Hello

[windstorm]

Hello world. I'm obviously a newly registered person on this site whom is introducing himself for the first time. I'm 18 years old (male if you had not guessed from my use of gender pronoun), I live in Ontario, Canada (somewhere near the St Lawrence river). I am currently in my final year of high school and planning to go off to university afterwards.

Most of my hobbies involve wasting time watching anime, reading manga, playing video games, mmorpgs or reading fanfiction. I've been reading fanfiction for almost 7 years now and enjoyed finding several well written pieces. I have looked at this site periodically for about a year and a half and finally decided to get an account because I thought it might be interesting to contribute to some of the discussions.

I've seen both the anime and manga for Ranma 1/2 and read several fanfics for it as well as a number of discussions. I have periodically watched the Sailor Moon anime after reading a number of Ranma SM crossover fics just to see what the story was about. I got a bit past the first season and thought that the anime was well... pathetic... so pathetic that it was actually kind of funny to watch. (I thought I'd let people know how much I've seen for the two main series talked about in this forum) As for other anime's and mangas I've seen, well its a pretty long list. I actually have a page and half with every anime/manga I've seen saved on microsoft word. I usually like fantasy, action and adventure oriented series the most and generally dislike mecha series for some reason or another. Slice of life and comedy ones will depend on the content and quality to some degree and whether or not I like it on principle.

Thanks for reading the intro.

Note: The next section is my opinions on fanfics and then the series Ranma 1/2, not completely an actual intro. Read if you feel like it.

I've read a large variety of fanfics, but mainly ones from Ranma, Naruto, Harry Potter, Zelda and Tales of Symphonia. My favourite types of stories are probably crossover fics though, mainly due to the fact that I like seeing how chaotic mixing more than one series can get.

I have found that Ranma 1/2 is probably the most compatible series to make a crossover fic with for some reason. I believe this is likely because it is set in a modern day setting, yet still has supernatural and fantasy based elements which can mix in well with either a realistic, slice of life like series in the modern world or a fantasy like series with supernatural elements (either in modern day setting, future, or past in our world or an alternate dimension). The characters also have the potential to be interpreted in many different ways.

As far as characters go in fanfics I tend to be somewhat flexible with how I view a person's interpretation and portrayal of them, but prefer to be warned about some stuff like oocness or character bashing. My actual views on the characters in the canon series will differ though and I try not to be too biased or unfair towards my interpretations of certain characters. My personal opinion is that in fanfiction an author can change around things to match the situation as they intend. However I also believe it takes more skill if an author can create a situation using mainly canon personalities, but adapting some traits or actions toward the situation and makes me have a higher degree of respect if they are able to pull this off. I guess you could call it situational interpretation. With alternate universe fics with an extremely ooc character than canon it would depend on how well the story is written and what the background story behind the character is that made them so different.

Note: My interpretation of Ranma 1/2 comes from both the manga and anime, I am not completely exclusive to either canon and usually think with a mix of the two in mind. The following is my interpretations of Ranma and Akane both from the series and how they are portrayed in fanon. It does not cover every detail I can think of but gives a strong general overview as to my opinions. I chose to write my opinion to give people an idea of where I stand on the two main characters and probably the two most debated about characters in the series (so it does have something to do with my intro. I am somewhat flexible in my views when it comes to fanon interpretation, but mainly stick to my own views. If an admin wishes me to delete the section and/or repost it somewhere else due to it not being entirely in the right section feel free to notify me.

Ranma

I find Ranma in particular can be interpreted in many different ways. His personality is a very mixed bag. He is extremely confident, somewhat arrogant, almost completely focused on martial arts, and lacks social skills (probably due to traveling so much and not being around other people his age). Ranma shows a very selfless side of himself in his willingness to help others and seems like an ordinary person most of the time he isn't in a crazy situation. He has several different skills outside of martial arts like domestic skills (cooking, cleaning, sewing etc), waitressing, survival/camping skills. Ranma is very good at adapting and thinking up new strategies in a fight, but also seems very passive about problems outside of fights and does not apply the same thinking to regular life all the time.

