Reversed Nerima: need some help with details

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

This strange (oneshot?) idea just came to me, and I figured I might be able to write it. However, I need to do a fair amount of ironing out of details, hence why I came here. The basis of the idea is that Ranma finds himself trading places with a counterpart of his from a parallel dimension, one where Ranma Saotome is the same (son of Genma and Nodoka, cursed with a Nyanniichuan curse), but everyone else is "reversed" in terms of gender and thus in relationship to Ranma. Genma isn't Ranma's battered father, but a tough, poorly aged woman who took her son from his stay-at-home pretty-man father to teach him how to be a true martial artist, making the canon seppuku pledge to get him to agree. Soun Tendo is now a widowed mother of three sons. Happosai is a lecherous old woman who harasses guys, much to their disgust. You get the general idea; rivals are now fiancees, fiancees are now rivals.

I realise now that this might have actually belonged in Fic Research, so I'm sorry if I placed it in the wrong area. As I said, I need help figuring out the details- not just the names for all of the reverse-gendered characters, but also how they fit into "Amerin". I do have some ideas, which I'll outlay here.

*Genma might have originally thought that Ranma's Jusenkyo curse was a blessing in disguise, as it would allow her to live up to the pledge she made with Soun, but that thought was scuppered quick. Ranma went ballistic, none of Soun's sons reacted any better, and Soun herself took it even worse then any of the boys did. So, with marriage out of the question, the two have decided to try and live up to the spirit of the pledge by having Ranma train Akane in Anything-Goes. This isn't going too well, as Ranma & Akane of Amerin don't get on any better then their counterparts in Nerima. If anything, it's probably worse, as Amerin-Ranma, for obvious reasons, has no reason to allow his version of Akane to beat on him- or to hold back from beating on him. They aren’t outright enemies, but they’re definitely not the best of friends.

*A thought now occurs to me that joke, running or not, would be to have Genma bring up, or Soun contemplate, the idea that Ranma could actually live up to the word of the pledge by marrying Soun herself, seeing as how Soun is the last remaining Tendo female.

*Given that Akane of canon is a tomboyish girl, both in personality and in looks, then perhaps the Akane of Amerin should be a rather girly boy, to make him more of a reversal of Nerima-Akane?

*With Ryoga, I was thinking that in this dimension, Ranma attended a mix-gendered Junior High, where he met Ryoga in pretty much the same circumstances. However, unlike in canon, this version of Ryoga developed an infatuation with Ranma due to a combination of his skill and the fact he was nicer to her then any of the other boys were- not only was he not weirded out by her skill and strength, he actually complimented her on them. I was thinking that, rather then a duel being the cause for her to chase him, they were actually planning a date, but Genma took Ranma away before Ryoga got there, so she chased them to China on a mixture of wanting payback and wanting to get back together. Finding out that Ranma accidentally caused her to be cursed is another problem in their “relationship”… in fact, you could probably call her the Amerin version of Akane; torn between hating Ranma and loving him.

*Ukyo, meanwhile, I was thinking might be a boy who swore to get revenge on Ranma for constantly beating him in their fights, who then spent ten years training specifically to defeat Ranma… much to Ranma’s shock, as he’d forgotten all about him by the time he showed up.

*Shampoo, in this dimension, first came into Ranma’s life by giving “her” the Kiss of Marriage, due to the fact that, as in canon, Ranma came to Joketsuzoku in female form, and my own belief in the Kiss laws being equal-opportunity. When defeated by Ranma, in his male form, in Amerin, he declared a Kiss of Death and tried to kill or woo Ranma, depending on which form he caught the Japanese genderbender in. Ranma finally revealed the truth to him in the equivalent of the pond-scene from canon, but when the outraged and disgusted Shampoo attacked Ranma, Ranma put him down hard, being convinced by this point that only staying and beating the tar out of the Chinese Amazon would make him stop. Shampoo went home in disgrace, but returned to Nerima to avenge that disgrace; his goal is now to become strong enough that he can earn a decisive victory against Ranma, and thus restore his honor. And no, scaring the wits out of him with the Maoniichuan curse doesn’t count.

