I was reading volume 4 of A.I. Love you by Ken Akamatsu when I happened to notice that Hitoshi Kobe states that forty-chan has a Ranma complex. I find it a bit strange to call it a Ranma complex. Sure I suppose you could call a person who changes genders to have a Ranma complex but Ranma's personality doesn't change with the gender whereas this character's does.
A few things I feel like complaining about noticed in Ranma fanfics recently:
1. Stating that Chi and ki (sometimes though less often qi) are different things. They are the same thing. Similarly saying Chakra is different than ki rather annoys me since in Yoga chakra are the places where energy flows (prana -which is basically the same thing as ki) converge in the body. To be fair they are fictional universes in which the author can make it the way he or she wants but still I'd prefer if they did it in another way such as stating that there are multiple types of ki for example spirit ki and ki of the earth rather than using different languages/pronunciations of the same thing.
2. People complaining that Ranma is a god-like character. That annoys me only because Ranma pretty much is a god-like character in the manga. I wrote the post God like Ranma – writing about an over powered main character for a reason. That doesn't mean that Ranma is a faultless or incapable of making mistakes since he can. Ranma was overly skilled or powerful in the manga but he often limited himself in one way or another be it fighting defensively (defensive battles are generally harder than offensive ones); trying to avoid hurting, killing, or maiming his opponent (with very few exceptions mainly just on Saffron and that was only after he was running out of options since lesser force wasn't working); playing with his opponent or not taking his opponent seriously; being constrained by the rules of engagement (namely following the rules of the contest or limiting himself to the style); not using special techniques or his full abilities (for example he rarely hit people anywhere near as hard as he could since most fights do not have his opponents go flying with great force backwards like they did when he did hit them really hard - such as the time he hit Ryoga hard enough to go flying back into a cliff base with enough force to collapse the cliff onto Ryoga); hampered by his morals/conscience; using to little force (underestimating his opponents); etc.
3. This type of statement: Ranma wouldn't trust magic if his life depended on it.
- Ranma clearly trusts magic as much as he does anything else (Ranma is not a very trusting person though). In the manga it is pretty clear that he views magic as just another tool akin to a staff weapon or microwave. Ranma hasn't shown any reluctance to using magic (suggestion incense, magical weapons, girl repellent, etc.) That said Ranma is likely to be a little more cautious using it than say a nonmagic weapon or technology but that is only because magic is less known to him.
4. This type of statement in reviews just pisses me off: Ranma is way too knowledgeable in martial arts.
- Ranma's literal oldest memory is training. He has been training in martial arts for his entire life; religiously. He is devoted to martial arts to the point that it is the absolute most important thing he has. He'd rather die than give up martial arts and is willing to risk his life in the pursuit of it. That isn't even including that he is a very fast learner (stated multiple times).
5. I don't like the use of the terms master and grandmaster in Ranma fan fics because the titles really don't mean anything (often times people give themselves the title or they are given for some other reason other than ability level) and neither term really exists in Japanese or Chinese martial arts for that matter. They are western terms dating only back to around the 1950's.
