Desperately Seeking Ranma: Difference between revisions

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: The time machine.

** [[Averted Trope|Averted]] with the SIs, who are designed to be -- and gladly embrace the role of -- assistants and helpers to their owners.

{{quote|"You know, most people I've met would find that attitude very strange," she remarked, making both Nodoka and Nabiki smile. "But to you this is basically just another morning, isn't it?"}}

* [[Call to Adventure]]: Once she reaches a certain level of skill, Nabiki discovers that she can’t avoid things like petty crimes that she could stop. And she doesn’t want to. She also finds herself detecting crimes almost subliminally using just her own senses, unaugmented by Jun.

* [[Casual Danger Dialogue]]: Pretty much anything Nabiki says or does in her "Ms. Aoyama" guise. [[Bonus Points]] when she breaks out the folder.

** Most everyone at the party in chapter 97 as the "demonic duck" approaches.

* [[CIA Evil, FBI Good]]: Definitely in play in the aftermath of the Halleckton affair, although totally off-screen. We hear second-hand about the CIA's interest in having their own portal bombs, and the threat made by the Japanese ambassador should the CIA try to "enlist" any Japanese magical girls against their wills to help get or make them. Meanwhile, the FBI's been shown to be stalwart and honest and on the side of the good guys (with the exception of a couple agents corrupted by Anthony Murray). We also see that the diplomats involved feel this trope is an accurate assessment of the two organizations.

* [[Clark Kenting]]: The magical disguises and personality shifts undergone to differentiate Ranma, Kasumi and Nabiki from their various alternate personas, to the point that Nabiki can talk to her own younger sister as Ms. Aoyama and never be suspected.

* [[Collectible Cloney Babies]]: The unauthorized "Chou" and "Yori" action figures, which never made it to the market due to a legal challenge, are effectively this for magical girl fans. The only way someone can get one is as a gift directly from Chou and Yori themselves, who own the entire production run. The trope is actually played with because due to their legal status it is ''illegal'' to sell the figures, although not to own them.

* [[Comes Great Responsibility]]: Nabiki initially worries about “going crazy with power” once her training starts giving her superhuman abilities, but Ranma and Kasumi -- and later Uthryyl -- reassure her that the very fact that she’s worried about it means that it's unlikely.

* [[The Conspiracy]]: A small international conspiracy is uncovered in the wake of the Halleckton incident. By chapter 93, though, it begins to appear that it was just a small part of a ''much'' larger conspiracy, which includes the magical terrorists from earlier in the story and at least one military contractor.

* [[Continuation Fic]]: For ''[[Ranma ½]]''.

* [[Cool Shades]]: Ms. Aoyama wears a pair of wraparound sunglasses which hide her blue cat-like eyes.

** Agent Naito wears a pair (along with a sharp suit) on the Moon.

* [[The Dreaded]]: Ms. Aoyama, to just about anyone who's ever met her. And a few who haven't. Yet.

* [[Dyson Sphere]]: Given to the survivors of the ancient war which created the time machine, by the descendants of the side which created the machine, in reparations.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: At least one person who's met Ms. Aoyama speculates that she may be one of these wearing a humanoid mask. Another thinks she's the kind of thing that Eldritch Abominations are ''afraid of''.

** And if they don't find and destroy the time machine, it just may do something that at the very least will reset the timeline, wiping out at a minimum the previous 20 years or so (which it had already done at least once prior to the start of the story), and at worst will trigger a complete deletion of the universe from the greater multiverse.

* [[Energy Ball]]: Ranma's ki attacks (as well as those of everyone else in the Sisterhood) take both this form and beams. As part of the ever-increasing power levels in this story, the ''size'' of Ranma's energy balls also increases; by the end of the extant material, he can generate balls of energy approaching ''two meters in diameter'' (which he can then launch with a range of ''miles''). And actively subverted by the technique born out of Nabiki's discovery of the internal structure of ki balls, which allows those balls to be compressed down to an unbearably-bright pinpoint of light, geometrically increasing its power and destructiveness.

