>Ryoga is my favorite character in Ranma, but is he really holding himself 
>in reserve by not telling Akane how he feels about her?  I thought he 
>just couldn't actually muster enough courage to do so.
>Carlos
>
>
From my viewpoint, he is holding himself back. I think that he is partially 
taking into consideration his (extremely rough) friendship with Ranma. It 
appears to me that he does not want to breakup the engagement between Ranma 
and Akane, dispite the outward appearances that they would want that to 
happen. I think he is the only character (outside of Ranma and Akane) that 
sees that they are truly good friends (at least). And while he believes that 
he loves her, he wouldn't want to hurt Ranma (to a lesser degree) or Akane 
(to the greater degree) by destroying any chance of a relationship between 
them. Sort of taking greater honor in defeat than in victory, in a manner of 
speaking. 

(For some odd reason, my own internal honor code sees a voluntary loss as a 
greater source of honor than an easy win.)

Raymond