Ranma 1/2: One Page Per Volume, Part Seven

Art reads right to left for this seventh installment of my reposted series on Ranma 1/2 manga pages. Taken from the new omnibus translations.



This is the last page of the “Happosai as P-chan” story, featuring the first time that Ryoga and Ranma teams up to battle a common enemy. In vain this time, as they're both defeated by Happosai, but Happosai doesn't get anything out of it. One of the many things I love about Ranma ½ is that, while Akane does have to play the motivating-damsel-in-distress many times, this is often subverted sooner or later. Sometimes it's just a comical subversion, sometimes it's a heroic one: not infrequently it's both at the same time. Here it's firmly on the comical side, as she’s fast asleep and has no idea what's going on. But she can take care of herself all the same.

This story and its ending are also notable for what happens in the series after this point: in the manga, it's the last time we see Akane take P-chan to bed with her. Possibly indicating that Ryoga's started to avoid that situation, or that Akane learned about Happosai's plot in the morning and changed her behaviour herself... Or perhaps it went on at times after all, but as it didn't generate as much conflict anymore there was no point to put it in the story. Because another thing that happens is that Ranma seems more relaxed about the P-chan thing after he's witnessed this very energetic part of Akane’s sleep cycle.

For another out-of-universe explanation, it could also just be that Takahashi decided she wanted Ryoga to look more sympathetic, but stayed off having him make a clear decision to modify his behaviour in pet pig form. Either because she didn't think he'd get to that point in his development yet, or because - and I think this one's more likely - it wouldn't be funny enough.)

Personally I could go on about the issue a lot, and have done so. Since Ryoga and Akane are my two favourite characters, the P-chan thing was something I had a Lot! Of! Opinions! About! back in the day. To sum it up briefly, I have always felt that Ryoga's "pet pig disguise" is a despicable deception which is an inexcusable violation of privacy, and which Akane would have every right to be furious over to the point of cutting off their friendship completely. But I do think the deception stops short of being molestation/sexual assault. Relatedly, I suspect it's more motivated by loneliness/touch starvation/a need for maternal tenderness than more lustful intentions; the series strongly implies he doesn't look at her when undressing, for one thing. Ryoga certainly has plenty of teenage hormones and finds Akane very attractive, but when he's in the form of a piglet, he seems to have a more childlike demeanour, in the manga.

Meta repost: a note on Blackbeard (One Piece)

Reposting old stuff from Tumblr, somewhat edited.

Something I find interesting about Blackbeard in One Piece: on the one hand, he's the only D we've seen so far in the series who's shown as legit afraid of dying and ready to plead for his life. (While Luffy's shown some fear as well, it's more of a momentary thing on the surface, while his acceptance of danger and smile in the face of death runs deeper.)

On the other hand, this less than heroic attitude of Blackbeard's hasn't seem to hinder him any. Normally, in an action-oriented shonen narrative like this one, being fearful of physical harm tends to hold characters back and/or make them commit mistakes. This has been true for both sympathetic characters like the early Coby (and on-again, off-again for Usopp) and for profoundly unsympathetic characters like Spandam, whose cowardice hinders him almost as much as his refusal to realise his own flaws does.

Not so for Blackbeard. Maybe eventually that will happen - I wouldn't be surprised - but so far this tendency of his hasn't stopped him from laying out his plans or carrying them out. If anything, it seems to work for him, as it makes him more assiduous about planning well before making his move, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.

Of course, it should still be noted he's got to have a lot of basic courage anyway to do what he does and move in the very high-stake circles where he goes. And he does show acceptance of the possibility of pain with the use of his Devil Fruit. Still, his attitude towards danger and death nevertheless makes him stand out from other characters with D in their names, as does his unabashedly treacherous nature.