Aah, I'm tired.
It has been three days since the last update, but I'ver already surprassed and perhaps even doubled the amount I translated, thus I'm completely exhausted. I see sex lines where-ever I go and to put it frankly, it's not fun. Well, at least now I'll have six whole days to recharge until I finish this.
That's right, I'm aiming for my translation to be finished next week. I won't laze around like I usually do, forget about translating for a few days, notice you an upcoming update and then proceed to translate for two days. No, I will finish this next week. And the best part of the whole novel is at hand, so my motivation has reached its maximum potential.
As for other things, the editing got a nice bump but QC is still frozen solid. Nothing can be done about it, sorry about that.
Look forward to the end next week.
Progress:
Translation: 7/8 script files finished, 8th script file 81% completed (~97%)
Editing: 18%
QC: 3,1%
Proofreading: 0%
[WARNING]
[This entry has great amounts of spoilers from Miu's route, which you most likely haven't played, so if you wan't the best experience for the obvious best grill, turn around now. If not, go ahead and enjoy.]
Miu is a so-called 'senpai' to Yuuto in their workplace. When Yuuto gets attacked in the very beginning of the VN, Miu feels responsible for this because she couldn't stop it and Yuuto got dragged to the ambush pretty much unnecessarily. Afterwards, Miu swears to protect Yuuto to right this wrong she did. Miu is pretty much a shy girl, hiding behind a wall of a 'experienced woman'. She's also listed as a Modern Tsundere, but I really don't see it that much in her.
As I've said countless times already, Miu's route is my favorite, and the same goes for the heroine itself. Honestly, I realy didn't like the heroine, but this is the case for most of my favorite heroines in VNs. In the beginning, she just seems like a sadist tsundere, which was rather annoying, but when she really cared for Yuuto's sudden transformation to a vampire and that her 'sadist experinced woman' side was just an act, I started to warm up to her. What made her shine the most in the Common Route was how she acted when Yuuto saved Azusa from the speeding car, thus revealing his lycanthropy. The genuine emotion was something that was missing from the Common Route, and as such, shone through even more. This kind of behavior made her stand out from just a regular moe-blob heroine, and although heroines in Dracu-Riot aren't this kind of heroines, Miu stands out with actual character development in the very beginning. Needless, to say that she made the biggest expression on me.
The start of Miu's route is pretty much the same as everyone else's. Some event triggers Yuuto and the heroine to get closer. In this case, the unfortunate conclusion that was in the Common Route, causes Miu to getting confused and sort of going to a boob-groping streak. I'm not even kidding, it's quite hilarious. Afterwards, after they conclude this, Yuuto asks Miu to go on sort of a date with Miu, to buy gifts for everyone, which causes more funny and rose-colored events to happen, like that one with a dressing booth. They also get put together to smoke out some criminals hiding in the shadows, so they have to act like a couple.
This start of the route is pretty nice and fluffy, very well done for a moege. It also has those undertones I adore in VNs, no matter the genre. Miu and Yuuto's ever-growing consciousness of each other is really heart-warming to watch. Also Miu's reaction to these are something that you won't see that often, at least for me, that is.
After these events, Yuuto starts getting conscious of his feelings for Miu, and proceeds to keep his distance, mostly because of his lychantropy. Their fake-couple acting is also getting taxing for Yuuto, so he's getting more and more akward by the minute and keeping his distance to Miu. Miu of course notices this, and gets more and more depressed. It all cluminates in an amazing kiss in an alleyway. Thye start dating right afterwards, but get one week of house-arrest for illicit behavior in work-hours.
This final part before dating is, well, okay. I never liked this trope of getting farther and farther even if it's really, really obvious that they love eachother, but it was actually bareable. That might be because of Miu's fear for lychantropes was established in the Common Route, and as such there was legitimate reason for Yuuto's actions. That doesn't make it that much better, however. It was just okay, but the climax of this part was more than worth it. It felt very Miu-esque. You really can't describe it without reading the route yourself.
The dating part is pretty good. The week-long house arrest is quite funny, as Miu's more than ready for them to become one, but Yuuto's just nerveous. So all they really do is hold hands. However, it all culminates with Miu staying home under the guise of being sick. She asks for Yuuto's room's key with the explanation of 'wanting to borrow manga', although she wants to find a reason why Yuuto hasn't done anything at all. In the truest reoge fashion, she ends masturbating while sniffing Yuuto's boxers. And of course Yuuto comes back when she's still masturbating, and thus the first H-scene happens.
There's some normal couple-like events afterwards and another H-scene. This start and mid-part of the dating part is quite... different, if I say so myself, well at least the beginning-part is. It's been a while since I saw a scene like that in VNs. The following part though, is just your standart 'couples doing couple-like' things, which isn't bad in my opinion. They bring out Miu's somewhat special character out more. The two H-scenes present are amazing, I really did like them.
Then the meat of the route begins to form, earlier on than other heroine's route's by far. How Yuuto gets kidnapped by the researchers who produce L and how that specific drug feeds the lychantrope genes, ultimately leading to Yuuto basically becoming a super-vampire, trashing everything and everyone. Only the combined efforts of Azusa, Miu and Hyouma can fell him.
Also the way how Miu found where Yuuto was kept captive was touching, to say the least. Somehow hearing the screams of Yuuto's consciousness in her mind and chalking it up to 'power of love' is somehow cheesy and romantic at the same time.
