Interlude time again my friends. The quick little glorified Q & A segment between the end of a new SHONEN ALLIANCE: ALTERNATIVE story and the proper beginning of SHONEN ALLIANCE: RE:BIRTH's next story arc. Last time on SHONEN ALLIANCE: RE:BIRTH, the heroic, young Fullmetal Alchemist stood alongside his younger brother Alphonse and a slightly reworked Raging Blast Alchemist to battle the deadly soldiers of Duel Academy's Obeslisk Force. Between rescuing Shantella, battling This new enemy, and battling the other dangers that await them in Amestris, the Knights of Lunaria are going to have their work cut out for them.
Which is as good a jumping point as any for the first question from this interlude. Am I going to reintroduce the concept of the "Knights of the Full Moon" from the original SHONEN ALLIANCE story?
The simple answer is no, though in reality, it's a bit more complicated then that. Lunaria functions quite differently from the Full Moon Kingdom. For a start, it has a surviving queen. The Alliance succeeded in rescuing Queen Fiona from Debauchery where as in the original, she was killed by Corruption. Lunaria also has an established military and supporting cast. The grizzled old war general who led the Knights of Lunaria against Debauchery's forces, General Braun, the Volcanion swordswoman Zoro battled, Tomoe, and the caretakers, Ursula and Hannah, are good examples of this.
While the story may still revolve around our heroes, Lunaria does not, so honestly, it makes very little sense to treat 8 of the heroes (or in this case, 10) as though they were something unique among the Alliance. That doesn't mean the princesses can't have special bonds with the characters who were once their knights by any means. All this means is that Goku, Naruto, Luffy, Ichigo, Yugi, Tsukune, Clare, and Edward don't have a special title anymore. Rather, all the heroes will be treated as honorary members of the Knights of Lunaria.
But as interesting as all this is, let's get down to the really interesting stuff. The most common question I get asked about SHONEN ALLIANCE in general.
What series will appear in SHONEN ALLIANCE: RE:BIRTH?
This mostly hasn't changed. Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh! (DM-Arc V), Rosario+Vampire, and Claymore were the original seven with Fullmetal Alchemist joining in as the 8th. Valkyria Chronicles, Fairy Tail, Ruroni Kenshin, and Murder Princess. Finally, part 3, the part the original never got to, the plan was to add RWBY, Neptunia, Kill la Kill, Attack on Titan, and Freezing. There was also a second, side group consisting of Dragon Ball's Future Trunks and an elite Time Patrol team, Sailor Moon, the Ultradimension versions of Neptunia's goddesses, Familiar of Zero, Blue Exorcist, Digimon, Senran Kagura, and Okami-san and her Seven Companions. This will mostly be the same, but a few things have changed.
Rather, one thing has changed. Freezing is an odd choice given the other series in the story, so I'm removing it in favor of a different series. Technically five series, but fortunately for me, they have an umbrella crossover I can consider one, so it works out. You got a hint regarding the series in the last SHONEN ALLIANCE: ALTERNATIVE story where Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo appeared, so the obvious assumption would be The Rising of the Shield Hero, however, that's only 1/5th accurate. More accurate would be to say that the final series is Isekai Quartet, meaning Konosuba, Re:Zero, Overlord, Saga of Tanya the Evil, and The Rising of the Shield Hero.
Most of the other heavily requested series are franchises I'm not all that familiar with. Sadly, these days my Video Game backlog tends to lose out to my anime one, so I haven't watched a lot of series I really should have. Maybe at some point, these series could appear in an ALTERNATIVE story. For now, though, it's time to get back to work on the main story.