Ranma ½/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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* '''Can Ranma get pregnant? (Of course, we [[Shrug of God|"shouldn't think about it"]]. But still.) Can he impregnate himself using previously collected semen while in female form?'''

** Well, given that the cures do in fact work, the easy explanation would be that it is not possible to cure ''right away''/you must wait a few months, or end up with mixed curses like Taro. Of course this does not explain why they didn't simply ask for a casket of Jusenkyo water to bring with them, and use in a few months? Too expensive? The magic disappears after a certain time? Some inherent magic makes them mentally unable to find the right spring, or ask somebody else to do it, and must wait until a (more or less) stranger makes the effort out of charity? Something else?

** The easy answer: They're all idiots.

** The average amazon did not appear to even know about the springs -elders did though and the reason the guide was taking Ranma and Genma to the Amazon village was because he didn't know of a cure.

*** That's actually fanon- it was never stated why the Guide took Ranma and Genma to the Amazon village. Given he's doing the tour guide thing when they show up, they may have asked him to take them there, either to study or to get some supplies, given that the Guide evidently didn't have any food to feed the two.

**** That would be true, if the fact isn't presented that she is essentially what would be considered a [[Badass Normal]] in any other series, but because of her [[Distress Ball]] that she can't shake, she never gets to show. We have to remember that in Nerima, spiritual abilities and superhuman effects are commonplace and consistently a part of the main universe. As for Kuno, his ability with Kendo was not only firmly established and improved through the Watermelon training, but he's also superhuman. It does not really compute.

**** Er, not exactly. The world of Ranma 1/2 does have plenty of people with superhuman abilities, but they're STILL treated as WELL out of the norm. At the very least, everything about Akane's life prior to meeting Ranma implies that, Ryugenzawa aside, all the martial arts-related weirdness arrived with him, so it's not as commonplace as it seems. Even locals like Kodachi, Mikado, and Azusa are impressive only because they apply martial arts sensibilities to their fields, but they're otherwise as rare as Akane and "normals" react to them as such.

***** That's true. When people start arriving, she's outclassed pretty quickly. ''But we're digressing from the original point something awful here''. The point isn't that the ''other'', outsider characters outclass her, but that she was able to fight against ''Kuno'', a local that has lived in Nerima all his life same as she has. Who cares if any of the insanely powerful Ranma MADMs outclass her? The above point tries to diminish Akane against Kuno by stating that she's a [[Damsel in Distress]] or whatever. And that Kuno improved through the Watermelon Training. But that's false. If we analyze Kuno's abilities and call him "superhuman" for them, then the same applies to Akane. Whenever she's involved in real combat, where Takahashi puts aside her clumsiness or rashness because this is a serious event, Akane has consistently proven to be super-strong, she's superhumanly acrobatic, extremely fast, and outrageously accurate. Kuno may slice trees in half with a wooden sword, but he's never lifted stone lanterns over his head like they were pillows. He may cause concrete walls to ''crumble'' (NOT break) with the air pressure, but Akane can kick holes into the walls of a swimming pool despite the water resistance and having no anchoring whatsoever. And while Kuno has the Watermelon Training, ''it only applied in the presence of watermelons'', and even then ''only while he was amnesiac'' and fell into a berserker rage because of them. Now? He doesn't have any reaction to watermelons, let alone a negative one, and he thinks of it as a parlor trick. So the training didn't actually give him ANY edge in combat, not even in speed. On the other hand, Akane had been constantly exposed to danger since Ranma's arrival and up to Mariko's encounter (which is the point of this argument.) Plus, she crushed the entire opposing team ''by herself'', and ''using kendo exclusively''. Thus, when she goes up against Kuno, it ''makes sense'' that she can present a good challenge to him, even if he thinks she's a male competitor and is going all-out against her. Could she have won? Maybe. Maybe not. The match was interrupted and neither had the upper hand until Mariko intervened. But pointing out how everyone else outclasses her, or how she's sometimes handed the [[Distress Ball]], has no bearing on this encounter, because ''Kuno is every bit as outclassed'' by everyone else as she is --maybe worse, because there is no indication that he ''ever'' improved, and the one chance he had was completely reset by the end of that chapter.

