Now, Ranma has known Kentaro for three and a half years;
it's been six years since she was locked, almost two of
which were spent trying to find a cure. Assuming that
Ranma 1/2 takes place within a year or so (despite the
various New Year's Eve celebrations and whatnot :P) then
technically, for the purposes of TOP, Ranma was in the
Tendo household for less than three years. Ranma has known
and been in the company of Kentaro longer than the Tendos,
particularly during a period when she most needed emotional
and psychological support, so Akane and Nabiki's "claim"
to him (for lack of a better word) strikes me as too
aggressive, even now.

A valid point.  Mostly I was doing this from the reader's perspective: to 
the typical Ranma 1/2 fan, the Tendo home *is* Ranma's home.  Heck, in my 
mind Ranma has a far stronger attachment to the Tendos than he does to 
Ukyo or his mother or anyone else he's known for years and years.

That's true. Whenever I think "Ranma," the Tendo home is always the 
background; conversely, I think "Tendo Dojo" it's implied that Ranma's 
running around in there. But then, as you say, that's our perspective as 
Ranma fans. For TOP and TNL, at least, the point of view seems to be 
Kentaro's; it's his thoughts we're privy to, and all scenes follow him and 
his exposure to Ranma's reality.

I could come up with a bunch of rationalizations about how the engagement 
to Akane and the fact that Ranma set down roots for the first would lead 
to a deep and strong connection to the Tendo home that could not be easily 
overcome.  But the truth of it is that I never really thought about it 
before.  =)  A good observation; I'll see if there's anything I can do 
about it.  Not certain I really can without altering a great deal.

Not necessarily. You could pretty much add that very idea as you're 
presenting it here, without having to alter much of the existing text. The 
Tendo home is, after all, the first time Ranma actually _had_ a home.  It 
might be that the same part of Kentaro that, to his chagrin, would rather 
have the Kaisuifuu destroyed, could come up with the "timeline" thought as a 
way to justify his claim as more valid than the Tendos'.  Seeing Ranma 
unfold in her real family, though, would make him realize that, even if he 
has technically known Ranma longer than they have, he _can't_ replace them 
in her heart, much less try to compete with them in those terms.

All things considered, Akane herself is exceptionally
aggressive towards Kentaro, and I'm still struggling
to find some justification for her provoking him to
the fight in the dojo.

All I can say is that at the time I was suffering from "The Zen Syndrome". 
=)  Zen really opened my eyes to exactly how angry and violent Akane was 
in her initial reactions to Ranma.  So I incorporated that into her 
personality a lot in TIL and TOP.  Then Blade helped me realize exactly 
how many times Akane acted very nicely in the magna, at times acting 
saintly.

Heh! Yeah, he may dislike Ranma as a character, but Blade's a pretty fair 
judge of the cast's personalities.  Indeed, Akane's often one of the nicest 
characters in the series, even towards those that actually wish her harm.

First impressions greatly influence how you view people - fictional or 
otherwise.  Akane acts quite violently in the first couple of issues, so 
it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking of her as a borderline 
psychopath.  You have to balance that with how she's portrayed throughout 
the magna.

Takahashi once said that she intended for Ranma himself to be less of a 
jerk, but he grew naturally into that role. Likewise, Akane starts off as a 
very impulsive and judgmental young woman, whose violent _attitude_ was far 
more worrying than her physical outbursts. I think that, as time passed, 
they both found a perfect foil in one another: Ranma was able to relate to 
his own insecurities and social deficiencies by venting on Akane, while she 
transformed a great deal of her hostility into nothing more than a response 
to his taunts.

Soon enough, and especially as feelings began to develop between them, the 
foil became more of a complement, but the switch is very subtle. Akane's 
physical violence towards Ranma, visual slapstick aside, turns into a means 
of communication between them, all the more so because he allows it and is 
(in a strange way) comfortable with it.  In a way, Kasumi was right all 
along: she really is a sweet girl, just... a violent maniac.  Through Ranma, 
she was able to tone down her attitude considerably, and her outbursts 
became the equivalent of a sharp rap on the head or a slap on the wrist for 
a "normal" couple.

I tried to down that down a bit - at one point I even removed the angry 
whispers she gives Kentaro in Ranma's apartment - but Akane's anger is too 
much of a plot point, both early on and later when she overcomes it to try 
and deal with Kentaro honestly.  I reluctantly left it in, over-the-top 
though it may be.  If I had to do it all over again, I'd find a different 
way to characterize Akane.