* [[Exact Words]]: Nabiki grows quite adept at technically true but thoroughly misleading explanations for the more unusual things in her life.

* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: The small, furry demons that Chiyoko chases about Minato.

* [[Faking the Dead]]: The bank robbers and the team dispatched to extract them from arrest were all former soldiers, government agents or criminals believed dead but whose bodies were never found.

* [[Famed in Story]]: Ms. Aoyama's reputation is constantly spreading and growing -- to the point that halfway through the extant story it extends ''off Earth and into other universes.''

* [[Fanon]]: Implies the "ki manifestation" explanation for Akane's [[Hyperspace Mallet]]; plays with the fanon "psychobitch" characterization for Akane by embracing it wholeheartedly, then giving it a cause that can be (and is) cured.

* [[Fascinating Eyebrow]]: One of Ms. Aoyama's trademark expressions, along with her not-a-smile.

* [[Foreshadowing]]:

** The security system's "emergent behavior", and Ranma's comment, "I almost wish something big would attack [Nabiki]" so he could see what the system would do.

* [[Freak-Out]]: One police officer present during the bank robbery is so badly affected by Ms. Aoyama's presence that he almost ''berserks'', nearly attacking her in a panic even though his superiors were ''talking to her at the time''.

** Japanese authorities explain the flash of light caused by destroying the demon duck in chapter 97 as a small meteorite breaking up over Tokyo, [[wikipedia:Chelyabinsk meteor|Chelyabinsk]]-style.

* [[Genki Girl]]: Hotaru, once she shakes off her depression, always seems to be dashing about, giggling and laughing.

{{quote|"I bet my uniform would fit perfectly."

'''''"No way in hell am I wearing that thing!"''''' Ranma crossed his arms and glared at her. She put on her best puppy-dog eyes.

* [[Hero Insurance]]: "Chou" and "Yori" have set up a fund to reimburse anyone suffering property damage due to [[Magical Girl]] activities. Originally intended for the Minato area, but by the end of the portal bomb arc, it's paying out to the occasional international location.

* [[Hidden in Plain Sight]]: Ranma and Kasumi once they start visiting the Tendo home as "Yori" and "Chou".

* [[Hot Chick in a Badass Suit]]: Ms. Aoyama.

* [[Humanoid Abomination]]: Those who don't dismiss her as "just" an alien often believe Ms. Aoyama is something far more powerful, and far worse.

* [[Just in Time]]: Chou and Yori disable the portal bomb at the British Ministry of Magic seconds before it would have gone off. Seemingly subverted moments later when after the Minister for Magic objects to their high-handed methods, they trap him inside a powerful ward with it, and start it back up again.

* [[Just Toying with Them]]: Shampoo and Akane during the bank robbery, initially as a ploy to distract the robbers from harming the other hostages. Once the hostages are protected, though, they take a few minutes to let the robbers understand just how outmatched they are.

* [[Ki Attacks]]: Ranma and Kasumi have continued exploring mastery of ki far beyond anything seen in canon.

** They also manage to train up Nabiki, Aiko, Tamiko, Fumiko and Misaki to the point that they can all use ki attacks.

* [[Open Secret]]: Chiyoko's [[Magical Girl]] identity and mission. Even though she thinks she's been keeping it all secret, everyone else in her neighborhood -- including her mother -- knows that she's the magical girl in pink with the staff-weapon. They just don't let on that they know.

* [[Our Mermaids Are Different]]: For one, they're shapeshifted alternate forms of the main characters, employed mainly for having fun.

* [[Partial Transformation]]: The "mermaid" and "flyer" forms acquired with the so-called "illusion" spell.

* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: Ranma. Full stop. During the Halleckton event, about a third of the way through the extant material, he makes a crater big enough to become a ''lake'' -- with a single attack. Kasumi is not far behind him. ''And they keep getting more powerful through the course of the story.''