***** Then way, pray, has she been [[Bound and Gagged]] so many times when her '''established physical strength''' would allow her to simply break free of them with no effort whatsoever? If we're looking at Kuno and Akane as equals in a kendo tournament, she should beat everyone there in minutes. I'm using the fact that the situation in Nerima due to Gendo's and Ranma's coming here has gone so out of control that it feels that established strength that we know Akane has is being completely thrown out the window for the sake of drama, which feels unacceptable. Honestly, we're talking about putting her up against someone who should have no chance in hell despite a really strange gimmick. Let Kuno be weak and be readjusted, I say; its accurate and fair to the Tendo!

***** I don't get the point you're trying to make here. Before, you argued ''against'' Akane's prowess on the basis that Kuno had improved and she hadn't (using her [[Damsel in Distress]] status as proof that she hadn't,) but here you argue in her favor by saying Kuno should remain weak and "readjusted" in order to be fair to her. As for the other statements, again, you're digressing. If the question was about Kuno and Akane, every other circumstance is outside the point. And she ''did'' "beat everyone [at the kendo tournament] in minutes," '''we were ''shown'' this''', and the attending audience ''explicitly comments on it'' (even though we're ''never told'', beyond her classmates' reactions, whether she's equal to Kuno. Remember, their match was ''interrupted'' and ''inconclusive''.) But since you insist, and for the sake of argument, let's look at her [[Bound and Gagged]] moments and why she didn't "simply break free" with her strength:<br />'''Cologne''': Twice. Not only is Cologne orders of magnitude more skilled and powerful than anyone in Nerima, at least one of those two times she caught Akane via a surprise pressure point attack. The first time, she also hung Akane from a tree and bound her arms, giving her no leverage to escape until Ranma brought her down to the ground, and the next time we see her she's already free (either by herself or with Genma's help.) The second time, she ''refused'' to escape until Mousse intervened, and as soon as he did, she broke free by herself.<br />'''Mousse''': He sprang out of nowhere and popped sleeping powder in her face. Even Ranma has fallen to this exact ploy dozens of times. Once she was conscious, she was very clearly distracted and panicked by the threat of the Jusenkyo water; as soon as she had the chance (and everyone else was involved elsewhere) she broke free on her own.<br />'''Principal Kuno''': She's unconscious when we see her hanging from the ceiling, so it's likely she was also caught off guard (he later did the same to Ranma.) As soon as she woke up, she broke free and attacked the Principal.<br />'''Pantyhose Taro''': He's a Ranma-level fighter who can easily overpower her, he didn't even bother tying her up until the very end --at which point she ''did'' break free of the pantyhose (and Takahashi specifically pointed out the feat of strength that this was, since pantyhose is more flexible than rope and Akane still tore it to pieces.)<br />'''Lime''': Didn't even bother tying her up, he just grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. The guy can keep a collapsing ravine from closing, Akane would need Ryoga-like strength to even make him ''notice''.<br />'''Sexy Tea Shop Kunoichi''': We never see her get caught, but judging by how they kidnapped Ukyo, it's likely they ambushed her in a similar fashion. And then she was hung from a tree again, and again, unlike the Principal Kuno example, the position gives no leverage to break the chains. Once she's on the ground, the action cuts away and we don't know whether Ranma or Akane herself broke the shackles.<br />'''Kiima''': Being carried off by a flock of ravens is such a bizarre situation we can't really tell how skill or strength could help. But afterwards, she ''drowned'' and fell unconscious on her own, and Kiima just fished her out and put her in a cell. Akane ''broke free on her own'' within moments after waking up simply by kicking the cell door loose.<br />Now, see the common threads in those examples? Either she's caught by a martial artist ''far more powerful than her'', or she's KO'd by surprise. And except for three instances, not only do we ''see her break free on her own'', but Takahashi ''draws attention to it''. And of the missing instances, two of them could go either way, and the third would've been impossible for anyone short of Ryoga (and that's being generous to him, seeing how he couldn't break free from Lime's grip either!)<br />Of course, what ''any'' this has to do with Akane "being a good match" for Kuno in a straight up kendo tournament (where Kuno was going all-out, but where both of them had to follow standardized rules and regulations, and use shinai instead of bokken) for a few panels is anyone's guess. OTOH, her reactions to the above "[[Damsel in Distress]]" situations, and her continuous involvement with supernatural/superhuman foes and creatures ''consistently'' show her various physical feats for the entire manga, whereas Kuno only gets a few chances to show off his ''permanent'', consistent skill level.

 

* '''All things considered, wouldn't it have been a bazillion times easier for Ranma and Akane, despite their occasional quarrel, to get married? After all, they were the only ones who had mutual love in the entire Dodecahedron.'''