I can see that. Strangely, I think I also understand her perspective now: It 
could be that, after six years of repressed emotions and dreams of what 
could have been (not to mention the lack of Ranma's ameliorating presence,) 
the appearance of a last, very tangible obstacle to an idealized happiness 
has the exact opposite effect that Ranma himself had had over the 
years --namely, she reverts to a violent attitude that doesn't have a safe 
outlet anymore.

And a man, no less! Even if we can't accept it, we can understand Akane's 
selfishness towards what she considers Ranma's ideal future. But not only is 
she in a position where she might, again, dislike men in general --for not 
measuring up, for reminding her that Ranma is gone, for actually having the 
nerve to steal him away from her-- she actually has to _compete_ with one to 
reclaim something that should, by all rights, be given to her naturally. 
Even worse, this man is making Ranma have second thoughts, despite all the 
work and suffering that went into finding the kettle! From _Akane's_ 
perspective, that's selfish and heartless, so she feels she has every right 
to be less than amiable towards Kentaro.

At a point near the beginning, the latter comments on
her missing pigtail by saying that "[Akane] told [her]
once that it wasn't very attractive on a woman." This
may have been a throwaway quip for one of them at the
time, but still... Even if Ranma were paraphrasing the
original comment, what could have Akane meant by that?
To say "not attractive on a woman" is a phrase loaded
with meaning --not only because it points out that, in
Akane's mind, Ranma _was_ a woman (a topic that already
covered to great extent in TOP,) but also because it
implies that, from Akane's perspective, Ranma should
aspire to be an _attractive_ woman.

Heh, a good point.  In my mind, Akane was trying to get Ranma to adjust to 
being a woman, and among the tactics she tried was to suggest that Ranma 
conform more to society's standard of what a woman's hair should look 
like. "Isn't very attractive" was Akane's polite way of saying "ugly", and 
that if Ranma was ever going to try and fit in with people around her, she 
shouldn't wear her hair in a way that makes her stick out.

Hm. I never thought of that. She's not really saying that Ranma should 
strive to be attractive, but, rather, she's appealing to Ranma's pride to 
get her to conform?

(Not that Akane should try to get Ranma to fit in. She should know, 
regardless of gender or condition, Ranma's bound to stick out, if only for 
her personality and irrepressible energy. And the pigtail's a trademark, 
dammit! ;-))

I greatly expand on this in "Time Never Did Assuage", where Ranma fixates 
on the fact that the world is trying to force her to become all girly - 
style her hair, force her into dresses, etc - and has a very strong 
negative reaction to that.  I see it as a continuation of what happened 
between Akane and Ranma after Herb.  Akane meant her suggestions to only 
be helpful; Ranma saw them as subversive.

On the far side, though, as Ranma began to adapt, she finally began 
listening, not just to what her dormmates were saying but what Akane had 
been saying earlier.  And, of course, Akane's suggestions would have a lot 
more emotional weight.

I noticed as much; the cafeteria scene from TOP takes a whole new meaning in 
"Time," as we see how those small details truly affected Ranma. Besides, 
Akane and Ranma's dormmates have had a lifetime of social and cultural 
influences that tell them that being _seen_ as attractive is acceptable and 
desirable. While Maaya and the others simply didn't know any better, Akane 
made the mistake of thinking that Ranma should be able to adapt to the same 
ideals.

An additional thought: on reading "Time," I thought that Ranma was reacting 
so negatively to those suggestions because it was a way to assert her 
masculinity, and damned if anyone was going to make her into the image of a 
woman, let alone a person who would _want_ to be feminine. But thinking 
about it now, though, I see another reason for Ranma's denial: every time 
someone tells her that she should wear her hair that way, or wear feminine 
clothing, it's another reminder of the same suggestions Akane made. Giving 
in to these insignificant fashion tips is equal to accepting Akane's 
rejection.

Wow. If that's true, then wearing the dress at the end of TOP and TNDA has a 
hell of a _lot_ more emotional significance for her than I previously 
thought. It would be a sign that she's not only trying to accept her 
condition, but she's also deciding to let go of Akane.

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.

In my mind, Akane and Ranma never did have a fully realized, mature love. 
I see both Akane and Ranma as teenagers still struggling with their 
emotions and not fully understanding love and commitment - attitudes, I 
might say, in ample display all throughout the magna.  Given an unsteady 
relationship with Ranma and the prospect of having to change genders to 
hold on to it, I think it could be easily imagined that Akane would balk 
at that.

