by Nekomata-sensei » Fri May 26, 2006 2:54 pm
I'd really like to see this one. A point of intrest is that thanks to Genma, Ranma didn't have much of a childhood, so a younger love intrest or two might be good for Ranma if they're partly out to have fun and see the world, and aren't just after him.
As for Akane thinking Ranma's a pedophile, that's unlikely. Truthfully, my gatherings from the manga is that Ranma is at least a year younger than Akane, this isn't just from his behavior either, but because I believe there was a mention that he had just turned 15 before getting the Jusenkyo curse and there are indicators that no more than a couple of months have passed between the time the Saotomes get cursed and end up in the dojo. Akane on the other hand is explicitly stated to be 16.
This would also partly explain the eagerness of the older Tendo sisters to shove Ranma off on Akane, Nabiki doesn't seem all that disgusted with Ranma's curse, and Kasumi is too nice to hold it against him, although Nabiki seems to be close in age, even that early on, Ranma's face and the maturity level of how he acts is a strong indicator that he's younger than Akane.
The manga is very irreliable about character heights and sizes, but I tend to get the picture that onna-Ranma is shorter than most of the teenage females in the show who are estimated around the 15/17 age range, with the exception of occasionally Akane or Akari, who both seem to be exceptionally short.
But whatever Ranma's actual age, what's more important is that Ranma _acts_ more like he/she is 14/15 rather than 16/17.
As for why Ranma would be in Akane's class given all this, well, I get the idea that Ranma isn't by any means stupid, and is in fact quite the genius, the speed with which Ranma learns new things and Ranma's more mechanical problem solving skills tend to indicate an exceptional inteligence potential. Given Ranma's apparant laziness about school and lack of former schooling previously, it's astonishing that he keeps up, which even more to me indicates he's highly inteligent and may have even skipped some grades because of testing, in order to be on the road more training with his father to train.
Hinako scenes give us more clues, later on she seems geniuinely concerned about Ranma's schooling, or more accurately, his lack of care about it, she doesn't indicate she thinks he should be held back or expelled, more that he needs to study more and misbehave less. This means she sincerly believes he can pass his classes, even if it means cramming near the end of the school year, indicating she thinks highly of his natural inteligence and learning curve and believes he can be an asset to the school.
Ranma's interactions with Akane that seem to me to give the most indicators. Akane seems to watch out for Ranma, especially near the beggining, just as much if not more than Ranma watches out for her, yes, they bicker and argue and call each other names, or at least Ranma does this towards Akane, but she is usually the one acting more mature while Ranma's acting like a stubborn little kid, and Ranma seems to defeer to her.
Ranma's interactions with his peers at school are a bit more subtle, and rarely shown, so it's hard to infeer anything, but I do think he tends to be shorter than most of them, have a younger looking face, and be treated as if he's some sort of young prodigy. He's got talent and potential inteligence, but he's ignorant as to the real workings of the world and social behavior because of how he was brought up. Ranma gets defensive in the face of heckling by his/her peers, rather than heckling right back.
Personally, at the start of the manga, I'd guess the characters ages to be soemthing like this:
Akane 16
Nabiki 17
Kasumi 19
Ranma 15
Ryoga 17-18 (he seems like he was held back a year or two before Ranma gets to his school, also his interactions with Akane give me the feeling that he's older than her)
Shampoo 17 (this one is hard to place, but I do think she's older than Ranma and Akane, and I'd place her around Nabiki's level of maturity and inteligence, although she looks like she might be younger than Nabiki, so it's hard to tell)
Akari 14-15
Ukyo 17-18 (Ukyo behaves more mature than a lot of the other characters, the scenes of her interacting with Ranma as children seem to show Ranma as smaller and less mature in behavior and wordly knowledge, despite the fact that Ranma hasn't been too much corrupted by Genma yet, plus, even though she's in the same grade as Ranma and Akane, I get the feeling she was held back because of her training getting in the way of her schooling, she's also treated like she's older)
Lin-Lin/Ran-Ran 14
Kuno 17
Kodachi 16 (although she's tall for her age)
Mikaido Sanezin 18-19 (This is a matter of his height, behavior, and the way others talk about him. Ranma really seems to be a good amount younger than him, especially onna-Ranma looks it. I think if he'd been younger, onna-Ranma would have punched him before he got the chance to kiss her, but with him so much taller and older, she(?) was shocked and intimidated)
Azusa Shiratori 16-17 (She seems younger than her partner, not to mention she's pretty short, she could be younger, but I think she's more just crazy and short than immature, she also seems to act like she's older than Akane and onna-Ranma, not in maturity, but in how they interact)
Also, relationships between younger girl and older guy don't seem to be looked down on in Japan. Heck, Akane's been crushing over Dr. Tofu and the age barrier between them is far more than between Ranma and the Amazon twins.
