Pierre writes:

<< 
Pierre:
> I have no idea why their mother's death would affect the psyche of
> the Tendou girls that much. >>

            I actually think that Takahashi has the girl's come off rather 
unscathed especially considering that their father pretty much stop living 
since his wife died probably because Ranma was a comedy series. I know a 
person whose mother died when he was in first grade and it damaged his pysche 
greatly. I have not seen him since I graduated high school but I think he had 
problems maturing since his mother died when he was six (I think that Akane 
was six when her mother died as well.) Through out middle and high school he 
was always very immature when it came to things like class decorum and other 
matters of politeness (he was pretty social and popular though.) I suppose 
you could argue that his disrespect for teachers and other authority figures 
comes from being an adolescent boy but he was much more disrespectful than 
pretty much everyone else and I think he will have a hard time learning how 
to repsect and be nice to people in authority and this probably stems from 
the fact that his mother died when he was very young.