By: Kaiousei
I've got some more strange bits to say about fanfiction and Sailormoon. I know people have their incontrovertible views on this topic, but I wonder, what ever happened to the Senshi after Sailor Moon became the queen of Crystal Tokyo? Did new Sailor Senshi continue jumping onto the Bishoujo bandwagon? Or did something terrible happen? What about Luna and Artemis? Do cats really live for billions of years? I pose these questions just because I read so many fanfictions about these new senshi (lest it be Sailor X, or Sailor Scorpio, or everyone's personal favorite: Sailor Earth.) and they all seem so inconclusive. It seems as if the five existing seasons just repeat themselves, but with more characters coming out of nowhere. It is a fun idea to see what happens if self-penned characters mingled or argued with Rei, but what about after that social experimentation? What then? Is it just a neverending circles that someone has to get these paragons so they combine to form something that will ultimately determine the future of Earth as we know it? That's happened, people. Time and time again.
I'm not going to vindicate myself from this scenario. Because I believe even I gave into this contrived storyline. The story took place sometime after Sailor Stars (that was my clever way of evading the involvement of the Sailor Starlights in the story, three individuals who I did not know much about and simultaneously having the other Senshi as their mature selves.) Then came the enemies, they needed to collect the Senshi and enclose them into these little marbles to power up this ooh-la-la magnificent strobe. There were also two new Sailor Senshi: The Blue Sailor and the Red Sailor. The Red Sailor is the equivalent of the mysterious person that was Sailor Pluto in SMR. Details aside, I eventually became bored with it, because the question became; "Which Sailor Senshi is the next to go? Mercury's gone and so is Jupiter...or I could have one of them come back..." I also hated how I didn't do justice to any of the original character's personalities, because it's so difficult to transcribe those exact personalities into another story. Both of those previous qualities spelled the end of my literary gallivanting with Sailormoon for that while. I put it on the backburner.
Early summer of this year, I looked at my prologue and changed a few details around. Then I tried to pierce the soul of my first chapter I wrote two years ago. It wouldn't work. So I scrapped the story -- almost completely (save a few names) and wrote something very different, a story which took place in the future. The renaissance of my story was confirmed after I read some books by Anne Tyler and Neil Gaiman. Tyler is a traditional writer who I'm sure most of you have heard of; her style is very detail-oriented. In my works, I actively strived to bring out little trivial details, just to temper the pace of actions. Gaiman, on the other hand, is one guy who I deem the ultimate literary god. His books, such as Stardust and Neverwhere, were so unconventional and fantastic --- they had absorbing atmospheres and unique characters. I tried to model my storylines after his style, while not imitating it. It can become tricky, but for the most part, it's very liberating.
So what's my point after three paragraphs of what seems to be pointless gabbing? If you want to write something to please yourself, don't imitate the storylines that have already happened in the realms of the real Sailormoon, do something that's unexpected. And don't fear professional authors. Embrace their styles and put your own twist into it. There's no use writing what's already been written, in the world of fanfiction and the world of anime.
Comments on this article can be sent to: Kaiousei.