In general Ranma can actually be considered somewhat mysterious because there is very little shown about his past and what he did during his training trip with Genma. Most of the other characters' pasts are also unknown, but some are a little easier to guess than others. Akane and her sisters for example have had a relatively stable life growing up despite their mom dieing and have grown up in a normal atmosphere, so it would be easier to imagine what they lived like during everyday life than Ranma who was constantly traveling to a large variety of places. This means that a lot of aspects about Ranma in general can be left up to imagination like his true personality, his intelligence level, what knowledge he has, how he truly feels about how other people treat him, the situation in Nerima in general and what he might do about it in the long run if things don't gradually improve. Something people should keep in mind is that Ranma is only 16 and has a number of years to decide on his future life (unless people try to pressure him too much into making a decision like Soun and Genma often do about the arranged marriage). Ranma's intelligence is often a subject of debate and it is virtually unknown to us. My best guess though would be that he is at least average because he appears to be passing in school and likely has missed a lot of it during the training trip. If he is average he could probably do very well if he applied himself like he does to he martial arts but does not have the motivation to do so. On the other hand he could also be extremely intelligent and simply does not apply it to school since he has no motivation to do so or he does not have the knowledge necessary to apply his intelligence. At lowest I'd consider him average intelligence and lacking knowledge, not outright stupid like some people have portrayed him.

Ranma Potential Suitors

As far as Ranma's love interest goes I also think that it's another situation where people should remember he is 16 and not likely to decide his future immediately. I would not immediately dismiss any of the "Fiance Brigade" (except Kodachi if she still acted completely insane around Ranma if they entered a relationship of any kind), but I do not think that he would go with anyone of them for sure. Akane might have the most brownie points because she spends the most time with Ranma, but she might also be the one to ruin the relationship by overreacting some day. In general for any of those relationships to work out the girl in question would have to mature a bit and try to build a more solid understanding of Ranma rather than simply fighting over him or making assumptions about him (good or bad ones both). Because the relationship is not set in stone this also leaves room for other potential girls to start a relationship with him or become potential suitors.

If you want to discuss the issue of honor in the engagements than I also have opinions on that. Personally though I think that Ranma's potential grilfriend/fiance/wife should be someone he chooses because they need to genuinely get along and understand each other to have a lasting relationship. I doubt that the relationship would work otherwise. Now to critique the 4 members of the fiance brigade based on their claims.

First Kodachi has no true claim so she is out as a potential suitor.

Shampoo's claim comes from a law in her village that if an outsider male beats her in a fight she must give them the kiss of marriage and they are considered married. I do not consider this a truly valid claim for a number of reasons and it would not be a good reason for Ranma to marry Shampoo. First both times when Ranma beat Shampoo the condition to give a kiss is questionable. The first incident was a challenge over the food which was for the winner of the tournament. He won in girl form and she gave him the kiss of death, so it could be debated that she never gave the correct kiss at the proper time. The conditions of the match which Shampoo agreed to (the Jusenkyo guide acted as a translator so it is unlikely that she misunderstood them) should have been strictly over the food. No repercussions should have been allowed to sought upon the winner by the loser based on those conditions as a matter of honor towards both the opponent and the contest itself. (kiss of death just screams sore loser here to me). The second time Ranma knocked Shampoo out by accidentally by kicking the end of her bonbori (her weapon with the balls at the end of the handle) which flew up and hit her on the head, which should not be interpreted as truly beating someone in a fight as it is completely accidental. Second in the eyes of Japanese culture it is unlikely to be recognized in anyway, especially since Shampoo is foreign. Third the law should only apply in village, and she gave Ranma the kiss of marriage in Nerima, Japan. Her laws also have no meaning outside her village or to people outside of it. It has even less meaning considering that the amazon laws are probably not recognized by China's government. Fourth there were previously existing arrangements which should take precedence over this new claim. Finally Ranma would also have problems with the arrangement in general (he would likely be expected to go back to a backwater village with a foreign culture which has no meaning to him). While someone with this thinking might be criticized for denouncing the laws of a foreign culture it would be the reality when dealing with the legitimacy of a case like this.

