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~ STARLIGHT Arietta ~
If there is one dream I have always had outside of bragging about K/D ratios and percentage headshots, it would be my desire to do my own mahou shoujo manga/visual novel/something. I know, I know - it's quite an unpopular genre for many reasons. A cynical industry continues to pump cash-strewn blood into a genre that's long lost the ideal its trying to preach and the only intellectual discourse about it leads to head jokes and revelations about people's utter lack of knowledge in the fundamentals of physics. Or tentacles. It's always the accursed tentacles.
But me... I'm rather old now, I don't make claims anymore and I've most definitely stopped chuunibyou-ing (loool! Not really... I still like pretending I'm pulling out a Maliwan SMG from hammerspace when I'm in my bedroom. I don't think it'll go ever away, honestly...), but I still haven't provided my honors to one strange, almost inexplicably alien genre that has, one way or the other, provided me with a very different perspective in life grounded in reality but at the same time, seeing through the bitterness of it all. And, at the very most present state, gave me the determination to persist in what I'm doing right now. I'm still breathing. Most importantly, I'm still drawing. I work a day job but I still place certain amounts of hope and faith in making art. (Without the elitism of it all, my definition of art really is whatever you can get away with. I mean, someone put poop in plastic and called it art. And some people agreed. I just lol'd.) Perhaps because, no matter how jaded I am, I still believe a little in myself and the people around me. It's essentially bonded with my soul (or my 'chemical processes', if you will). 'Till death do us apart, I say.
STAR★LIGHT Arietta is my answer to the magical girl genre. It's a semi-realist, semi-idealist art-focused/-themed reconstructive project where my goal is to engage in rife postmodernism and self-referential devices, along with the same hidden empowering story I hope to write that has been lost in the waves since sales figures started mattering more than the moral of the story. It's a super *affectionate* parody. It won't be the next big thing, and I don't mind. It's my dream.
So, meet Arietta! Arietta is my 242% official, original character - far better imagined and crafted than anything I've ever bothered with, and the only character I'm seriously putting the 'OC' entitlement on. She is a magical girl artist. She has dreams in her life, which I appropriated to be the same as mine. She's not out there to fight monsters of the week. She's out there to show we can dream and we can touch that dream like you can touch... something hopefully solid at least. She isn't perfect. She has an attitude problem, but she's told to be talented and somewhat dedicated. She knows popular things - she's a gamer, and an avid fan of quite a lot of things. Honestly, she's really just me in another universe, in another existence. And I want her and her experiences to be relevant. She fails every now and then - she gets back at it too, but she gets hurt in the process. Doesn't give up anyway. She's also aware. She's watched a lot of magical girl shows herself and knows quite a bit of quirks on why she's suddenly a magical girl as well. I told you guys it's self-referential.
Beside her is her sidekick, art advisor, motivator, and general wiseguy-in-the-block comic relief buddy Rhapsody who was crafted out of her will and her imagination. Rhapsody is an extension of Arietta's creative will, manifesting in a physical, living form. Arietta's being a magical girl comes from that very same will.
Everything else from there is left to interpretation. What's the story anyway? Where does it take place? What's the time frame? Why am I doing this? At least, until I reveal more of my plans but until then, go for some conspiratorial brainstorming on what I'm about to do next! I have high, high hopes especially when I say, I'm going for the 'dedicated readership' over the wads of cash. I can still buy some pizza from it though, right? No? Oh, well...
--- TL;DR ---
(Part of) My dream is a magical girl project! Should it be in comic format? Maybe a visual novel? Help me decide, perhaps?