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Hello, my name is Clephas, and I am/was a weaboo.  *snickers at the AA reference*  I'm mostly posting on this matter to give those otakus who aren't necessarily weaboos an idea of what it is like to be a weaboo (ignoring social problems, for the moment, haha) and just why we exist in the first place. 
First, to correct a common misconception... not all weaboos are solely obsessed with Japanese culture/history/etc.  In fact, most Western ones are or eventually become interested in all Asian cultures.  There are a number of reasons for it usually starting with an obsession with Japan, and I'll try to cover them all for you. 
The most obvious reason is that Japan's culture is so obviously different from anything in the average Westerner's personal experience (extracting those that come from first-generation Asian immigrant families).  To be blunt, the average American can at least guess at European sensibilities and the average European can do the same, with some mental effort.  We share a basic religious background, our social contracts are based on the same basic philosophy (with differences in preferences), and we tend to have similar cultural ancestors if we look back into history.  Heck, even most of Latin American can say the same.  So, for the average white-on-white Westerner (or Hispanic as the case may be), there might be numerous personal differences, but the actual cultural differences are in the details rather than the base elements. 
On the other hand, there is literally no common base between us and most Asian cultures, save that which we forcibly transplanted during the colonial days of the past two centuries.  Whereas we experienced various types of paganism and polytheism followed by Christianity, they experienced Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto... the list goes on.  Not only that, the way we developed our cultures was essentially different.  Confucianism in China (and the symbol of the Emperor in Japan) provided a sense of structure and continuity for centuries that altered greatly the way Chinese see the world even today, though most of its precepts have been altered almost beyond recognition in the millennia since their development.  This sense of continuity (in aspects other than philosophical) over such a vast period of time is perhaps one of the biggest causes of differences between Chinese culture in particular and Asian culture in general.  To be blunt, when the Chinese were already an Empire, our ancestors were mostly banging on drums in small settlements across the face of Europe, begging the elements not to starve our children or flood us out.  The 'weight' of culture is so much greater in Japan in China that Westerners in general and Americans in particular can't help but be impressed (or offended/frightened as the case may be) on first encounter with it. 
That said, whether that first impression turns to fascination or apathy is entirely based on the individual.  People that are more curious are more likely to get sucked into it, whereas those who prefer what they already have are more likely to simply set aside that first impression and move on. 
Another reason is that Japan is really really good at 'advertising' its culture... without really trying.  How many of you watched Pokemon, DBZ, or even Voltron or Robotech as kids without even knowing what it was?  I think you'd be surprised at how many otakus received an early baptism of Japanese ideas that planted the seeds for an eventual otaku and/or weaboo transformation.   For that matter, how many of you saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (new or old) or one of the more modern Batman movies?  Perhaps because of the intimate role we played in rebuilding post-war Japan, as well as the stream of Japanese who immigrated after the war, Japanese influence touches lightly on a great deal of our urban society (less so on the rural, though). 
The 'second baptism' that most Americans experience is negative... it is history class when you hit WWII.  The ferocity and apparent insanity (in the average Westerner's eyes) of the Japanese during the war causes an almost involuntary fascination in those who read about it, that frequently leads to a search for answers as to just why they acted the way they did during the war.  This inevitably leads to the samurai culture (both popular and historical), thus frequently creating new weaboos in droves, despite the fact that the WWII history is pretty horrifying the way it is presented (and even worse in reality).
No one is more mouthy and annoying than a new convert of any sort... and those weaboos that most annoy people are generally this type... the ones who haven't yet realized that their obsession can annoy others and thus can't stop themselves from chattering endlessly about some new aspect they discovered along the way, as if they were the first to find that particular fact out. 
Tips for tempering your obsession
If you are a weaboo, it is almost inevitable you will say too much to someone who isn't interested at some point.  In that way, it is a lot like standard otakuism.  However, if you want to at least limit your annoyance factors, here are a few tips.
1- Don't beautify every single aspect of Japanese culture you find.  Samurai culture led to the insane nationalism and mass suicides of WWII.  Geisha were glorified prostitutes (albeit artistically beautiful ones).  Ninja were spies descended from thieves and common murderers.  (etc. etc.)
2- Be aware that Japanese culture can take some seriously ugly turns in the modern era (the fact that police don't get involved in domestic affairs, the weak rape laws and enforcement of those laws, bullying in schools and at work, hikikomori, karoushi). 
3- Be aware that the excessive pride of some Japanese has led to a resurrection of the same nationalism that caused their involvement in WWII (modern historical revisionism focused on WWII and the events immediately preceding it is a prime example of this).
4- The Japanese really did do most of the horrible things their neighbors said they did... not to mention the POW camps where they held the Philippines US troops during the war.
5- Japanese gun control only works because they have no history of regular people possessing personal arms.
Well, that ends my lecture for the day. 

