What to say... what to say...

Obviously, I'm a fanfiction writer and I deal in Ranma 1/2, no big shock there. I limit myself mostly to the anime continuity. I could get into a big rant on why... well, there isn't much here, so why not. Basically, I got into Ranma due to the anime, so I already formed much of my opinions from it (no big shocker there). However, I also got into Ranma primarily because I just liked Shampoo's character. After looking at the manga, which didn't have much of the good developments for her character that appear in the anime (hell, good or bad it didn't develop her much, but more on that in a bit), this caused most my appeal for that source to go bye bye. However, it goes beyond even that. Akari and Konatsu in the manga bug the hell out of me being massively obvious matchup characters, and in Akari's case just plain boring character to boot. One of the main things that most people like about the manga is it having an ending, which I can appreciate, but I didn't like said ending, and unlike Inuyasha, which had an absolutely HORRIBLE anime ending, Ranma's anime conclusion didn't feel quite so rough. Neither ending drew things to a definitive close, so I feel the lack of a proper ending in the anime to only be a minor knock against it. What really stands out to me though is the treatment of the side characters. Like I mentioned, there actually is some development, however minor, for a lot of the side characters in the anime. The manga lacked a lot of it, concentrating more on Ranma and Akane instead. That bugs me, and things like the massive demonizing of Nabiki in the manga didn't help any. In the end, while I can appreciate why people might like the manga over the anime, I don't. I have full access to both sources now, but I always find the anime more interesting to work with. My only real regret of the anime is that it lacks Herb's appearance as I like him too.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that my opinion on Ranma in general has dipped substantially from when I was deep into it. I've since broadened my anime and manga horizons, and I really feel that Ranma is lacking in general. It still has a certain charm, but neither anime nor manga I would hold up as great examples of the genera. That said, that very weakness of the core material is probably why I like to write for it so much. There is a lot of room in the character development, and working on resolutions. There is also some great concepts there to work from. By contrast, manga and anime I would hold up as great examples in the genera I find are very difficult to write for. The characters are well developed, leaving little room to explore them left, and the plotting is more firm making it again difficult to work something in, not to mention you just find when you look at your work and compare it to the source, it is often so easy to find glaring faults.

As mentioned, Shampoo is my character of choice in the series, but I have a certain fondness for most the cast. I am a firm believer that Mousse Shampoo matchups are the spawn of satan and must die a horrible horrible death. I mean, seriously, how many Kuno Akane stories do you see, and they have about as much compatibility going for them. If I had one thing I could change about the canon it would be to erase all hints of this god awful matchup from it. On the opposite site, I actually don't have a preferred Shampoo pairing as pretty much the rest of the cast I don't see as being very compatible (although I'd pick quite a few of them over Mousse). I have, however, tinkered with Shampoo Ranma, Shampoo Akane, and Shampoo Kasumi (my current fav but admittedly probably because I'm writing it). My only real thoughts beyond that are that I like to see balanced fics that don't bash the characters. Too many a good Shampoo story is ruined due to Akane bashing for instance.

My main pet peeves in Ranma Fanfiction are the afore mentioned character bashing, dark fics, rehashed story lines and massive leaps in character not justified within the story context. Bashing is lame writing. It's typically grossly OOC, and fanboyish to the extreme. Dark fics as completely out of context with Ranma 1/2. No, Ranma 1/2 is NOT DARK. It's about one shade darker than My Little Pony. If you want to see something dark, go read Elfen Lied, or watch Afro Samurai (and these aren't even top end dark). While a bit of darkness in Ranma stories can help, it has to be done very carefully and few stories manage it. Rehashed story lines are just plain boring. I've seen and read more by the numbers match up fics (Ranma Akane, Shampoo Mousse, Ryoga Ukyo/Ryoga Akari, Ukyo Konatsu) than I care to count, and I absolutely refuse to indulge this tired material ever again. Doesn't help that most involve that matchup I hate with a passion. And then of course we have character leaps which are a dead giveaway that people can't make it work with justification. A good story needs to get us to believe that the character can go from A to B. This is one of the main reasons I hate Shampoo Mousse fics because ninety percent of the things seem to use this exact method to get them together. The other ten percent are just plain terrible.

Ranma 1/2 is not all I'm familiar with. So Let's list some of them off:

Naruto (Must say though, probably most into this one just on the hope of Naruto getting together with Hinata)

Bleach (it has its moments)

One Piece (Honestly did not expect to like this one, it is now my current favourite manga, just the right balance of pretty much everything)

History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi (very Ranma 1/2-ish in a lot of ways, although way more fanservice)

Rosario Vampire (only the recent stuff though)

To-Love-Ru (fanservice knows no bounds)

Sailor Moon (a classic, here's hoping the new anime doesn't suck)

Tenchi (in all it's various incarnations)

Record of Lodoss War (another classic for any fantasy lover)

Ghost in the Shell (who doesn't like Japanese Cyberpunk?)

Death Note (kind of a modern take on Sherlock Holmes, although in this case focused on the villain, damn you Light!)

All the Studio Ghibli stuff (just plain great stuff)

Ninja Scroll (Most everyone has seen this, and deservedly so, it is very good)

Tenjo Tenge (not into that one anymore, got totally lost)

Elfen Lied (if you want to know dark, here's a good intro)

Card Captor Sakura (cute classic)

various Street Fighter animes (what can I say, I seem to be hooked on Street Fighter story, which is weird as it has next to none)

Afro Samurai (another grim one)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (just so odd you got to like it)

Negima! Magister Negi Magi (recent one, and a good one too, at least the manga, animes are spotty)

Zero No Tsukaima (another recent one, lead Lady's attitude make's Akane Tendo look positively tranquil by comparison)

Onto more obscure stuff...

Sukaban Deka (quite an old and short one)

Change 1,2,3 (a harem manga where there is only 1 girl in the harem... now that is cute)

Girlfriends (Yuri goodness, if you're into Yuri this is a must read in my book. Hell, if you're indifferent to yuri it is still something to check out)

Genshiken (see, not all the things I read are super weird)

Kare First Love (Hey, I even read good old fashion romance now and then).

Not truly anime/manga but...

Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra (if you haven't seen these, wtf is wrong with you?!)

Gargoyles (still possibly the best cartoon series to come out of Disney in my opinion)

And as for stuff that has just polluted my pure mind (not saying these are bad, but not to my taste so I seriously wonder why I ever followed them)...

Yu-Gi-Oh (it is a show that makes WAYYY to much about playing a card game... and they don't even follow the rules!)

Red Hawk (lead character gets more powerful when his hair becomes more spiky and changes colour... hmmm... now what does that remind me of...)

Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball (5 minutes = 6 episodes, and yes, the louder you scream, the stronger you become)

Beyblade (As if Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't bad enough, now spinning tops?! Seriously, what was I thinking? I must have been desperate)

And finally...

Wedding Peach (No, not my Kryptonite! Keep it away!)

So, as far as stories goes, I'm currently working on:

Most Unlike of Friends, actually a very old story I wrote way back in the 90s. Currently converting it from script into prose while also doing some reworking of various bits.

A Scary Thought, the epic cross over insanity... getting a little out of hand actually in that regard. Oh well, it's still active.

Love Note, the death note cross over/fusion, which isn't going very fast but I'm still plugging away at it.

Any other stories from me are long dead. Probably won't add any more either until at least finishing with Most Unlikely of Friends.