StarGazer

StarGazer was an anime-themed story written by Somarinoa in 1999. Though it was originally written in both regular and hentai versions, currently only the original has had any recovered episodes available—of these, there are currently only three, which were finally recovered on October 28 th, 2012 AD. The story follows Shiike Tsukino, a Psininja-in-training as she gets roped up in an interstellar conflict with a malevolent alien society, being conscripted to serve on a deep space science vessel known as the StarGazer, which later was retrofitted into a makeshift battleship (a "starbattler" in the series). It was being written within months of discovering what anime was, and is therefore full-blown filled to the brim with otaku goodness or badness, depending on one's personal opinion. While I find it embarrassing nowadays, it was one of the important milestones in my evolution as a writer.

Home media
The show was intended to be released on VHS; as this was the only major format in 1999 with DVDs still producing lower sales.

Real Life
Originating as simply a script format, the show was a hit amongst fellow schoolmates, and led to the creation of the secondary hentai version of the show, which would sell for $10 an episode to its fanatic readers as erotic literature.

Fictional
StarGazer received decent reviews upon release, but over time these have been replaced with middling reviews as the show is considered to have not aged well. However, its connection to the overlying Kyklos Mythos metaseries is impressive and the single driving force bringing new viewership in to the series.

Trivia

 * Created mere months after learning that so many of his favorite childhood had been created in Japan and were actually anime (then still known in America as "Japanimation"), the show takes its cues from the little anime the creator had seen during this time period. This includes the small snippets of Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and Battle Athletes that they had seen up to this point.  There may have been other inspirations, but these are long-since forgotten, if so.