Shows like Star vs. The Forces of Evil tend to take a lot of influence from anime coming out of Japan. The whole premise was inspired by Daron’s Nefcy love for Sailor Moon, after all. However, I’ve also noticed that the show wound up taking influence from other genres of anime without meaning to; specifically, the harem anime genre. Case in point, we have our main male character, Marco Diaz.

A running gag throughout the Star fandom is the fact that Marco winds up having a bunch of different girls attracted to him. Thus, he’s the subject to heavy shipping in the fandom. Starco, Jarco, Janco, Markapoo, Kellco, Higgsco! The guy’s like a harem anime protagonist. So, in this next fan-fic, we run with that idea and see how far it can go.

Marco’s Highschool Harem Life

Author: NoHonor

Type of Fan Work: AU/Harem

First Published: July 15, 2019

Status: Ongoing

Synopsis

Marco Diaz is your normal 16-year-old high schooler. When he’s not getting good grades in school, he’s hanging out with his friends, his twin sister Mariposa, or practicing his karate like his idol Mackie Hand. Then one day, his life changes when the Principal tells him he’s been accepted into an exchange program with a school call Mewni High. The catch is that this isn’t a normal school: it’s in another dimension. And most of the school’s population consists of humanoid monsters.

In this new world of strange and incredible beings, Marco quickly feels out of his depth. Fortunately for him, he’s met with a cast of familiar faces who help him adjust. Together with his new friends, Marco begins his new life as the first human to attend Mewni High, with all the adventures you’d expect from a harem story!

Backstory Time!

Firstly, I think I should provide the premise behind this story. In this story’s timeline, Queen Skywynne Butterfly (aka Eclipsa’s grandmother) chose to abolish the monarchy and founded Mewni High. Which may or may not be Butterfly Castle converted into a boarding school. Eclipsa eventually became Dean, and somewhere along the lines, she accidentally made herself immortal. Thus, she’s been Dean for three hundred years.

Secondly, Mewni High’s home to students and faculty from all across the multiverse, including the Monsters of Mewni. Thanks to the school’s efforts, Monster’s are treated as equals from the get go, so things are much more peaceful. In addition, some of the adults from the show work as teachers at the school, including members of the Magic High Commission. This is the world that Marco Diaz finds himself in, and it’s pretty fun.

Reimagined Cast

Beyond Marco and characters explicitly from Earth, the rest of the cast are either Mewmans, monsters, or characters re imagined as monsters This includes Marco’s group of friends in Mewni High, who all happen to be the girls he’s close to on the show.

Firstly, we have Star Butterfly herself, who’s stuck in her Mewberty Form full-time. Unlike the show, though, it’s not boy-crazy and has to do with helping her body soak up magic. Jackie Lynn Thomas is a mer-girl, which is a nice nod to the fan theory that she was a mermaid. Hekapoo’s the same as she’s always been. Janna’s a witch, which is no surprise, and Kelly now has pointy ears and a tail under her hair. What is a surprise, though, is the last three members of the main cast. The first is Tammy, a gender-bent version of Tom, and Meteora, who’s been aged up to Marco’s age. Rounding out the group is Higgs, who starts out as mean-spirited as she was in the show, but eventually becomes the tsundere of the group; and she’s also a Valkyrie.

Really crazy cast huh?

Three Great Advantages

I’ve developed a soft spot for harem stories over the years, though I do have some standards regarding the genre. That said, I think NoHonor does a good job of adapting the show to fit this, and he has three things working in his favor.

Firstly, the idea of a harem for Marco’s not new: a lot of jokes have been made about how many girls are attracted to Marco in the show. As a result, they all transition well to this type of story.

Secondly, thanks to the show’s premise of inter-dimensional adventures and magic, the idea of a high school with students from across the multiverse doesn’t sound too far-fetched. Third and finally, this story takes a lot of inspiration from a harem anime called Rosario+Vampire. The premise is the same: human boy goes to school for monsters in another dimension and befriends a bunch of cute girls who all end up attracted to him. The difference is Marco doesn’t have to keep his human identity a secret.

Believe it or not, Rosario+Vampire was my first harem anime.

A Light-Hearted, Loyally Good Time

It may be because of my enjoyment of good harem anime, but I like Marco’s Highschool Harem Life. NoHonor clearly knows what he’s doing in regards to the show’s cast. Each of the characters retains enough of their personality to be recognizable, but unique enough to do their own thing. In addition, NoHonor stay’s pretty faithful to the show’s lore, throwing in a lot of easter eggs and references for eagle-eyed fans to look for.

In addition to all this, NoHonor also throws in references to other popular works, fan-made or otherwise. One chapter takes its name from a quote from Dragon Ball Z Abridged by Team Four Star, which I’m a big fan of. That same quote even recreates the most iconic scene from the 2000 animated The Emperor’s New Groove, which I found hilarious. Another chapter was basically a JoJo reference that will make fans of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure drool.

In short, I’d recommend you’d go read this if you like Star vs. The Forces of Evil or harem stories.

