Well, I just read your fic. It seems interesting, and I'm definitely
looking forward to reading more of it.
However, there are a few things that don't fall into place as far as
cannon SF/Ranma goes.
Point 1, Genma Saotome. He has sold Ranma off several times and stolen
him back. Once even for food. I suggest you take a nod from 'Way of
Ninjitsu'. Several scenes depicting Genma trying to take the boy back and
failing miserably would seem appropriate.
Also, he is deathly afraid of his wife and would never ever, tell her he
lost their son.
Point 2: Jusenkyo/Amazons: This is probably your biggest problem in
Ranma cannon. The Amazons are mostly ignorant of this place. Cologne
appears to be the only one who knows about the springs in the manga. I
see a lot of this in fanfics. Shampoo's father seems surprised by
Shampoo's transformation, and so does she. In fact she doesn't even
suspect that Ranma is the same person in canon Ranma. Something I'm sure
she'd consider if she knew about the springs. Plus she doesn't piece
together the fact that Ranma is male until after she gets herself cursed
at Jusenkyo, something she would have know about at the end of her first
appearance had she known about Jusenkyo.
It is also common sense that the Amazons would avoid such a place,
Shampoo was brought there as a form of punishment for failing to kill
Ranma. A very big dishonor to her people and family. Something like a
sparing match would not take place there.
If you must have Ranma cursed, I see no reason why Ryu couldn't just
stumble across it in his training voyage with Ranma and decide it looks
like a good place to train. The way he travels he wouldn't even need to
be looking for it, he could just accidentally fumble into it one day
while hiking across China.
The all male tournament is a good idea, but kind of sketchy since the
entire point of such a tournament would be to find good husbands for the
women. In which case the males would have to fight the women anyway.
I take it Ranma was around thirteen when he stumbled across Goken's
training grounds. A little too old for the story to work out the way you
have it IMHO, I'd make him at least eight or nine years old probably
younger, six or seven would be even better; that way it would fit the
time frame for the Neko ken. Go with eight or nine if you plan to
include Ukyo in the story.
Neko ken: This is a secret technique. I seriously doubt Ranma would tell
anyone about it. Especially after only knowing them for a moment. Genma
would consider this a closely guarded secret and Ranma is notorious about
his embarrassment concerning the technique. Goken would no doubt
recognize the scars on the boy from the training, or just basic abuse.
Yet another good reason to have Ranma younger at the start of this.
Akane seems a little too friendly with the pair. She was openly opposed
to the idea of marriage from the beginning. Don't have her get along with
Ranma too well. She is distrusting of men in general.
You seem to have made Ranma smarter, less arrogant, and much wiser. He
should be wiser, and perhaps have lost his "I don't hit girls" attitude,
but keep in mind how skilled he is and the fact that he knows it.
Also, Ranma would never use a move like the Shoryuken until it was
needed. It's a desperation move and he wouldn't use it until it was
needed, the same goes for the Hadoken and the Tatsumaki senpu kayaku. You
should have him defeat most of his early opponents without resorting to
the special moves.
Even in cannon Ranma doesn't use his special moves for anything but a
last resort after he's tried everything else. A Shoryuken could seriously
hurt Akane also, look what it did to an opponent like Sagat. Ranma would
be very aware of this.
As for SF cannon, I can make you a list.
Something you should know about shotokan. It is heavy into defeating
opponents using as little energy as possible. Ranma would probably still
be relatively flashy due to Ken's influence and the Masubetsu Kakuto Ryu,
but nowhere near as flamboyant as his manga fighting style. Especially
after training with Ryu, flashy moves is supposedly what keeps Ken from
equaling his rival.
Ryu does not consider himself worthy of training a student since he does
not feel he has mastered the arts yet. The whole Sakura story line points
to this. Goken would perhaps take him under his wing, another good reason
to make Ranma younger. He might consider himself the boys guardian after
the old man gets himself 'killed' by Gouki.
The age limit in the tournament is a definite no go. Sakura is sixteen,
so is Ibuki, and those two boys who seem modeled after Ranma in SF3; also
that blonde Rival of Sakura's from SFA 3. Pullum from Ex is young as
well, and I think Ken and Ryu are only sixteen years old in the first SF
game. [Where Ryu beats Sagat] I'm not sure about that last one. Having an
inexperienced Ranma lose an earlier fight would be plenty excuse to have
him sitting on the sidelines.
The shin shoryuken: Ryu doesn't develop this move until SFA 3 at the
very least. Video game cannon discounts this and he doesn't really learn
it until SF3. Ryu is trying to master the fireball, the Shinku hadoken
would be his most powerful move at this point. Ryu focuses his training
around the Hadoken, Ken specializes in the shoryuken. It's kind of an
irony that Ryu ends up with the Shoryuken in its most powerful form in
the end.
Also, Ryu's attitude towards life is somewhat akin to Heero of Gundam
Wing. He doesn't care about what anyone else does, and is usually
completely serious; all that matters to him is the fight and perfecting
his skills. His manga and anime incarnation is much more laid back
though, I assume this is what you were going for.
Still, Ranma would be a burden to him. Having Goken challenge Genma and
take him in would be much better. Then Ryu might be compelled to take
him in until he's old enough to live on his own out of respect for his
master. BTW; that would be around sixteen-seventeen years old or so.
Since this is SFA, I suggest you add Sakura to Ranma's suitors list.
With a possible jealous tendency towards him for having Ryu as his
master. A good idea would be for Ryu to tell her that he'll take her on
as a student if she beats Ranma.
One question though, why bother with Darkstalkers? With all the
characters involved with Ranma and Street fighter, you'll probably have
your hands full. I suggest you don't try and fit every single story line
and character from SF into this, just focus on what you need for the
story. You'll get a much higher quality story without needless cameos
throughout.
I'm not saying avoid putting the characters in there. Just don't force
one of em into the story just to have him there.
Hope to see more of this, it's been a while since I've seen a good
Ranma/SF cross over. This one definitely looks interesting.
Ja ne.