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I'm back once again for another update, this time the penultimate translation update with the completion of both Hamaji's arc (about 10 days ago) and now Maki's arc, bringing the total lines translated to 65,246 at 88.7% complete. That also makes it through 22 of the 26 H scenes, and all of the content that was from the sequel, Root after and another. Hamaji's arc was especially interesting mainly because of how different it felt compared to the rest of the arcs. That's because at the time, it was a sort of preview of what would later become Sakura no Uta, which was originally in development at the same time as H2O, but because the development of that game took so long (about a decade), it basically shows the direction that Sakura no Uta was going at that time around 2006-07, and it features some of the characters from that game for that reason. It was also the densest part of the script. To put this in perspective, Hamaji's arc is 4,973 lines and 98,503 characters long. Maki's arc, despite being 464 lines longer, is only 87,214 characters, a difference of about 11,300 characters. In addition to that , Hamaji's arc has no H scenes, so there's none of those typical H scene lines where it's just spamming "Aaaaaaah" over and over. So if Hamaji's arc was the most literary, then Maki's arc is the most focused on sex and is basically the nukige arc of the game. So kind of a weird contrast between the two. Now there's just one final arc to translate, Otoha, at only 8,301 lines. It's been challenging, but also a lot of fun reading through and translating H2O over the past 5 months, and you can imagine that I'm looking forward to finally being done with the translation. But after that comes image editing (of which there are plenty), video editing (of which there are 9), in addition to editing and QCing the text over the period of many months. But the light can be seen at the end of the translation tunnel at least, so that's something to be pleased with for now. So I'll get back to work and see you at the next update.

Yesterday I finished Tsui no Stella (it took me 19 hours) I don't think I could add much to @Nemesis's review, but I mostly agree with it I loved it. It was great story about being (or becoming) human and relationships. Also, as one of the reviewers already pointed out, フィリア's name could be transliterated in two ways - and both are meaningful. One is the "canon" Philia - because that's the greek word for "love" Jude named her after. But it could be also romanized as Filia, which is latin word for "daughter". Nice little touch. I've read only two Tanaka Romeo's works so far (YMK and Kazoku Keikaku - and both only in English) - but his style is visible in this VN. At the same time, he fit pretty well into the KEY formula Indeed this story was an emotional ride, with many teary moments. 8.5/10, definitely recommend I see KEY plans to release official translation this year - I hope it goes smoothly, so more people could enjoy this great story. Since the setting is pretty universal (not explicitly Japanese) - there shouldn't be too many things prone to getting lost in translation.

People who drop themselves into the abyss of otaku media tend to have their sense for things dull over time. Action scenes don't excite like they used to, rom-coms aren't as funny, ecchi isn't as hot, and only the densest stories succeed in scratching the itch. This is what I (and some others) call becoming a 'jaded veteran otaku'. Jaded veteran otakus often become 'genre specialists' (meaning they only play one type of game, watch one type of anime, and/or refuse to play specific types), and only the most hypocritical have less than ten favorites in their medium. However, how exactly do you tell that a VN (in this case) is one of your favorites? There are a number of signs. 1. Does watching the opening get you excited no matter how many times you've seen it? 2. Does a great phrase that shattered your personal gate of tears do so again on a second playthrough? 3. Can it still make you giggle? 4. Can it still delight you with new discoveries or even only confirming the ones you made the last time you played? 5. Does defending it to everyone around you fill you with passion and do you have an intense desire to chain every other VN fan in site to a chair in front of a computer to play/read it? 6. Do you find yourself wistfully wondering if you'll ever find anything else like it again? 7. Do you feel like a junkie coming down off a great high after you finish it? These are just some of the signs of a VN happening to be your favorite... and one of the strange side-effects of being a long-time addict of otaku media is that your favorites become ever more distinct to you as time passes. I have literally forgotten the contents of more VNs than most people have played, but the ones I love remain in my memory with surprising detail, even after years without playing them. Not all of my favorites are kamige (in fact, surprisingly few of them are), but to me they are irreplaceable friends similar to the books I can never bring myself to get rid of.

B-but what about Koikake, Sugar spice 3 and "My dick is godly, worship me!" game, also known as Tincle★Twinkle Festival! ? There's Sakura no Uta as well