History of Aqua Bunny
So, you want to get the insider info about how and why
this site came to be? Well, you came to the right page. You can also check out a bullet point timeline for Aqua Bunny on
Pastel Poison.
Way back in the first quarter of 2001, I wanted to create a webpage, much like most impressionable youth do. I wanted to spread Nido awareness, and show how cool they are. Every month, the splash page would change according to seasons and holidays. It was a site that used frames, and most everything was hand drawn, even for stuff like Pokedex pictures.
Though the layout differed, the content wasn't any different than what you see now, except instead of downloadables and photos, there were pages for fan fics, a message board, and info pertaining to all news Pokemon..
Nidoran Fan Page, although a site starring Nidos, was not as exclusive as Aqua Bunny. I drew non Nido Pokemon fan art, and even wanted to create a non Nido cartoon, as well. Speaking of which, animations that were posted as up and coming (but never finished, and unfortunately the files are lost forever) included Foxylocks, a cartoon starring my second/third favorite Pokemon, Vulpix, and a family of Ursaring/Teddiursa. The other one was a retro commercial about a surly Geodude leprechaun giving a Nido family a cereal made out of rocks.
I really went out of my way to come up with some new, exciting things for NFP, and it was pretty creative in an amateur dreamer who couldn't draw too well sort of way. Unfortunately, despite my (poor, probably) efforts to try to get people to visit Nidoran Fan Page, people just didn't seem to care. With the patience of a fruit fly and maturity of...well, a kid, I didn't really hold out hope, so the site didn't stay up for too long. What worse, is that I didn't just take everything down and off the server (which I wish I hadn't), but on the index page, I pretty much left a long and extremely cross message about why people disappointed me, how creativity was unappreciated when cookie cutter sites like Pokemasters and Psypoke (think Serebii.net today) that are duplicated a million times over and do nothing but report the same news, get all the attention. Further, the same sites were really just chatting zones where all people cared about was if someone responded to some inane comment. It really felt like a kick in the groin because I believe so strongly in creativity first and imagination, and yet there was no appreciation for it while something lifeless and uninspired could thrive. Was I right? To a degree, probably, the fact of the matter is that's true almost no matter where you go. I later removed it, used the site as a server to upload fiiles a few years later, then left a one sentence comment on the home page, which is still there now.
Many years later after I had created Creative Worlds with some success, I wanted to spread some Nido awareness while I was at it, and I figured I could get people to pay attention if I put Nidos in some interesting things, much like the idea from NFP. Video games in general are great and all, but I still really loved the Nido family, and I practically wanted to draw them more and more. So, I was left with a choice to essentially spam Creative Worlds with a lot of non-stop Nido works, or make a separate repository for Nido related stuff. Inspired by a great Japanese Gardevoir fansite, I created Aqua Bunny, with the idea of hoping the site would rival said Sirnight site in terms of dedication.
The name Aqua Bunny is literally a very vague and generic description of Nidorina, but isn't meant to be taken as the absolute description, as she is neither aqua nor a (100% pure) rabbit. But the name seemed very catchy and it didn't out and out tell you it was a Nidorina site (I decided to be clever that way). Too bad at the time I registered the name I didn't think about Azumarill or adult products. Whatever.
Aqua Bunny started small, an open repository where I could add whatever I wanted, and others were free to do so. I wanted to spread the Nido love, so I often encouraged it. Plus, it was always nice to see somebody ELSE'S take on the Nidos and not just mine all the time. This went on for a while, and along with additions like gifs, games, comics, and even an oekaki (temporarily), it helped make things good, but not great, as I would learn later.
The site needed a both a revision and a re-vision, as it was both cluttered and didn't seem very inspired anymore. I decided to totally pay a tribute to my younger self, and everything I stand for by going all out. Feeling that Aqua Bunny as an art archieve was no longer acceptable, it was time to make it a site all it's own, much in the way that Nidoran Fan Page was. I had boasted Nidoran Fan Page as being the end all to be all of Nidoran fansites, with everything and anything you ever wanted to know about them. A site where you could enjoy and have fun with the characters in question. That idea is what became Aqua Bunny as it was from 2009 to 2019, and as you see it now, closer to a spiritual successor to Nidoran Fan Page than the original Aqua Bunny (Aqua Bunny v1) was.
Call it childish, but even the mild success of Aqua Bunny, still thriving to this day, is like a dream come true. It's not because I'm obsessed with some silly fictional critters, but it was more of a long fight, one to prove that creativity and originality are extremely important factors to do anything great at all.