Maybe another idea for this AU would be to make Ranma and the Amazon twins even younger than they are in cannon, but leave everyone else the same age. Make Ranma about 13, and the Amazon twins about 14. Ranma is going through puberty in both genders at the same time, and a prodigious genius, make this Ranma more intelligent than cannon, and a bit harder of a worker in school, but most of his schooling was on his own and grades passed through testing rather than actually going to school, he has little interaction with peers and is ignorant about social interaction with others his age or a little older, but has interacted with adults often enough, often with negative endings thanks to Genma. Ranma has a certain immature innocence about him.Ukyo and Ryoga in this version would have different interactions with him.
Ukyo is engaged to some other guy who runs off on them (Kumon Ryuu?) and remembers Ranma as a little kid talented in martial arts who she used to 'babysit', Ranma remembers her as 'Ukyo-sempai' who at the time, Ranma believed was male, and had allready been ran out on by her fiance so was pretending to be a guy, she looks on Ranma as a little brother/sister and is very protective of him/her and offers Ranma advice and safety (not to mention she runs a shop that sells his favorite food) Ukyo comes to Nerima based on a tipoff about her fiance that turns out to be a dud (although he does appear later) but finds Ranma and decides to stick around to protect him from Genma and becomes especially enraged with several people during the first neko-ken arc, and possibly is the one to bring a neko-onna-Ranma out of the neko-ken, which makes people think onna-Ranma likes Ukyo (who they believe is a boy?). Ukyo's secret is revealed to Ranma (and maybe some others) on accident, and Ukyo soon after discovers Ranma's curse. Ukyo ends up being the one to help Ranma adjust to the curse and deal with social stuff and going through puberty in both genders the most, because she's gone through it as a girl trying to hide that fact and seem like a boy, so she knows a lot about puberty for both.
Ryoga is another one who's interactions with Ranma are a bit more peaceful thanks to the age difference. Ryoga remembers Ranma as a punk-kid genius he was jealous of the inteligence of and turned out to be really good at the martial arts. Ranma wasn't, however, better than Ryoga when they first met, and after the first bread incident, Ryoga beats him up. Ryoga gets in trouble with the school for this, and keeps getting into fights with Ranma, who considers Ryoga a bully and is slightly afraid of him, and is training determinedly to defeat him. The school they are going to wants to keep a budding genius like Ranma, and know Ryoga is flunking his classes because he keeps missing school, and considers him a delinquient with bad excuses about getting lost all the time. When Ranma leaves the area, the school blames it on Ryoga and expells him, enraging Ryoga, who, since he no longer has school anyway, chases the Saotomes to China. Ryoga finally catches up with the Saotomes before Jusenkyo, but sees Ranma training with Genma before they see him, and is shocked and enraged with the viciousness of Genma's training, which is especially harsh at the time because Genma is still mad at Ranma for losing to Ryoga, and even says so while Ryoga can hear. Ryoga realizes that Ranma isn't an insulting brat on purpose, and that Genma just has been raising him that way and comes out of his hiding place in a rage and beats up Genma, impressing Ranma, Ryoga stays with Ranma as Genma is recovering and teaches him not to insult people and to speak and read basic Chinese (something Ryoga knows because of his unwanted travels) as well as survival skills for the road, and a bit of the style Ryoga practices. It's Ryoga's training that finally helps Ranma get close enough to Genma's level that by the time they reach Jusenkyo (Ryoga has at this point gotten lost and Genma has recovered from the injuries he suffered from the raging Ryoga) Ranma is able to match Genma well enough that Genma gets cursed as well. Later, before they leave Jusenkyo, while Ranma's out hunting for food, Ryoga happens upon Jusenkyo and Genma tricks him into getting cursed as well in revenge. Thus, when Ryoga escapes as a wolf (he gets a cool other form in this version) and gets lost, when he finally does find out how to turn back, he comes after the Saotomes again, seeking to get revenge on Genma for cursing him. When Ryoga arrives in Nerima, he scares everyone by surprise attacking Ranma, who is impressed by how much his 'sensei' has gotten stronger, and Ryoga is equally impressed with Ranma's progress, their fight doesn't endanger bystanders or damage property as much as cannon, although Akane still sprains her ankle trying to defend Ranma who she doesn't understand why he's being attacked. Everyone is facinated by Ryoga when he turns out to be Ranma's sensei, embarrasing him