* [[Replacement Goldfish]]: The elderly (and borderline senile) Mr. Kei Ishikawa ends up somehow adopting one of Chiyoko's bitey little demons as a replacement for his [[Mister Muffykins|yappy little poodle Mana]], whom Chiyoko had accidentally vaporized (except for her tail and back legs).

* [[The Reveal]]: The extended sequence after "Chou" and "Yori" register Ami, Rei and Hotaru with their home's security spell, after which they finally tell them all their secrets.

* [[Roof Hopping]]: Nabiki gets extensive (and extreme) training in roof-hopping from Ranma and Kasumi. The other girls are already adept at it.

** "Wait 'til you reach stage four," in regards to training.

** [[Recurring Extra]] Daniel Goodner and his belief that ''someone'' is making an amazing martial arts movie.

{{quote|"How are you ''doing'' all this?" he asked, taking a step back as she took one towards him.

"A lot of hard work and training, mostly," she replied happily. "It's a family thing. You know, it's good for you that some friends fixed my anger issues, if it was a year ago you'd probably all be in intensive care by now if you were lucky." She giggled as he stared, paling at the sound. "I used to be really dangerous."}}

* [[Saving the World]]: Standard duty of both the Sailor Senshi and the group that's formed around Chou and Yori. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] when the time machine is defeated, which literally saves ''the entire universe''.

* [[Scare'Em Straight]]:

* [[Super Speed]]: Similarly, Nabiki's ki training has boosted her foot speed and reflexes well into the superhuman range.

* [[Super Strength]]: While the other girls have it from the start, Nabiki is surprised to find that she's ''accidentally'' acquired the ability to lift nearly half a ton. And she gets stronger once she starts proper training.

* [[Take Our Word for It]]: Aiko, Tamiko, Fumiko and Misaki's original Magical Girl outfits are frequently described as being embarrassingly [[Stripperiffic]] -- but we never find out exactly ''how'', or even get any hint of what they actually look like. All we learn is that they are/were dark blue with gold trim, have a miniskirt, and showed at least as much skin as a revealing swimsuit (possibly a bikini).

* [[Talkative Loon]]: Setsuna shows signs of this right before they stun her and take her to a professional to treat the damage caused by the time machine.

** Václav Sklár (willingly) serves his jail time in a facility on a demon world that knows how to effectively detain mages.

** When {{spoiler|Usagi convinces Minako to help her stage an act of terrorism in order to facilitate an assassination attempt on Yori}}, the girls are forced to give them both a timeout on opposite sides of a dead world used as a proving ground and waste dump.

* [[Undisclosed Funds]]: We don't find out how much Shampoo and Akane get for being Hollywood stunt women -- the offers are all written down and we only see their reactions to them. But ''all'' the offers have "a lot of zeroes", and are their monthly pay. Richard, an L.A. police officer, says the amount is twice what he makes in a ''year''. And all other discussion of their pay simply comments on just how large it is, not how ''much''.

* [[The Unmasking]]: Several times Ranma must reveal his true identity and gender to friends who have previously known him as a woman and under other names.

* [[Unstoppable Rage]]: Akane, before she is cured of her brain parasites. To the point that her therapist had to use a tranquilizer gun designed for elephants on her in nearly every session.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|Unusually Uninteresting Event]]: "The Great Twitch", which occurred when the team destroyed the time machine, is universally acknowledged as a thing that happened (literally -- beings 8 billion light years from Earth noticed it), but no one seems particularly bothered by or concerned about it, beyond generating a metric ton of [[Conspiracy Theories]]. (Except those who knew enough to suspect or realize what it was.)

* [[Voices Are Mental]]: Nabiki notices that the she can recognize everyone using the SI's communication system by their "voices", which sound like their speaking voices even though no sound is involved in the process: the outgoing "signals" are picked up from the appropriate part of the "speaker"'s brain and received "speech" is inserted into the auditory nerves. Despite pondering it for a while, she can't figure out how and why it works like that.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Although everyone repeatedly calls it an "illusion" spell, it's very clear that it's actually genuine shapeshifting. Then again it started as a simple disguise spell before it contracted a serious case of Creeping Featurism.

 

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