*Mousse was basically a female stalker of Shampoo in the village; constantly harassing him to try and get a date, but never able to beat him in a fight and thus compel him to go on a date. I was thinking that she came to Amerin to defeat Ranma for Shampoo, thus impressing Shampoo and making him fall in love with her, but Ranma defeated her and so she’s been compelled by law to give him the Kiss of Marriage.

Well, this is everything off the top of my head. So, new names, new looks (for some reason, I can't shake the image of Amerin-Mousse being, to borrow from TVTropes, the "Hot Amazon" equivalent of a Huge Schoolgirl Meganekko), and hammering all of the details into place: that’s what I’d like help with, please. I do want to keep as close to the canon as I can (besides the gender-switch and relationship changes that ensue, naturally), but I’m not afraid to twist things away from canon if it would make more sense. For example, Amerin-Mousse not having a Jusenkyo curse, or Amerin-Ryoga having a curse besides the Spring of Drowned Piglet.

[TerraEpon]

Well, II actually seem to remember a fic of some sort that had a Ranma-normal way as in your story, with the Tendo trio all male and Genma (also male of course) trying to pass up Ranma as female...no idea at ALL what it was or how much else was changed, etc....

I really like the idea at you state it, though.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

You like it? Wow, thank you. I think the best part is that both versions of Ranma are going to be in the same boat: totally freaked out and lost. I mean, as off-balance as canon Ranma is going to be in "Amerin", how is alternate Ranma going to take Nerima? Even beyond the minor details in things like how they met, how they settled into the status quo, you've got the basic fact each is being confronted by people they know in the "wrong" gender, which is both going to unsettle them at the moment and in the past. After the story ends, how long do you think it would take for Ranma to look at, say, Akane and not be reminded of "Kaneda", for example?

And just out of curiosity, am I mistaken for envisioning pretty much everyone in Nerima going green with disgust when "Amnar" mentions how he once woke up to discover his version of Happosai... well... "fondling" him?

[Battlekrome]

might be interesting to reverse ranma as well
make him a her(but then i think thats been done at least a couple times)

hrmm

Mousse would be interesting...

Shampoo would want to defeat ranma but then would be considered 'dating' mousse if they did

... "Aiyah! i must have both!"

Ryoga probably would be more in love with ranma
more probably for him leading her to school

the final duel before ranma left would be Ryoga asking ranma to meet him for a date or depending on relationship to ask ranma out on a date
Ryoga direction sense being what is its would get lost and end up following ranma accidentally

Would be interesting if P-chan would snuggle with Ranma instead of Akane (i think Kaneda is the almost agreed on male name for akane)

heh... "Ranma PREPARE TO DATE!"

With most dates beginning with a light spar


Ukyo probably would just be after Ranma for price of restaurant and such (maybe they were supposed to train him in anything goes instead of marriage contract)

tatewaki/kodachi switch would be... very creepy...

heh Mr Hinako would be funny...

All in all a good idea don't think i've read anything like it.

have you given thought to how "power level" difference between chars will be?



Can almost see Ryoga and ranma meeting...

"Ranma Prepare to Date!"

bit of fighting fountain splashes ranma and turns into a girl...
shirt gets torn...

Ranma finally remembers Ryoga... "Oh yah Ryoga... long time no see"
Glomp goes Ryoga
Squeeze squeeze... "Um Ranma when did you get boobs?..."

The burglar incident probably would be Ryoga trying to sneak in to talk to ranma and P-chan showing up after Kaneda beaned Ryoga with a mallet / stone item

Can imagine Ranma in the bath and P-chan jumping in...

