...er, by which I mean "Greetings, fellow human!" '>>

I'm a big fan of the entire first Sailor Moon anime series from the 1990s, and I dabble in other forms of the franchise from time to time too. I've been told I write long, essay-like posts, and this will be no exception, sorry. ^^'

----- About the rules:

I read the newbie packet and the Rules and Code of Conduct and the Introduction Rules and the Avatar and Signature rules, but I am still a little worried about overlooking some part of the rules by accident (there's a lot of them and I already feel like I lost tack of something).

I don't think of myself as a rule-defying cheaty person generally, and I don't like fighting or being selfish, but I do tend to ramble and bring up tangential things a lot (and have a lot of enthusiasm for fan content and fan theories and different fan site stuff I've found). I'm also not sure if it's bad to bring up information about one iteration of the franchise in another iteration's subforum (like mentioning the Shitennou's backstory from the Manga in the '90s Anime forum or things like that).

Basically I'm worried that I may go too far off topic or link to someone else's fansite in a context when I'm not supposed to (or even just start talking about someone else's fan content in some part of the forum where maybe that's discouraged??) or otherwise do something else out of line completely by accident. I wouldn't break the rules on purpose or anything, but I just wanted to bring this up in advance.

----- About myself:

I'm 28 years old (until the 25th of this month), and let's just say female. I'm happily married, in a polyamorous open marriage. My health isn't the best and I haven't had a lot of spare money in the past several years and my housing situation has been iffy, but it could definitely be worse and I think things are finally improving on some of those fronts.

I don't keep pets, but I really like turtles, fish, and marine life. Your typical cute fuzzy mammals are alright too, though I consider mice and rats to be cuter than cats.

I currently live in New York state in the United States, though for several years I lived in Washington state and I'd really like to move back there. (I was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Texas, but I don't have any plans to go back there.)

I write, draw, and dabble in game-making. About a year ago I completed and released a Legend of Zelda fangame called "Link and Zelda: Panoply of Calatia" for a fangame engine called Zelda Classic, posted on the PureZC Forums. I'd like to make a Sailor Moon fangame eventually, too, but all I've got for that so far are ideas and plans...

For a long time (but especially the past year), I've been working on a long Sailor Moon story, with the working title "Serenity & Vitriol". It's set partly in 31st (not 30th!) century Crystal Tokyo, and partly in the Golden Kingdom in the months before Beryl took over the Earth, with the main characters being Naru, Usagi, Umino, Mamoru, the Shitennou, the Inner Senshi, and the cats.

A bunch of other characters also reappear with a little 'screentime' (Beryl, Thetis, Chibi-Usa, the Outer Senshi, and many others), and we see just a few new ones like Prince Endymion's parents, King Aethlius and Queen Calyce.

It will either be an illustrated novel or, pending my current experiments, possibly retooled into a comic (with the novel-format version released on the side since I've already been writing it in that format, but I think I'd be a lot happier with the results of a comic).

My avatar and signature image are also a thing I drew, for that same story. I may change them down the road (but not for at least a month of course) to similar but hopefully better drawings of Naru. I don't like to release too much before a given project is mostly done, because I hate getting hopes up if I should flake out and not finish a given project, but I may at least post some of my drawings (the same ones I've posted elsewhere recently).

I see life itself as a series of making the best educated guesses I can, so I like to discuss multiple possible interpretations and mysteries of story continuity without ruling anything out. I view fictional stories as being highly up to interpretation when anything isn't stated explicitly. But I also like looking stuff up and citing sources when I can, when trying to formulate serious theories.

Then again, I also like goofing around and making weird jokes about the continuity, like coming up with deliberately absurd interpretations of events, like "what if Minako's Sailor V transformation was different because she's actually a secret imposter from the Dark Kingdom who replaced the real Minako!". Or more plausible goofy ideas, like "Artemis accidentally damaged her Heshin Wand before they met". (My story isn't about either of those things, those are just random examples.)

Also, fair warning, I see the absence of a canonical answer to a question in a story as an opening, an opportunity to insert all sorts of wacky possibilities rather than assuming occam's razor holds true and that it necessarily works the same  as real life or whatever, because that's not as fun. This will come up if I post in debates, and my fanfiction is full of such things.

Basically, anything goes with me in terms of canonical interpretations, as long as it's all in good fun.

