Ranma ½ Ranma/Shokugeki no Soma crossover

[Dumbledork]

After a particularly destructive fight inside Furinkan High’s gymnasium between Ranma and Ryoga, principal Kuno has finally the perfect excuse to get rid of his son’s nemesis and expels him. Unfortunately, due to Furinkan’s bad reputation and Ranma’s notoriety no school around is willing to accept him.

This doesn’t sit well with Nodoka, who doesn’t want to have a dropout as a son and sees only one possibility for him to finish school: sending him to her old school, Tootsuki Culinary Academy. She knows that cooking is not a career Ranma has ever envisioned, but Tootsuki is probably the only school that will expect him. As a former 3rd seat it shouldn’t be too difficult to get her son accepted, especially since his cooking is quite good. With her coaching it shouldn’t be too difficult for turn him into an excellent cook, especially if he puts as much effort into that discipline as he did into martial arts. She could even apply there as a teacher to keep an eye on her son.

Genma is not very happy with Nodoka’s decision as it would keep him away from Akane and Ranma is of two minds. On the one hand he doesn’t want to leave the Tendos as he’d miss Akane and the others, although he’d rather die than ever admit it, but on the other hand he doesn’t want to disappoint his mother.

He asks the Tendos for their opinion and Nabiki says right away that she doesn’t care. Soun is not very happy as it could possibly jeopardize the plan to get the children married, and Akane pretends that she doesn’t care as it’s Ranma’s life and that he has the right to do whatever he wants. Kasumi on the other hand, much to no one’s surprise wholeheartedly approves of the idea, especially as at one point she would have liked to attend Tootsuki herself, but didn’t want to abandon her family.

Nodoka calls the headmaster of Tootsuki and after explaining the situation Ranma gets accepted on a probationary basis. Nodoka also manages to get Kasumi enrolled without telling her. It would be criminal to let the young woman’s culinary talents go to waste. Thankfully Tootsuki had quite a unique curriculum and age didn’t really matter. She was sure that Kasumi would do well and graduate after a few months and in the meantime she could help Ranma.

Things start slowly, without any of the usual chaos in Ranma’s life. Nodoka got a job as a teacher for traditional Japanese cuisine and Kasumi does very well herself, impressing all the teachers with her skills. Unfortunately, the good times don’t last and very soon Shampoo and Ukyo apply for a scholarship and with their great skills get easily accepted and Kodachi throws some money around and gets accepted too.

And Tootsuki will never be the same.

Since cooking duels and improving one’s skills is practically what Shokugeki no Soma is all about, crossing it with Ranma ½ shouldn’t be too difficult, especially since Ranma starts out as a rookie and is in the beginning no match for the big names at the Academy. However, under Nodoka’s and Kasumi’s tutelage he improves very quickly.

Now, the big problem with this story is Akane. There’s simply no way to have her attend Tootsuki Academy. I doubt that Soun would let Ranma leave without Akane, but I can’t imagine Akane leaving her life and her friends at Furinkan quite behind. A possible solution would be to have Soun ask Kasumi to act as a chaperone and keep hm away from other girls.

At first I wanted Kasumi to have been a former Tootsuki Alumni, but there would be no way to come up with a plausible reason for Ranma and Genma not to be aware of that.

 

[pacifist]

You could have Kasumi as failed student. Someone who only lasted a few weeks but failed due to lack of international cuisine experience or simply cracked under the pressure. Which is why little seems to bother her now. After failing she withdrew into herself so all the weird stuff slides off and she continues on autopilot. While just entering is considered noteworthy to fail within weeks means a polite Japanese person will not be bringing up the subject often.

 

[Lord Raa]

Could also expand on the Tendo backstory if Kasumi had to quit the school to take care of things at home.

If you wanted to. I mean, some people like that sort of thing in their fanfics.

 

[frice2000]

This is really a pretty nice idea. Don't like two parts though. Nodoka being a former student is sort of bland. Would rather Ranma sort of is tapped by coming across some chef or something on his own. Or it is his own idea rather then Nodoka being at the center of everything. Nodoka giving her complete and total support though and being very enthusiastic would be nice though, even though she wouldn't know exactly what everything would entail for him. Think that makes for a bit of a neater story honestly.

