>
> From: Gordon Jenkins <Gordonski@excite.com>
>
>
> What i have been wondering, is how long is the anime series? Are they still
> making them or what? I know that the manga did, and i was sorry to see it
> happen. I would have liked Ranma and Akane to be hitched, but it was an
> excellent ending nonetheless.
>
> I know that the ending of the series, the two graphic novels, they could
> easily make a movie out of that, it would be great! Is anyone still working
> on that sort of thing? I would be very disapointed to find out that no one
> is, hopefully that is not the case.
>
>

The anime series lasted on TV for 18 eps of the first series, and 142 eps of the

2nd series, totally, from mid 1989 to late 1992. It ended with the first Nodoka
story (from the manga). They continued with the OAVs, which lasted til'
late 1997 (I recall). All the OAVs have been brought out in the US by
Viz. The manga ended in early 1996 in Shonen Sunday. Since there is no real
interest in Japan concerning Ranma (all but the hard-core having gone on to
other, more recent shows), it is unlikely that we will ever see any new ones
(the 10th anniversary of the anime passed in 1999 with no specials). However,
the newest of Takahashi-sensei's series, Inuyasha, will get the anime treatment,

starting in October (I recall). Looks like a good one to me.

Shinobu:

As for Platoon, judging from what we have heard from my uncle (a colonel in
Vietnam
at the time), it paints way too nice a picture. My eldest brother was there for
2
TOD, and to this day, will not talk about it (the info we gathered was from a
childhood
friend that enlisted the same time as he, and my uncle, who kept tabs on him).
He won
2 Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, a commision to Sergeant, and hell on earth.
I remember how, when he came home for the first time after the first tour, he
tried to
sleep on the couch in the front room, like he would before he went. We awoke
to his screaming from the nightmares. So he slept in the shed he and my other
brothers
kept on the property out of embarassment, but tended to sleep with a bayonet
beside
it. He will not talk about it to this day, but from what our uncle told us, and
his friend,
it is almost like the fires of hell would have been more of a mercy.