True. Ironically, the "good ending" to the Musk arc, with Akane's hug, was 
the first definite sign of affection from her, just like the end of 
Ryuugenzawa was Ranma returning that affection. But in TOP, they never had 
those chances. Akane didn't had that opportunity to display her emotions, or 
to accept Ranma's own. Without that sort of validation, and with the immense 
stress of the locked curse and the desperate search for a cure (I see Ranma 
as growing increasingly taciturn, unwittingly distancing herself from Akane 
and even cutting her out of the loop where the cure was concerned,) it's 
entirely possible that their fledgling love wasn't able to grow past the 
obstacles in the relationship. In those circumstances, then yes, Akane 
wouldn't make the same choice Kentaro did.

Of course, other scenarios are imaginable.  Sebastian Weinberg once began 
an "alternate alternate universe" that begins very much the same way as 
TOP, but ends up with Akane deciding to stick it out with Ranma.  It was a 
fun read and his outline was quite entertaining - he has a real gift for 
dialogue - but it never did get fully fleshed out.  Still, it wasn't 
difficult to imagine Akane responding that way either - she may have 
decided that she truly and honestly did love Ranma and would do anything 
to maintain it.

Hence the magic of fanfiction: different interpretations of the same 
characters, even within a universe that is already a fanfic itself. :-)

Speaking of which, did Bast move on to professional writing? I really loved 
his Ranko 1/2, but the last I heard of him was the Anime Addventure site... 
I think...

For TOP I had to choose a characterization of Akane that would have her 
drift away from Ranma and, amongst other things, reject the possibility of 
a Jusenkyo dip herself.  In my view, I think that's entirely believable 
and possible.

*nod* Exactly.  Which is why I didn't ask for the characters to bring it up 
again (if the question had come up at all, it probably was a painful moment 
for the both of them.)  It's the unspoken constrast which I found 
interesting.

Anyway, even though most of TOP and TNL are seen from
Kentaro's point of view, I'd like to know what _Ranma_
thought about his reaction at the mountain.

Why, it's funny you should ask that.  =)

Wiiii!

I'm just finishing up polishing another TOP story I wrote about a year 
ago. This takes place in the month where Ranma and Akane try to figure 
things out between themselves before Ranma eventually goes back to 
Kentaro.  As you might imagine, lots of Ranma/Akane introspection, with 
some Nodoka musings as well.

I'll post that today or tomorrow.

I saw it and read it almost as soon as it hit my mailbox (it was a massive 
hit to my productivity at the office, let me tell you. I couldn't put it 
down.) Unfortunately, I've put off my studying too long as it is, and I 
_really_ want to give it thorough C&C (which I doubt I'd be able to complete 
tonight.)  I'll get cracking on it before the end of the week, though.

Oh, I was a bit sad to see the "ending theme" go,
having suggested it all those years ago.

Oh yeah, heh.  Forgot it was you.  =)

It was just too much, I thought.  Both opening and closing songs didn't 
really add anything other than an unattractive block of text.  I did keep 
the rainbow bit in the story, though, just 'cuz I liked it.  =)

Heh! To be fair, the opening/closing literary quotes are much, much better. 
I have to wonder how you came up with such fitting fragments, especially for 
"Time."

There was one bit that stuck with me, though: at
the beginning, Ranma thinks about how Kentaro had
never slept on the futon with her; later on, she
lets him do considerably more than that.

Did you read it that way?  I kinda thought it wasn't a huge step forward. 
She'd already allowed him to be physical with her, as shown in the lime 
scenes.  She was just allowing that to now happen before they fell asleep 
together.

Oh, actually, by "considerably more" I meant the "breast touching" scene. :) 
I might have misunderstood what she meant at the beginning, though: she'd 
let him (and herself) experiment a bit, but nowhere near the bed. The bed is 
hers alone, and for sleeping purposes only.

 There's no sex happening - that's what she means by "don't try for too 
much".  The only step she's allowing is for him to fall asleep next to 
her, which shows that she's allowed another intimate barrier to be 
dropped.  Ranma is building her way towards the beginning of "The Nature 
of Love", where she's dropping the final barrier just as Akane shows up 
(convenient timing, neh?).

Yeah. It'd make for an interesting mental exercise to think of how things 
might have worked out if Akane had arrived a day (or even a few hours) 
later.

Don't forget, Ranma can't have sex until Sebastain Weinberg's "Technical 
Virginity".  =)

Heh! I always did wonder whether Akane figured out what happened after she 
left Ranma at Kentaro's apartment.

