Random comments inspired by fan fiction

I've been reading some more Ranma fics and this post is pretty much a continuation of the post entitled: few comments inspired by Ranma fan fiction.

*I recently looked at some of the reviews for fics and find it somewhat interesting what people complained about. For example in a story, that I did enjoy reading, the reviewers complained about Ranma being able to speak English and swearing. Neither of those things go against the manga. Ranma swears both in word and in gestures in the Japanese and online fan scans of the manga (VIZ decided to remove them). There is no information as to how well Ranma can speak English in the manga, both unable to and fluent are equally possible. What we do know is he is in English class (with a teacher he doesn't respect) and is widely traveled, his grades are unknown and we don't know what countries he has been to (he could have even left Asia - since he did make more than one trip out of the country, his first memory is of a foreign land).

What I find even more interesting is; what was not complained about that I thought they would (or at least not as much as I thought they would). I expected more complaints about fanon that directly counters the source material, things that did not make sense to me, and factual inaccuracies.

*I've seen more than one fic have Ranma use Nabiki to distract the others from going after him. That fails in so many ways if you think about it. Biggest most obvious reason being Ranma does not trust her to not betray him, with good cause since she has been shown to be entirely willing to betray an agreement/someone to make a quick buck. The second biggest reason is that if Nabiki did sell/give them false information they are all entirely willing to get disappropriate revenge against her. There are more reason as to why it doesn't make sense but those reasons alone are big enough reasons.

*Is Shampoo Ranma's wife? I've seen her mentioned as his wife in fics. I really don't know if she is or isn't, by Japanese law she's not, the individuals being married have to place their hanko's on the marriage certificate in front of an official with two witness's at a ward or city office for it to be legal. They also can't be married by Chinese law. Chinese marriage law states that a male has to be at least 22 and females have to be at least 20. Ranma, at least, is not old enough (Shampoo might be since her age is never given).

That doesn't mean that they aren't married though. A definition of getting married is: performing whatever ritual is prescribed by your religious sect, Indian tribe, or native group, or, should none of the preceding be relevant, exchanging vows before an authorized public official. Using that definition, they could be married by the laws/customs of Shampoo's village. A license is only needed to get state recognition of the marriage, which Shampoo doesn't need since her laws would already give her that recognition. So Ranma may very well be married to her, though the marriage would not be recognized by China or Japan and would only be legal by the laws of Shampoo's village.

*Ranma using the name Ranko. This is really dependent on the situation and where the source of the story splits from the manga. If the story is set post manga, I do not think Ranma would use Ranko for his female form. The reason I say this is because Ranma has bad memories associated with that name i.e. hiding from his mom. Ranma came up with Ranko quickly after already starting to say his name, given time to think about it he is likely to think of another name. Ranma has and does use other aliases such as Yoiko and Kew in the manga.

*I've mentioned this before on this blog, but feel like doing so again. I don't really like the use of Ranma-chan to indicate Ranma is in female form. There really is not anything wrong with using Ranma-chan, the only complaint I have with it is that the chan honorific does not always mean female, though it does more often than not. For example: Young boys and close friends could use the chan honorific. An example from the manga, Ukyo calls Ranma, Ran-chan - using the chan honorific regardless of Ranma's gender. An example from another source, in Lupin the 3rd sweet lost night, Lupin calls Goemon; Goemon-chan.

Relatedly the use of the kun honorific does not necessarily mean male. Example from the manga, Tatewaki Kuno uses the kun honorific for Akane. Example from another source, the inspector in Detective Conan often calls Ran; Ran-kun.

*Where does Ranma get all the disguises and clothing he wears in the manga. If you look at the manga, Ranma has a lot of different disguises, including accessories like wigs, make up, jewelery, purse, rabbits, doves, hats, shoes, etc. Some like the outfit he wore to battle Mousse with is easily explained, we see him construct it himself. Some of the others are just as easily explained, they were borrowed/given to him by others, for example the shrine maiden outfit or nurses uniform. Others though not so easily explained, where did he get several rabbits and a dozen doves?

How many different outfits does Ranma have anyway? Female form Ranma has quite a collection of clothing and accessories. Multiple sets of shoes - high heeled boots, high heeled shoes, tai chi shoes, geta, etc. Jewelry - for example two sets of bracelets (worn while teaching mirror clone how to pick up guys), armlet (10 yen battle arc), several wigs, a few different style purses (teaching mirror clone,date with Densuke, on the beach, etc.), mini skirts, sun dress's, kimono's, tennis outfit, cheongsam, bunny outfit, buruma, swim suits, etc. Male form's got quite a bit as well pajamas, yukata, couple tuxedo's (last volume, date with Kodachi different style), gi's, Mao suit, and several different Mandarin pants and shirts (which at least the sites I checked say are unisex though some call them kung fu shirts). What kind of clothing budget does Ranma and Akane have? A lot of their clothing is very expensive.

*Jedi mind tricks. This is debatable but I'm of the opinion that Ranma and some of the other characters can do this in a limited fashion. The force of Jedi fame (Star Wars, incase someone doesn't know) is based on Asian views on ki/chi. Here is some examples as to why I think some characters can do this. Colognes ability to control a shark, the techniques Ranma used while Ryoga had the mark of the gods would only work if there was some type of compulsion in effect (or the enemy was a really big idiot), Ryu Kumen's yell of stop during the Yamasenken arc (yelling stop is not going to work on it's own and Ryu was surprised it didn't work), etc. These types of techniques are not very effective against Ranma, for example Lucky's hypnotism technique didn't work. (Magic and drugs still work though -like the hypnosis mushrooms Shampoo used).