Nature of Ki Blasts in the Ranmaverse

I've seen ki blast be used in various ways in Ranma (and other) fan fiction involving ki or energy blasts. As I had mentioned in one of my very early posts the ki blast arc is mostly a joke arc. The attacks are basically puns with the attacks working like the literal meaning of the idiom they are based on (there are hundreds of Japanese idioms that involve the word ki in some way- This is not surprising when you take into account that the Japanese language contains over 11,000 known usages of "ki" as a compound).

Here is an explanation quoted from someone on a forum (I am unsure as to which forum or the individual who originally wrote this):

The shishi houkoudan is based on the idiom 気が重い which means being bummed out/depressed, but literally means the ki is heavy. The perfect shishi houkoudan is based on 気が沈む, being gloomy/ melancholic, but literally the ki sinks, (hence the downward arrow on the scroll and Ryouga understanding when he sees the fish toy sink) that's why unlike the normal version the perfect shishi houkoudan drops down from above. The mouko takabisha is based on 強気, confident/aggressive, but literally strong ki.
After Ranma figures out the shishi houkoudan and before deciding on the mouko takabisha he tries out a couple of different puns/idioms/emotions, but they aren't particularly useful as attacks: Not feeling like it/ "the ki doesn't progress": The ball of ki sticks to his hands instead of flying away. Distracted/ "the ki scatters": The ball of ki scatters harmlessly.
Confused/ "the ki strays": The ball of ki comes back and hits him.
Impatience/ "short ki": a series of very small balls.

The power of ki blasts appear to be based on the strength of the emotion that they are being focused through and the amount of ki used. Shishi Höködan uses depression and Möko Takabisha uses confidence. Other emotions could probably be used as well such as anger/rage or fear. If a character can't focus on one emotion such as depression they aught to switch to a different emotion since that is exactly what Ranma did in the manga. Physical strength appears to have little to do with the power of the blasts -Ryoga's regular ki blasts did not decrease in size during the time he was made younger and Miss Hinako is not the physically strongest character.

It probably is possible to use multiple emotions to power the blast and make them even larger so long as there is no conflict between them. I got this idea from the Rumiko Takahashi anniversary special which has multiple characters from her works interact. In the short Ranma appears to use a Shishi Höködan Möko Takabisha the way I see this working is because Ranma was depressed that he (well technically she) was groped but still had enough confidence to toss a confidence based one.

Ranma's standard Möko Takabisha has no charge up time and can be launched pretty much instantly. Ranma doesn't have to yell Möko Takabisha, nor does he have to be any special stance to throw it. The picture below shows Ranma throwing a blast over his shoulder mainly by accident without yelling Möko Takabisha (I do not know why I have not seen a fan fic in which Ranma is somehow restrained and tosses one out of his head or finger).


The blast can even be thrown as an extension to a punch.

These standard ki blasts are pretty hard to dodge when you consider they require next to no time to prepare (may need time to get in an emotional state but once in that state they can be launched repeatedly) they generally have a fairly large diameter with the standard blasts being larger than Ranma is tall, and they pack a punch (blows through brick walls with ease).


Ranma and Ryoga are not limited to throwing just one or two they can throw them repeatedly for quite a while.

While the power of the blast appears to be determined by the strength of the emotion it appears to be possible to vary the amount of ki used (Miss Hinako's blast became much more powerful when she accidentally drained ki from a bust of Principal Kuno). This means if they want a weaker blast they can be done by using less emotion or less ki (Ranma after all did throw a lot of very little tiny blasts while practicing). The reverses is true as well stronger emotion or more ki built up more powerful the blast - means Ranma can throw more powerful blasts if he feels the emotion stronger (imagine how powerful they'd be if he channeled his fear into a blast while near cats) or if he spent more time building up his aura prior to throwing them (Ranma has demonstrated the ability to build up his aura for example during the time he was at a hot spring island and it is an explicit ability of Ranma's in a few of the games such as Hard Battle).

Normal people in the manga probably can't see ki blasts at all or if they do they most likely see them as shimmers of heat. The reason I think this is because most people can't see aura's and we are shown that ki blasts are hot (not hot enough or possibly just not around long enough to cause things to combust - since fire requires both heat and time around the heat to start). This is shown in a few ways. Nabiki calls Ranma's little ki Blasts balls of hot air, Akane mistakes the heat from a hair drier for Kasumi's aura, Ranma and Ryoga's ki blast while children burnt the mushrooms of aging, and the way the Hiryü Shöten Ha works requires auras to be hot.

Ki does have some blow back Herb used the bounce back from his ki off the ground to do his flight trick and Miss Hinako used Ranma's ki to throw herself high into the air and to propel herself through the water.

The shape of ki blasts can be altered as well Herb used ki blasts shaped like crescents to cut.

Ki blasts maybe used as a steady beam by continuing to feed energy into the technique though this isn't really shown in the manga (Herb did have a whip like ki blast) but is shown in the anime.

Ki blasts are not compressed balls of air if they were they wouldn't have been able to pass through Ryoga when he didn't lose focus on the emotion. They would have hit him regardless of his emotional state.

Ranma can toss more than one at a time as demonstrated by the Möko Takabisha double.

I can think of a large number of possible variations to the technique as well as the battle auras and applications for the technique which causes me to often wonder why I don't see more in fan fics. Possible other variation smaller faster moving but higher density blasts. Doing a perfect Shishi Höködan and then taking all the energy wasted in the column and making a much more powerful blast. A barrage of small blasts. Using ki blasts as suppression fire. Propulsion as it had been in the manga occasionally (Ranma had Ryoga launch him farther by hitting Ranma with one, this type also appears as a move in the games, like Battle Renaissance, where Ranma uses the ki blast to propel himself like a canon ball into enemies). There are a lot of possible variations and times in which this would be very useful in combat but it is rarely shown in fan fics in other ways than how it was first shown. I sort of understand that because Ranma, hell most of the characters, rarely use ki blasts - many reasons for that such as too powerful takes away from the drama (I believe that is the reason stated by Takahashi in an interview for why Ranma doesn't use some techniques all the time but don't quote me on that since I'm not completely positive she said that), Ranma's tendency to fight at around his opponents level and in their style, it is over kill for most engagements, can be countered by ki blasts which makes it somewhat less useful against some opponents, etc.

