On Mon, 30 Oct 1995 22:14:57 -0800 (PST),
Joseph Torres  <JoeT@sanctum.com> wrote:

>SO?
>
>:)
>
   So I thought you'd appreciate it.

>
>>   Question: What on earth is Kodachi doing at Furinkan? That is, how
>>has she the opportunity to be there? Has she no school to go to herself?
>
>Well, if you read this month's VIZ release...  Maybe she just took off!  I
>don't think it matters much to Kodachi!  And it is only 8:20 in the morning
>(note clock), so mayber her classes start later?

   In the October '95 _Ranma 1/2_ she _does_ leave early, but the school
day's already half over. Why would she leave _that_ early if she was even
let?
   Even if her classes _do_ start later, that's not a fatal criticism.
Let's suppose, for instance, that Furinkan High starts at 8:30, and St
B's starts at 9:00 (a not unreasonable time for school to start in
Europe, anyway, and I imagine also in Japan; American schools start
unreasonably early in the day in my opinion.)
   Then Kodachi arrives at 8:20. Assuming she leaves then at about 8:30
(as Lord Ranma has to go to class), she would have on a school-day
half an hour or thereabouts to get to St. B's.
   If Kodachi has half an hour to get to St. B's, then we have to try to
figure out how fast she can leap. She has two handicaps:
   a. She's only sixteen, and a gymnast, not a runner, so there's a
limit to how fast she can go, and
   b. She's in her uniform, which would slow her down considerably. (That
last might be construed as destroying my whole argument; but I am of the
understanding that, during the school year, Japanese schoolchildren are
required to wear their uniforms both in and out of school. [I may be
misinformed, of course; could someone reading this who's been to school in
Japan help clear that up?] Besides, Kodachi, if she's not in her leotard,
in all the places I've seen her drawn is wearing her uniform, just as Ranma
is invariably in his Chinese outfit; and I find it easier to believe that
Kodachi would wear her uniform [which, may I say, is more becoming on her
than the Furinkan uniform is on Akane...heh heh heh] on a non-school day
than that Ranma would be allowed to go about in Chinese clothing in a
Japanese school. Even Kuno changes into his uniform for class.)
   How fast would you say she could travel, given those handicaps? I
seriously doubt it could be more than perhaps a seven minute mile, putting
St. B's, at most, about four miles from Furinkan.
   But we simply are not told the distance. For all we know St. B's is on
the other side of Tokyo, which after all is a big place. I'm not totally
convinced she could make it on time.
   Besides, doesn't Kodachi give you the impression of being a devil in
disguise? ^_^

   Some more evidence for the prosecution: Takahashi seems to use two
styles for her female characters. For want of better classification terms
I'll use Yuzuru's terms from _Laughing Target_. Asked his opinion of
Asuza by Satomi, Yuzuru responds, "She's beautiful..." Which upsets
Satomi, so he tries to make amends by saying "But you're cute!" (It
doesn't work though...)
   Takahashi's "cute" girls include Satomi, Shinobu from _Urusei Yatsura_,
the Tendo girls, Ranma-chan and Mana from the _Mermaid Forest_ cycle, who
are the protagonists and as such usually as normal as one can be in the
Rumic World.
   Then there are her "beautiful" characters, with more realistic facial
features and possessing a more classic beauty. In this class would be
Asuza, Towa from _Mermaid Forest_, Nae from _Mermaid's Promise_, and
Masato's mother (her name escapes me now, and I can't find it in the manga)
from _Mermaid's Scar_. All these characters, notice, are possessed or
enchanted in some way. (Immortality, I should think, counts as enchantment,
and the mermaids themselves certainly are magical.)
   And Kodachi's features, in my opinion, put her into the "beautiful"
category. A sign, perhaps, that she's not an ordinary girl?

>
>>herself. (We are not told how far St. Bacchus' School for Girls [St.
>>Hebereke <<snip>>
>>We may be able to explain if we take note that St. B's must needs be a
>>Catholic school.
>
>Maybe St. B's is really a mental institution and she escaped?

   What gave you that idea? The other girls at St. B's seem reasonably
well-balanced, anyway. (Just what Kodachi's classmates think of her is hard
to say. I'm sure they don't appreciate having to clean up after her
dramatic exits...)

Paul Corrigan