First published in 1998, Peter Guerin's infamous Crossover between popular teenage Dramedy series Daria and similarly popular children's action series Sailor Moon is difficult to explain succinctly. The plot opens with the titular character of Daria being drafted by departing Sailor Mercury Ami Mizuno to take her place on the team. Before she even has time to register this, Daria finds herself in Japan, struggling to adjust to being a (temporary) Sailor Senshi.
Meanwhile, there are three major terrorist organizations worldwide all independently executing their plans to Take Over the World. First off, the nationalistic Japanese terrorist group NIRAA led by ex-Nazi Dr. Helmut Vander Helffen and his companion Amazana Yoriko seek to depose the reconstructed post-war government of Japan via stealing a single prototype fighter jet (the Neo Zero of the title). Next up, the Lawndale Militia, a right-wing American para-military group seeks to control Lawndale, Texas, during their huge football game with Highland, Texas. Said high school football game also attracts the attention of Akbaar El-Salaam, an Islamic fundamentalist who seeks to hijack a passenger plane and crash it into the Lawndale High stadium during the game, and allows for Beavis And Butthead to join in on the fun.
While all of that is going on, there's also a superhero running around called the Solar Warrior who does things that eventually have relevance to the story.
The fanfic became extremely notorious for its wildly out of character interpretations of every cast member, its nearly impenetrable plot, and especially its massive length. The story was so long it even included an appendix that explained every single joke or reference the author could think of in the story, lengthy (and laughably inaccurate) essays attempting to educate the reader about Japanese history, the multiple shows referenced, and even the author's views on topics such as contemporary politics and Howard Stern. It was followed by a sequel, Return of the Lawndale Militia, and a prequel, Triumph of the Retart, all three of which ensured Guerin's permanent infamy in the fandom.
The fanfic received a similarly massive MST led by Matt Blackwell and can currently be found here
, as well as a Dramatic Reading here. The original fanfic in all its archived glory can be found here, in its final revision conducted in 2010. The revision contains minor edits and an apology as to the potential insensitivity of the Islamic Terror subplot.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Makoto Kino's backstory is changed from her parents dying in a normal plane crash in canon to her parents being shot down by Russian terrorists.
- Adaptational Badass: In their own series, Beavis and Butt-head are so Pathetically Weak that they can't even beat up each other, let alone anyone else. In this story, they're strong enough to overpower adults whenever the plot requires it.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Beavis and Butt-head are, in their own series, crude at best but too brainless to contemplate actual harm (in fact, they're more likely to hurt themselves). In this story, they've been elevated to violent rapists obsessed with capturing Quinn.
- Artistic License – Law:
- The entire robbery scene in Data 3 is something that would not happen in a Japanese crime scene. The robber calling the policeman “pig” (a specifically American nickname based on the equally American stereotype of police being fat) is just the start of it.
- Several characters address the emperor by his given name. In real life, this is considered disrespectful. Emperors are to be formally referred to either as “Heika” (Your Majesty) or “Emperor (name of era)”.
- Artistic License – History: The fanfic makes numerous mistakes when attempting to document Japanese history and discuss its culture. For example, it presents Emperor Hirohito as a good man who was bullied into a militarist regime by his generals when there is a lot more evidence that the Emperor suggested/endorsed a lot of Japan’s fascist policies.
- Artistic License – Military:
- The story tries to assure the readers that all the planes are fact-checked against a series of information sheets, but some of the more important bits slip through... like how Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution doesn't mean Japanese planes have to let civilian craft be destroyed by Soviets.
- It’s doubtful that military officers would be allowed to sing Fleetwood Mac songs on duty.
- The NIRAA’s scheme for world domination is to use nukes they store at American airbases in Japan.
- The story tries to assure the readers that all the planes are fact-checked against a series of information sheets, but some of the more important bits slip through... like how Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
- Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Akbar’s nuke apparently has no metal on it. If there’s no metal, that means there’s no lead, and thus, nothing to stop radiation from leaking out.
