Akane and Ranma finally get married. It should be the end of all the troubles, and indeed, after a little misunderstanding at the start, the honeymoon is wonderful. But after the return the fights resume, and although Ranma tries his best to avoid provoking Akane, the beatings get more and more serious.
The Bitter End
is a Ranma ½ continuation and Horror story written by James A. Bateman (under the name "Zen"). That it offers a dark take on Ranma and Akane's relationship, focusing on increasing Akane's violent tendencies and delves into the psychological motivations behind her behavior. Generally considered the ultimate Ranma½ Dark Fic, it ruthlessly and relentlessly extrapolates the causes and results of comic behavior to through a much more realistic world than the one represented in the anime.
It is a monumental presence in Ranma fiction and has spawned several sequels and parodies. He is also solely responsible for the widespread awareness of "Rage Disorder" and the story's explanation for Akane's extreme tsundere behavior among anime fans.
Upon its release, the story hit the Ranma fanfic community like a bomb, starting Flame Wars and prompting several explicit sequels by other authors as well as numerous other responses ranging from to parodies to Fix Fics attempting to soften the blow. The diagnosis for Rage Disorder behind the behavior of her Flanderized Akane became popular to the point of Fanon for several years.
Decades later, it remains a powerful influence on the surviving Ranma fanfiction community.
The Bitter End provides examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: The entire story gives a Cerebus Retcon to Akane's tsundere attitude as an undiagnosed and untreated explosive anger disorder, which only worsens after she marries Ranma. This makes her an abuser within a domestic abuse scenario that Ranma cannot deal with due to the double standard (he can join an anti-abuse support group, but first he has to prove his curse so they don't reject him, and that's as far as you can get "official" help) and the titular "bitter end" happens when Akane encounters Ranma with one of his floozies (Ukyo Kuonji talking to him as two old friends and that is all it was) with a katana within arm's reach.
- Bitch Slap: All of Akane's attacks on Ranma are this, because he refuses to defend himself against her. It is deconstructed when it becomes genuine Domestic Abuse and its justifications become weaker and weaker.
- Chekhov's Gun: After Ranma and Akane's wedding, Nodoka gives Akane the Saotome family sword as a wedding gift, which she uses to kill Ranma and Ukyo in an outburst of fury at the climax.
- Continuation: The story takes place after the end of the Ranma manga within an unspecified (apparently short) period of time.
- Dark Fic: To say that this story is considered the ultimate Ranma½ Dark Fic would be an exaggeration. It's entirely based on treating a series full of comic violence in the most realistic way possible until its dark, bloody and terrifying conclusion.
- The Ditherer: Nabiki and Kasumi both understand to different degrees that Akane and Ranma's relationship is abusive. While they do try to talk to Akane about her actions, her sisters overall take far too long to actually do anything substantial to help Ranma. Nabiki hopes that Kasumi will fix things, while Kasumi privately admits she has no idea how to make this better.
- Downer Ending: True to its title, this is how the story ends. Akane ends up murdering Ranma and Ukyo in a final outburst of fury with the Saotome family sword that Nodoka gave her as a wedding gift; the realization of what she has done completely pushes her over the edge. When the story ends, Akane is still committed to an asylum, leaving behind a group of saddened and fragmented survivors (both friends and family).
- Dude in Distress : Ranma in regards to Ukyo. She's not wrong.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Nabiki and Ryouga both realize that Akane's going too far in her treatment of Ranma, and want Akane to stop or Ranma to just leave. Ranma's own mother initially thinks he needs to treat Akane better, but she's also shocked when he makes her understand that he hasn't done anything to upset his wife.
- Freudian Excuse: Akane's violent behavior. As the story progresses, it is revealed that he suffers from a very real psychological problem called "Rage Disorder".
- Honor Thy Abuser: Deconstructed. It's discussed how a lot of abuse victims don't want or can't leave their abusers. In Ranma's case he doesn't want to leave Akane because he doesn't want to break the vow he made, even as others urge him to get the hell out as Akane's beatings become more violent.
- How We Got Here: The story opens with Ryoga visiting an institutionalized Akane before the story flashes back to the events which led to her being there.
- It's All About Me: Akane absolutely refuses to see things from Ranma's point of view, repeatedly telling him to stop doing things that make her angry despite that he's not doing anything. Even when he asks her what he's done to upset her so much, she never answers and makes their "problems" all his fault in her mind or invents reasons to hurt him.
- Mistaken for Cheating: The last piece that leads to the tragedy. When Ukyo decides to take Ranma away from Akane for his safety and Ranma is finally forced to admit that perhaps he and Akane should no longer be married, Akane appears at the moment of his decision and explodes in fury at what she interprets as final incontrovertible proof of Ranma's infidelity towards her. And what comes next...
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Due to her untreated psychological problems, this becomes Akane's standard response to anything she finds annoying or threatening. And it culminates in the rage-driven fugue state she enters at the climax of the story upon discovering that Ukyo is basically trying to rescue Ranma from her.
- There Are No Therapists: Much avoided. Desperate to find some way to help her friend and ex-fiancee, Ukyo finally convinces Ranma to go to a support group for victims of domestic abuse. Being the only man within a group that is composed of women, Ranma's time with them does not start out easy, but he is eventually accepted after Ukyo reveals Ranma's curse who in turn He teaches self-defense to group members and takes an active role in helping some of them escape abuse.
- However, this is played directly with Akane, who becomes enraged when she finds out that Ranma is attending a support group, and even more so when she is told that she has a mental illness and should see a psychiatrist, causing her to hospitalize Ranma for second time and when he wakes up he tells him not to attend the group again.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The entire story is a long, extensive flashback scene that tells the events of how Akane ended up institutionalized at the beginning.
