General Statistics
Site Name: Mare Serenitatis
Derived From: Sailor Moon manga Vol. 4, the name of the Sea of Serenity, where the Moon Palace was located.
Birthday: Thanksgiving, 1997
Content: Mostly Sailor Moon-related information and fanfics, as well as a host of site features made to make the Sailor Moon experience more interesting and enjoyable.
Creator: Andromida, later known as Azurite
About Mare Serenitatis
Wow, I can hardly believe it. So long has passed since I decided to start up MS on Thanksgiving of 1997. I’ve zoomed through layouts, starting with the original “Library” version, then progressing through Mint Dreams, Cherry Blossoms, Blue Berry, Too Blue, Simple Angel, Silence is Golden, Usa Daisies, Sparkler, and now, the WordPress-powered site, Crystal Duet.
My favorite sites when I first started MS were A Sailor Moon Romance (ASMR) and The Worst Sailor Moon Sites on the Web.
Where did the name ‘Andromida’ come from? That was my original nickname, and I discovered it in two places– one from mythology, the rescued princess Andromeda. A little originality and poetic license every now and then never hurt anyone, so I adapted the name to fit a spelling I’d seen in one of the first fanfics I’d ever read– A Princess’ Betrayal. At the time, I thought fanfics were just episode novelizations– so up until the point where I discovered ASMR and the meaning of fanfiction, I thought I would actually see my “alter-persona” in the later episodes of Sailor Moon! This is probably what led to my discovery of fansubbing/dubbing sites, Save our Sailors, and other episode-related sites.
Back in the day, Geocities offered what I considered a whopping amount of web space – 10MB- and I signed up. I was a horrible novice and relied totally on the Basic Editor for design, but being inspired -and shocked- as I was by the growing Sailor Moon webpage market. I’d always liked writing and thought I had some sort of flair for warping the Sailor Moon time continuum, so I started writing fanfiction. As a matter of fact, my first fanfiction wasn’t at all like my more recent ones; instead of an Usagi/Mamoru romance, it was my vision of what Sailor Moon Super would be like, with a tinge of Haruka/Michiru blended between action and adventure. So you can see how much I’ve changed along with the site.
While I thought the site name was original at the time, it isn’t so much anymore. By typing in a simple Yahoo! search, I’ve found there’s already a MareSerenitatis.com and a Mare Serenitatis Pillar of Prayer… and I’m sure there’s plenty more out there. But I’m proud to be one of the first, and original at that. Maybe someday I’ll introduce other “Mares” (named after other “Seas” on the actual moon) for other sections of the site, but that depends on what they would be for!
Mare Serenitatis started out as my “one and only” site in 1997, but I later created Animanga Collision, a fansite for my other anime and manga interests, and Viva Forever, a way of extending the content I could fit on Mare Serenitatis, and a number of others, relating to my interests, hobbies, and school. If updates seem few and far between, it’s because I’m (hopefully) working rigorously on one of my other sites.