and was effectively never seen in the
dojo again.
Well, it's not as much just her as it is her father as well. Soun's been
pushing Akane just as hard, if not harder, than Genma's been pushing Ranma.
That was the major premise of the Idea I had.
The WHY of the pushing is a key ingredient in making the story acceptable.
But then it needs to be revealed in an appropriate manner at a suitable
point. The 2 ways of approaching this are:
1 - Explain all in Chapter #1 and then explore the ramifications of the
change.
2 - Show the differences and reveal hints about what has changed.
This author has obviously chosen method 2, a move that (IMHO) offers more
potential to the story but is usually much harder to write.
The point here seems that if Akane was as good as
Ranma, they would get along very well. I must
disagree; if Ranma was beaten by a girl who lived a
relatively normal life (at least, compared to his
upbringing), then he probably would get frantic to
surpass her (skipping school, training day and night,
or even attempting to master Neko-ken); I can't see
him being friendly to her. If anything, fear or
hostility is much more likely.
Ranma came back and defeated her the next day, after spending the night
planning, and the early morning practicing. It's more of a rivalry between
the two. It's basicaly from the belief I developed that Ranma really needs
a girl who can kick his ass. As she is in the original series, Akane can
do
that occasionally, but only when she's mad. Yes, every time Akane Beats
Ranma, He's gonna push himself harder, come back, and beat her. Then
Akane's gonna come back and beat him again. Then Ranma's gonna beat her...
it's a vicious cycle. And since Ranma doesn't like hitting girls, he's
either gonna have to change that, or come up with some imaginative ways of
stopping Akane without hurting her.
The Rivalry between the two would definately be there, and it would colour
everything else in their "relationship". And I must agree with the critics
here, the author seems think a friendly rivalry would develop where the
source material shows that Ranma is normally NOT friendly towards his
rivals (Ryouga being the main exception, and Ranma initially thought of him
as an old friend - and Ranma can be fairly nasty to Ryouga at times
regardless).
And Ranma does fear her, a little bit, anyway.
Why? As at the end of chapter #1 Ranma has reason to respect and be wary of
Akane's ability, but I strongly disagree with the idea that she has given
him any reason to fear her. If beatings could instill fear in Ranma then
over the course of the training trip Ranma would almost certainly have
become terrified of Genma, something that is manifestly not the case even in
this story.
Of course if the author is thinking of something that has not yet been
shown...
But this Akane has learned a
lot of self-control, something the original Akane lacks. Akane is actually
trying to be civil here, eliminating a lot of their earlier problems,
which,
as much as I like Akane, I realize are mostly her own fault.
As a minor quibble, my personal opinion is that the causes of Ranma and
Akanes problems with each other can be fairly evenly divided between them,
with an sizable amount left over for the other cast members. But opinions
on canon relations don't really matter here. The authors opinion is noted
and will be taken into account where required.
The biggest
problems Ranma and Akane had in their relationship centered on their first
two encounters: Ranma beat Akane in the sparring match, and then Akane
walks in on him before the curse had been explained. Now, Akane still sees
him as a bit of a pervert, but no longer resents him for always being
better
than her. Akane was the undisputed best martial artist in Nerima until
Ranma came along, making her look like an ametuer, then drawing others
after
him and quickly dropping her far from the top. This Akane doesn't have
that
problem, so that removes a big part of the animostity the original felt for
Ranma, and gives her respect for him as a Martial artist of equal, greater,
or lesser level(depending on who last beat who). They're only really
friendly to each other when it evens out between them, and when one of them
upsets the balance, they get more like their original selves. But there's
still that measure of respect for each other.
You misjudge Ranmas ego here. He is only inclined to be friendly when he
believes he is in front. You could well be right about Akane, but if Ranma
pushes Akane will push back.
Sorry for negative comments, but I really found
it unbelievable.
As it stands, the story is best considered "unlikely", judgement on
"unbelievable" should be reserved until after the root change(s) have come
to light.
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"The Major" | "Funny Games, Strange Cartoons, Confusing
David Bateson | Computers and too many Books! No
| wonder you're weird."
majorb@one.net.au | - My Sister.
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