At 03:26 AM 3/3/97 -0800, Clinton D. Bartee wrote:
>At 11:02 AM 2/27/97 -0800, you wrote:
>
>   I think you are seeing what you want to see in his movements not what is
>really going on.
>
>>        Starting with frame #34375, as Ryoko smashes an iron pipe out of the
>>way, Tenchi has a clear opening, and lunges foreward, Tenchi-ken in his left
>>hand, with Ryoko's neck as his obvious target.  Frame 34402, he is leaning
>>over 45 degrees, upper arm straight foreward, forearm across.
>
>
>   You are right up to a point, but the sword, please note I beleave sword/key
>and not him has made a classical move, if it was done in the vertical plain
>u could see it more clearly.   Right before it/he swings, his upper arm
>points in her direction, forearm more or less perpendicular to her with the
>sword pointing behind him.  The sword never leaves a horizontal plain til it
>is behind him.
> (snip, other move cited as exemplar of what we don't see)
>> Frame 34403
>>cuts to Ryoko's horrified expression, eyes pinned to the sword about to
>>decapitate her.  By frame 34457, our focus has conspicuously shifted to her
>>right wrist.  Frame 34493 shows beginning of her wrist being severed.  Frame
>>34502 shows Tenchi off balance, right hand on the ground, left arm with
>>sword pull back straight from the shoulder, with sword up at a cutting angle
>>favorable for the blow to the wrist; Ryoko's hand is severed and flying
>>away: Tenchi's face shows what I think is surprise and dismay.  Ryoko then
>>jumps back out of reach.
>
>   If you look at her arm as the hand is cut off it is nearlly parallel to
>the ground, she even loses some of her fingers, you can see them fall, this
>is because the blow is almost parallel to her lower arm.
>
>> (snip) I
>>came to the conclusion that the change-up required to miss Ryoko's neck is
>>doable, but extremely awkward and weak, and would probable wind the
>>swordsman up with a face-full of pavement.
>>        I think the clear indication is that Tenchi-ken was in fact doing
>>the fighting, and yanked Tenchi around, just as was happening seconds
>>before; and that it was Tenchi-ken that chose to sever Ryoko's hand rather
>>than her head.  I am not the first on the ML to post this conclusion, and I
>>doubt if I will be the last.
>
>   It is SHE who gets out of the way of the sword, they are nearly face to
>face when it swings his arm and she jumps back wards leaving her arm hanging
>out.
>   (I think) the sword was going for the power gem from the begining of the
>blow, she's not nearly as powerfull with it missing.   I like to think that
>Tsunami has more power than Ryoko on top of she's gotting out of the shrine.
>   She was not attacking him when the sword went after the gem and it does
>not continue the attack after the gem is gone.
>
>
        We both agree on the central point of my original post, that it was
the Tenchi-ken that went for the wrist, and not Tenchi.
        We do not see the sword pass in front of Ryoko, and this is where we
disagree.  Timing is essential.  Ryoko does not even react to the oncoming
sword till over halfway through the swing, and she is still jumping
backwards(still in the air), when her wrist is severed.  When our view cuts
away from Tenchi, his hand is nearly in line with her shoulder, and the
sword is coming across about 30 degrees above the horizontal.  If if the
sword did not pivot upward in order to come across in front of her, she
would be decapitated.
        The timing is such that Ryoko would have had to start jumping back,
and complete two-thirds of the backward jump, during a small fraction of the
sword swing.  Only if you invoke her teleport powers does this work.  It
looks like a normal jump, and she would have had to start jumping from zero
and move up and back nearly a meter while the sword was moving certainly
less than half that distance across; and that with the stroke under way and
the sword already moving fast. 
        I don't think so.

                Greg M.<matteson@ccnet.com>