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I work as a professional translator/interpreter for a car company. It's awesome. Here is my list of reasons why this is the greatest job: 1. No take home stress. At my previous job I could never enjoy days off because I was always worrying about things that had to be done or projects I had to complete at work. As a translator/interpreter there is none of that. I could be in the most stressful meeting ever with people shouting back and forth and huge implications for the company but as soon as I walk out of that meeting it all slides off my back because it's not my problem. I'm just there to translate. I enjoy the hell out of my days off now. 2. You are the boss's best bud. Most companies in the US with a Japanese parent company (which are most of the companies that really need a translator badly) have mainly Japanese managing staff. All these Japanese managers can usually speak English just fine but they like to relax during meetings and use a translator instead. This means you're always there by the boss's side. From day one you're their personal buddy and you've got his ear. That's some job security. 3. Speaking of job security: everyone in the business knows that machine translation doesn't work. Plus they know that audio machine translation is a distant dream of the future. And it's not like every single Japanese worker is going to know how to speak Engineering-level English and it's certainly not like any of your American engineers are going to learn any Japanese. These companies will be needing translators 50 years in the future. 4. Tied with job security is the fact that you are worth your weight in gold. Getting a solid Japanese translator out to the American mid-west is like waiting for lightning to strike. We are a rarity and a hot commodity. Though it takes a little luck to get picked up when you have no experience in the field you want to interpret in, once you have 2 or so years under your belt suddenly you can go anywhere, do anything! Companies in the area will trip over themselves trying to outbid each other for an experienced engineering interpreter. The world is your oyster. 5. Studying kanji at work? Absolutely! It's training for the job isn't it? I use a site called WaniKani and everyone's totally cool with me using 30-40 minutes a day crunching my reviews on there. What they don't know is I'm mostly perfecting my kanji so I can finally sit down and read Dies Irae but hey it helps with the job too so who cares! 6. Probably best of all is no fanboys complaining about your translations. Most of the engineers will be happy just to have a general gist of what these papers say in English. It's not like manga/anime/game translation where every translation choice you make will be dissected and whined about. Since you are the only lifeline between the English and the Japanese both sides will treat you like a saint. Even the simplest translation I do never fails to gain me a heartfelt thanks, which is probably one of the best perks of the job. People really, truly appreciate what you do and are verbally grateful for it. Now of course I realize that the company I work for might be an exception. The people here are really nice. But I think translators may find similar situations at other positions of this kind. I think a lot of anime/game/VN fans that learn Japanese get tunnel-vision thinking that game/anime/manga translation is where they want to end up, but I heartily recommend you look into automotive translation if you can. It's a great industry and I'm enjoying the heck out of it every day. I'll be happy to answer any questions about my job and how I got here in this thread.

sike, there's only one

But that's like saying, "I want to engage in long-term sexual activity with a virgin."

Read the review here. I liked Kindred Spirits a lot. It's a pretty simple story but sometimes that's exactly what you need. I've seen barely any discussion on it here. Anyone play it yet? What did you think of it?

This is the website for you.

