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Introduction
Welcome to version three of my little Inuyasha-centered nook of the Internet. To navigate the site, simply click one of the slightly transparent links directly above this text box.
Well, thank you for stopping by. If you have any questions or want to point out a broken link or missing picture, please use this form, or feel free to drop me a line at my new e-mail address at astorwear1[a]yahoo.com. If you think you have a question that someone might have already asked me, please, please consult the FAQ first. Also, kindly state clearly whether or not you want a reply, as it’s impossible for me nowadays to answer every e-mail.
And, just so you know, most of the stuff in here involve Miroku and Sango in some way, shape, or form, just because they’re CrazySexyCool.
Updates
♦ 8.25.04 :: Hey, guys. I am very, very sorry for having to take the site offline like that. I didn’t think it would have so much of an effect on anyone; I’m even embarassed that I had to do it to prove to that I’m serious about enforcing what should be well-known fanart etiquette. I really don’t want to do that again.
As it is, everything’s okay now. I believe that the person who made the site did not intend to rip me off—at least, not in the general sense—and I’m not harboring any grudges. The truth is, I will always be honored to have my dinky artwork featured on other people’s websites as long as it’s credited properly—it still amazes me to this day—even though, in a way, it’s a risky thing because most of the time the fanart won’t be protected. But I will have to keep trusting that people will do the right thing, and I will always oblige those who ask me to send them fanart. If you’re going to put it online, just please give proper credit (and make sure the link actually works!) and just please don’t take the entire gallery. It’s really not that hard.
Also, because some of you asked, the person who made the mirror site was able to obtain the pics by collecting them from what seemed like every gallery I ever donated my fanart to, and the ones he took from my site were the original large versions of my CGs, which I did not bother to cut up (I have since rectified that).
There have been a lot of thefts lately within the Inuyasha fandom, both fanfic and fanart, which is really troubling. The latest victim is Yakusoku to Negai, which Nikkou-chan has said would close if the thefts continued unabated. Now this is my favorite IY website ever, so if it’s forced to close, to say that I will not be happy is an understatement. The most we can do is try to be vigilant.
Thanks to everyone who understood my decision, as rash as it was. I appreciate everyone who wrote and signed my guestbook and gave me encouragement. I honestly don’t know if my fanart is worth all that. I suppose I’ll just have to keep drawing to make it up to you guys.
Unfortunately, there’s no updates right now except for having Green Tea as an affiliate, and a couple great new fanart pages in the “Links” section. However, I’ve accumulated enough new stuff to update almost every section, including a plethora of new suggestions, a couple of really, really gorgeous gift art, doujinshi scans (undergoing translations), and, incredibly, the mouth-watering conclusion of “If You Need Her”. I’ve been kind of lazy nowadays, what with summer almost being over and all. But expect a massive update once I finish the new, less fancy layout, which should be before school starts in September. I’m sorry the layout design’s taking so long—I actually made three separate CGs before settling on one for the main image. In addition to the new layout, I am also planning to split the fanart section into two—normal and PG-13—and open a separate fanart section for Naruto pics, just as soon as I finish at least three CGs.
Oh, and one last thing: if anybody has scans of the second and third Sango-chan no Hon (Sango-chan’s Book) doujinshi drawn by Satou Kibi, please e-mail me as I would like to translate them with the owner’s permission. Please? Pretty please? (Thanks to Yakusoku to Negai for providing the images!)
♦ 8.01.04 :: I knew I was gonna be a bit late this time. Eh, well. It’s the same way with my e-mails, I’m afraid. If I don’t answer right away, please be patient; it takes me around a week to answer my e-mails, and since my Yahoo! address is functioning ten times better than my old Hotmail one, you can be sure that yours isn’t getting overlooked or deleted as spam. Yes, I’m an idiot for not switching a long time ago.
