Sailor Dragon Will Shatter You

Fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight, could this be the next collab in E7? 

Not likely. Not a terrible fit, but there's way better collabs they could target than Sailor Moon. So what's Luna doing here dressed up in a sailor fuku?

Background

If you asked me what got me into Epic 7, the answer would be simple; dragon knights. Specifically, Luna. So you can imagine my dismay to realize when I finally did start the game to realize that she was a limited character whose availability I’d missed. It was actually the second or third character from a game I’d thought about picking up around that time that I wound up whiffing on (really wanted Elphelt and Noel in Girl’s Frontline but I was too new to the game to really farm to get them).

But, I wasn’t too deterred. Cecilia was an equally appealing character. More than a year later, when I started this project, the fact that I didn’t have her or her ML version is only tempered by the fact that I did get Luna during her rerun. Fun Fact, the design on the crown on Euphemia to the right was based on Cecilia's. 

I fell in love with Yufine over time; she’s just such an adorable little goofball. The fact that her JP voice is the same as Rin’s/Ishtar’s in FGO is so funny and awesome. For a thirty-day period she loved me quite a bit too – I got all my copies of her (3) on daily free summons. I pulled her auntie off her banner in less than 10 summons, though I’ve yet to get the right gear for her (that might change very soon).

I like dragons. That is kind of a given if you’ve kept track of my work and my BotS series. Consequently, any series that brings in a dragon-based character will get my attention. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve got the most interesting story going right now too.

I was long interested in doing some kind of art project featuring an E7 character. At first I was thinking of the main girl Mercedes. Indeed, much of what has informed my decisions about Euphie Alter story wise for the end of R3 is linked to Meru and her Archdemon transformation at the end of Episode 1 of E7. Tenebria, who has emerged as a face of the E7 franchise, was another popular option. I really liked the April Fool’s Day story with Meru and Tenebria as sister princesses (should we call it “Burning” instead of “Frozen”?). Ras as a harem MC was hilarious.

In the end, this particular project didn’t arise out of any of that thinking. This project came to mind while hearing as a background drone the sounds of my Wyvern 11 team autoing through the battle. Specifically, it was, as you can now surmise, Luna launching her S3 with her third S3 voice line, “On my honor as a dragon, I will punish you!” After hearing that line I don’t know how many times over the prior four or five months, it finally clicked in my head, “you know, that sounds kinda familiar… yeah, that’s almost like Sailor Moon’s line. Huh, that’s kinda funny. I can’t really imagine Luna as a magical girl. Although, that might be an interesting idea…”

I started planning the project right then and there. This all occurred in the last few minutes of a 15-minute break at work, mind you.

As such, there are gaps in the logic matrix. If you’re doing an E7/Sailor Moon crossover, there are more likely and suitable options. For one, both series have a “Luna” so if anything that would be a more logical starting point. If we’re talking magical girl transformations, only one E7 character fits that bill, and that’s Tamarine. If we’re talking personality alignments, one of the Outer Senshi would be a much better option for pairing with Luna, particularly Sailor Saturn or Pluto. If anything, Yufine makes more sense as Sailor Moon than anything. And of course, if we’re going for the moon motif, Kise or even Tenebria fit far better on the E7 side (though Tenebria would have to choose a villain… and now I’m getting a Tenebria/Black Lady idea going in my head).

Composition

When it came to how to pose Luna for this image, my initial thought was that she should be in a sort of closed-off stance. I imagined her being unaccustomed, maybe a little embarrassed, to be in a sailor uniform. Rationally, that wouldn’t make the most sense, seeing as how her normal attire in E7 is more revealing than Sailor Moon’s. Any embarrassment she might have would have to do with something other than any skin showing. That being said, it wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to imagine her being bashful just to be wearing something other than armor, since everything we know of Luna at this stage says she’s spent most of her life as a warrior and on battlefields. Her embarrassment could well be nothing more than awkwardness from being in unfamiliar clothes; the trope of the tomboy feeling awkward in frilly clothes. 

