FFVII Cosplays Sailor Moon

Way back in June of last year I was having a conversation with some friends online about what characters from Sailor Moon the cast of Final Fantasy VII would cosplay. Eventually I got around to drawing some of those ideas.

Some of these are really rough because not gonna lie, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the illustrations themselves, much as the concepts amused me. Drawing fanart is really not an activity that in and of itself is satisfying for me anymore. It’s participating in and engaging with fandom that’s fun. (Well, the stable sides of fandom anyway…)

Jessie, Scarlet, and Elena all dressed up like Sailor Venus. Jessie says "Only I exemplify Venus' love!" Scarlet says "Please, you're not even blonde" while Elena just looks on annoyed — Not pictured: Sephiroth also cosplaying Sailor Venus while unleashing a Venus Love Me Chain and saying “Don’t deny me, embrace me.”

But posting fanart online can be disappointing when a 10-minute doodle gets more engagement than a 40-hour painting. Though I know that it’s a phenomenon artists of various skill levels and follower counts experience, and I’ve heard various reasons for why this happens e.g. it’s easier for the audience to make what they want out of a doodle, it’s still a bit of a downer for me. So I set about doing these in as little time as possible.

Still, some jokes require more time and effort to be taken seriously as jokes, so I ended up spending a fair amount of time on this next one.

Barrett and Marlene as Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon. At first Barrett says "Mess around and find out" while posing, but Marlene yells at him. They end by saying "In the name of the moon, we will punish you" and doing the iconic pose — Things that I wonder if people caught: Barrett’s skull tattoo also has a crescent moon on its forehead, and Marlene is holding her arm like a gun as she did in Advent Children to imitate how Barrett gestures with his gun arm.

This thread indeed got more engagement on Twitter than the two most intricate Sephiroth pieces I’ve done combined, which hurts a little. Though I don’t regret the amount of time I put into those pieces—Cozyroth and Jungle Dress Seph—at all. I just wish more people had liked them. Then again, people seem to prefer fan art of characters in canon outfits, and Sephiroth wearing a color other than black or his birthday suit seems to be particularly hard for most fans to accept, so that can’t be helped I guess.

Genesis as Queen Beryl and Sephiroth as Malachite/Kunzite. Genesis is upset about being Beryl until Seph points out that that way, Gen outranks him. At that point, Genesis becomes much more enthusiastic, curling his hair on the spot. — Sephiroth has his tunic open far more than Malachite ever did. (Kunzite will always be Malachite to me.)

Of course, I know that I don’t put anywhere near as much time into being an online artist as is necessary to make an impression in this void we’re all screaming into. So, I know I can’t complain.

Cloud in the Sailor Moon redraw challenge — Sailor Cloud says, “There’s not a thing I don’t cherish!”

This last one is a slight tweak of an older piece. The face had been bugging me, especially the lips.

I also had the idea of drawing Shelke as Sailor Mercury; Cait Sith and his Moogle as Luna and Artemis; Hojo as Melvin (I don’t know what his original name was); Genesis as Nephlite/Maxfield Stanton; and Sephiroth and Cloud as Malachite and Zoisite. Alas, I’m just not fast enough, and I was ready to put this out into the world. Maybe someone else will pick up where I left off. Ahaha…