Stories These are stories and songs that I've written (and one by someone else) as humorous parodies or dramatic interpretations of other people's published works. If you ever want to check out either the original song or the original source, there are links to more info. I've always got several ideas working at once, so updates aren't regular, but a few things may make an appearance all at once. Enjoy!

Sketches


  • #8: Sketches: "Anime Celebrity Deathmatch"
    - based on the show "MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch" | Original Show
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Although my version was spawned by a visit to the family homestead, the concept of unrelated anime or literary characters fighting each other is older than MTV, televised wrestling, and the "This hero vs. That hero" discussions that plague newsgroups and mailing lists. I probably started with the competing captains of Star Trek fandom, and moved into fantasy and later anime. Basically it's an excuse to exercise my wildest crossover story desires in the form of a satirical screenplay. All the same, if you don't hold too tightly to the characters' usual personalities, the stories can be pretty funny.

  • #9: Sketches: "Priceless"
    - based on the Mastercard "Priceless" Commercials | Original Commercials
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: These miniatures are parodies of the popular series of commercials hawking credit cards that has run for at least 3 or 4 years on American TV. The originals focus on some person making purchases on their card that are part of some elaborate, non-tangible gift for a loved one. Generally, the expense of the individual items is inconsequential as compared to the goal of having a meaningful (read: "priceless") experience with someone. Sticking to that pattern like glue, each of these mini-sketches focuses on a television character scheming to have a meaningful encounter with someone, not always a "loved one" in the usual sense. The quality varies a bit, but there's always a place for one-liners in comedy, and this is the fanfic equivalent of that.

  • #19: Sketches: "Makiko's Song: A Tale of Two Girlfriends"
    - a manga parody based on "Hana Yori Dango" by Kamio Yohko
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: I had a lot of fun with this rewrite parody of an opening scene in "Hana yori Dango". The names, artwork and sound effects were the only starting points I retained, so don't worry if you've never heard of this manga series. The parody has its own not-too-serious story about a couple of girls at an elite Tokyo high school whose friendship is tested. Just a warning, the artwork is in the original right-to-left, or "unflipped", format, so the panel order might take a little getting used to. | More Story Info

Games


  • #10: Games: "The Bastard!! Drinking Game"
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Based on the hyperactive, over-the-top fantasy anime series Bastard!!, this is a popular type of party game that need not have anything to do with drinking. There are brief mentions of events that occur in the OAV series, and game-players have to spot the event and do some action, usually take a drink (or in the more sadistic version, the successful caller doesn't drink, and everyone else does). How you play the game is up to you, I've just pointed out progressively more outrageous occurences in the adventures of the wily mage Dark Schneider.

  • #12: Games: Crossword Puzzle #01: The Hand of Fate
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: In celebration of the most recent animated treatment of that mind-boggling, patience-trying story X (aka. X/1999) by CLAMP, I whipped up this crossword puzzle. This one has a definite manga-orientation, but you can get pretty far with the info from the movie. At the time of this writing, the TV show has only been airing for less than a month, and I haven't seen it yet, but perhaps X will enjoy a great grand wave of new popularity, just in time for new fans to catch The End of the manga.

  • #13: Games: Crossword Puzzle #02: Haunted by the Past
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Drawing on a host of different anime and manga sources, this is a real brain teaser. The clues balance the easy and the obscure, and if you can at least guess the series that the reference is from, you're halfway there. For the truly determined, you can look up some of the more direct clues in an anime trivia source, but that will only take you so far. Maybe next time I'll make an easy one, so heads don't explode... (Hah!)

  • #14: Games: Crossword Puzzle #03: Chasing the Clow
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Okay, this one is a lot shorter than the last puzzle. It's based entirely on Cardcaptor Sakura, both the manga and the TV show. To be kind of nice, I've included a few clues that you won't need any anime knowledge for, just to give you a little help along the way. If you're an old-hat at Sakura, try your hand at the next puzzle, which is also CCS-based.

  • #15: Games: Crossword Puzzle #04: Clow Card Challenge
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Another Cardcaptor Sakura puzzle, this one is entirely about the Clow Cards themselves. There are a mixture of clue types. Some give you an event or incident and you have to figure out what card was caught at or near that time. There are some *gasp* rhyming clues. And finally, there are some direct clues about the uses of the cards themselves. A fun quickie puzzle on a happy topic... well, as long as evil doesn't befall the world.