The Shishi Höködan is focused through the emotion of depression. Since the technique is powered by depression and Cologne calls the technique a terrible one and that it's foolish to fight with it, some fans have adopted the stance that the Shishi Höködan actually induces despair, causing a martial artist who learned and uses it to become more and more depressed and melancholy. This is not the case. Cologne used the metaphor of two lions clawing at each other even as they tumble down a cliff. This is clarified to mean it's pointless to duel with the Shishi Höködan (as the worse you're doing, the more powerful it is — but the better you're doing, the less powerful it is, so the fighters just end up seesawing back and forth until they pummel each other senseless). Ryoga and Ranma prior to him deciding that depression isn't really an emotion that fits him (though considering how his life is you'd think it would be, Nabiki and Kasumi even comment on how his life is pretty bad) had to go out of their way to make themselves as miserable as possible for the fight. Ryoga's personality remained unchanged in subsequent stories.

I am annoyed when people attempt to place the characters on a hierarchy based on ki strength. There are a number of reasons as to why this bothers me. The first being they tend to place Saffron and Rouge's Ashura form on the scale when neither of them used ki attacks they used raw fire (as well as lightning in the case of Rouge). Second they tend to rank Miss Hinako very high on the scale when I find it debatable that she should even be considered since, while she has tossed some pretty powerful ki blasts, it is not her ki she's using she has to drain it from someone else to toss them. Third most of the characters don't toss around ki blast often or like the already mentioned Rouge and the not mentioned Ryu Kumon they aren't tossing around ki (Ryu tosses around vacuum blades and Tatewaki tossed around air pressure waves). Fourth some clearly powerful people like Happosai and Genma don't go around tossing ki blasts even though they can create massive sky scrapper sized auras. Fifth because of the nature of emotion focused ki blasts a less powerful person could toss a much larger blast than a more powerful person by simply reaching a depth of emotion that can not be matched by the other character. Sixth, and the last reason I'm going to give for now, Takahashi did not attempt to do so at all. Characters did not try to generally match each others power they tended to use techniques/skill/trickery instead (and in several cases it is quite clear had the character been using lethal force, brute power, strength, raw speed, etc. they could have overwhelmed the opponent) and several of the characters clearly limited themselves (such as not using lethal techniques).

Konatsu's Body Duplicating Technique

An easily overlooked but potentially awesome technique in the Ranma ½ manga is Konatsu's legendary body duplicating technique. It is easy to overlook since it is only shown briefly in a volume very close to the end of the manga. Here is what is known about it: It is legendary according to Ranma and Konatsu can create multiple duplicate bodies all of which can take separate poses.

This is a technique I would like to use were I to write a Ranma fan fic. A thing that I would not want but can't really think of a way to avoid is for people to think I copied it from Naruto since that is a series I dislike and it was in the Ranma manga. While there are other series in which people have the ability to make duplicate bodies (hell this series has multiple other ways in which to do so the anime has Cologne's Splitting cat hair technique, Happosai had an incense that could do so and Ranma acquired some magic that allowed his shadow to be independent of him; the manga has the mirror which made clones and the spring of the drowned twin water; if I remember correctly one or more of the games had this as an ability; etc.) I find it most likely that people would think I am taking the technique from Naruto (it is currently fairly popular and has a large number of fan fics).

It would be extremely likely for Ranma to learn this technique. Ranma has demonstrated the ability to learn techniques after only seeing them done once and it is likely that Ranma would hang around with and probably spar with Konatsu on occasion. While having multiple bodies would be very convenient for battle most of the ways I would use it would be outside of combat.

I think the technique should not be very easy, in fact fairly difficult, hence earning being called legendary. My usage of it would have each clone be fully independent but upon destruction or recall what they learned is dumped into Ranma's mind. Ranma at first would only be able to create one for a limited time (instability of the ki matrix or some other such explanation) with practice though the length of time they can exist and the number of them he could create would go up. The hard part is creating them, the more ki used the longer they last and more damage they can sustain. Ranma would figure out ways to do so quicker and easier such as making smaller ones like creating tiny ones like the Goddesses in Ah My Goddess do, I really like the Ah Mini Goddess manga and anime, (for many tasks he would prefer child size ones) and using an object as a battery such as a straw doll to contain the ki (it is shown in the manga that objects such as the principal's statue can hold ki).

Further variations of the technique would be shape changing them such as making a clone into a dog and for disguises. Instead of putting on a wig, dress, and make-up he could create a new body entirely or create an overlay over his own body.

Ways it would be used:
1. To do chores such as shopping or cleaning faster.
2. Training
3. Combat - mainly as a distraction though since Ranma would need time to create stronger longer lasting ones. Full size clone or clones very little damage taking ability last around thirty seconds takes seconds to make want one strong enough to take damage, last longer, and be able to actually fight takes time to create.
4. Plausible deniability i.e. be in a highly noticeable place while at the same time committing a crime such as searching someone's house (which he does a number of times in the manga).
5. Spying - again something he does multiple times in the manga.
6. Dealing with multiple things happening at once.
7. Catch up on his reading.
8. When he needs to be at more than one place at a time such as when he wanted to help Akane with the Dojo Destroyer and wanted to be on the date with Shampoo to get what he thought was a cure for his curse.
9. Manipulating people.

People who could tell the clone, at least this type of clone, from the real Ranma: Happosai, Genma, Konatsu, and Cologne and would be able to dispel them though they might use different means to do so. Hinako draining them would destroy them but she won't be able to tell them from the real one.

National Novel Writing Month

There is a website that touts November as National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write one 50,000-word novel within a month's time. I am contemplating an attempt to do this. I have stated a desire to write many times, even wrote a bit, but I always ended up dropping the projects I take up. The reasons I drop them are multifarious; but ultimately comes down to me being unsatisfied with my own writing.

I know for a fact I can write 50,000 words since this blog has significantly more than 50,000 words. Last month I wrote around 10,000 words on this blog. Writing in a story format, within the set duration, and only on one topic not so sure. Even if I do, I'm not sure that I'd want people to read it, which I realize is idiosyncratic since I am, and have been for a while now, writing this blog in which anyone with access to the internet can read.

The subject matter, not surprisingly, I am considering writing is Ranma ½ fan fiction. While I have had several ideas in the past for fics, I have yet to decide what I would write if I were to take up this endeavor. There is a multitude of things to take into account.

