About "The Universe of Jewels" (Uchuu no Houseki)
Everything you've ever wanted to know about UNH!!!
(and some things you probably didn't want to know...)
   General Info
    Hello!  Welcome to "The Universe of Jewels," my original story/manga/future anime (that's my goal ^^;;).  "Uchuu no Houseki" is "The Universe of Jewels" in Japanese romanji, by the way.  UNH (which is how you'll see my abbreviate the title) can simply be summed up as a story idea I've been creating and adding to ever since 8th grade, and I just graduated from high school, so I've been creating it for a few years now ^-^.  I'm not exactly sure what 'genre' it would fit best in because it could go well in well more than one, but UNH mainly consists of sci-fi, love triangles, drama, shounen-ai and stuff like that...  though there's many more categories it could go under, so basically it has a little bit of everything for everyone!  ^_^
    The story follows the life of the main character, 16-year-old Mizuno Daisuke as he meets some very special characters.  By special I mean... well... this is a spoiler, so if you'd rather not know, then don't read this!!  ** They are aliens who have come to Earth to study it because it is so much like their home planets.  They are basically like you and me, only with slightly enhanced senses and some special powers such as healing, telepathy, ESP, and telekinesis, to name a few. **
    First thing you gotta know about UNH is that Daisuke's home life is pretty crappy... his mother walked out on him when he was six because she felt it would be better since she did not get along very well with Daisuke's father.  He loves her very much and waits for the day when he can see her again, though he's starting to loose hope... he hasn't heard from her in ten long years.  Daisuke's father isn't the nicest guy to have as a dad either.  He's really strict and orderly, pretty unlike Daisuke, and he works ALL THE TIME and only comes home a hand ful of times a year.  So Dai's alone pretty much all the time.  Sounds sad, ne?  Well, he's learned to deal with it and be independent.  He's also got school and his best friend Hiroshi to help him out.  At school he's anything BUT lonely.  Every girl thinks he's the most gorgeous thing in the world and Daisuke has a flurishing fan club.  They all want to date him and would do so, if they had the chance.  Dai's really not too interested in girls though... he'd much rather they just leave him alone, but everyday they swarm around him and there's nothing he can do about it.  ^^;; So this and other reasons have made him the most popular guy at school.  He's a pretty good student (if you overlook his math grades, that is ^^;;) and also the captain of the extremely successful and award-winning swim team.  So I guess you could say that at school, he's got it made.
    To sum it up even further, In the first volume, Daisuke meets a new student that he is instantly taken by.  She is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, so naturally, she grabs his attention.  She's also the strangest girl he's ever met, let's just say there's some things about her that just aren't normal.  But that doesn't matter to him, he can't help himself from falling in love with her.  Awww how sweet ^_^  She ends up staying at his house, since his house is so big and empty and she does not have a place of her own to stay for some reason.  Within a few more days, he meets even more people like her and then they ALL end up staying with him at his house.  So within no time at all, he goes from lonely and niglected to having a full house with brand new friends!!!  It's a new experience for all of them as they have to learn to live with each other, as seeds of interest are planted and such.  Oh, you know what kind of "interest" I mean ^-^. hehe... Yes, plenty of love triangle ensue here.  It's all done in good fun.
    There's also plenty of other characters too that DON'T stay with Daisuke.  They're also really important to the story and add their own flare to the mix.  Some more than others... *cough* Taka *cough* ^-^ And nearly all of them have a way of helping out Daisuke along with those staying with him.  So, he's in pretty good hands, one could say, for the first time in his life.  And he deserves it too, poor Dai ;_; <--- supposed to be a crying face...