But as I actually thought about it and sat down to work out the details, I grew less fond of that idea. I like the confident, self-assured, Luna. I want my first Luna piece to reflect that of her. The other option could come later with something more outlandish, but for this first Luna piece I wanted something else, something more forceful. I wanted something like her ready to strike an enemy, something to show her agility and power the way you see with her S3 in the game.

Moon Details

That then leads to the question of which Sailor Moon are we dealing with. Sailor Moon throughout her series goes through several powerups, and with each one gains a slightly new look to her weapons and/or outfit. She never gets a spear, Luna’s weapon, so the next closest thing would be any time after the first season’s climax when her Moon Stick evolves to the full-length Moon Rod. But, that later gets shrunken back down to just a stick again.

In the end I settled for Super Sailor Moon as her outfit is very colorful and vibrant, but not too much by way of frills or accessories like wings as the galaxy transformation gets (or the odd, bulbous, shoulder bits).

The minor issue of the weapon, for those unfamiliar with the beats of the Sailor Moon story, just know that the Heart Moon Rod, Moon’s weapon, is longest, and therefore the most like Luna’s spear, prior to her Super form. It's not official, but some fan works I knew of did elongate the Moon Stick of her SuperS form to make it more akin to her prior rod. This was likely from those artists not knowing or remembering the difference (I had to look it up myself in researching for references), perhaps similar to me deciding that they preferred the latter weapon, but something closer to the older form.  

Or maybe there was an episode or manga chapter where it was the case. Not sure. Regardless, I decided not to split up the weapon and associated costume. And since I chose the SuperS costume, a minor modification to the weapon to suit my needs seemed reasonable enough.

Other than that, the only thing missing from Sailor Moon’s original SuperS costume is the red jewels in her famous meatballs. I thought about trying to find a way to incorporate that into Luna’s appearance, but I didn’t want to introduce a new hairstyle for Luna in my first work for her, and absent that the only option left would be to create some manner of accessory attached to her horns. Not impossible at all, I just didn’t think this was a good call either, so I just left it out.

Dragon Bits

The Luna portion ended up being a lot simpler than I imagined it would be. There wasn't a whole lot I had to make up from imagination once I decided on the pose here. I did play around a little with the angle of the bent right leg, but not much. 

The only semi complication was actually her ears. Unlike Sailor Moon who has a whole couple hundred animated episodes, plus a manga, to show off her appearance in various costumes, Luna has the one outfit as shown in the game and associated PVs. I also tend to like to see how other artists handle a character to see if their choices of how to express aspects of a character match my thinking, or if they offer a perspective I hadn't thought of. 

Strangely, what I found with the small number of fan works of Luna is that though most put her in non-battle attire, so not what she's wearing in the game, they tend to leave the armor guard on her ears. That made me think hard for a bit about whether that was supposed to actually just be part of her ears - like scales from her dragon form. Looking at Mort, Alencia, and Yufine, they don't have it, but that's not conclusive. And the coloration does match her tail and horns more so than her armor, so there's potential reasoning there. Besides, why would you get armor to cover the top edge of your ears, even if they're elven shaped? But then again, why would only that part be scaled, and why would evolution see fit to have it grow spikes?

In any case, my judgment says that it is just part of her armor set. Would be curious what others think, or if Luna's art designers who worked on Luna could pop in and say what they had in mind. In any case, no ear covering for my piece. 

Wrap-Up

All told, this is the image I wanted to create, so in that regard it’s a success. Just wish I could have gotten it done faster. Came up with the concept and sketch in April of 2020 and then it kinda just sat around without me working on it at all. Inb4 Sailor Moon as actually announced as the collab, lol! 

Anyway, hope you like it. I don't know when I'll do my next E7 project. Other than the sparse Tene/Black Lady idea floating in my head, I don't have any frim plans for anything right now. Kinda want to do something with Vildred too. For now though, take it easy. See you in the Shadows.