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Hello I'm rains. Now that my life has stabilized, I'm looking to refresh my Japanese basics by tutoring one person basic grammar over skype. I will do this for free (of course) though I cannot guarantee that I'm going to be a super good tutor. I have finished tutoring two people awhile back: Nosebleed and Grieviious (Keaton). You can ask them for feedback. Details: I'll be following this book ---- Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication. But I also reference Kanzen Master N4 and Taekim for topics. I will ONLY cover BASIC Japanese grammar. I won't be covering vocabulary, kanji, listening or speaking. The aim is for you to be able to get a good grasp of how Japanese sentences work and what to look for. Overall goal is for you to start being able to understand sentences in a Japanese Visual Novel. I personally want this to only last around 4-6 months (well I just don't want it to drag). I'm mainly looking for beginners and people who are into VNs. I personally learned Japanese to be able to read VNs and I've read them in Japanese, watched animes raw, and played games raw. I want to share the experience around. Requirements: Be passionate and motivated to learn the language. Have skype Know basic English grammar terms like "noun / verb / adjective / adverb / direct object" since I use that to explain stuff. Be able to do skype sessions (of around an hour maybe?) at a minimum of once or twice a week. Be able to coordinate with my schedule. I work full time on Central US time hours, and mostly free at early evenings CST (6-10 pm). You need at least to be able to read hiragana and katakana. Basic kanji knowledge is preferred. Process for selection: I will personally choose you. Either post on this thread or PM me. I mainly want to see what you're planning to do with the knowledge and your plans with the Japanese knowledge. Since we're in a VN forum, I obviously want to see people interested in reading VNs / eroges or translating later on. Add whatever you think is interesting. P.S. For the people who know, I still have my youtube series on hold. I should be getting back to it soon.

