Announcing “Drops of Moonlight Zine: A 30th Anniversary Sailor Moon Fan Project”
On February 1st 1992, the first chapter of Sailor Moon was published in Nakayoshi. And everyone who does the math on that with us can see that the next anniversary will be a big one. Pearl*-friggin- Jubilee, everyone! And we want to make it a big-fucking-deal.
So, for next year, we’re planning like, the biggest charity zine we’ve ever seen in this fandom. A friggin fan BOOK. Printed. And we want it all: Anything from fics to fanart to doujinshi(fan-manga). We want photos of theme-related crafts and cosplay, and we want meta essays. All of it zine-exclusive. And all of that bilingual: we want both the English-speaking and Japanese fandom to contribute. All characters, all ships, all canon versions, all corners of the fandom welcome!
(And if you write in any other language and want to contribute, we are happy to add a link to your work in a special section of the Zine as well!)
That includes everything that has been going on since the last episode, chapter or musical of any Sailor Moon iteration that has aired/been published, and everything that has been going on in fandom since. We want fandom histories as well as stories about these characters after the curtains fell. And we want you all to contribute.
You can sign-up here. And we’re totally excited to have you.
Guidelines, Rules and Dates:
Please take note of the following before you sign-up:
Sign-Up Deadline: May 30th 2021
Deadline for Submissions: February 1, 2022 (Yes, that’s right, you’ll be submitting your works to us on the actual anniversary!)
This means you will have roughly one year from now until submission, and we will accompany you on that journey with a number of scheduled progress check-ins.
Pre-ordered zines will be shipped in the summer of 2022, around the same time as the official anniversary events.
Content Guidelines and Rules:
The basics. To ensure we can fit as many people into this event as possible, here are a few limitations on lengths.
Length of fanfics: minimum 2000 to maximum 8000 words.
Length of doujinshi/fan manga: minimum 2 pages (no maximum limit)
Length of Essays: minimum 500 to maximum 3000 words.
Format for artists: the zine will be printed in portrait format on DIN A5. However, for ideal printing, please make your images in DIN A4 portrait orientation (2480px x 3508px). Images in DIN A4 landscape format are ok too, but will be printed over two pages. You will receive more specific guidelines on the format upon confirmation.
Language: Works can be submitted in English or Japanese. All works will be published in the language they were created in. The zine will include short summaries of each work in the other language and QR codes that link to full translations hosted online.
Zine-Exclusivity: All works are zine-exclusive before the zine is distributed. Please do not post a work online that you submitted for the zine before the zine release. Afterwards, you may publish your work anywhere and in any way you want to; it is, of course, yours.
Multiple works: You can submit as many works as you want to, there is no limit.
Inclusivity: For many zines you have to be selected. This is not that project. Every submitted piece will be included, given it follows the rules and guidelines**. However, in the case we receive more content than fits into the 400 maximum pages of the book, some pieces might be selected to go into a seperate part II (or part III) ebook. Links and QR codes to any supplemental e-zines will be included in the printed book. You will be notified about where your work will "land."
Civility: Though we don't expect it to be necessary, in order to keep this a positive fandom space, we reserve the right to help mediate any conflicts and to remove anyone consistently perpetuating toxic fandom culture. Please treat each other as Usagi would and we shouldn’t have any problems!
Proceeds: It’s a charity zine: That means that all of its proceeds that exceed its production costs will be donated in full to Archives Of Our Own and the Organisation for Transformative Works, a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks to help and support the preservation of fanworks on the whole.
Ratings and Tagging: This zine is geared towards the old fans: Adult women, men, and everything in between who used to love Sailor Moon in their youth and who still love it now, and it will be clearly advertised like this. Because of this, there is no restriction on the ratings of the content: romance novels have some sex in them, too, and they are freely available! However, if you choose to include sex or allusions to sex, please make sure it is sex-positive and has an assertive and empowering gaze. Non-con, dub-con, underage sexual depictions of characters, graphic violence, and generally triggering themes (e.g. abuse, illegal drug abuse, suicide and other traumatic experiences) will be excluded and screened for, and all works will be tagged in the spirit of the Ao3 tagging system for informed consumption!
If you are unsure what an essay, a fic or art in this zine could look like, here are some prompts to get your creative brain-power going:
We would love a million essays. We want your opinions and your analyses, your research and your love for this fandom.
Do you want to write an essay on...
