To all:
   Richard Lawson's recent fanfic "Life's Ingredients" gave James "Zen" 
Bateman a very interesting cameo role. Zen's incarnation in the tale has 
had the good fortune to become very close to Ukyo Kuonji in lieu of the 
now (in the story) married Ranma Saotome; when Zen knew her they 
discussed (among other things, I'm sure!) the so-called "samurai ethic," 
the ethic of the knights of old Japan, or rather Zen's understanding of 
it. (For the record, Ukyo does not quite buy Zen's interpretation of the 
Japanese character, at least in Mr. Lawson's story.)
   In real life, Mr. Bateman is very much an admirer of Ukyo, believing 
her to be far more worthy of Ranma's affection than Akane (which is, by 
the way, emphatically _not_ the same as believing that she actually has, 
has had or will have it in the future). My understanding of Mr. Bateman's 
thoughts on Ukyo is that he indeed identifies the character with the 
ethics and value system of traditional Japan, especially that of the 
samurai, for which he holds much admiration.
   I, too, consider Ukyo, arguably the most conservative of all Ranma's 
suitors, to represent the traditional ethical system of the Japanese and 
the samurai class in particular. What I have heard and read of that ethic 
and its frequent detrimental consequences for Japanese society, however, 
have left me much less sure that the Japanese belief system is worthy of 
so much admiration as some are ready to give it. As a consequence, I am 
less inclined to see Ukyo as the angelic, tragic figure we see in a 
hundred fanfics.
   All this is not to say that I believe Miss Kuonji to be a depraved 
creature (she is not) incapable of anything good (she is not) and 
unworthy of any sympathy or anything at all save the most violent and 
physically and/or psychologically scarring punishment that can be 
devised by a certain fan author I am afraid to name after he's done 
putting Shampoo through hell and sending her there. Even less do I wish 
to be judged guilty of writing off the Japanese nation as incapable of 
anything positive or good; such an assertion would be completely false 
and quite absurd. What I would assert is that she, like the Japanese 
people, has been in the past and still is capable of much that is evil, not 
least because their ethical system has driven them to it. I cannot 
consider Ukyo to be completely, irredeemably evil. I rather hope (I was 
going to say pray) for her repentance, reform and redemption, much as I 
dearly hope that the Japanese themselves throw overboard those parts of 
their most deeply held beliefs (for I do not doubt they are just that) 
that have made them capable of aiding and abetting the crimes of their 
government and army, to accept that they have done wrong (which they 
have never really done, to be completely fair) and change their ways so that 
they will never commit such acts again.
   Ranma considers Ukyo his friend. I believe she is capable of being the 
friend to him that she is in fan fiction; but if she is driven by the 
ethic that drove her throughout the manga, his friend she will not be, 
for she cannot be. But that is not to say she could not be in the future.
   I do think, though, that it would take much to bing her to repentance. 
Even the destruction of their nation did not drive the Japanese to excise 
fom their souls what had led them to wage wars of conquest. It takes much 
suffering to bring men to repentance, often more than what their fellows 
can bear them to endure.  
   The story that tells of Ukyo's redemption and just what brought her to 
it has never really been written. I can think of a non-lethal scenario where 
she is led to abandon her suit--her father reining her in, for instance 
--but for her to do that would be quite consistent with her old values. 
She might make up with Ranma then; but we would have no guarantee that 
she would be incapable of the sins she committed before in the future. 
For Ranma (and us!) to really be capable of trusting Ukyo again, 
especially after volume 38, he and we will have to have some sign of her 
true repentance and reform. Only then, I suspect, can Ucchan and Ranchan 
believably be reconciled and fans of Ukyo can get on with writing stories 
where she acts as and really is the friend to Ranma she is said to 
be--and, in my honest opinion, should be. God knows Ranma needs all the 
friends he can get.
   This is not to say that nobody has tried to restore Ukyo to grace 
after the last manga story. John Walter Biles has Ukyo (in DnR 19) 
brought to a moral crisis by Ranma's rejection of her and her ensuing 
isolation and misery, a burden so great that she is willing to let Ryoga 
destroy her as a penance for her hurting Akane (the act that caused Ranma 
to cast Ukyo from his sight). Afterwards by the second wedding (in DnR 1) 
she has developed the moral fortitude permit her friend to do what he will 
to be happy, that is, marry Akane (this time, she helps prevent Shampoo 
from disrupting the wedding), though it conflict with her own desires.
   It was well done; but just how important happiness has ever been to 
Ukyo, if at all, is not clear. To not be Ranma's friend would bring her 
much pain; but so, I'm sure, did being forced or feeling forced to live 
as a boy for ten years. She hated it, resented the fact that she could 
never live the life of a normal woman, and blamed Ranma for it. If life 
as a boy made her that unhappy, how could she have stood for it? Possible 
answer: it was to fulfill her obligation to her honor and to her family-- 
and fulfilling obligations, far more than personal happiness, have long 
been the cornerstone of Japnese ethics, as I have been led to understand 
them. If she is so willing to endure pain and risk the positive hatred of 
those whose afffection she clearly values so as to fulfll her perceived 
duties to her family, it is hardly clear if the amount of misery Mr. 
Biles put her through realy would be enough to bring her to repentance 
and reform. That there is a point at which she will be so miserable that 
she will be positively forced to realize the error of her ways is hardly 
inconceivable, of course; but it may far exceed what Mr. Biles or for 
that matter most writers would have the heart to put her through--or that 
any human being could endure. It is not for nothing that so many tragic 
stories have Ukyo destroying herself. Traditionally that has been an 
