Warning: Clothes Make The... spoilers. If you don't want spoilers, don't
read further.
On Sun, 7 May 2000, Glazius Falconar wrote:
- - - - -
Title: Clothes Make The...
Chapter: 11 & 12
Series: Ranma 1/2
Author: Halbred, Ichinohei, and Leifker
Email: nightelf@thekeep.org
Homepage: www.thekeep.org/~nightelf/fanfic
Date Sent to FFML: April 16 and April 23
Archive Number: 11: 9326 12: 9693
Size: 11: 31k 12: 75k
Series Summary:
Ranma-as-woman - sort of.
Episode Summary:
It's the last two chapters of the story. You think I'm going to give
you spoilers?
Ah. A very nice end to... gad, _how_ long ago did you folks start this?
You'd think there'd be a lot more continuity hiccups than the approximately
none I found looking through this.
Thank you. Attribute it to a three-mind gestalt with a really good
memory. ^_^
You're going to want to read the prior parts if you haven't already, because
this makes _no_ sense otherwise. Mmm. I think this _is_ the first "Ranma
becomes a girl" fic that's come to a satisfying ending... might be wrong on
that, but the ending definitely _does_ wrap up the story very well.
Well, we try. Besides, I wasn't about to let this thing drag on for three
more years.
It's just... well, it might just be my own slant, but the fic seems to swap
between lighthearted humor and Deep Psychological Meaning That Should Have
Capitals On. And sometimes it doesn't quite work... it's hard to reconcile a
profound unveiling of the self with a simultaneous mental image of a man in
samurai armor carrying a squirtgun. That's really the only problem I have
with this ending; it tries to tug at the heartstrings, but mine weren't real
ly as wrapped up in the story as perhaps they should have been and it came
off as overblown.
Um... where did you get the samurai armor? I didn't describe any in
there...
At any rate, it's probably good that you didn't get the joke there.
You see, there wasn't one. Soun's act there was planned since about late
1997. We essentially agreed that two things would be involved in the
climax: Soun trying to 'cure' Ranma and Ranma & Akane getting married
(though the details of that changed a bit...). No humor for Soun's attack
was planned; it was intended (that part, anyway) to be as serious as it
could. The humor involved in part 12 was the type you'd normally find in
everyday life, not the slapstick you'd get from the anime - and that
situation didn't call for slice-of-life humor.
So. Besides that bit, did the other humor work?
-- Nick