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snowbell55

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  1. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from Dreamysyu in AX 2019 Schedule and Announcements   
    Robotics;Notes Elite and Robotics;Notes DaSH have been confirmed as coming to the West (Elite in 2020)
     
     
  2. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from yelsha57 in AX 2019 Schedule and Announcements   
    Robotics;Notes Elite and Robotics;Notes DaSH have been confirmed as coming to the West (Elite in 2020)
     
     
  3. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from Seraphim in AX 2019 Schedule and Announcements   
    Robotics;Notes Elite and Robotics;Notes DaSH have been confirmed as coming to the West (Elite in 2020)
     
     
  4. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Formlose Gestalt in AoKana Physical Kickstarter, Release Date and Other Updates   
    The announcement is the time when a VN title probably gets the most hype, so bringing the release and the announcement closer together is the right move. Getting the announcement years in advance just means that the title becomes forgotten and the initial hype has long waned. so good move there.
  5. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Seraphim in Should I read Steins Gate og, or Steins Gate Elite?   
    I'd say go with the original version. The art style is more interesting than some run-of-the-mill anime design, and there are certain parts of the story that have been either shortened or removed entirely in Elite, due to them not being included in the anime and the studio apparently not wanting to spend too much time/money on additional animation. For example, one character from the original has been completely cut out. Click the spoiler below if you want to see who.
     
     
  6. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from Fred the Barber in Birthday thread   
    Happy birthday, Fred the Barber :D. Hope it's an excellent one :D.
  7. Thanks
    snowbell55 reacted to Yuuko in Aokana Physical LE Presale to start in June   
    This is only for selling physical editions not to fund the game.
  8. Thanks
    snowbell55 reacted to Ramaladni in Great Romances like Fureraba and ...   
    [ttps://vndb.org/v14265 - Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai is a pure love story focused on following the different stages of your relationship with your heroine of choice.
  9. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from yelsha57 in What are you playing?   
    I tend to read a lot of romance VNs and have been wanting to branch out from that to some other genres / styles, but sadly have been really struggling to get into several of the VNs I've tried to read as of late. I tried going through Clannad for the second time, but now I have to do the first route in the VN that I ever finished: the Misae route. Considering I really didn't like that route, I'm really tempted to fast forward through it. I then opted to take a bit of a break and read Planetarian, but that feels really really slow and despite being billed as something that's probably 5 or 6 hours long, I haven't been able to be really gripped by it. I've also finally finished Chaos;Child, but I really didn't wind up enjoying that, sadly. 
    All of that has meant that I've given up and gone back to, you guessed it: high school romance VNs. I've started reading Da Capo 1 and fortunately I'm enjoying it - it has me looking forward to reading it and the story is captivating enough to leave me wanting to see what will happen next, which is something that hasn't really happened all that much with the other titles. I'm not that far into it - just managed to do a blind playthrough where I wound up not getting an actual ending (not really surprising) and am now doing the Sakura route. I'm really interested in seeing what'll happen with the Kotori route (especially since I have Kotori Love Ex P to go through afterwards) but I'm saving that for last. I'm just glad to be back in the groove of reading something that I enjoy, and looking forward to reading it. 
  10. Thanks
    snowbell55 reacted to Mr Poltroon in Mr. Poltroon's Romance Manga Recommendations   
    I was just about to do something productive. Thank god I thought to do this instead.
    Please feel free to recommend me romance manga, or ask for recommendations. I'd be happy to provide, or be provided with.

    This thread is to form a couple with this one, for I am somewhat well-versed in both areas:
    To begin with, it is important to highlight a few tags, which I'll be using for organisational purposes.
     
    Be fairly warned. I do not know what constitutes as a spoiler to you, so if you find things like whether or not there is a confession scene or how far the couple goes to be a spoiler, please avoid reading my comments.
     
