So, it might please y'all to know that I've started work (finally) on
the anime/mecha supplement for Unsung, Skyfall Blade.

Here's an excerpt from the start of the book, from the first draft:

Opening

It was only in the last century that we finally got it together.

We had finally put an end to war. Not to conflict, but the fighting
was political and bloodless, and in the background. No one was
starving. Precious few were unhappy. It wasn't utopia, but it was close.

In celebration of fifty years of worldwide peace, we created the first
Sky Cities, cities which floated above the earth using cutting-edge
contragrav. Crystalline examples of perfection, sovereign states in
their own right, floating above the various nations below, granted
free access to the skies as part of a mutual spirit of co-operation
and peace. We got to enjoy their presence for five years, five years
of utter prosperity for those above and below.

And then the aliens came.

We first knew of their presence because of the Skyfall, when the Sky
Cities fell to the ground, crawling with insectoid, alien war machines.

From the crash sites, the invaders fanned out. The conventional part
of the war was over within hours, leaving only the scattered guerilla
activities known as the Insurgency.

The humans had come to our planet.

Introduction: Shojo in a Shonen Shell

Hello and welcome to the first supplement for Unsung. What you will
find here is an anime-style background for Unsung, with some
additional rules, the Eyes, to help enforce the genre, while keeping
everything as angst-filled and dramatic as you've come to expect from
Unsung.

This may seem to be a departure from the basics of Unsung, but it
really isn't. Unsung was originally written to produce a certain form
of drama, even melodrama, surrounding a violent conflict, from cops on
the streets to actual war. And what is more melodramatic than your
average anime saga?

If you don't know what anime is, I'm sort of surprised you picked up
this supplement. I suggest making use of Google, but in short anime is
the term used to refer to Japanese animation, which is a rather broad
term, but does have a certain number of tropes in common between
various movies and shows.

In particular, Skyfall Blade harkens back to the earliest forms of
anime to make it to America in translation, shonen mecha anime. Shonen
means 'young boy' or 'boy', and is used as a generic term for anime
and manga (Japanese comics) aimed at young males. Mecha refers to
anything of a mechanical nature, though in the US it is usually used
to refer to the giant robots many Americans associate with anime.
We're talking shows like Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super
Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada (all
three of which were combined into a single American series known as
Robotech), as well as Space Battleship Yamato, which was released in
the US as Star Blazers. (You'll find more suggested viewing material
in the Appendix.)

However, there is a twist. Instead of playing humans being invaded by
aliens, which is the gold standard for this sort of thing set by Super
Dimension Fortress Macross, you're playing aliens being invaded by
humans. Of course, in true anime fashion, the aliens are very
humanlike, but that's neither here not there.

More importantly, however, as is standard for Unsung, the game is not
about cool battle scenes so much as the way the war affects those
involved in it. It's about relationships, which is usually considered
more the realm of shojo anime. Shojo means 'Girl', and is used as a
generic term for anime and manga aimed at young females. This is what
I mean when I say that Skyfall Blade is "Shojo in a Shonen Shell" –
the outward-facing props are typical to shonen anime, but the heart of
the game is a shojo saga. (Again, for examples of shojo anime, see the
Appendix.)

All in all, the idea is to create a setting that is both very much
filled with the melodrama that I love in certain kinds of anime, and
the moral choices that make Unsung what it is.