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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/28/19 in all areas

  1. Sorry for nitpicking, because there's obvious merit to your thought and it's true that I was mostly triggered by the absolute nature of Fred's statement. But I feel this is both strawmaning and an unfortunate comparison. Acting, both dubbing and live action, is a way more universal and intuitive craft than translation. Saying a layperson is not qualified to judge it to a reasonable degree, even through cultural barriers is like saying you can't judge a dish unless you're a trained chef, even if you ate 1000 different variants of it. Obviously, the more you know on the topic, the bigger the chance your opinion will be insightful and well-informed, but I don't think the OP asked for an academic dissertation on pronouncing "desu". There are general trends and differences between Japanese and English VA scenes that are much easier to grasp and pinpoint, and I think many people on this site has the experience with the medium and general knowledge to have an informed opinion on the matter. I'll respect the opinion of an expert more and he can give input that will be beyond average person's grasp, but I don't really see the reason to pretend these things are black magic that only the chosen ones are worthy of commenting on. I don't really have a dog in this fight, as I don't have any strong opinions on the matter, apart from obvious observations on the scale and prestige of the seiyuu scene. But as a semi-active scholar it makes my blood boil a bit when this kind of elitist BS shows up, pre-emptively discouraging people from joining a legitimate conversation.
    4 points
  2. Common Shirasaki Tsugumi Mochizuki Maho Sakuraba Tamamo Misono Senri Serizawa Miyu Suzuki Kana Ureshino Sayumi Kodachi Nagi True Ends Shirasaki Tsumugi Sakuraba Tamamo Misono Senri Suzuki Kana Not done, should never have trusted the other source as many of the choices in Nagi and the 4 main route choices are wrong.
    4 points
  3. While the difference was there even back in the nineties, we really started to see a gap in VA skill after the turn of the century, when the Japanese VA industry became so... industrialized that training classes for voice actors began to produce a certain baseline level of quality like clockwork. At that point, we started to see fewer and fewer of the 'squeaky' VAs that were prevalent in the nineties and individual VAs began to be typecast completely the same way a lot of actors are here in the US. I have only rarely seen an awkward VA moment in Japanese VNs or anime since the turn of the century, something that says more about the quality of the industry as a whole (both the voice-actors themselves and the directors who time how the voices are inserted and guide them on how they want the lines phrased and emphasized) than anything else I can think of in particular. For people who ask me which I prefer, I generally just shrug and say 'the original language' whether it is English or Japanese, but if you ask me which is more technically consistent, it is definitely the Japanese industry. For better or worse, those in the Japanese VA industry have a higher base standard than the Western industry, where 'good enough is good enough' outside of blockbuster million-dollar material most of the time (such as AAA video games, shows, and movies). That isn't to say that the English baseline for VA quality won't be dragged upward in the future or the Japanese downward, it is that so far, we have hovered in this same state for over ten years, which is a mark of priorities more than anything else. VA's here in America are a more niche industry (the far lower amount of agencies catering to the training and production of voice-actors is one reason for this), with most of them either aiming for kids movies and shows or for the video game industry, leaving a large gap in talent in areas these don't cover. This can lead to awkward moments in English dubs of anime and Japanese video games (though often I think that is the fault of the director rather than the VAs themselves, since it seems to be incorrect emphasis or mismatched lines), though there is a LOT less incidence of this than there was when I first became an otaku, lol. Edit: To clarify, I firmly believe that my preference for 'original language' will eventually be reduced to just that, a preference, at some point. Right now it is still (to a point) backed up by the actual quality of the experience, but that isn't a state that will last forever. Edit: Oh yeah, and the lack of an English-speaking version of Juurouta Kosugi is a huge negative... no one plays old men and narrators like he does.