Changes in your own interpretations of characters and plotlines now that we’re all older?
Your favorite ships and what the fandom has been doing with it in the last 30 years?
The message that influenced you the most from Sailor Moon in hindsight?
Praising the merits of your favorite character or canon version or defending them from ridicule with 30 years removed?
A think piece about philosophies and values in the text?
Fandom history? Fanfic history? Fanart history?
How it feels to share your childhood nostalgia fandom with your children/godchildren/nephews&nieces?
What the Sailor Moon community means for your life?
A love letter to your favorite pieces of fanwork in the past 30 years you've been consuming? From cosplay tiktoks to fanart?
A love letter to the show and what it means to you and others even now, 30 years later?
Sailor Moon's legacy in the magical girl world and otherwise?
The Sailor Moon fandom in your country or culture, then and now?
A collection of Sailor Moon references in other media that came after it?
Sailor Moon and LGBTQIA+ representation?
Anything you can think of about Sailor Moon's legacy in the past 30 years?
Fics/Doujinshi(Fan-manga)/Fanart:
You can play with the post-canon theme in any way you want and within any canon version of Sailor Moon. Angst, Fluff, Humor, whatever floats your boat.
Do you want to write a story about…
What are the senshi or your favorite ship up to today?
Stories set in Crystal Tokyo. How did it come to be about? Bridge the gap: From Post-Stars to Crystal Tokyo, or a story about Chibiusa’s coronation, or anything you can imagine.
Stories about villains after canon - anything from random genius loci or Japanese yokai attacking after canon, or a new threat, or how the black moon clan thing evolved in CT.
Stories about Chibiusa and her Sailor Team?
The Sailor Senshi and their individual futures?
The futures of side characters, post stars or Crystal Tokyo? Both recurring side characters and those that only appeared once?
How did Usagi's parents react to her daughter becoming queen? Did Unazuki ever get her first kiss? Did Naru and Umino stay together? Did the Amazon Trio get reborn and what is their life like? What the hell is Shingo like as a teenager or adult? Did Ail and An ever find a planet or did they secretly return to Earth? How's Nehelenia doing in her 2nd go at life? What struggles did Galaxia face returning all the star seeds and aiding in repairing all her destruction? How's Kinmoku doing with THEIR repairs? How are the Ayakashi sisters doing in 20th century Tokyo? Did Wakagi ever make it out of the Sailor V universe and into the Sailor Moon one? Did Ryo ever get a second date with Ami? Did Mamoru's rock collection ever revert back to a bodyguard collection, or are ghost shitennou babysitting Baby Chibs in Crystal Tokyo, rightful heiress of both Elysion/the golden kingdom and the silver millennium? HOW DID ASANUMA REACT TO MAMORU-SENPAI BECOMING KING? Any of these and more!
As is manga canon, Crystal Tokyo was but one of many different futures (Crystal Tokyo, Cosmos's Lonely World, Parallel Sailor Moon - to only cite the canon alternative futures!), and characters have even gone back in time to change the outcome of theirs several times (Chibiusa, Cosmos, etc).
So, let’s play with more of these alternative futures! What if something during canon would have been slightly changed, how would that have played out to create yet another different future? What if Chibs changed one thing too many and changed the timeline? Or Pluto? Or King Endymion? Or the Black Moon Clan? A dystopia where the dark kingdom reigned, how would this have played out after stars? Mamoru's breakup resulting in the eradication of Crystal Tokyo when they stayed apart - what would happen down the road? What if Cosmos had gone back earlier and prevented them from ever finding out they were reborn? Give us alternate canon-deviations!
How about some alternate futures after Stars, if Crystal Tokyo isn't set in stone?
How about stories about Sailor Cosmos, and her version of Stars where everyone died and stayed dead and she had to travel back in time to Stars to change it all? What was her journey like?
Anything you can think of, as long as it's set after (any) canon.
*And in regards to the ‘Pearl’ within this 30-year-anniversary: Drops of Moonlight, the name of this zine, is a direct translation of the Japanese word for pearl: 月の雫. All the more reason to make it a really big deal for the Sailor Moon fandom!
**This is a celebration of the show that gave us the Message of Love. In the interest of everyone being as lovely to each other as we are used to in the fandom, anyone who behaves intolerably towards others can be banned by the mods. In this case, their work will not be included in the zine.
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
andulkaphoto
kianamaiart
germansingergirl