----- My introduction to Sailor Moon:

I first saw a tiny bit of Sailor Moon on TV when I was a kid, back in 1999 on Cartoon Network (the DiC dub). But I barely understood what I saw and didn't really start to learn about the show until I was a teenager in 2002, when someone I was close to online told me about it (and sent me some of the image songs like Yume Miru Dakeja Dame, which I had no other means of hearing back then). That person passed away a short time later though, mostly due to mental health problems.

Due to that experience, I decided I would definitely watch the show, but it took me a few years into my adulthood before I really got ready and sat down to do so, in 2011 (by that time I had gotten into another relationship with the person I've since married, and we watched it together). We watched the subtitled version.

For the first several episodes, I just thought of Sailor Moon as something kind of cute and fun and goofy. Theeeeen I got to the end of the Nephrite arc. In addition to being such a good story, it resonated very personally with my real life experiences as a teenager, and I cried a lot at the end of episode 24. After that, I pretty much became a fan for life.

I gradually watched the rest of the show and it's all just so good. I've been slowly branching into other portions of the franchise too, and it's all been fun, but nothing has stuck with me quite so strongly as the original anime, especially season 1. It means a lot to me.

Because of that, I've gotten kind of a weird obsession with the show and have gone on to get into all this other fanfiction writing and fan community stuff. ^_^

----- Non-Sailor Moon interests:

Some big favorite serieses of mine:

Spoiler:

----- Official Sailor Moon stuff:

I've watched / read / played / listened to:

-'90s Anime: All 200 episodes (in subtitled form), some repeatedly, and the three movies. I love it to bits, though I occasionally have to look up details, and I like some seasons more strongly than others. My biggest favorite is the Dark Kingdom arc and my least favorite is the Amazon Trio arc, but they're all good.

I've also tried watching the old DiC english dub version a little, and while I appreciate it'e existence and a few small things about it, it is mostly... less good.

My biggest favorite element of Sailor Moon, captured most by the anime version, is the sympathetic villain characters, often forced to do things against their will, and the intriguing blurry line of ethics it encourages you to think about and how much it encourages kindness, consideration, and (careful!) forgiveness. And the stories about people overcoming their problems and working things out. It's really, really good at that stuff. I also like how, with relatively few exceptions, there's a very strong arc to Usagi maturing process, especially in season 1.

- Manga: The first two arcs and part of the Infinity arc, still working on it slowly. I really like some of the unique plot points compared to the anime, like Kunzite learning the Shitennou's backstory or the sword from Silver Millennium, but I haven't felt as invested in this version because the characters don't get as much time to grow, and some of my favorite stories were anime-only inventions.

- Crystal: Season 1, planning to catch up eventually. I feel about the same way about it as I do the manga, even though there's some differences. So basically I kinda like it but I'm not obsessed with it.

- Sailor Moon Another Story: I've started playing it but I didn't get all that far. I like it and the story is very interesting, but I get lost on the huge area maps easily and the gameplay leaves me wanting to play an old Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy game instead. I think I may just to watch it all on youtube instead, but the downside is that the LPers I've tried watching don't stop to talk to all the NPCs they can like Naru and Umino.

- Sailor Moon PC Engine game: I recently found a translation of this being posted on youtube and am watching it. It's fascinating to me because it's basically a sequel to the '90s anime's Dark Kingdom arc, where the Shitennou are revived and Nephrite seeks out Sailor Moon's help to free his friends (and meets Naru again, after she's dating Umino) and they find out about being Endymion's guardians and some other stuff.

- Other Nintendo videogames: For Super Famicom, I really like Panic in Nakayoshi World (it's sort of like bomberman but with shooting?) and Sailor Moon S Kurukurin (the puzzle game with the hearts you uncover with Luna-P and 'Artemis-P' to try to get the three talismans before the other player, while you mess up each other's playfields with attacks). The R beat-em-up game is interesting but I'm not good at it. I haven't spent much time on the other SFC puzzle games. I tried the Gameboy games and I wanted to like them, but those are really boring ;.;

- Sega games: I've played the Genesis/Megadrive beat-em-up (beating up anime Nephrite felt weird! Also I laughed at Zoisite's form in this one) but can't beat the hard mode to see the Metallia fight. I also beat the gamegear sidescroller once, it was alright but very simplistic. I think I missed some stuff in it since I had no idea how to play the minigames in Japanese.

- Japanese Music: I love a lot of Arisawa Takanori's background music. Especially "Yuugure Toki wa Youma no Yokan Part 6" (plays during certain early fight/drama scenes), "Mysterious Starry Sky Hoshizora ha Mysterious Part 5" (plays during sentimental scenes), "Yuugure Toki wa Youma no Yokan Part 4" (plays during death scenes), "Performance" from the SuperS movie,.