Pop quiz, hotshot.
There’s an untranslated (i.e, romaji) word sitting there in the script you're editing, staring right up at you. It’s been left like that because the TL team figured people ought to know what it means. But will they really? And what are the ramifications if they don’t? You’re running out of time, and patch release day is breathing down your neck. What do you do?
WHAT DO YOU DO?
In the case of KoiRizo, I ended up relying on a journalistic standard commonly called “the first reference rule.” Here’s how it works.
Visual novels for all!
Let’s say you’re a journalist writing an article about efforts to improve educational standards in underdeveloped nations. At some point, you might find yourself needing to refer to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, aka UNESCO. But if just you dropped the acronym “UNESCO” in there, most people wouldn’t know what the bloody hell you were talking about. And if you went with “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” every time, your prose would be about as ungainly as me at my prom. So a compromise gets struck: you explain the term on your first reference to it, then use the shorter form thereafter.
An example first reference:
“The director-general of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), pledged to make visual novels part of the global curriculum by 2025.”
Or:
“The director-general of UNESCO, the UN agency focused on international education efforts, pledged to make visual novels part of the global curriculum by 2025.”
At this point, you’d be free to use “UNESCO” in any future references, since you’ve already explained the term. Everyone wins: the reader understands what you’re talking about, and you only have to use one word instead of eight.

Ojousamas for all!
The same holds true for visual novels. Let’s say an untranslated term like “ojousama” shows up in your script. if the reader has consumed a fair number of anime/manga/VNs, they might know this describes a young woman of certain means and refinement. It’s a common VN archetype, after all. But a relative newcomer to these genres would have no way of knowing that. They’d be lost if you just started dropping O-bombs out of the blue.
So the first thing to do is determine context. Is this a one-off reference? If so, you can probably just fully translate the line and be done with it. (“She takes a limo to school? She must be an ojousama” becomes, “She takes a limo to school? She must come from money.”)
In the case of KoiRizo, however, the word “ojousama” is used several dozen times. In fact, a character’s ojousama-ness becomes the focal point of an entire route. It would be a fool’s errand to try and excise it, particularly when there’s no one English word to replace it. So we apply the first reference rule.
The initial mention in the translated KoiRizo script reads:
“Because she's an ojousama, it'd be a given that she wouldn't worry about matters like money.”
It hints at the meaning, but doesn't quite go far enough. So applying our rule, we update it to:
“She's a proper young lady of means — an ojousama — so you'd expect her not to worry about things like money.”
We’ve now defined the word “ojousama” in context and set the stage for its future use. This will make the rest of the VN flow much more smoothly for both new readers and purists who prefer their tropey terms untranslated. If several hours go by without us using the word again, it’s common courtesy to provide a reminder of its definition, but otherwise we should be good to go.

All for gruel!
You can even apply the rule in reverse. Here, two characters are about to spend 50 or so lines talking about a certain home-cooked dish. Original translation below:
A: “Okay ... What's in the pot?”
B: “Rice gruel with egg broth.”
We don’t want to spend the next 50 lines saying “Rice gruel with egg broth.” Nor do we want to just say “gruel,” which sounds like something ladled out in a Depression-era orphanage. In fact, this is a steaming bowl of Japanese comfort food deliciousness. So we apply the rule in reverse, and bring back the untranslated term from the original script:
A: “Okay ... What's in the pot?”
B: “Ojiya — rice end egg porridge.”
Now we can safely use the term “ojiya” for the next 50 lines. This ends up working better on several levels: it makes the dish sound more traditionally Japanese, it strikes the right emotional tone, and it helps us shave extra words from our lines.
P.S. - If anyone knows where I can get a really good bowl of ojiya in New York City, I’m all ears.

Introduction:
 
When it comes to reading VN's in Japanese, required skills can be grouped into four areas: Vocab, grammar, basic parsing skill, and kanji skill. In this post, for each area I'm going to explain:
-what knowing skills in the area are good for
-how you might study them
-how much you'll need to start reading.
I'll also give some related tips.
 
The requirements mentioned below are a conservative estimate. I've known people who've jumped in to playing VN's with less or much less, but I'm giving a safe estimate. A level which at most people, without any special knack for learning languages through immersion, should be able to gain traction. If you learn this much before starting an easyish VN, the amount you are completely lost should be significantly less than the percentage you are able to pick up and improve from.
 
This is not a comprehensive how-to guide by any means. Just an informative post.
 
------------------
 
1. Vocab
 
Knowing enough vocab to study your grammar resource without being bogged down by vocab:
-About 30 verbs and 50 other words for Genki 1/ Tae kim Basic.
-By the time you get to Genki 2/Tae Kim Essential you'll want a good set of verbs (about 100), and maybe about 300 total vocabulary.
-~600 words about how much you'll want to be able to study N3 grammar without getting bogged down in vocab.
 
Having enough vocab to start your first VN:
-I recommend over 1000, but anywhere from 800-1300 is good. I remember trying Clannad with only 800, and I felt like ramming my head into a wall. It's also important to pick an easy title. It will still feel hard no matter what, but an easy title will be much more helpful and rewarding to play. You also must just translation aggregator and ITH. They are the reason why Visual Novels are the best medium for learning Japanese out of anime/books/movies/drama/etc.
 
