Soul of the Seasons turns 18 years old today. I try to imagine back to the beginning when I was in college and first started this website, under a different name¹, on Geocities. I think it moved to a different Geocities ‘area’ before moving to Roninweb, then my first domain cakuni.com, and finally it’s own domain name.
My first ever image from the series was made possible by a digital camera². (Image posted below.) This was mid 90s so digital cameras were bulky back then and expensive. I remember the square memory card you had to use. And you had to put that in a card reader on your PC or connect a cord from the camera to the PC to access the pictures. So yup I froze screenshots on my VHS tape and then used the camera to get a digital copy to upload. Mostly if I wanted images back then, it had to be artwork that I scanned up on one of the few scanners my college had. (In a special small computer lab no less.)
I kind of miss the days back then. I would chat on IRC with other fans. I would print out fanficiton to read. (Because I got eye strain from reading from a monitor for too long.) Once I got real lucky and met a Ronin Warriors fan in person who was also at the time running a fansite for the series. These days, alas, the fandom has shrunk drastically and it’s left me feeling very lonely. I miss all the online friends I had to chat with back then. Many of them I have completely lost contact with. 🙁 I wish I knew how to return some of that old spark I miss so much.
But I best not dwell too long down that road or I’ll get depressed. And this is a day to celebrate, to be nostalgic, and remember all the years fondly. And to be very grateful for the fans that have stuck around over all these years.
And I decided to wear gray and black today as a subtle nod to the Dark Warlords/Mashou. (That’s the colors of their armor symbols.)
“It has begun..” – YouTube Video
(Because you can’t embed a YouTube video starting at a certain time.)
Does this mean at year 20 I finally get my own shakujo? (Please don’t say I have to wait for my 25th year. :/)
1. The website was originally published as Archdruid Unacera’s 3 Dark Warlords page, dedicated to Cale, Dais and Sekhmet since at the time the info for them was either very little or incorrect. Eventually I added Anubis and it became Archdruid Unacera’s Dark Warlords Page. Finally I renamed the website to Soul of the Seasons since it was more fitting by then.
2. The digital camera belonged to my mother. She wasn’t using it. Hadn’t for some time. It just sat in a box in the hallway at home. So I borrowed it, with my father’s permission, to use it. Of course when my mom found out she got upset and insisted I put it back before something happened to it. So it sat again in that same box, not being used. *Sighs.*
FYI: I’ve been a fan since Ronin Warriors came on the air the summer of 1995.