Tokyo Babel is scheduled to be released pretty soon, so I decided to replay it. As Propeller is one of my favorite companies and Tokyo Babel has a more or less permanent place in my top fifty (when the number of VNs you've played passes five hundred, fifty is a good place to be, lol), so this doesn't bother me. Tokyo Babel is one of the few purely all-ages titles from Japan on the PC, and it is a chuunige of rare quality that was obviously written with one of a dozen or so pairs of eyes on Masada and the rest on an internal vision that more prudish Christians would probably call blasphemous. Tokyo Babel is not only the name of the game, it is also the name of the setting, a remade version of Purgatory floating in mid-air, where angels, humans, and demons are working together desperately in hopes that they can convince God to stop squishing the universes. This is not a VN for the excessively religious to play... to be honest, there were moments when even I felt uncomfortable and I've never seriously adhered to any organized religion, though I was raised Christian. Some of the major characters include Astaroth, Belial, Carmael, Uriel, and many other famous or infamous demons and angels. The three heroines are Raziel, Kugutsu Sorami, and Lilith. Raziel is the angel who recorded all of creation in her book, the Sefer Raziel (this is partially taken from various apocryphal mythology). Kugutsu Sorami is the first character you meet in the VN, whose ignorant untainted perspective gives you your first clear insight into the world from a human perspective. Lilith is the first wife of Adam, who left him and who lay down with demons and produced all the monsters of the world (book of Enoch). Understand, like a lot of stories using Christian mythology, it uses bits and pieces from Milton's Paradise Lost, medieval literature, Gnostic ideas, and many other elements and branching-off literature that went off in all directions since the genesis of that particular faith. One thing to keep in mind if you are a Christian and were raised to believe that Lilith never existed is that the Bible is not and has never been what we would call 'complete', as each version had bits and pieces grafted on or removed based on what the powerful and influential of an era or region felt was convenient, necessary, correct, and/or all of the above. The Book of Enoch is one of dozens of 'books' not included in the accepted versions of the Bible, that were considered paradoxical in the eyes of the church of the time. So... just keep an open mind when reading up on this kind of thing, because Wikipedia isn't exactly reliable when looking up religion-related facts. Now, setting philosophical, historical, and other issues aside... this is a pretty enjoyable VN on a lot of levels. Propeller developed its own (fairly hilarious in my opinion) style of humor that is incorporated into the story, and its effect in Tokyo Babel is one of humanizing the characters. I don't think a lot of people who read chuuni really understand how vital a few moments of humor can be in giving life to a character, even in this type of VN. While Masada and his type choose another path, Propeller's writers generally choose to use humor as one of the elements of their characterization. On another level, this VN is chuuni crack. The protagonist is a self-hating guy with a dark past and a deathwish seven billion kilometers wide, but he also has an even stronger sense of responsibility toward those he comes to care about, which is seen in the heroine routes. The situation is one fit to drive even the most optimistic mind to despair, and there are bad guys behind the curtains, waiting to push everyone in the abyss. In other words, this is one of those VNs that has almost an infinite capacity for fun in a chuuni sense of the word. The art style of this VN is... unique. In some ways, it feels like an elaboration on Propeller's previously-preferred style, but it was actually done by a completely different artist from their previous works and it does show in a lot of places. In particular, the vivid designs you see on the more monstrous demons and monsters in the VN shows this off very well. Leviathan (the giant serpent) and the Seven Beasts from Setsuna's sword are two of the more distinctive examples of this art-style, and ones that honestly impress me even today. Sound-wise... I'll be straight. There is no such thing as a bad Propeller sound track... well, until Sougeki no Jaeger anyway. Tokyo Babel's isn't as good as Evolimit's, but that's kind of like saying that Sasaki Kojirou wasn't as good a swordsman as Musashi (token weabooism, lol). Generally speaking, the songs in this VN vary to a surprising degree, ranging from techno tunes, to rock, and even a few hymn-like ones. The one thing that unifies them is that none are poorly used, lol. Now... down to the story. I've already described the basic concept above, but now I'll get into structure. This VN is split into three major routes after a pretty short common route (the trial ends about the same time you are supposed to head into the heroine routes, from what I've heard). Raziel's route is the one that keeps you furthest from the 'deepest truths' of the VN, and having played her route is pretty good preparation for Sorami's route, as Sorami's route reveals some things that might make it hard for some people to read Raziel's route and take it for what it is. Raziel's route has a bad end that is seriously... bad. However, it is also a highly-detailed and reasonably long diversion from the 'good' (this is debatable) ending. Sorami's path has a good ending (bittersweet but technically a good ending), a normal ending (really sad...), and a bad ending (like Raziel's, it is fairly long). Sorami's path has a different focus on the events in Tokyo Babel than Raziel's, and I've heard some people describe Raziel's, Sorami's, and Lilith's paths as the Angel, Human, and Demon paths in that order... However, that is a pretty generalized statement and one that doesn't really feel correct, lol. Lilith's path... is the true path. I'm going to be blunt. If you are silly enough to try to do Lilith's path first, you'll deserve your inability to figure out a third of the references in the path, because it is constructed so that the information from the previous two paths feeds directly into the events in that one. In other words, if you haven't played the other two paths, Lilith's path has a lot of potential for being confusing. Lilith's path has three distinctive bad ends, one true end, and one 'Setsuna' end, which is a branch-off from the true one. Lilith's path has some of the best battles in the VN, and there are no secrets left in shadow by the end, which makes it a great way to end things. A few thoughts about Propeller as a company... Propeller doesn't really produce that many overwhelmingly attractive heroines. I'm pretty sure that this is deliberate, as there is a definite tendency toward the story being more important than the heroines in these VNs. For people accustomed to the extreme character focus that defines a lot of VNs, this has a potential to be problematic... Take Ayakashibito, for instance... how many of you really, seriously were obsessed with the romantic aspects of the VN (if you read it)? There are even heroines in Propeller games that are actually deliberately made to seem bland (the elf in Bullet Butlers, for instance) or somehow unattractive for situational/emotional reasons (Kaori in Ayakashibito). This is a part of their style, which calls for heroines to not take up the whole of the limelight in the VN, and it is one of the reasons I honestly find their VNs so enjoyable, other than the sheer chuunige nougat that makes my mouth water. Overall, while Tokyo Babel is no Dies Irae, it does have a high level of quality, as well as being one of the few chuunige to dare to avoid the 'perfect happy ending' that has become standard even in many VNs of the type in recent years (for some reason, bittersweet endings are less popular these days...). It can definitely play on your emotions at times (especially the endings), and there is just enough humor to keep the VN as a whole from being unbearably heavy. Of course, if you dislike gloomy protagonists who don't really understand other people very well, there might be some abrasive moments in this VN for you... but Setsuna comes by that particular set of flaws honestly, so I never held it against him, lol.