    Hahah, anyway, I think that pretty much sums things up without giving away too many spoilers.  Ohhh but there's so much more I'd love to say!!!  GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!  Oh well -_-  I hope this has helped you get a little bit of an idea of just what the heck UNH is all about!  Oh, and believe me, if this little summary thingy sounds kinda dry, it's cuz I was skipping TONS of details that would be spoilers, so believe me, UNH is anything BUT dry.  Please visit the original stories page to read the stories I have written, and I'd love to know what you think!  You can also take a look at the manga I have created and never update ^^;;.  I know, I'll draw more someday...  Please sign my guestbook and I'll love you for eternity.  Or, you can e-mail me and I'll love you even more!  I really LOVE feedback, so if you have anything to say, please do not hesitate to let me know, whether it be good or bad, (though I prefer good...).  ^-^ Thank you for reading!
 

    History of UNH
    Ok, if you're already into reading UNH and stuff, then you might be interested in knowing just how it came to be what it is today.  Like I said before, it all started in 8th grade.  It was pretty early in the school year, sometime in October of 1997, and I was (and still am) waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay into anime.  One day after school, I was just doodling and stuff like I always do and I started drawing this girl I had never drawn before.  It was just a random girl, I suppose vaguely based on Belldandy, and after I drew it, I was so proud of it!  Now I look at that drawing and feel sick, but anyway... So I told my best friend Liz about it (yeah, she's the one who wrote Onna no Mono and is obsessed with Xio ^_^) and she came over to my house and I showed the drawing to her.  She's the one who came up with the name "Yoshiko" for her.  Ohh, and she helped me color the picture too!!!  Hahaha!!  So then, I had all sorts of crazy ideas about this Yoshiko girl swimming around in my head.  At one point, she was some sort of angel type thing who was with a girl who looked curiously like Chibi-usa... I decided that idea was kinda already taken and stupid anyway, so I trashed it rather quickly.
    And then I starting thinking "every good girl character has to have a boy character that she can be involved in some sort of relationship with."  Thus, Daisuke was born.  I got the name from a book I had read a little bit beforehand, and "Mizuno" I just sorta made up... I drew my very first picture of Daisuke on the same page as Yoshiko, and... it was sorta hard to tell them apart...  I mean, honestly Daisuke looked like a woman.  *sigh* Sorry, Dai... Back then, I NEVER drew guys and so it was inevitable that the first one I had ever really tried to draw would look female.  It's sorta amusing, maybe I'll scan that picture and show you all someday... Anyhoo, so then Daisuke and Yoshiko began to evolve even more into what they are today.  I have always stuck with the whole idea of them both secretly loving each other and being too shy to admit it to the other.  I think that's cute!  So really, they have not changed too much in that perspective, besides the fact that Daisuke used to be on wrestling and somehow that got switched to swimming... Not sure how that happened.
    So then I was convinced that I had started to create something really great so, naturally, added to it!  Misami came next, and yes, she's always been the vivacious, clingy, wild red head that is Yoshiko's little sister.  I knew that I wanted to have Yoshiko and Misami be something special, but at the time the whole 'alien' idea really wasn't too considered.  I was thinking of something more along the lines of 'goddess' or 'angel.'  They've always had those marks on their foreheads too.  Misami's character has not changed a bit, she's always been trying to get her 'darling' for herself and is jealous of her sister.  About the only thing that's changed about her is her hair.  It used to be completely straight, but then I decided to make it a bit more uneven and wild, to fit her personality better.
    Every guy's got to have a best friend.  Hiroshi was created to be Daisuke's best friend, and yes, he's always been girl-crazed.  Back in the day, he did act a little differently than he does now, just imagine Kuno from Ranma½.  So he'd always give Yoshiko and Misami roses and talk sweetly to them in hops of them going out with him.  He used to be kind of the "intellectual" type, but as you know, that just wasn't was Hiro was destined for.  His personality changed a lot, he became a whole lot more empty in the common sense bucket and he became waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more hentai.  I figured Daisuke needed a friend as good and true as Hiroshi, but at the same time would have to deal with his perversions and what not while hating that about him.  Sometime along the way, the Special Little Notebook was created for him to record "stuff" in.  I also decided to give him a laptop for "special research" and made sure he had all the brains in math and science, wherein everything else he lacks.  I wanted him to be carefree and sorta dense, but at the same time able to be caring and really stick up for Dai.  To tell you the truth, Hiro is one of my favorite characters.  I'm very pleased with how he has turned out over the years.
