Now, as to the presupposition of Ranma being used to fill
Keitaro's role,
well... lets examine the facts here as well. The other residents
of the
Hinatasou are all there... except Kei.... Somehow I don't think
Ranma is
there to fill Motoko's, or Shinobu's place in the Hina universe.
It stands
to reason therefore that with Kei not in evidence, that Ranma is
playing> "stand in" for the what would otherwise be occupied by
Keitaro. Whether
this
role is handled how Keitaro would handle it or not is not really
relevant,> the fact that Kei is not there and Ranma is says that
it's a 'Ranma is
taking Keitaro's place in the LH fic'. Now, as a LH fan I find this
tremendously disrespectful of the character and story of Love
Hina to
simply edit him out. His role in the manga or anime was key. He
provided> the
element of growth and maturity that IMO Ranma simply cannot fill
because> Ranma is not about growth, but about trying to remain
childlike in nature.
(IMO this was precisely why Rumiko Takahashi ended Ranma like
she did, to
do
otherwise, and continue the story, would have required that
Ranma start
thinking about the future, start making choices, and growing up.
As it was
she ended it on a note where the characters live forever in a
sort of
eternal spring, even though that spring is obviously giving way
to summer
following the events of Pheonix mountain.
How is this different form a bazillion other fics where someone
else gets
replaced wholesale by Ranma? Just because it's not always a good idea,
doesn't mean there aren't any good fics of that type.
And, really, the very BEST of Ranma 'fics have always been those in which he -is- allowed to grow up. Comes the Cold Dragon, Girl Days, et multiple cetera, the real reason these are so good is that the characters are allowed to develop and grow in ways that the sitcom nature of the original story never took into account.
Personally, I know nothing about LH, but I'm going to keep reading this 'fic, just because it fulfills the real key criteria of a good ongoing series -- it's fun and it makes me want to see what happens next.