Vocab Lists:
There's a dedicated verb list here: http://nihongoichiban.com/2012/08/13/list-of-all-verbs-for-the-jlpt-n4/
Verbs are helpful to learn, because they are often the most important part of the sentence AND you need to to have stuff to conjugate.
In general JLPT-based vocab list is here: http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/jlpt5/vocab/
 
Regarding English definitions:
Be mentally open and flexible. If the english definition doesn't quite add up, don't try and think about it too hard. Focus instead on associating the word with the situations where you see it.
For example, you might be confused by the word 都合 and it's unhelpful definition J-E definition, but if you seen 都合がいい used in a situation where you know it means "is convenient for me" from context then remember that occurence. There might be (there are, in fact), other usages of the word 都合, but that doesn't hurt you in anyway. The next time you see 都合 you can pair it against this meaning and see if that makes any sense.
 
2. Grammar Skills
 
With N5+N4 grammar you will be barely able to start making your way through a VN. Without N4, you will have quite limited gains in the long term from reading visual novels. (Equivalent to Genki 1+2.)
-Required to be able to play VN's
 
With N3 grammar, everything will feel a lot clearer, the amount of grammar you'll understand will exceed 60%. (Equiv. to Intermediate approach to Integrated Japanese). Highly recommended to study this before or soon after you start your first VN.
 
N2 grammar further cuts the amount of unknown grammar you face in three.
 
N1 is kind of like a bonus that gives you a lot of uncommon or formal expressions. It's NOT comprehensive at all, in terms of covered all Japanese phrases. From my experience, some of the phrases you learn in here show up often in novels (ばかり、んばかり), others quite less. Good to know, though
 
Expressions not covered in JLPT
There are a lot of patterns and phrases not covered in JLPT that you will see in typical native reading material. Examples (社長に議長, phrases like なんだと！？ Xってなんだ？　ですって！？　～てくれないかな。 オレって、なんてバカなんだ ) Not to worry, many of them can be picked up as you go. For the rest, once you get settled into reading, you can start noting down those phrases you don't get and google them or ask other people.
 
Imabi for grammar
You can also try studying from http://www.imabi.net/. It's a phenomenal reference, it's just goes into tons of depth, too much. I think there's 2 or 3 times as much information there is covered by JLPT up to JLPT 1. As such it's going to be overwhelming for a beginner and is much better suited as a reference for intermediate or advanced learners.
 
3. Basic Parsing Skill
 
Knowing the different types of words (Covered by doing a vocab list of about 100 verbs, and then the JLPT 5 list. You also have to have done or be doing Tae Kim's Basic Guide, since he explains what na-adj's, i-adj's, and other word types are, etc.).
-(nouns, suru-verbs/nouns, verbs, na-adj's, i-adj's, adverbs, temporal adverbs)
-Required to be able to play VN's.
 
Knowing the basic sentence structure and how words can modify each other and fit in a sentence.: (adjectives modifying nouns, verbs).
The knowledge is covered by Tae Kim Basic + a mix of Essential Grammar and Genki 1/2. I personally find Tae Kim's explanation good even though the learning curve is steep and his lessons aren't good for review like Genki books are. He tries to convey to you the big picture.
-Required to be able to play VN's.
 
Being able to breakdown sentences and spot the different types of words based on their position.
-you can practice this by reading bits of text in your genki textbook, but more likely, the first time you really gain this skill is going to be the first month in which you read a visual novel with TA. Heavily practiced during your first month or two of reading VN's.
 
4. Kanji Skill:
 
Learning to spots radicals in kanji (could be covered by doing the 214 radicals, about 1 month. You could also do this ongoing basis, learning how to spot the radicals that make up a kanji, for the words you learn.)
-not needed to read VN's with TL aggregator, but extremely helpful for learning new words which have new kanji.
 
Learning to remember kanji, ie. start recognizing when words share the same kanji. (it is a long ongoing gradual process. You can start doing this with the vocab you learn once you are comfortable learning vocab. You can also pick out words you see in vn's and check whether they use the same kanji by typing them out (example 朝（あさ）　and　朝食（ちょうしょく）　use the same kanji.). Oh course, to be able to easily produce the kanji you want to compare you need to remember how to spell a word that contains it (in this case 朝). So, as your vocab expands, you'll be able to compare more kanji. Note that to be able to do this comparing you must be able to spot radicals in kanji (previous level skill).
-moderately helpful for learning vocabs. The same way remembering radicals helps learning with kanji: if you know the kanji clearly, you can remember a word just by the two kanji it uses, which is very precise and doesn't take a lot of mental bandwidth. It also means that you will much more rarely confuse words which have similiar looking kanji.
 
The following two skills are for more advanced, they won't be particularly useful until much later. You might not notice the problems they solve until later as well. I include them mainly for completeness.
Learning on-yomi for many of the Jyouyou kanji (start when you are intermediate-advanced, a medium-long process)
-helpful for exactly what it is, reading kanji words and compounds correctly.
-don't need to worry about this. From learning vocab you might pick up some of the common ones, but there's no need to pursue this actively for a while.
 