I was digging through the random collection of PS2/1 games I have from my various trips to Japan and I found that I had a copy of Sister Princess the VN. Well the anime wasn't horrible (it wasn't good, but it wasn't horrible) and I wondered if the VN would go into more detail about all of the girls and the strange dynamic of being the brother of 12 girls who aren't far enough apart in age to be physically possible unless we're talking a one father many many mothers situation. I flew through one of the routes in about 2-3 hours. It sucked. The game is 99/100ths common route with the only thing that changes being a few brief scenes with your chosen girl scattered throughout. These scenes are pointless repetitions of 'I love you so much big brother!' or whatever single-note problem that particular character has. They all only have one, just like they all only have one personality trait. Picking a girl and seeing her route through to the end is an easy way to get sick and tired of her voice and personality by the end of the game. There really aren't 'routes' since that would denote some kind of story arc or conclusion after the common route. Which there isn't. On the last day of the common route the girl will make some declaration of love and then the credits roll. The only big thing you get to decide in the game (aside from which girl to pursue) is whether you will be blood-related to the girl or not. By picking all the sort of mean options while not completely shutting her out you get the blood-relative ending, and by picking all the lovey-dovey answers you get the blood-related ending. That's an interesting concept that would have been more compelling if it had been pursued at all instead of just changing the ending slightly. Some character's routes even hint at things like missing their absent parents etc. but nothing ever comes of it. Girls that are crying over being lonely and missing their mom are sunny and happy the next day with no reason given for the change. But I'm not conveying clearly why this game is bad. Now I will: 1. The character arcs are non-existent. When they are introduced the girls present their one-note personality and that's it. And that's all there ever is. Any issues a girl has at the beginning of the game will still exist at the end. 2. Aria is the worst VN heroine ever. Bar none. In the introduction her maid gives you a chocolate with a letter in which Aria complains about having to give you the chocolate because then she can't eat it and begins crying in the letter because she can't eat the chocolate. She spends the entire game crying over frivolous things like this. All she does is cry. She has no other personality traits. 3. The CG are bad. They are boring and drab and highlight scenes that don't need to be highlighted. There are one or two stand-outs but I doubt any players will feel driven to try to find them all like they would in a good VN. 4. The music is forgettable and bad. The OP almost put me to sleep 5. The game forces you to be a dick by ignoring all the other girls to single-mindedly pursue the one who's route you are doing. Despite this all the other girls will constantly be popping up (due to the common route) and yet the game never punishes you for heartlessly and constantly shooting them down. All in all the game is just boring. Honestly the anime was better, which is saying a lot since the anime was mediocre at best. With this lack of content or good plot this is basically the equivalent of a nukige without any H-scenes or fanservice at all. Imagine that. Just fluffy non-story connecting together scenes of girls telling you how much they love you for no reason. Wow. In the end I guess the only good thing to come out of the Sister Princess franchise was the image album which actually had some really good songs: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11335637 http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12996965 I guess there's a Sister Princess 2 which appears to be a huge upgrade from what little I've seen of it on Japan sites, but I think 1 may have poisoned it too much for me so I don't really care. Shirayuki, Mamoru and Chikage are all great characters though and really deserve to be in a better game/series than this.

Praise the sun!

*Sigh*

Forever hoard gems till Enkidu appear!

For me, the perfect waifu is a being which helps me improve myself. A waifu will comfort me when I'm sad, will motivate me when I'm lazy and will support me in achieving my goals. When I wake up in the morning and I don't know why I should even get out of the bed, I look at my dakimakura beside me and it makes me smile and let's me think that life isn't so bad after all. And when I was a bad boy during the day I don't even dare to enter the bedroom at the end of the day because she's there and I know she's disappointed of me and that breaks my heart and I swear to myself that I will be a better person in the future. That's what having a waifu is all about in my opinion. Speaking of waifus, I haven't seen any waifu material in the last 5 years to be honest. Nowadays, all characters are only wish-fulfilling otaku-pandering with no mind of their own. Only fetishized moe-tropes. I think the worst thing with otaku media in the last few years (and the reason why I think it's objectively bad) is that it doesn't even try to improve the reader/watcher anymore. Back in the day, waifu games had a protagonist who needed to go trough some character development before the heroine would fall in love with him. He needed to try to be worthy of her. The message was "Even you can be awesome and be loved, if you're really trying." Today, everyone loves the protagonist from the beginning for no reasons and every part of the heroine's personality is designed to cater to some superficial fetish like hair color or the amount of tsun and dere. The message here is "We love you even though you're a disgusting hetare." In my opinion that's the most harmful message you can give to the modern otaku audience.

The Japanese event leaderboard. If you can't read Japanese, everyone has their name set to the line their corresponding center said just before Snow Halation in the anime. I love school. I love music. I love idols. I love dancing. I love our members. I love every day. I love working hard. I love singing. Because I love u's... Someone, help, the tears. I'm serious here, I don't want April to come...

...Doesn't that just defeat the whole purpose of having "main" and "side" character?

