Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: Re: Ranma's mom and other frustrating things
From: Matt Pyson <MRP105@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 12:50:27 EDT
Organization: Penn State University

In article <ZicasB1w165w@flex.com>, dcha@flex.com (Doug Cha) says:
> mliu@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Panda ) writes:
>> If the radio is turn on when one goes to sleep, a normal human being will
>> eventually get use to it and go to sleep with the radio on. Kasumi is use to
>> the Chaos in the Tendo house. She is not empty headed.
>
> Ignorance can be faked, but Kasumi doesn't seem to be faking it dude.. I
> think Kasumi doesn't realize that there is Chaos going on in the house. [...]
> Maybe Kasumi is just 'chaos blind'?

I don't think Kasumi is ignorant of the fantastic things happening around the
house. She's just filling her place in the household and dealing with the
things she is qualified to deal with. An elephant knocks down the wall, can
Kasumi-san toss it out? Of course not, she's a totally normal person. But she's
got half a dozen more-than-skilled kempo artists sitting around the place all
day long to take care of stuff like that.

Let Happossai, Genma, Soun, Ranma, or Akane take care of silly martial arts
threats to the household. Kasumi gets serious and reacts to problems that she
can deal with. When the family structure is 'in danger' Kasumi pulls it back
together because only she can do it. She does her part by providing a calm
island of stability in the midst of all the sound and fury. Kasumi is
indispensable to the existence of the family, not just by doing the domestic
stuff (which I doubt anyone else could successfully achieve) but by injecting a
note of the everyday and 'normal' when fantastic things happen.

Kasumi is the line between chaos and normal life. If she weren't around to
anchor everyone in normality, it would all just degenerate into a free-for-all
of Dojo Yaburis, jilted fiancees, perpetual contests, and silly martial arts
pandemonium. It gets crazy during crises (and there are a lot of them to
contend with) but there's always a 'normal' life to return to afterwards.

>> Ranma takes advantage of everyone. Like his father Genma, he choose to take
>> advantage of the circumstances. There is no question about it. Maybe he was
>> brought up that way but we don't see much improvement from when the series
>> start.

Yeah, of all the role-models for a young boy to have, Genma ranks *waaaaaay*
down there. It's surprising that Ranma does have some niceness left deep down
inside him, despite his Father's poor example. Maybe if someone would come
along and challenge Ranma's martial arts for some better reason than "I'm
tougher than you are" he might actually have some clue about WHY he ought to be
rescuing Akane and defeating opponents.

>> Furthermore, he uses Shampoo and Uykyo for free food. Moreover, he was using
>> Nabiki to get Akane mad in the Inasuke exchange Eps. As far as Ranma is
>> concern, if Shampoo manage to capture Ranma and spend enough time with him,
>> Ranma will eventually get to like Shampoo. (If Ranma can like a Tomboy like
>> Akane, I don't see why he cannot fall in love with Shampoo.)
>
> If Ranma were 10% more extrovert in his feelings, they'd be married with 10
> little Ranma-kun junior's running around the Tendou Doji learning Kempo by
> now.

Ranma and Akane could be truly storybook-happy together if only one or the
other of them (and ideally both of them) would 'blink' and admit that they love
each other. Ranma's contrariness and Akane's stubbornness will keep them apart
and alone unless they actually develop emotionally beyond where they are now.
They have to grow up some time.
---
|           Matt Pyson            |             Ranma Nibunnoichi             |
| Internet: mrp105@psuvm.psu.edu  |    "I went to the Pools of Sorrow, and    |
|     BITNET: MRP105 AT PSUVM     |     all I got was this lousy T-shirt"     |

ObCounterFlame: Yes, I know "Its just a cartoon!" Please stick your tongue in a
lamp socket and put some light in your life.