Learning kanji meaning: (start when you are advanced, and can use a J-J dictionary)
-suffixes like 府、省、性、症, as well normal kanji whose different meanings apply to clusters of words.
-helpful for kanji compounds which won't directly show up in dictionaries
-helpful for developing a native level understanding of vocabulary (not everything can be learned by exposure). A lot of literary words are fairly influenced by their kanji meanings, though sometimes consulting the word differentiation explanations can be more helpful.
 
 
 
One last topic...
 
On learning enough grammar and jumping into works too difficult for you.
Reading a VN isn't the best way to learn basic sentence structure. However, it's a great way to reinforce grammar points you've learned. It's also a great way to get an understanding of conversational patterns you won't find in textbooks or JLPT. But you won't have the presence of mind to pay attention to that if you are bogged down by not knowing basic grammar.
There are benefits for venturing early into native material or difficult vn's, but you wouldn't give a grade two student Tolkien, or even Harry Potter to improve their English. All the fancy prose and unusual concept would distract you from the more immediately useful things like, say: basic sentence structure.
There are works which are the right level, and there are VN's which you really want to read. For the best experience, it's best to find some combination of the two.
 
------------------
 
Ok that's all for now. Feel free to ask any questions: I didn't really go into the details of how to study, instead focusing on the, well, skills involved. But it's also hard to remember what it's like for someone just starting out. I remember parts of studying very clearly, but I forget the thousands of things I used to be puzzled through varying stages of understanding but now take for granted.
The process was all I could think about for the longest time. Now I don't give it much thought, it's just a regular part of my life, reading and a bit of studying. It's not bad idea, to just find a type of study that you know is helpful, stop thinking about all the right ways and wrong ways and magic tricks which don't exist, and just do it, for a while. Regularly. For a month or three.

NOTE: This isn't what I would call a review. More like nitpicking useless stuffs hence the title. I'm hoping that you people are intelligent enough to not take my work too seriously as I proceed. Also, massive spoilers.
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis is an anime adaptation of a mobile game with the same name. The anime was produced by studio MAPPA who are mostly known for working on titles like Zankyou no Terror and Garo: The Animation.
 
The anime opens with an epic battle scene happening between a dragon and some omnipotent beings just to show you exactly what to expect from it in the future. While it succeeded in capturing many with gasp and awe, it wasn’t exactly what I would call a ‘good opening scene’ per se. The scene left me mostly in confusion rather than working as an establishment of a fictional world. I couldn’t figure out or even get a general idea of who was supposed to be whom and what was going on. Only on the later episodes it was revealed that Zeus and Satan apparently worked together to seal Bahamut.
Zeus and Satan? They aren’t even of the same mythology. It would had made more sense if it was Hades instead of Satan. Well, the mixing of pantheons isn’t exactly a con in terms of storytelling so….yeah, I’m just nitpicking.
 
The show evokes the feels and tones of a 17th century Spain with its arts, settings and music. A fantasy swashbuckler anime that draws inspirations heavily from other fantasy swashbuckler western movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The big wheel scene in episode 1, the zombies, the pirates, the entangled ships, the fight on top of the mast, sea monster and tentacle all in episode 4 are some of the homage it delivers sweetly.
The orchestrated scores are just perfect for the tone. They don’t stand out much but, as a certain someone pointed out, it’s for the best since it immerses you to the story well without fail and that’s definitely a plus for me. The OP and the ED were the ones that I completely skipped. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that they were bad or even mediocre at best. It’s just that it failed to grab my attention for the first few minutes or I simply didn’t gave it a second chance.
 
It felt weird to see Amira’s personality change in episode 2. In the first episode, she was shown to be less talkative and gave an aura of a stoic person plus the badassery when fighting with the summoned demon (the cinematography used in this fight scene was excellent compared to all the later unimaginative fight scenes). But in the middle of episode 2, her personality changes to a childish one. A dojikko trait.
It’s not a matter of Amira opening up to the main protagonist Favaro because she acts childish and vulnerable even in front of strangers and mere acquaintance when staying in the Anatae city. It felt like the change to her dojikko personality was just there to appeal the otaku fans. Also, what’s with her imprisonment? The angels ordered the king to keep Amira under heavy guard (can’t they just send their own infinite supply of angels to protect her?) and the King swore to guard her with his life but where are is the heavy guard? Her room is kept on watch with only two generic guards with distorted facial features. Why does she roam freely around the castle for whole three episodes without anyone even noticing or objecting?
 
There were some little issues with the pacing like how quickly things were resolved when in episode 5, the demon Azazel manipulated Kaisar (other protagonist) into fighting Favaro.
The Anatae arc slowed things down distracting us away from the main plot. I think it was done so that they have enough material to reach the twelve episode mark in other words, fillers. But these things not only slowed down the pace, it also added new conflicts that only complicated the overall plot unnecessarily. Like the king being poisoned by paranoia or Jeanne D'Arc (the badass) transforming into a demon.
Also, the clichéd ‘most trusted guy is the one behind everything’ plot twist. Lavalley falls victim of this trope. This plot twist fails for me as it felt unnecessary and didn’t really shocked me at all and it also created unintentional plot holes which I’ll get into later.
 