  • #16: Games: Crossword Puzzle #05: Tennyo's Children
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: The first of two Ayashi no Ceres puzzles, I was inspired to do these after watching a cool video at Shoujocon 2002. ("Paranoia Rebirth", by MeriC - Ah! I loved it!!) I like Watase Yuu's stories, and they're kind of under-represented on my site, just because there are so many Fushigi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres sites out there. If you don't know jack about Ayashi, well... try the puzzle(s) anyway, but I totally recommend it, especially now that the entire anime is available and the manga is running too.

  • #17: Games: Crossword Puzzle #06: The Tears of Battle
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Well, moods being changeable things, instead of finishing that second Ayashi puzzle, I ended up doing a pair of Sailor Moon puzzles instead. Which is actually quite strange, given that until a couple of days ago most of my BSSM knowledge was gleaned entirely from heresay and conversations. Fear not, though, I've picked up a more thorough indoctrination, so there shouldn't be any misinformation in these two puzzles. (Let me know if you find any, of course :) The first one is an experiment in style, combining series-related pictures with a sort of diamond-shaped puzzle. It might make the load time a bit higher, but bear with me.

  • #18: Games: Crossword Puzzle #07: Defenders of Hope
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: The second of the pair of Sailor Moon puzzles, this one's more conventional, so it has more clues (heh). It's also a fair bit meatier, drawing upon information from later arcs/seasons (Super S and Stars, most notably). You can rack your brain for awhile, but it's okay to check some websites for help or of course, you could just watch the show again... Keep an eye out for a "math" clue (gwah hah hah!). As with most of my puzzles, this one favors the Japanese-style names and spellings, so don't get too mixed up.

  • #20: Games: WordSearch - Find-a-Word Puzzles
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: A project that I've been tooling around with for several months, off and on, WordSearch is the first of a set of Java Applet games, in this case, themed Find-a-Word puzzles. The selection of themes will grow, but to start with, there are a few general, science-fiction movie/TV, and anime word lists available. Just pick some options for the puzzle, click "Create", and it pops up in a separate window (if you've got some kind of popup-blocker installed, you might want to disable it). I'm still working on "Print" and "Save" options, so that you can waste... er, spend, even more time doing odd puzzles.

  • #21: Games: Crossword Puzzle #08: Embrace the Mystery
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Strangely, despite my long-time interest in Fushigi Yuugi, I hadn't done any puzzles related to the series until this one. It's purposely designed to be short, but a bit challenging, and consists mostly of English-language clues & words, in deference to the commercial translation. I'm doing a bunch of these puzzles for Shoujocon 2003, so if you're going to the convention and would like to see a particular shoujo series get "the treatment", drop a line.

Anime Music Videos


  • #22: Anime Music Video: "Kiddy is Every Woman"
    - using the song "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: After a long break from adding to the site, I've started in a new direction, anime music videos, or AMVs. This first video is an idea that had been collecting dust in my notebook for a few years, and began to form when I read the Silent Mobius manga. Kiddy Phenil is my favorite character from that series, and her profile as a tough-girl whose heart opens up over time really appeals to me. Ralph, her beau, is a funny character and a good detective, although that probably doesn't come across in the video (it's not about him, per se, so that's alright). As for the choice of music, Chaka Khan's signature song seems to fit as a theme for Kiddy and the AMP members in general, since (a) they represent all aspects of modern femininity, (b) both the story and the song have an early-1990s soulful style, and (c) both are ultimately very life-affirming. I might someday do a more ambitious version of this video with both Kiddy & Katsumi, and featuring the 8-minute-plus remix version of the song, but my skills aren't up to that yet. | More Story Info (Silent Möbius) | Download Video

  • #23: Anime Music Video: "Hitomi, Take My Hand"
    - using the song "Take My Hand" by Dido | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Yes, this is another Escaflowne Van & Hitomi romance video. I made this as a sort of remembrance of 10 years of my Esca fandom (ah, has it been that long?!). Van and Hitomi are still one of my favorite anime couples, and the Esca-universe always struck me as particularly rich and entertaining, so hopefully that comes across here. | More Story Info (Escaflowne) | Original Song Lyrics | Download Video
The list begins...

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