Next the Kuonji and the Tendo arrangements. First neither of these arrangements are likely written down or legally binding, they were simply verbal agreements supposed to be upheld by honor and the goodwill of the makers. They are to be respected in Japanese culture though most likely. If you want to consider the values of the arrangements both are significant. The Tendo agreement would have made Ranma the heir to both schools and the Tendo training hall plus the Tendo estate. In the Kuonji agreement the dowry (the yatai) was Ukyo's father's livelihood and business. It does have a significant value and if nothing else Genma would owe the Kuonji family the equivalent in lost profits from the cart in order to repay them since he broke the agreement by running off with the dowry and did not take Ukyo with him. That would be the only honorable way to break that agreement. I have heard people argue that it is no longer valid due to Ukyo betting the yatai and losing it to the Gambling King, but this is not true. First both she and Ranma know he cheated and thus he did not legitimately win it and secondly the cart belonged to Ukyo's father not her so she was not entitled to bet it to begin with (similarly Ranma did not have the authority to bet the Tendo dojo, so I don't know why Soun accepted the gambling King's claim to begin with). There are also probably laws against minors gambling anyways. There are a few ways that a person could argue that the Tendo arrangement is stronger than the Kuonji one though. The primary reason would be that the Tendo pact was made earlier the Kuonji one, so in terms of time it takes precedence (it might have been the only one Genma truly intended to keep as well, but that arguement would not be very strong). The second reason is in terms of monetary value the dowry on the Tendo's side, which is likely the entire Tendo estate, is greater than that of the yatai. One could potentially argue though that the Kuonji arrangement is also strengthened by the fact that Genma already had taken and used the dowry and it was the Kuonji's livelihood (it probably would not be too difficult to replace the yatai and the cooking supplies though).

We do not know for sure that Ranma does not have any more fiances that have not shown up yet since Genma has used engagements as a way to bargain for stuff more than once. It happens twice in the manga with Ukyo's dad for the Yatti okonomiyaki yatai and the incident with Picolet Chardin, and four times in the anime, the two incidents in the manga plus Kaori Daikoku and that martial artist that showed up at the end of the same episode. The engagement with Picolet Chardin also suggests that Soun may have done the same thing, but is less likely. The Chardin and Daikoku agreements though are not extremely strong because a single meal does not seem like an adequate dowry for a binding agreement. Both engagements are also dealt with in a somewhat legitimate way.

Akane

My opinion of Akane: I do not immediately think of Akane as 'insane, delusional and always angry' like when she is portrayed at her worst in fanon, but I do not consider her a saint either. I also do not consider her the de facto fiance, especially considering a fanon setting like a fanfic or someone's imagination. Assuming you want to take the series seriously, I personally think she has some serious issues to deal with, especially when it comes to Ranma. She is fundamentally a good person, but also has several flaws which are more evident (and potentially more dangerous) than most people. Akane is another debatable character, but most of the Ranma cast are, they all seem to have their highs and lows.

Note: This critique on Akane will address more of her negative aspects not because I think she is a fundamentally bad person, but because her flaws are very evident. It seems more meaningful to me to address her flaws than point out every good thing she did, many of which most normal people would have done as well.

Akane pretty much lives a normal life, but is a well trained martial artist and far stronger than most ordinary people (yes I will admit that much). She has her regular group of friends and is probably at least an average student, but she still manages to get involved in many unusual situations. She seems kind and is often eager to help and do things for others. She often gets in over her head because she does not have the proper skills for a certain area (ie her domestic skills like cooking). She also has problems controlling her temper and has a tendency to get the wrong impression of things, especially when it comes to Ranma.

Akane seems to have problems admitting her own lack of skill in an area. For example her cooking which is horrible, yet she tries to get other people, Ranma especially to eat it. It has even made people sick before yet she insists on doing it. Her main problem while cooking is the lack of patience and inability to follow a recipe and ensure she has the right ingredients. It is something she should accept and simply move on because it is simply one skill, and not one she needs to be extremely good at. At the very least she should try her own cooking before forcing other people to.