- Artistic License – Religion: The story keeps referring to the religion practiced by the Hikawa Shrine (which is incidentally misnamed as the Sendai Hill Shrine constantly) as “Buddhism” when Rei is a Shinto priestess. She invokes the wrong gods and sometimes seems to be replicating Buddhist rituals, as well as just doing things that are very out of place with the behavior of a Shinto priestess.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The non-American Original Characters have very awkward names. "Amazana Yoriko" is the chief offender, as even
Word of God says that he simply took a non-Japanese word and tried to make it "sound" Japanese. Dr. Helmut Vander Helffen is supposed to be of German nobility and a German-born Nazi, but he possesses a name that is a strange mash of a German given name and a badly constructed Dutch surname, suggesting that a similar approach was taken with him as well. - Attempted Rape: Beavis and Butt-head spend most of their screen time trying to rape Quinn.
- Author Appeal:
- A lot of references (and outright scene lifts) from movies and anime that Guerin likes.
- The story's plentiful references to breasts are hard to imagine as anything but this since they never serve any other purpose.
- Born-Again Immortality: The Solar Warrior has been reborn for several millennia as hundreds of different historically important people of many different nationalities and ethnicities. His list of past lives includes the first emperor of Japan, King Arthur, Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, and South African Apartheid Era martyr Stephen Biko. His current identity is a Japanese office worker.
- Celebrity Resemblance: The story likes to point out that Quinn looks like Renee O'Connor, the actress who played Gabrielle on Xena: Warrior Princess.
- Complexity Addiction: Akbar’s sect have decided to blow up Lawndale using a plane going from Tokyo to Berlin… as opposed to a plane from the Islamic States to Lawndale.
- Contrived Coincidence: Akbaar seems to rack them up. Not only does he choose the exact same target for his terrorist attack as a completely unrelated terrorist group, but he bumps into Daria when she leaves the airport and of all the flights he chooses to hijack, he picks one going from Tokyo to Berlin...the same plane with Ami Mizuno on board.
- The Dragon: Yoriko serves as this to Dr. Vander Helffen. Akbar is also this to his specific Jihad, but given their leader only appears in the prologue and epilogue, he serves as a Dragon-in-Chief for that part of the plot.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Characters regularly shout "BANZAI!" Sailor suits are called "seifuku" or sometimes "seirafuku", depending on what the story feels like.note
- Gratuitous Ninja: NIRAA has ninja spies. The story doesn't elaborate on the difference between a "ninja spy" and the other normal spies that appear in the story, but one does pops up.
- Groin Attack: One of Daria and Ami's favorite tactics in this story. Akbar even gets taken out by one.
- Herr Doktor/Mad Scientist: Dr. Helmut Vander Helffen isn't just a mad scientist, he's HITLER'S mad scientist, sustaining himself on his secret immortality pills!
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Yoriko Amazana is the daughter of Hideki Tojo.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Hideki Tojo is played as a proud Nazi ally who was desperate for the conquest of the world, whereas the real Tojo went through a Heel–Face Turn after the War and issued a formal apology for Japan’s actions.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Mad Scientist dies because he drops his latest immortality pill that he needs to stay alive.
- Homage: The story contains a number of sequences lifted completely and wholly out of other works, whether they make sense or not. For example, Usagi putting her clothes on while wearing nothing but her panties is extremely raunchy for the type of humor used on Sailor Moon, but not Project A-Ko, where the scene is lifted from. The author clearly intends the scenes to be jokes or references as he points out each and every one of them in the appendix so you can marvel at how much 80s and 90s anime he's watched.
- Info Dump: Dr. Vander Helffen and the Solar Warrior both give lengthy speeches where they reveal their origin stories.
- Male Gaze: The literary equivalent - the story will not stop talking about the female characters' breasts.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The fanfic already crosses over three series with established casts and tries to use every member of them. On top of this, the story drops truckloads of new characters into the universe, all of which serve some importance.
- The Mole: Ryu Chang is the SDF's plant in NIRAA.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Yoriko is a fairly threatening foe… until she starts belting out American heavy metal music that never topped any charts.
- Anthony Corlew, after a tense final confrontation… gets a very over the top death.