Kaisar (other protagonist) also had some character inconsistency like how much is his vengeance important? At first, it seems like a running gag for him to chase and fight Favaro but later it is revealed that it’s much more serious than that and Kaisar (other protagonist) would never forgive him. But then again, he suddenly becomes very cooperative with Favaro for little to no reason.
When falling down, Kaisar (other protagonist) can slow down time and talk at lengths in mid-air. In the last episode he gets his hand (the one where he wears the bounty hunter bracelet) cut off by Favaro to trick Lavalley and seal him off. Couldn’t they just pretend to fight and get close to him in acceptable range and simply seal him off there? Damaging Kaisar (other protagonist) seemed like an unnecessary attempt to make him look like a badass.
Jeanne D'Arc (the badass) was just cast off as a minor side character even though she had huge potentials and was shown to be someone really important to the main plot in the early episodes.
 
The CGI effects were surprisingly good when I expected them to be awkward except for the green dragon. That was awful enough. And let’s not forget the great Bahamut himself (or itself). CGI Bahamut stuck out like a sore thumb too.
They could have used more tweening for smooth animation flow but it was above good nonetheless. I would have expected more from studio MAPPA since they did some fantastic animation in Zankyou no Terror but I guess they were running out of money and manpower in addition to the dead line.
 
Plot holes left unanswered:
If Lavalley was the one behind everything, then why did he left the childish Amira all by herself to find Helheim? How in the world could he predict that some random afro would help Amira to get to Helheim at all cost? Couldn’t he just kidnap Amira by his own when she was roaming freely around the castle for whole 3 episodes? It seems like a much more logical and easy solution than trying to trick her with all the pendent stuff.
It was revealed that Amira’s memories were fabricated by Beelzebub and he recreated Amira from Nicole (Amira’s supposedly mother) as an imitation vessel to release Bahamut. It was showed clearly that Amira was a full grown adult when she was being separated from Nicole. Now the cocoon excuse falls flat. If she was an adult from the beginning then how come her personality be childish? She wasn’t grown inside a cocoon from childhood to adulthood so where did this clumsy personality come from? And keeping her inside the cocoon even when she was an adult (also making her a child when she was already an adult) would just seem like a waste of time and not logical. Her acting childish throughout the show felt like they underutilized her potential as a character just like they did with Jeanne D'Arc (the badass).
When Amira hugs Nicole, she calls out Amira’s name and dies in peace. How did Nicole know that her supposedly daughter’s (more accurately, her clone’s) name was Amira? And why did she lovingly call out her name if she knew that Beelzebub created the clone by force? Wouldn’t Nicole just hate Amira more for that?
Beelzebub and Lavalley released Bahamut by using Amira as the key. Then the Bahamut fatally wounds Beelzebub. Why was Beelzebub so sure that he could control Bahamut if he releases the dragon? Even if Lavalley lied to him that he could control Bahamut, wouldn’t he at least be suspicious because Bahamut was so powerful that even Zeus and Satan could barely seal him off let alone control him? Looks like Beelzebub trusts and gets tricked by people easily despite him being the devil.
Also:

I think the show would have turned out great if the plot twist never happened. If Lavalley really was the virtuous human who protected Nicole and Amira from the demons, if Martinet (Lavalley’s disguise or his other personality?) never even existed, if Nicole really did gave birth to Amira instead of cloning, all of the above plot holes could’ve been avoided and made this journey more emotional and satisfying than it currently is.
 
Despite me cherry picking all that stuff, I still enjoyed the show. It undoubtedly is in the leagues of one of the best animes of 2014 if not ‘the best’. Quality animation, great slapstick comedy that doesn’t gets old, an emotionally invested epic journey, almost no pacing issues, fillers (subplots) that tied to the overarching plot, good action scenes, Favaro, and the Dragon are just some of the many things that this anime has to offer.
I’m definitely hyped for when the next season comes out. And by that time, I hope that they had learned from their mistakes.
 
Q: Where are the review scores?
A: It's against my policy to give generalized metric values to a piece of art or literature or any kind of entertainment medium....actually, I just suck at math...I'll start rating things with numbers when I get a PhD in Mathematics or something.

NOTE: This isn't what I would call a review. More like nitpicking useless stuffs hence the title. I'm hoping that you people are intelligent enough to not take my work too seriously as I proceed. Also, massive spoilers.
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis is an anime adaptation of a mobile game with the same name. The anime was produced by studio MAPPA who are mostly known for working on titles like Zankyou no Terror and Garo: The Animation.
 
The anime opens with an epic battle scene happening between a dragon and some omnipotent beings just to show you exactly what to expect from it in the future. While it succeeded in capturing many with gasp and awe, it wasn’t exactly what I would call a ‘good opening scene’ per se. The scene left me mostly in confusion rather than working as an establishment of a fictional world. I couldn’t figure out or even get a general idea of who was supposed to be whom and what was going on. Only on the later episodes it was revealed that Zeus and Satan apparently worked together to seal Bahamut.
Zeus and Satan? They aren’t even of the same mythology. It would had made more sense if it was Hades instead of Satan. Well, the mixing of pantheons isn’t exactly a con in terms of storytelling so….yeah, I’m just nitpicking.
 
