1999-2000

Around this time, anime was the 'thing'.

I can't say my drawings improved at all. I had already gone on to creating stories for the characters instead of practicing on them.

Drawing on the right belongs to my sister. >>

Before the anime craze, I was already into writing stories anyway. I thought there was just too many that I could do with them-- I could have them come from another planet, as the case with Sailormoon where the characters where reincarnated into students on Earth.

Or I could give them super powers as with YuYu Hakusho (Ghostfighter) where I would then have them fight with the very characters of the anime. Now that was a laugh. The outcome came more as a love story than having any battles involved. My friends were ever the romantics, and once again, they just had to have their say in the characters they were supposedly representing.

And lastly, they could be great geniuses and pilot Gundams as in Gundam Wing and have a face off. That also went the same as above. Also I wasn't a genius, nor was I anywhere near a model student so the characters' claimed intelligence went up in smokes.

Now that I think of it, they came out as fanfictions. Heck, I wanted originality, not borrowed concepts.

Probably, the first ever serious story I finally did was about a group of high school witches-- me, my sister and my friends of course-- where they met in school and possess witchcraft. Said 'witchcraft' were actually the gift of elements. I had no idea whatsoever of any spells and incantations involved in it. I only got so far as the character descriptions before I went and started drawing the characters based on those information. The story eventually came into hiatus. I wasn't very committed, I admit.


At the later part of the year, Gundam Wing started airing on a Wednesday. It came as no surprise on the next day to have classmates gushing and mooning over Heero Yuy and the other Gundam pilots, and cursing the very existence of Relena Peacecraft.

Pretty soon I discarded the witchy story and started on another one. This time with a more futuristic concept. Well, the story was just a passing idea, one I didn't seriously consider but my sis did some drawings for it.

Above drawings belong to my sister.

Afterward, a new one came into mind, one that we, more or less, agreed on. I immediately created a sort of bio-data of the characters so as not to miss a single idea. With the planned characters listed and counted they came out 13 in all, it was a lot to consider for a short-term story I had in mind. It eventually became a series with the many suggestions of friends when finally put together.

And like usual, the series never came to be, only the characters did. The group was called U13, short for Unlucky 13 or Un no Warui Jusan (based the translation on a local-made dictionary so it may not be accurate).


I showed them off to others-- there was an unbelievably great demand for more drawings of one particular character a friend had personally named Semil Janacek-Zenoviev. So I ended up making more of her than I did of the others.


Nothing was done by the time my 3rd year in high school came to a finish. But I still went on drawing like I didn't have any other care in the world-- except for food when I was hungry.^^






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I recommend to take note that research is also VERY important when making a story. Like the witch story and I had no clue what spells and potions to use.