You can set the font to whatever you want using a text hooker and an alternative text display such as Translation Aggregator. My friend is severely visually impaired (he has to sit right in front of a 35" screen to read oversized English subtitles) and he still managed to learn Japanese and play VNs.

I have my own description of Comyu. Too much red color.

Well, this assumes that the people who voted in the tournament are readers, which may arguably be putting too fine a point on it, but given where the Type-Moon voters apparently came from, I don't think it's necessarily unfair to draw that distinction. That said, as long as the results represent an audience of people who would actually buy a localized VN release (regardless of whether they then actually read it ), then it's still perfectly reasonable to use this for the sake of prioritizing VNs to localize (and, yes, I fully realize that the licensing process is by no means as simple as simply deciding that you want to localize a game)... at least as long as those people keep buying.

The Meme is annoying! I totally blame @sanahtlig for starting it, too

I know people don't care nor do people post these kinds of threads anymore, but I thought I'd make an announcement to say that I'm going through a rough spot emotionally right now, so I'll be putting the new game on hold and taking some time away from Fuwanovel. The whole Aokana TL mess is just pushing me down quite hard, and I just need some time away from visual novel related material. I guess it feels better to post that. I'll still be signing in on occasion to check if something was updated, I just won't be actively posting for awhile. That being said, if you need to reach out to me, feel free to PM. Thanks, and sorry for calling this out.

Finished Demonbane a couple of days back. Of all things, Master Therion was undoubtedly one of the best things in vn. Between all the endings I liked Al's good end the most. All in all I decided to give it a 7/10

This is indeed nice. I'm yet to actually watch the 1st season myself, but I've read the manga, and I very much like the MC I'm expecting good things from this

If a company is not very reputable, it's hard to justify giving them money, at least for me. Sure, you can say companies like Mikandi Japan, who popped up out of nowhere, also had no previous reputation built up, but they clearly did a wonderful PR job and made themselves trustworthy at the very least. On the other hand, this entity has only made failed project after failed project. They're also not a translation company but a mobile port company, which makes me, and I'm going to guess most people, question their legitimacy in all kinds of ways. They could very well have good intentions and want to translate this game, but with bad PR like this, how can you bring yourself to trust them with your hard earned money? I'll check out their future Kickstarter just to see how they improved, but for now and the foreseeable future this company has tainted their reputation pretty badly.

Currently watching Amagi Brilliant Park. I've thought this could be something I'd enjoy for a while now - it's time to confirm it. Edit1: Yes! Non-moronic reaction to a girl inside your bathroom. You do not stop and gape. You are not left petrified. You do not start spouting nonsense. You immediately close the door and that's that.

Chisato in KoiChoco is quite possesive in the whole game So I guess that

Fuck you guys and your saints. Chuuni of Monte Cristo is here!

I'm having flashbacks of Sid Meier's Covert Actions here.

If at all possible while you're still in school I'd take some classes in Engineering or Medical as that will help give you an edge when applying for interpreting jobs. Medical and Automotive are the 2 biggest industries that hire Japanese interpreters and translators. The other is Patent Law but that seems to require the most study to get into.

Take care mate. We look forward to seeing you back on the forums. If you ever need to talk feel free to send me a message on Skype.

That's when I decided I just didn't give a shit about SOA anymore. Screw Kirito, screw Asuna, I seriously don't care what happens after the second arc at all. The anime jumped the shark and ruined one of the main reasons I was interested in it. They didn't take advantage of the setting, the plot was largely uninteresting, and they ruined Asuna. That's why I think of it as mediocre, and cringe whenever someone calls it "the best anime ever".

How'd you like the random tentacle monsters and

How about sequels where the side characters from the first became the heroines in the second?

It really depends for me.... I can't help but seeing waifus as individuals, and by that I mean certain traits or tropes don't determine my affinity. But if I had to choose a trait of my top two waifus, one has an emotional range of an electric toaster, Kaga, and the other is a sadistic nee-chan type that just likes to hang around sunflowers, Yuuka Kazami.