Her timing _was_ fortuitous, though.  She interrupted Ranma's momentum, but, 
in the end, that led to a decision that Ranma was able to make in full 
capacity as an act of both love and acceptance, rather than merely 
acceptance of a situation beyond her control. Like "Half a Kiss" states 
later on, it's all about having the freedom of choice.

For one thing, I don't know if Ranma's reactions
confirm or deny the place of "Technical Virginity"
in the TOP canon

"Technical Viriginity" does exist in the TOPverse.  In fact, it arose when 
I tried to write my own lemon of Ranma's first sex as a woman.  It was 
horribly bad, and I showed to Bast as a kind of "See how terrible I am at 
this?"  He took some of the basic concepts and wrote a story that was 
about a thousand times better than mine.

I remember that both TV and "Those Tears are Pearl" came out at the same 
time, or at least very close together. You made the same comment back then, 
and I sympathize: it must be very, very hard to be mindful of Ranma's 
thoughts and personality and keep her IC in a lemon. Despite of the number 
of Ranma lemons out there, I think maybe two of them actually bother with 
the difficulties presented by Ranma's unique nature: Mike Noakes' unfinished 
sidestory to "Let the Curtain Fall," and CabbitBlue's "I'll Be Your 
Fiancee." (Lara Bertram's "Bliss" and Mike's "Choices" touch briefly on 
that, but the psychological issues are of a very different nature in those 
stories.)

I liked "Building Bridges" as a story, and it was certainly a lot better 
at the lemony bits than any of my stories ever were.  But it contained 
some ideas about Kentaro and Ranma that I was never entirely comfortable 
with. So I never truly considered it as part of my continuity.

True, the Ranma from "Time Never Did Assuage" wouldn't have gone through the 
"panty raid" pantomime, especially so soon. Also, given the importance given 
to the concept that Ranma dressed up more often when it was a "game" than 
when it was real, the "first date" rings hollow.

(As an aside: is it me, or is it odd that most fanfiction, when having Ranma 
go on a date as a girl, chooses to have her dress up as a supermodel? At her 
most lavish, when Kinnosuke Kashaoh first showed up, all she ever did was 
dress in a regular cheongsam, and even then she was supposed to be 
impersonating Nabiki.)

I still fully endorse the story and think it shows some great 
Ranma-as-woman lemon stuff while still maintaining a good story at the 
same time.

Heh. The night of drunken revelry might work somewhere in between "Brave 
Bearing" and "Nature of Love," all things considered.

There's a similar scene in "Virginity" that's probably
coloring my own interpretations of the characters'
behavior, as seen above.

Aye; I actually obliquely refer to "Technical Virginity" in this story, 
when I mention "this was only the second time Ranma had allowed this"; the 
first time was in TV.

Ah, I see it.  I thought it referred to the hand wandering, not to the 
complete act itself.

See? This is one of the stylistic aspects I really enjoy (and should 
mention) about TOP: the way the various installments interlock through 
various small scenes and brief mentions, like the cafeteria scene in 
TOP/TNDA, Nabiki thinking of the "Ranma from another world" during the 
picnic with Kuno, Ranma showing off pictures of the son she was carrying in 
"Definitions of Hell" to old roomie Maaya in TNDA... and now, with the 
latest story, how it wraps around "Technical Virginity" without missing a 
beat. I love that.

I'm positive Ukyou would have had something to say
during "The Nature of Love" itself.

I touched on that briefly during my incredibly long cross-over between 
"Thy Inward Love" and "Thy Outward Part".  It kinda depends on how you 
characterize Ukyo.  My view of Ukyo in the manga is someone who's 
infatuated with Ranma but nothing more; I just don't see the "Saint Ukyo" 
so many others do.  By the end of the manga she barely shows an interest 
and seems much more concerned with keeping her business running.

Pretty much, although I wonder if this is the accidental result of 
Takahashi's focus on Ranma and Akane, and the more powerful confrontations, 
in the late manga.  After a certain point, all three of the rivals kind of 
step back from the foreground, and refrain from making a bid for Ranma or 
interfering with Akane until an external opportunity (like, say, the Cave of 
Lost Love) presents itself.

Ukyou's no saint, in any case. But that discussion is a long and tired one 
:)

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.

Well, I made a very conscious decision in TOP to make things a bit less 
overpowered.

Fair enough, TOP is a powerful story about characters and their 
relationships. In my experience, interpersonal conflicts and heart-rending 
confrontations are far deeper and more meaningful than physical battles of 
comparable magnitude (I'll elaborate a bit further on this when I draw up 
the C&C for "Half a Kiss.")

