Stiffanie picks a topic I'm good at:

> My point is, _Akane_ would probably not do anything like that, even if
> Ranma is almost certainly to become someone else's husband.  Most of the
> time, she even treats Shampoo and Ukyou as her friends (that is, when
> they're not glomping on to Ranma).

Well, see, here we have a difference of opinion.  If Ranma actually got 
tangled into a marriage with Shampoo or Ukyou, you can be damn sure she'll 
be there trying to break it up.  If not by her own accord, then her father 
will make her.  Or so I think.  My opinion and 2 cents won't buy you a 
damn thing, so....

> OK, I think that if Akane were not there, Ukyou would be the best choice
> for Ranma.  But since Akane IS there....

Nah.  I still think Shampoo would be better.  But see above for the 
disclaimer.

> One more thing.  It's SO obvious that Ranma loves Akane.  Surely the
> other girls must see that, especially Ukyou, since she claims to be his
> best friend.  I mean, Shampoo probably would have a reason (if not a
> good one) why she still keeps on chasing RAnma.  In her own twisted way
> she thinks she's right, to force Ranma to marry her because of her
> tribe's laws.  What about Ukyou?  Aside from Akane, she's probably the
> one person who really loves him for what he is, not just wanting to
> claim him like a trophy (like Shampoo).  But she MUST know that he
> doesn't love her like that.

Oh ho!   Now, it's so obvious to _us_, but not to the other characters, 
with the exception of Ryouga, but then, he's privy to Akane's inner 
thoughts because he's P-chan.  

Let's think about this.  Sure, there's a lot of instances where Ranma and 
Akane's burgeoning love is evident to us, the reader, but in how many of 
those instances are the other characters actually present?  How many times 
does this sort of thing happen in front of Shampoo?  Ukyou?  Not bloody 
many, that's how often.  

But, what _do_ they see?  They see Akane beating Ranma, or Akane screaming 
about hating her engagement, or the engagement being over, or Ranma being 
a pervert.  If not that, then they see Ranma putting Akane down, saying he 
could never marry an "insert-line-here girl like that."  Or, he'll be 
whining about being married in general.  

They see a lot of this sort of thing, and not much of the prior at all.  
That's why the girls have no idea.

Also, Shampoo may want him for a trophy, this is true, but remember what 
I've said above.  She thinks that she is saving him from what he thinks is 
a fate worse than death, and can't understand why the boy stays with 
Akane.

However, don't cheapen her love for the boy.

> Random note: Does Shampoo _really_ love Ranma?  Why?  Somehow I think
> that she only wants him to satisfy her tribe's laws.  And if she does
> think she loves him, maybe she just convinced herself that she does...?

YES.  She does love Ranma.  She gave up her honor to allow Ranma to live.  
She gave up her all, in the eyes of her tribe, to give Ranma his life, 
even after he had lied to her (of course, she didn't know it yet).
She may not be as self-sacrificing as Akane can be, but I find that to be 
more a fault of less character appearances.  i.e. she doesn't have as many 
chances to show us her feelings for Ranma as Akane does.

Perhaps she started out simply to satisfy her tribes laws, but I believe 
it quickly progressed into a deep love, just like Akane.  Shampoo simply 
expresses it more openly than we are accustomed to, which leads us to 
suspect her of insincerity.

> How does one insert a disclaimer, and when does one need to do that?
> Sorry, but I'm rather new at this ML thing.

Sorta look at what I said about my opinion.  That's kind of the disclaimer 
we mean.  Or, if you're talking about a anime only incident, make sure you 
say it is such, or rest assured, someone will point it out to you.

> P.S.  do you think there's any chance they would make another Ranma
> movie?  Or OAV or whatever.  I mean, there are some great stories in the
> manga, like Ranma's fight with Herb (haven't read that one yet), and of
> course, with Saffron.

Doubtful.  Ranma is old news in Japan these days.  In fact, it's really 
hard to find Ranma goods outside of big cities like Tokyo and Oosaka, and 
so forth.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Colin Keefe  |    Worshippers of Shampoo, Equal Opportunity Ecchi   |
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|  keefe@ccn.yamanashi.ac.jp  |   www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/9605   |
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|  Dedicated Blood Bowl-er, Space Wolf Commander, Epic and 40K, Anime  |
|  freak, ElfQuest fanatic, Robotech junkie, and Samurai Shodown nut.  |
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