Fan art gift (not One Piece)

[rainsometimes]

This is a gift for ayiekie, but he's already seen it and okayed it being posted here. Another return to Ranma 1/2, it's in honour of one of the most deliciously cracky mock summaries of fusions-never-to-be-written I've ever read (I reeeeally wish it was posted on the net so I could link to it here). EDIT:You can now read the thing (the mock summary, that is) here! Again uses one-shot character Mariko Konjo the Cheerleader (and also Akane, less prominently).

EDIT: There are now HUGE spoilers for Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon in the comments, so avoid if you haven't seen Season 5 of SM and the entirety of Utena! I MEAN IT. Especially wrt Utena.





While I'm feeling Rumic, here's a tentative sketch of Nami drawn in my imitation of Rumiko Takahashi's style, plus an even looser, more tentative sketch of Robin (face only) as the same.



Although Nami's legs look horrible - my fault, of course; Taakhashi draws legs just fine - and the waist should probably be a little thinner to fit the style, I still think the body proportions look slightly more realistic this way from Oda-style. Her face gets even more stylised, though. (Note that the hair looks grey rather than white: Takahashi wouldn't render orange hair as white in b&w. 'White' hair in b&w = actually blond or white hair in her art.)


aside: I must say, I find the little fake "products" you can see on the left in Photobucket now, featuring your image as printed on a cup, cards, t-shirt or as a cellphone background rather creepy.

Comments

Utena spoilers and Sailor Moon spoilers ^_^;

[aqua-karen.livejournal.com]

Well, I won't deny I also sometimes like really light comparisons, especially for Sailor Moon. Making up Sailors is fun.

Still, Utena seems to invite itself to heavier stuff as a tool to examine other series and the dynamics behind the actual surface. Usagi doesn't even need a self, only the powers within herself, and others fall down before that. Usagi really seems to lose herself when "Serenity" takes over.

I like Seiya as Utena not just for the gender alterations but also as Seiya first seems to be trying to fit into an already-taken role but in further examination, if taken at his/her best, likes Usagi rather than Serenity despite initial Princess/Prince cliche ideals (and unlike an interest in the miraculous power of the witch or the Rose Bride) and who could be an escape route from Crystal Tokyo and an eternity living out Serenity's life, Usagi as an individual different from Serenity almost totally thrown aside. (The live action Sailor Moon series explored this, but only extremely lightly, meh.)

The other hand is that Usagi accepts her Serenity side and Seiya remains blissfully unaware of all the parts of life Usagi has already accepted as pre-written for herself, yet Seiya seems to love her. Kakyuu would almost be more like Dios here in the sense of Seiya liking someone because he/she is reminded of someone else, at first... and that the Silver Moon Crystal may have been what powered Seiya's infatuation, an aspect Seiya didn't realize. Both of them, like Utena and Anthy, were ultimately dishonest with each other and themselves trying to live two lives. (Though Seiya at least tried to tell, in multiple episodes, like Utena he/she wasn't trying to listen quite so much, and Usagi or Anthy never really tried to tell the gory details.)

I wonder if the left-over "inner" sailors could be called the -ko equivalents, either Nanami's or the Shadowplay girls, honestly a bit shallow and living only to admire or reflect upon the Prince and Princess dynamics, their own lives absolutely insignificant in the end and vanishing quickly (how many two or three episode max appearance boyfriends were there?!)

I think seeing it as Usagi the Heroine versus Akio (I don't know who'd play this role now... still Endymion? But abandoning Usagi/Serenity's dynamic means Endymion/Mamoru seems to fit the role poorly...) and some female, perhaps Galaxia, who needs Usagi's friendship, is probably more accurate towards the intent of Sailor Moon. But even in these cases, it's more an issue of Princess/Sailor versus Princess/Sailor, and Serenity's Silver Moon Crystal is just so shiny and amazing others are won over. This still feels like the witch's power to me, the way others obsess over Anthy even without clear reason and despite their hate of her. Ah, it's complicated! ^_^; Like the 'noble sword' that smashes against the seal, Utena's power isn't her nobility or princeliness despite Akio and Anthy's confusion, it's who she is beyond all of those ideals, and I'm not sure Usagi ever reaches a level beyond "Princess" or "Girl who will be Princess again" or "Future Queen." Her power comes from her idealized feminine forms, even her nobility or kindness. I really liked the end of Stars but it still lacked the same impact as Utena's, for me.

Akio really is hard to pin down. Maybe, to be really thorough, we should admit that he's a male director or writer who keeps putting the females into set roles, or even makes a "revolutionary" female who is at heart the same Princess and has a dress & flowered coffin reserved for her, rather than letting her escape into a world where she isn't a prince, a princess, a witch, a knight, but just a person. And yet 'Akio' cannot exist without the consent of other women who want to have princes and to be the princess.

I've heard a lot of comparisons for the castle, especially the Utena movie version--I think it looks like the Disney castle, but I've also heard people say it looks like Crystal Tokyo's castle or other fairytale-style castles. It doesn't help that the director was a Sailor Moon director first, and seemed to want to break away from that intensely. XD;

Re: Utena spoilers and Sailor Moon spoilers ^_^;

[aqua-karen.livejournal.com]

Er, upon rereading, assume everything that's a wild assertation has a big "IMHO" in front of it? XD;

I got a little carried away, plus I ran out of characters (for LJ comments.) ^_^;

Re: Utena spoilers and Sailor Moon spoilers ^_^;

[serrende.livejournal.com]

I remain impressed by your analysis here, for the record. And good idea to warn about spoilers in the subject line, eh heh heh. *will edit original post to reflect this*

Utena's power isn't her nobility or princeliness despite Akio and Anthy's confusion, it's who she is beyond all of those ideals,

Yes, I definitely agree with that! In the end, even Utena isn't a 'true prince', because 'true princes' don't really exist. She becomes more than the archetype, not less.

and I'm not sure Usagi ever reaches a level beyond "Princess" or "Girl who will be Princess again" or "Future Queen." Her power comes from her idealized feminine forms, even her nobility or kindness. I really liked the end of Stars but it still lacked the same impact as Utena's, for me.