The after-effects of L and how it makes Yuuto's thirst for blood that much stronger makes Miu go jealous by just Yuuto feeling bloodlust and sexual arousal towards his fellow dorm-mates triggers the 3rd H-scene. All of this makes for a great meter on how much they long for and love each other.
The date afterwards is your standart mushy-mushy lovey-dovey stuff, but I must say that the sound effects in this route are amazing.
In the middle of the date they get called by Hyouma and hear that there's a riot outside of the school.
This riot marks the finale of the route. Vampires have grown weaker and ill because of the lack of blood-packs distributed thanks to the drug L's own distribution in blood-packs in its own completely authenticated trade route. After Saya fails to quell the flames of the riot, the only way out of Aqua Eden, the monorail-bridge, gets blown to pieces by a so-called terrorist attack.
This all especially lets Anna and Saya shine to their maximum potential, outshining Elina's route and Azusa's as well to some extent, which I can appreciate. This final part gives life to the rioters, introduces two new characters, Yuka and her mother, and establishes a brand-new villain, goverment's peace-keeping agency, who want to sink the artificial island in its entirety.
Everyone works nicely together, be it Saya and the rioters, the dorm-mates all pulling together, or Yuuto and Miu. The point where Yuuto shields Yuka from the crashing warehouse, making everyone, humans and vampires, to work together manages to do something that no other route could, bringing in the problems of other more minor characters and thus making the more 'alive'.
The ending too, was wonderful. Yuuto decides that he has to destroy the missile aiming towards Aqua Eden in an attempt to destroy it, not for his or Miu's own good, but for everyone's future on the island. The way it all gets resolved was fantastic, definitely deserving the title of best ending in Dracu-Riot!
All in all, the route's great. There definitely is more effort put into this than say, Azusa's route, but the balance of everything, the icha icha, charactrr ane romantic development, the effort put in the side characters, the underlying themes and the grand finale is all that makes Dracu-Riot! my favorite moege and Miu my favorite route in moege.
Thanks for reading my heroine impressions in Dracu-Riot!, review coming soon.
Well, as it says on the tin, this week I mangaed to reach the 90%-mark. This is pretty good news, as now there's just one last push for this game to be fully translated. I'm pretty excited.
Anyways, this update is going live one day before the normal because of VNTS. Other than that, some slight editing progress was made, but sadly no QC progress.
Other than that, I'll be gone for almost a week with my family, starting next Monday and I'll return late Sunday, so there most likely won't be an update next week, unless I manage to make a mini-update on Sunday or Monday. This of course depends on if I'm fast enough to do such a thing and/or am just lazy or not.
Progress:
Translation: 7/8 script files finished, 8th script file 37,7% completed (~90%)
Editing: 9,9%
QC: 3,1%
Proofreading: 0%
Tsujiura-san to Chupacabra
Well, if Karin had good romance for shounen manga, then this one has terrible romance for a shounen manga, almost to the level of Nisekoi in terms of stagnation, but not quite.
Anyways, the manga is 35 chapters in length and is made by Sakurai Atsuhita.
The premise is that the MC named, basically Hikigaya Hachiman gone oh so wrong, saving a new transfer-student, who's pretty much the perfect student, from danger a few times and they start this fake-dating a la Nisekoi. That's the premise. What's the first thing that comes to mind? 'Nisekoi rip-off'? You're exactly right. There of course is some comedy, but it's basically one-trick pony through and through, recycling the same old skit over and over and over again. Two rivals appear later in the story, male and female. I'd say you their names, but I forgot them instantly I finished this manga. Both of them are one-dimensional, one is an ex-idol who suddenly falls in love with the MC and that's it. The male on the other hand is a rich boy, and basically does the same but to Tsujiura instead.
Well, how about the main characters? There must be something good about them? Right?! ...Not really. The MC is as I said, a cheap knock-off of the loner-type and nothing else. Even his personality is run-of-the-mill. Tsujiura on the other hand has some redeeming qualities, like her aggressiveness and yankee-like exterior, but if you want to see this personality done right in a romance setting, go read Yandere Kanojo instead. That at least has some good characters and development.
The only part that was legitimately funny was the rock-band arc... but that only lasts for one or two chapters, following with the most 'why the fuck am I reading this' final chapter ever. *sigh*
What's left? Other than this manga being the cheapest thing I've read in a long while with one-dimensional characters, MC and all, having some of the most cringiest tropes ever-present I could think of, and to top it all off having the shittiest last chapter in recent memory, there really isn't anything positive left. Other than that one chapter with the band, I guess the comedy's good sometimes, albeit rarely. If you want some good shounen manga with romantical developments and tones, DON'T. READ. THIS. MANGA.
It's awful, and you're much better off actually reading something with good development like Karin or JUST READ NISEKOI.
That'll be all, it's terrible, wouldn't recommend at all.
Let's find out then, because I have way too much time to waste to do something ACTUALLY useful, and thus we arrive at this point, with a brand-new mistake I can lament about when I eventually get ripped apart by a group of ravenous 12-year old, overly sexually active fuccboi-weebs who can't see a difference between the totally obviously right opinion and their own.
Anyways,
It already seems like the greatest thing ever seen by man
I remember when I played Kusoge. I also remember the gallons of dead cells I vomited and the amounts of fecal matter I 'outsourced' after I finished that, well, shit. Now I'm experiencing that joy and masochistic heaven again. Goody.
