RVincent's Ranmaverse
First off, let me start by warning anyone reading this that it is going to ramble, a lot. Second, you may or may not agree with what I am saying. I am pleading the 5th amendment of fandom on that one, you know "This is MY interpretation of the Universe and because it is MINE you cannot argue with it." Said with the whiny voice and all. That out of the way, I am writing this, not because of some inundation of fanfiction complaints on the Ranmaverse that I write in or anything, just simply because I thought it might help to clarify things that people otherwise might ask. So without any further delay, here goes.
My Ranmaverse is grounded fairly solidly in the Anime. This is not to say I am unfamiliar with the Manga work. Nor is it to say that the Anime presents the best version of the storyline. The main reason is that the anime, and the end of it provide a nice jumping ground into fanfiction. The anime ends in an open ended way. For those of you who have not seen it. There is a spark between Akane and Ranma, but... unlike in the Manga (Spoilers throughout!) there is nothing concrete though I might eventually take some liberties and place a fanfic I write post Wedding.
There are things that I miss from the Manga though that did not occur in the anime, particularly some of the more action packed moments and Ranma's later adversaries. But the remaining big reason that I use the anime more for reference is the latter introduction of Akira and Ukyo's assistant. We, as readers went though volume upon volume upon volume of Ranmaverse without these added characters, and we got fairly use to our posse. Then suddenly (yes, it's pretty sudden) we end up with these new characters that can be taken to conveniently pair off Ukyo and Ryoga.
The whole end of the Manga seems rushed as a matter of fact. Like suddenly Ruminko Takahashi decided at volume 28 or so that it was time for Ranma to come to an end, or even less respective of her, maybe she simply ran out of ideas and didn't want to leave things as open ended as they were. Yes, the series was technically open ended and I have read that it was fan influence that left the series open ended and not have Ranma actually pair off with someone from the series was one of the contributing factors to the ending. But for those who have read Ranma to the end... it's all but concluded, albeit a bit hastily.
So what does all of this mean to my fanfiction? It means that most of my fanfics take place later in the series, but on an alternate timeline that follows the anime rather then following where the Manga takes it. This includes the group getting older, and settling down a little but still remaining at a deadlock for the most part in terms of the relationships. I might throw in some of the characters that appear later in the Manga from time to time but Ukyo and Ryoga's pair off characters will be, unless I specifically state that it is a post Ranma 1/2 story, absent.
Sorry if I upset anyone... Actually, not really, if you're upset by the tone and attitude this rant takes then maybe you need to relax a bit more.