The show evokes the feels and tones of a 17th century Spain with its arts, settings and music. A fantasy swashbuckler anime that draws inspirations heavily from other fantasy swashbuckler western movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The big wheel scene in episode 1, the zombies, the pirates, the entangled ships, the fight on top of the mast, sea monster and tentacle all in episode 4 are some of the homage it delivers sweetly.
The orchestrated scores are just perfect for the tone. They don’t stand out much but, as a certain someone pointed out, it’s for the best since it immerses you to the story well without fail and that’s definitely a plus for me. The OP and the ED were the ones that I completely skipped. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that they were bad or even mediocre at best. It’s just that it failed to grab my attention for the first few minutes or I simply didn’t gave it a second chance.
 
It felt weird to see Amira’s personality change in episode 2. In the first episode, she was shown to be less talkative and gave an aura of a stoic person plus the badassery when fighting with the summoned demon (the cinematography used in this fight scene was excellent compared to all the later unimaginative fight scenes). But in the middle of episode 2, her personality changes to a childish one. A dojikko trait.
It’s not a matter of Amira opening up to the main protagonist Favaro because she acts childish and vulnerable even in front of strangers and mere acquaintance when staying in the Anatae city. It felt like the change to her dojikko personality was just there to appeal the otaku fans. Also, what’s with her imprisonment? The angels ordered the king to keep Amira under heavy guard (can’t they just send their own infinite supply of angels to protect her?) and the King swore to guard her with his life but where are is the heavy guard? Her room is kept on watch with only two generic guards with distorted facial features. Why does she roam freely around the castle for whole three episodes without anyone even noticing or objecting?
 
There were some little issues with the pacing like how quickly things were resolved when in episode 5, the demon Azazel manipulated Kaisar (other protagonist) into fighting Favaro.
The Anatae arc slowed things down distracting us away from the main plot. I think it was done so that they have enough material to reach the twelve episode mark in other words, fillers. But these things not only slowed down the pace, it also added new conflicts that only complicated the overall plot unnecessarily. Like the king being poisoned by paranoia or Jeanne D'Arc (the badass) transforming into a demon.
Also, the clichéd ‘most trusted guy is the one behind everything’ plot twist. Lavalley falls victim of this trope. This plot twist fails for me as it felt unnecessary and didn’t really shocked me at all and it also created unintentional plot holes which I’ll get into later.
 
Kaisar (other protagonist) also had some character inconsistency like how much is his vengeance important? At first, it seems like a running gag for him to chase and fight Favaro but later it is revealed that it’s much more serious than that and Kaisar (other protagonist) would never forgive him. But then again, he suddenly becomes very cooperative with Favaro for little to no reason.
When falling down, Kaisar (other protagonist) can slow down time and talk at lengths in mid-air. In the last episode he gets his hand (the one where he wears the bounty hunter bracelet) cut off by Favaro to trick Lavalley and seal him off. Couldn’t they just pretend to fight and get close to him in acceptable range and simply seal him off there? Damaging Kaisar (other protagonist) seemed like an unnecessary attempt to make him look like a badass.
Jeanne D'Arc (the badass) was just cast off as a minor side character even though she had huge potentials and was shown to be someone really important to the main plot in the early episodes.
 
The CGI effects were surprisingly good when I expected them to be awkward except for the green dragon. That was awful enough. And let’s not forget the great Bahamut himself (or itself). CGI Bahamut stuck out like a sore thumb too.
They could have used more tweening for smooth animation flow but it was above good nonetheless. I would have expected more from studio MAPPA since they did some fantastic animation in Zankyou no Terror but I guess they were running out of money and manpower in addition to the dead line.
 
Plot holes left unanswered:
If Lavalley was the one behind everything, then why did he left the childish Amira all by herself to find Helheim? How in the world could he predict that some random afro would help Amira to get to Helheim at all cost? Couldn’t he just kidnap Amira by his own when she was roaming freely around the castle for whole 3 episodes? It seems like a much more logical and easy solution than trying to trick her with all the pendent stuff.
It was revealed that Amira’s memories were fabricated by Beelzebub and he recreated Amira from Nicole (Amira’s supposedly mother) as an imitation vessel to release Bahamut. It was showed clearly that Amira was a full grown adult when she was being separated from Nicole. Now the cocoon excuse falls flat. If she was an adult from the beginning then how come her personality be childish? She wasn’t grown inside a cocoon from childhood to adulthood so where did this clumsy personality come from? And keeping her inside the cocoon even when she was an adult (also making her a child when she was already an adult) would just seem like a waste of time and not logical. Her acting childish throughout the show felt like they underutilized her potential as a character just like they did with Jeanne D'Arc (the badass).
When Amira hugs Nicole, she calls out Amira’s name and dies in peace. How did Nicole know that her supposedly daughter’s (more accurately, her clone’s) name was Amira? And why did she lovingly call out her name if she knew that Beelzebub created the clone by force? Wouldn’t Nicole just hate Amira more for that?
Beelzebub and Lavalley released Bahamut by using Amira as the key. Then the Bahamut fatally wounds Beelzebub. Why was Beelzebub so sure that he could control Bahamut if he releases the dragon? Even if Lavalley lied to him that he could control Bahamut, wouldn’t he at least be suspicious because Bahamut was so powerful that even Zeus and Satan could barely seal him off let alone control him? Looks like Beelzebub trusts and gets tricked by people easily despite him being the devil.
Also:

I think the show would have turned out great if the plot twist never happened. If Lavalley really was the virtuous human who protected Nicole and Amira from the demons, if Martinet (Lavalley’s disguise or his other personality?) never even existed, if Nicole really did gave birth to Amira instead of cloning, all of the above plot holes could’ve been avoided and made this journey more emotional and satisfying than it currently is.
 
Despite me cherry picking all that stuff, I still enjoyed the show. It undoubtedly is in the leagues of one of the best animes of 2014 if not ‘the best’. Quality animation, great slapstick comedy that doesn’t gets old, an emotionally invested epic journey, almost no pacing issues, fillers (subplots) that tied to the overarching plot, good action scenes, Favaro, and the Dragon are just some of the many things that this anime has to offer.
I’m definitely hyped for when the next season comes out. And by that time, I hope that they had learned from their mistakes.
 
Q: Where are the review scores?
A: It's against my policy to give generalized metric values to a piece of art or literature or any kind of entertainment medium....actually, I just suck at math...I'll start rating things with numbers when I get a PhD in Mathematics or something.

I see many frequently encountered issues in the visual novel community.  I've taken some time to address them, with a focus on pragmatic solutions rather than long-winded explanations.
Issue: I really like <insert type of VN>, but I can't find others like it, or I've already played through all the suggested titles.
Answer: There's over 17k VNs in VNDB's database.  2356 are available in English.  The sorts of VNs you're looking for are almost certainly there.  Time to learn Japanese.
Issue: JAST USA is really slow, and it licenses nearly finished fan translations and sits on them for years before releasing them.
Answer: Time to learn Japanese.  You'll probably finish before JAST does.
Issue: Companies keep licensing eroge and releasing them censored on Steam.
Answer: They're doing this because few people buy eroge, whereas Steam users are more than happy to overpay for softcore porn.  Time to learn Japanese.
Issue: JAST/Nukaku is censoring my lolis / guro / scat / all the content I'm interested in.  It's really ticking me off.
Answer: Distribution of offensive pornographic content is restricted in much of the English-speaking world.  Time to learn Japanese.  Also, best not to import the stuff, or you could end up like this guy.
Issue: Original English VNs are terrible.  Help!
Answer: Yes, the English VN market has thus far failed to attract professional game developers, especially when it comes to sexual content.  Time to learn Japanese.
Issue: The game I'm interested in has a fan translation or a fan translation in progress, but the translation is terrible or the project is stalled.
Answer: Fan translators cannot be relied upon to provide high-quality translations quickly and reliably.  They have real jobs / studies that take precedence.  Time to learn Japanese.
Issue: Localization companies pick mediocre or short titles I have no interest in.  Why can't they release something I want like <insert title from Type-Moon, Eushully, or other famous developer here>?
Answer: Japanese companies don't care what you want, and neither do localization companies.  They want profits, and releasing titles people want is often unfeasible or unprofitable.  Time to learn Japanese.
Issue: I tried text hooking with machine translation so I could play Japanese VNs, but I can't understand it or it's too frustrating to use.
Answer: Understanding machine translation requires practice and exposure.  It's a bit like learning a new language.  If you'd rather not learn machine translation, you could learn Japanese instead.
Issue: Learning Japanese is hard.  Like, really hard.
Answer: Yes, it's one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn.  The US government estimates that 2200 hours of intensive study is required to gain basic proficiency in Japanese.  To add insult to injury, Japanese has a special asterisk next to it reading, "Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category".  That means they lied; it actually takes significantly more than 2200 hours to learn the language.  Good luck.
So there you go: practical solutions to frequently encountered issues.  I hope everyone finds this guide helpful.