    The twins came along next, and they've pretty much been the same ever since their conception.  I wanted to have some younger characters, but not too much younger so they could still relate with all the others.  I figured, "puberty might be fun to have in my story!!" ... Hey, we all have weird thoughts... But anyway *ahem* so those two haven't changed.
    I had also created some supporting characters, like Aya and this other girl who's name was Akila or something like that.  I think she later somehow morphed into Emi... They were just meant to be the main characters' friends and not hold too much significance to the story.  I've given them a little more recognition now since I feel they deserve it more.
    At this point I was convinced that I was ready to start my manga!  So I did... not a pretty sight!!! >_<  Not only was the art sad and very gross, the storyline was kind of weak and undetailed.  The entire manga was only like 5 or 6 pages long, too, and I HIGHLY doubt that it would have been able to catch any sort of attention from readers.  Most of the initial ideas for the first manga have actually carried through to the final one, only with TONS more detail and effort.  So after I finished the first volume, back then I was pretty darn proud of it!  I showed Liz and she really liked it.  What sad, sad little 8th graders we were... I started the second manga where Misami comes in and finished that one too, the art was getting a little better, the story was coming together a bit more, but it was still lacking a ton of things.  I knew where I wanted the story to go, but never got around to starting the third manga, instead I skipped it and started drawing the fourth manga where Shingo and Tenko appear.  Never finished that one, though the art was substantially better than that of the prior ones.
    There was a time near the end of eight grade where I was kinda in a slump.  I stopped doing the manga and sorta felt stuck.  Then, during the summer before entering 9th grade, one of the biggest things in my story happened.  Koji was created.  (dun dun daaaaaah!!)  But ohhhhhhhhh my, he used to be completely different!  The way he was when I first created him is NOTHING like the way he is now!  He used to be... heaven forbid... HYPER AND PEPPY!!!!!!!!  *faints* Isn't that hideous?!?!  He used to be kind of a mentor for Shingo and actually acted a lot like him, which is sick and wrong!  *sigh* Don't know what I was thinking... *slaps self in the face* I remember a certain story I wrote that summer where the whole cast went to Aspen for a little skiing trip and Koji was all happy and giving Shingo girl advice...  *shudders* But no one needs to ever hear more of that again! ^_^  (Don't ask Liz about that story, please...) *ahem* Soooo, as you can tell, Koji went through some major changes.  He used to be kinda short, happy, had a crush on Tenko, happy, had dorky hair, happy, and he was senselessly happy!!!  Over time he became a little darker, more mysterious, but it took him a long time to get there!  At this point I had already decided that I wanted them to be aliens, and I had Aven all planned out, but I hadn't given a single thought to another planet and thought that Koji should be from Aven just like all the others.  Eventually I decided to make him really different from the others, and that's when Zanthor was created.  At first I made him half Avenion and half Zanthorian for some dumb reason... then I changed it to a fourth Avenion... but then I really thought about it and decided that I wanted him full blooded Zanthorian, baby!!  I hadn't created anything about Zanthor yet, but I knew I wanted it to be an ice planet and I knew that I wanted Koji to have silver hair, so I made all Zanthorians have hair that was either white, black, or gray.  Koji's silver hair is special ^_^  At first, Koji had regular ears, but he's always had slit pupils like a cat.  Finally, he became what he is today, but it was a long journey!