But still, The Best Eroge Ever, or TBEE, which I'm going to adress it in the future because writing words are hard, is created by our very own omnipotent shitlord, hipster and Twitter connoseur, Moogy. And oh boy, did he do good. Where as Kusoge was a satire with actual effort put into it for god know what reason, TBEE is just a pile of flaming poop used as ammo for the hate- and sick-burn-catapultsTM for all things in the VN medium. From Jun Maeda to Nasu to Japanese culture (sort of. Melon bread and shit. I have no idea).
Yeah. The game's pretty ruthless and it's funnier that way.
The game follows some guy named Muugi, who's name totally doesn't reek of nihilism, who attends at Sugoi Gakuen (TL Note: Sugoi Gakuen means 'Amazing' and 'School' respectively). Nothing else is really built upon the character, except that he enjoys the lifestyle of screwing every shoujo (TL Note: stuff means girl, oki?) in sight. Apparently, every morning going to school, he fucks about five to six nekomimis or whatever along the way, so he has to leave to school an hour early, probably a pan (TLN: bread, you dirty weeb) in his mouth, possibly of the meron type. His parents also were killed by evil vampire demon zombies, so that's a thing. He also has some amounts of imoutos (little sisters), osananajimis (childhood friends), iinchous (class represetatives) and lolis (NO), possibly amounting in thousands each, but the largest we see is the MC mentioning Loli #71, but apparently there's over 9000 heroines and the script is over 5000 MBs. We never see more than 5 minutes worth of text, possibly amounting to 2 kBs, but hey, it's there.
No words left to give. I'm pretty tired. FeelsBadMan
All in all, I'd say the story is pretty goddamn ridiculous and all over the place, but it's all just a flaming shitstorm-inferno so I guess it's all par to the course. There's some sensei-fucking (meaning a black screen and a text 'And then we fucked.'), some utter pwnaged and fucking every girl in sight, and that's about it for the game. Sorry Moogy, I won't be giving you a hundred bucks.
If I were to say which one is better, Kusoge or The Best Shitstorm Ever, I'd had to say Kusoge. While this abomination has more references specifically to the VN-scene, Kusoge just has better everything. I'm also pretty sure that this was made while not being high on thousands of different shrooms, which can't be said about Kusoge. This was a nice, maybe 5-10 minutes of wasting my precious life away for the sake of making this shitpost on my blog. Was it worth it? Nah, thanks Narcosis. Was it fun as hell? Well, yes, obviously. Play it and possibly donate 100$ to Moogy-sama.
Anyways, I'm somewhat sad about the lack of progress these past two, three weeks, so sorry 'bout that. But to somehow (not really) make up for it, you guys get an update a day earlier.
Firstly, no progress on edting/QC/etc., only translation. My break started, but that's not the case for the most, so yeah. I aim the translation to be done in a few weeks, hopefully in one or two, but no promises. It's still rather surprising that I've managed to keep up with my self-proclaimed 'deadline'.
Secondly, I redesigned the translation site, tell me how you feel about it. I switched the theme to something more 'stylized' and added a bunch of new header pictures. This is probably what the site is gonna look from here to the day Earth turns to dust, so tell me now, if ya want it changed. Hope you like it, nonetheless.
Here's the update:
Translation: 7/8 script files finished, 8th script file 16,4% completed (~86%)
Editing: 9,2%
QC: 3,1%
Proofreading: 0%
Well, another busy week down the drain.
Yeah, I had my last exams this week, so I only got a little bit of translation done, and others in the team got absolutely nothing done. Not that I can really blame them as they were also busy as all hell.
But now that all of those things are done, I can finally focus on the translation again.
Anyhoo, progress:
I'M FUCKING DONE
Just look at this
I-I-I just can't. This is too much. This flipping game, man. It's just brilliant. Kamige, nothing more, nothing less.
Well, I guess I should elaborate even a little bit, given that I'm really just talking about a shit game full of baka gaijin punches and weeb references. Keikaku, desu, slice of bread, stupid Nipponese emotes, jabs at VN and anime tropes, fucking FACELESS side character named Classmate-kun that has a lenny emote as his face. Yup, this game is rather special, truth be told. Did I also mention that the menu is written with Comic Sans? Becuase it is.
Anyways, the game follows the journey of.... I forgot. Forgive me, but the main character's name spans three dialogue boxes, so everyone just gives up on everything and calls him Protag-kun for short. Works, right? Right? Well, there on out he stumbles on a tsundere yankee (although her being a tsundere could be considered a spoiler, but who cares, roight?), who has a piece of goddamn toast in her mouth, and apparently the MC stumbles ALL over her face and she's still utterly unfazed. She's also a Mahou Shoujo in the pures Sailor Moon way, becuase... reasons? Twintails included. Get your own damn batteries, though.
Then he meets the just mentioned Classmate-kun, with whom you can have wonderful homoerotic, homodachi endings with, including:
Shitting together in a public bathroom
Going totally gay together, like pure homoerotic bro-homodachis would
Sleeping together in a hotel completely butt-naked, causing some hilarious, albeit cringy events together and making him not look like a cheap Saitama ripoff, and in the end getting married in 'Murica
He also uses those oh so fun Nippon emotes that those boke gaijins couldn't understand, and some variations of lenny thrown in for shit good taste.
Then, the last of the bunch, comically dubbed 'Iinchou-chan'. Literally just 'Iinchou-chan' literally meaning 'class rep' for all the gaijins out there, who don't know the brilliance of Weebism.
