JP Buckner ajaff@srv.net http://onewest.net/~ajaff/manff.htm What is SMAV? SMAV (Sailor Moon Alternate Vision) is a continuing series based on the Anime Sailor Moon. To further describe the fanfic, I will ask you to bear with me as I recount how this story came to fruition. Ever since I was a young pup (and no, I did not fall into the spring of drowned puppy), I have enjoyed the animation art form. This love of the art form did not go away as I grew older. Instead it became more focused, as I not only enjoyed the many directions the art took, but could better appreciate the work and effort that went into it. As I became aware of Anime, I became quite curious about it. However, the town where I currently live was rather sparse in its selection of Anime to rent. Very sparse. I ended up seeing most of my Anime from television like the Cartoon Network or the Sci-Fi Channel whenever they would run an Anime program or movie. Fast forward. One Sunday afternoon (I don't remember exactly when, but it has been awhile), I was watching some sporting event on tv. The game (I forget what game it was) became quite boring, so I started surfing. I came to one of my favorite channels, the aforementioned Cartoon Network, and I saw something I hadn't seen before. I did not know at first what it was, but it intrigued me. During the first commercial break, I learned it was Sailor Moon, and that Cartoon Network was running a special marathon of the show. They were running the entire Wiseman/Diamond/Emerald story line. I had heard of Sailor Moon, but had never watched it before. I found the characters and the basic story line quite intriguing, even though parts of the show struck me as, well, silly. I did not return to that sporting event that day. I watched the entire marathon, and as I got more into the story, I was curious to see how it would be resolved. When the final episode ('Final Battle') ran, I was to say the least, quite disappointed. I found the finale quite lacking. As I said before, I have loved animation from an early age. Another thing I have loved from an early age is writing. From the time I was 5 years old, I was writing stories (sure, they were the stories of a 5-year-old, but still), and one day I hoped to be a writer myself. After college, I tried my hand at writing, and well, as any writer wannabe can tell you, the massive rejection slips can take something out of you. One exercise I have used to work on my writing is when I see a story that seems wrong to me, I look at how I would change it to try to improve it. Call it amateur script-doctoring if you will. Even though it had been awhile since I seriously tried my hand at writing (I never sold anything, though I did have some stories published in gaming newsletters), that old habit of mine took over after watching the marathon, and I began to put together an idea. I have to remind you, at this time, my only contact with Sailor Moon was with the marathon I had just watched. Eventually, I did watch the earlier episodes as Cartoon Network ran them on Toonami (this was when they only ran the episodes up to 'Follow the Leader'). So at this time I was unaware of the future arrivals of Sailor Saturn, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. So, in my mind I formulated a new plot line. There would be a new character, one who might be (or then again, might not be) Sailor Saturn. I incorporated her into the storyline, making some minor changes to the story here, some major ones there. I liked what I had come up with, and when I thought I was done, I put the idea aside. After all, it wasn't like I could actually every do anything with this story. Right? Again, at this time I was totally ignorant of the world of Internet Anime Fanfiction. But again, as any writer can tell you, sometimes once a story gets into your head, it will refuse to go away until you do something about it. Not only did this Sailor Moon idea of mine refuse to die, it expanded over time. Soon I began to create a very detailed backstory for my new character, which led to more changes in my original story, plus ideas for future stories with the Sailor Scouts. Try as I might, these ideas would NOT go away, but they continued to expand until they took a life of their own. I soon gave into the stories, thinking that perhaps I could incorporate some of the ideas into stories I could actually write some day. In fact, part of the massive storyline I created had elements of a fantasy novel I tried once to write, but couldn't complete because while the basic concept seemed okay to me, I never could really flesh it out. I surfed the web for info on Sailor Moon, and found to my dismay that a Sailor Saturn already did exist, I just had not seen the episodes that involved her. However, certain elements of her character piqued my interest, and soon I incorporated some of the parts of her story into my overall story as well. In fact I thought it fit quite nicely. I still have not actually watched any of the episodes after 'Follow the Leader', nor do I plan to at any time soon. Fast forward. Remember how I said that finding anime videos to rent in this town were hard to come by? Well, some time back a new video store opened, actually part of a national chain (no, not Blockbuster, we have one of those here, but their anime collection is virtually non-existent). While the new store was quite a bit more out of the way than the store I usually frequent, some friends told me that they had quite an extensive selection of videos. I decided to give them a shot. They were right. Not only am I a fan of animation, but I am a huge movie buff, and I was able to find videos I couldn't find anywhere else in town. Okay, the prices were a little higher than my normal store, so I decided to rent things here I couldn't find anywhere else. While checking out the store, I found their animation section. Which had a fair (not large mind you) amount of anime. I started renting these tapes. I enjoyed Ninja Scroll, even though it was obvious to me part of the story was lost in the translation. I liked Lodoss War, Ogre Slayer, Mermaid's