Should it be a crossover or not? At the moment I am considering a crossover with the cartoon version of Teen Titans; since I have been reading a considerable amount of Teen Titans fan fiction lately. That is not the only series that I have ideas for though.

What should the primary genre be? Action, horror, romance, drama, etc. the only one I have really ruled out is comedy. I would still try to have some comedic moments, since a story that blends genres is generally superior, but I am not a very funny person and, as I had pointed out in an earlier post, the type of comedy in Ranma ½ is primarily graphical in nature which does not transfer well to the written word.

Where should the story split from the original work? The point of time would influence the story and there are plenty of places in which to do so. Currently, mostly for convenience sake, I am ruminating upon using a couple months after the manga (ignoring the anime entirely). Were I to decide to crossover with Teen Titans, it would probably be prior to the battle with Trigon (including some influences from the comic book incarnation).

The idea for a crossover between Teen Titans and Ranma ½, that I am pondering at this moment, is probably not that good; which in and of itself does not matter as much as many people think, implementation is often more important than the idea itself (crappy cliched ideas have turned into good stories). Here is the idea: Ranma has become betrothed to Raven though not by his or her choice, or his father, and unlike the other engagements it is magically binding. As you can probably tell I have not put much thought into it.

Here are a few other thoughts I have had that could be incorporated into the story:

The battle with Saffron freaked Ranma out, big time, not that he almost died, but because he thought Akane died several times in a very short period of time. There is a very sad thing in which people who are abused, scared, or otherwise traumatized take drastic, irrational methods to protect themselves. Ranma has been and now would be scared that someone he cares about maybe killed/die, this causes some changes in Ranma. The first and most important to the story change would be that Ranma is more proactive rather than reactive. This can be demonstrated by having him attempting to create more powerful and deadly techniques while making a concentrated effort to learn magic. He would first attempt to learn that which is most familiar, build upon existing techniques and seek out a Shinto priest willing to train him in spirit wards.

Later, as in at the very beginning of the fic, he would come into contact with someone using magic for not benign reasons. Possibly have run ins with a group similar to the Hand of the Marvel comics (a ninja order that serves a demon referred to by members as the Beast that often seeks out and steals magic items in an attempt to bring the Beast to Earth). This could be used to create a convoluted means by which Ranma and Raven become magically betrothed. Of course, if I went with a Teen Titans crossover the group Ranma would have a run in with would probably worship Trigon (Church of Blood in the comics) or another similar, possibly rival group. It might be interesting to have Ranma messing with forces he does not understand and drawing attention from beings he's better off had they never noticed him (plus it is not really that out of character for him).

A secondary change to Ranma, if I went with this type of fic, would be in how he fights. For the majority of battles he would fight as portrayed in the manga (see block quote at bottom of post). Though there would be some variation since I view combat tactics differently than Takahashi did/does. In some circumstances Ranma would take more drastic action (very simple be brutally efficient -speed blitz, over power, break enemies legs or arms, hit pain points, make the immediate use of underhanded tactics, use techniques he would not normally use like those created by Genma, etc.). The specific circumstances that would trigger the change in his fighting style are: if his opponent(s) has killed/tortured/raped someone willfully, kidnaps someone close to him and he doesn't know that the kidnapped person is being treated well, or threatens to kill him/someone (threats of this nature will be taken at face value unless he is absolutely certain it is just trash talk). While seemingly a good tactic to take, this is not a good thing. It signifies a fear and a lack of confidence in his abilities, which is his primary source of confidence. A novice has to retaliate against lethal force with lethal force, a median skilled level martial artist can afford to use techniques that are not outright lethal against lethal techniques but will still need to use potentially lethal techniques and maiming techniques, only a very skilled martial artist can afford to use non lethal and non maiming techniques.

Ranma's standard methods of fighting include:
-While in competition:
*limit himself to his opponents style (beat them at their own game is something he does a lot)
*obey the rules set forth for the competition
*use minimum amount of force needed (tries to not hurt opponent)
--This can be seen in the rhythmic gymnastic match, cheer-leading match, martial arts dining match, ice skating match, take out race, etc.

-Anything goes battle, not competition
*has somewhat of a level of escalation; changes depending on circumstance and goals
1. Attempt to talk to opponent into ending battle while primarily dodging. Examples: offering Ryoga bread to stop Ryoga's feud against him or trying to convince Ukyo that she has no reason to fight him.
2.Majority of battles do not proceed beyond second stage.
-inflict minimum damage to opponents as possible. Generally attempts to restrain opponent.
-plays with his opponent (like taking the time to write out an insult in bruises on Kuno).
-attempt to defeat opponents techniques/style and not the opponent (for example Miss Hinako whom he did not just knock out instead tried to nullify her technique or Akane wearing the dogi trying to take it out without hitting Akane)
-fight at around his perceived view of his opponents level (meaning he generally won't speed blitz/over power his opponents even though he easily could - example battle with Kuno once he decided to get serious defeated Kuno faster than Kuno or Nabiki could see).
3. At this stage Ranma has stopped playing around and takes the battle seriously.
- attempt to take out opponent fast. For example, kicking Tatewaki's pressure points to defeat him fast or kicking Ryoga fast and hard enough to knock him back and into a cliff-side with enough force to collapse the cliff-side.
- use of underhanded tactics. This could probably be placed in an earlier stage as well because he uses underhanded tactics in non combat situations more than he does in combat situations (such as his attempts to drug Kuno to steal from him, use alcohol or chloroform to get Happosai out of the way, his attempt to blackmail Nabiki, etc.).
3a. this is part of both 3rd and 4th stage
- use of ki techniques like the Hiryu Shoten Ha and the Mokotakabisha
4. Very few battles have progressed to this stage.
- At this stage, he doesn't have the option to take out his opponent without seriously hurting them. At this point he will risk maiming his opponent.
5. Only one battle really reached this point.
- This is the point Ranma has run out of other options and has become desperate. If you haven't figured it out this is the point in which he actively tries to kill his opponent.

