making an original manga similar to naruto, bleach, mechas

sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

This is probably in the wrong forum, but I couldn't figure out where to put it because I wanted to address it to both writers and artists, and it's not a community project because it's only open to people who are serious, fairly skilled, and willing to make a commitment to the project. Anyway, mods please move it if there's a better forum for it.

Project Concept:
Probably you have all read/watched some sort of story where human-ish fighters have non-human partners. The partner might be a dragon, a mecha, an AI, a summonable spirit, a soul sword, or an internal demon/monster the human can transform into. In this particular case the nonhumans are shapeshifters which can be worn as armor by their human fighters and which also have healing abilities and limited empathy/telepathy. These shapeshifters are not just foozles but real characters; they are their own race with their own culture, lives, emotions, goals, and their own reasons for wanting to bond with a human. This will also be a school story in that one of the main settings is the military academy where young shifters and human fighters are trained and bond with each other.

The story will feature combat, power struggles, romance, humor, magic, and all the things which go on in a historical fantasy society. The manga will be the intertwined stories of several humans and shifters. I'm looking for writers to create characters and stories for those characters, and artists to draw the manga who are also welcome to contribute ideas, and together we will create an overall plot (something political probably) which will provide a framework for these more personal stories. The overall tone will be fairly light - there will be a happy ending and moments of comedy throughout, but there will be angst and danger and a little suffering in there too.

Worldbuilding:
The planet is not earth, it is a fantasy world. The technology level is medieval plus some shapeshifting and magical abilities, so no guns or engines, but lots of swords, bows and arrows, claw/glove type weapons, and horses or a fantasy equivalent. The shapeshifters are another intelligent race that evolved there along with the humans (who aren't strictly human because they have some sort of magic powers). There are a lot fewer shapeshifters than humans, partly because the shifters do not naturally have gender or much sex drive.

All of the shapeshifters are associated with one cave, which is where they traditionally bear their young and where wounded or old ones go to rest. Historically, when humans realized the fighting value of being bonded with a shifter and also the vulnerability of the pacifistic shifters to humans who might kidnap or murder them, they surrounded the cave and built a dojo which evolved into a military academy. The current story time is the third generation after the two races started working together. There might be another population of shifters somewhere, but if so it is not yet known to these characters.

Currently all the young shifters, at least of this 'domesticated' population, get trained as shields, and the best young warriors of that country go to the academy to train as swords and then graduate into being in the army. Since there are fewer shields than swords not all swords bond with a shifter before graduation, or ever. (Thus a writer who isn't interested in the shapeshifters can use unbonded human fighters and civilians for their stories.) Also, since bonding is instinctual some shields never find a human who 'does it for them'.

Shifters cannot get smaller or larger, and they are fairly massive - at least 40 lbs, as much as 100 lbs. (They can take a human-sized appearance by making themselves hollow.) Shifters worn as body armor aren't heavy because they help do the moving, but they cannot be worn as small articles of jewelry or clothing. Instead a shifter not being worn as armor would normally wear a human or animal form and walk beside their sword. But, a shifter can make pieces of jewelry out of their body and the human can wear those for improved long distance communication with the shifter. Any shifter can heal any human, although some are much better at healing than others, and some shifters are much better at shapeshifting than others. Shapeshifting includes the ability to shift the shape of things besides the shifter's own body, and the healing ability is actually just a particular way of slightly shifting a human's shape.

Shifters are partially empathic/telepathic - which means that each shifter can hear the feelings of some humans, the ones who are on the right 'wavelength', and the humans must also be nearby. A shifter can only actually read the thoughts of a human they are bonded to or in the process of bonding to. Humans usually only get one shifter and because shifters are rare and picky about who they bond with many humans who want one don't have one. Also, a shifter bonds with a human because it feels that human needs them, a human who already has a shifter probably doesn't need a second. Having two is possible, but really unusual, such that only one or two characters have that. If there are two shifters the shifters should either be a mated pair or siblings.

