Wizard:

Have you tried places like Kinokuniya and Sasuga? They seem to
keep pretty up to date on their releases. And Viz is still going on the
monthlies to what will become their vol. 5. So when the monthlies
wrap up on the current vol., then expect to see the collected vol. 5
a few months later.


ami@ML.usagi.org wrote:

> The Subjects are:
>   "Don Wang" <dwan  Ranma is doomed!
>
> ------- Message
>
> Message-ID: <000901c0add9$8ca4e860$6339c23f@dslextreme.com>
> From: "Don Wang" <dwang@hmc.edu>
> To: <ranma@ML.usagi.org>
> References: <200103160315.f2G3F9K21180@top.win.ne.jp>
> Subject: Ranma is doomed!
> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 21:25:43 -0800
> Reply-To: ranma@ML.usagi.org
> X-ML-archive: http://www.win.ne.jp/~doi/ML/
> Precedence: bulk
>
> > > Namely, the long-running
> > > Nodoka stories, Herb, Lime and Mint, the Shinnosuke
> > > arc, Hinako Ninomiya
> > Yeah, that's a good point, the Herb story arc is
> > pretty cool, as is the Shinnosuke one. Maybe Ranma is
> > not doomed after all.
>
>     Herb story is no more special than the Hiryu Shoten Ha story arc.  So
> far as character development is concerned, I'd say it's worse than HSH.

In your opinion. As far as character development goes, I don't read Ranma
for that. To me, Ranma is a very good action series with romantic
interludes. But Ranma is, IMO, foremost, an action series.

>
>
>     There's absolutely nothing interesting about Nodoka's presence.  She's
> just there, like a lot of the other people.

Actually, I find her presense interesting. It seems to keep the pressure on
Ranma and Genma up that much more, with her being there. And for once,
Takahashi-sensei addresses the old "where are the mothers" problem.

>
>
>     Shinnosuke story arc is around volume 27 or so.  I think they're on
> around volume 19 right now in the GNs.

Shinnosuke's arc begins with the tankobon vol. 25 (last two chapters) and
takes up all of tankobon vol. 26. And, IMO. is excellent.

>
>
>     Out of all the people I know that watches Anime/Manga, only one person
> is still buying GNs, and he's getting pretty frustrated after waiting for
> who knows how long, paying way too much for what GNs are really worth, only
> to have another generic volume of Ranma 1/2.  It's okay when you're reading
> volume 1-38 all at once to have your generic story, but that doesn't work
> when you've been waiting for a long time for the new one only to find that
> it's like every other one you've read so far.  Sure the Anime club still
> watches Ranma 1/2 OAVs which we show to fill in the odd half an hour we've
> left over after a movie, but then again, they'd watch just about anything.

Most people are interested in either anime or manga, that I have seen, not
both (unfortunately). And many of those would rather follow the more purely
visual medium of anime, also unfortunately. It is a lazier medium, IMO, since
it rarely seems to demand much thought on the part of the viewer (Eva
being one of the rare exceptions, and any Oshii movie). I first saw Ranma
from the Shonen Sunday issues, then the fansubs from The Ranma Project
(well before Viz had them). But I enjoy the manga much more than I enjoy the
anime, in this case, as well as the case of Maison Ikkoku. In UY's
case, I enjoy both, as well as in Eva's case.

>
>
>     Ranma 1/2, in general, is a very consistent average manga.  No one
> volume is particularly better than any other, though of course there are
> exceptions.  That works when a new volume comes out every 2-3 months, but
> not at the rate the English GNs are coming out.  It's for that reason I
> stopped buying Inuyasha when an unknown delay caused volume 18 to be late by
> about 4-5 months than usual.

Well, the primary reason for the tankobons is so that one can collect the
favorites from the weeklies or monthlies, and have a good reason to
pitch the bulky weeklies/monthlies (I mean, why have a lot of rice
sitting around when you can have all sausage? ^_<)

>
>
>     Frankly, why are you guys so surprised?  The series ended a *long* time
> ago in Japan, and it's certainly not getting any huge following in the US.
> Even if it had the potential, with the rate Viz pumps out GN you can be
> pretty sure most people will move on, and that's exactly what happened.
>
>

Not true, IMO. Ranma has a consistent manga following in the US, and unless Viz
drops the title, which is unlikely anytime soon, it will likely remain so.
UY has a consistent manga following in the US, but it is much smaller, and
so Viz can't really afford to keep that one going, at least not outside
of an anthology. Many buy the GNs, but many more likely buy the
monthlies, and that is what keeps the series afloat.

As usual, this is The Relic, from the outer fringes of the Reality that is
the Ranma ML...



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