First, admittedly this is still probably some months away but it'd be
pretty idiotic for me to leave it until I'm ready to write the chapter; ^_^
besides, with the way I've been putting random bits together then filling in
the gaps I might get the first draft of this written in the next few weeks and
plug it in when I'm ready.
Now the basic idea: I've noticed DC getting progressively nastier
every time I add or re-work something. Fare enough, it's meant to be a dark-
fic but I don't want the thing to get so unremittingly unpleasant that people
are just going to give up because the whole thing's just too damn depressing.
For this reason I'm re-working some of the future plot ideas to give more
respites from the coming war/collapse, one of which will be a concert in
Johnathan's anima's reality (the Empire reality) put on by all the included
main characters both to help the war effort (impending third world war in that
reality, further precipitated by the complement enemies from beyond the
gateways) and to raise the native currency needed to establish a base of
operations in that reality against enemy incursion since obviously none of the
Anime characters have any native influence there. I imagine it being staged
to coincide with one of the big anime conventions (unfortunately about which I
know nothing so any ideas would help) and I'd like to include sections for
each (BGC, SM(Japanese), SM(DIC), R1/2, P: A-ko, DHY, DP and AMG) but
realistically it'd be pretty impractical to have the thing going for any more
than about three to four hours which doesn't give each group much time so I'll
probably cut some of them out altogether. I'm assuming also that the
characters musical talents match those shown by their seiyu, even if they
haven't tried anything similar before. This *won't* be a small affair - in
Joanna's reality Anime & Manga is both far more prevalent and more widely
promoted than here and I imagine it wouldn't prove difficult for them to
promote the concert and make the arrangements for a large and mainstream venue
given this change. With all this in mind, I'm looking for three things:
1) Promotional ideas, advertisements and suggestions for a likely venue
in Britain, the U.S. or Canada. In the Empire reality the Cold War is getting
pretty damned hot and Britain+empire is the super-power the U.S. is in ours
but the U.S. is still a world player (influence equivalent to France's here)
and I don't see this necessarily changing the venue/promotion apart from the
fact that the characters (not to mention local events) are likely to gravitate
to the centre of free-world power and English/advertising would be generally
British rather than American influenced. Promotional info needn't lie -- I
imagine most of the characters neither necessarily confirming nor denying
they're the genuine article (secrecy wouldn't be so important outside their
native realities and in one where they are all Manga-Anime) and it would
probably depend on each individual character deciding how much to reveal. In
any event it's going to be pretty obvious they're not their Seiyu and
something *really* weird's going on once the concert goers see them and hear
them speak/sing.
2) Ideas for the programme itself - order of groups, songs (preferably
from the appropriate Anime although if you really think someone would do well
performing something else I'd be interested to hear about it) etc. I'd prefer
to keep the performances to singing/music/dance (or similar) since I don't see
any of them being willing e.g. to play out scenes based on their Anime
(remember we're talking about the _real_ characters, not their seiyu). Any
character from the above anime (and an exception or two such as Shasti) can be
there if necessary so I'd be interested in any suggestions. I've put together
a partial song-list at the end of this for BGC (sorry, no ADP - no one to sing
them) and one SM(Japanese) suggestion with an asterisk beside the ones I think
a potential audience would want to hear (plus a couple of my personal
favourites) but nothing is in any kind of order except for how the tracks
appear on the original CDs. Also, since these are the only CDs I have
relevant to this I'd be interested in suggestions for the other
groups/characters.