and causing him to run off. Later the challenge letter appears to Genma and Genma boasts that he knows Ryoga's secret and will defeat him this time and prove himself to Ranma that he's a better sensei, but they notice that he's still pretty nervous about it, especially as he waits as Ryoga is lost and tries to bluster and say Ryoga forfitted the match. Ryoga arrives and is enraged with Genma for accusing him for forefitting the match, they have a long, drawn out battle where Genma pulls out a whole bunch of cheap moves and Ryoga's sheer power and strength is shown off with his iron cloth techniques and heavy battle umbrella, Genma finally succeeds in splashing Ryoga, revealing his curse, only Genma gets splashed as well, revealing his curse too, and this drives Ryoga into a greater rage, it turns out both fighters are actually stronger in their cursed forms now that they are used to it, but where before Genma was faster and weaker, Genma is now slower and stronger, and Ryoga who was slower and stronger before, is now faster and weaker, but the change in tactics Ryoga was prepared for, Genma, however, fights the same way as a panda as he does as a human and looses because he isn't fast enough and isn't as good at fighting like an animal. Ryoga comes back to the Tendo dojo and stays for the rythmic gymnastics arc while Genma is recovering, and trains Ranma during that time, finding out about Ranma's curse, and decides it's yet another reason to not yet give up his hate of Genma, even though he defeated him, he decides he wants to make sure he can't hurt Ranma again. Ryoga re-appears occasionally throughout the series after that to help Ranma and look for cures, or beat up Genma, who occasionally defeats Ryoga with cheap tricks and later during the Kumon Ryuu arc, using the forbidden arts to show them to Ranma, Ryoga is shocked at that point that Genma could create such terrible powers, and gains a certain respect for him, but points out that the schools seem more designed for burglary than fighting and makes Genma's honor all the more questionable.
Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran would be chasing after the Saotomes as mentioned, but the circumstances would be different. Ranma finds them after a stomping from Shampoo, and nurses them back to health, they find out that Ranma's a good fighter but think Ranma is a girl at the time, they get Ranma to try and help them defeat Shampoo, who is surprsied by Ranma's skills, but ends up beating all three of them at the same time, because she's not exhausted like she was after the tournament in cannon. After this, Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran discover Ranma's curse while they're trying to nurse onna-Ranma back to health, and both decide they like him and want to becoem his amazon wives, so they trick him into beating them in front of Cologne, before the situation can be explained to Ranma, it's explained by the Jusenkyo guide to Genma, who knocks Ranma out and runs off. When the Amazons appear, Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran had been forced to get Shampoo's help to track down the Saotomes, and Shampoo had arrogantly tricked them into getting cat curses as revenge for being annoyances and so that she could control them while she helps them hunt down their 'stolen' husband. Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran run away with Shampoo back to the villlage when they find out about the neko-ken, which scares all of them, and makes Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran feel guilty for scaring Ranma, and because all of their Japanese is attrocious so they can't really communicate properly with Ranma and explain the situation. They come back again with elder Cologne, who is impressed when she tests Ranma's neko-ken, and decides to stick around to watch the situation in Nerima, setting up the Nekohaten with Shampoo, who still treats Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran like the dirt on the bottom of her shoes. Mousse shows up a bit later to woo Shampoo and wants to do it by battling and defeating neko-Ranma, but is defeated by neko-Ranma. Mousse fights Ranma again and defeats him in a normal battle, nearly killing him, so Ranma ends up training under Cologne, who gives him conditioning training to become the first true master of the neko-ken, during which time Ranma works as a waitress for the nekohaten using waterproof soap to stay female, because Mousse doesn't know about Ranma's curse and Ranma is hiding from Mousse who is trying to hunt him down and kill him. Ranma finally masters the neko-ken and is no longer afraid of cats, much to Lin-Lin and Ran-Ran's joy, and Ranma stops using the soap and challenges Mousse again and defeats him, using the fully mastered neko-ken, much to Mousse's shock. Mousse sticks around the area still, seeking a way to defeat Ranma in order to impress Shampoo, who continually claims she wouldn't marry him anyway.
