Kain: The Shooting Star

Kain: The Shooting Star (Credit: Yoshitaka Amano) Now I’m going to have to head this post off with a disclaimer: I love Kain. He’s the best. Kain > Cecil every day of the week. So yes, there may be some bias towards how awesome he is in this post but, interestingly, that does actually have a lot to do with the writing and translation. Let’s take a look, shall we? Shooting stars are full of passion and spirit and energy…. and then they fall as lumps of cold, hard stone. Kain, in a similar vein, is full of passion and emotion in the Japanese translation…. and is cold and often emotionless in the English version. I should say, there’s nothing inherently wrong with either: they’re two very legitimate styles of writing. But when we compare the two versions, it’s interesting to note the differences it builds up in his character - right from the start to the end. In the very early stages of the story, Kain and Cecil are ordered to go to Mist and, upon seeing the l...