Agreement of the Tendo's probably would of been to join the schools by having Ranma and Akane train each other in the schools
or jointly run the dojo

Timeline wise do you have any thoughts?
beginning end middle?

As for names

Ryoga - Ryoko or Yoiko
Akane - Kaneda
Nabiki - not sure
Kasumi - heh leave the same (or Akira though this is a rather bad pun if you know japanese)(Kasumi = haze = maze = meis = Akira)(i think)
Uyko - Ukga

fanon Soun's wife's named Kimiko or some such so use that instead
(could potentially be Soun himself that promise to train ranma to join schools then of course died)

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Reversed Ranma (girl who gets a Nanniichuan curse) has been done a lot of times, as far as I know, and I'm sure that there's at least one or two "whole-scale reversal" fanfics out there (fics where everyone is the opposite gender to canon, so Ranma is a girl engaged to a male-Akane, pursued by a male Shampoo and Ukyo, lusted after by a female Tatewaki Kuno and male Kodachi Kuno), but I've never heard of any fanfic where Ranma's the same, but the people around him are switched. That's why I came up with this idea, and I'm pleased it's not being derided.

How would reversing the Kuno siblings gender be any creepier then they are in canon, though? Also, by "Glomp goes Ryoga", do you mean Ryoga-chan would glomp Ranma, or Ranma would glomp Ryoga-chan?

I'd like to answer your question about power levels... but I'm not too sure what you mean. Could you explain, please?

Yeah, I thought I mentioned before that the original plan was to have the Saotome and Tendo kids marry, but the fact all of them were boys scuttled that, so Soun & Genma have decided to just stick to having Ranma train Kaneda and/or co-run the Dojo.

As for timeline... I work from the anime canon, so probably post The Two Akanes. I've found out that the movies actually take place in the middle of season 6 and season 7, which was kind of a shock, but I guess I've got to try to get used to that at some point.

I wonder… if “Yoiko” is cursed in this timeline, then perhaps the situation is the reversal of the canon? Because she doesn’t want Ranma to know she’s been cursed herself, she pretends to just be a pet, while “Kaneda” is aware of this and either keeps the secret for her or tries to expose her because he thinks she’s up to no good by slipping past Ranma’s awareness?

Thanks for the idea that Ukyo-kun’s grievance might be a mixture of childhood resentment (“I must get strong and overcome him!”) and the fact they made a promise to train him, only to run out on the deal. I like that idea a lot.

Also, now that I think about it, which would be better? The original oneshot idea (Ranma trades places with his counterpart), or a serial actually focusing on, well, the "establishment" of Amerin? Ranma arriving to "Kimiko's" Tendo Dojo, the arrival of "Yoiko Hibiki", etc?

Off topic, does anyone else have to put up with this stupid entry scene unable to keep track and constantly slipping up and down the screen if you write past a certain point?

[Battlekrome]

Meant Ryoga would glomp ranma

As for the Kuno's

Tatewaki running around in a skintight leotard and pinning after ranma's female side...
and since there's at least one point that ranma changes in his arms (and kodachi setting up the morning fights but still going to st heberke)

now the question would be would kodachi still laugh like naga? (notably same voice actress did them both in japanese iirc)

well if you make Ranma unaware you'd have to make Kaneda suspect that Ryoga/Yoiko was trying to do perverted things to Ranma and Kaneda was preventing the defiling of the house or something...

kinda awkward to do more of the original tension came from male in female bed and that doesn't work reversed(double standards and such)

Oneshot would be easier to write stranger strange land and all
more comedy can see first fight with Yoiko going oddly... "Ranma prepare to date!" "Wait, what?" "You know, dinner, movie." "But, then why are you attacking me?" "That's how we always start our dates."
Could expand / continue the oneshot to serial easy plot point search for macguffin that switched them in first place (most likely mousse or happosai)

Serial might be more interesting but then it'd be more revealing to audience the changes and less chance for humor that way

heh Hikaru Gosunki(argh sp is wrong) would be a creepy girl obsessed with Kaneda

and expand view at top right of topic review helps i think

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

By serial I meant abandoning the "swapped Ranmas" plothook and instead simply going for the whole Ranma 1/2 Alternate Universe routine, but thank you for that input- I appreciate that.

