Although she's never been my favourite character, I've always liked Akane to a certain extent. In recent years, I've come to appreciate her more: that despite her low-tier status as a fighter and willingness to rely on Ranma in crisis situations, she's still a very strong character, especially compared to many female main characters in 'harem comedies'. She's resourceful, quite willing to take the initiative, she routinely rescues herself rather than waiting for Ranma to save her, and of course, she's ridiculously nice and willing to help anyone in need, even if they've previously hurt her. The fragility of her self-esteem and how she frequently compares herself to others is a major part of her personality and is a good reminder of how young she is, but she isn't defined by it or any other single issue. In a word, she's complex, in that understated way Takahashi is so good at.

I feel the huge "anti-Akane" movement in fanfiction that has sprung up in recent years is an unfortunate development. Not simply because I like the character, but because so few people who dislike Akane seem able to deal with the character as she actually is, rather than as a ridiculous caricature who overreacts to everything and answers any issue with violence - and whose violence is treated with a gravity and seriousness that is not only not in line with how it is treated in the manga, but invariably is at odds with how the author treats the casual violence virtually every other character in the series (not least including Ranma) use on each other.

Preferences between characters and character couples are invariable, but it's annoying how much fandom seems to have been divided up (and this hardly applies only to Ranma) by pro- and anti- fandoms and "shipping". Akane seems a particularly prominent case of this, where new Ranma fanfiction seems lately to almost have to take a ridiculously-pro-or-anti position on her to appeal to an already decided audience. It's unfortunate, since either position by its very extreme-ness takes away from the complexity that is one of her most appealing traits, at least to my eyes.

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