honorable way, within the Japanese ethic, when the fulfillment of 
obligations has become impossible. Even in death she is unrepentant.
   Part of the problem is that precious few writers seem convinced of the 
need to redeem Ukyo, though more are now than before the end of the 
Japanese manga. (DnR 19 was written only after the end of the manga, long 
after DnR 1 where Ukyo is assumed either redeemed if she had not been 
virtuous from the start.) If they do not consider Ukyo to be Western in 
her thinking, putting her own happiness (and by implication, that of her 
friend/beloved Ranma) before family obligation and thus, in a pinch, 
forgetting her engagement and helping her friend to be happy by standing 
aside, they see her as an embodiment of an idealized _bushido_ on a 
higher ethical level than Western ethics. 
   The point is important, especially for fanfic writers, for to know 
just what code of ethics a character follows or for that matter 
represents is essential to keep a character in his character. To simply 
assume that a character follows one's own ethical system can lead one to 
write him well out of character. When writing a character one must know 
as well as possible what he considers the right or wrong thing to do, and 
what things he is capable of, perhaps, that one would personally consider 
wrong. One may like a character--I like Ukyo very much, as well as Nabiki 
and Kodachi, whom I consider embodiments of Western ethics, but that's 
another story--but one cannot allow that to blind one to his flaws. On 
the other hand, if a character can be shown to be capable of evil it 
really is not well to depict him as completely evil, hateful and 
disgusting, one who will do only evil and never repent of it, fit only 
for hellfire. Usually it is demostrably untrue, and asserting its truth will 
alarm and often positively irritate readers.
   Shampoo is not my favorite character, but the recent story that 
depicted a grief-stricken Ranma brutally torturing Shampoo by breaking 
her bones and sawing off her limbs before killing her for the murder of 
Akane I really found disturbing. All that the most heinous war criminals 
have received in our time is hanging. What was even more disturbing was 
the comments by a certain individual on the fanfic ML that Shampoo 
should have been made to suffer even more. To be quite frank I shudder to 
think just what this individual would consider just punishment for 
Shampoo. It would clearly more than exceed many people's tolerance for 
sheer unadulterated cruelty. I personally prefer Mr. Lawson's treatment 
of Shampoo in "Thy Inward Love" where Shampoo's desire for Ranma finally 
drives her to reject the Amazon law and to turn on her great-grandmother, 
its embodiment. In any case, sadism really isn't in Ranma's character.
   Realizing that a character follows an ethical system different from 
yours will allow one to depict the character far more authentically than 
otherwise possible. If one must have the character act in the way 
one considers morally right, one must accept that what one thinks is 
right is not necessarily what he would, or not for the same reasons. It 
is the author's responsibility to bring the character to repentance and 
reform, unless this is impossible, in which case the character should not 
be written "out of character" (making it all the more important to have 
the character's motivations just right). To accept that a character 
follows a different ethical system from your own is not an apology for 
it or the character. An evil act is an evil act. As long as men have 
free will, though, they can reform. It is better for a soul to repent on 
earth that he may be reconciled with God and join him in heaven, rather 
than that he be sent to hell. I'd much rather Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi 
mend their ways--and I'm sure they can--rather than die a brutal, 
horrifying death by Ranma's hand. If all the Japanese who had abetted 
their government in their wars of conquest had been made to pay with 
their lives for the murder of innocents, the whole Japanese nation would 
have been committed to the land of the dead. There were some Americans 
calling for that in 1945; but there is a limit to how much enemy blood a 
people can bear to spill. That true and complete justice was not shown 
Japan is just as well. Mercy, if it is accompanied by the sinner's true 
repentance, is a virtue. The problem is that Miss Kuonji, Miss Shampoo and 
Lady Kuno have not repented--yet. But we can hope they will in the future.
   This calls for wisdom. Not everyone even in the West would agree on 
the acts and motivations that require rejection and reform. Many of these 
differences are irreconcilable. One says that Akane deserves Ranma 
because she is his beloved. Others object that one as violent as she is 
hardly worthy of any man, Ranma included. They say let him be given to 
Ukyo and fulfil his obligation to the Kuonjis, for in the end all will be 
happier. That hardly follows, say Akane's supporters. And so on ad 
infinitum. The manga will not help. This is an ethical debate.
   I have come to the conclusion that in the minds of many the four 
suitors of Ranma represent various worldviews or perceptions thereof and 
that their sympathies with those worldviews as they understand them 
greatly influences with which suitor they most sympathize and which they 
consider the most worthy of Ranma's affection and to be his wife. These 
sympathies and perceptions tend to be very strongly held and hard to 
shake, leading to the endless arguments that plague lists such as this 
one for days on end without reaching a conclusion. People disagree on 
just what characters are and what drives them, partly, it is true, out 
of ignorance of the facts of either the manga or the value systems of 
the characters (as well as they can be determined) but also out of 
genuine disagreements as to the relative merits of each of the  
characters' ethical codes. 
   So I decided to conduct for my benefit and the benefit of others a 
small experiment. I should like to ask all who follow _Ranma 1/2_ and DnR 
and care to respond to my missive a few questions.
   Before I go on I must strongly insist that all replies to the 
questions I am about to ask be sent to me by _private e-mail only_! We 
have enough excessive baggage on these lists as it is. 

