>From: "Kevin Lew -- 'The Lai-Lai Boy'" <kasumi@eden.com>
> Eric Baker wrote:
>> When Jinnai is going 
>> off to the deep end he is thinking of a number of instances when Makoto has 
>> one-upped him. In one of them Makoto grabs the last sandwich just before 
>> Jinnai was about grab it. It reminded me of the history of Ranma and Ryoga 
>> in Junior High. I'm curious if that was an intentional reference. Any ideas?
>I really doubt that Pioneer would want to copy a joke from Shogakukan.  
>Maybe they would.  *shrug*
>From my understanding, meals are pretty competitive in Japanese schools. 
>And, they do serve "pan" (bread) as a meal sometimes.  Ranma and El Hazard
>have made a gag out of it. 

Having spent some time in Taiwan, a country that pirated Japan's school
system, among other things (^_^), I can vouch for that.  The school store
never wants to order more box lunches than they can sell, so they always
run short.  The room is jam-packed with students who want to make sure they
don't go hungry.  When the box lunches (or cash) run out, the next best 
alternative is the bread.

Although it is a bit exaggerated in the case of Ranma and Ryoga.

I should also mention that Ranma and Ryoga are lucky in that they went to
an all-boys junior high.  Nothing is more frustrating than to watch the
clerk (usually a high-school age ronin) keep you waiting for 10 minutes,
hungry and drooling at the diminishing stack of lunches, while he serves
all the girls who come in after you.  Female clerks also have preferences
for the girls, too.  It's so unfair.

>Ifurita, what a babe!  (Actually, I think her name was really supposed to
>be spelled "Efreeta", or however you spell that demon's name).

Hmph.  An American subtitle of a Japanese name derived from an Arabic mythos,
and you expect accuracy?  What next?  "Keiichi!!"  "Verthande!!"

-- 
Wei-Hwa Huang, whuang@cco.caltech.edu, http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~whuang/
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Caught Porfiry, Raskolnikov sung his swan Sonia when he went Dounia to Siberia.