Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only swinging on
the monkey bars. Remember to leave the grounds cleaner than you found
them and please don't feed the Trolls.

This story is archived at http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/

Release 1.1 (Dec. 07, 2000)

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Author's Notes: Since this chapter is almost entirely devoted to
characterization exercises, it seems to me to be an appropriate time
for me to spend a few words talking about where I'm coming from on that
subject.

Briefly, I'm a manga fan(atic), and I'm using the canon characteriz-
ations (as I see them) for a starting point.

The only exception to this is Ranma him/herself, who I basically ran
through the mill before the story started. That is, I still started
from canon, but Ranma has already undergone some variance from that by
this point.

The other main differences arise from a difference in primary goals
between Takahashi-sensei's story and my own. Briefly, and IMHO, Ranma
Nibbunnoichi as written is the story of how Saotome Ranma and Tendo
Akane, despite many obstacles and difficulties, do _not_ get married.
Whereas, RAALS is the story of how Tendo Akane becomes a Hero, and
Saotome Ranma becomes a Hero _again_.

Since the demands of the story drive characterization this invokes some
differences from standard, but it's not that the characters themselves
are particularly different, as that being in different sort of story
requires them to act in different ways than they normally would.

With that said:

Saotome Ranma (nee Bushiko): Ranma is a Hero. It's one of the two main
cornerstones of his personality. The other cornerstone is his sense of
identity. Broadly put, Ranma _always_ knows _exactly_ who he is and how
he's supposed to act. This self knowledge is so strong that he is,
effectively, unbeatable; it's not that you can't beat him up, so much
as that you can't make him stay down. He _never_ quits, and he _always_
keeps his main goal clearly in mind.

On the other hand, that same sense of identity is also his biggest
weakness. He is quite capable of running right over good sense and
social duties alike when he gets the idea that something is important;
he has very little ability to turn back from a contest even if he would
prefer to; he has hot-buttons all over him, and they can lead him
around if they are pushed and he will occasionally get the idea that he
should do something or act like something simply because 'a guy would
...' or 'a martial artist would ...'.

My Ranma is several years of experience older than that, and has
mellowed a fair degree. Also, he/she has refined that sense of identity
down to the most important elements. In particular, for instance, the
Jhusenkyou curse, which hits the canon Ranma as hard as it does because
it strikes directly at the heart of his greatest strength, his sense of
identity ("I'm a _guy_!" and then, suddenly _he's not_.)

In trade, however, she has lost a lot of her moral edge and her Hero's
instincts for doing the _right_ thing at the _right_ time. That is, the
strong sense of identity that sometimes blinds the canon Ranma to the
likely result of his actions is turned around so that it is blinding
this Ranma to the truth of her _motivations_, instead.

Tendo Akane is also a Hero, although in canon not a very well developed
one. If anything her own sense of herself as a hero is even stronger
than Ranma's, as evidenced, among other instances, by the Martial Arts
Gymnastics storyline.

This strength is somewhat the backwards of Ranma, in that, while Ranma
always knows who he is, but sometimes loses track of where he's going,
Akane always knows where she's going, but sometimes loses track of who
she is. This frequently blinds her to her own abilities and _dis_
abilities and also causes her to be more impetuous than even _Ranma_
manages.

A lot of this problem in self-realization may stem from a lack of
feedback from outside sources. In another sense, while canon Ranma is
allowed to be who he is, but frequently encounters people who are
unwilling to allow him to do the things that are right for the person
he is to do, canon Akane has few people trying to prevent her from
doing what she wants, but has great difficulty getting people to take
her identity seriously. (Thus the frequent battle cry: "I'm a Martial
Artist, too!" (Thus, also, her great dismay at the names Ranma tends to
call her: Akane is a girl _and_ a Martial Artist, but most people don't
think of her as a 'proper' martial artist, and here Ranma is calling
into question her status as a 'proper' girl ....)

So a lot of her actions are a quest for respect, self respect as much
as any other, but since she tends to doubt her _own_ abilities some-
times, too, she's far too likely to try to proceed directly to the
desired results rather than actually trying to _earn_ them. Thus her
problems with cooking, for example, and also the Super-Soba and Battle
Dogi story arcs, among others.

In RAALS she is unencumbered by the handicap of being a girl in a
shonen (boy's) manga who doesn't wear a bikini or pack a BFG9000, and
will therefor get a much better chance to show what she can do.

Nabiki and Kasumi are both Girl Archetypes, in one sense or another.
Nabs is Modern Girl, with her pulse on the finger of the social scene
and no patience with the 'old ways'. She's effective, and she's cute,
but she's scary, too: you can't be sure that she'll stay in check, and
she's too scary to go up against directly. Kasumi is traditional girl,
serene and untroubled, i.e. she's Mom. She's nice, and a good
housewife, but she's scary, too: you never know, she might _be_ Mom.
Or, she might suddenly wash your mouth out with soap and send you to
bed without supper. You can't be sure.

Tatewaki and Kodachi are brats in the manga, plain and simple. Tate-
waki, also, may well not be terribly bright, but it's hard to tell,
because of how much of a brat he is. Likewise Kodachi manages to
counterfeit being crazy pretty well. The thing about being a brat,
however, is that it's an hole that you can easily pull out of, assuming
that you can grow up fast enough. And if a big enough shock makes you
grow up ...

Sayuri is Everygirl, like Yuka, and Hiroshi and Daisuke as well.
Admittedly, when I started RAALS, I had no idea I needed an Everygirl
to be heroic, and had no idea that Sayuri would turn into one, but ....

Further notes will be provided as characters show up.

'Til next,
Eric Hallstrom, 01/16/2001