This is its Beginning

2008-02-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

I guess this is a fitting way to start out a blog with such a melodramatic title as "What is its Beginning and End?" with a post title of "This is its beginning." Ironically, there will probably not be a final blog entry that states "This is its end." The blog's title came from an old incomplete paradoxical poem.

Of future and past, how long do they last? What is its beginning and end?

This poem originated from my first story that I began to take seriously, but was ultimately abandoned for projects with more coherent plots. It’s basically a sci-fi fantasy that involves digital spirits possessing life forms, pseudo science, preventing the second end of the world from happening, and sun colonization (only in the earliest drafts, however). The origin of this story seems to date back to when I was 11.

My second major project originated in my later years of high school, and as I recall, it was an accumulation of many different ideas. An android takes the place of a young teen so a dystopic government could cover up his death, an A.I./computer virus who thinks it's God, the concept of a reality syntax or the ability to use computer programming as a way to modify the laws of physics or make normally unexplained events happen in the real world, and Androids being hunted because they have developed free-will and their owners are no longer able to control their minds. This project was eventually cancelled because it sounded too much like a postmodern Blade Runner and the depressing route I was taking with this story was depressing me as well. Most likely, I may've decided to end this story with everyone dying in the end if I continued (perhaps literally, like they did in the Space Runaway Ideon anime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ5OEsdYvH4&feature=related ). Despite that, some of these ideas will carry over into my current project.

The current project I'm working on is the result of me trying to come up with a premise that matched the following criteria: a deep, emotional storyline, zany parody-esque humor to offset the tragedy that may go on, and some surreal unconventional fight scenes commonly seen in shonen action anime (action will be inspired by the Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, One Piece, and the Naruto anime/manga). I knew right away that I wanted this world's physics to be similar to Xin, Kazahana, and other works by the team at www.lifepoint1.com where someone that does well in high school gym class has the ability to jump his/her height, can break wood and dent metal with a punch/kick, and have the endurance to take those kind of attacks. Yet, I needed a twist that would allow me to have both the drama and humor elements that I described above as it would feel strange to parody a movie at one moment and tragically kill off a character at another moment in a conventional universe (it probably would still feel strange if that was used in this story’s universe).

So I thought and thought and I finally came up with a premise while viewing the Nightmare City flash and its sequel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdFijT11Cao (or so I will officially claim) when I toyed around with the idea of what if the catlike characters in Nightmare City were replaced with traditional cartoon characters like the ones found in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Suddenly, I reflected back on my younger days when I was in 3rd, 4th, 5th grade (1994-1997) when I was a regular watcher of Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Earthworm Jim as well as a regular player of games like Donkey Kong Country 2 and Earthbound (I have to talk more about Earthbound in a future post. I'll say this much, buy it as soon as it comes out on the Wii Virtual Console!) That’s when I realized that involving cartoon characters/elements into this premise would make for the perfect contrast for my anime-esque action/dramas that typically degrade into something dark and violent; either that or make this story feel similar to being around an bipolar individual (which would also be another desired effect). I could also get away with having knives levitate and doing wind scar like attacks by explaining that they are a toon gag items (albeit violent ones). Perfect for the surreal anime fight scenes.

I will talk more about this project in later posts, but I will say that I plan on calling this story Cartoon Requiem Jyuuwen and it will feature cartoon characters as assassins, former killer toons trying to live their life in peace, but are hunted by the government "because of their potential danger" as the government claims, the conflict between obedience and free will, quirky dialog, parodies of movies and internet memes, villains ranging from the comical Team Rocket types, tragic villains/anti-villains, to downright demons that could laugh at the fact that they committed mass murder, and that this story will stay true to the phrase "Expect the unexpected," with me trying my best to keep everything at least for ages 13+.

So there you have it. This blog will focus on my (mis)adventures in making this cartoon and anime project as perfect as possible as well as other inspirations, video games, and whatever else I want to talk about.

The picture above is a clip from Nightmare City showing one of its catlike characters (this one is probably the main antagonist of the two Nightmare City cartoons.)