    During 9th grade I created Jemena.  She hasn't changed, but the story behind her has a lot, but I shouldn't tell that because that is a MAJOR spoiler for the "movie!"  Sorry guys, you'll just have to wait ^^;;;
    Hmmm lemme see... trying to remember what happened next... Ah yes, 10th grade I started writing volume one.  10th grade was an interesting year for me... Oh, school was great, in a lot of ways I consider it my favorite year of school, but for some of the wrong reasons... Don't worry, I didn't do drugs or anything stupid like that.  It was all stuff in my head.  My friends and I were a bit psycho in some regards and uh... let's just say there was a lot of "lemon" going around.   (Evil Sailormoon fan fic must die!!!!!!!!!)  So that influenced the first draft of volume one a lot, not to mentiont the fact that I had just finished reading "The Catcher in the Rye" in 9th grade, and anyone who has read that book knows the type of stuff I'm talking about.  So this really wasn't the best time in someone's life to try and start a story, but at the time I didn't realize this.  So, I wrote volume one and let's just say I didn't hold back a single thing when I did, and that includeds every little thought and feeling Daisuke had about Yoshiko drawn out to its fullest extent.  'Nuff said.  Luckily, I've grown up A LOT since then and have edited volume one to death so that its not nearly as "disturbing" as it used to be... But, sadly, we all have that stage in our life... I'm glad I'm over mine.  (I seriously wouldn't even dream of writing some of the stuff now that I wrote back then...)
    So after the first scary version of volume one was finished, I moved on to volume two in 10th grade, and it also ended up being quite "detailed" and scary.  I remember that I got to a certain point in volume two and just stopped writing for a while.  About 6 or 7 months in fact.  Guess I had major writer's block.  That was Ok, though, I needed time to grow up and really think about how I wanted the story to go.  Ohhh, and THEN, during the summer time, I started writing what I consider my most bestest spiffiest work yet!  The Uchuu no Houseki "movie!!!!"  For some stupid reason, I started it in a black notebook, so the entire thing is HANDWRITTEN!!!  THAT MEANS I HAVE TO TYPE ALL OF IT!!!!  *sigh* But, it really is the best thing I've ever written, I think.  I worked on that thing almost non-stop and my hand would often cramp in the middle of a cool scene.  Yes, I hadn't even finished volume two and I was already furiously working on the "movie."  449 pages later, I finally finished that thing on Groundhog Day 2001.  Wow, 449 pages will take a while to type...
    The last day of March 2001 I got this crazy idea that I wanted to create a webpage about my story.  But up to then, my story didn't even have a title!!!  There were several titles I considered, but none of them seemed right.  So then again, it was Liz to the rescue.  She helped me create the title "The Universe of Jewels."  Thanks, Liz!!!!!  We were talking on AIM at the time, that's where we always got our best ideas... (by the way, my AIM name is ZetsubouNoTenshi, my Yahoo! messenger name is zanthor_crystal, and my MSN messenger name is magic_emi, so come find me!!!)  It was on AIM that Taka was created...
    Ohhh, speaking of Taka... his story is interesting.  Liz and I were doing this crazy little scenario like we always did and I decided to bring in a creepy gay guy just for fun and I named him Taka and made him super scary!!!  (He was a lot like Fairy!)  So when I first created Taka, I hated him and I'd always make fun of him!  But in time I molded his character a bit and turned him into the ultimate coolness that he is today!!!  YAY FOR TAKA, I LOVE YOU, MAN!!!!  I just love the idea of a really goth gay guy, it seems to add a lot to UNH, ne?  ^^ Taka is one of my best creations, methinks.
    Satoru came in before Taka, I wanted Hiroshi to have a sibling who was totally unlike him.  I think Satoru is as unlike Hiroshi as anyone can get!  Thought it would make their home life even more interesting, heh... And Satoru is just so perfect for Taka to be infatuated with.  Hehehe, Satoru has always been the same, always girly, always cute, always naïve.
    Fairy must have come next... He was the result of staying up till almost two in the morning on not much other than sugar and hyperness with Liz and just coming up with the freakiest, scariest character possible.  Ohh, you should have seen me when I came up with the ridiculous name of Patrick James Mallard III, I nearly fell off of the bed because I was laughing too hard.  You probably would have been frightened...  So that's how Fairy was created.  He's a dangerous element that must be used with skill.  He might scratch your eyes out.
    Ohhh boy, I think that pretty much wraps my history lesson up.  Well, I'll probably write more later cuz I left a few things out, but I have written this whole page in one sitting, so I'm getting a little tired of typing and staring at the monitor... Yeah, more to come later...