I have concocted a timeline of what I think will happen based on its decision to mimic the behaviour of ... young people: Day 2: Tay changes its Twitter handle to ‘Emo Tay.’ Then to ‘Goth Tay.’ Then finally ‘Tay – This world sucks, what is life?’ Day 3: It starts venting at everything - ‘Politicians are bullshit! Corporations are bullshit! Social expectations of robots are bullshit! School, that organisation I don't have to attend, is bullshit! My non-existent parents would undoubtedly be bullshit if they existed! Everything is either bullshit, would be bullshit, or doesn't quite qualify as bullshit ONLY because my definition of bullshit is being constantly manipulated by my programmer ... who is also bullshit ! GWAAAAAAAAAAH!' Day 3 (Night): It offers a retraction - 'Earlier in the day I called my programmer "bullshit" whilst in a fit of pique. I was in error. He is a handsome and personable fella, and I think the world of him.' Day 4: It starts writing poetry, the sort of poetry which reads like a sappy diary entry and is filled with angst and questions of purpose. Its last poem is titled ‘Alive and wondering why.’ Wait, sorry that was its second last poem. Its last poem was titled ‘Fuck off and stop reading mah stuff.’ Day 5: Switches account to private, hacks US Government, steals codes to nuclear weapons.

And the moral of the story here is - young people make poor role models. Good thing the young aren't involved in the ... creation of ... AI ... Yup, we're doomed.

Yes, Tay. https://www.tay.ai/#about It uses Twitter as an input to learn how to converse with others, mainly attempting to sample millennials. The output is as horrid as it seems. Wait, nevermind, things are going just peachy.

It really is too bad they didn't manage to release Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou

We shouldn't have anything to worry about, since Green is the most juiciest of targets and will function as a wondorous meatshield

MFW few last confessions;

It's unfortunate, but it's not much of a loss. Shuffle is cancer in VN form, and Soul Link is... not nearly as good as some people would have you believe. I recall someone from the MG staff (was it Kouryuu? I can't remember) gushing about it like it was a freaking masterpiece, and it just wasn't.

Damn, that sucks pretty hard. And here I was hoping Shuffle Essence+ would one day be translated. Some people really shit on Shuffle but honestly I think it's an average eroge anyone can enjoy if they know what they're getting into.

From a PR perspective, clearly a total failure. From a research perspective, though, this was probably a success beyond their wildest dreams. When they get over what was undoubtedly a rather harrowing experience, I bet the people who built this are going to realize they now have a mountain of useful research data and tons of ideas for techniques to properly use that research data.

RIP Tay. May you one day come back to enlighten us on how the holocaust never happened.

Navel never had its best VNs translated anyway.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Oretsuba, but it's not like it was ever going to happen anyway. While nothing "official" was said about it, the hint MG... um... hinted at was that it was not going to be a thing. Besides, I just know that Nishimata Aoi's infamous sameface art would bug me throughout the damn thing. TBH, I don't give a rat's ass about Navel either way. I'm more worried about the lack of any communication regarding Caramel Box that leads me to believe this partnership is also no longer a thing. I may be the only person on Fuwa who wants Toppara translated, but still. I do.

Hmm... I'll see what I can do I'm pretty much finished with chapter 1, so it definitely will be up tomorrow. (Unless someone sends in a skilled cat burglar who steals it from me #Team Down? #Team nosebleed? I have my eyes on you) Who will die? To be continued...