Well, I fixed a lot of things on the site, including broken links (thank you to all who let me know) and sliced up my gallery pics. Also, I’ve been alerted to the fact that the site’s been collapsing on itself lately, thanks perhaps to the size of the layout pics. As a result, I’ve lowered their resolution so that they’re faster-loading, though I expect that this is the last update I’ll be doing with this layout. I should have a new, less graphic-heavy one come later this August. I sincerely apologize to everyone who’s been having troubles navigating the site; I had no idea it would have enough visitors to seriously affect the server bandwidth.
As for the updated sections: “Ideas” has three new pages, “Fan Art” has six new sketches, a baka manga, and an oekaki, “Upcoming” has some new entries (I decided not to dump the section, but I’m no longer adding preview pics to it), “Gifts” has two gift wallpapers, “Doujinshi Translations” has some new doujins awaiting translations, “FAQ” has a new query, “Links” has some new sites, “Junk Drawer” has a new eyesore, and the “Fanlistings” page has some new fanlistings.
Incidentally, is there anyone who knows a place to store fan-made CG movies? I already know that there’s a place for Flash films, but what about movies that’re essentially a bunch of CGs given movement using AfterEffects or other similar programs? If you guys have any suggestions about this, or know about some other place I can store the aforementioned file, please let me know; I’d really appreciate it. Maybe I can have some preview screenshots with my next update; for more details, please check the “Upcoming” page.
Right now there’re a lot of things I want to do—Naruto CGs, a Flash game, that IY CG movie, new doujinshi translations...unfortunately, I’m gonna have less than a month to get those out of my system, what with my fall semester starting in September. At the moment my spare time has been sucked up by PC game demos, Flash movies/games, Xenosaga doujinshi translations, and the Tour de France (*waves US Postal and T-Mobile flags*). Other current “wows” of the moment: the cool-as-hell alteration to Naruto’s 4th opening animation—we even get our first glance of Naruto’s Rasengan!—the prospect of the Naruto feature film this August, and the discovery that the mysterious girl in the Xenosaga previews is the missing fourth U.R.T.V. Shitorin, a.k.a. Citrinitas, the “yellowing” stage. Okay, enough rambling—I need to go watch Naruto Episode 93...
♦ 6.23.04 :: Y’know, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t be updating. But while trying to save my e-mail account (and failing), I realized that I owe it to a lot of people to get off my tired butt and update. Thank you sincerely to everyone who encouraged me and made me think that my little hobby was something worthwhile, that I was doing something different and beneficial for the fandom. I’m very sorry if I seem to be neglecting my e-mails, but I have had troubles with my e-mail account for the past few months and it has become very difficult balancing school, work, and my online duties. But I truly appreciate your letters.
I have to mention the following in particular, because their words were particularly touching and encouraging: Lindsey Knight, Kendra, Delynn Speleos, Hoshi-chan, Sango-chan, Rae, Scribe, Thunk, Josh Howard, Heather Acker, Julie, Kara, and, last but not least, Kelly Kluvers and her sister Riley. Kelly wrote what might be the most amazing e-mail I will ever hope to get, and so this update is dedicated to her and her sister. I wish you guys the best.
So after two months of non-activity, here’re the updates: a shattering new fic by the incomparable Scribe of Figaro in “Fan Fiction”, a whole bunch of worthy links added to “Links”, two awesome gift art in “Gifts”, two whole pages of suggestions for “Ideas”, some long-delayed pieces for “Fan Art”, and updates for the “FAQ”, “Junk Drawer”, and “Upcoming” sections (note: the “Upcoming” section might be removed soon).
Since it’s been a while since my last update, there’ve been a lot of changes. For one thing, my e-mail address is dead. Been dead for a while now. Okay, not totally dead, but probably on life support. It’s been infected with spam and viruses and various nasties that I don’t have time to deal with, and a lot of e-mails were lost in the process. I now have a new address at astorwear1[a]yahoo.com. If you wrote to me before but didn’t get a response, kindly try this one. I signed up for a second one at Yahoo! as well, this time to handle suggestions sent in through the form section of this site, so hopefully my inbox won’t fill up so quickly.
