In view of the ending, with Ranma's test, this also got me thinking: when 
presented with the choice, Kentaro was willing to curse himself with 
magic he knew relatively little about, regardless of the consequences. On 
the other hand, since Akane knew all about Jusenkyo, and the group had 
even gone back to the springs while looking for a cure, it means that she 
had the exact same opportunity to make the same choice as Kentaro, but 
she chose to move on and accept defeat instead. I'm not asking for Ranma 
or Kentaro to confront her with this choice, though, it's just an 
interesting contrast I found worthy of notice.

Well...let's face it, she didn't really have the same choice Kentaro had, 
because at that time Ranma would not have accepted a "OK, since I'm the 
girl, you be the guy" solution.

True. I think it's likely the suggestion was made somewhere along the line, 
though, although Ranma probably balked at it. But Akane herself? Would _she_ 
have considered it? She didn't bring it up, she never said anything like 
"Well, I offered this and you refused!" in this or in the previous stories, 
and her own admission in the rooftap talk means she wouldn't have accepted 
it either.

 He had to suffer a year or two of desperate loneliness, despair and 
acclimation before something like that would have even been imaginable to 
him.

Oh, I don't doubt that, considering his mental state upon starting college. 
However, it might have provided a way to salvage the relationship: instead 
of Ranma and Akane driving each other away because of a same-sex 
relationship they might have seen as "unnatural," it could have been a 
reprieve, at least for a couple more years, to show that neither _had_ given 
up on the possibility of a cure.

Of course, there's a chance that it might have made things even _worse_. 
It's a moot point, in any case, and Ranma admitted that the "what-ifs" were 
more harmful than anything. The point I was trying to make is, there's 
plenty of evidence that the opportunity existed. It _still_ existed even as 
Akane spoke with Ranma on the rooftop, and by that point Akane knew that 
Ranma was willing to give the option a fair chance.

 Which is presumably why Ukyo didn't take that approach to hooking up with 
Ranma which would make a lot of sense considering that she'd already 
renounced being a girl.

Legally, yes. But I get the impression (a completely subjective speculation, 
mind) that Ukyou is even more set on having Ranma as a man. Which is why a 
comment or two about her opinion would help complete the context of the 
narrative.

Also, Kentaro's a saint.

Heh! I bet he's growing weary of that by now. :P

There was mention on the FFML that this Ranma wasn't as experienced in 
martial arts as the manga version, and I'd like to expand a little on 
that.
>From what I can tell, there are six major events, after Herb, that might
have had influence in Ranma's abilities: the Ryuugenzawa expedition, Ryuu 
Kumon, Rouge and Pantyhouse Tarou's squabble, the Battle Dougi, Konatsu, 
and the Mt. Phoenix story. Of those, I can say with some degree of 
confidence (nothing is ever certain, after all) that Ranma et al were too 
preoccupied with finding a cure to give any help to Shinnosuke or the 
monks in charge of the Dougi, or to visit the Sexy Kunoichi Teahouse.

Bear in mind that by rights, those wild goose chases after magical plot 
devices to cure Ranma's problem would get him into all kinds of fights 
that the mainline Ranma wouldn't have just because he was occupied with 
living what passed for his normal life.

Point taken. I suppose I was too focused on Ranma's own comments on "getting 
soft," and on how much of a challenge Tange posed (though, for a moment, I 
thought Ranma would ask where he had trained, or if maybe he had been 
schooled by Happosai at some point in the lech's career.) And yeah, I bet 
those wild goose chases led to one more battle with the Musk, at least.


Jorge A. Pratt
jorgepratt@prodigy.net.mx
terbril@rocketmail.com


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