In a message dated 11/16/2002 2:19:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
GlaziusFalconar@peoplepc.com writes:

This story follows the events of "Ranma 1/2". "Ranma 1/2" was originally

a

screwball martial arts slapstick romantic action comedy. (With a heart.
Probably.) It is not unreasonable to originally expect a story featuring

the

cast of Ranma 1/2 to be, in some respects, a screwball martial arts
slapstick romantic action comedy _story_. With a heart, maybe.

Having started this, I don't quite agree.  But I don't quite disagree
either.  I have put my finger on just what bothers me about the
synopsis, though, which is that it is fundamentally a mistake to
to start a story with a synopsis of events that you couldn't be
bothered to write.

Instead, start with the story, and if it is your intent to
reveal during the course of the story why Cologne apparently
turned from a wise old woman into an irresponsible idiot
then those past events will inevitably be revealed in
that process.

Oddly, this is also how I feel about things.

Let me clarify a bit.

When I start reading a story tagged with "Ranma 1/2", I initially expect the
Ranma 1/2 characters to be more or less what they were in the original
canon. Manga, I haven't seen enough anime to piece together a picture.

If they're not like that, I don't junk the story out of hand, _if_ it seems
like there might be some reason they've changed.

If there doesn't seem like there's a reason, I pass the story by.

So, yeah, starting out with elaborating that the Ranma cast has changed -
and having the narration admit to knowing no reason why - doesn't exactly
fill me with eager anticipation.

     This is a sidestory, and the second part of it, to boot. It assumes that 
you've read both the intro and the first four chapters of the main story. 
I'm... rather disappointed in the number of responses that I've gotten from 
people who haven't bothered to do that.

If you just presented events with the changed Ranma to start _out_ with, I
would likely be _more_ inclined to believe there _was_ a reason than I am
now.

     Ranma's motives are rather obvious from the story. Shampoo's are the 
ones that I'm getting a lot of comments on. As I've said before (several 
times), they're a major plot point for the main story. Do you really want me 
to ruin the main story that way? Besides, the contest from the intro is still 
open (not to mention the contest from Chapter 4). If you really want, you can 
use the prizes from them to find out...



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