So while Ranma can still jump from the ground to the roof

(Love Kentaro's reactions to that throughout the whole TOP saga, by the 
way.)

and still cause rocks to explode, I didn't want to go into much of the 
other extremes.  In my mind, Ranma is an extraordinary martial artist but 
not quite the god portrayed in the manga.  Good enough to excel in 
gymnastics but not enough to make the Olympic team, for example.  The best 
martial artist for miles around but not so overpowering that a young 
upstart can't give Ranma a real fighting challenge.

Interesting view, and indeed one that allows for a greater focus on the 
characters themselves as opposed to how many tons they can bench-press or 
whether they could beat Goku. :) (Have to admit, I'm guilty of falling to 
the cliche of making the Ranma characters ungodly powerful too.)

That fit better with the tone of the stories I liked to write.

That doesn't mean, however, that speculation isn't fun.  =)

True :)

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.

As an aside, I was glad that Ryuugenzawa happened after Herb.  Akane and 
Ranma show unfettered affection for each other for the first time in that 
story, something that would have made Akane's behavior more difficult to 
accept in TOP.

Ayup, see above.

The appearance of Tange, however, makes me reconsider:
did he prove that she was in fact losing her edge, or
that she was still in top form and he really was up to
her standards?

I saw it as kinda half-way; Ranma had lost some of her edge, but Tange 
really was that good, too.  Also, Ranma never uses any chi attacks while 
battling Tange; that might have made the battle quite trivial for her.

The idea that Tange really is a Ranma-caliber fighter is intriguing, and not 
just because he can give her a run for her money. It's also an indication 
that, no matter how much of a recluse Ranma becomes, or how much she adapts 
to college live, the world is still a pretty big and strange place. Odd 
people arrived at the Tendo Dojo or Nekohanten all the time; just because 
Ranma's in college it doesn't mean that she has escaped from those 
encounters altogether.

Which is part of Kentaro's problem, really. He doesn't know that these 
skilled warriors are supposed to drop by whenever Ranma's around, and when 
one of them happens to show up he thinks Ranma might replace him for the new 
guy because the latter is better attuned to her on a martial arts level. 
It's the opposite of fanfic-cliche Akane, who mallets Ranma whenever the 
Fiancee Of The Week shows up.

Hmm. Come to think of it...

*sets up Tange on a blind date with Akane*

*flees the country before either can retaliate*

Ranma _is_ very much a warrior, and there was always
that nagging feeling that being locked had clipped
her wings somewhat.

That actually played a large part in my desire to write this story.  The 
one thing I didn't like about my TOP stories is that they seemed to 'tame' 
Ranma, and I truly hated the thought of tame Ranma.  =)

Well, that's part of what Akane was trying to do, albeit unconsciously, by 
suggesting Ranma to fit in. :P

It's an odd balance. Ranma adapts very well to domestic life, at least in 
the Tendo home, but the idea of a "tame" Ranma is too alien to comprehend.

 So I wrote this as an excuse to show that there was still the old warrior 
Ranma lurking inside.

And, in a fit of irony, it _also_ worked to develop Ranma and Kentaro by 
orders of magnitude :)

If you have any further ideas for this universe, especially
for installments set after TNL, I'd like to see Tange come
back to assist in both his own character development as well
as Ranma's.

Heh, don't set any ideas in my head, I've already written far, far too 
much in this universe already.  =)

Aww. That's too bad, really. Nodoka and Genma tend to get the short end of 
the stick (especially in "Painted Smile," which must've been very painful 
for her in particular) and I would've liked to see whether they were finally 
happy once they had grandchildren. Also, after reading "Definitions of 
Hell," and how it pained Ranma to know that her father wasn't as content as 
his Inward Love counterpart, I started feeling more sympathetic towards him.

All in all, the changes to TNL were appropriate and welcome,
even those as minor as getting rid of the "-chan" endearment
between Ranma and Kentaro.

Ah, you noticed that.  =)  I decided they were too cutesy for Ranma and 
Kentaro.  I also don't really fully understand the cultural implications 
and decided I didn't need to make my ignorance any more blatant.  =)

On the other hand, her sarcastic "Kenny" was a nice touch. I think a 
"Ken-chan" or two still survive in subsequent stories, where the intimacy 
and familiarity is far more fitting.

"Brave Bearing" is also an excellent addition to the series,

Thanks.  =)

And thank you very much for the commentary.

You're welcome! Gotta get back to studying now. ^^


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


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