Akane gets angry at Ranma a lot and often for either no reason or a relatively small one. She constantly overreacts and jumps to conclusions, like hitting him when he calls her a tomboy or when another girl makes a move on him. It is notable that she does not seem to get angry at a lot of other people outside Ranma, the fiance brigade, or Kuno and the Hentai Horde, but there is another aspect to consider. We rarely see anyone who may annoy Akane to a similar extent that Ranma or the fiance brigade do, but if she was subject to another person who annoyed her to that level how would she react? It is a question worth considering because if she accidentally punched someone the same way she does Ranma (forget the low earth orbit comedy routine for a bit) and imagine what the result might be. I actually had a dream once where she volunteered at a daycare centre and nearly punched a 4 year old who was being particularly bratty and insulting her. She really should work on controlling her temper, if not because of hurting someone else, simply because it is not right to hit Ranma over every little thing that happens.

Akane has a tendency to jump to conclusions and get false interpretations of Ranma. This is problematic if she ever were to actually have a real relationship with him. She accuses him of hanging off or flirting with the other fiances (especially Shampoo) when they make advances on him. She calls him a pervert regularly (which it is evident that he is not) and thinks numerous other things are his fault. In contrast she has also gotten false interpretations of other people. For example in Ryouga's case she always seems to assume the best of him and usually takes his side over Ranma's. For example during the incident with the supposed spring of drown man under the girl's locker room she assumes Ranma is a sick pervert for wanting to get in and does not believe his story, until Ryouga admits to having the map and being there for the same reason Ranma was in order to find the spring. Akane also is aware of Ryouga's initial intent to beat Ranma in a fight and likely cause him severe injury if not beating him close to death, yet she still takes his side on most things. Again similar to how she could get angry at more people than Ranma it shows the same thing could happen here.

As to my views on Akane's strength and skill level it is as I stated before, she is a good martial artist and stronger than most people around her. She is not close to competing against most of the upper NWC though. Akane has problems admitting this to herself though to a certain degree. There was more than one time she got in over her head and Ranma had to bail her out. She really seems to want acknowledgeable as a martial artist, but she should know her limits a bit better. It is an issue I actually like seeing a lot in fanfics because it is a true aspect of her personality which makes her desperate to prove herself to those around her.

Akane's skill is an interesting aspect. We see from her few fights (as best we can from an anime or manga) that she has a good deal of skill, but also that she can over power most people due to her above average strength. I think the problem for people who decide whether she is a martial artist or simply a brawler is that it is hard to decide how much of her fighting is won by strength alone versus true skill. I really dislike when Akane suddenly get some type of mass power up and can completely beat any of the NWC as a result. It has happened more than once in fanfiction I've read (though I don't remember specific fics). I don't mind too much if Akane gets a power up for a truly good reason (ie she has to save the world, she wants to fight crime, she has to get a cat out of a tree etc.), but using it to beat the NWC does not seem right to me (also knowing how chaotic things are in that series someone else would probably get a similar power, or Ranma would invent some creative way to counter it). If Akane did get a power up though I would not put it past her to use it to try and beat one of the upper level martial artists (she did so both with the super soba and the battle dogi in canon). It also says that she might not use a power like that responsibly.

Akane seems to be insecure as to her own abilities to me, but what surprises me more ce is that she make virtually no effort to improve her skills as a martial artist. I'd assume that her father was her primary teacher and stopped teaching her when she was younger, so I think that her skills are unpolished, but we never see her trying to practice real martial arts. She never does katas or even spars with a real opponent. She probably could have goaded her dad into it once in a while or ask a dojo for a match every now and then, but she doesn't. All Akane seems to do that can count as practice is breaking bricks, jogging, fighting the Hentai Horde and those extremely one sided spars with Ranma where he dances circles around her. She has several high level martial artists around her for a number of months and she never seems to try to improve at all. To be honest I surprised that even as a hobbyist martial artist rather than extremely hard core martial artist she does not seem interested in trying to improve her skills even a little bit. To be honest I'm surprised she never simply went up to one of the better martial artists she knows and asks them for training. Besides her father there are three which would be pretty easy to approach, Ranma, Ryouga and Genma. Ranma probably wouldn't need very much convincing to help her. Ryouga would be extremely eager to help or at least supervise her training (full out sparing with him is a bad idea due to strength differences and his inability to hold back or his inability to fight her, whichever Ryouga decides on). Genma we know is a very talented martial artist and an experienced sensei considering he trained Ranma for several years. He would probably hold back on any crazy ideas since Akane is Soun's daughter and he wouldn't want his friend mad with him (or risk his retirement plans). All it would take to motivate him if he refuses is to bring up his duty as a freeloader in their home or have Nabiki black mail him or get Kasumi to mess with his food.