But would "Tachi-chan" be running around in a leotard? If she's simply a female version of Tatewaki, then wouldn't she still be a pompous, deluded samurai, she'd just be the captain of Furinkan's Naginata club? That being the traditional bladed melee weapon for women? Though I've seen a few anime where men were wielding naginatas... most of the samurai footsoldiers in Princess Mononoke for a start, and Soun Tendo in the anime for another... but I've gone off topic.

Out of curiosity, do you have any thoughts on how the Ranma Saotome native to Amerin would handle the differences in Nerima?

[Battlekrome]

Hrmm...

Fanon for Ranma is that he's usually unflapable to weird stuff

but the usual things spring to mind
Ranma mistaking Ukyo as a guy and basically beating him into the ground if attacked
Ranma mistaking Ryoga for Yoriko and glomping him... "Squeeze Squeeze... wait you're not a girl..."
(if he doesn't know of curse hugging P-chan much to Ryoga's displeasure)
confusions over default reactions as example Ranma takes alot from females in orig series mostly due to amazon problem but in Aimern it wouldn't be an issue
so he might thus avoid akane's attacks... etc


Tachi-chan most likely kimono of some sort (either that or she goes and takes her warrior references from somewhere else as comedic reference... Xena is first one that pops to mind) naginata is the common female weapon (and its the main reason samurai wear leg armor)
the other possible source for Kodachi is Kunoichi but then you have her being sneaky / such

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

This kind of story is hard, hard, hard to write. With sexes/genders reversed (for everybody, and perhaps for Ranma) keeping things the same enough to be a recognizable AU of Ranma 1/2 would do great harm to the representation of Japanese culture and its very different gender roles.

The French say "the more things change, the more they stay the same". I don't think this is what they mean.

If I were to try the story idea, I'd do it as a "What-If?" instead of an alternate universe. (I'm thinking of the distinction DC comics makes here. Think Elseworlds.) And I'd make one further change: what if all the sexes were flipped -- INCLUDING RUMIKO TAKAHASHI? Have the flip-universe as written by a man.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Now as I think of it -- make the mangaka team the bunch from Family Compo.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Thanks for answering my question, battlekrome.

Okay, I think I need to structure out precisely what I need to do so I can set about actually working on the details for this story. Does this look like a complete list of things I need to work out for "Amerin" before I can actually hope to write this?

*Names for the Amerin characters: I'd like to use the feminine/masculine equivalent names, as appropriate, but renaming them entirely is quite valid for me if it's the only way. For example, calling Mousse-chan "Gel", or Shampoo-kun "Conditioner"... although, now that I think about it, the Japanese are really the only ones to need renaming, as Joketsuzoku names seem to be unisex- look at Cologne, a woman named after the male equivalent of perfume.

*Looks for the Amerin characters: this is particularly important. I get that, fundamentally, their features are just feminized/masculinized of their canon counterparts, but there's also the issues of minor differences, as battlekrome so handily pointed out. Hair style, dress style, accessories, cup size, I need help figuring that out.

*How they fit in to Amerin: basically, what changes have resulted in Nerima due to the gender differences. Does Kodachi-kun now attend an all-boys version of St. Hebereke, or is it that he's the one who goes to Furinkan and it's Tatchi-chan who has organized the girls of St. Hebereke into an imitation band of Amazons?

*Their backstories: how does the change in gender alter their meetings with Ranma and their reasons for being in Nerima?

