:: Author's Notes
::
:: This fic was a sneak preview of the future of Ranma fan fiction.
:: It is the logical consequence of the current trend among Ranma
:: fics to draw less and less of their characterization from actual
:: canon sources (Manga/Anime) while taking more and more of it from
:: *other* fanfics.  With the abundant wealth of Ranma fanfics having
:: long exceeded the amount of canon material, it is probably
:: unavoidable that certain notions taken from other authors' works
:: creep into a fanfic writer's perception of the characters.
:: However, if this is not recognized and balanced by frequent
:: reality checks ("Have you ever seen them act that way in the
:: Anime/Manga - or was that just a fanfic?") then the inevitable
:: result will be an escalating spiral of fanfics feeding upon
:: fanfics, in which all subtleties are lost and all clichees are
:: exaggerated until the last resemblance to the source material is
:: lost.

Ummm.... Yeah. What he said. Another example is characters who are
reused from fanfic to fanfic, often without any hint that this character
is not the author's, _or_ canon. How many axe-wielding amazon enforcers
named Perfume, who happen to suffer from a heightened sensitivity to
pain are there? And whose _is_ that character? I _think_ she originates
somewhere in Baderland, but I might be mistaken.

:: The anime is already a significant step removed from the original
:: Manga.  All the characters are simplified and exaggerated a
:: little, for comic effect and ease of consumption.  Ranma is a bit
:: more insulting and a bit more full of himself; Genma is a bit more
:: greedy, more lazy, and more prone to selling Ranma; Souun cries a
:: bit more; and Akane is a bit more unreasonable and more violent.
:: And apparently she uses Mallets - I haven't actually witnessed
:: this, yet, but I've only seen about 20-30 episodes, so I may have
:: just missed it.

The malleting is, accoring to what I've read and seen so far, much more
prevalent in the Manga. I've seen Akane use everything from a gavel to
the 1-ton-wonder. But Akane isn't alone in that.

:: It's this malleting that I'd like to use as an example of how this
:: character simplification or even mutation works.  Quick, without
:: looking, name five stories in the Manga, in which Akane mallets
:: Ranma!  No?  How about three?  She doesn't even have to use it,
:: just handle it.  Okay, how about her just being in the *proximity*
:: of a mallet?  Offhand, I can think of two instances: Kodachi
:: attacking Akane in her introduction story, and Kasumi handing
:: Akane a mallet for self-defense against Ranma in the hypnotic
:: mushroom story - a notion at which Akane scoffs, until Ranma
:: suddenly glomps her, after which she *does* use it several times.
:: I'm sure you can find several more, if you thoroughly search all
:: 38 volumes, since Takahashi-san loves the mallet as an implement
:: of slapstick violence - but among 6800+ pages of a series, that's
:: not what I'd call a *pattern*.[1]

Ok, point. But it's not just mallets, either - any convenient object
will do, like the "Romeo" script, or a mop, or the table. And the
"kick-off" technique is used almost once a chapter...

:: However, the majority of fanfic authors appears convinced that
:: Akane regularly, if not constantly, mallets Ranma - both
:: anti-Akane authors, who think she is a psychotic bitch, and
:: pro-Akane authors, who think that Ranma deserves it.  Akane is as
:: firmly associated with mallets in the collective subconscious of
:: the fanfic community as Ranma is associated with his pigtail, and
:: Ukyou with her spatula.  Something that was almost nonexistent in
:: the original and occurred as an occasional sight gag in the Anime
:: has become an integral, even fundamental, part of her character.

Akane and mallets might not have such a strong correlation in canon as
in fanon, but Akane punting Ranma towards the horizon does. She _is_
violent, more so than many of the other characters.

:: Like a picture that gets xeroxed again and again, the shape of the
:: characters gets simpler and rougher with each step that they are
:: removed from the original source, until they are bare sketches
:: with only a few distinctive marks separating them, which are
:: exaggerated and thrown into stark contrast by the process.
:: Already there are quite a few fics, where the characters are so
:: simplified that they are identified only by a single visual clue
:: or a catchphrase, or both.
:: Pigtail + "Tomboy!" = Ranma.
:: Bandanna + "Ranma! Prepare to die!" = Ryouga.
:: Bokken + "Foul sorcerer!" = Kunou.
:: Spatula + "Sugar/Honey/Ran-chan" = Ukyou.
:: Bonbori + "Airen!" = Shampoo.
:: Apron + "Oh my!" = Kasumi.
:: Mallet + "Ranma you pervert/jerk/baka!" = Akane.
::
:: Such convenient shorthands can be useful as reminders and/or
:: identifiers in a non-visual medium like fanfic, where the reader
:: cannot tell the characters apart by their appearance.  But more
:: and more often I see fics where these shorthands have almost
:: completely replaced all other forms of characterization.
::
:: How long until we have third or even fourth generation fanfics,
:: which are based entirely on other fics, which were strongly
:: influenced by other fics, which were based mostly on the Anime,
:: which was based on the Manga?  How long until the above story
:: really *is* a typical Ranma fanfic?
::
:: Let's not let it get that far.
::


The basic problem, as I see it, is the relative availability of fanfics
contra canon. The Manga is either expensive, or in Japanese, or stored
on a tediously slow server that mostly requires an active connection to
read from. The anime is less expensive, but there is just so damned much
of it, which leads to the same problem as above. Whereas fanfics are as
easy as typing in www.fanfiction.net, and following the links - and you
can post your own on site just like that!

The "fourth-generation fanfics" that you described above already exist -
I've had the mispleasure to read several.

Oh, and on your fic in particular: The only fics I've ever read where
Ranma uses that kind of language is the "Officer Saotome" series.
Usually that's reserved for Inu Yasha - for whom it's definitely canon,
AFAIS.

:
:: [1]  This is, of course, not an attempt to deny a pattern of
:: *violence*, which is obviously there, although I would dispute the
:: extremes to which some fanfic authors take it.  I'm using the
:: mallet itself an an example of how clichees grow with the telling.

Counter-point - The Bitter End, by Zen, which is definitely a Second Gen
fic - based off of the Manga...


Another Sebastian



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