Yes, I am back, not that anyone missed this thing I infrequently updated.
As some of you may or may not know, I have been really busy since my vacation from University started and have not had the time to pour into my internet activities. As a result, this blog kind of got shafted for a few months. I also started on a job about a month ago, so the rest of my time that I didn't dedicate to VNs got eaten up by the encroachment of time consuming activity.
However, that all changes as of right now.
Not really.
I still have my job, and I am no less busy.
Joking aside, I have gotten a lot better at managing my time over the last three months, so I am hoping to be able to actually stick through and update this blog and maybe even... gasp... post more on Fuwa in general. Wouldn't that be nice? Probably not.
Anyway, this is just a post to let people know that I have not forgotten about this blog, even if I liked to joke about it and pretend that I have. I don't plan on having any sort of coherent schedule, but I do want to bring this back... if only so I can start ranting about certain VNs*.
*cough* *cough* SubaHibi and Fortissimo *cough* cough*
Dear me, I do believe I am coming down with something awful for my health, so for now I will take my leave before you guys catch whatever it is that I have right now...
...
...
くすくす
I'll tell you one thing, that was definitely something.
Like... damn.
What do I even say to that?
As the title says... I finished Totono.
All I can say, is man what a finish. RIP feels because I was not prepared for ANY of this going in.
I am so happy this could be the first UnTL'd VN that I finished. The impression it left on me is... crazy.
And I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Due to the nature of Totono, I won't discuss very much about it, because I feel it is something best experienced for yourself. So don't you dare go looking for reviews. Bad viewer. BAD!
Let's just say that once the ball gets rolling in Totono.. it does not stop for anyone. Nobody. Not even you... actually... thinking on it now... especially not for you.
So glad I picked this one up, so a shout out to two certain Fuwa members who kept referencing it in FSG... all the time.
There is one thing I need to get off my chest, so let me just drop this one thing in here. BE WARNED THIS IS SPOILER TERRITORY! Best if only people who have read Totono look any further.
So let's get into how I fared with the Japanese in this one.
Man that was a breeze. Like, it was so much easier to read than AkaGoei (not that I have finished that one). There were points I was breezing through 40 lines at a time without even breaking a sweat. JParser was definitely consulted many a time, but it was so nice being able to read at around the same pace as my English reading at certain points. Then again, Aoi kinda made things really a lot of the time, with the way she speaks.
Although, then came the voice only portions. Those were a little harder on me. Like, I understood what was being said... but I had to really focus all of my energy on listening, hanging off of each and every syllable coming out of any given character's mouth. Luckily it was pretty simple Japanese so I didn't get entirely #rekt.
On a side note, I finished this like a week ago, and moved on to Baldr Sky Dive1. I must say, Totono really bolstered my reading ability. I guess the fact that I was easily able to understand everything got my brain fully used to reading in Japanese. Well, I guess I wouldn't say fully but I am much farther than I would have been before.
I would definitely recommend this to any beginner if they are confident in their listening comprehension. Like... if you are just having trouble with reading, this is an awesome one in terms of difficulty.
Well then, with all that aside, my exams are over now.. so I can finally write up more posts for this blog thing of mine. I am currently reading Umineko, and Baldr Sky.. with AkaGoei just kind of sitting there. I WILL finish it... and it isn't exactly stalled... I am just moving through it so slowly that it is in a weird limbo state between stalled and playing. What would you even call that...
Anyway, see you guys later.
I am sure I will be coming out with a post about Baldr sooner rather than later.
The following list only contains threads made from March 28 to April 04, any older thread will be placed under the "Updated" banner if new relevant content is added to it
If you don't know how the list works, please check the project thread.
Announcement Bunny Black 1 translation patch released! (Link)
Discussion How Global is Fuwa (What country do you actually reside in?) (Link) Interest in a Fuwa Gaming Club (Link) How did you discover Fuwanovel? (Link) Spring 2015 Anime Discussion (Link) Weekly VN/Route Appreciation Thread (Link)
The picture is entirely unrelated to most of this post.
So, as many of you who play UnTl'd VNs may know, JParser is a lifesaver. It is both love and life, bae, and every other romantic term you can possibly apply to a normal human. In other words, for someone who is a JLP (Japanese Language Plebian), it is a god send. I've been using it up until now, which is about a month (I can't believe I've been reading AkaGoei for like a month..) and it has really been working for me.