The image songs are all fantastic too, with some of my biggest favorites being Sailor Star Song, Route Venus, Todokanu Omoi, Yume Miru Dakeja Dame, and Koisuru Otome wa Makenai, just to name a few (but there's so many more!). From Crystal, I also really like "I'm Going Down", the only Shitennou image song.

The "Gasshou Kumikyoku" album is particularly great, also. It's basically a dramatic choir version of various image songs from the anime and the PC Engine game. (The "Pure Mind" track is especially doomy and awesome Dark Kingdom music, Queen Beryl's image song.) Oh, and the Sailor Moon Another Story "Game Music Collection" album with it's orchestral remake versions. And the "Orgel Fantasia" and "Piano Fantasia" albums.

- Other music: From the old English dub I really like "My Only Love" (even though I'm polyamorous, hehe), and from the german dub I really like "Sag Das Zauberwort" and "Flieg Durch Die Wolken".

I haven't tried the Live Action series or the Musicals yet, but I want to someday. I have some other stuff to do first since Sailor Moon isn't even my only obsession in life, but hopefully I'll get to them.


----- Characters and ships:

My biggest favorite Sailor Moon characters ('90s anime versions preferred) are:

1. Naru Osaka
   
2. Gurio Umino
   
3. Nephrite
   
4. Zoisite
   
5. Professor Tomoe
   

But there's almost too many to really list. I also really like Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei, Usagi, Kunzite, Mamoru, Aluminum Siren, Lead Crow, Hotaru, Artemis, Luna, Thetis, Jadeite, Ali, En, Fiore, Haruka, Michiru, Iron Mouse, Saphir... I even like a few minor random characters like Yumemi Yumeno or Kamoi. And Youma Boxsy. Eudial and Mimete are fun too (I had to include Mimete or else she'd murder me).

I don't hate any of the recurring characters from the anime, though there are some frustrating moments with Tiger's Eye and Pegasus I suppose, and I felt pretty apathetic towards Rubeus.

My favorite ships are Naru/Nephrite and Naru/Umino, Zoisite/Kunzite, Aluminum Siren/Lead Crow, and of course Usagi/Mamoru and Haruka/Michiru. I also like Thetis/Jadeite though it's tricky to make that one work out healthily (I mean, that's true of anybody, but they were off to a pretty bad start, unless there's a lot more to the picture than what we saw, which is what I like to think). And I like all sorts of pairings for the "Inner" Senshi with whoever makes some sort of sense (each other, Shitennou, Ryo and Yuuichirou and Kunazuki, or what have you, as long as there's a good story in it). And there's lots of other ships I support or at least entertain.

I don't think any ships are "wrong" or "bad" (since these are fictional characters) and I enjoy considering almost any of them. I don't generally concern myself with whether it would 'contradict' an existing pairing as I'm not big on jealousy and stuff.

I also like multiple interpretations of characters, and alternate continuity possibilities, even when they contradict my 'preferred' version.

----- Others' Sailor Moon Fanworks:

Here's a few of the Sailor Moon Fanworks I'm very familiar with and enjoyed:
- Shadowjack's "In Which I Watch Sailor Moon"- This is a big favorite of mine and an inspiration for my own works. He basically analyzes and "retells" Sailor Moon with heavily rewritten, jokier scripts with their own whole continuity to them, as well as recap sketches and comics. He also goes into more serious elements like Kunzite's depression after Zoisite's death, and Esmeraude's signs of severe mental illness. And he has some side comics, particularly "A Stormy Relationship", shipping Ami and Makoto, which are pretty cute.

But in particular, the twist John Biles came up with and Shadowjack ran with, in regards to Naru's mom's dark secret, stuck with me in a big way, and I'm working on my own variant of the idea... which is the idea that led to my avatar.

- Moon Mamma/LunarMommy's Nephrite and Naru Treasury: I've read all of the stories on the site by her, with a few mixed feelings, but mostly I really, really like some things about them. I think the best one was "Shadows of Hope", which is about Naru and Nephrite having a whole bunch of kids in Crystal Tokyo (and also Zoisite and Kunzite having a biological daughter via future technology) and a time travel adventure.

- Moon Sticks by Chibi-Jennifer: This is a funny comic and I've read the whole thing. I hope it updates again sometime.