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Star vs. Fan Week, Day 3

In the Season Two episode of Star vs., “Running With Scissors“, we saw Marco spend sixteen years in another dimension hunting down Hekapoo, the forger of dimensional scissors, all to prove himself worthy of his scissors. He got them in the end, but after learning from Star that he had only been gone from Earth for eight minutes, he returned home, and the show went back to its status quo. Today’s fanwork, Like Father, Like Daughter, asks two things: what if the status quo didn’t go back to normal, and what if Star came a few seconds later? That’s how we get Seraph.

Like Father, Like Daughter

First Released: Feb 17, 2017

Author: ADdude

Type of Fanwork: AU

Status: Ongoing

In this story, rather than quickly readjusting to life on Earth, Marco has a harder time doing so something everyone notices. Just when everyone tries to get Marco to open up to them, Hekapoo shows up with a teenage girl in tow. She then drops a massive bombshell on everyone:

Marco, this is my daughter. Our daughter.

Star took longer getting to Marco, and the flirting seen between him and Hekapoo became more than flirting. A few days after he left, she gave birth to their daughter, Seraph Diaz. Due to time moving faster in Hekapoo’s dimension, little Seraph aged into a teenager very quickly. So Hekapoo brought her to live with Marco and his parents. The series follows Marco and the cast as they help Seraph adjust to life on Earth and help Marco learn how to be a parent. All this on top of the adventures he has with Star, too; things get weirder than normal.

Review

When I first heard about this story, I didn’t think I’d like it that much. I like Hekapoo and the dynamic she had with Marco in the show, but I never saw them as an item. That, and I always liked Star and Marco as a couple more.

Once I got into reading it, though, I was hooked on it. I’ve always thought that Marco’s Neverzone adventures were a missed opportunity for the show. The fact that he so easily readjusted to life on Earth was necessary for the show, but in real life, that doesn’t happen. So, Like Father, Like Daughter puts him in a situation where he can’t go back to the way he was before his scissors quest. Thankfully, having Seraph in his life turns out to be the best thing this version of Marco could need.

Speaking of Seraph, let’s talk about her and how she ends up changing everyone’s lives.

Seraph Diaz

Half-human, half-magical being, this little spitfire’s Seraph Celiosa Diaz. Despite being the same age as Marco and Star, she’s only a month old when the Story first starts. The reason behind her accelerated age is confusing, but here’s the bottom line. One day in the Neverzone ages her 6 months, meaning she would die within a year. So Seraph was sent to Earth for her own safety.

Appearance-wise, people have noted how she looks like a cross between Hekapoo and her grandmother, Angie Diaz. The coolest thing, though, is she inherited Hekapoo’s superhuman strength and ability to wield fire.

Seraph and the Cast

Seraph reminds me a lot of Star when she first came to Earth. She’s extremely friendly and tries making friends with everyone she meets. Each of the show’s cast warms up to her, albeit some sooner than others. There are three characters in particular, though, whose reactions to Seraph I found most interesting: Star, Jackie, and Hekapoo herself.

This fan fix starts at crucial moments in Star and Jackie’s lives. Star was starting to realize she had feelings for Marco, and Jackie was already dating him. Needless to say, the revelation that Marco has a daughter makes things awkward. Star’s initial reaction was really bad:

Star’s usual heart marks on her cheeks had changed into two spinning rainbow balls, and Star herself just remained motionless, only staring off into the space before her with what appeared to be a death grip on her wand. Her right eye appeared to be twitching, a contrast to the rest of the blank expression on her face.

Like Father, Like Daughter Chapter 2

It’s even harder for Jackie, considering how Marco cheated on her, and the two break up, though agree to remain friends. Despite befriending Seraph, later chapters reveal that, deep down, they still feel a bit resentful and jealous of how she symbolizes Marco’s relationship with Hekapoo.

As for Hekapoo, having a daughter serves as a catalyst for the magical entity to mature significantly and become a lot more responsible. She’s still mischievous and likes teasing others, but having Seraph changes her for the better. I also like the fact that some of the more recent chapters have Hekapoo coming to terms with the consequences of her actions. I.E., not telling Marco of the time difference in the Neverzone and then sleeping with him when he has a girlfriend is a bit of a dick move.

Good Story Structure

One of the best parts of this fic is how ADdude structures the story. It has arcs that can span across several chapters, like a n actual show, or a Light Novel series. The writing’s top notch, engaging, and captures the show’s cast very well. One of the first arcs is a tournament arc, and if you know what to look for, you’ll see plenty of cameos and shout outs to great fighters in pop culture. The whole story’s a blast, and I love it

Read This Story.

ADdude took a potentially obscure pairing and made into a compelling story that has a sizable fan base. I’m not a Markapoo supporter, but this story does a good job of showing what could happen. The best part is that ADdude shows no signs of stopping the story, either. From what I can guess, it comes out every month, so it comes at a decent pace. If you like Star vs., then this would be a fun story for you to read.

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