Well, she's your average small, big-breasted deredere I guess, except that she adds those ridiculous end-suffixes (I think they're called that? Honestly, I don't give to kusos.). Yes, you heard me right. She adds a desu, -nyan or -uguu in every single damn of her sentences. It's funny for like the first five minutes, and then I feel like stabbing her in the abodmen and hanging myself with her entrails.
*cough*
Well, there are a few instances where it's still cringy as hell, but at least it's funny. Apparently she's also a yandere. Yeah, it came out of nowhere. She literally steals everything from School Days, fucking decapitates Protag-kun with a kitchen knife, stuffs his cold body in a duffel bag and sets on a voyage with his head a la School Days. I don't even.
The game has 24 endings, believe it or not, and after all that you get to answer the question 'What is the answer to life?', and the answer to life apparently is 'All your bases are belong to us. Wew.
There's also a Boku no Pico ending, but I doubt you want your psyche broken with several PTSDs, stacks on stacks, so I'll just give you a scene before that happens, k? K.
As you've probably noticed by now, the game has a terrific sense of humour. One of such classics is this
And this.
Also this.
Quite fitting humour for something accurately dubbed as shit. There is of course some other jokes, like that one ending resulting in a game over because everything didn't go according to keikaku.
One more for the road.
The game's a literal shitfest, but the funniest shitfest I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
9/11, 6/5, 1/1 Kusogest kamige to top all kamiges. Must play, enough water -IGN, GG Takeshi.
In all honesty though, play it if you like satire even the tiniest big.
That's all, thanks for sticking with me to the end.
Arigato! Minna!
Blegh, now I feel like a dirty weeaboo, kuso.
Ya know what's nice? Not making any progress.
Yup, there was no translation nor editing progress to speak of whatsoever. As for me, I had my final exams this week and they'll continue the next week too. As for my editors, one had a move to a new apartment, and other one is busy with uni exams. I'll try to get some progress next week, but who knows about these things. I certainly don't
*sigh*
Well, at least QC has begun, and is progressing at a respectable pace, so that's great. There also was some QC progress last week, but I forgot to put it up. Sorry 'bout that.
Anyways, the progress:
Translation: 7/8 script files finished (~83%)
Editing: 9,2%
QC: 3,1%
Proofreading: 0%
So, I have time, so I thought "Why not?"
I'm willing to answer all sorts of questions, as long as they have something to do with the translation project in some way or other.
Here're the questions and answers I devised on my own
Ask away!
Karin (Chibi Vampire)
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think or Shounen romance? Bland? Shallow? Stagnating? Un-progressive? Well, for about 90% of the Shounen romance mangas that is indeed correct. Karin however, is a different story. But before we jump into that, first some background information. Karin (Chibi Vampire in the US) is about Karin, your average 16-year old high-school girl, but she has a secret. She is a vampire, a mysterious vampire, who can walk in the sunlight, and when Usui Kenta transfers to her class, all sort of different kinds of events start rolling ahead.
The manga, drawn Yune Kagesaki, by started it's serialization in late 2003 and finished February 2008. It consisted of 58 chapters and 8 special chapters (omakes and special side story chapters), spanning through 14 volumes. Karin also got a full anime of 24 episodes, which started airing late 2005. There was a light novel series of Karin in 2003, written by Tohru Kai and illustrations bythe original author of the manga, which spans 9 volumes and is fully transated in English, both the manga and the light novel.
Back on topic, I read Karin about 2 years ago in my native language in a library close by. Needless to say, it was my first romance-driven manga I've read. I say it's a Shounen manga, but honestly it feels more like a Shoujo manga, but it's officially tagged as such, so I'm rolling with it. As I was saying, Shounen romance is just torture to me, but luckily I had no clue about manga and it's classification, so I didn't mind at that point, and if had, I probably wouldn't have read this wonderful piece ever.
As a Shounen manga, you probably have some doubts about this manga's romcom nature. I'll say this, throw those doubts in the incinerator. As I said, this manga has a huge shoujo feel to it, basically meaning it actually has good, progressing, heart-warming romance in it, and it has a conclusive ending, believe it or not.
The start of Karin is a little on the slow side, and shows Karin's personality well in the first few chapters you'll read. It tells you your main character's personality well, and with almost no needless filler. In those few starting chapters, you get to know the supporting cast, the Maakas and Usui Kenta. As Karin gets to know Usui better and he more or less unintentionally finds out Karin's rather bloody secret, she and Usui get more friendly. Usui's situation also gives an insentive for some rather generic romcom moments, albeit with refereshing twists. This goes on for a while, with some side cast developments, like Karin's little sister, Anju, and Usui's mother, Fumio.
This goes on for a while, until the first major twist comes into play when everything literally blows up in Karin's face in a bloody fashion, and as a result the Usuis think of leaving the whole town, with pressure from an other party. This brings us to our first conflict, which gets resolved quite nicely with drama, but not too much drama. Quickly after that Karin and Usui become an item. The second half of the manga is basically lovey-dovey romcom, an introduction of a new character that plays some importance to the plot and the final twist. I won't spoil it as you should read it yourself. The climax and the ending are something to look forward to.
All in all, the plot is nothing too special and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but the twist are executed so well. It has some Shounen air to it, but overall plays out like a Shoujo manga. The art is pretty stellar for something made in the early 2000's, but it's till weak sometimes. It plays well to the theme and the facial expressions are really cute. I have zero issues with the art style. The characters, even side ones, are well fleshed out, and bring some nice color to the scenes. The length of the manga is average. It's not that long, but the chapter total can be deceiving as the chapters are long, spanning from 20 pages to even over 40.