- A-Zone by Kiyohiko Azuma: This is an old doujinshi by Kiyohiko Azuma, future author of Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba. He did a book of some very fun little Sailor Moon stories, though I've only been able to find chapters 1, 2, and 4. The humor style is more over the top than what Sailor Moon would normally involve with some strange unexpected moments (like Ami unwillingly getting drunk, or Minako being thrown across a swimming pool) but but it's a lot of fun and very well-drawn and cute. There's also some four-komas at the end that remind me even more of Azumanga Daioh. My favorite is the one where Sailor Moon runs off to get a chocolate parfait for Naru and Nephrite, even though he's still laying there dying.

- The Crystal Weaver Saga by E.Lidell: I've read the first two novels of this and "Little Lies" (which was the best one I think). It's very strange because it's steeped in the DiC dub, yet trying to be darker than the original anime, like R-Rated stuff. I don't like the way the Sailor Senshi are written in these but I really like some of the parts about Molly (Naru) and the Crystal Weavers (Shitennou).

- Sailor Moon Z by John Biles and Jeff Hosmer: This seems like an interesting fanfic, but it's suuuuuuper long (though I'm not really one to talk...) and has perhaps a few TOO many side character OCs (there's a whole school of them! And an annex that sets out to rival The Lord of the Rings for length and scope!), so I've only read through episode 9 so far. It's also got a lot of focus on Naru.

I've also read a few Tumblrs. Sailor Failures in particular comes to mind, they have fun little articles. And I've seen a lot of neat fanart on Deviantart and Pixiv.

- Salome Anjari: She's done BEAUTIFUL, professional-quality covers of several Sailor Moon songs in both Japanese and English, and can be found on Youtube. A big recent favorite of mine!

Also, Harmoonics did a lovely version of "Flieg Durch Die Wolken" which ties in little elements of the other German intro themes like "Sag Das Zauberwort".

Speaking of Sag Das Zauberwort, there's some wonderful fan versions on youtube. And a good fan cover of "My Only Love" by Gunnarolla, and a string quartet version by SeraSymphony.

----- Conclusion:

I think that about covers all my interests, at least to start with, eheheh ^^'

I've also been posting on the Sailor Moon Forums for the past couple of months; I actually found them first on a search engine (looking for Sailor Moon Forums, after all!) before learning about Galaxy Cauldron from people there. I hope to participate in a friendly and enjoyable manner in both communities.
Also, I swear not all my posts will be quite this long.

Welcome to the forums! Is the fanart in your avatar and signature with naru as beryl from one of your many fanfictions? It looks fantastic!

I only have one SM fanfiction I'm working on, Serenity & Vitriol, and it's not out yet. (The other fanfiction I mentioned was stuff by other people that I enjoy, and I listed the authors.) But yes, I drew this picture of Naru for that story, thank you ^_^

I was thinking about posting the full picture, and some of my other drawings, over in the fanart forum, after I tested the waters to make sure I was posting correctly here.

my goodness, that's a very comprehensive introduction!

Welcome to Galaxy Cauldron Mitsukara, I'm LaMoonstar. 

Have you seen  PGSM or Sailor Moon Crystal yet?

I haven't seen the live action series, but I'd like to at some point. I've seen season 1 of Crystal, I thought it was alright and I'd like to catch up on the other seasons after I'm done with the manga.

The manga is my first target to finish next, I should've finished it ages ago. ^^'

Hey welcome to the forums! I don't mind the more comprehensive posts, it makes for interesting reading.

Hello Hello I am Dark Sportsnutd/Stephen

welcome to GC!!

Im guessing that your a creator since it looks like you have already made a avatar and siggy..am I right?

 I had a fun time reading through this and getting to know you!!

Befooooore commenting, as an admin lemme try to but those rules heebyjeebies to rest:
  It sounds like you've got a good handle on the rules, don't sweat the small stuff XD


 There are a lot of rules because we've had people in the past do things that made zero sense or stirred up drama and were all but i didn't break a rule and we were all "but that's common sense?!?!" but had to make it a rule after dealing with it to cover our butts in case something like that happened again XD  


Especially don't worry about rambling in topics - we don't police rambling when you're still connected to the point of the thread or make your way back around to it by the end of the post ;D However, with the points you made about cross-referencing sources, I'd just say to:
(a) mention if you're going off-canon and into fandom materials so no one jumps in all "but that's not canon..." ((and sourcing the fan stuff is supa nice~ include those links so we can jump in with you if you pique interest )) and 
(b) warn peeps if it's jumping into other canon sources; Like if you're in an 90's anime subforum topic and you want to bring up manga stuff, do it, but preface it with something like "in the manga [...]" or use a spoiler tag or w/e and tadaaa no issue~  