@Rooke

I fucking hate that meme - some of us (me) barely have enough sight to read english, let alone the subtle differences in the japanese language. I know it's human nature to be presumptious and ignorant, but is it so hard to consider that not everyone is "just too lazy" to learn the language? /rant off - just cranky today, don't mind me

Hi I'm back too. As of now. Things that happened in my life since I left: 1. Moved back to America and then across America from WA to IN 2. Got a job that works all the hours. All the hours. However there is no take home stress and it's doing something I love so I don't care and the money is good so I'm very content. 3. Got engaged and will soon be married. Girlfriend not only does not know much about anime but I think she just legitimately does not like non-child-oriented animated things (IE she loves Disney but hates Archer) and has only watched a few anime things to humor me. That said she is understanding of my interests and we share a lot of interests outside anime so it's fine. 4. Quit video games for good and then un-quit them. 5. Decided that I needed folks to talk about anime and Japanese games and VNs with after all and came back to Fuwanovel because this place is great.

Hello, to whoever watches Lets Plays, do you have any recommendations for me? Any entertaining players who upload Lets Plays for visual novels? So far, these players are/were the most entertaining for me towards these VNs they are playing: VnixxiR and co. for Kindred Spirits on the Roof ShatteredControllers for Majikoi & Grisaia no Kajitsu Materwelonz for DanganRonpa: TriggerHappyHavoc San & Legzz for Katawa Shoujo Hidden Level for If My Heart Had Wings AzzMan for CorpseParty:BloodDrive, Killer Queen Snow Heron for G-Senjou no Maou, Majikoi, Talmire for If My Heart Had Wings Thamriyell for If My Heart Had Wings Noble for Princess Evangile Danowsawa for Yume Miru Kusuri, KoiChoco Animeroge for Monster Girl Quest Just throw in any of your favorite players, and I'll stalk them out!

Have pink hair

1. Personality - You obviously need to like the character, the good and the bad. 2. Memorability - It's pretty imporant that your girl stands out from the endless sea of cardboard cutout 2D moetrash. Rule of Thumb/Test yourself: Try to describe any fictional character of your choice (your "waifu" in this case) without mentioning what they look like, what kind of outfit they wore or what their profession or role in the story was. Describe the character as if the person you're talking to had neither heard of it nor the story the character came from. The more descriptive you can get, the deeper (and therefore better...?) the character. Simple, right? Unless you're one of those people who only care about them anime boobs. That's cool too, I guess.

Talk about shit tier. As to my perfect waifu, most of the time, they have a good bust to them and/or a personality I'm attracted to. My waifus' personalities are all over the place.

Waifus are shit.

I would be the last to criticize the efforts of fan translators. On the contrary, I think it's important to recognize that fan translators are often driven by the desire for attention and belonging. If we recognize that all efforts on our behalf have a price--whether it be monetary or otherwise--then we can strive to ensure that benevolent actors get paid so they'll continue doing what they do. The pervasive Internet culture of apathy is the enemy of progress. That's actually one of the founding reasons Fuwanovel was established, and that Fuwanovel is now a hub for VN community projects.

Pfff. Them honey pots are nothing compared to Rance's imperial juice.

Bears like honey. All Japanese are bears.

蜜壺 is a fairly commonly used innuendo in Japanese, and honestly, it doesn't read so bad in Japanese. When I hear "honey pot" I generally think of the computing kind.

Congrats on getting the SR Baseball Rin and all the rank ups, Ceris! All the best in this event. I still have to collect more tokens and I haven't played the event song yet. :v Good News! Love Live! Official Website has updated the overseas Final LIVE Screening which now includes Malaysia and Philippines! For more information: http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/otonokizaka/sp_finallive_lvos.html As for Singapore GV, they decided to start the Advance Ticket Sales 2 hours ahead of the initial schedule which was 12 noon. At the moment, they have opened up 1 big and small hall for both days. For those who wants to buy the Final LIVE Towel Bundle which cost SGD 100, you have to buy separately and it is only for the small hall on the first day, 31st March 2016. It's exactly the same as I bought online from the official website.

Here I am Usually the polar bears ride on me though