But the other day... something happened. Something that changed everything for me
So I was talking to a certain SubaHibi fan the other day, and he informed me of a different way for me to understand moon runes. While my grasp of grammar has definitely improved, I still rely heavily on dictionaries to understand the other words, so I was all ears.
As he spoke the name... it was like heaven itself had opened up and rained down it's infinite glory of kamige on to me.
.... Rikaisama.
What is rikaisama? It is basically JParser, only it actually gets updated. That and it is used in your browser. Problem is rikaisama is only for an inferior internet browser Firefox.
Here is an image of what my setup looks like now:
Looks a lot cleaner in my opinion.
So let me break this down for you. Like JParser, mousing over words brings up defintions and different words for what it might possibly be. Making sure that ITH is set to automatically copy to clipboard, I have a site open that has a resizeable text box so I can paste what is on the sceen and check it out in my browser by mousing over stuff. Ironic that the page I am using is Translation Party, but it doesn't really matter what you use as long as there is a textbox. I am using Translation Party because a certain SubaHibi fan showed me to that site first.
There ARE alternatives to rikaisama, such rikaikun for Chrome.. but rikaisama is more customizable. So yeah, sure you will have to switch over to Firefox if you aren't already using it. Honestly the switch isn't so bad.
After all... Rikaisama has an optional name dictionary.. and if that isn't enough to convince you.. then I don't know what will.
All credit for this goes to a certain SubaHibi fan. Thanks for showing me this method, as it is definitely more convienent. Or at the very least... it makes my screen look nicer.
On an unrelated note, seems I haven't updated this in a little bit. I have been busy over the last few weeks, but I certainly have not forgotten about it (not that many people read this thing at all xD).
I finished Aya's route and am on Tsuki's now, but I am taking a break from AkaGoei in order to play some Totono, if you couldn't tell from the above picture. Totono is kind of like a break for me, as it is easier to read than AkaGoei in my opinion.
Anyway, thanks for stopping in guys. Hopefully I'll get something else up again soon.
So anybody who interacts with me on a regular basis probably has heard me be really hyped about the fact that I have finished my first route. Another indicator of my happiness over this would be the fact that... you know:
So I am writing this up, because I want to mark this as a milestone in my learning process. While sure, it may not seem like a big deal... but for me it is pretty huge for me. For the longest time before I got the chance to start learning Japanese, I always saw it as an uncrackable code. Something I could never even hope to read. This was mostly due to the fact that the only other language I had ever learnt was French, which uses my native character set. Also, whenever my friends and I talked about languages, we had decided that the seemingly hardest languages to learn were Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese.
So there was this sort of barrier for me, that basically always told me that I would never be able to understand Japanese. I still have those barriers in place for Arabic and Chinese, although that is loosening as I learn kanji in the case of Chinese.
So needless to say. I am pretty happy right now.
After finishing Tae's route and wiping the tears away, I was filled with this strange sense of euphoria.
'Cause after like... 3 weeks of improvement.
I had finally done it.
I had cracked this so called uncrackable code. So to speak.
Sure I had to rely a lot on ITH and JParser, but you know what... I learnt quite a bit in this one route. My understanding of sentence structure, and the size of my Japanese lexicon have both improved significantly. And that was only over the course of one route! I still have four more to go in AkaGoei!
It was really hard at first. I could not wrap my head around what I was reading, and there were times in the beginning where I was just clicking to see if I could figure out the next line. I don't do that now, but that is how it was when I first opened up the VN.
The key to improving, when you want to be able to read VNs, is to just stop making excuses as to why you can't. Maybe I am still too much of a noob to be saying such things, but I really think that this is the case. I mean yes, if you haven't studied JP at all yet, you probably shouldn't jump in, but if you have been studying for a while and aren't sure if you are ready, stop thinking you aren't ready. I made excuses for half a year when my knowledge of grammar was sitting at an agreeable level for reading VNs that are not written by Masada~
Sure you will hit snags. You will find grammar you are unfamiliar with and lots of words and phrases that will make no sense when you translate them into English no matter what you do. That is all part of the learning process. I decided that my best bet was to take my failings in Japanese in stride and just charge straight in.
So yeah, finishing this route is a huge moment for me. The next one will be when I finish the entire VN. After that, we'll see.
