Peter L. Ward wrote:

 I don't think anybody objects to creating original characters
to act as villains/antagonists.  This is *necessary* for shows like
Dirty Pair, Vampire Princess Miyu or Sailor Moon where the antagonist
changes from episode to episode (or series to series in the last
case.)

 The issue here is that of creating new *protagonists* to
supplant the ones from the source series.  I think these, like
self-insertion stories, need to be judged on a case-by-case basis.
The important thing is to make sure that the original characters don't
come off as being better than the existing characters, and that their
story is made interesting to the reader.

I tend to disagree here.  Who's to judge whether an original character is more 
or less interesting than the source characters?  This is a very subjective 
matter, more suited to the individual reader's tastes.  What may be a less 
interesting character to one person may be an extremely interesting one to 
another.

As for being "better", what is the working definition of "better"?  If you mean 
stronger, that can be overcome in Ranma's case.  He's always managing to find a 
way to best his opponents.  The only ones I can think of he can't best are 
Cologne & Happosai, if only due to their experience (if not wisdom...).  I 
can't rightly speak for other authors, but my characters aren't that much 
stronger than Ranma & company.  Even Buffy, who's got superstrength, is more on 
a par with Ryoga and Shampoo where strength is concerned.

"Better" personalities?  In Ranma, that's all to easy to establish.  Ranma's a 
jerk, Kuno's a buffoon, and Genma's a fool.  Not too many other source 
characters are much better.  You'd have to work at making characters on a par 
or worse than Ranma & company in the personality department.

My general approach to creating a character is just that, creating the 
character.  I don't design a character to be better than or worse than the 
source characters.  I *do* try to make them interesting, though.  Sometimes I 
succeed, sometimes I fail.  I give them a story hook of some sort and hope that 
it takes.  Again, some succeed and some fail.  That's how it goes.

-- 
 Julian Fong                                     jhfong@ea.oac.uci.edu

Peter L. Ward          falcon@best.com          Kyusaku on IRC #Anime!
Caretaker of the Urd Shrine (http://www.best.com/~falcon/urdhome.htm)

"Sensei...my brother...my brother...promise me...that you'll
kick his ass!" Jinnai Nanami - El Hazard #7