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General Notes
Timeline: Just after anime season 4, tape 1 (the moxibustion storyline) / manga book 13.
– This story combines elements of both anime and manga. If you’ve only seen the anime and you read something where you’re thinking “It didn’t happen like that...”, chances are it happened that way in the manga. Some things in the manga I like better than the anime. Other times I prefer the anime. It just depends.
– On that line: the anime contradicts itself at times. For instance, in the Breaking Point, it’s clearly stated that Ranma’s cooking sucks. Yet, in the OVA “Like Water for Ranma”, he’s suddenly this excellent cook... Some of the later manga/anime were clearly done more for effect and I tend to keep the early ones as far as storyline and ignore/throw out the later ones when they contradict the early (or when the characters do things that would have been OOC for them in the early...).
– One thing I should mention, that I specifically like from the manga better than the anime is the first episode that introduces Ryōga. When Ranma finally remembers Ryōga, he says his name immediately (without waffling like the anime: “the guy from my junior high!”) and the fight between them was a lot closer in the manga than the anime (and none of the ‘vitamin strength pills’ stuff). On the other hand, I use the OVA anime of the “Evil Oni” and the “One Grew over the Kunō’s Nest”. (For one thing: “Kunō’s Nest” didn’t even have Ryōga in it, in the manga... and by manga books, both were much later than my timeline. But since I saw them in the anime first... )
– About the pronouns... for fear of confusing people early, I’ll explain this now. ;-) In the beginning of the story, I use ‘he’ for Ranma even when he’s in girl-form. Basically, what I’m doing is using gender-identification for the characters to make a point later on in the story. At the start, Ranma thinks of himself as a guy, no matter what form he’s in; similarly Ryōga *sees* a guy when he talks to Ranma — unless Ranma bonks it over his head! So, the pronoun I use for Ranma is ‘he’ and it’s the physical description that will tell what form Ranma is using.
– Also, keep in mind that character thoughts are exactly that — what one person is thinking. Just because they say or think something, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right!
WARNING: This story starts off darkish. Death is involved.
(But it does get better, really it does!)
Note: Each part is divided into chapters for web-use and download, but this story was not originally written with chapter divisions. I divided them into similar lengths, breaking at logical points, but please keep the wholeness of the story in mind when switching from one chapter to the next.
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