Thursday, April 30, 2009

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).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ranma does seem to make people forget he can play cards, and road a tiger with no problem.

antimatterenergy said...

There are multiple instances of Ranma playing cards in the manga -for example with classmates during Romeo and Juliet arc, beat Miss Hinako and Akane at cards at Miss Hinako's apartment, etc... The reason people say he can't play cards is the gambling king arc, which was in my opinion the worst arc in the manga with Ranma very out of character. I went into some detail in an earlier post http://ranmarelated.blogspot.com/2008/05/pis-cis-and-idiot-ball.html

Tigers and big cats don't bother Ranma in the manga, it's house cats that do. Beyond the time he rode on a tiger, there is also an instance in which Ranma has a tiger gnawing on him and he ignores it (during the Tanabata/weaver festival).

Anonymous said...

Ranma clearly wanted to beat the Gambling King at his own game. The Gambling King's game is cheating/conning people.

It makes more sense to me that Ranma made everyone forget everyone he can play cards just fine, and Ranma pretending to have no card playing skills then Ranma just not having a skill he has always had outside of a situation where he only has moments to act. Ranma had plenty of time to sit, and think about his next move

It seemed like the tiger in the Neko-Ken story-line was what was suppose to have pushed Ranma over the edge to me. Ranma was showing more fear of the the tiger then of the house cats. He was backing away from the tiger, and closer to the house cats after all.

What story-line does the Tanabata/weaver festival take place in? There seem to be several festivals in the series as I recall, and most of them look very similar to me.

antimatterenergy said...

Tanabata/weaver festival takes place in the storyline with the leaves of love. Volume 35 Japanese counting; volume 33 VIZ translation.

The house cats were all around him and the tiger was blocking the exit, what he was staring at wasn't the tiger it was the house cat on him.

The gambling king arc in my opinion was just full of ooc and had a plot hole (that Ranma knew about the tendo dojo). It is, of all the arcs, the very worst one in the manga (in my opinion of course). While I suppose it is possible he was pretending, I find that to be very unlikely.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for telling me what story line the Tanabata/weaver festival takes place in.

The house cats where all behind Ranma, and the tiger was in front of Ranma. Ranma was backing into the a group of house cats to get away from the tiger.
http://www.maxmanga.com/online_manga/4887-5.html?t=38&n=50

After rereading the arc, it does look as though it was the cats biting and scratching Ranma that made him go cat.

It seems like it would be in character for Ranma to take steps on his own to get over his fear of cats, and when Ryoga tries to date both Akane, and Akari at his house Ranma does use some techniques that seem similar to the Neko-Ken in some ways.

I agree, the Gambling King story line is one of the worst, but it is still part of the series. So, what makes more sense, Ranma lost the ability to hide what emotions he is feeling for about a week, and no one found it strange, or there was some unnamed technique that was used to cloud people's minds by likely Ranma so he could defeat the Gambling King at cheating?

mknopp said...

"What kind of clothing budget does Ranma and Akane have? A lot of their clothing is very expensive."

This is one reason that I have a problem with people stating that the Tendos are poor. There is no evidence of this that I can think of in the manga. In fact, there is a lot of evidence to the contrary.

In fact, forget the cost of all the clothes and accessories you see. Do a quick calculation on how much all of the kimono cost in the series. Kimono are incredibly expensive and each girl seems to have multiple kimono. I have heard one person say that it is a joke because they are so expensive and the Tendos are so poor, but it seems more likely to me that the Tendos are fairly well off. Heck their home alone would be worth a fortune considering the size and location.

antimatterenergy said...

I believe them being poor stems from the anime, there is at least one episode where they have trouble even purchasing food.