[Ranma 1/2] Switching Heirs

[Brian]

Switching Heirs is a fic by Dreiser, and can be found here.

As a note for the uninitiated, Dreiser fics tend to include one relatively minor tweak to the entire female cast.  All women are either lesbians or bi-sexual.  It's just the way Dreiser seems to write.

Yeah.

Anyway, I'm going to call this fic abandoned, since it hasn't been updated in ... well ... years.

This is a fic that takes the premise that Ukyou was raised by Happosai (somewhat) after her father's death.  After the old pervert was sealed away, Genma takes her on the road to train, leaving Ranma behind with the Tendo family to grow closer to Akane ... in theory.

In practice, Ranma and Akane grow to be like brother and sister, so they find the engagement 'gross'.  Ukyou comes back from the training trip with a boy-curse, Genma's got the requisite panda curse, the engagement is switched from Akane to Ukyou, and then wacky hijinks ensue.

Kinda.  Dreiser grammar is full of standard grammatical errors.  There is a distinctive lack of commas before (or after) proper names in address, characters tend to be refered to by eye color, and hair-color is applied to heads instead of hairs.

Plotting is so-so, with the earlier chapters very much having a, 'making this up as we go along' vibe.  Later chapters are longer and more dramatic, but feature an ever-increasing cast of supporting characters who kind of don't support as much as bog down.  The focus of the story isn't really the Ranma/Ukyou/(????) dynamic, as much as 'this is how the manga would have turned out if Nodoka were a lesbian (mostly), Ukyou was raised by Happosai, and Ranma for whatever reason is one of the most erudite, compassionate, and well-mannered people on the planet.  He doesn't really seem much like Ranma at first, though he ends up feeling truer to his character in later chapters.

Having read several fics trying to rewrite the manga with small changes, I was actually pleased to find that the author decided to spice things up with new characters, and new interpetations of a few classic characters.  The crossover elements aren't intrusive, but I personally don't feel they added as much.

All-in-all, this is a very average fic with no glaring flaws, and no shining examples of excellence.  Perhaps I would have liked it more if I'd read it years ago, but having just finished reading the last chapter today....  Well, it's cute for the Ranma/Ukyou fans, or the Ryouga/Akane fans, and it probably won't fill you with a sense of real regret ... but that's about all it has to offer.