I'll remember the date for sure: March 14th 2015
Thanks for listening to me ramble on this one guys. As I said, it isn't really THAT big of a deal... but it means a lot to me. So I needed to put my ramblings somewhere!~
Hey Fuwans! Lino here again bringing some more fabulous happenings around Fuwa proper. This post is going to be a tad beefier than normal, so bare with me here. In this case, it isn't as much a 'happening' is a thing that persistently exists. So without further ado, we'll be taking a look at the Fuwa-Skype Group and its offshoot; Fuwa-Skype Karaoke.
For those of you who don't know, Fuwa actually has its own skype group, the Fuwa-Skype Group (F.S.G). It's one of the places where a bunch of members here often frequent and give each other raburabu hangout outside of the forum. You can check out the thread dedicated to joining it over here. If the idea of getting into that is off-putting, perhaps take a look through the "unforgettable skype quotes" thread. We are also housing the next Nasu (a la Fate series and Tsukihime), so that right there is all the more reason to check it out.
Aside from that, as mentioned in the first part of this post, there is also an offshoot group of F.S.G; Fuwa-Skype Karaoke (F.S.K). As the name suggests, members get together and jam out and sing together every Saturday. It has been going on for a while now and everyone who ends up participating enjoys it a lot.
So we, the Recognition Team, have asked a few members of the Skype groups for a bit of their time for interviews, and they oh so kindly obliged. We would very much like to thank Kurisu-Chan, arakura, Jptje, and Joris914 for taking the time to deal with our questions and letting us interview them. Half of the interviews are in text form while the other two are available for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Hey Fuwans! Lino here again to bring you some more fabulous happenings from the community.
As some of you may be aware, solidbatman is holding a contest, and a mega big ultra one at that. For the next 8 weeks we are going to be subject to many an event set by the man himself, earning points after the completion of each one. Why do this you ask? 'Cause he is our Dark Knight, and we do not question that.
So why participate? Well, the participant with the most points at the end of it all will be taking home a big big prize. To see just what is at stake, you can check it out over on this thread. If you want to participate, you best head on over there now, as the first event is going to end on the 13th of March. All you need to do for the first event is voice your wish to join in on the fun, and the first challenge will be complete. I'll be hoping to see you there myself, as I too will be participating. Probably going to be a bloodbath, so all the more reason to head on over!
Good luck guys, and may the strongest bat Fuwan win.
Hey there denizens of Fuwa! LinovaA here of the Recognition Team, although you can just call me Lino. Nice to meet you all! Let's get right down to it.
In recent months, there's been a trend towards people learning Japanese here at Fuwanovel, at least more publicly. Now, starting the Japanese learning process can be tough, believe me I know, but luckily we have had a member step up to the plate and try and help drop the entry barrier that puts many people off. Meet rainsismyfave, whom some of you may know already. He has gone to the trouble of setting up a stream every Saturday at EST GMT -5 focusing on Japanese grammar. Don't worry if you miss it though, as he also uploads the stream to Youtube after he is done, so you don't have to worry about missing out on any important information. Keep in mind that he is focusing on grammar, so other details of Japanese such as vocabulary, kana, and kanji will not be looked upon as heavily. You can find all of the relevant information over here on his thread, where he encourages you to post feedback so he can constantly improve the stream. Big thanks to Rains for starting this, so be sure to give it a look if you have the chance!
Welcome back fellows to another episode of "Lino fails at reading Japanese but not really."
The title is a work in progress.
Look at them all, just being all trolly and such.
So I continued my journey through the land of UnTL'd VNs, trying to make sense of the everything that I am currently reading. I cannot say that I have been 100% successful, but I am understanding WAY more than I did when I first started. I think I'll go back and read the opening sequence again and see if I understand it better after I finish the route I am on. Maybe.
Speaking of route.
Yay! I finally made it onto a route. I didn't think I was making much progress until I made it to the point where all the routes branch off. Looks like my reading speed is better than snail paced after all. Although, I would probably be nearly done, if not already done if I was reading in English. No matter. I have enjoyed my time smacking my face against JParser and such. It sounds more painful than it is, believe me.
I am really thankful for those moments when I am reading where I do not have to consult JParser in order to understand what is going on. A good example of this... was this moment.
#JustKaitoThings
I died laughing. Like... the things that Kaito says... they are just too perfect.
How he got eliminated in the first round of the reddit "best guy" competition, I will never know. Well it's more likely because AkaGoei is UnTL'd, and since the majority of western users read TL'd, it only makes sense I guess.