For a manga made rather early, it's one of the only ones I really adore. It'll blow your expectations of what Shounen romance manga is out of the water and leave you with a nice feeling. I'll quarantee it. Still to this day, it's my favorite Shounen romcom. You should definitely give this old-ish classic a try. I heard that even the anime is pretty good.
Hooray for huge progress.
This week has been a blast to translate. I was somewhat saddened nd disappointed that I didn't get to my goal last week and get the script file completed. Well, that's the past, more so because I got two script files finished.
That's right. 6th and 7th script file are now fully translated, which means I went through about 100 kB of text, maybe a bit more, this week. I feel so good now.
Anyways, this means that this is the biggest update yet, surpassing the second update on this site, that was almost 10%.
Now one final wall stands in the way of this game being fully translated. I aim it to be done in a month or so. Look forward to it.
Translation: 7/8 script files finished (~83%)
Editing: 9,2%
QC: 0%
Proofreading: 0%
Mayo Chiki, a short romance manga with a trap heroine and a satisfying ending. That's the gist of the manga. In all honesty, it really isn't anything special. The characters are decent, the art could be better and the events and interactions are pretty average. However, the central dynamics and the ending are something really special. Anyways, Mayo Chiki is 40 chapters long, including all the extra chapters and omakes. It also has a short anime for it, but it's awfully butchered and doesn't follow the manga that much.
In its core, this manga is horribly rushed. You can see all the tears and rushed releases when you read it. Half of it is constructing the relations with the MC and the main group of characters. Not even 10 chapters in and we already have three potential love interests and maybe a fourth one. This rushing does make the manga suffer severely. The other half is a continuous barrage of confessions and MC's inner conflicts. The final few chapters with their triple confession within just three chapters is really something to marvel at.
Well, this manga has a lot of things going against it, but there are a few of really good things that make this one worth it. For one, MC's evolution through the manga is really good and ever-present. I was also talking about the central dynamics. Well, Konoe and Kanade's 'master and servant' relationship is well-made and how Kanade always has something plotted out for the protagonist. The ending, all in all, is satisfying, and saying anything else would be spoiling it.
Well, that's about everything about it. It's short, rather lacking, and incredibly average in terms of actual romance. However, when you want it to deliver, it'll deliver, greatly even. It's a good short romance manga with a good ending and an actual one.
Hadi Girl tells a story of a shy girl named Kagura Sae, who is visited by the so-called 'Fairy of Love' and if she manages to complete all of her tasks, she can achieve everlasting love with someone. The catch? If she fails just a one of these tasks, she'll never find successful love ever again. The manga is comprised of 30 chapters and a few omakes and it was completed in a span of 2 and a half years. The main genres it belongs to are Seinen and Romance.
This one was so great. You know what 'heartburn' feels like? That stuffy and hot feeling coupled with a dull ache? Well, this manga is the embodiment of that feeling. What do I mean exactly? About one-third of the manga is blushing and that's an understatement, and the whole manga is so fluffy, pink and filled to the brim with ichaicha that I almost got diabetes.
Anyways, the manga begins like every other romance manga in existence. Boy meets girl, in this case, Kagura meets Honda Ryou, they interact more, romance deepens. But when a second romantic interest for the boy appears in the form of Yoshi Maki, does it get more interesting. The tasks get harder, Sae starts contemplating on is it really right to use Honda for finding everlasting love. Needless to say that some inner conflicts are going on as the tasks progressively get harder and Maki starts showing signs of affection for Honda. It all comes down when Maki confesses to Honda and gets rejected. After one very touching moment, the finale starts. The tasks make for some rather "heavy" moments for sure. Chapter 30 is the perfect ending for this manga, and I'm not going to spoil it because it's as beautiful as it's ever going to be.
The characters are rather one-dimensional par from Honda and Kagura, but that's to be expected from a manga of this length. The events also are a tad bit rushed but again, that's to be expected. However, the character interactions and expression are so goddamn cute and Kagura mentality is just the most adorable thing I've ever seen, and girl MC is a nice change of pace. Both of the main characters are very likeable, although a little 'standard', so to say. The supporting cast does a good job at making the necessary pushes in the storylines, but that's all they really do. There is some side-romance between some of the side characters, but nothing major. It's all very much centered around Kagura and Honda's relationship.
In the end, this manga is a good, albeit a short one. It has plenty of romantic development, both pleasant and sad feelings and more than satisfying ending. It was a good usage of my time.
The World God Only Knows
This manga is one of my favorites and one of the best I've read so far. Since I finished re-reading it yesterday, I'd decided it would be a good point to start this series at.
Nonetheless, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai is a manga created by Wakaki Tamaki and consists of 267 chapters and one alternative final chapter. It was made in the span of 6 years and it's main genres are harem and romance, with a spin of fantasy. In it, Keima Katsuragi hs unwillingly made a contract with the devil and now has to capture Runaway Spirits with Elsee from the Runaway Spirit squad by making the girls, which the spirits have possessed, fall in love with him. The manga consists of 3 major arcs, first arc being the Conquest Arc, second being the Goddess Arc, and the third being the Childhood/Jupiter Sisters Arc. Let's begin.
The overarching theme of this manga is the evolution of Keima from a reality-despising otaku to a game-loving man with a respect for the real. This is also seen in the ending and his endings through the series.