- Nazi Nobleman: Dr. Vander Helffen.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Very early on, Ami transfers her Sailor Guardian powers to Daria, something that her home series never so much as hinted would be possible—and shouldn't be, given the nature of Star Seeds/Sailor Crystals.
- But then again, Ami is still able to use the powers of Sailor Mercury simply by wishing for it, so there may be some link.
- No Endor Holocaust: The nuclear bomb is disposed of by feeding it to a shark.
- Obligatory Swearing: Every character in the fanfic swears at least once. For example, Usagi's mother wakes her daughter by yelling "Usagi, you lazy bastard!"
- Office Lady: The narrative refers to Yoriko as an "office lady" when she first appears. However, it is very quickly apparent that she is much more than that and that she serves as The Dragon to Dr. Vander Helffen.
- Out of Character: Nobody is in character. One of the worst recipients of this is Daria, who is stripped of her acerbic wit and high principles and replaced with an unfunny sociopath who thinks it's hilarious to freeze and shatter a human criminal while stopping a bank robbery. But let's not forget Beavis and Butthead, who go from being unmotivated losers to vicious violent would-be rapists who stop at nothing to kidnap and force themselves on Quinn Morgendorffer.
- The Sailor Senshi themselves are largely reduced to a Hive Mind. While the show itself could be accused of this when the cast got too large, the characters still had rather distinct personalities for the story to throw into the trash. In particular, Minako would not blatantly insult Ami for being too smart. Furthermore, the Sailor Starlights' lone appearance in the story is already so far out of canon that it even disregards that because they live on another planet and never expected to see the main characters again, Seiya would probably be just a bit upset that Usagi was bleeding out on the ground in front of her considering she was in love with her. However, the only one of these characters to even speak any dialog is Yaten, and the others may as well not be in the scene since they contribute nothing to the fight or to Star Healer "healing Usagi". Rei is constantly seen speaking extremely formally and invoking various Japanese gods, something she never does in any incarnation (also, the gods are wrong for Shinto.)
- Outside-Genre Foe: Let’s just say that petty terrorists aren’t Sailor Moon or Daria. Yet no-one seems to have informed Guerin of this, as he treats all three terrorist groups like the greatest threat the Sailors have faced; granted, one of said groups plans on nuking a populated area, but still. (Bear in mind, they’ve faced an Eldritch Abomination from the distant past that destroyed several planets, a Conqueror from the Future who already beat the Sailors there, an alien from another dimension who wanted to rule the world [compared with two of the groups merely desiring to rule one city/country], an evil Queen who attacked people’s dreams and a sect of former Sailor Senshi trying to bring about The End Of The Universe As We Know It.)
- Recursive Canon: The Lawndale Football game has someone selling videos of subbed Sailor Moon episodes.
- See You in Hell: Said so frequently by Yoriko to enemies she throws missiles at, that it's practically a catchphrase.
- Talk to the Fist: Yoriko shoots Sailor Moon out of the sky during a speech—in a scene played perfectly straight!
- Teleportation: Sailor Moon uses her recently acquired "moon teleportation power" to magically transport herself and Daria from Tokyo to Lawndale.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: The Neo-Zero has a CD player, and Yoriko likes to play various songs during combat. Weirdly, despite being an immortal Japanese radical, she only ever listens to American alternative rock.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Anthony Corlew, head of the Lawndale Militia, gets stabbed, thrown from a great height, splats once he hits the ground and gets run over by several vehicles.
- Weird Crossover: Sailor Moon and Daria is a tough fit without taking major liberties with one or both of them.
- Western Terrorists: The Lawndale Milita is a typical Right-Wing Militia Fanatic group, based on articles Peter read in the mid-90s describing the sovereign citizen movement. Unlike many examples of these tropes, the Western Terrorists are simply one of many groups, as opposed to being a less controversial alternative to Muslim terrorists.
- Word Salad Title: The title does describe the story, but in a rather roundabout way.
- Writer on Board: The story often stops to have characters parrot what are clearly Peter Guerin's views on history and world events.