Just... don't go making a thread in the 90's anime subforum about manga stuff or vise versa - and remember there's a general sailor moon discussion subforum for delicious canon-mixing stews xD  ((and totally check the rules of the subforum to title threads nicely - it takes some pressure off the mods XD)) and linking off site is totally fine! If it's on topic, go for it! If it's not on topic, advertise for that site in our Community Billboards! Just, you know, don't go spamming member inboxes with requests that they help you start up a website or anything and you're golden XD

 Kaphew. Rulesdone~


 I'M INTERESTED IN YOUR LIKING NARU A WHOLE BUNCH!   Are you a theorist as to why she was targeted so often by Youma? I've scanned through a few fantheories that involve her in Earth royalty back in the Silver Millennium, and while I don't particularly subscribe to that, I love the worldbuilding that goes into such headcanons and enjoy reading passionate descriptions about such things, and your icon and talk about your fanwork makes me wonder what your thoughts on that are!

Hiya, welcome to GC!
I'm RutleJake (Or Jacob if you prefer)
I like Sonic too! I played the Gamecube ones (Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Riders) when I was younger.
I am into Star Wars as well, I first watched "The Phantom Menace" followed by "The Empire Strikes Back" (My favorite next to Rouge One), most of "A New Hope", I saw "The Force Awakens" in theaters as well as Rouge One and "The Last Jedi"

Geese-A-Laying wrote:

Kaphew. Rulesdone~

That does all sound pretty reasonable, and puts a lot of my fears to rest. Thanks! I'll do my best.
Also, thanks for reading all that, I realize it's a bit unwieldy

Geese-A-Laying wrote:

I'M INTERESTED IN YOUR LIKING NARU A WHOLE BUNCH!   Are you a theorist as to why she was targeted so often by Youma?

I do have a few ideas about Naru's Youma/Cardian/Tiger's Eye troubles- it could be as simple as being in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot, or proximity to Usagi. (And with Zoisite I think it's pretty straightforward why she bumps into him again- he specifically targets her to draw out Sailor Moon in episode 32. Though the rainbow crystal thing in episode 26 is a much bigger coincidence.)

But for it to be so common that the cats start commenting on it in the R season, she might have some kind of supernatural attraction element to her. She seems to have more energy than is expected, when Nephrite starts draining her in episode 19, and is capable of unexpected things like almost pulling the spikes out in episode 24. And she keeps getting back up from all the times she's attacked and is active a short time later, like she recovers well.

The cause of that which I'm planning to explain in "Serenity & Vitriol" isn't necessarily all that canonically likely. The non-spoiler explanation is that she has a sealed power inside her that makes her much more noticeable, but because it's sealed she can't do anything with it and is vulnerable. More specifically, to get into partial spoilers...

Spoiler:

RutleJake wrote:

I like Sonic too! I played the Gamecube ones (Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Riders) when I was younger.
I am into Star Wars as well, I first watched "The Phantom Menace" followed by "The Empire Strikes Back" (My favorite next to Rouge One), most of "A New Hope", I saw "The Force Awakens" in theaters as well as Rouge One and "The Last Jedi"

Hi! I've seen a little of the Sonic Adventure games, but I never owned a Dreamcast or the Gamecube games, so all my knowledge about them is secondhand. Also, that's a wacky order to see Star Wars in!   But I'm glad you're enjoying it. Does this mean you haven't seen episode VI, Return of the Jedi, yet? I haven't seen Rogue One or The Last Jedi, though I definitely want to see the latter at some point, I really liked Finn and Rey in The Force Awakens, among other things. And in the original trilogy I think my favorite character is Luke.

Hello there! Welcome aboard!

Quote :

Hi! I've seen a little of the Sonic Adventure games, but I never owned a Dreamcast or the Gamecube games, so all my knowledge about them is secondhand. Also, that's a wacky order to see Star Wars in!   But I'm glad you're enjoying it. Does this mean you haven't seen episode VI, Return of the Jedi, yet? I haven't seen Rogue One or The Last Jedi, though I definitely want to see the latter at some point, I really liked Finn and Rey in The Force Awakens, among other things. And in the original trilogy I think my favorite character is Luke.