Some Parallels

I recently saw a review of a fan fic which claimed a technique that was used came from a different show/manga. It didn't. It is much easier to crossover a series when parallels already exist. For some unfathomable reason, at least to me, I decided to write these lists of some parallels between Ranma and some other very popular series (part of the reason it is unfathomable is because I have watched very little of two of these series and do not much like the other two):

Naruto - a show about ninja's that in general don't act much like historical ninja.
-Kawarimi - is the technique often used by ninja's in which they switch places with an object. Ranma uses this technique frequently.
-Konatsu has a duplicating body technique similar to Naruto's. He made four of himself.
-Smoke screens are fairly common and used by most of the Ranma characters at one point or another.
-Ceiling cling and wall climbing are often used in both series, most often by Ranma in the manga.
- Throwing of kunai happens frequently in Naruto, it also happens often in Ranma though in Ranma more often it is a different object (Mousse threw knives at Ranma, Ranma used pin wheels on Mousses duck form, Konatsu and Mint threw large amounts of daggers as their attacks, etc.).
- Naruto has explosive tags, Ranma cast make pretty much anything to explode (Happosai's fire crackers, Ukyo added gun powder to her okonomiyaki, Shampoo added gun powder to buns, Mousse used explosive eggs, Konatsu's sisters had TNT, and the Principal had both added explosives to pineapples and had grenades).
- Both series use pressure points/vulnerable points, though in Naruto they are called Chakra points.
-The ninja Jiraiya can sort of be seen in the Ranma manga during the Romeo and Juliet story arc (in that one of the other classes has a play involving the mythical character Jiraiya, which the Naruto character is based on).

Avatar the Last Air Bender - elemental based martial arts.
Many of the techniques seen on Avatar also happen in the Ranma manga.
- Aang spun a wooden staff to deflect fire. Ranma also spun a simple wooden staff to deflect fire.
- Air bending involves manipulating the air. Many of the Ranma attacks do as well. Ranma's Hiryu Shoten Ha (a tornado technique), Kuno's air pressure technique, and the vacuum blades are all manipulating the air.
-Earth Bending - Ki Blasts and breaking point are earth bending techniques (Ryoga even uses them to tunnel through the Earth).
-Fire Bending - Several characters like the Ashura and Saffron did this. Though other characters did occasionally as well -Mousse for example during the mushrooms of aging arc was trying to master fire breathing.
-Water bending - Cologne did several attacks that were this - created a water sprout and the Shark fist was blasts of manipulated water.

Read or Die - A show about a librarian that can control and influence paper.
-Ranma uses paper fans occasionally, counters a punch from Happosai with a paper fan and uses them to blow powders and stuff back at people.
-Konatsu uses a technique called Füjin Seikyü Shyo (wind blade bill) a whirlwind of paper bills surrounded Ranma, and sliced through his clothes.
-Ryoga's trick with his belt and bandanna's applied to paper instead of cloth.
-Ranma can be seen reading frequently (it appears to be the thing he does the most for entertainment in the manga)

Harry Potter - A series of books about witches and wizards.
Magic is rampant in both Ranma and Harry Potter.
-Both have supernatural creatures, phoenixes, ghosts, possibly giants (a couple characters like the Dojo Destroyer was at least Haggard's size), yeti (part of Taro's curse), and dragons (dragon whisker soup, Orachi, and Herb's ancestor was a dragon) though there are differences in how the creatures acted and some different supernatural creatures entirely.
-Magic items are pretty common in both - more seen in Ranma (For Ranma there are the Umbrella of love, mirror that makes clones, mirror that people could enter and had a large amount of room in it, lightning ring, sentient fire breathing staff, etc.).
-Potions are in both, like Happosai's rejuvenation potion or Colognes hair growth potion.
-Mandrake root (even screamed in both when pulled out) and other magical plants were in both.
-Both have means of shapeshifting.
-Both have apothecaries
-Jusenkyo can be used for transfiguring people and animals into other animals, act like animagus, and work like polyjuice (as shown by kima).
-Wizards use owls to deliver stuff (like the brooms) and send messages. The Phoenix people are shown to use crows the same way (even able to kidnap people with them like Akane).
-Paintings in both can move - Panda ghost came from a painting.
-magic marks. Dark mark used by voldemort and mark of the gods seen in Ranma.

I had the idea of writing a few scenes in which the characters names are never told and then having people try and guess the series in which the story is supposed to be a fan fic of. Purposely using technique/objects that commonly are associated with one series but exist in a similar form in other series. Of course the techniques names would not be given only their effects.

Ranma does not need scissors

Someone emailed me asking if Ranma needed scissors, don't know why they wanted to know, but Ranma does not need scissors. He is capable of cutting things using his/her fingers (considering that Ranma can cut perfect holes in stone walls barehanded and we see cutting techniques using air pressure, ki, and vacuum blades, I thought this was fairly obvious).

Versus

I am of split opinion on versus, by versus I mean character A versus character B. While I did, and still occasionally, go to a forum in which its reason for existence is versus, I am not sure that I like them. I particularly dislike ones that have polls since they are quite often just popularity contests, the better known more liked character will be given more credit than they necessarily deserve. I like them because sometimes they are damn interesting, the what if, how would they do versus one another part because sometimes those who participate come up with some really cool ideas. I dislike them because most of the time people really have no idea as to how fights work. I don't like versus in which people state that one character would definitely win, I prefer laying of odds and comparing feats (e.g. this character is stronger because of this example). Though I enjoy versus in stories, when properly executed, far more than I do those on forums.

There are many, many variables in fights, so while I in general would say that one character would win, it depends on too many things to say with certainty. Even if the one character is overwhelmingly more powerful than the other (chances maybe extremely minute but still a chance). A generic listing of who won the most fights is not of any real use and does not necessarily prove anything, too many things can affect the outcome of a battle for that to come even close to proving who is definitively better.