There are plenty of characters in TWGOK, but they're put into one of three categories: "conquest targets", some who don't matter that much, only for the conquest, "conquest targets", who matter as the story progresses, and the major characters who appear constantly in the whole story, like Elsee and Keima.
The conquest targets who don't matter are nice for the time they appear in, but Don't provide anything new to the story, par from giving more depth to the main cast, like in Reiko and Nanaka's case. All of these characters are rather shallow, but that's to be expected when they only get a few chapters to show in.
All of the "main conquest targets" seem really shallow at first like every other target, but accumulate depth as the story progresses. I especially took a liking in Shiori and Tenri, but all of the characters are great. All the Jupiter sisters have a greatly improved personality from the time they were conquered. For example, Yui's personality has thoroughly progressed from the time she was captured. Tenri's personality doesn't really progress visibly in the story, but at least you can see the change in Tenri when you arrive at the end, where she plays a big part at. Shiori and Tsukiyo's personalities never really develop, which is a shame. The other main characters, mainly Elsee, doesn't really develop at all until the end, where everything you thought about her comes crashing down. Some more minor characters, like Dokurou and the classroom teacher, play a large part in the latter arcs.
The main point of the manga is undoubtedly Keima is the main point of the manga. In the beginning, he's a cold-hearted and analytical pessimist who loathes the real world. As the story keeps going, a change in Keima is ever-present. In the first arc, he doesn't have any visible change other than Kanon's queries and Chihiro, where the change in his thinking is completely seeable.
As the second arc begins and Kanon gets injured, an evident change is seen in Keima's acting. He becomes more serious and stops his favorite past-time, gaming, almost completely, whereas he always gamed whenever he had the chance in the Conquest Arc. He also shows emotions of love for the first time in the end of the second arc.
In the beginning of the first arc, he sort of reverts back to his original ways, but he really is saddened by the events in the end of the second arc. When he gets the gift from Dokurou, do the things start moving. He gets even more serious, and the reader gains all of the knowledge that'll fill in the blanks. This part of the story handles Keima's inner conflicts and does a good job with it, and makes this part the shortest of the arcs, but in my opinion, it's the best part of this manga. The tie-ins, Keima's development and the concept of time travel are well executed, and gives a nice ending to the manga.
Overall, The interactions of the character is tied strongly in the story, especially Keima's.
Speaking of Keima, I strongly like him as a character. His personality has many points I value, like logicality, smarts and calm thinking. The way he brings his "god-complex" and games to almost every conversation is a nice twist on things. He is by and far my favorite protagonist in manga thus far.
The art of TWGOK is really good. It's pretty iffy for the first 10-20 chapters, but that's to be expected for a mangaka's first work. Going to the end, it does get much better. The art style shows thick outlines, clear emotions, flashy movement and a clear difference between black and white. It's pretty much my ideal art style I look for in a manga.
All in all, the manga is constructed well. It has clear end-points, colorful characters, a strong supportive cast, great main character, gripping story and progression, and loads of references to the medium I oh so love.
It really is one of the best mangas I've ever read and it is my favorite manga to date.
[WARNING]
[This entry will have massive amounts of bias within it. If you don't want to hear me gushing about Dracu-Riot, I'd suggest turning away now. Also spoilerz.
You have been warned.]
Elina is a vampire from Russia. She is a pervert, who will say dirty joke at any possible event. Later in her rout it is revealed that she is a masochist. As a special vampire, she can only drink vampires' blood, human blood has no effect. She works in a casino.
Honestly, this route is really good, and I can definetly see why this route is the favorite of so many people, although I'm positive that this being the only translated route for so lomg has quite a lot to do with it.
Anyways, in the Common Route, the groundwork for Elina is given to her personality and in the finale of the Common Route we see her ability and how she is "special" from other vampires, but different from Yuuto. After that she and Yuuto have a discussion, in which Yuuto promises to keep Elina's secret for himself and at the same time aid her. This character development in the Common Route is probably the second best based purely by the character interactions and screentime, only losing to Miu.
The start of the heroines' routes are fundamentally the same across the board, and Elina's route is no different. It starts by Elina and Yuuto interacting more and more, getting close at the same time. However,this is done really well in Elina's route, mostly by Elina and Yuuto's pleasable interactions and events, but also because of Elina's special condition. It brings a nice sense of unity.
Overall, this part is really nice and fluffy, and it gradually gets more serious with Elina's condition getting more severe, and then this part of the route is brought to its eclipse from the two Elina's attacks against Yuuto.
Shortly after they start dating. This curve from close friends to partners is actually quite smooth in this route and it's one of the better ones in this game.
The dating part however is not. It's more or less the same as Azusa's: It's nice, but it really lacks that difference from before they started dating. But unlike Azusa, the story-part here is present the whole time and built upon continously.
The H-scenes are all in this part. They are quite close to each other, but they aren't clumped together like in Azusa's route. It would've been nice if there was some leftover for the latter part of the route, but the finale really doesn't give time for that, and that's why After Stories exist. The H-scenes however are one of the best in the game, along with Miu's. The way Elina moans has some kind of black magic within it, because it's out of this world.
The final part of this route consist of Yuuto and Elina running away from Russian research site from a false accusation. This version of the finale is one of the best in this game. The pacing and the input of the lesser characters are brilliantly executed. The final part with the casino blackout is made so good by the input from the other characters from before. The revelation of Elina and Yuuto's secrets could have been executed much better, but that's a minor nitpick.