[Battlekrome]

*Their backstories: how does the change in gender alter their meetings with Ranma and their reasons for being in Nerima?
Lets see

Tendo's (Join the school's through marriage falls through and most likely defaults to ranma / Kaneda train each other in the others school and run the dojo)
Kaneda guy semi martial artist so to speak aka Akane's level which while good (blackbelt or dan level) isn't up to Ranma's
-closet pervert most likely, but hates to admit it so will probably verbally abuse ranma about it (as Ranma isn't going to allow him to hit him like he does akane)

Nabiki probably identical personality (martial arts probably low skill but able to fight)

Kasumi / Akira
- most likely studing for med school and dating a nurse at the local clink Ono
- keeps the house clean with help from Mrs Tendo (Most likely master at housekeeping-fu) "wax on wax off daniel-san"
- master of the household and rules from behind the scenes
(Kasumi always struck me as one of the most manipulative characters in Ranma 1/2 as well as very sarcastic and prankster like to boot)
or to quote Good is not Nice

Mrs Tendo
Cries alot and mourns death of Mr tendo
does help with housework but Nabiki probably runs finances for the house for real
(might be on widowers pension)
trained under Happosai so half decent martial artist but definitely gone to seed

Amazons (assuming still amazons and not just a small village with martial artists in China)
Shampoo
(look up Shampoo 1/2 for a good idea of male shampoo looks)
-wants to defeat or kill Ranma to restore honor (will take defeat and most likely would only kill if forced to)
- potentially has jusenkyo curse (most likely Cat or Tiger if done deliberately)
(more equivalent to Ryoga rivalry)

Mousse
- female wears white robes that with a belt around waist with cleavage and long hair... also still blind as a bat..
-if shampoo curse cursed, duck as well
more annoyed with Ranma beating him and thus kiss of marriage (which may or may not of been given)
would ideally want both Shampoo and Ranma married to them but thats more after they fall for Ranma
probably better than shampoo but since shampoo never fights them they can't marry unless shampoo actually fights
(formal duel most likely needed to engage) will try underhanded stuff on Ranma to defeat him for shampoo

Cologne
From what i've read of the manga and seen of the anime
Cologne is bored stiff of the village and absolutely loves the floor show
teaches ranma mostly to keep shampoo on toes

Others

Ryoga / Yoiko
Deeply in love with Ranma just has odd idea of what romance / such is so thus
most of their dates begin with a light spar... (light spar means only one or two blocks get accidentally destroyed)
super strong and such
will help Ranma if she could hang around more than a few days (the destined couple of the story)

Ukyo
After Ranma for either training in the Anything goes school, or cost of Yattai they stole
(might be cross dressing ala konastu )( side though ends up at same place Konastu comes from with Konastu most defintely ends in Ukyo - konastu hook up)

Kuno's
Tatewaki - female attends Furikan runs the Gymnastics club
sets up assault on Kaneda but it fizzles as very few of the girls want to try to beat up Kaneda
mostly ends up with Tatewaki trying to beat Kaneda in morning

Kodachi - Attends St Hebereke all boys school and occasionally stops buy to try to beat up Kaneda for stringing along Tate
possibly falls for Ranma's female form (Only i can defeat Kaneda!)

(would possibly have Tate and Kaneda involved)

Others

Happosai - old lady who goes around groping guys and stealing their boxers
most put off by ranma who turns female at the drop of a hat...
(will not steal kasumi's stuff though) (aside wonder what Kasumi did to Happosai to make him not want to glomp her)

Taro - not much change more wants a more girly name than pantyhose b@stard

Herb - Most likely after a Male to help continue line... most likely ends up kidnapping someone
(well after she unlocks her stupid curse)

Saffron - no change really

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I, uh, wasn't exactly expecting anyone to answer those for me, but thank you, battlekrome. I don't think I'll use all those details, but you've definately given me plenty of food for thought.

[Battlekrome]

what can i say i know ranma 1/2 a little too thoroughly...

[truedemonicfire]

I really haven't seen anything like this, but it most likely will not be a oneshot.