A probably incomplete list of variables in (small scale one on one) combat:
* Why are they fighting? The reason and goals matter, because depending on what they are they will effect how people fight. For example, is the goal to knock the opponent unconscious, test the person, get revenge, etc.
* Which version of the person is battling? Early version Batman would kill, maim, and use firearms current version would not. Male Ranma is more skilled (more familiar with the form and confident), stronger, tougher, taller, etc., than female form Ranma.
* Physical stats - Speed, Strength, Toughness, etc.
* Foreknowledge - Are the characters familiar with one another and each others abilities?
* Prep-time - Does one or both characters have time to prepare for the encounter, for example in the Ranma manga, Ranma when fighting Happosai would often prepare before hand in many ways; carrying around bras (which was particularly funny since the bystanders had said where did he get all of them), using magic (girl repellent), drugs (chloroform, alcohol) or pictures.
* CIS - Character induced stupidity - refers to any natural mental limitations that characters impose upon themselves and reduce their ability to use their own skills and powers effectively (may not be stupidity per say, moral limitations would count as well) Is this active? For example, Ranma's morals prevent him from hitting Nabiki, his limiting himself to his opponents styles, and his underestimating/playing with his opponents (like Kuno, took the time to write an insult in bruises) are all CIS.
* PIS - Plot induced stupidity - characters not using their abilities or skills to the fullest extent as shown before, even within their personality ranges, for the sake of the story plotline. Things like Ranma not using ki blasts, his full speed, or under handed maneuvers since it would have made some battles less dramatic/too short.
* Bloodlust - Is one or both characters bloodlusted (willing to do whatever it takes including maiming and killing to win)?
* Offensive/ Defensive battle - Is one person just completely attacking the other? It is harder to fight a defensive battle than it is to go for killing techniques and fight offensively (there is a reason the saying the best defense is a good offense exists). For example, Ryoga usually has this advantage in fights since he is usually on the offensive (attacking Ranma) and he (at least at the beginning of the manga) was perfectly willing to seriously hurt/kill Ranma whereas Ranma attempted to not seriously hurt Ryoga.
* Universe rules - If the characters are from different universes, which universes rules apply? This some times would make a difference since somethings might be possible in one universe but not in the other.
* Terrain - What is the terrain? This could matter a lot. One person maybe more used to the terrain or be better at using it to their advantage. For example, Taro using prep time was able to choose a terrain in which to fight Ranma that would give him a decided advantage, particularly since it also forced Ranma to be in his weaker form.
* Are the characters at their peak? Is one of the characters sick, injured, exhausted from staying up all night training, starving, distracted, worried, etc.
* Are weapons available and if so what? Depending on the weapon they could be used to add reach, hitting power, defense, etc. If both have the same weapons is one character more familiar with it than the other? Ranma versus Saffron, Saffron was more familiar with the abilities of the staffs than Ranma was.
* Luck - It matters. A person can win by accident.

A bit on martial arts

I was recently playing around with Google and decided on a whim to use its business search to find out how many places near where I live teach martial arts. I knew there were a few, a nearby one even has a half off enrollment for spring deal going on, but I was really surprised at how many there are near me. According to a local newspaper's business search using the limit of 10 miles from my residence, the result was 38 places that teach martial arts (there are more since it doesn't count all martial arts as martial arts e.g. boxing, wrestling, etc. and that site does not list everyone - Google had some closer than 10 miles that were not on that list).

The reason I bring this up, beyond pointing out the surprising number of martial arts places nearby, is because of the Ranma fanon that Nerima is a martial arts Mecca. Considering that martial arts are a major part of the manga this view is not entirely unwarranted. The thing is there is not much to support that view point, only about a dozen martial arts show up and don't or didn't live there. The average person is not a martial artist and a dozen martial artists are not a lot; a typical class at a dojo would have more students than that.

Some people have pointed out the fact that the schools in the Ranmaverse sponsor various martial arts. This is not an unusual practice; it would be unusual if they didn't. Real life schools in Japan and elsewhere have school sponsored martial arts. Japan has been teaching martial arts in schools for a long time; just about every high school would have a Kendo club and some other type of martial arts after school activity. Even in the USA schools will often have martial arts. For example: wrestling, self defense classes, and archery.

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The Ranma manga has quite a few made up martial arts, the thing is many of them are plausible and some of the ones people commonly think of as being made up actually do exist (though not in the way portrayed in the manga). Martial arts gymnastics exists in real life, just not in that form, and from what I heard it is becoming popular in California. Martial arts cheer leading exists as well, some martial arts places teach both cheer leading and martial arts and decided to combine the two (this should not come to a surprise considering that there are shows based on martial arts cheerleaders - see Kim Possible and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a baton is just a staff weapon). Martial arts calligraphy and martial arts tea ceremony do not exist, as far as I know, but both are taught in a very similar manner to martial arts (have kata, master levels, training halls are called dojo, both were influenced by Zen Buddhism, etc.). Ukyo's martial arts style makes a lot of sense when you consider the ban on weapons Japan has. Improvising everyday items to be used as weapons is a common practice - for example Nguni stick fighters will often use any stick like object, such as an umbrella, to practice and fight with.

In real life there are thousands of martial arts, quite a few are as strange as or stranger than those seen in the Ranma manga. Capoeira is a martial arts dance. There are martial arts schools in Hong Kong that teach martial arts acting (combination Chinese Opera and martial arts to be used in films). Martial arts are interwoven into several religions (like Shinto and Buddhism but Christian martial arts exist as well). There are even martial arts styles that revolve on cheap shots and insults; a version of Shoalin Bushido has a kata that revolves around the use of verbal aggression, natural stances and sucker punches.

Vital Points/ Pressure Points

The use of pressure points and hitting vital points has been a part of combat since prehistoric times. This is obvious from the study of isolated tribal people who live similarly to prehistoric people; like the Aleuts (or as they call themselves the Unangan, which means "the people" in their language). The Aleuts are a tribal people that inhabit the islands called the Aleutian Islands (about 1,800 km southwestward from the Alaskan mainland). They have a martial arts style derived from watching animals fight, particularly sea-lions and dogs. In their observations they noticed that the animals will attack particularly vulnerable parts of the body.

Both Chinese and Japanese martial arts make use of vital spots/pressure points. Ranma in the manga occasionally makes use of these types of attacks, for example the fight with Kuno or the fight versus the Dojo Destroyer. Takahashi is not a martial artist and does not have Ranma use the actual vulnerable spots (nerve clusters, organs, etc.), instead uses places considered to be them in popular culture/chosen at random and then have him or another character state he hit them.