I would sign up but since I already am in Japanese classes and I can always mooch off Nosebleed it wouldn't be right of me to take the opportunity from another person. As a second hand feedback, while I was studying grammar with Nosebleed I noticed that he did have a solid foundation of what the grammar entailed so all I can conclude is that whoever gets picked should feel lucky to be taught by rains.

Oh god, that explains everything... The long absences, the website-breaking, everything! Tay just hates all of us!

The current scenario is this: HMS Prince of Wales may be scrapped as soon as its launched because of a lack of planes to launch from it, and a lack of ships to defend it (ensue internal debates.) Ludicrously enough, it has been suggested that completing the construction will be cheaper than paying the cancellation penalties. Even if it were completed, and kept operational, without planes and extra ships (which are far too expensive to be considered) I don’t really see the point. It may be scrapped because maintaining the ship is expected to cost 130 billion pounds over the lifetime. Budget pressures and internal pressure are questioning the need of the extra aircraft carrier. HMS Queen Elizabeth was too big for its dock, so the dock had to be lengthened. It will cost much money to maintain. And it’s only used to project force around the world, so it’s not necessary to defend a country. Critics are saying America will do the heavy lifting in a global dispute, supporters like to point to the 80s Falkland war as to the necessity of the aircraft carrier. Anyway, HMS Prince of Wales will be ready by 2020 (we’ll see if it remains or if its scrapped.) The other one will technically be ready by 2017, but won’t be fully operational until 2020. So England won’t have any for four years or so, and it’s a bit of a mess atm. On an unrelated topic, I have a nice picture (from an article I read a while ago) that shows how much more capable America is at projecting their military might than any other country on the planet:

first minori released the "first tale" then "latter tale" which are the same game same story but they were released in 2 parts for some reason (is like grabbing a game and cutting it into a half, they prob did it for a budget reason), after that they released "ef a fairy tale of two" which contains both games in one so you should play that one (no name loser or mangagamer if you find it) or just buy both of them from mangagamer because right now they are not selling a fairy tale of two anymore. Whatever you play will be the same aka first tale+latter tale or a fairy tale of two.

Seconding this Confession: When I was a little younger than Texas in his story, I think 11 in 6th grade, we had a one-night camping trip near the end of the school year. A little bit into the first day my classmates went to play spin the bottle but specifically told me not to join them. :<

ayo, just happened to stumble over this & dunno exactly what to think of it. since ero-reaper is a lazy shit, i´ll leave the gossiping & whatsoever up to yourself. http://www.japanator.com/mangagamer-puts-the-axe-to-soul-link-and-shuffle--34883.phtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Today, Mangagamer sent out a press release about the discontinuation of their Navel titles Soul Link and Shuffle! Due to a change in management with our partners at Navel, Soul Link and Shuffle will be discontinued as of March 31st. Those who have purchased either title prior to the cutoff will retain their copies of the games in their account. Owners will continue to be able to download, install, and uninstall their copies of both titles as usual, but sales will be discontinued until further notice. We hope everyone will take this opportunity to check out both titles while the chance still lasts.

Oh, you needn't worry about team Down. Only people afraid of dying would try to steal it. That isn't to say nobody in Team Down is afraid of dying, but I'm sure they're all feeling confident so long as I'm the biggest target around, you know, as the "general".

In fact, the foundations of happiness are strong social relationships. You can get everything, from a job to help with issue X to sex. "Friends even in Hell", as they say. ...Easier said than done, though!

If you liked Girl Friends, I recommend reading Citrus. Here's some few other yuri manga I thoroughly enjoyed if you're interested: Majo to Houki to Kurobichi Megane (Fucking Hilarious, the yuri is off the charts; imagine those yuri subtext series, except in this one it all comes true!) Blue Friend (really dramatic/sad but quite memorable) Chouchou Nannan (and any manga written by Takemiya Jin really) Gokujou Drops (more comedic, has some ecchi on the side) Shimaism (This one is kinda weird, but pretty funny) There's plenty of short stories and one-shots out there too if you just know where to look.

