Well, I'm not usually fond of these Who'd Win arguments - they're mostly
pointless, as first, we have no common reference points (i.e. nobody who's
fought both Ryu and Ranma, or even any way to link them) and second, it's
all down to opinion and the writer's needs, anyway.  That said, I thought
I'd point out a few things and drop back into lurking...

On Thu, 13 Feb 1997, Luigi Mattera wrote:

Skills:
Ranma:
1.  Chestnut fist technique.  (I can't spell Japanese properly yet, no 
complaints. :-P)
  Ryu has assumingly faced off against Honda and Chun-Li in the past, so 
he's seen this before and would know how to deal with it.

Well, the Ranma fighting games and certain fanfics aside, the Amaguriken
isn't really all that like the Hundred-Hand Slap or the Lightning Leg.  He
only uses the lots-of-really-fast-punches aspect a few times, notably
against Ryouga in the Bakusaitenketsu storyline, and even there it's not
over the wide area that Chun Li and E. Honda's techniques are - more like
a single punch with the force of a hundred.  The closest SF equivalent I
can think of is DeeJay's Machine Gun Uppercut.

2.  Mouko Takabisha vs. Ha dou ken
  Ranma's attack is stronger but Ryu's will partially cancel it out.  
Ranma also telegraphs his attack, and Ryu is smart enough to notice.

Ryu also telegraphs *his* attack a bit ("HA-DOU-KEN!"), and Ranma's
definitely smart enough to notice.  He's no genius in scholarly or social
matters, but he is one of the top fighters in his world.

3.  Hiryuu Shoten Ha vs Sho ryu ken
  Ranma's is obviously more flashy, but Ryu's is defintely stronger.  In a
manga published in the U.S. (Tokyama Comics I think?  Yes, I own it.) Ryu
commented that the odds on someone getting up from a *single* sho ryu ken
are next to nil.  Getting grazed by one is bad enough.  All Ranma's Hiryuu
Shoten Ha does (that I've seen) is toss someone high into the air. 

I personally would take the game as canon over a manga based on the game.
And in the game, the chances of another fighter getting up from a *single*
Shouryuken are quite good.  (Scenario: Start of the first round of the
fight. Vega leaps in to attack.  Ryu hits him out of the air with a
Shouryuken.  A moderately significant fraction of Vega's life bar is
depleted.  Vega gets up and continues to attack.)  Now, clobber a normal
person with it, and it's entirely probable they won't get up - but you
could say that about just about any move in the game or the series.  As
for the Hiryuushoutenha, I'd think of it as similar to Ken's Shinryuken
super (from Alpha onwards) - it's at least as hard to do, but at least as
damaging if he does it.  It's not the sort of thing he tosses off casually
(he has to lead the opponent on a spiral path, and get him mad while
staying cool himself), but when he does it, it's consistently been shown
to be a fight-winner unless the foe has a specific counter for it (q.v.
Herb).

  Ryu is also in his 20s, 5 to 10 years older than Ranma.  He is 
definitely more experienced.  Any comments to this?

Well, we don't really know what age Ryu was when he started training, but
we know Ranma's been training at least since he was five.  That might even
out the difference a little...

To tell the truth, I really don't have an opinion on who would win, nor do
I much care.  My only real objection to Ryu is that he's the favored
character of players who don't want to bother learning anything new when a
new game/version comes out, and of scrubs.  On the Street Fighter vs.
X-Men machines around here, the favorite pairing is (of course) Ryu and
Akuma, with Ken and Akuma, Ryu and Ken, Ryu and Cyclops, and the
occasional daringly different Ryu and Wolverine coming in behind.  (My
favorite pairing?  Rogue and Cammy, though I've been starting to practice
with both Chun Li and Dhalsim...  I really wish there was an SFA2 around
here, though - Sakura's the greatest.)

--
Scott Johnson |
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