A story in which Ranma fights human characters would likely have him use these types of attacks occasionally. While there are many attacks Ranma is unlikely to do, since he doesn't want to maim or kill his opponents, there are many he would be expected to use or prevent his opponent from hitting. It would be out of character for Ranma to do attacks like a finger gouge to the eyes, hit the mastoid process (which could cause loss of motor control or paralysis), or rabbit punch someone to the base of the skull (could damage the cervical vertebra causing paralysis or death). Ranma in all likelihood has a lot of knowledge on human anatomy (kind of needs to so as to not hurt his opponents, even if he doesn't know the scientific names for the body parts, additionally supported since Ranma can be seen reading these types of charts in the manga -example Miss Hinako intro arc). The thing is I have no idea as to how a writer would convey the use of these types of attacks in literature. Too detailed will likely just annoy readers. Writing it like this: "Ranma did a quick jab to the brachioradialis muscle in the upper lateral forearm temporarily paralyzing Ryoga's arm." Is probably not the way to go about it. This is in part why I dislike and haven't posted any story I attempted to write, I really don't know how to write a fight scene (there are other reasons as well).

Though Ranma is also likely to use foot reflexology is called Zoku Shin Do, massage (offers one to Nabiki, gives one to Akane to calm her down, gives Rouge the Ashura one during battle), chiropractics (Ranma is shown reading a book on it), Acupuncture, Moxibiton, etc. outside of battle as well such as healing ones or for pleasure.

Ambush

The above pictures are of Ranma sneaking up on Akane and surprising her (the first one is actually the setup to his surprising her, results are on the page after it - not shown here). This is a tactic Ranma uses quite often in the manga, on many characters(not just Akane), for varying reasons. Most of the time he does it is just to see their reaction, though he has used it in battle as well. No character can consistently prevent Ranma from sneaking up on them, the picture below is of Ranma sneaking up on Cologne.

As the manga progresses he tends to do this more often. This tactic is not used as often as I feel it should be in Ranma fanfiction. There are several fics I've seen where using this tactic would have been both in character and beneficial for Ranma to use but he did not. Fanfiction Ranma prefers frontal assault far more than his manga counterpart who will often use other means.

Ranma doesn't always stealthily approach or just show up faster than the person can react to, he and most of the cast use the much more common ambushing practice of concealing yourself until the opponent passes by. They use this for various purposes - surprise attack most common, information gathering less common but still done. This has varying degree's of success, for example, Gosunkugi's and Kodachi's attempts are not very successful. In fanfiction it is far more common for villains, rather than the protagonists, to use various ambush techniques, even though it would be in character and extremely useful.

Few comments inspired by Ranma Fanfiction

I was reading some Ranma fanfiction, which is something I haven't done a lot of lately, and now feel like making some comments inspired by recently read Ranma fanfics.

-In one fic I read, I saw mention of Ranma being unable to get somewhere because of a mountain range in his way forcing him to spend weeks going around it. I don't get why Ranma would have trouble climbing or even going directly through the mountain if he wanted to. Even had the mountain been virtually vertical it would only cause him little trouble seeing how he has the same ability as Spiderman to cling to impossible surfaces and he could, had he wanted to, just gouge his fingers into the stone (can casually do this as seen in the arc in which he gets strength back). How he could go through the mountain is the very same way Ryoga does tunnel through the earth via breaking point and ki blasts.

-I find it extremely unlikely that Ranma doesn't know the breaking point since he has seen it repeatedly, witnessed the training for it, and he has learned other techniques with less exposure. If Ranma knows it why doesn't he use it? Simple from a combat point of view, against his normal opponents, it has very few offensive abilities. Ryoga doesn't even try to use it on Ranma, in the manga, after it's intro arc since it can't hurt Ranma. There is only one time in the manga in which Ranma would have had a reason to use it, when he (technically she at the time) made a hole in Ryoga's house's wall, but Ranma chose to instead make a perfect circular cut barehanded to the wall. There are times where it would be useful though, for example against armor, though the shrapnel from the armor may kill the person so Ranma would not use the technique in that way lightly.

-In another fic I saw Nabiki swear to pay a debt she owes. This is extremely out of character for her. In the manga, she has no qualms about leaving her debts to others or running instead of doing what she was paid to do (like when the principal hired her and she took the money and ran).

-Comments of this nature: "Ranma is sexist so the pools made him female to learn that males and females are equal"; are untrue and do not make sense. Ranma is no more sexist than anyone else in his society. There are only two things, that I remember, him saying that can be construed as being sexist. One that guys tend to go easy on girls - which isn't really a sexist statement so much an observation, guys do tend to go easy on girls in fights. The second being that he doesn't like to fight girls (not that he won't, just that he doesn't like doing so). There are many reasons as to why he would dislike fighting girls beyond seeing them as being inferior (for instance how society would view him for hitting a girl -this is sort of implied to be at least part of the reason since he did have a daydream once in the manga about hitting Akane after she pissed him off and the shown reaction of the bystanders when he defeated Shampoo during the Reversal Jewel arc). He does treat females as serious opponents, he does not mind taking females like Shampoo or Ukyo with him on his training trips, he has fought with females, and he has asked females (such as Cologne and Akane) for help. Ranma is less, sexist than Akane is (she does have a valid excuse in that boys were attempting to defeat her for the privilege of dating her because of Tatewaki's proclamation) who thinks it's perfectly acceptable for a girl to see a guy nude but not for a guy to see a girl nude (or that it is fine for girls to hit guys but not for guys to hit girls). If anything cursing him to be a girl would make him more sexist, not less, since his female form is physically weaker than his male form and people expect him to act differently (like a girl) while female (mostly people who don't know his true form but still happens).

The main reason people probably view Ranma as being chauvinistic has nothing to do with any of his words or actions. The reason people view him as chauvinistic or misogynous is simply because he turns into a girl and doesn't want to. People construe not wanting to be a girl as him viewing girls as being inferior to guys. That is not the reason Ranma doesn't want to be a girl, he doesn't want to be a girl because it is a curse, not his natural state of being, and has caused him all kinds of problems (up to and including nearly getting him killed).

-I've seen fics in which Ranma knows every technique in the manga/anime. It is true that Ranma has a very high learning curve, if he sees the technique, particularly if he has seen it repeatedly, he probably knows how to duplicate it. He can't do so instantly though, even he needs some time to perfect the technique. Ranma can reasonably be expected to know the breaking point, Happosai's firework technique, Mousse's hidden weapons, and Kuno's sword techniques. He seen them enough that based on his learning other techniques (for example the Umisenken and tea ceremony) he should know them. He should not know some techniques like Shampoo's remote control acupuncture, because he hadn't seen it, and should not know Miss Hinako's ki draining techniques since they required her to be physically altered to do (though given time and motivation he could probably develop his own version).