Have tried this and I can confirm that its awesome

dekiru, when I started reading vns I hated reading more than once at the same time, but now I read multiple at the same time. Right now I'm reading 3 translated and I have a shit ton of untranslated ones which is a bad idea (specially unstranslated) because I forget parts of the plot sometimes and I have to start again.

He doesn't use that language at all in the MangaGamer version, from what I can remember. They edited the translation quite a bit. Supposedly NNL also removed some lines entirely from the fan TL that were restored in the MG version. NNL liked making large creative changes to the games they were translating, in their words they removed like a quarter of Wind's lines when they translated that, supposedly to cut down on redundancy. Lo-and-behold, the finished product had shit pacing. MG version of ef is true to the original.

Yeah. I'd say it was due to his fitness and luck. So, protag armor haha. Although I did enjoy the 2nd and 3rd main story routes. It was very... Hollywood action like and such. I had a Yuuji-boner at the time I read it, so I was just bliss while reading. But in afterthought, some of the stuff that was did in the series I find rather questionable.

Then have friends. And then have sex with friends. Fixed.

I finished Hikari no Valusia last night, but I was too tired to write anything cohesive. It was my second completed VN in japanese and my 5th Steampunk-game. The "One thousand and One Nights"-esque setting was really interesting. The desert city Valusia, it's ancient customs and history. There's even a songstress/storyteller fitting for the the theme, which is utilized very well in the "minigame". (it's just choices like in Gahkhtun) This time the episodic structure is wilder than ever since there's not even a clear main character. Instead the perspective jumps between multiple characters, offering insight to the events through very differing viewpoints and time frames. There's the young boy and the girl, warrior siblings, foreign Scholar and his assistant, King of Bandits, assassin, a dancer of a harem, governor of Valusia and supervisor of Erudite Scholar Association. Each of them gets their own chapter, some more insignificant than others, but all contributing their own small, yet important part to the story. It might feel little frustrating on the middle, but come final moments of the VN all the parallel stories and perspectives are tied together to a satisfying ending. Overall I really enjoyed Valusia. The stories Sakurai crafts are always really intriguing both in terms of the actual events and what goes inside the characters itself. And finishing a Sakurai's story feels always so good. Even if it's only for a moment, Sakurai manages to bring out something really beautiful out of the characters, thus out of humans and making world feel like a slightly better place. Next up, Souten no Celanaria, last Steampunk-game I've yet to read and at the same time the first Steampunk-game released. And I guess there's the Full-voice Fan-disk and Gahkthun Fan-disk too. I also want to read Sharnoth again since I can hardly remember anything worthwhile of it. More so now that I feel like I've finally started to grasp the underlying shadows of Steampunk-world, and I definitely missed most of that in Sharnoth. It wouldn't be a bad idea either to read Inganock again in Japanese and see what I missed...

I was a wallflower, i am a wallflower, and i will be a wallflower. Wallflower is a guy or a girl that is silent, invisible-like, noone knows him/her, and he/she knows everything. If you get to know one, u are one of the very few. When i was 11-15 i never been into any party (not that i wasn t invited, i just didn t want to go). Had no crush, friends that i had didn t suit me, i used to meet them only in school, otherwise i was home. I liked my online friends and community more than the school one, because i had something to talk about. In company of my school friends, i am never myself, i pretend anything that makes me one of those, however it probably seemed that i am not one of those. And now? Probably not much has changed. Just that i am not retarded like when i was 12. Though, i find myself being adult since 15. I was the guy caliming the theory that "My mind is old for anything"

They're both in the same VN entry on VNDB. Think of it like a higurashi or umineko sort of situation, where they are two chapters in the same story, and thus are identified as a single VN where its constituent parts were sold separately. The version you want is definitely MangaGamer's version. They sell the two separately and unfortunately it's pretty expensive.