Forest and Mermaid's Scar, thought NGE was interesting (they only had the first two tapes), was roundly disappointed by The Professional. Then one day I noticed a few tapes for a series called Ranma 1/2. I checked the box of the first one, titled TV Series Vol. 1. I read the back of the box. Then I did a double take. And a triple take. This show couldn't be for real, could it? I rented that first tape. Afterwards I returned to the store and in time rented all the tapes they had (the first three volumes of the first season, Tough Cookies and the 2nd Movie). To say I was hooked on this show would be an understatement. In fact, I began reading as much as I could about the show on the net. In addition, I started buying tapes of the show, plus the Viz graphic novels as I could off Ebay for as cheap as I could get them. Once I had a fair selection of the show, I started loaning my tapes to friends who I thought would enjoy it. They did, and now I have a number of friends who are involved in a 'are you going to give me the next tape in Ranma this weekend' circle of silliness. As I said, I started checking out Ranma sites on the web, and one day I checked out a site called 'Daigakusei no Ranma'. To cut to the chase, I had now entered the vast world of Internet Fanfiction. From DnR I started checking out other fanfic sites. Soon, I got the idea that maybe I could write some fanfics, just to get back into the practice of writing again. And then I remembered my Sailor Moon stories. Finally, I saw a way to write these stories, possibly even have them read by people who might appreciate them, and finally get them out of my head. And that's where we are now. SMAV will be broken up into 'Books'. Each book is designed as a stand-alone story. Some books will set up and foreshadow future books, but each book is meant as a separate story. Some books will be short. Some will be long. Some will be verrrry long. Some of them will be divided into chapters. Some will be serious. Some will be action oriented. Some will be romantic. Some will be mysteries. I might even throw in a comedy here and there. The first book, 'Four Pawns and a King', will retell the Wiseman/Diamond story immediately after the death of Rubeus. Each chapter will correspond to an episode of the anime. With the following exceptions... 1) There will be two new chapters. The first, 'Coming Out Party', will be the first chapter of the book, and will take place right after the crashing of Rubeus' ship. The second, 'Promises Kept', will occur later in the book. 2) Two episodes will NOT appear in the book. These episodes are not here for the simple reason that any changes that I would make to these episodes would be minor at best, and they really aren't as important to the overall storyline as the other chapters. If you like these episodes, which are 'No Thanks, Nurse Venus' and 'Dog Day for Artemis', feel free to put them into the storyline as they stand. 3) One chapter will appear in a different spot in the story order than it originally did in the anime. 'Smart Payoff' will appear earlier. One reason I'm doing this is to break up the two 'battles at schools' stories, and the other is I think with the changes I made to 'Smart Payoff', it works better appearing earlier in the story. 4) Two chapters will have different titles than their corresponding episodes. 'Promises Fulfilled' will become 'Promises Made' to tie it better to the new chapter 'Promises Kept' of which it is a bookend story. 'Final Battle' will become 'End Game' to tie into the chess motif of the books title, and some chess themes that run in the story. Some of these chapters will change greatly from the anime. Some changes will be minor. After the first book, later books will be posted, dealing with a storyline that will have nothing to do with any anime or manga stories following the events with Wiseman/Diamond. Again, though I will eventually incorporate some elements of the original Sailor Saturn storyline into SMAV, do not look for the anime/manga Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or any other character that was introduced after 'Final Battle'. You won't find them. Because I am more familiar with the DiC dubbed versions of the anime, after much thought I will be using the English language names of the characters. Well, sort of. I have reached a compromise of sorts, which may confuse some people, but I hope it will work out. I will be using the English given names of the characters. Sailor Moon will be Serena, not Usagi. Sailor Venus will be Mina, Tuxedo Mask will be Darien. And Sailor Mercury will be Ami, Sailor Mars will be Rei and Sailor Pluto will be Setsuna. Wait, you ask, aren't the English names of these three Amy, Raye and Trista? Well, yeeeeessss. But. In Pluto's case, her name was never given in any of the episodes of which I've seen, so I don't really know her as Trista to the extent that I know Jupiter as Lita. In Ami's and Rei's case? Well, I'm familiar with the anime NOT the manga. Their names were spoken in the show, not written, so again, I feel I can get away with this. But wait, there's more. With the exception of Ami, none of the characters had their family names mentioned on the anime. DiC only gave 'Amy' a last name, 'Anderson'. So in essence, I could give them any family names I that want to. And I want to use their Japanese family names. Including Ami. So, in SMAV, Sailor Mercury will be known as Mizuno Ami, not Amy Anderson. Sailor Jupiter is Kino Lita and so on. I hope this doesn't confuse too many people. Well, that's pretty much all the rambling I going to do at this time. I hope you made it through to the end. I wanted explain some of this so that too many people wouldn't feel completely lost if they started reading the stories without any explanation. Please let me know how you feel about the stories as they progress. Good or bad. I do have an end in mind, but it will take a long time to get there. I don't want to write a huge amount of prose if no one is enjoying the journey. Thank you for your patience. JP Buckner ajaff@srv.net http://onewest.net/~ajaff/manff.htm