In this storyline, the ice scating arc would happen later I think, after Ranma masters the neko-ken and defeats Mousse. The Amazon twins hear about ice scating from Shampoo and get really excited, and take Ranma along with them. All three are really bad at scating it turns out, but Shampoo is really good at it, as is Akane who tags along to make sure Ranma and the twins behave. Ranma ends up turning into a girl to avoid the embarrasment of being a guy who can't skate. Sanezin ends up kissing onna-Ranma and the twins, and defeats all three of them when they try to beat him up over it, even with Ranma in male form using the neko-ken, because they can't balance on the ice. Shampoo and Akane end up training the upset trio for a re-match, because Azusa puts collars on the twins in their cat forms, and Kodachi, who wants revenge on onna-Ranma for defeating her in Rythmic Gymanastics, joins the opposing team to make the numbers even. In a long, drawn out match in which Kodachi does the most damage to the rink with her ribbons and razor hoops and the opposing team ends up partly defeating themselves thanks to Kodachi's poor 'teamwork' Ranma and the twins win the match.
Later, Happosai shows up, and out of spite when Ranma defies him and refuses to accept the pervert as his master or wear a bra when Happposai discovers the curse, he uses the full body cat's tongue on Ranma. Cologne takes a while to finish the phoenix pill, which she had been working on making at the time for Shampoo (it's a permanent effect that gives someone resistance to heat and fire, which all Amazon elders posses, and Shampoo is Cologne's heir) and during that time Ranma is trained in the Amaguriken by Shampoo and being trained by Dr. Tofu in perfecting his forms and dealing with some of the soft arts like TaiChi and Aikido Happosai used against Ranma and also trains Ranma in shiatsu and chiropracting and moxibition so that Ranma better understands how to defend himself from moxibition and shiatsu of Happosai's. Dr. Tofu also trains Ranma to create a 'pure battle aura' which is supposed to be more powerful than Happosai's evil battle aura powered by his lust and rage. The neko-ken helps Ranma master the pure battle aura, but Cologne notes that she can't teach Ranma certain moves she knows now because it would taint Ranma's pure aura and make him grow old and shriveled in old age like her or Happosai, and she doesn't want to inflict that upon him (the soul of ice leaves a taint like emotional battle auras or ki blasts). Ranma completes the training and gets the pill, and ends up barely defeating Happosai, who leaves the area to seek his lost techniques he'd forgotten (the Happodaikairin).
Happosai eventually returns with the Happodaikairin which defeats Ranma, again, and also defeats Ryoga. Cologne ends up training Ranma and Ryoga in the bakusai tenketsu in order to survive Happosai's blasts, and Ryoga masters if first and gets lost. Ryoga later comes back after Ranma's lost again to Happosai, who was able to use the 'Devil's Fist' technique to ignore Ranma's 'ki buffers' which were protecting him from the bombs, using the bombs as cover and suppressing his aura until the last moment. Ryoga almost defeats Happosai with the shishi houkoudan, but Happosai hits him with the ultimate strength moxibition. Cologne trains Ryoga in the Hiryuu Shoten Ha, while Ranma seeks a scroll on pure ki blasts so he can counter Happosai's bombs, now that he see's how good Ryoga's ki blast was. Ranma eventually finds that a shrine priest has a scroll for the legendary Hadoken (from Capcom vs. SNK), which uses both pure ki, and pure, focused spiritual power, and has to train in the Reigan (from YuYu Hakushou) to master it, although the Reigan turns out to be easier for Ranma than expected because the neko-ken claws turn out to be reiki based (similar to a spirit sword). Ryoga defeats Happosai with the Hiryuu Shoten Ha, and Ranma saves the cure scroll from the winds, and they restore Ryoga's strength, then when Happosai recovers, Ranma has mastered the Hadoken and it's pureified power not only defeats Happosai, but even powering up for it makes Happosai sickened because the spiritual power hurts his evil aura, and Happosai is forced to retreat from Nerima for a time, because Ranma's shinto skills and martial arts abilities have become dangerous for a corrupted being like him and he's afraid of Ranma sealing him away again.
Okay, I think that's enough for now, I'm going overboard. But I think this is a good idea, maybe I'll write it myself.
"Health, Learning & Virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem & public honor." Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