I'd agree with that (with the aside that very, very few shows had the same degree of impact as the end of Utena did for me. (Haibane Renmei did; possibly Fullmetal Alchemist, too.)) I could see Usagi being in a sense a prisoner of her archetype persona, and so, perhaps, share similarity as to what she truly is with Anthy.

At the same time, though, their differences seem profound as well. I can't imagine in-series Anthy being able to reach out to someone like Sailor Galaxia, and to save her. Anthy would have used the Sword of Light for sure - assuming she ever got that far, which I rather doubt. She doesn't believe in people ´(not that that isn't understandable!). It's hard for me to picture Anthy palling around with a group of friends who all honestly like her and who she honestly likes back, too.

Usagi/Serenity for me seems to me to embody the very Princess archetype that in-series Anthy probably still dreams she could be, though in the same way she also represents all those Princesses that keep Anthy locked and tortured within the Witch archetype.

Not that I'm saying there should be a one-to-one correspondence to these kinds of things, of course! It's often the differences as well as the similarities that make it interesting.

I like the identification with Akio as a male director/writer.

I wonder if the left-over "inner" sailors could be called the -ko equivalents, either Nanami's or the Shadowplay girls, honestly a bit shallow and living only to admire or reflect upon the Prince and Princess dynamics, their own lives absolutely insignificant in the end and vanishing quickly (how many two or three episode max appearance boyfriends were there?!)

That's kind of harsh. Even if you're right, I don't like to think of Rei that way... *sentimental* :(

The castle always looked like the Disney palace turned upside-down to me.

...random thought but, you know, I always wanted to see Anthy in armour at some point in the series, like in that one moment in the opening. She looked great like that.

Utena TV Spoilers, Sailor Moon Spoilers

[aqua-karen.livejournal.com]

I had to give this a lot of thought before responding!

I do think there's something to the fact that Sailor Moon (something between "Usagi" and "Serenity") heals, acts that Anthy or even the Rose Bride don't seem to do. At best, Anthy seems to stay close to her brother, healing him in a sense by taking away the power of Dios.

It's a little hard to compare after a certain point, since the story gets all symbol-y and so deciding what symbolizes what (did the world really have only one guy to protect girls? What's with the swords? Does Dios exist at all?) is hard. If we go with the idea that Anthy in a sense could control the healing or rescuing power of Dios yet couldn't rescue (or be rescued) herself I think the comparison to Sailor Moon stands. Usagi/Serenity can make the path of someone like Galaxia or Nehelenia change, but can't change her own path.

Leaving out the idea that there never was a real Dios (though even Akio does suggest it in the last episodes, with his points about the castle being a fantasy as well) Anthy's ability to heal still is questionable. Anthy has a powerful influence on others as well as what happens to others, and it may be less inability and more a lack of will to help others. Anthy is aware of her role as the world's scapegoat and sacrifice, something Usagi seems to ignore, and seems malicious as a result. It also raises the question of whether Anthy was the witch before she 'sealed Dios'; if Dios was the only prince, that'd make his sister also unique as the only real princess, but also the only person with no one else to save her. If the Silver Moon Crystal is in Usagi/Serenity, she can use it to save others, but the mad lust others have for that power seems to imply it could also be used for less pleasant means, and if Serenity started going around controlling or harming others they might well call her the witch instead. Akio claims Anthy is happier as the witch. I wonder if Usagi could someday feel the same, especially if she ever had to quit saving people only to get cursed and hurt by those she had helped protect.

The other question is whether Sailor Moon actually saves people. Sailor Moon is surrounded by friends, but is Usagi? Increasingly, Usagi's acquaintances are all people Serenity knew. The time she spends around other friends, like Naru, decreases. Even when something or someone new comes along (as Seiya seemed to) they have to be cleared by everyone else in her group first to even get in and generally vanish soon. Usagi's school life, like Anthy's school life, is a joke--Usagi knows her future and doing well in school is more to stay near the other sailors in school than to actually succeed, because one day she'll be Queen. Even Usagi's Earth parents are soon near invisible, aside from accepting in strange Sailors who brainwash them.

Anthy's main power over others seems to be the power of manipulation, emotional and slightly supernatural. This is Serenity's ultimate power, too. Anthy doesn't fight with swords, that's what princes do, and I don't think she'd have used ChibiChibi's sword (edit: unless Galaxia turned around and made a really inviting target with no fight needed ^^;.) Anthy portrays herself as and possibly even makes herself a victim at school, gradually luring in Utena for her brother to take the sword. But if she portrayed herself as a goddess of light, like Serenity, would she be much different? Dios descends in a halo of light and possessed others. This is the power Anthy has pushed away and rejected, only to want back. Serenity warmly extends a hand to Galaxia to save her, and Galaxia is won over, but is that all? Forgiving her seems gentle, but it's also what stops her, when force is useless. Is it the light flipside of Anthy's manipulations of, say, Mikage? Or Utena herself?

I do feel bad for Rei. I think she had more personality than the rest, but ultimately, she too was more in orbit to Usagi/Serenity than anything else. Just as Ohtori seems to circle around Akio and Anthy even when people are unaware of it, Usagi/Serenity's world gradually settles into Serenity's path.