    3 points
  4. Synergia's steam page is now up! Now you can put it on you steam wishlist! The game will be coming later in the year, but until then, we have a lot to reveal along the way - be sure to keep your eyes peeled! STEAM: Synergia
    2 points
  5. Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai || a good librarian like a good shepherd || 大図書館の羊飼い *Summary* _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This walkthrough is based on the Fan Translation of Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai by Library Shepherd and leaked by their editor linktriforce007 on Reddit. It was originally released in Japan by August in 2013 This VN has 5 main heroines and 3 sub heroines. An Anime Series was also adopted and broadcasted in 2014. *Description* ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When he was young, Kyoutarou wanted to read all the magic books in the world, but they were all in the magic library. Someone told him that to get there, he must be kind to everyone and bring happiness to their hearts. He received a bookmark, which was his entrance ticket to the magic library. One day while heading to school, he received a text from the shepherd (hitsujikai) telling him that his fate was going to change. He had a vision of an accident at the tram station and helped prevent any injuries by calling away a nearby girl. That girl, Tsugumi, later came to the Library Club room, which he was a member of, to thank him and also to ask for his help to make Shiomi Academy more fun. It seemed that she had also received a text from the shepherd, who is rumoured to appear before people who try their best to grant their wishes. One by one, other students also join their group with the shepherd's guidance. *Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order* ______________________________________________________________________________________________ This VN has 5 main heroines and 3 sub heroines... The routes of 4 heroines ( Shirasaki Tsumugi, Sakuraba Tamamo, Misono Senri & Suzuki Kana ) can be played in Any Order. Kodachi Nagi (True Route) can only be accessed after you've completed at-least one of the above 4 routes). However I would recommend playing Kodachi Nagi last. (True Route choices have a special bookmark indicator) Each Route has an Appendix scenario which gets unlocked after finishing the respective routes..These scenarios come in the form of an extra H scene..so don't miss out on those.. The Main Menu background can be changed after clearing each route..simply click on the logo to do so..There is a new image for every route cleared. The other 4 heroines also have True endings that are Branched off from Nagi Route. Consider doing them Last after Nagi Route Save / Load points have been added for convenience purposes. However, should you find yourself stuck in any situation, it is recommended to complete said route from beginning to end without using any checkpoints. The savepoints follow the order in which the routes appear below. *Route Guideline * ________________________________________________________________________________________ There are 5 Main Heroines and 3 Sub heroines and can be completed in any order. Kodachi Nagi(True Route) requires you to complete at-least one of the other 4 heroines before you can start her route. The other 4 main heroines and the 3 sub heroines can be played in any order.. True Endings for other 4 heroines are unlocked after finishing Kodachi Nagi Route. It is advisable to follow the ending guidelines stated above. Lets Begin *** Main Heroines *** Shirasaki Tsumugi Sakuraba Tamamo Misono Senri Suzuki Kana *** Sub-Heroines *** Mochizuki Maho Serizawa Miyu Ureshino Sayumi *True Endings* ==================================================================================================== Kodachi Nagi Shirasaki Tsumugi Misono Senri Sakuraba Tamamo Suzuki Kana *Attribution* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ This Walkthrough was referenced from Seiya Saiga as well as my own playthrough of the VN. Thanks to Shaun and other Fuwanovel members for feedback that was then implemented where possible.
    2 points
  6. Nekopie

    Hello everyone

    Hello everyone, my name is Nekopie. I started with visual novels six years ago after finishing Daemonophilia and Katawa Shoujo. In addition, I am studying Japanese, currently having passed JLPT N4. I hope we can get along.
    1 point
  7. Above is now finished thanks to the other user who decided to make their own walkthrough guide when this thread was already made. Not done, read above for more on why.
    1 point
  8. Yurika and the protagonist of Sora no Tsukurikata have a relationship like that... though it is mostly sex and crying on one another's shoulders when they reach their limit. In an extremely violent manner, Kanata and Sora's relationship in Kanata's first path (she has two, the latter of which has a psychopathic NTR moment) of Devils Devel Concept is like that. Sheryl and Toshirou in Vermilion Bind of Blood are like that... though again, it is mostly sex and companionship, with the romance part mostly being Sheryl.
    1 point
  9. Biggest case i can think of is Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road (Ai's Route). There is also Clannad (Tomoyo's Route), but that aspect is only towards the end of the route. Finally, there is White Album 2, but you can argue that the romance never truly develops though.
    1 point
  10. I dont recall the name but there is a vn with a true heroine who keeps disappearig and reappearing without warning or giving a reason. Dont recall the name of the vn. The reason had something to do with a band .
    1 point
  11. The only thing that comes to my mind is Love Ribbon, the incest drama there leads to the girls falling in and out of the relationship repeatedly.
    1 point
  12. read sukisuki recently where you have an ex as a potential heroine. not sure if thats what looking for as thats the closest thing i can think of. theres also another vn where an ex is a potential heroine though i dont remember the name of it, all i know is it involved working at a cafe like place and the girls had massive bahoongas. both are tled.
