A SFW pet project I've been working on for years and want to do eventually:

It's called UNTITLED CYBERPUNK MAGICAL GIRL PROJECT (and yes is the final title, can be shortened to just UNTITLED lol). It's a reconstruction/recontextualization of the magical girl genre, mixing with elements of superhero fiction and cyberpunk. And there's a looooot of pop music :D

NOTE: These drawings were done between 2018 and early 2020, and a few designs are out of date in terms of what I intend. I especially wanna update the designs of RED_WITCH and VIOLET_NINJA to be more stylized, but haven't had the time to do so.

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THE PITCH! Suzi Kurashiki is an ordinary schoolgirl who just happens to be growing up in a cyberpunk dysto-utopia. The isolated, walled city of Paradise is a state run by a mysterious, hypercapitalist Corporatocracy built of many media corporations, which is just taken as a fact of life. Paradise is a neon-lit city run on entertainment industries, and Suzi is already uncertain with what she wants to do with her life when she graduates, especially since she starts to become more and more aware of the rising discontent among not just her peers, but the city in general.

Then one day, she discovers a mysterious microcassette player that gives her the power to transform into a "magical girl" -- an armored, electric-powered, but very cute and fighty magical girl. After initially using her powers to explore the city and get popular on the E-net, she's roped into an operation by a couple of other, grown-up magical girls who've been hidden in the city for at least a decade, including a shy, but kindly mentor named Kim and a rambunctious firebrand named Crash. They inform her that something's indeed about to happen: Paradise is about to explode.

A punk movement comprised of the abused underclass known as the Unmastered has been brewing up arms to revolt against The Corporatocracy. The magical girls used to be involved over a decade ago before personal tragedy befell them and put them into semi-retirement, but the new activity and increasing antagonism has reached a point of no return. Kim wants to sit the attack out and stifle the danger to their city. Crash wants them to finally revolt and wreck the powers that be something fierce. Plans are conflicting, folding into each other, and introducing new elements, including the sudden development of other magical girls and violent outbursts. Something needs to happen, or something WILL happen.

Suzi is a young romantic who genuinely believes in the power of love and friendship, but now her, her friends and allies of new and old, have to face a much deeper question that will dictate the future of their world: DO YOU BELIEVE IN PARADISE?

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The tone I'm envisioning UNTITLED is that of like a YA-centric story that's fundamentally a traditionally idealistic magical girl story on growing up, self-identity, and empowerment, just in the clothes of a more cynical dystopian worldview. I actually think of it like a reverse-Madoka Magica; dark setup, but overall very romantic tone while not skimping out on the complexities of what the world is like. Alternatively, it's a youth's series for adults, or an "adult" series for the young at heart.

In terms of format, I've actually been unsure for years. My dream is to make this like an animated series, but animation is fn hard and expensive. I guess the second best most plausible thing would be making it a comic series, but comics too are tedious and take up a lotta time that I can't really afford. Actually a big reason why I haven't made much progress with this series visually as of late is because I've been occupied with a lotta other visual work for income, and if there's no real demand for this ATM, I can't really propel this idea.

What I have been able to work on in a bigger capacity though, is the script. I've actually paced this entire series to be 2 seasons of 9 episodes each, and there is a very definitive ending to this, involving a lotta twists and turns on the way. I am always iterating, but the bones of the story are there.

I guess I could make this a web text serial if I want to, but the problem is that this series is heavily built on aesthetic; aesthetic is itself a major character in UNTITLED, shorthanding away the allure of Paradise, the complacence of the populous, the transgression of the Unmastered, the existential menace of The Corporatocracy, and the challenging hope of our magical girl heroes. Music is a huuuuuuge part of UNTITLED's vibe as well, used for characterization (I have certain leitmotifs and genre-attachments to every character) and atmosphere. I get I may have to trim a lotta details just to get a project completed, but that's a core part that if removed, I'm unsure if the series would at all be interesting.

But yeah, I do really wanna make this series. idk if anyone wants to listen, but it's a story I've been wanting to tell for years because -- considering the state of our real world -- I think folks might actually need it in their own way too.