Hi, and welcome to "An Interview with Elly", where Arianna V (aka Elly), will answer all your most pressing questions about the relationship between Ranma and Akane and related topics, as well as Caught in the Crossfire! *Grin* Let's begin, shall we?

Q. Why Ranma and Akane anyway?
A. Frankly, because they're just so darn funny and cute. They're much more interesting than your average couple. All of the nicest couples started out fighting, and with Ranma and Akane we get to see them slowly fall into a routine of fighting, making up again, avoiding and depending on each other, which is more like real life than most anime.

Q. Do Ranma and Akane actually love each other?
A. Yep.

Q. That's it?
A. Yep.

Q. Seriously.
A. *Deepens voice* Search your feelings, you KNOW it to be true. *Laugh* Seriously, I really no longer feel the need to go into a sermon in defense of these two. Their actions can speak much louder than my words. Their love is believable because of the fact that it wasn't spontaneous. Real love never is. Besides, Takahashi-sensei said so.

Q. What about Ukyo and Shampoo? Don't they also love Ranma?
A. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but I'd definitely say that their feelings for Ranma are more infatuation than much else, or would be in anything akin to reality. It might be argued that they truly love Ranma, but, considering how basically realistic (and of course, all the character's emotions are exaggerated in Ranma ½) Ranma and Akane's relationship is, Ukyo, Shampoo and for the sake of argument, Kodachi's (especially her's, actually) so-called love seems shallow in comparison. Besides, one of the things that really turns me off about all three is that they each, essentially just decided, in one minute, that they were in love with Ranma. At the very least, this makes them hopelessly boring. It also falls in the vicinity of ‘love at first sight', a concept which does absolutely nothing for me.

Q. So you're saying they don't actually love Ranma?
A. I'm saying nothing of the kind. But if someone tells you, for instance, that Shampoo loves Ranma more than any of his other fiancees (a statement I just read on an anonymous person's webpage), don't you believe it.

Q. Aren't you a little hard on them?
A. I don't think so, not considering the extreme nature of humor and circumstances that makes Ranma ½ what it is. In real life, to use those two nasty, four-letter-words again, the entire cast would be locked up in prison. But that aside, the truth is that I can't entertain the idea of Ranma with Shampoo, Ukyo or Kodachi because they've demonstrated more than once that they don't care how they get his affections, so long as they get them. If this means drugs, tricks, eliminating rivals . . . so be it. Akane's not like that. But here I promised I wouldn't preach. Next question!

Q. Ok, how about Nabiki. Does Nabiki have a thing for Ranma? I've seen lots of fanfiction that's pretty convincing.
A. I'm not sure where this one came from, but it's a myth. Nabiki doesn't have any romantic inclination for Ranma. At the least, he'd just annoy her - - this would be a major personality clash.. Secondly, he's pretty uninteresting financially, except, it would seem, when buying Christmas gifts for Akane becomes necessary, which brings us to the third point. Nabiki knows how Ranma and Akane feel about her, so even if there WAS some partiality on her side, it wouldn't be mutual and even Nabiki wouldn't try to steal this particular entity from Akane. So, while it might make a good soap opera plot, sorry, but no. Mutual disinterest.

Q. Then what do you think of Nabiki and Kuno?
A. There's nothing really romantic about their relationship, but I've always thought they'd end up together for a couple simple reasons. One, Kuno is wealthy. I doubt Nabiki plans to marry for love. Second, since Akane is eventually going to be unattainable (I.E, married to Ranma) it wouldn't be at all out of character for Kuno to settle for the ‘next best thing', I.E. Nabiki. Third, it wouldn't be at all out of character for Kuno to settle for ANYone with two X chromosomes.

Q. What do you say to people who disagree with your Ranma/Akane obesses- - I mean, interest?
A. *Smile* I make them read a few of my own fanfics.

Q. And that convinces them?
A. No, but after about three stories, their brains turn to a warm gooey mush and they'll believe whatever I tell them.

Q. Ok, here's an interesting one. If Ranma was trapped as a girl forever would he/she and Akane ever . . . ?
A. The answer is no to whatever you were going to ask. Simply put, they don't swing that way. For Akane, who is interested in boys (and really only one boy), it'd be just too weird. We've already seen that she can't handle that prospect (remember the conk-on-the-noggin episode?). For Ranma, it'd be not only utterly humiliating to him to ‘marry' or be otherwise . . . involved with Akane in a solely female state. Plus he'd never do that to her; he knows she wouldn't like that. So, here is it: if Ranma was trapped as a girl, he/she and Akane would probably love each other in a romantic sense for the rest of their lives, but would never act on it, and in fact, probably avoid each other. It'd be really sad, actually.

