On Mon, 1 Jun 1998, Gem wrote:

> Hey,
>       I've just been going through a bunch of my other Anime series, Ranma
> 1/2 and Urusei Yatsrura, and while I was watching the movies, I came to a
> startling realization which made me change my opinion on Kain, I've
> realized he's not just a plot device. Yeah, you never heard of him prior,
> but when in the Ranma 1/2 series ever hear of Kirin or Toma prior to the
> movies, or in Urusei Yatsura when did Elle or Rupa come in prior to their
> movie appearances? They, directing staff, had to make a movie, and to that
> you have to throw in old and new elements to the story. Whether it's Kain,
> Elle or Toma the writters have  to come up with a "villian" and Kain was
> their conglomeration of thoughts. So, I feel Kain is no longer a plot
> device, but a movie villian.

In this context, those words are almost synonymous... :)

What makes Kain such a boring, colorless villain is that he is given
no characterization whatsoever, no emotions, no interaction with others,
nothing.

In comparison with KAIN, Kirin or Elle are practically real people!
They have friends/associates, they have their strange habits, they talk
with people, in short: you can see that they have BACKGROUND, that they
existed before the movie instead of having been conjured up by a script
writer too lazy to introduce a real character. I mean, KAIN would have
been MORE interesting and convincing had we just seen a little box with
the imprinting "Instant Movie Villain(tm)" being accidentally drenched
with water...



Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt --- Member of #WASHU# and Her would-be guinea-pig.
        Untiring defender of Washu-chan, Asuka-chan and Elektra-chan. 
   A Homepage for Elektra: http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~borgward/
--------------- Let`s shake the dew off this lily, shall we ? ---------------