But yeah. So far I am loving the characters. I don't think there is a single character that I dislike here. All of them amuse me in some way or another and well... so far I am torn between Tae and Tsuki for best girl. I'll wait for when I finish at least the first game before I make a judgement on that.
I guess I forgot to update this over the passed few weeks. It wasn't really "forgetting", I was just kinda busy with other stuff.
I hope to ONE DAY have a schedule for updating this thing.
Pah. Who am I kidding. It'll probably be another twenty entries before I even think of such a thing.
Man does that title make this seem important. Hate to disappoint, but it is not important at all.
So recently I decided it would be a good idea to finally stop procrastinating on something I have been really meaning to do. I finally got off my butt and got my hands on Akatsuki no Goei and installed it on my computer. With my current Japanese level, I felt it would be a good one to try and work my way through. Not too difficult and not too easy.
I just felt like a moege wouldn't really help me as much as trying to struggle my way through something with a higher level of linguistic complexity. That kinda makes it seem like I am talking about the difference between a moege and things done by the developers Light, but believe me, I make no such mistakes. I am no pleb...
... I just really wanted to say the word pleb. Its like.. my favorite 'word' right now.
I have enjoyed it thus far, that is for sure. Kaito is a freaking AWESOME protagonist. I love him, in the manly not homosexual way.
I think I have spent a total of ten hours reading, but I would be really surprised if I made it even an hour in as far as 100% fluent in Japanese person is concerned. However, I have definitely felt my vocab improving, even if it has only been three days. I have picked up a few new words and phrases, which made me pretty happy.
Incoming Digression:
So yeah, its pretty good. Maybe I will do day by day entries about my experiences with it. You can see in post time how bad my Japanese failings are. We'll see how I feel after today's playthrough.
So welcome back, ladies and gents, to my corner of Fuwa. If you are here again it definitely means that you should probably be doing something better with your time. That aside, lets jump right in.
So I have been playing Akatsuki no Goei, as some may know or have seen in my last blog post. Having finally come to the conclusion that Kaito is best male protagonist I learn better by actually doing, I jumped on a new track towards fluency.
Oh boy is it ever exciting.
So here is an overview of how things went down these last few days.
Not a lady at all. Damn you Yuuki. You have ruined me.
After that I forgot to screenshot stuff, but it can basically be summarized as Kaito being a badass and making me question my sexuality. Didn't really make it that far 'cause I got a little busy.
On a totally more serious note, I am relying heavily on ITH and TA right now, which is to be expected as I am still a Japanese Language Plebian. Hmmm.. if you abbreviate that.. its JLP.. sounds an awful lot like the JLPT. Coincidence? Doubtful.
My favorite part of reading VNs in Japanese right now is understanding a sentence without having to looking up any of the kanji in a line. It feels just so good to be able to understand what is being said without any outside assistance. My record right now is 3 lines of actual text in a row, which was by far one of my most exciting moments while reading.
Of course, right after that, I get a bunch of lines where I just kinda click it with a smile saying "nope" when I try to understand what the heck people are talking about. Trying to follow Yuuki's train of thought is killing me by the way. Like. It caused the title of this post. My Japanese.exe crashed and it took me an hour to reboot it after his conversation with Kaito.
Although... he did teach me one onomatopoeia that I think everyone should know. It is very important to everyone's daily life.. and I just feel I should share it with you all, 'cause I am a nice person.
Don't say that my blog is useless. Consider it... educational.
Maybe I will make this into a series or something? We'll see.
Hey guys, Lino here again bringing you another highlight from the community.
Some of you may have encountered one of our wonderful members here on the site named Zalor. He's been around for awhile and has written up a few awesome analyses on a few visual novels that are at an almost scholarly level. Saya no Uta was his most recent subject for an in-depth paper. He wrote an awesome analysis for it called Perspective in Saya no Uta which is linked right there. I highly suggest checking it out if you have read Saya no Uta, as it provides a very insightful look into some of the central themes of the visual novel. The papers he has written are very well thought out, and I look forward to reading more of them in the future. Be sure to check out his other papers if you get the chance. So big thanks Zalor for making some awesome contributions to the community.
I really do though. Blogs are rather nice for me to spam my thoughts, but I never manage to keep updating. Maybe because this on Fuwa, which is where I spend like 80% of my time, I'll actually keep this up and ACTUALLY keep up with it.
Maybe. Just maybe.
So yeah. Maybe I will make an entry on what I am playing right now, or something. I'll spam another post after this.