Yes, I watched the Star Wars films out of order. I have not seen Return of the Jedi nor Attack of the Clones and have only seen a clip of Episode III Revenge of the Sith where Darth Vader (My favorite Sith Lord) receives his suit.
I liked Finn and Rey in The Force Awakens as well as BB-8.

@ that spoiler: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've never heard that idea before and i love it 

Spoiler:

I appreciate your saving all of it until it's finished! ha haha i have... a lot of unfinished stuff published ^^' @_@ How do you feel about your progress in your story so far?

Hello! I'm Arkas, and I am just going to put this out there - that story you are working on looks SO COOL! Umm..I don't really know what to say beyond bouncing around my living room singing about cool ideas, so I am going to say welcome to GC, it's wonderful to meet you!

Hey hey, you made it! Welcome to GC my friend. I hope you enjoy it here. ^_^

Geese-A-Laying wrote:

How do you feel about your progress in your story so far?

I've gotten most(?) of it written, but I might've gotten a little overboard with the complexity in regards to the parts set in the future (the Golden Kingdom portions of the story are actually a lot easier, since I already know how that has to wind up; also it involves fewer characters, whereas the future story ties into all kinds of stuff). And I always have lingering doubts about whether I'm handling the characters right and stuff, since I want everybody to feel in character while still having all these new things happen.

Also, I use way too many words the way I write (like how I post), so trying to keep it focused is hard. As far as the written text version goes it's over 200,000 words on the draft and the ending currently exists only as a pile of notes. ^^' I've been working pretty steadily on it since last February or so, with a few ideas for it stewing in my head since years prior.

As I finish deciding the ending stuff, I've been going over what I wrote before and fixing stuff up, as well drawing more. I'm currently experimenting with making a comic version of it, but that part's still in the early stages (also, I have to figure out what corners to cut when I get that done- I'm currently experimenting with the idea of reusing parts of my drawings, like hair and torso shape, but with different faces and poses kinda things. I draw everything digitally so that's not hard to do and it would save a lot of time, but I don't want it to look too repetitive).

Basically, right now I have some standalone drawings I can show off and I'm okay with talking about the general story concepts, but I'm holding onto the text draft and any comic pages until I'm certain it's done (or if I ever need to cancel it for some reason then I would make sure to know about that in advance, but that's a worst case scenario).

By the way, what's the source of that reaction gif, and was it color edited somehow to resemble Naru's dress from episode 22 (at the Diamond Kingdom Embassy Ball), or did the original scene coincidentally look like that? XD

Sailor Arkas wrote:

welcome to GC, it's wonderful to meet you!

Nice to meet you too! and everybody so far! Everyone's been really nice. I've got to look around more and start posting around these forums proper...

Also, hi, Chrissifniotis! You were right, I'm getting a great impression from GC so far. I'll definitely continue hanging around both forums. My only problems so far are that the site's layout doesn't display well on 1024x768 and I have a little trouble seeing the gray text on the white background, but neither of those matter enough to stop me from participating.
Also, I love this Eudial smilie.

Hello, there!! Welcome to the GC Forums! <3

Hiii welcome!! Gosh so much to reply to so little time. XD I'm already enjoying our convo in the Hook in SM thread. Btw! I forgot to mention, whenever you do get around to PGSM and Myu feel free to hit me up! Both are my favorite versions of SM and I love talking about them and getting newbies and helping, especially with Myu and its confusingness. XD


Also holy heck I love that fanfic idea you've got going! I love things that delve more into the past of the SM universe and it sounds like a really interesting way to make Naru relevant! (I'm super salty about her and Umino pretty much being forgotten by Stars and lets not talk about the manga where she's just like an eye blink. >.> )

PS You're sig and av are like the best ever. Before I even knew what it was I just loved that expression on Naru's face XD

Welcome to the forums, Mitsukara! I have played your game before and so far it's really good. Hope you enjoy your stay here!

Hey Mitsukara, welcome to GC! I wanted to let you know that you know that you can scroll to the bottom of the page near "select theme" and change to "Dark Version." That might give you an option for easier to read text. As for the resolution, have you tried another browser/turning off extensions? I know the site looks a little wonky for me in Firefox for some reason!

YAY! WELCOME~!

Mitsukara wrote:

I don't keep pets, but I really like turtles, fish, and marine life.

Wow PGSM is definitely for you, then... XD

Spoiler:

YESS! GIVE ME ALL YOUR RAMBLINGSSSS! Oh man though... Day 3 getting my reply together in between pieces of RL and I keep thinking to myself "there's a thread for this! Must link..." and now suddenly I have a birds nest of links and comments and oh dear… XD. Sooo yeah… probably by the time I post this you’ll have seen all these threads already since it looks like you’re having no trouble finding your way around, but I can't resist a good rambly superfan reply so here goes LOL! Spoilers for organization XD.

