Brad:

> I doubt it's a school at all.  My take on the matter is that she sets up
> the griddle to make okonomiyaki by the ocean.  Due to all the sea spray,
> the okonomiyaki will get wet and mushy if she doesn't protect it
> somehow.  So she must simultaneously use the spatula to prepare the
> okonomiyaki, and to deflect the spray away from it- vastly improving her
> speed, upper body strength, and skill with the spatula as a weapon.  So
> while you say Ukyo would be a piece of cake if Akane were to take the
> spatula away, I think she could beat the snot out of Akane if she could
> land a blow inside Akane's formally-trained martial arts defenses.  :)

	Not exactly.  The picture looks like she's trying to fight the tide
itself, which I think goes to demonstrate her resolve to train, not so
much that fighting the tide itself is a viable technique.  This is
because if Ukyou can even withstand something so powerful as tide, she
can probably kill from the air pressure created by the spatula's swing
along.

	I've the feeling that when mentions she's trained by the tide, it means
how hard she is training, not that she is actually practicing to build
up strength by fighting the tide.  The ocean tide is very powerful.  If
you can even barely stand it, you'll be at around Ryouga's endurance
level, I imagine.  If she can swing her spatula and even have the
slightest effect on the tide, she would be able to beat up Ranma pretty
well, I'd imagine.

> No, it's because you don't kill a potential ally if they have a chance
> to do your work for you.  You kill them *after* they've helped you get
> rid of the greater threat.  Standard 'bad guys' MO:  form an uneasy
> alliance with other 'bad guys' until you take out the 'good guy', then
> you squabble amongst yourselves about who has the greater right  to the
> prize.  If this weren't a comedy series, Shampoo and Ukyou could
> probably have teamed up and taken Akane out of the picture easily, in a
> way that would implicate Kodachi- and then fought it out between each
> other.

	Maybe.  But still that means relatively she is not a big theat.  If so,
she would be eliminated first.


Don
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"Future?  What about future?"
"We have no future."