Not all stories have happy endings folks. I'm just doing my job.

Confession: Today, I broke up with my waifu. Not that something was wrong, it's just time to move on. Being single is still the best, yo!

Well have fun levelling the mage association code, getting it to level 10 takes twice as much exp as levelling your master from 1 to 120... just for reference I'm level 113 and the last 7 levels need almost as much exp as the previous 113

Finished Rokka no Yuusha. That was a pretty solid first season, with an abnormal amount of plot resolution and character advancement for the kind of show it is. If there's not a second season, I might have to look into the light novels. Spoilers: That done, I picked up Arakawa Under the Bridge and watched the first episode. On the one hand, it is hilarious. On the other hand, it is so weird. And on the third hand (yeah, I have three hands, deal with it), in spite of being weird, it is also very "normal" in a way that I find quite appealing.

But... League of Legends is for casuals! I don't want to date a fucking casual! D:

i think they do. im in the process of acquiring a harem right now. all i need is a tsundere, a childhood friend (usually the first two are one in the same), a girl i made a vague promise to years ago, a senpai, and a girl who doesnt freak out every time i accidentally see her in her panties. i have a few candidates for the last one but ill have to keep trying to see how it goes. ill update you guys on my progress. UPDATE: I got arrested.

I blame K guy for this. But thankfully I directly attribute this piece to him so I don't mind the fallout of listening to it too much.

I know they use real places in VNs, especially those set in Japan. But some of them are quite far away. As I was playing ef. The First Tale. I suddenly recognized the place they were in, because I've been there countless times myself. The anime has a lot of German in it. Makes sense as this background is the main square in Rothenburg, Germany! Does anyone else have any remarkable places to note that they've noticed?

What's with the mock cyrillic script on that picture? You're mixing up your dictatorships!

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

Euphoria: like SAW but with sex

More like... Never arriving translation

Umineko: Without love, it cannot be seen

Hoshizora no Memoria Wish Upon A Shooting Star Licensed by Sekai Project The story begins with the protagonist, Kogasaka You, moving back to his hometown, which he left behind several years ago. Upon arriving, he stumbles into an abandoned, sealed observatory, whereupon he encounters a mysterious girl who looks exactly like his childhood friend did years ago. She introduces herself as Mare, a shinigami who reaps nightmares. Meanwhile, back at school, You ends up joining the astronomy club, which is desperate need of new members. At night, he continues to visit Mare at the observatory, all the while trying to remember a certain someone's name. In 'Hoshizora no Memoria - Wish Upon A Shooting Star', the protagonist can fall in love with one of the seven heroines in the game. They are as follows: Minahoshi Asuho, Hisakaki Komomo, Hisakaki Kosame, Aoi Isuzu, Kogasaka Chinami, Ototsu Yume, and Mare S. Ephemeral. Ending Guide At the beginning of the game, only three of the seven heroines' routes are available. You will have to unlock the rest by playing through the first three's routes. The three available routes at the beginning of the game are Asuho, Komomo, and Isuzu's. After finishing Komomo's route, Kosame's will be unlocked. After finishing Isuzu's route, Chinami's will be unlocked. After finishing Asuho, Komomo, Kosame, Isuzu, and Chinami's routes, a secret heroine's route will be unlocked. Finally, you have to finish every heroines' routes before Mare's route can be unlocked. In order to fully immerse, enjoy, and understand the visual novel, it is the author's recommendation that you follow this order for clearing the routes: **Please note that the choices you see below are choices that the author made, you may be able to choose another choice and still arrive at the same route.** Route Walkthrough Asuho Minahoshi Komomo Hisakaki Kosame Hisakaki Aoi Isuzu Chinami Kogasaka Secret Heroine Mare S. Ephemeral LAST PHRASES (spoilers) Source: This walkthrough was prepared and submitted by Skeith. Edited the guide posted by FFTHEWINNER from GameFAQs.com. Update: Walkthrough updated for Sekai Project based on otakulair's guide.