Opening Shot:  The earth slowly revolves, revealing a shining sun.  On the
earth, we can see a city which looks vaguely like a pentacle.

Narrator:  Behold!  Da mahvellous woild of da fucha!  Thanks to da 
creation of Cristal Tokyo, which brought about da Thoid Age of Mankoind,
yumanity has entered an era of prospairity.  But behoind da shadow of such
glory-us peace, dere are --

A loud bang interrupts the narrator.

RYOUKO:  *Much* better.

The image freezes.  The caption, Experts of Fanfic Review:  The Text File
appears.

Cut to the inside of the theatre.  The Experts are seated as follows:
RITSUKO, SHEILA, HIROE, RYOUKO.

RITSUKO:  Hello, and welcome to the second public Experts of Fanfic Review.
Today we're very pleased to be examining Andrew Huang's Mourning Star, which
he describes as "Sailor Moon directed by Anno Hideaki".

SHEILA:  <teasingly> Should be like old home week for you, ne, Ritsuko?

RITSUKO:  <weary> You know, I've never even *seen* an episode of that
series.  Just because my mother named me after a singularly unpleasant
excuse for a human being -- if the stories I've heard are correct --- whom
she happened to befriend at some point, whose life was intertwined in
Anno-sensei's magnum opus, doesn't mean that I have any interest in it.

RYOUKO:  You didn't miss much.  Too much homosexual subtext.

SHEILA:  *You* really ought to change the record sometime ...

HIROE:  I saw it, but I didn't get it --

RITSUKO:  Anyway, this isn't Andrew's "Evanjellydonut", it's a Sailor Moon
story inspired by Anno-sensei's directorial style.  Let's see just what
Andrew means when he says that.

  "From...from Lady V-Venus?" stammered Iason.

  The large man smiled. "Yes. I am her personal aide and representative,
Vitus. I have come here to speak to you on her behalf. And for the
Younger Venus, as well."

HIROE:  Ano?  Younger Venus?

SHEILA:  It's a popular fanfic theory that in the Silver Millenium, the
Sailor Senshi were trained by elder representatives of their planets.

RITSUKO:  Cf. Douglas Helm's contributions to the Sailor Moon Expanded
Project, and Biles and Hosmer's "Sailor Moon Z".

HIROE:  But it's not true, right?

SHEILA:  It's not canonical.  There's a difference.

  "My boy! Do not be so timid! You are not in any sort of trouble!"
Vitus laughed and slapped him resoundingly on the back.

  "*kaff* Y-yes, sir...."

SHEILA:  You know, some physical description of Iason/Ryoku would be nice.
For obvious reasons, I see him as a "Shinji-type" -- your classic short,
dark haired anime shounen, dwarfed by the giants around him.

  Ryoku stared in absolute horror at the explosion....

  Chunks of concrete flew outward....

  He could only stare, helpless....

  His mother, father, sister fell....

  He fell....

  And before he lost consciousness, he saw a flash of colors.

  "I am the beautiful sailor-suited warrior...."

  Too late. Damn you. Too late.

SHEILA:  Okay.  Problem.  The monsters that the Senshi fought against never
... well, not until the 1996 incident, did they cause irreparable harm.  I
*strongly* hope that Andrew has a plan to explain why this particular
species of monster is using lethal attacks rather than energy drains.

RITSUKO:  Do you suppose that *this* is part of the reason that it's Sailor
Moon by Anno?  From what you and others have told me of Evangelion --

HIROE:  -- always showing the consequences of the fights?

SHEILA:  Maybe.  And the fights actually having consequences.

  Life goes on, you see. Kind of, at least.

  A month and a week ago, the Senshi had felt rather distraught at the
fact that almost an entire family had been killed by that attack. If
only, if only they had gotten there even one minute earlier!

Dead silence.

HIROE:  "... had felt rather distraught"?

RYOUKO:  I have to admit that this doesn't seem ... for lack of a better
term, as intense as it should.  The Senshi were, at that point, very
emotionally volatile, and being unable to prevent loss of human lives
would have shaken them to their core.  They *weren't* "soldiers" ... yet.

  "Hmm...." came a dreamy voice. The girls sweatdropped, turning to look
at Minako. "If that's true...I sure hope he turns out as...uh, why are
you all...am I thinking out loud again?"

  They nodded.

  "Ah, heh, never mind."

HIROE:  Hee!  This IS like Aunt Mina.

  Ryoku nodded, shifting his eyes from the cat to the girl holding the
cat. He thought he saw a momentary flash of...disappointment? Something
odd in her eyes.

SHEILA:  Off hand, I'd say that however he looks, he doesn't measure up to
Minako-chan's standards.

  Frustration is really a terrible, terrible thing. A student works on
the problem set that simply will not die. A writer stares at the screen
of his word processor, finding no words to be processed. A singer just
can't hit that one damned note right....

  Then there is the frustration over things which have already happened.
Failures that gnaw at a person, consumes him days, weeks, years after
they happen. Some people can move on, and others...can't.

  Can you imagine a frustration that has festered for millennia?

  And what happens when it collides straight on with a frustration that
has been burning for a month?

SHEILA:  Eek.  So on one hand, he wants desperately to be with her, and on
the other he hates her like poison.  BADDD mixture.

RITSUKO:  While this is a very serious and deep work, I don't quite see how
it's connected to Anno Hideaki's work.  But then, not much in the way of
plot has happened yet.

RYOUKO:  This is ... interesting.  

HIROE:  I wanna see more!

A quick consensus on that is indicated, and the Experts file out.

Chris Davies.