    1 point
  13. All of these tropes, by the way, have their fans and people keep coming back for more of it. If it weren't the case, they'd all go away. It'd be fair to say they're actually very popular tropes even, otherwise why would they feature so frequently?
    1 point
  14. Tbh, you need a high IQ to understand Fred's posts.
    1 point
  15. 'you can't have a valid opinion' is a bit strong, but that does depend on what 'valid' means. The less you know about a subject, the less your opinion on such a subject is 'valid'. Or, more specifically, more limited the areas in which you can judge it by. Your opinion on whether you like the voice, or believe it fits the character, or whether the volume fits, or if the pauses in speech fit, or such factors that can be considered even without knowing the language, is worth something. But it is not enough to judge the voice acting itself, as there are many other aspects to consider. What words they are stressing, and where. Why that pause was made where it was. What words or sentences had a higher or lower volume specifically, as well as analysing the why. All this is part of analysing 'voice acting' too, and all this is missed just by not knowing how the language is used normally (note the 'normally'. Even just knowing the words and what they mean is not enough to analyse all that I've mentioned here). Much like I just mentioned a number of aspects that can be analysed when you're at a native level in a language, there's many more aspects that can only be judged when you know the target language and you're a voice actor*. You can see many different levels of knowledge about a subject, which can be broadly categorized into a few different groups. None of these are invalid, but they are judging off of different factors and premises, and have therefore a much higher tendency to reach very distinct conclusions. That is, two people who don't know the language are more likely to share certain opinions on the subject than one who knows the language and one who doesn't. And everything that I have just mentioned is without even bringing up personal biases. Those will always be part of a person's judgement and analyses. Consider the following video: https://youtu.be/3p10knivMRg It is, for instance, completely impossible for one to judge whether he's placing emphasis on the correct words and the like, but you can still form an opinion on the voice or the fact that he placed emphasis at all! So, ultimately, I am only bringing all this up because the OP is looking for opinions of people at the level of knowing the language, who are able to judge many more aspects than people such as I. I don't disagree that everyone is entitled to an opinion (whether it is one worth sharing is another matter entirely and not the subject here), but they are not at the same level -- and by that I mean that they are not necessarily comparable -- because they are simply judging by many different factors. And in this case we're looking for those who know the language, not the many others. *An example that is often brought up, as you did (in other words), is the old "If you want to criticise then do better!". It is evident that one is able to criticise things that you are not yourself capable of doing. If my car breaks down the day after going to the mechanic I can obviously criticise the mechanic. This is because as a car driver I am judging the car on its function and usability. "Does it do what it is meant to do?". A mechanic could analyse other aspects not visible to me. A game with an incredibly advanced A.I. that is capable of counteracting any player will impress A.I. developers, but will not impress players because a game with good A.I. that opposes the player is not actually enjoyable to players. So the question of 'Is my opinion valid?'? Depends on the context. Generally speaking, you will care for opinions of people on the same level as you or higher, because they will share your priorities "Is it nice to listen to?" or introduce new concepts foreign to you "He's emphasising every 'ssu' which means x and y". On the opposite side of the spectrum, people from higher levels will dismiss the opinions of the people on lower levels due to their limited understanding of a craft. A familiar situation is the native English readers and/or well-read English readers dismissing and disagreeing with the opinions on translation of the English Second Language readers who favour a 'word for word' approach to translation to the detriment on the overall language used in the translation. Fred in this thread has looked at those who know much more than he about the Japanese language, and concluded that he can't really 'judge' it. At least at a level relevant to the OP. I agree. I can't, either.
    1 point
  16. im not saying every company you want to support you need to do a deep thorough background check but when such scandalous stories pop up from the company you shouldnt just ignore it, as thats basically you saying "im okay with how they lie to its customers and abuse their employees."
    1 point
  17. Walkthrough is missing Kodachi Nagi route (only available after first playthrough) and the true ends to 4 of the main routes (Shirasaki Tsugumi, Sakuraba Tamamo, Misono Senri and Suzuki Kana), 3 of the characters don't have a 2nd ending which are Mochizuki Maho, Serizawa Miyu and Ureshino Sayumi (which is already noted). Not sure if Takigawa Aoi has a route or not considering the VNDB page for her (the sexual content), the Japanese walkthrough guide doesn't seem to mention her, it's possible she is part of Mochizuki Maho route but I'm not sure, I'll find out eventually myself. I'm currently making a copy of the walkthrough here (on Notepad) and replacing the words with the right ones from the game.