This rant stemmed from a conversation on Twitter. I'm posting this here purely because posting this line by line on Twitter seemed retarded, and I'd disable the forum notifications for this post if I could. You can dig through my recent Twitter replies if you want to see the context. Have fun.
***
The problem is a bit more complicated than "some people don't like what I have to say". Sure, there's that, but the majority of detractors don't like how I raise my voice to be heard through the din. The majority of eroge fans are content to stay within their walled communities and gossip amongst each other. A few bloggers have appeared, but again they keep to themselves and expect their audience to come to them.
I've challenged this status quo. I've decided to be the black sheep that actually promotes his content: after all, why would anyone devote any amount of effort to writing for the smallest audience possible? I write to make a difference. I write to be recognized as a community leader. I'm not content with just being heard by a single insular community of hardcore fans. I can't accomplish anything like that.
I consider myself an industry activist. I do what the industry refuses to do: market and promote itself. In a community where freeloading is the norm, active promotion is very much frowned upon. Yet spurring people to buy stuff is incredibly important if eroge fans want to have a say in English localization. I want to be the facilitator that bridges the gap between eroge companies and the VN community. I want to be the voice for eroge fans when companies cross the line, thinking that sales are more important than the wishes of the fanbase. I can't do all of this by just whining in threads on Fuwanovel about the success of the Sakura series while games like Seinarukana remain in obscurity.
Mainstream activists make a living off what they do. I do what I do almost entirely for free, with the simple request that people click my affiliate links when they buy a game because of the content I provide. I would say that criticism of me is hypocritical, yet I realize that only a year ago I'd probably have said that what I do is distasteful. If things would get done without me, I'd be willing to pass the baton and go back to an online life of obscurity. If good content promoted itself, I wouldn't need to try to so hard to get the word out. But well, life isn't fair, honest effort isn't necessarily rewarded, and mediocrity is the formula for success. If I don't promote my content, no one else will. That's just how it is.
Long rant. I'm not going to post this on Twitter line by line.
Note: This is meant to be a conversation between me and my followers. If you say something unconstructive or just piss me off, I'll start deleting comments without warning. You have been warned.

If I could give you any two pieces of advice, gentle reader, they would be: don’t eat unopened mussels, and don’t proofread anything you’ve edited. Neither will end well for you.

I always scratch my head when I see a visual novel translation project with the same person listed as Editor and Proofreader. Or worse yet, Translator, Editor, and Proofreader. Or (and I know I’ve seen this at least once) Translator, TLC, Editor, and Proofreader. I’m all for DIY, but that's a disaster waiting to happen.

Here’s the rule: If you’ve touched a piece of copy in any one of these roles, it’s tainted for you in all others. Sorry, that’s just how it is. These jobs are meant to be a series of checks and balances to help ensure the quality and accuracy of the content. If a single person takes on two or more of these roles, you’ve got problems. If one or more of these positions goes completely unfilled, you’ve got problems.

It’s not that you wouldn’t be capable — many editors are amazing at proofreading, and tons of translators are wonderful at TLC — but once you’ve worked with the text in one capacity, your familiarity with it makes you far less effective in any other role.

Our stupid, stupid brains
Like so many things in life, it all comes down our stupid brains being more helpful than we want — kind of like an overeager toddler who just handed you your iPhone. In the shower. (Thank god for Applecare+.) Whenever our brains see a gap in content, they try to fill it whether we want them to or not. “Hi, I’m your brain. Hey, is there a word missing there? Can I make a fairly good guess as to what it is? Wheee! I’ll just pretend like it was there and we read it and nothing’s wrong. Now let’s go think about boobies some more! BOO-BEES! BOO-BEES!” And the more familiar your brain is with the work in question, the easier it is for it to fill in those gaps. It already knows what to expect, and it’s just waiting to jump in and save the day.
Our brains must be stopped before they kill again.
The easiest way to do this is, at each step of the creation and revision process, have someone ready look at the content with fresh eyes and no preconceptions. Simple as that. You wouldn't go get a second opinion from the doctor who just provided your first opinion, would you? So don’t do it here. Don't double-up on jobs, and don’t leave positions unfilled. The final product will be better for it.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Easier said than done. Finding good volunteers is tough and people flake out or have RL commitments all the time. So what then?


 
The nuclear option
When I got my first job in advertising, I was an idiot. Thankfully, my first creative director was not. A highly accomplished copywriter, she’d penned dozens of the brand slogans that had littered my youth. Suffice to say, she knew her stuff. (You’d probably know her stuff too, if you saw it.) And this was one of the first things she taught me: “Never, ever proofread your own work. But if you have to ...”

That’s right, she had a trick. A big red button on the wall of her brain that said, “PUSH ONLY IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.” You never want to proof your own work, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Sometimes you’ve rewritten the copy deck five minutes before the big pitch and there’s no time to send it back for proofreading. That’s where the trick comes in.

Read it backwards.
Start at the very last word and read your way back until you hit the first. This strips away all meaning from the text — your brain isn’t leaping in with a guess as to what comes next — so you can focus on minutiae like spelling, punctuation, repeated words, etc.

This is a relatively laborious process, unfortunately, and it doesn’t scale well to an entire visual novel. But I mention it here in case you find yourself with a few lines or even a short script that needs a proofing pass and you’re the only one around to do it.

.it of habit a make don’t Just.

Full disclosure
By the way, I’ll be the first one to admit that v1.0 of the KoiRizo English patch has typos. In my role as editor, I tried to work as cleanly as possible, but over the course of 36,000+ lines — I figure that’s gotta be at least 250,000 words — a few foxes got into the henhouse. The team didn’t have any proofreaders, and the QC process wasn’t nearly as robust as had initially been hoped. (Zakamutt touches on that here.) But you know what? For all of that, I think the launch product came out comparatively clean. I still want to drink bleach and die every time I see a typo report, of course, but that comes with the territory.

And with any luck, there will be patch updates forthcoming that address some of these lingering issues. Which is good, since I’m running low on bleach. And lives.