The scheme and the final showdown with Sayo and the Russian official was really good. There were hints to give the player some way to find out about the solution, but they barely miss out. This time around Motoki plays a minor role in the finale, and the introduction of Sophia brings a nice side to Elina's character.
The aftermath after the credits is arguably the best. It tells how all the other characters feel about the absence of Elina and Yuuto. The return of these two is also made so, that it isn't overly sweet nor disappointingly dull. It's pretty much perfect.
Whats my verdict? Well, taking all of these things into an account, this route places as my 3rd favorite. It gets some nostalgia points for being my first route, and the same could be said tomthe majority of people, but it can't beat Miu, and I liked Rio's character, her route's events and direction, and Motoki's involvement in her route more.
This route is by no means a bad one, quite contradictory. This route is really good, but not to my liking enough. As a character, Elina is suberb, but I like Miu more.
To be fair, only a heartless person wouldn't like this pervert Russian. She's cute, sexy and kind. There's nothing not to love.
Now then, by process of elimination, the only character left is Miu. I will be playing her route right away, so look forward to her.
[WARNING]
[This entry will hold massive amounts of bias within it. If you don't like me gushing about Dracu-Riot, I'd suggest you turn away now. Also spoilerz.
You have been warned]
Nicola Cepheus is a dorm mate of Yuuto, suffering from a little severe case of chuunibyou syndrome, and is an aspiring dealer, working at a local casino. Contradicting her appearance, she's actually a girl. She hails from an aristocratic family of vampires from Europe. She wears manly clothing partly because of her admiration for her local visual-kei band, and partly because of her dislike of skirts and womanly clothing.
As with Yuzusoft's extra routes, I expected a shot of pure mushy pink ichaicha SoL, and I got what I wanted. Nothing more, nothing less.
It starts like any old rom-com, witha huge misunderstanding to get it all rolling. After mistaking Nicola for a male, after some sleepy mumbling on her part, Yuuto decides to sleep with her as she doesn't want to sleep in her coffin. It's so horribly obvious, it's downright funny. Anyways, in the morning, Nicola gets hot and starts to strip, resulting in this.
After some funny thinking, an another misunderstanding ensues, as expected of a dorm full of girls hearing a girly scream. The whole beginning part revolves around this misunderstanding. This scene is some good-quality rom-com humor and I rather enjoyed it, even after seeing quite a lot of them.
After that, Yuuto and Nicola start to recover their relationship, which is when Nicola realizes her feelings, and in come the rosy embarrassed girl talks. Honestly, listening to these was rather enjoyable, I very much enjoyed listening to them. Nicola is pretty adorable in these. The casino scenen in which Yuuto foils cheaters' plans was a very sweet scene. The pacing of this sequence is pretty spot-on for a route of this length, and Nicola's reactions aren't second-rate either.
After a wholesome date of revelations, cute Nicola in a one-piece, food, bewitching and all that stuff, a confession happens, in which Nicola was supposed to be the first to confess, throwing her in a loop, which was too damn adorable. As they are almost kissing, Nicola's grand-grandfather appears, and the final part of this route begins. The datind part is a bit rushed, but that's to be expected. It covers a lot of ground, and rather admirably for how long it lasts.
The final part is about Nicola not wanting to go back to her home country, now that she has ambitions, friends and of course a partner, and her grandfather wanting her to return. Honestly, this is your average motivational clash of beliefs. There's also some very nice comedic exchanges with Sayo and Nicola's grandfather. It's rather excessive with the stubborness, but overall it's a nice end to this shot of SoL. Also, I think Nicola has the best H-scenes along with Miu, they're pretty good, especially the After Story one.
All in all, it's everything I expected it to be, but Nicola is overly cute, way more than I remembered. Good stuff.
[WARNING]
[This entry will have massive amounts of bias in it. If you don't want to hear me gushing about Dracu-riot, I'd suggest you turn around right now. Also spoilerz.
You have been warned]
Mera Azusa is your average responsible petite girl, whose also a huge closet-pervert. She is the dorm leader and also the only human living in the dorm. Azusa starts out as this reliable senior to Yuuto at the start in her route, but their hierarchy evens out as the route progresses.
In the end of the Common route she does get a rather amusing ending to start her route, and it does a play a small part in her route, this being Yuuto's so-called "pedophilia", and as the result Azusa becomes Yuuto's partner, as a senior. Although this builds the groundwork for their relationship, this issue isn't touched any more than the start of her route.
Along the starting parts of the route you get some tension from the presence of hunters and some extremely funny moments from Azusa's extreme blushing and over-reactions. Yet still the starting part is pretty much just pure comedy and slight progression not in the relationships but in the story. The threat of the terrorists from the mainland is steadily rising, but kind of blends midst all the SoL.
As the route progresses, the two of them start to notice their feelings for each other. The way they notice each other really reminds me of Rio's route, albeit a little toned down. The steadily rising confronting feelings between the Hunters and the vampires is starting to reach boiling point when the Hunters start to arrest vampires without and with IDs. The SoL is really hefty and it drags on before the final event before dating starts. Enter Giordano. Honestly, the final confrontation with Giordano in the school is a really good one. And they show how vampires are valuable as well, as opposed to the Hunters' look on things. At the final moments before Yuuto gets heavily injured, Giordano says some cryptic things and RIOT. The confession in this was actually pretty good, at least better than in the majority of the routes in Dracu-Riot!