Away we go.

First: Asking which of his four suitors Ranma loves or will marry is 
pointless--he loves and will marry Akane.
   The actual question: which of the suitors is most worthy of the 
esteemed Mr. Saotome's affections? Akane Tendo? Kodachi Kuno? Shampoo? 
Ukyo Kuonji? Or perhaps none of them? Perhaps someone else deserves Ranma?

   That was easy, at least to ask.
   Next question.

Second: What, if anything, do each of the four suitors (Miss Tendo, Lady 
Kuno, Miss Shampoo, Miss--or is it Mr.?--Kuonji) symbolize for you, the one 
responding to this? Differing worldviews? Value systems? Systems of 
ethics? Ideologies, perhaps, or perhaps even nationalities? (Is 
Shampoo really China? If so, is Ukyo, say, really Japan?) Classes of 
individuals? Personalities? Something other than these? Do you 
consciously sympathize with one suitor or another because of your 
sympathies with the worldview or ethical system (for instance) that she 
represents, or perhaps because you identify with the type of individual 
you consider that suitor to be?

Third: To what degree have you studied the culture (including the 
ethical system) of the Japanese, in an academic setting or otherwise? 
(Anime doesn't count, I'm afraid--anime and reality can be quite  
different!) How confident do you feel speaking or writing about it; that  
is, how knowledgeable do you consider yourself to be on Japan and its people?

Fourth: The "samurai ethic," _bushido_ and the like, it is well 
documented, can be shown to be a subset of the ethical system of all 
Japanese, just as Western chivalry derived from Western ethics. Describe 
as best you can Japanese ethics as you understand them. Compare and  
contrast them to Western ethics as best you can.
   Don't feel obliged to write a book. Do as thorough a job on it as you 
feel appropriate.  

   Now the tough one. :) Please, answer it honestly.

Fifth: Given your understanding of Japanese ethics, please tell me your 
considered opinion of Japanese ethics and the culture and society it has 
influenced compared to Western ethics and our culture and society. Does 
one ethic have advantages the other lacks? Drawbacks? Is one ethic more 
workable than the other, allowing interpersonal relations in each of the 
societies to run more smoothly, permitting fewer anti-social disruptions or 
obviously destructive behavior? Has the Japanese ethic, as you see it, 
led to problems and misfortunes for Japanese individuals (and those 
foreigners who deal with them) and problems and misfortunes for their 
nation and those nations it associates with that their adoption of 
Western ethics would have spared them at relatively low cost? Would our 
adoption of their ethics have spared us many problems at low cost? Do 
you consider Japanese ethics more worthy of admiration, and perhaps of 
adherence, than our own? Less? Is the admiration that many in the West 
put in the Japanese ethic well-placed? Would it be well if their 
ethical system incorporated more of the elements of ours? If ours 
incorporated more of the elements of theirs? If I may risk the question, 
is one ethic better or superior to the other in any sense?
   As I said, answer honestly. To criticize an ethical system in good 
faith is not "anti-Western" or "Jap-bashing." If you think something 
is bad about Western ethics or Japanese ethics, come out and say it. God 
knows nothing human is perfect.

   Again, please send any replies to these submitted questions by private 
e-mail _only._ With your help please God I'll be able to figure out just 
what drives _Ranma 1/2_ fans to their very different interpretations and 
evaluations of characters, and to flamewars when we disagree, be it 
ignorance or just plain irreconcilable value judgments, in which case it 
will probably be best for al of us to respect the opinions of our fellow 
fans, and avoid getting into unending quarrels. I hope to do my bit to 
keep noise on this list down as low as can be. :)

Paul Corrigan
pcorrig@uoft02.utoledo.edu