    1 point
  18. Hi folks, We’re aware of the community’s concerns and are working to address them. We’re doing a lot of listening and behind-the-scenes work right now, even if not all of that is visible. Here's a quick explanation of the situation at hand so you know what’s happening: There are two Sekai Projects operating independently, but in parallel. There’s the US Sekai Project and the Japanese Sekai Project. They are not the same company. This is not to say that we don’t associate with each other or that there’s no business relationship between us, but it is to say that we are separate entities making separate decisions about separate projects. Sekai Project Japan handled the Chinese release of WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC. We (Sekai Project US) did not participate in any negotiations, we did not participate in the QA process. Our only involvement was to put the release on Steam--just like we’ve done with previous Chinese-language Sekai Project Japan releases. Previously, this process hasn’t caused problems. We are not here to throw Sekai Project Japan under the bus. This is a sensitive situation and not all details can be made public, including basic information about parties involved. We are not blaming them. Both Sekai Project Japan and Sekai Project US are currently working to resolve the issue. Thank you for taking the time to read this. We’ll be continuing to work to improve the state of VNs in the West because everybody deserves a good VN!
    1 point
  19. I previously did a simple 'starter list' of relatively easy to read VNs. However, they were all over the place, and the likelihood of anyone finding a VN that was spot-on in that list was unlikely. As such, I decided to make a list of five recommendations from each genre for someone who is just starting to play untranslated VNs but isn't up to reading the hardest language out there. Keep in mind that chuunige and plotge in general have - at the very least - slightly inflated difficulty levels as a result of the writers' tendencies and the fact that narrative/literary Japanese is fundamentally different to those accustomed to dialogue-only mediums like anime or manga. I'm excluding gameplay hybrids because the sheer amount of crap you have to read without a text hooker in those means beginners won't be able to handle them for the most part without some kind of interface patch or guide. Chuunige Bloody Rondo (note that I don't recommend this because it is awesome - it isn't - but because it is heavy on slice-of-life for a chuunige and relatively dialogue-heavy) Sora no Tsukurikata Unjou no Fairy Tale Ryuukishi Bloody Saga (if you want to, you can play the dark rapegame prequel... but I don't recommend it for the faint of heart) Draculius Nakige (note that I'm not including anything Purple Soft and Saga Planets because their games are heavy on wordplay that even an experienced reader will sometimes miss out on) Haru to Yuki Koi Suru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba Soshite Hatsukoi ga Imouto ni Naru (for true beginners, I recommend this or Haru to Yuki for lower difficulty levels from this part of the list) Sci-fi Plotge Komorebi no Nostalgica Re:Birth Colony Lost Azurite Fake Azure Arcology Fantasy Plotge (some action but not action-focused or chuuni) Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai Curio Dealer Hyakka Ryouran Elixir (yep, these are all AXL games... simply because no one else does this anymore) Tiny Dungeon series (this is harem, so if you don't like harem, you probably won't like this) Moege/Charage (Yuzu Soft aren't included because their reading difficulty is often too high for beginners) Haruru Minamo ni (Straight fantasy ero charage with just enough plot to keep it from being mundane/boring) Love Revenge (If you want to know what my idea of a 'decent charage' is based off of, play this) Natsuiro Recipe (for those who want their heart healed in a rural Japanese setting) Kanojo to Ore no Lovely Day Miscellaneous Plotge Yomegami: My Sweet Goddess! Satsukoi Tsuisou no Augment Utsuge Inochi no Spare ('soft' utsuge) Konata yori Kanata made (a 'soft' utsuge probably the only true kamige on this list) Houkago no Futekikakusha ('hard' utsuge) Kanojo wa Tenshi de Imouto de (yes, despite appearances, this is a soft utsuge)
    1 point
  20. Reddit drives me mad as it's not individualistic enough. Flairs are repeatable, and posts have to get lost in megathreads. New topics get buried in news and useless steam sales in just one day. It all reminds a busy anthill. Fuwa is for punks of visual novels. We hardly ever agree on anything, and just as punks, we're not dead despite our golden days long gone.
    1 point
  21. https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=8413186
    1 point
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