Q. Alright, then, happy thoughts. What are some good Ranma and Akane episodes?
A. A happy thought indeed. I've got a long list (Laugh) The Christmas OAV is always nice to watch (the end is really sweet). The Ryuuganzawa OAV has some lovely scenes. The Golden Pair storyline in season 2 is one of my personal favorites, it's packed with WAFFy goodies. In fact, season two in itself is really nice, it also has the Neko-ken episode (hee) the cookie-baking episode (aw) and the Romeo and Juliet episode (ooo). Beyond that, it's a matter of keeping your eyes peeled, but I will mention the episode where Akane breaks her ankle and the ‘Christmas without Ranma' episode, both, I believe, in season 6. But I digress. Anyway, that's all for this half of the interview. Now we move on the round two, Questions about Caught in the Crossfire!

Q. Ok, so, why haven't you updated in so long?
A. Er, I, ah . . . heh heh . . . coughlazycough. Ahem, next question.

Q. So . . . you designed it yourself.
A. Yes, which is why it's sometimes hard to find things in it. Like my bedroom.

Q. Your fanart's ok. Do you still take commissions?
A. I do indeed, but the problem is, while I don't get very many requests at all (which hurts my feelings, sniff) I seem, of late, to be getting less and less Ranma and Akane requests and more and more, please-draw-my-character type requests. And while I like those too, some Ranaka commissions wouldn't hurt me a jot, either . . . .

Q. Where'd you get the idea for the Anything Goes Fairy Tale Theatre?
A. Mix of influences from ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle' and, not surprisingly, ‘Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre'. Think of me as Elly Ves-vall . . . or . . . something.

Q. Do you get any help with your page?
A. Not with the actual construction, but, yes, I do. Mostly in the form of gifts, like Druhid's loverly fanarts which she has given me quite a few of (and they're pretty, pretty, folks), and Mike's sizable contribution to the theatre, as well as from others like V-chan, Dreamer and Sol-kun, who've given me goodies and in Sol's case, helped with the editing, proofreading and cleanup of some of my ‘literary' works.

Q. Have I ever seen your art anywhere else?
A. It's entirely possible. I was responsible for a sad little page that I abandoned a few years ago called ‘Slayers Moon'. It's still up, all alone I guess. I've donated things to a couple fanfic authors and my art can also be found in the fanart archive at animexx.de. I haunted the Bakaneko oekaki boards for a VERY short period of time this past spring, but if you happened to see an Elly there, it was probably me.

Q. What about your writings?
A. If you happened to read what looked like a ripoff of my Fairy Tale Theatre's Princess and the Pea with all the names changed at your local county fair last year, then, fear not. I entered it myself (got a blue ribbon by the way, but so does everyone with good grammar and spelling). Other than that, you can find a few of my Ranma fics on Fanfiction.net. And, on the slight chance this might mean anything to you: in a former life I was the authoress Makoto Kino and I authored the Sailor Moon fanfic "Cause and Effect". It was never exactly a best-seller, but I did get some very nice emails about it. Wrote it when I was about . . . oh, thirteen, I should say.

Q. So, how long do you plan on keeping Crossfire alive?
A. As long as I can. I don't really intend to ever close it down completely. Even if I couldn't work on it anymore, I'd still want it open. I'm not paying anything for it, either, which helps. *Grin*

Q. Any advice on owning a webpage?
A. Always have something worthwhile to post, when you post. Try to avoid the updating just to ‘check in' kind of thing. It's disappointing to people. Plus, having a lot of nice things makes people less angry with you when you're too lazy to update for, oh, six months or so. *Looks guilty*

Q. Any parting words before we finish?
A. Yes. Thank you for coming to Crossfire and please continue to visit. My guests are what make this place worth it, so, if you see something you like, drop me a line and tell me (that's very, very gratifying) or sign my guestbook (do that anyway). And this doesn't apply to just me. Write to people, they can be so pleasant. ^_^ But remember not to give away your credit card number. Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for coming, and I hope to see you here again really soon! Bye, now!