Setting Sun

• saga.oubliette.nu ↠
• Subject — Dream Saga
• Medium — Manga
• Release date — 15 January 2016

Keywords

• parallel worlds
• alter ego
• dream journeys
• quest for companions
• tradition
• Japanese mythology
• environmental strain
• accountability
• greed
• sustainability
• humans and nature at odds
• balance

Making of

• First Actual Series Shrine

  Not counting Strength of Heart (world shrine) and Valkyrie (character shrine), which both indulge in worldbuilding and cover large parts of the respective story to the point of recounting it, this is the first full shrine dedicated to a series. An exciting thought, since it’d mean getting to experiment with what novel elements to include and how to structure it. And I’d finally get to write a characters page!

• Early Thematic Overview

  I ended up talking about its themes half-way into the shrine, still as part of the introduction almost, while coupling that theme overview with quite a good bit of the actual story and some commentary on the series as a whole. Dream Saga isn’t complex or long, so I could afford to do that. On other shrines, I tend to write about the themes at the end, without talking as much about the story.

• Callback to Fantasy

  The Takamagahara page was very pleasant to catalogue, as it was reminiscent of what I had done for Strength of Heart (Act I). In fact, they’re both series that drew me in around the same time in my life through their worldbuilding. They’re both products of attention to detail and wanting to capture the big picture.

• Mythology Getting Out of Hand

  Writing the mythology section on this site was very exhausting; I had only intended for it to be small, again underestimating myself. It required a lot of research and cross-comparing, but I enjoyed being able to show the connections to the series itself and learning something new.

• Series Version of Kindred Spirits

  The Parallels page is by far my favourite part of the shrine. While Responsibility already evaluated the series in a way by commenting on the integration and execution of its themes, Parallels allowed me to talk about parts of the series that I felt had been neglected, and my own wishes as to what I’d have liked to see.
  
  On top of that, it allowed me to talk about series that are, in my opinion, similar to Dream Saga. It’s a very personal thing, as it’s based on things I have read and loved, perhaps even grown up with, all of which are similar to Dream Saga in different ways. Due to that, the page also serves as a recommendation page for further reads, and as an introduction to Dream Saga itself for those who are already familiar with one of the series listed. I guess in a way, it counts as the equivalent of the “kindred spirit” page that you find on character shrines.

Retrospect

I love experimenting with new things and seeing where creativity leads me, and while I try to give each shrine its own structure and content rather than tick off checkboxes of “must have” pages, I’m even more excited when I get to create a shrine type I haven’t done before! Dream Saga is short and contained, which is particularly noticeable in its characters, so this was a nice start into multi-page series shrines.

Dream Saga is the third shrine in a series of “fansites I have wanted to make since I was a kid” (the other two being Strength of Heart and Dornenkaefig) — and I tell you, it’s an incredible feeling, being able to grant yourself wishes from so long ago. It’s not just being able to see the finished shrine at the end — it’s seeing how completely different it is from what your younger self would have created. The core of your appreciation is still there (in this case, the entire Takamagahara page is very faithful to what I had wanted to make all those years ago), but the execution is radically different.

Make shrines to things you have always loved, things you started loving a long time ago. By renewing that love, you will gain appreciation for your own growth.