Fan Work & General Interest:

Canon Talk:

Forum Stuff:

PHEW! Anyways, nice to meet you! Can’t wait to discuss more with you in the other boards! ^_^

Brit-chan wrote:

(I'm super salty about her and Umino pretty much being forgotten by Stars and lets not talk about the manga where she's just like an eye blink. >.> )

I think someone on the animation team remembered Naru at that point, but it's very easy to miss:

Episode 173 Cameo?:

I like to think Naru and Umino were always doing something interesting juuuust slightly off-screen. ^^

Brit-chan wrote:

PS You're sig and av are like the best ever. Before I even knew what it was I just loved that expression on Naru's face XD

Thanks XD I was actually worried Naru's horrified face might be a little weird for an avatar but I decided to roll with it since it was the most finished drawing I had for the concept and it conveys the most about her feelings on the matter at a glance.

Moonlit Templar wrote:

I have played your game before and so far it's really good.

Oh, thanks! Panoply of Calatia definitely has some weird parts (puzzles I made a little too complicated later in the game, or things that are programmed kinda iffily), and I apologize if it gets a bit overwhelming (I'm always willing to answer gameplay questions if you haev any, but that's probably best handled at PureZC or in private messages).

Developing it was pretty much all my free time for over a year XD I think I did okay, particularly I'm proud of the item variety and trying to make all the items stay relevant at later points in the game.

I also owe a good bit to people who helped me beta-test it and who made suggestions at PureZC (the entire beta testing team was a big help, but Dimentio and Moosh especially went above and beyond helping me with design choices and bugtesting, and Moosh volunteered his own postgame boss and stuff for me XD), they all really helped me get it through the final stretch to release.

Partridge in a Pear Tree wrote:

I wanted to let you know that you know that you can scroll to the bottom of the page near "select theme" and change to "Dark Version." That might give you an option for easier to read text.

Oh wow, thank you! Even though it's still gray text it is indeed much easier for me to see this way. (Also given my thematics it seems sort of appropriate for me to use the "Dark Version", hehe).

Partridge in a Pear Tree wrote:

As for the resolution, have you tried another browser/turning off extensions? I know the site looks a little wonky for me in Firefox for some reason!

I haven't yet, no, but I am using Firefox, so that might be why. I had previously assumed the site was set up for higher resolutions than 1024x768 since the banner at the top is wider than 1024, but I should look into it sometime and see if something else fixes it.

Diagnosed wrote:

Snip picture

Haha, yeah, turtle-man (Motoki I think??) looks pretty amazing! I look forward to seeing what that's all about. I'm also a low-key Gamera fan.

Diagnosed wrote:

probably by the time I post this you’ll have seen all these threads already since it looks like you’re having no trouble finding your way around, but I can't resist a good rambly superfan reply so here goes LOL!

Actually, I'm pretty slow about investigating everything and I feel like I've only scratched the surface of this place so these links might still be very helpful XD

I'll look into the Writer's Guild (at first glance I wasn't too sure what the guilds were about), but I may be slow and hesitant about getting into events since I tend to manage my time badly XD But we'll see down the road.

Diagnosed wrote:

I realized through other fan collaboration projects that I need the social element to be able to follow through. But, with 200K words behind you, it sounds like you hopefully won't meet the same fate. ^.~

Well, my limited experience so far is that I seem to have the most success setting up MOST of a project behind the scenes, then testing the waters of the finishing stages with other people in a limited capacity (like beta-testing a mostly finished game like I did with LaZPoC). That way I feel like I've got enough of it done that it can't just slip away, but I'm not trying to make it perfect all on my own before anybody sees it and points out "oh hey you missed ____" or "what's with ___" or "what if ____".

So right now I'm sort of trying to get it up to the "organized enough to benefit from beta-reading" stage, and then hoping I can figure out how to find some beta readers to help gloss it over at that point.

But I've also slowed down on the storywriting a bit to work on drawing for it more because I really, really like the idea of converting it into a comic and I want to see if I can swing that. (Also my initial, terrible-MSpaint-sketch attempts at storyboarding it as a comic feel so much better-paced and better-presented to me than paragraphs and paragraphs of text ever did, I always feel out of my element with written prose, and I'm always picturing the scenes visually when I try to write them in a way that would frame more naturally as a comic I think.)

