Literature Not perfect, but still very good
I'll warn you, this story is not for everyone. It's a very dark, deconstructive take on the Magical Girl genre. Despite this, it has a very strong plot, well-constructed characters, and straightforward, easy-to-read writing.
Despite deconstructing the genre, it still plays numerous tropes as straight as possible in doing so. Despite the prevalent nightmare fuel and dark tone, the genre itself remains intact throughout the whole story, and I think this one of it's main strengths. In the same way an Affectionate Parody skewers its source in a respectful way, this story deconstructs the genre with the utmost deference. The dark tone only enhances the plot and setting, rather than letting the act of deconstruction impede the story, as so many other deconstructions do.
It is not without its flaws. The plot is fairly straightforward but can take some frivolous turns. The chapter told via RPG Maker breaks immersion, both because of visual glitches and the Art Shift. There are also periodic typos, though nothing too bad.
Overall, anyone who has ever desired a little more depth from the Magical Girl genre and who doesn't mind some unsettling occurrences should not pass this story up. Anyone who wants a gripping plot with intriguing characters should not pass it up. It's as good as any published novels I've read, and regardless of its interpretation of the genre and its trappings it managed to suck me in.
Literature Not bad at all
I don't like things that are dark for the sake of being. Sad and depressing I can take, but when a story's being miserable for the sake of being miserable I tend to lose interest. And that's why I was pleasantly surprised to find myself liking this story. It's grim, and dark, and all the other things that the page and the other reviews will call it. But at it's core is hope—hope that things will get better.
As far as the writing goes, it isn't brilliant, but it doesn't need to be. It's solid, and that's all it has to be. What really carries the story is the concept—sailors as Child Soldiers—and the characters. Dark depressed Himei, Stepford Smiler Aki, cynical Shin, and on the villianous side, snarky, angry Cobalt and the Dangerously Genre Savvy Argon. The author brings these characters to life, and that is where the story shines—not in being a deconstruction or anything of the sort, but in its ability to make you care about these girls—and their enemies—and what they're going through.
There is rape in the story. There is violence and torture. But it isn't overdone, and it isn't glamourised. At the end of the day Sailor Nothing is exactly what it purports to be: a dark take on the sailor concept, with a lot of struggle along with the way, but an ultimately happy ending.
Literature Not too bad, not too good either.
It's readable, it mostly makes sense, and that's about it. Quite a few things about it tick me off.
Seems to be too dark for the sake of being dark and no other reason. Like the headache thing, and horrible things happening without much need.
The comic style chapter annoyed me a bit. It's not bad in itself, but I find the sudden medium shift a bit irksome, because I read fiction for a reason: text is easy and comfortable to read in the underground, and doesn't worsen my slight case of RSI. That's a bit too personal of a reason, but I can resume it as: a medium shift forces a reader who was fine with the original medium suddenly re-adapt in the middle. I can't read the comic chapter in a train, I need to make a specific exception from my routine and read it at home.
Too much rape and done badly. This is a touchy subject that needs to be approached very carefully. The second instance IMO was rather tactless in how it's almost instantly forgotten, and how the suicide attempt was somehow needed to get over it. Ew.
On that note I also strongly dislike the disordered chapter, it's just not enjoyable to read. I get what it tries to do, but I just don't enjoy it.
The "The Magic Goes Away" trope: strongly dislike in general, but especially in this case. The Queen was created by a priestess, meaning magic was present before her and has no reason to disappear when she dies. I see the Queen as just the first Yamiko and not being particularly special except in being more powerful than the others, maybe. They didn't lose their powers when Kamen died, so why would they lose them when the Queen did?
Poor Dusty really gets screwed over: neglected by his owner, then beaten, then has his intelligence taken away so that he can't even properly enjoy the good times.
Literature Actually Quite Good
When I first read Sailor Nothing, I had no idea what a deconstruction was, and so didn't pick up on any of that. At points I found it so grim and depressing I almost couldn't go on, but the writing kept me going - and it was worth it. Say what you like about the ending, but I found it the best part - all the torture and sadness Himei had to go through was, well...cancelled out, because she'd earned something close to redemption. The emotion really hooked me in as well, and I couldn't stop reading and thinking about it for a very long time afterwards, which says something.
Reading back over it a year later, I saw a lot more faults than I did when I was still a fangirl. The writing's not that great; I remember I didn't really like the use of "cheap" and "expensive" quite so much as the author did. Sometimes it seems like he was trying to be smart, rather than tell a story.
Conclusion? If you want to read this, turn your brain off and focus on the emotion. The writing's not bad, but it's not good either, whilst the emotions will capture you (at least, they captured me...).
Literature Its Kind Of Silly.
Sailor nothing is... meh!
To be honest, there is nothing new, amusing or even all that well thought about the Fanfic. It can be entertainment, mind you, but its suffers horrible by the Hyper Backlash of old fans that keep praising it as the ultimate deconstruction of the Magical Girl Genre.
Its not a deconstruction.
Whathever it can be said about the work, a deconstruction is not one of them. Its brutal, is grim, its sadistic, extremely jaded but that doesn't make it a Deconstruction, an error that many people keep pointing over and over again. The protagonist suffer for the sake of suffering, the twist ending was badly done, the powers have massive plotholes, rely to much in Murphy law to create drama and the idea of her suffering migrane by detecting the Demons even after abandoning her powers, while original it has nothing to do with the Magical Genre per se; the battle are not very well thought and the idea of making the "good guys" side as equal monsters was so and so.
Also, there is also rape and heavy description for a suicidal attempt.
This is a work from the Generation X. From the era where "cynicism" (which has absolutely nothing to do with actually cynicism) reigned supreme: World Of Darkness, Warhammer 40k, Dark Cyperpunk, Spawn and Ninety Anti-heroe, Fight Club, the birth of the Emo movement, of the Apocalypse and the War of Terror. It was fair for its day and for what I see, very well done to catter such desires.
For this generation, this culture and this era.. its a Narmtastic, silly, "extreme edgier", cliche ridden work. It was never meant to become a work to trascend time or really a work to be considered anything else but a Fanfic with original characters.
Its not a bashing review or simply a boil of complaints for complain sake.
But don't let the review and gushing of fans paint you a Master Piece. Go with an open mind and a desire to see and old time fic, a window of a previous generation and the type of culture it spawned.
You will not be severely dissapointed as long you don't let your expectatives go away from a normal Recommendation in the Sailor Moon page instead of the quintessential Deconstruction this very page try to paint.