3) Convention/concert-goers. ^_^ Yep; if anyone's interested in writing
themselves into this chapter or giving me even as little as a profile to work
with let me know. IMO it would add a sense of genuine realism far beyond
anything I could hope to achieve with the stereotypical minor created
characters or by sticking exclusively to the Anime characters' POV. I know
I'm pinching the idea from Edward Becerra (Hey! Where's more LQ :) -- it
really would be a pity to see it die) but IMO it worked so well in that I
think it can work just as well here with a bit...hmm...well alright, a lot of
help. :) If you want to write something for me to include you're pretty-much
free to do as you like - you can appear/attend in any capacity
(convention/concert goer, security, promoter, techie, session muso, roadie,
anything other than front-line performer), meet some of the characters, chat,
autograph hunt, try stealing Ami's or Amy's computer (can't have them though)
- Ukyou's spatula (that one's ok - she's sure to have more) etc., pick on
Usagi or Serena, make sarcastic comments to Akane about her cooking (if you
want to see just how that nice blue battle-aura accentuates the highlights in
her hair and find out just how Ranma gets all those bruises ^_^ -- no
malletings - sorry but she knows it will kill someone in a reality like ours
and Joanna's reality is *very* close to ours in basic physics), call Kei and
Yuri the D--...um...you know ;) (if you're feeling particularly suicidal ^_^
), get plastered and belligerent and pick a fight with Ranma, A-ko or Shasti
backstage (if you're just plain bloody crazy ^_^ - you're not allowed even to
look like winning), whatever you like just so long as it's plausible and
there's no lemon, explicit hentai (no further e.g. than the canonical
Happosai's portrayed), ecchi etc. Don't worry about language problems so far
as their understanding you -- if you've read DC Ch. 2 you'll be aware that the
gateways instill a subconscious average of the language of the immediate area
of an exit point into the soul of anyone traversing them and the effects are
cumulative although he/she may not necessarily be able to speak the local
language even though they can understand it - that takes time and patience
although the info is there in their linguistic subconscious (for want of a
better term). I don't care how big (within reason :) ) or small (a profile
will do if that's all the time you have) any contribution is or how many of
your own characters/friends/enemies/whatever you include (I won't use anything
beyond your bit unless you agree and obviously everything you give me remains
copyright to you unless you say otherwise) and any build up, preparation etc.
from your point of view is fine, including any background needed for the part
you want to play. Collaborations are also fine, in fact if I get a few good
responses it'll probably be a good idea so things stay coherent. Most of DC's
going to be pretty chill and serious and I'd really like a little relaxation
and lightheartedness amongst the gathering dark.
If you're interested, let me know and I can send you relevant info
concerning the state of affairs in the Empire reality (since this post's
already getting ridiculously big); not that you'll need much unless you want
to do some pretty serious build-up from your POV - it's reasonably close to
ours in 1995 as it would have been with a thriving British empire and on the
brink of a Third World War. Basically, any help will be appreciated and I'll
consider pretty-much anything reasonable. Just one last thing. Remember that
since you'd be a native of that reality (no super-powered dimensional jumping
:) ), all these characters are as fictional there as they are here and the
utter impossibility of them actually appearing should be reflected in anything
you write for this as it would be if this happened here -- no quick
`revengefic'-type acceptance unless that's *really* what you'd do. Try to
imagine actually seeing the promotional material and actually going to the
convention/concert etc. Again, *many* thanks for any help, no matter how
large or small. I really want this to be as real as possible.
Ok; that's it. Here's the BGC&SM song-list.
----------
Anime OAV/Trk Name Performer(s)
*BGC 1/2 Kon'ya wa Hurricane Priss&Replicants
BGC 1/6 Remember Priss&Replicants
*BGC 2/1 Mad Machine Priss&Replicants
BGC 2/7 Thrill ni Odoru Angel Tachi Knight Sabres
BGC 2/10 Kizudarake no Wild Priss&Replicants
*BGC 3/1 Victory Priss&Replicants
BGC 3/6 Asu e TOUCHDOWN Knight Sabres
BGC 3/10 Wasurenaide Priss&Replicants
*BGC 4/2 Crisis - Ikari o Komete Hashire Priss&Replicants
BGC 4/10 Akuma to Tenshi no Kiss Knight Sabres
*BGC 4/11 Twilight Priss&Replicants
*BGC 5/1 Bara no Soldier Priss&Replicants
BGC 5/8 Mysterious Night Knight Sabres
*BGC 5/11 Omoide ni Dakarete Priss&Replicants
*BGC 6/11 Rock Me Priss&Replicants
*BGC 7/1 Say, Yes! Reika (Vision&Revengers)
BGC 7/7 Come into Action Linna
BGC 7/11 Never the End Reika (Vision&Revengers)
*BGC 8/1 Chase the Dream Priss&Replicants
*BGC 8/9 Love Type Rival Priss&Replicants
BGC 8/10 Bye Bye My Crisis Knight Sabres
*BGC! 1/2 Hatashitenai tabi Priss&Replicants
*BGC! 1/15 Cool Eyes Priss&Replicants
*BGC! 3/6 Precious Night Priss&Replicants
*SM(Japanese) Starlight ni Kisu shite
----------
The `*' ones aren't necessarily set in stone although I imagine them
as pretty-much a foregone conclusion? Also, although BGCrash won't happen in
this BGC variant there's no reason the BGCrash songs can't exist.
Bye for now,
Craig