-Ranma in all likelihood knows some and could duplicate other techniques which can kill. Ranma is not a killer, I do not like fics that have him be one. That is not to say Ranma won't kill, he would but only as a last resort or if killing would save peoples lives. Having Ranma go to someone to learn them is really not needed, existing techniques can, and have been, altered to kill.

-I've seen fics in which Ranma finds it abhorrent or criticizes people for using magic. Ranma in all canons (manga, games, and anime) has used magic. He came to Nerima carrying the girl repellent, he has borrowed magic items from the amazons, he bought magic items, etc. Even in the anime he uses magic, for example he bought magic that brought his shadow to life to practice with (then proceeded to train for three days straight wearing out the magic). I would not be in the least bit surprised to find out he was actually attempting to learn magic - to cure his curse and to counter other people using magic on him (I'd be more surprised if he wasn't).

-This has bugged me for awhile now, fics in which Ranma sleeps in school. If you read the manga that is not a common occurrence for him (eating in class yes, sleeping no). Akane has slept in class more often than Ranma, yet he is the one who is said to sleep in class not her in fanon. Actually the whole Akane being better than Ranma when it comes to schooling bothers me. Akane has been shown to cut class, does so with Ukyo in one arc but there are other times as well (though this is something Ranma does as well). Akane has disrupted class, a few times. Akane has incited riots, while Ranma doesn't he instead tries to manipulate the people doing things that bothers him to get his way (Akane solution get students up in arms to cut Kuno's hair, though she did eventually see it as being wrong, Ranma's solution use female form and attempt to manipulate Kuno into cutting his own hair). Et cetera. Yet in fan fiction Ranma is said to be the worse student. Ranma is not shown to be a worse student than Akane is in any way. Though this maybe different in the anime.

As far as grades are concerned, Ranma's grades are pretty much unknown (based on the evidence you can interpret them any way you want though it is implied that he is at least maintaining a passing grade). As for Akane, like Ranma her grades are mostly unknown and it is implied that she too is passing but there is some evidence that she is doing poorly in at least one class (and likely more). She is shown to be in a home economics class and she is also shown to be absolutely terrible at every single thing that class teaches. Since she can't cook she likely would do bad in related classes such as chemistry and since she can't swim she is probably not getting a great grade in that class (swimming is shown to be part of the curriculum).

Possible origin for Techniques

Recently I started wondering about the possible origin of the techniques i.e. where did Rumiko Takahashi get the ideas for them from. Here is my theory on some of them:

Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken and the Bakusai Tenketsu are quite likely based on and possibly a tribute to Hakuto Shin Ken (Fist of the North Star). The techniques are very similar and Tetsuo Hara (creator of Fist of the North Star) and Takahashi were colleagues at Kazuo Koike's art school. Though the Breaking point should by this reasoning work the way Ryoga thought it would and blow the opponent up.

Martial Arts Cheerleading techniques are based on the fighting style of the Sun Wukong (known better as the Monkey King) seen in the Chinese epic novel Journey to the West. One of the bystandards even makes a comment about this (though in the VIZ version the comment was changed to be a reference to Dragon Ball Z which is also based on the Monkey King). Primarily the extending baton and the many pompoms resembling a cloud.

Anything Goes Martial arts is at least partially based on Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do since in an interview Takahashi stated that she used to watch Bruce Lee movies specifically stating Enter the Dragon in an interview in Animerica.

Jackie Chan early movies are likely a large influence on the fighting style as well. Quote from interview: "I used to watch a lot of Jackie Chan movies. There is also, of course, Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon" Ranma's using anything like paper fan and pinwheels as weapons are likely based on early Jackie Chan movies. One particular style seen in the manga is definitely based on his movies. During the Romeo and Juliet arc girl form Ranma gets drunk and uses Drunken martial arts which is quite likely based on Jackie Chan's movie Drunken Master.

Ranma's sitting style (hanging on walls, sitting upside down) and comments (insults in battle) are likely based on Spiderman who Takahashi said in an interview (Amazing Hero's 1990) that she really liked during her junior highschool years (also that she collects the comic Animerica Vol. 9 No. 6). Lucky (Happosai's friend) has a technique where he mixed ink with glue that had a similar effect to Spiderman's webbing.

Ninjitsu is also seen by several characters. Ranma for instance uses trading place with an object technique several times, used a smoke screen to get Miss Hinako away from some boys while she was unconscious, etc.. Multibody technique is seen by Konatsu.

Kuno's style is Kendo.

Basically Ranma's fighting style is likely a mix of Jeet Kune Do, Ninjitsu, spiderman style, Jackie Chan movie style, and a bit of Fist of the North Star.

Ranma and Weapons

A particularly common bit of fanon that really annoys me is Ranma refusing to use weapons. How did this become fanon? I understand why some things become fanon. There is generally some basis in the source or a spin off of the source (in Ranma that would be the manga with the anime and games being spin off). Other stuff is never really explained so some fan decided to come up with an explanation that would fit and others copied them. Those types of things becoming fanon makes sense to me, my real question is how do things that are countered in all forms of canon become fanon? I'd understand if Ranma only used weapons once or twice and it was missed by the fan fic writers but Ranma uses a variety of weapons quite often. There is only one time in the entire manga in which he makes any type of disparaging remark on them and in that instance it wasn't about weapons so much as it was the limits of combat. In the rhythmic gymnastics arc he wanted to be able to use his body as well as weapons (he didn't like the imposed limitation).

