Ilsevet Waterborn
Naoko-sensei at a book signing People have been writing me emails and asking me what I look like. (Am I the only one who thinks that's kind of creepy?) Well, let me help you out just a little bit. See that lovely woman on the left? (Not the guy, that's her editor. I mean the one signing the book.) That's Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailormoon. (All bow down!) I don't look very much like her. *grin* But I'm Chinese and she's Japanese; some of my American friends can't tell the difference anyway. If you're smart, you'll have figured out that I have the requisite black hair, brown eyes, and lack of height. (Okay? Are we happy now?)

As you may have noticed, I have a bit of an obsession with the manga (comic book) series known as Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon. (No, really?) This whole thing started when my father took me on a business trip to Kyoto in the summer of '93 - it was the first time I'd set foot off the North American continent. I'd taken three weeks of concentrated Japanese previous to that, so I was well enough versed in the language to differentiate between hot and cold food, and find out directions and prices... basic tourist vocabulary. (But nothing beats a Japanese-English dictionary. Remember that, folks. Anyway.) I bought a book of manga at the subway kiosk, just because I wanted something to read. (I chose it because the girl on the front cover looked both elegant and kawaii...) By some trick of fate, it turned out to be the first volume of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon. Needless to say, by the time our two-week stay was over, I'd acquired manga volumes 2 and 3.

By begging and pleading to my father's colleagues, who went on subsequent trips to Asia for the next couple of years, I managed to acquire Sailormoon volumes 4 through 16, volume 18 (in Chinese), the Kaguya-hime no Koibito single volume, and (quite accidentally) volumes 1 and 2 of Codename: Sailor V. I'm still trying to chase volume 17 for a reasonable price. (I also own several volumes of Rurouni Kenshin, Fushigi Yuugi, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, and way too much YYH doujinshi... but I guess that's not applicable here.)

Sailormars-chan Anyway, I got exposed to the Internet and tried to look up Sailormoon - and found a vast amount of anime (TV series) information sites. (Couldn't believe it the first time I saw it - I actually thought that the anime was bad fanart, to be honest. *blush* Everyone looks much prettier in the manga than the anime - but of course that's just my opinion.) So I decided to make a manga site. I took my use-name from a book by Melanie Rawn, a fantasy writer. It sounds so... elegant... and esoteric... (completely unlike my given name, I assure you).

Unfortunately, it was an unwise choice. When I chose the name, I neglected to observe that a capital "i" and a lowercase "L" look exactly alike in Arial, my font of choice. How unfortunate - now some people think that I chose the name "Lisevet" or "LLsevet" or some other such travesty... but I'm too attached to it to change it. (Not to mention it's my Tripod login and my Hotmail username, and changing it would just be too much trouble.) Oh well.

But enough about me. Go back to the Moon Garden. Have fun.

- Ilsevet Waterborn
ilsevet@hotmail.com


heyyy