As to the Kasumi thing, don't think it really adds anything.

Other then that though seems like this'd be a rather neat idea. Hope you or someone else does something with it.

 

[Dumbledork]

I prefer someone else to write the story. I know next to nothing about cooking. I live out of the microwave oven and from Chinese take-out food.

The most I cook is boil water for my pasta.

 

[H-Man]

I just noticed how much this is similar a base as Big Human in Campus.

Not saying it's a bad thing, just that it explains a lot of the similarities.

 

[Dumbledork]

Really? Honestly, I don't see it.

 

[pacifist]

I believe he's refering to these lines.

After a particularly destructive fight inside Furinkan High’s gymnasium between Ranma and Ryoga, principal Kuno has finally the perfect excuse to get rid of his son’s nemesis and expels him. Unfortunately, due to Furinkan’s bad reputation and Ranma’s notoriety no school around is willing to accept him.

This doesn’t sit well with Nodoka, who doesn’t want to have a dropout as a son and sees only one possibility for him to finish school:

but (Youkai Academy) is probably the only school that will accept him.

 

[Dumbledork]

Ah okay. I hadn't thought of that fic in years, though.

 

[nuclear death frog]

I also noticed the similar premise.
-I know nothing about the cross series, but I believe being a chef is a very manly role, which Nodoka would approve of Ranma being.
-The other girls (Shampoo, Ukyou, Kodachi) trying to get into the school in various ways are frankly something I see as a distraction. I doubt Shampoo would be interested -- she doesn't go to Furinkan in canon so why would she try to attend some other school? Ukyou is a meh failure and I just see her character as a bother ... as for Kodachi, cooking is something nobles hire people to do.
-Genma does not shove Ranma into Akane's presence every waking moment; it is fanon that he does.

might comment more later

 

[mgsaintz]

Other thing to consider is that Tootsuki is rather exclusive even with the backing of a former elite ten they wouldn't hand wave the entrance exams, so getting Ranma in would take a lot of work and experience on his part. Ukyo is also out of luck unless she branches outside of her specialty, Shampoo has a possibility but unless Ranma was in the school no reason to apply, Kodachi won't make it just by throwing money at the school. For this idea to work Ranma has to in some way find passion and the dedication to cooking, I like the idea but just isn't workable for Ranma unless you change his past and build the framework to have him fit in.

 

[Dumbledork]

It's a fact that Ranma is a quick study when he has to, so with a few months of coaching from Nodoka and Kasumi he shouldbe good enough to enter.

If you read Shokugeki no Soma you have to wonder how most of the extras ever got accepted if not for their money since they don't seem to be very good cooks. Which makes sense, since I doubt you'll find thousands of excellent teenage cooks to attend one school.

 

[mgsaintz]

He's a quick study but another thing I seem to remember with Tootsuki is that he needs to start at High School, which is the last chance anyone can enter the academy if they haven't started in Junior High and Ranma started high school at the start of his series. Not only does he need tutoring in cooking, he'll need to understand the theories and studies in it as well as the high school workload, any failing grade will just get him expelled.

 

[H-Man]

My guess regarding proper Tootsuki skill levels:

-70% of the students made it in because of money, not skills. They'll never graduate and might not last a whole year - the majority of those who were fired in the training camp, for instance. It's assumed they've been studying in the previous years so they're not utterly useless in a kitchen, but they are never going to be that 1%.
-15% have sufficient skills to be good cooks, but lack unique traits or experience to make it up for it. We're talking most of the Polar Stars in this case; they don't have a magical tongue, lips or nose to help them figure out the perfect state of their meal, and they don't have the years of experience that Souma or the Aldinis had beforehand. They're certainly chef material and have the potential to graduate, but one can accept they're just not 'good enough'.
-10% have the aforementioned traits and/or experience, though not both. This gives them a benefit that others don't have, and would allow them to think well outside the box, unlike the previous cases who may end up usually stuck by following the recipe too well.
-5% are plain geniuses or monsters, like Alice and Tsukasa [perhaps the Diavolo as well]. They're outside human understanding or limitations, and once they're fully polished by Tootsuki they'll be perfect.