I’ve added warning labels to all my allegedly risque pics since there seems to be an influx of easily offended people clicking around this site (despite the warning on the entrance page). I think it’s pointless and silly, but what do I know? Also, I’ve added a discreet no-right-click script to my pics (graciously donated by JTLan). I’m sorry for the inconvenience and I do realize that most of you don’t mean to steal, but I promised myself that if the thievery ever crossed a certain limit, I would have to take action. Well, the limit was breached, and this is the result. I am truly tired of writing letters to thieves, site owners, and art-abuse administrators and seeing my works being traced over and bastardized to fit the tracer’s own vision. It really sickens me—makes me think that my work was never good enough by itself in the first place. Pose-jacking—that is, tracing or eyeballing a pic and/or shoehorning other characters in place of the original ones—is just as damaging to a fan artist as outright stealing. One of the detrimental effects is the possibility that people who have seen the traced/eyeballed art first will come across the original ones and accuse the original artist of stealing instead of the other way around. We fan artists do this stuff for free, and the only “payment” we get is having our names associated permanently with the artworks. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s why it’s frustrating when others leech off of our stuff without crediting us. On a happier note, I finally ran into someone who actually wrote back to my e-mail and apologized for tracing one of my preview pics; all these thieves and tracers could learn a thing or two from her.
Also: if someone posts on a messageboard (as in the IY Network forum)/oekaki board/guestbook claiming to be me or claiming ownership of this site, chances are it isn’t me if they’re using a name other than “Mikaila”, “Mik8la”, or some variation thereof (and I never, ever misspell my own name). I don’t use AIM, so that one on AOL isn’t me, either. I don’t know whether to be flattered or disturbed by these impersonators, but it’s getting to be a bit creepy. So please stop.
I don’t think I’ll be doing any “IY” art for a while. The series hasn’t been all that inspiring lately; there are times when it feels like it’s suffering from some sort of “Groundhog Day”/Plot-in-a-Box syndrome.
So I think for now it’d do me good to dabble in a less popular series. Specifically, “Naruto”, which kicks, like, nine kinds of tail (pun intended). It’s the best anime I’ve seen in years—so good that, in fact, I actually have every single episode of the series (I just finished watching Episode 88, and cannot wait until 89: Tsunade vs. Orochimaru? Bring it on!). I’m chomping at the rein to make CGs for practically every one of the characters: Shikamaru, Kakashi, LEE!, Gai, Ino, Sakura, Chouji, Gaara, Jiraiya—hell, even the incredibly evil-looking Death God, I wanna draw. Naruto I’ve already gotten started on, even though I’m not even sure where I’m gonna post this up when it’s done.
I suppose another reason for my recent abandonment of my site (besides school, family events, and real life) is my new interest: 2-D animation. Thanks to my Motion Graphics class, I’ve been introduced to the basics of Flash and AfterEffects; in fact, for my finals, I chose to make a short (just over a minute long) “Naruto”-based music video. Of course, I learned that even with the help of a computer, animating stuff isn’t as easy as it sounds, so while it’s far from finished, here’re some small screenshots of my current pet project:
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Yup, screenshots—’cause the above images actually move. They include the first ever colored pics I did of Gaara and Lee, so they might seem a little off (I didn’t get to practice on them much before doing this). I admit the movie’s really amateurish and jerky, too, but I just try to console myself with the fact that this is just my first try.
In closing, thank you all for your kind patronage of my site, and please know that I appreciate all of your e-mails even though I haven’t been able to answer every one. Hopefully I’ll get inspired again to add to the “Fan Art” section sooner than later.
Copyright Notice
“Inuyasha” and all its related properties are copyrighted to Takahashi Rumiko and Shounen Sunday Comics. I am merely playing in their sandbox for a while. The works on this website belong to me and their respective creators; please do not take, alter, or distribute them without my permission (or theirs). Doing so is tantamount to violating copyright laws, and will only end up with you being added to the IY artists’ blacklist.
