Several years ago, I stumbled upon an exceptionally beautiful yet little-known art series titled Canterlot Royal Ballet Academy. While ostensibly a fan work of My Little Pony, its uniqueness struck me as so profound that it felt almost entirely original - save for the character names. As the title suggests, the story follows the lives of anthropomorphic ponies attending a ballet academy.
I can't quite pinpoint why, but this work radiates a surreal, otherworldly aura - a uniquely captivating atmosphere unlike anything I'd encountered before. That first encounter left me immersed in its surreal experience for an entire day. When I stumbled upon it late at night, it felt eerie at first, but that sense of dissonance quickly dissolved into pure admiration. I fell into a beautiful trance, utterly captivated. I experienced an indescribable surreal, ethereal sensory journey, while also catching whiffs of a sweet, phantom scent.
The next morning, I thought it had been nothing but a dream, yet I was delighted to discover it was all real. Throughout the rest of that day, the sensation intensified, leaving me in a perpetual state of waking reverie, only ending when dusk eventually washed it away. Strangest of all, once that feeling faded, I could recall nothing of the day's events - only that serene, eternal sense of serendipitous bliss remained.
Whenever I gaze upon it, a peculiar feeling arises - as if it were something that shouldn't exist in reality, something unimaginable. Like a fragment of some magical dream miraculously transplanted into reality. Without any backstory, I could fully envision the entire series as if it truly existed. This wasn't a story I'd invented; it felt as though the sensation itself contained an inherent narrative thread. I can vividly picture the dreamlike fragmentation, imbued with a fleeting innocence. I can even precisely imagine how each character's voice should sound - those otherworldly tones seem to transcend time and space, originating nowhere in particular yet carrying an intensely intimate quality.
My fascination with CRBA has never waned over the years. I scoured the internet for every trace of it, only to discover how remarkably obscure it remains - a fact that deeply disappoints me. It seems everyone who encounters it finds it utterly brilliant, yet for some reason it never gains the recognition it deserves. AVCHonline's artistic evolution has been equally astonishing. Within just a few short years, he's leaped from rough cartoon sketches to the pinnacle of the CRBA series, yet even his earlier works have garnered more attention than his later creations.
I've made it my mission to make people find out about it and (hopefully) experience the same awe that I felt. So I've created a website to catalog all of the artwork in one place (and in the highest quality). Prior to this, it was scattered in many places across the internet, much of it only available in low resolution.
I've also created an imageboard for it.
The main site is here: https://crba.dedyn.io
The imageboard is here: https://ib.crba.dedyn.io
For an introduction to CRBA, I recommend starting with the AcademyLIVE sub-series: https://crba.dedyn.io/?id=181
For the absolute peak of it (all of CRBA is amazing, but I think this one in particular is probably the most detailed and stunning): https://crba.dedyn.io/?id=88
I also recommend checking out his music and animations for the CRBA series here: https://crba.dedyn.io/video