Plot Ideas:
- The teenage characters in the academy have the usual coming of age issues, such as trying to balance what is expected of them, what they dream of doing, and what they actually have the ability to do.

- There are the usual conflicts of two racial groups living together - prejudice, conflicting traditions and philosophies, different biology, etc. Specifically the shapeshifters are more pacifistic and calm and the humans are more warlike and passionate. This means some of the shifters think the humans are attractively energetic or dangerous, but some of the shifters think the humans are destructive and childish. Similarly, some of the humans think the shifters are loyal and gentle, while others think the shifters are weak and useless. Also, shifters do not naturally have gender or money, but the young shifters growing up among humans get interested in human things and may start to think of themselves as male or female, which bothers the old traditional shifters.

- The adults have all the problems adult fighters usually have - attacking enemies and difficult missions, struggling to improve themselves and move up the ranks, politics of who gets to decide the military's policy, issues with ethical use of force and guilt over being killers, marriage and children, loneliness, helping friends, revenge, money, pretty much anything.

Kitzy · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:00 pm Post subject:

[quote]making an original manga similar to naruto, bleach, mechas[/quote]

Isn't that kind of a controversial thing? Making an [b]original[/b] series based off of a bunch of other series?

If you ask me, you should try and make something that's not based off of the anime you like.
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sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

It's not based off them, it's merely another anime in that subgenre. There are no characters or worldbuilding in common, that's all original, it's just the same structure - a home base including a school, fighters which protect that home from enemies using fantasy abilities, a large-scale political plot providing the frame for the more personal subplots of many characters. So no, it shouldn't be controversial at all.

Kitzy · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:15 pm Post subject:

Sounds exactly like what I was making a few years ago, actually...
I dunno, maybe you should spin off onto your own tangent on this one. I'd much rather read fresh ideas.
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sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

I think the idea of telling a story from the point of view of a sentient mecha-type-thing is fresh. *shrug* Have you ever seen a story about a mecha which fell in love with its pilot?

Naruto is so popular, I wanted one of my ideas to be interesting to an equally wide audience for once, usually I write things which are much weirder - science fantasy with a cast of hermaphrodite dragon aliens for example.

Kitzy · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:03 pm Post subject:

Hmm...the mecha thing screams Gundam Wing to me for some reason, but go for it if you really want to, I'm just tossing some opinions.

I was actually thinking of writing quite a few stories that I later found out were the same basic structure as some older movies my dad had seen Confused

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sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

Well, there are only so many possible plot structures. Some people say there are only 3 basic plots, some people say there are 20 or 36, but however you count there just aren't that many. And people like to read multiple things with the same structure - take romance novels a lot of women read one a day or one a week, and they all have the same basic structure of guy meets girl, there are obstacles to their relationship, they eventually overcome the obstacles and live happily ever after. That's what romance fans want to read, they don't want something with a different structure, just some content which is different enough to be interesting and not completely predictable.

Brianhjh · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:12 pm Post subject:

So you're blending Homosexuality with Fail, plus mechas.
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sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

[quote="Brianhjh"]So you're blending Homosexuality with Fail, plus mechas.[/quote]

The shifter concept doesn't in particular have anything to do with homosexuality, although I would expect the finished product to have at least one gay romance, one lesbian romance, and one straight romance.

What pray tell is Fail?

LunaticCrow · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:31 pm Post subject:

I like where this concept is going.
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sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

[quote="LunaticCrow"]I like where this concept is going.[/quote]
Thanks, I'm glad somebody likes it. Smile

sunandshadow · Newb Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

This project has been coming along nicely, we've almost finalized the main cast of characters and have outlined some of the plot. Last chance for anyone who wants to participate as a writer, and if anyone wants to participate as an artist we now have some characters descriptions ready for you to attempt to illustrate, and will have some actual script by christmas. ^_^