 

[Dumbledork]

He's a quick study but another thing I seem to remember with Tootsuki is that he needs to start at High School, which is the last chance anyone can enter the academy if they haven't started in Junior High and Ranma started high school at the start of his series. Not only does he need tutoring in cooking, he'll need to understand the theories and studies in it as well as the high school workload, any failing grade will just get him expelled.

 

[nuclear death frog]

So... did you actually write a response to his post in yours, Dumbledork? I don't see one.

 

[Lord Raa]

Might have been an accidental click. The quote/reply thing does take a little getting used to.

 

[NuitTombee]

More likely he, like PCHeintz and a few others, is using IE. The forum sometimes eats their responses w/ quotes after the recent forum upgrade.

 

[Dumbledork]

Yes, I'm using IE, and I did try to quote the post. Unfortunately I can't remember my answer. I think it was about something about Ranma being in the first year of high school throughout the series. We never see him or any of the other protagonists advance.

 

[michirusan]

Right, one of the things that was mostly glossed over is that the heavy handed eliminations at Totsuki only really began at high school. Also. the point that transferring in at the start of high school is both a nightmare, and something you can't even buy your way in to. That was shown in something like chapter 2, iirc. At that point. it requires both actual talent, and skill, because you're going up against those who have been taking the Totsuki curriculum for a full three years already. Disregarding Erina, Soma was the ONLY transfer in for his year. This rather sounds like the norm, not an exception, as there should have been other entrance exams as well. To get Ranma in there, you're likely going to have to have his entrance point be before the High School level to make it fly, and likely have him returning be part of an extended training journey where he was taking in rare international cuisines at the source, and honestly, if it would feed Genma, he'd probably go for it full-tilt.
If you wanted to make a Kasumi connection there, it could easily have been her being well known in the high school section while he was in Jr high, or some form of scandal that caused her to leave, or just her leaving CAUSING a scandal. For all we know she could have been en elite ten member that vanished one day, and rumors never died. There's a lot of ways to make the crossover viable, but you'd need to put the pieces together carefully to not lose the sense of disbelief. As we've seen many serious and comedic food martial arts in the Ranma canon continuities already.
One last thing, Ranma would have to be a performance cook, which is something both the manga and anime of SOma did get into at one point, so it's an easy angle in.

 

[Dumbledork]

Erina FAILED Soma, so your point is not valid. He only got in because Erina's grandfather decided so. After all, it was Erina's grandfather who asked Soma's father to have him apply. Everyone else failed only because Erina was being a bitch. We don't have any information how many students get accepted if someone else judges their meals.

 

[H-Man]

So how is he going to get in, in that case?

Ranma's manners aren't much better than Souma's, as far as dealing with people, he's decent at saying untruths [so he'd insult her tongue as being dumb and his food is legit good] and Erina wasn't even interested in letting anyone take part, in the first place.

 

[BtML]

There's also to consider who would be conducting the testing. I'm betting, normally, it's someone from with a necessary background as a, at minimum, 3 star restaurant chef. Apparently, when Erina held the test for the transfer students, she was supposed to interview them, and then have them cook three different dishes in a practical exam. Erina decided that this was tedious, so she changed it.

Anyway, Ranma really would have to be coached extensively if he wanted in, though I have no doubt his practical skill would be up to necessary standards when motivated enough. The thing is, as long as the examiner is someone who is *not* from the Elite Ten, Ranma's got a shot.

Hmmm, you could probably have Chapelle do it, he's strict but fair.

EDIT: Disregard the whole "3 stars chef thing", the examiner would have to have a background impressive enough for Tootsuki, and Erina's ridiculous personal standards were messing me up, considering the fact that Shinomiya, a former 1st Seat, doesn't have a restaurant with 3 stars yet (he has a lot of competition in that area, though).