The biggest problem with doing it as a comic is that drawing each scene can take a long time. That's why I'm experimenting with corner-cutting techniques, as a compromise to get it done.

Incidentally, do you have any advice or directions on how best one would go about the "beta-reader" process, where someone has a mostly-finished story and finds a few interested people to show it to and get feedback to fix it up before release? I've heard of it and I know fanfiction.net has a sort of huge cold-call kind of list for it, but I've never really done that sort of thing and it seems relevant to the writing forums here. (I should also look around the writing forum next, this question might already be answered and there are probably rules in place for how to ask and how not to ask about that stuff.)

Diagnosed wrote:

And try not to be discouraged by the profile process for regular RPs ^^;... So long as you don't just copy&paste the info, it's actually a really useful tool to get you intimately acquainted with a character~.

If i try the RP boards, then I think filling out a profile exhaustively with huge blocks of my own text won't be my problem, hehe XD

Diagnosed wrote:

If you haven't seen any Studio Ghibli films, this is now your reason to. They explore these themes expertly.

I've seen Mononoke Hime, Ponyo, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, but none of the others yet, and each of those only once. They were pretty great though and I see why they're held in such high esteem! Mononoke Hime in particular is one of my husband's favorite films. I've been meaning to look back into them a bit more but haven't set aside the time yet. But all of them are definitely on my to-do list!

Diagnosed wrote:

*le gasp* Darling, you are JUST IN TIME! COME READ VOLUME 8 WITH US!!

Interesting timing! I, er... maybe? X_X I'll read that thread next, at least. It might be a lot of fun but I'd have to see how it works and I'm always nervous about committing to timed things when I don't multitask well.

Diagnosed wrote:

I must go find those PC Engine vids now!! I have a copy of the game but I never quite got it to work...

A real copy? Wow, that's cool! The translation videos I was referring to are being posted by the user "Flaming Cheese" on Youtube (I can't link beacuse it's still my first week). You have to click the CC button to turn on the captions.

They advance through the text very slow and the translation seems a bit clunky but it exists at all and they seem to be doing each character's path all the way through one at a time (though they don't explore every single possible decision branch but that's okay and understandable I guess).

Still, it's the most complete translation I've ever found and this game intrigues the heck out of me because of it's story and presentation. It makes me think of later "movie games" like Back to the Future The Game or that one Ghostbusters game from around 2009, where they have the actual actors in a pseudo-canonically plausible story extension/pseudosequel.

It also has a really cool theme song and ending song!

Diagnosed wrote:

You should try the Fuwa Fuwa Panic ones on Famicom!

I think those are the ones with the balloons? I remember poking at them a long time ago, I'll give them another look, that kind of game is really quick to pick up and play.

Diagnosed wrote:

Brit-chan has kindly hosted Guess that Song games in the past here. I look forward to facing you in the next one.

I should totally look into that. It depends on what medium the songs are displayed through (my computer doesn't handle things like Twitch steams very well) but hopefully my computer can handle it, and it sounds like a pretty straightforward fun thing.

I can understand being underwhelmed with Piano Fantasia as it is very low key and a bit simple. It works better for some songs than others- I like "My Blue Heart" and the extended Tuxedo Kamen theme the most from that album.

Diagnosed wrote:

I just realized we don't have an Umino one OTL.

Hypothetically speaking, is there an opening for possible additional emoticon submissions to be considered...?

Diagnosed wrote:

I tried forcing my monitor to display that resolution and it looks like simply zooming out in the browser to 80% makes it better. Try that if you haven't. I know that's super basic but hey just in case!

That does fix it so I don't need to horizontally scroll. The text is a little small, but on the dark theme I might still be able to read it easily.. I'll try it this way for a while and see what I think. If I keep having problems I may take a screenshot it and post about it in the "Questions, Problems, and Suggestions" subforum later.

...also, I forget exactly what I said about my first impressions at SMF and I hope I wasn't too rude or anything (I had pretty much first heard of it that day, I registered the day I first heard of this place), but if you haven't kept up with the subsequent discussion, I made sure to emphasize how nice everybody's been here since I tried it out, because once I got past the initial intimidation of the stack of rules this place seems pretty great so far! ^_^

Hehe very nice that you're interested in making an emoji for Umino~. After looking around a bit, it seems that there's a limit to how many emoticons the forum can have. You'd be best to PM Neo Queen Serenity directly about it I think.

Welcome to GC!