The start of the dating was really weird and confusing. I got some mixed signals from it. And they jammed so many H-scenes in a short amount of time. The ichaicha was good but not the best by a long shot. Overall, the dating part was sub-par, below average.
Following is about the final part of the route. Spoilers.
The ending ties some ends, but leaves something to be desired, especially about Ougi's future.
Overall, the route isn't bad in moege standards, but definitely was the worst main heroine route in the game.
Still, it brought a nice story, so it wasn't bad in my book.
And of course, Azusa's as cute as ever.
[WARNING]
[This entry will have massive amounts of bias in it. If you don't want to hear me gushing about Dracu-riot, I'd suggest you turn around right now. Also spoilerz.
You have been warned]
Inamura Rio is your pure, kind-hearted, big-breasted kouhai. She seems like a rather shallow personality, who only wants to take care of everyone in the dorm and doesn't understand perverted topics. However, throughout the route, Rio, little by little gets more depth in a curve, that isn't too slow nor too fast. I'll elaborate.
Honestly, all the heroines don't really get any development in the Common Route aside from Miu until the showdown with ”L” drug dealer. In this case Rio's version of that scene honestly is the most disappointing in the surface. It does give a hint about her original vampire power, but that's it.
The string of events where Rio is sick is very ”cookie-cutter”. It's basically strengthening bonds by having Yuuto take care of her. The exchanges between the two in this are nice and heart-warming. There's also this:
The point there on out is the ”avoidance” part when one of the two realizes they have feelings for the other. It's a really well-used trope in VNs, and this certain one follows the same pattern. Not to say this trope is bad, it's a good way to get to the relationship in one swoop.
The dating part there on after is mushy as it'll ever get. The first date is a really good example of how a first date is catered to a certain character's persona. There's also some funny moments, enhanced by Rio's own pureness and airheadedness. The first H-scene is pretty tame and boring actually, but it brings out their love for eachother much better than the most H-scenes I've seen. It's a pretty ”feel-good” H-scene.
As their relationship progresses, we're getting to the more ”heavy” part of the route. There's disbelief, doubt and fear. As Yuuto and Rio slowly start to unravel the truth about their true identity, a lot of serious things happen. Yuuto's kidnapping, how Rio saved him, how Rio lost all faith in himself and disappears to protect her dorm mates and most importantly, Yuuto. This part is actually really well constructed. The way they reval everything slowly and change perspectives back and worth really lets you know how both of them feel on the inside. The solution of this event, ”What is it that you desire?”, all of this executes smoothly and literally Yuuto flies to Rio's rescue, preventing her suicide attempt and saving her from hired goons.
Honestly, I would've been satisfied with this route if it had ended here. All of the factors were in place for it to count as an ending and I would've called it an great ending with ups and downs, action and SoL. But it isn't.
Their relationship deepens even more, and after two amazing H-scenes, they're starting to catch wind on who is behind this all. All clues point towards doctor Hasuzawa Shouzaburou, a leading professor in lycanthrophy recearch, a vampire, who has been missin for several years. His assistent has been caught and after Yuuto questioned her, he starts to doubt Hasuzawa's part in this. A little research and SoL mushyness later Yuuto figures out that lycanthropes absorb their vampire prey's memories, along with their power. But before the main culprit is relvealed, Dr. Ougi calls them to a hospital visit.
Next part is the biggest spoiler of the whole route.
This whole sequence blew my mind. This was honestly the biggest twist I never saw coming in a long time, and the events following that make this one of my favorite endings to an SoL route ever. It's so phenomenal. It made this route go from above average to fantastic. I really, really loved it.
This might be my new favorite route from this game. It's that good.
Welcome to this little thing I'll be doing.
So, as you should know by now, Dracu-riot more or less has been fully released, and I very much adore this game.
And so I will be giving impressions of every heroine that has a route.
Look forward to it.
Dracu-riot Saga begins here.
We'll start with some delicious heartburns.
See you soon
So, I've finally attained access to the Dev Board Blogs
What does this mean exactly?
Well it means that my TL Updates will be directed there instead of here
It's been fun, but now this'll just be my personal blog
Cheers
I was going to post this yesterday but lol IPB
Anyways
This went exactly like the last week's update, life sucks, I know
Sigh
Nothing much else, here's hoping that next week will go a bit better, but who knows? I certainly don't.
Progress:
'Till next week, unless the whole world explodes now
- Arcadeotic
Well, this week was a wondorous adventure, did bunch of other things OTHER than translating.
*sigh*
Well, I've almost fully mapped teh tools and such.
Oh, I allso got about 17% of the translation checked in Japanese.
Nothing else much, the next week will most likely be about the same: almost no translation done, a lot of other things done, but what are you going to do about it? Such is life.
Progress thus far:
Yet another update.
I was busy, but at least got something done.
6th or 7th H-scene done. Finally the story is progressing, and the heroine is finally showing something to like about.
Nothing else to say, but now that there is an official TL thread, I'll be posting my progress there and my wordpress, so there won't be a progress bar here, but I'll try to post my thoughts on every week's translation here. Good? Good.
Progress:
Another Saturday, another update.
This week was full of needless things for me. Travels, schoolwork, visiting relatives, ugh.
But enough of that, I'm still quite content with the amount of progress I got, even if it is about the same amount as last week.
I really do hope to get more done in the following weeks.
Update here:
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Week 5: 204,5 kB/710 kB (28,8%)
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Until next week
- Arcadeotic