In the manga, Ranma has used a large assortment of weapons; some examples from the manga:
-Polearms. He had used a bo versus things in a haunted house, used saodake (literally bamboo pole but is term used for laundry poles which are now more commonly made from plastic), used brooms as weapons, cheer leading baton, tsuki nari yari (moon shaped spear), etc.
-Swords. He used a bokken (wooden sword) against Cologne and others during the Suikawari (watermelon splitting) race, the katana his mother carries around, sword during Pink and Link battle, etc.
-Whips. He used gymnastic ribbon, soba noodles, rope, his own hair, etc.
-Magical. Sentient fire breathing staff, shield that prevented poisons, magical joy buzzer type ring, ice staff he used in the battle versus Saffron, suggestion incense (multiple times), etc.
-Throwing weapons. Rocks, boulders, spoon, pencil, snack food (stopped Mariko's baton with a snack food), etc.
-Improvised weapons. Paper fan (to stop and redirect a punch from Happosai and another time to blow back incense at Happosai), spoons, pin wheels (used to pin duck form Mousse to the wall), tennis rackets (to hit thrown objects back at thrower), etc.
-Chemical. Sleeping power (on Kuno), Paralysis powder (On Shampoo), Chloroform (on Happosai), Alcohol (Happosai, Orachi), girl repellent (Happosai), smoke bombs (crowd of people to save Miss Hinako), etc.
-Defensive weapons. Shield versus Pink and Link, large boulders as shield, iron skillets (versus the Ashura), wears arm bracers, etc.
-Psychological. Bra's (versus Happosai), disguises (often versus half the cast), fake scary things (lizards, snakes, etc. on girls to scare them away from the girls dressing room), ax to scare cherry tree spirit, etc.
-miscellaneous that don't quite fit above types. Used mallets (On Taro, Ryoga, bean gun plant, etc.), blow dart to take out the principals balloon, bow and arrow (to send messages), Nunchucks, etc.

Even in the anime we see him training with Genma using a staff and he used weapons in corresponding arcs to the manga, like the rhythmic gymnastics battle. That is not a complete list of the times he used weapons and he has never showed reluctance to use them. So why did it become fanon that he doesn't use weapons?

Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken

• The Amaguriken isn't really a special technique it's just a flurry of really high speed punches. Cologne even showed surprise when Ranma used his newly obtained speed to throw a myriad amount of punches in such away as to overcome Ryoga's resistance to blunt force.
• Throwing a large amount of high speed punches/kicks in not limited to Ranma. Ryoga, for example, has done the many punches moving in just blurs thing as well. E.g. He does it to female Ranma during the Koi Rod of Love storyline, Ranma deflects all the punches and then Ranma's entire body becomes a blur surprising Ryoga and she kicks him in the head. Ranma occasionally does a flurry of high speeds kicks as well.
• Ranma does not have to yell Amaguriken (chest-nuts-roasting-over-an-open-fire). He doesn't yell it in the manga. Even his first time doing it while hitting Ryoga he did not yell it. Yelling it doesn't make sense since it takes longer to say than it does to execute.
• I'm not going to try and calculate the speed of it but it is much faster than humanly possible (others have tried to calculate it and it just leads to lots of arguments). I will say this though, Before speed training with Cologne Ranma was capable of throwing dozens of punches per second. This was demonstrated by his battle with Mikado in which he threw 518 punches in a matter of seconds (we know the exact number because Akane counted them). After the speed training Ranma was moving so fast that Akane could only see a blur which she thought of as one punch this implies a much greater speed (because if the speed was only say 3 times as fast Akane should have been able to still tell that they were many individual punches and not one punch though she would have no longer been able to count them). Ryoga and Cologne also agree with Akane. Ryoga commenting that did you think that a few hundred punches would even hurt me and Cologne commenting that the speed training now pays off for him now. During later story arcs Ranma gets more speed training and becomes even faster (Martial art dining). Ranma's battles occur at super human speed. Even the audience (i.e. us and anyone watching) can't tell. In the manga we/anyone watching only see after images or the final position of the arm or leg. (Examples kick done to Kuno, time Ranma did all those hits to the skater that kissed him, Ranma feeding people during the martial arts dining story arc, etc.)
  
• We have Ranma uses his flurry of punches in two ways. (This came from some posts on fukufics before its crash between Obsidian Fox and Pale Wolf trying to figure out the benefits of and how the Amaguriken works, though I have added some on my own.)
  

Against Ryoga in which Ranma threw as a bunch of shallow punches which are good for damaging muscle, breaking bones near the skin, chaining attacks, and keeps the opponent in place followed by a deep punch (which are good for damaging internal organs). The reason Ranma did not use his full strength punches/kicks and decided to use his speed in this manner is because his much more damaging deep punches sent his opponent flying giving him time to recover, are easier to dodge/block, and he would have to go hunt his opponent down since he just sent him flying. Even though the punches were shallow that does not mean weak, though they do disperse less energy into the target at one time, Ranma's shallow punches would still be strong enough to punch a hole through a regular person's chest. Ranma is not pulling his arm back all the way for each hit, doing so would serve no purpose and would be a waste of time and energy. For those of you who are having trouble understanding how this works do this: Take your finger and poke your other hand hard - that's a deep punch. Now do like Ranma and poke your hand 200-300 times but use less power (2/3) your hand will become sore from all the poking. Ranma could have trapped the opponent(Ryoga) with a wall or a tree and used his deep hits but because of the strength of the hits the wall or tree would just have been destroyed and the opponent (Ryoga) would still have gone flying (Ranma hit Ryoga into a wall, wall collapsed and both can punch through trees with ease) and unless the opponent is really dumb he will try to keep from being cornered. Though if your skilled enough to, you could continuously hit him into walls and trees until you run out of them of course they would also have to be unable to flip in mid air and then bounce off the tree. Grappling the opponent and then punching him a lot or using the Amaguriken in this way is good for opponents who are tough enough to take your deep punches and you don't want to cause serious possibly permanent injury (If you didn't care about how much you damage the opponent you could target weaker spots such as the eye balls, punching their ears to cause pain, kicking them in the balls repeatedly, using a weapon like a sword, kicks to the spinal column, hitting them in vital spots, etc.). Though grappling could also back fire if the person your grappling with is skilled or strong enough to prevent you from getting good hits or keep you from effectively using your speed or strength.

The other way to use it is to fill the air with punches (this is the way Ranma most commonly does it in the manga). Using it this way is good because it is very hard to dodge and incredibly hard to block. Best solution to counter this would be to be fast enough to knock every punch away, get out of range which is hard, catch the fist which is even harder (and would probably just make Ranma start hitting you with his other fist), or go on the offensive (would recommend trying to kick him in the legs) and take hits.

• Easy way to power Ranma up without added training, conditioning, or magic. Have Ranma do the Amaguriken holding a knife/sword (slicing his opponent to pieces), wearing some type of brass knuckles or holding an object (increases strength of hits). That would easily multiply the damage done. Another way would be if two opponents were close enough to one another have Ranma bounce his fist between them this would cause a lot less energy to be wasted and allow Ranma to hit harder and even faster (rebounding off one to hit the other).