Unfortunately, your choice to make this a _Ranma_
story, as opposed to, say, a Maison Ikkoku story,
is really fatal to getting your
readers to suspend any disbelief at all.
@@ Ummmm, I don't think the series has much
to do with suspension of disbelief. Ranma is full
of magical artifacts, demi-gods, demons, etc. Mutants
would, IMO, fit easily.
I meant suspension of disbelief that anyone would
immediately assume that Akane is a mutant, or that
mutant powers in and of themselves _must_ be much
more powerful or threatening than martial arts. Or just
basic disbelief that Furinkan students would or could
give a damn.
This seems OOC to me for Akane. Going to this
extreme to avoid health-care is a Ranma thing
to do, not an Akane thing.
Akane would think of this behavior as a male
stupidity.
@@In the anime/manga Akane insists that she can stay
home alone with a cold or that she isn't really hurt
(doujou destroyer) IMO this is quite in character.
I guess I'm reacting to the author's statement that
this is set early in Ranma continuity. In Viz vol 1,
we see Akane going to visit Dr. Tofu because of an
ankle sprain.
students have already accepted. In particular,
there is
NO reason for the students to suspect, from this
evidence,
that Akane is a mutant as opposed to: 1) affected
by a
new Jusenkyou curse, or 2) come into possession of
some
legendary artifact, or for that matter Chinese
commercial
good, or 3) possessed by an oni or other spirit.
@@Good point. Workable however if the author provides
more back-story to build the anti-mutant feeling AND
show Akane's progression toward her powers. And, as GK
suggested, perhaps some way to identify mutants. I
rather like eye colour but there are other traits that
could be used.
I kind of like the eye-color idea myself. It would
also underline the fact that this is neither a pure
Marvelverse nor a pure Ranmaverse. Eye-color changes
also would make it clearer exactly _why_ the Japanese
reaction to mutants is paranoia, similar to the normal
reaction to gaijin, rather than what we see the Japanese
actually do in the Marvel stories where the X-Men go
there.
then how could it have happened? Static
electricity didn't
have anywhere near that kind of power.
Nabiki wouldn't waste time trying to figure out how.
She'd be confident that someone would show up to
explain it within the day.
@@Seems perfectly natural reaction to me. I know that
_I_ try to figure out how/why things happen. I don't
see this as particularly strange or OOC.
Well, this is more of a humorous Nabiki than a serious
one, and this early in Ranma continuity she might not
react the same way. But in later continuity, somebody
_always_ shows up to explain any mysterious occurence
sooner or later; Nabiki might come to expect this.
She was a mutant. She had powers like
other mutants,
powers that martial arts training could never
bestow.
BTW, you've yet to demonstrate this. Post-vol-38
Ranma
could probably duplicate this feat exactly. For
that matter,
he might be able to anytime after his "soul of ice"
training.
@@Well, lets give him time. I think he's demonstrated
that Akane's power is reasonably potent. She just
KO'ed Ranma w/o breaking a sweat after all.
The author has already had Isao state that Akane is
very powerful. In the Marvelverse (which this may not
be, but we don't know the deviations yet), mutant powers
range from Magneto's to comically ridiculous (Toad, Angel,
original version of Beast).
_Akane_, as opposed to Isao, has no way (yet) of knowing
that her power outclasses Ranma so much. A surprise
electric shock hardly outclasses the surprise punches and
kicks she lands in the series, some of which (end of
Reversal Jewel story) land Ranma in the hospital.
"He's not my boyfriend."
OOC for Akane to say precisely this. How about "Our
parents
arranged it!", with a blushing protest?
@@???This seems just a _tad_ picky. I can't say with
certainty that she has or has not ever used this exact
phraseology. (at least in the English translations)
However it certainly does not, to me, sound the least
OOC. She and Ranma deny their engagement. She has said
similar things,
" . . .Our engagement never happened." viz V. 3, p126
has a similar sentiment.
The text you cite is, I believe, to Ranma, at a point
when she's very mad at him (perhaps madder than she ever
gets again during the series, given that she now believes
Ranma had a girlfriend in China). What she says to other
people is usually a dead giveaway that she _is_
interested in Ranma.
However, that whole Jusenkyou bit was
something he'd
have to see before he'd ever believe it.
Now you're making a point of the Ranmaverse having
more strange things in it than your mutants expect.
This goes against your entire effort to persuade us
that being a mutant is "different".
@@Why so? A "mutation" (even if the Marvel mutations
have NO relationship to Mendel) is "science" while
Jusenkyou is "magic". I believe in quantum mechanics.
I do NOT believe in witchcraft. (even if quantum
theory/effect often seems like magic.)
Isao IS a mutant. It's easy for him to believe in
that. He's experienced it.
I can cite a great many things that orthodox science
did not believe that later turned out to be true.
(rocks falling from the sky= meteors) or vice versa.
My point isn't Isao's current opinion, which is quite
IC, IMO. My point is that the author is working against
the effect he's trying to achieve, which is to convince
the reader that there's something so special about being
a mutant that paranoia about it is possible at Furinkan
High School. In the canon Ranmaverse, it's difficult to
see how this could be.
The Marvelverse conceit is that becoming a superhero by
accident or design is perfectly fine, but that becoming
one by birth is suspect and subjects one to prejudice.
(A few Marvel writers have, over the years, noticed that
this premise is, on its face, ridiculous, and tried to add
to it.)
A new conceit that being a cursed martial artist is fine,
but that being a mutant subjects one to prejudice, can
work. BUT YOU HAVE TO ABLE TO TELL WHICH IS WHICH!
(Which is why the eye-color idea is interesting.)
If there is rampant mutant paranoia in Japan, to the
level described in the existing story, how could any of
the students NOT suspect Ranma (leaps tall buildings,
mentally turns into cat, physically turns into girl,
hand speed faster than sound) of being a mutant?
Ditto Shampoo, who walks through walls in Viz vol 3
to bring Ranma lunch?
Conversely, if Ranma and Shampoo are accepted as non-
mutants, what would it take for them to start to suspect
Akane? Eyecolor would be good.
Alternatively, maybe the story should just be Hitchcockian
paranoia. Nobody suspects Akane yet, but she suspects,
and then Isao confirms. She starts walking on eggshells
while everyone else bugs her to learn her 'new technique'.
Canon Akane is quite capable of hearing a newsstory about
prejudice in America or Europe and simply _assuming_
that it would also hold in Japan.
Maybe, like "Yet Another Akane/GL Fic", you could
even get
some laughs from how Akane's mutant powers _still_
don't get
her anywhere close to Ranma's abilities.
@@Cute. However, again, this is a much different
story. My perception . . .I like it just as it is. I
just want more detail, more dramatic tension.
Well, it is certainly true that the basic X-Men conceit
has worked very well for several decades. (The same
basic idea, the protagonist being part of a subgroup
which is both discriminated against and more powerful
than the majority, informs the original Deryni trilogy,
and probably accounts for much of its success.)
No reason the idea _can't_ work here, given more
development. A number of suggestions, yours and others,
might help: some common physical distinctiveness, in
particular some ready way to now appear non-Japanese.
More background: perhaps a Japanese equivalent of the
"Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" has recently attempted
a coup d'etat in Japan? More information on the
power range common to mutants in this world? WHY are
mutants so feared? In the original material, lots of
statements about "last Neanderthals and first Cro-Magnons"
were made; maybe repeat these here?
I'm tempted to suggest that the author abandon the
word 'mutant' entirely, if he has no plans for a
cross-over. Make up a new word, like "Deryni",
then establish the background without fear that the
readers have preconceived notions which might conflict.