Anyways I hope I have a good time on this site and thanks for reading my long winded, somewhat pointless intro if you bothered to get to this point.

[Spokavriel]

One of the larger introductions I've ever seen. I ended up stopping just before the Ranma tag because I wanted to still be one of the earlier ones to say Welcome to Fukufics.

Gender is kinda optional especially if you ever come into Spamville.

Since you've been around you've probably seen someone called on about Nested quotes or something like that in the past so it doesn't hurt to brush up on the Rules There are also some other things in the Other Talk section like the Spamville Do's and Don'ts or the Character Dossier that could come in handy if you want to join in down there.

I'd add links but I gave all the links a couple times before and well sometimes it doesn't hurt to let others give them. I did at least point out where to look.

See you around and looking forward to comments on fics. I'll read the rest of your opus a little later. I will read it all.

[Bliss]

Gah! Wall of Text deals 99999 dmg to Bliss-chan~! Bliss-chan is stunned!

All jokings aside, welcome to Fukufics Windy~

There's also Spamville, which is reserved for the less serious, jokers who've claimed a small part of Fukufics as their own personal free-form RP playground... ^_^ We're not quite autonomous but we've got our own little guidelines here. VERY IMPORTANT (notice the caps?) You still have to follow the forum rules in Spamville, no matter how ....lax we are.

That being said, Enjoy your stay Windy~

[Sailor Sedai (Ellf)]

I too would like to extend the olive branch of welcoming... For such a noble wall of text writer can be seen as an equal to myself in the realm of Spamming. For I am, the-

I'm sorry I can't do this, this is ridiculous. Welcome to the site. You'll find that Spamville gets a little nuts, we're all a bunch of nutters there. I hope you enjoy your stay, and to reiterate the point, make sure to read the rules before your continued posting. They're helpful to you and your continued posting here.

[Lioconvoy]

Greeting windstorm. I give to you a cheese muffin and a warning of how greetly evil it is.

*hands windstorm a cheese muffin*

Welcome to fukufics and I hope you enjoy your time here.

[Spokavriel]

At least it isn't a tribble so it won't walk away on ya.

[camk4evr]

Welcome to Fukufics, Windstorm! I hope you have fun whenever you're here.

[Comartemis]

*Comes out of hibernation*

Welcome to the forums, Windstorm, this noble Moon Princess bids you welcome!

Hotaru: Redundant, much?

Me: Hush, you.

*Stuffs Hotaru back into Spamville*

We're a happy buncha loons here, and I'm sure you'll fit in just perfectly. If you're ever feeling especially insane, pop into Spamville for a spell. Just make sure you keep your wits and your sense of humor about you!

[CRBWildcat]

Welcome to Fukufics, Windstorm. Enjoy yourself whatever you do here, and don't overdose on Mountain Dew.

[Comartemis]

Or any soft drink Callista may hand out in Spamville, for that matter.

[Spokavriel]

If you're ever feeling especially insane, pop into Spamville for a spell. Just make sure you keep your wits and your sense of humor about you!

And don't worry if the spell changes form or gender. That's normal for the Role Play environment

[Neko-]

Welcome to the insanity that roams these forums... I see you have been sufficiently warned on forum rules, and Spamville guidelines, so I'll just turn you loose on the unsuspecting (ahem) populus. I can only hope you'll manage to drive Himitsu insane... well, more insane then he already is

Enjoy your time spend with us, and remember: if you can't have fun with us, atleast make sure we have fun with you

[Spokavriel]

::grumbles a little.:: If Himitsu shows up again. Spamville's less fun without Shinji. ::sigh::

You should come back into Spamville Too Neko-! I mean Spamville almost had a bout of Sanity. It's not active enough to be scary when that happens.

[Rei-chan]

Welcome to the boards, Windstorm. Hope you enjoy yourself and I have the feeling that you will enjoy the discussions usually found here. Have fun. As for watching anime, I take that as a bit of a challenge, hehehe.

[Comartemis]

...I'll catch up. Eventually. Give me a few years.