It's a good thing that manga artist Monkey Punch (Kazuhiko Kato) doesn't work for the New York Times, and that the Japanese are not as litigious and quick to protect the names and attributes of their creations as are Americans.  The Anime News Service is reporting that Cinderella Boy, a new anime series created by Monkey Punch that will be broadcast in Japan starting in June, features a main character named Ranma, who just happens to turn into a woman (at the stroke of midnight, hence the Cinderella reference).  Although MP's Ranma works in a detective agency instead of a martial arts academy, and unlike Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma it's the clock, not a dousing with water that precipitates an instant sex change, the character's name is exactly the same as the eponymous hero of Takahashi's long running gender-bending saga.

Of course all good manga and anime fans realize that this is hardly the first time that Monkey Punch has 'swiped' a character without bothering with a license.  MP's most famous creation Lupin III is the grandson of Maurice LeBlanc's Arsene Lupin -- and both Lupins are suave gentlemen bandits (see 'French Revive Lupin I').   Of course Lupin III is a lot more fun than LeBlanc's creation primarily because Lupin III's posse, which includes the clever (and well-endowed) Fujiko, adds numerous new twists and lots of humor to the proceedings.  Japanese publishers, who routinely allow nearly exact recreations of their copyrighted characters by fan artists (doujinski), are unbelievably tolerant by American standards, and the result of their largesse is an extremely lively fan scene that produces lots of artists and writers and more than a few works of lasting interest (like Lupin III) that would easily subject their creators to charges of plagiarism here in the States.