Given all that, Akane has frequently shown in the manga that, while
judgmental of Ranma, she is very much a person given to and capable of
sympathy for others (unless they are trying to date her by beating her
up).
Therefore I state that she would have noticed his physical reaction to

the

distress caused by the letter since she was looking right at him at the
time. (Again, note her comments directed right at him, it's clear that
she
has noticed that he was staring off into space for some time, so hence

she

MUST have been looking at him) Plus, by this point in the manga (after

the

S.S.H and before Ranma's mother shows up) she has had to endure her
father's
and Genma's antics regarding her and Ranma already, so in my opinion,
saying
that the threat of impending marriage preoccupied her is not a valid
argument.

Any show of concern right then and there would mean instant marriage - the
priest is on the way.

[quote]

Hmm.  Don't think so.  As Ranma is a comedy, the "show a little feeling and
BOOM instant wedding" thing was used as a gag.  The use of it and many other
techniques such as the mallet or shinai requires scalpel like precision.
Few if any fanfics accomplish this.  The best of fics are not comedies and
thus do not rely on the use of Takahashi's gags.  The obvious reason why few
fanfics accomplish it is because none of the authors are Takahashi and most
importantly none of them are Japanese or at least long experienced in Japan.
THUS, attempting to use these elements which are really gags/techniques as
serious story elements not only falls flat, but quite easily leads the
author down the road of problems like "Akane: ubber bitch" or "Shampoo:
Chinese plotting bimbo."  Even everyone's favorite punching bag... Genma...
deserves to be more than a caricature.  While his many many faults can be
shown, they don't have to be taken to a ridiculous extreme.  For example...
Genma's Daughter.

To bring this directly back to the issue of tha validity of "instant
marriage" if Genma and Soun were actually 100% serious about it happening
right away, I doubt that it wouldn't happen.  Filial Piety.  Like it or not,
Ranma is the heir to both schools.  He has been trained for 10 years and the
arranged marriage is part of the deal.  That is his life, pre-decided for
him.  He has no choice in this.  Rebel against it?  While it isn't unheard
of, it's pretty rare for Japanese Japanese people to do so (I did mean to
write Japanese 2x).  Returnees and mixed blood Japanese may prove to be
different, but even among them it is not unusual to find kids who go to what
school their parents tell them and get what kind of job they've been told
they should aspire to their whole life.  A former work associate is now a
Shrine priest.  The shrine is run by his family which he will inherit.  He
came to work in Tokyo as a break from the prep, etc. for the life of a
shrine priest... he came with his parents permission.  And when the agreed
upon time ended he went back home with the new bride he found in Tokyo.
What if he liked his job in sales?  There was no issue there in his mind...
he made an agreement with his parents that they would let him out for x
number of years to experience Tokyo life.  And now it's over, so he must go
back.  Plain and simple.  In Ranma... if Genma and Soun put their foot down
and became serious for more than 5min, and demanded the wedding, it would
take place as dictated.

So... bringing this all together, Akane could have shown Ranma concern.  She
did and doesn't have to show him hate 24/7 in order to prevent having a
wedding.  we see it again and again in the manga... she get Ranma a kettle
and distracts Kuno while he changes in the beginning of the series.  Scenes
like that take place over and over throughout the series, but when it
happens no one is ranting about holding a wedding.  Like I said... a
precision gag.[/quote]

Nabiki brought him a kettle to early in the manga to if I remember.  Maybe even before Akane did, your point?  Also if Akane has such deep feelings for Ranma why is she even capable of wearing the Battle Dougi in the first place as it cannot be worn by someone whose heart is caught by another?  I don't write Ranma and I don't particularly care for the series but in DMs and fics I've seen some much more common nonsense that annoys me.  Example Akane must always be right, do we really have to?  Also the Akane is super strong nonsense.  Show me one even one example she shows superhuman strength when not under the influence of a magic boosting artifact.  She couldn't even budge Ryouga's umbrella.  Then there's the overpowering of the Ki attacks.  They aren't thermo based but people will write them as such as opposed to the more explosive decoupling effect we've seen.  The "Perfect Shi-Shi Hakoden" was so low power it didn't even pack the dirt down further after the first time it was fired and it at most took out the school yard NOT A CITY BLOCK.  They've never shown that level of power.

I needed to get that out of my system.  I've spent way to much time DMing against Ranma fans.




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