    Kare Kano - Shoujo, Drama
    When somebody thinks "Romance Manga" the first thing that comes into their minds is a teenage relationship. Meeting someone, falling in love and fulfilling your teenage dream. Kare Kano is one of the first things anybody recommends when you ask for a romance. Whilst that speaks for itself, allow me to corroborate it: Kare Kano is actually fantastic. It is the typical story of two teenagers falling in love with a lot of twists and turns in the middle, wonderfully comedic too. I could not have asked for more. If I were to complain about anything at all, I wasn't too keen on a particular facet of the main guy. I will mention that the protagonist is the female, I'm pretty positive. You can probably tell the story wasn't memorable enough for me to remember details, though...
    Bonnouji - Josei, H-Scenes
    Is my go to recommendation for a relaxing romance. That is all it is, literally. The female protagonist broke up with her boyfriend and is left somewhat broken. It is at this point she meets somebody who lives in the same building, and they become friends. Eventually, they fall in love. And that is it. Most if not all of the story is spent inside the flat of one of the two, and they relax, converse, play with packages they receive from a man they know and fall in love. Both of them are adults, sometimes they act like adults, their time is spent relaxing, playing and talking. You could say basically nothing happens in this manga and you'd be mostly right, and that's totally fine. When two people love each other there isn't much more to develop, truth be told. Wholehearted recommendation (although it's so short you may cry as a consequence).
    Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie - Other
    A divorced man with two male children and a divorced woman with two female children get conned and end up living in the same house. If you can somehow believe that both parties would accept living together for more than a few days, then you'll find a brilliant story of family bonding and love. Both families cooperate with each other, and then feud with each other, and then cooperate again. You can see the period of adaptation they go through, and I thought it was well done. Eventually they establish bonds, whether or not they admit it. Familial bonds and even love bonds. The manga could not possibly be better, mostly because I'm a sucker, pardon the expression, for family.
    Living Game - Other
    Where Orange is about two half-families living together, Living game is about two individuals, with a perceptible age gap, living together... sometimes. It's... complicated. A lot of stuff happens and sometimes they live together, and as should be predicted they fall in love and one's an adult and the other a teenager, yada yada. Sometimes it's even hard to guess who's the most infantile. Through all hoops and difficulties I ended up loving the two of them, they ended up loving each other, and I loved the manga. Here's to a romance about living together, which I'm also weak to!
    Boku ni Natta Watashi - Shoujo, Gender-Bending
    Here's another thing I'm weak to. Cross-dressing. Ok, I may not be weak to it per say, but I have to admit, I really loved this one for some reason. It's about a girl who is forced to enrol in a boy's only high school, with dormitories! I'll be completely honest. I don't remember much beyond the fact that I loved it. So, if my word is worth anything to you, go read it! Otherwise, next!
    HajiOtsu - Shoujo
    What if the very first scene of your manga was a confession scene? It wasn't the first time I'd seen such a premise, but it's certainly one of the better executions. The culmination of the shy girl trope, this story's protagonist, is deathly afraid of the male gender. However, she ends up confessing to a boy who lives nearby, and he accepted! Boyfriend acquired. Now all she needs is the courage to look at him. And speak to him, too -- I heard couples do that kind of stuff, right? There's nothing quite so cute as watching a couple slowly get used to one another, especially when both are ridiculously conscientious, and shy. Read as they warm up to one another and are supported by an excellent supporting cast that, just when it looked like they'd get some real development, were left to dry as the story abruptly ended. Indeed, this may very well leave you wanting for more, especially if you liked the main protagonists. Unfortunately, no more for you. The art is terribly clear and, consequently, very pretty.
    Last Game - Shoujo
    This manga is one of the best examples of "Melting the Ice Queen". It shows us the story of a rich man pursuing his crush all through his childhood, finally catching up with him in the present day, when both him and her are students in the same university. Indeed, for once it's a Shoujo not set in high-school, although the setting does not wildly diverge from it, either... As for Ms. Ice Queen herself, she is not so in the traditional sense, as she simply sucks at interacting with other people. This is the story of how she slowly realises how truly complicated human relationships are, and how she has been taking her "childhood friend" for granted. This story's main strength is, once again, the cuteness of our main heroine, and the pitiable existence of her crush, who has decided to make his advances very, very slowly, since he has all the time in the world. It dragged on a little at the end, as they tend to, but it was otherwise extremely cute, and the main couple is fantastic.
    Could be compared to the likes Kimi ni Todoke, assuming it ended after the confession, or Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, assuming the characters were way cuter and the drama was a tad less (Both of which I'd heartily recommend for the same reasons. Check my anime recommendations for more information. The manga version is even better).
    Eensy Weensy Monster - Shoujo
    This title asks you: "Do you have a little monster inside of you? A little, dark creature that makes you spill your innermost thoughts, even when you shouldn't?". This is exactly what this story is about. Our protagonist is an average, gentle soul who everybody regards as cheerful, never getting mad or sad; until one day, she came across a super popular guy. A pampered guy who has a beautiful face, good grades, is great at sports, and loved by all the girls, with little to no effort. And so, she blew up. Spitting vitriol in his face, she tells him exactly what nobody's bothered to tell him before, how much of a spoilt, pampered child he is. And so, the lives of our protagonists begin to change, with a girl that's just a little to honest, and a boy that never before knew the taste of harshness.
    One of its main draws is, without a doubt, how unexpected the developments are. I won't say it subverts all clichés, but it certainly threw me for a loop with the direction they went for. I expected something else entirely. Instead, just keep in mind that this is a comedy, and throws drama out the window at every turn.
    Kimi wa Pet - Josei, H-Scenes, Nudity
    Imagine keeping a human as a pet. A younger lad, in his early twenties. You also need to imagine that you're a woman, in case you aren't.
    The female protagonist in this story is no weak lady. We follow her as she lives her life with her "pet". A lot of the manga is dedicated to her stressful daily life, due to work or romance, and to her interactions with her "pet" -- her means of relaxation. Maybe you could claim that there's a love triangle. Maybe you can't. I wish I could say more, but I can't, for I just surmised it. Be prepared for excellent interaction and romance; both with her lover and her pet. Speaking of the pet, make no mistake. He is not some super horny male who keeps making advances on his owner or any such thing. He is very much an animal in bed.
    Angel Densetsu - Other
    This is the story of a man who looks so evil that everyone submits to his apparent strength. It is a story of misunderstandings.  When how good a person you are is proportional only to how evil you look, and you look really damn evil, hilarity ensues. It is one hell of a comedy. Read on as the nicest highscool boy you've ever met becomes the leader of the delinquents and makes any average person on the street run over in the opposite direction or turn over their wallet.
    The romance? Oh, yeah, that. There's this girl who actually figured out you're a nice guy. You can see how it goes. Just beware, it takes its time, but neither is it the focus, so I pardon it.
    And I feel you should be aware that the first many chapters have art that looks like the artist used the wrong hand and had his eyes closed while drawing. If you can put up with it, it gets better.
    Karakuri Odette - Shoujo, Nudity????
    Did you like Chobits? Excellent. This is even better. Maybe.
    Welcome to the story of a girl android. One of the better executed ones I've ever seen. Not in the sense that she feels like an android -- there's plenty of dubious technology and mechanics and ideas, as with any story containing a humanoid android -- but in the sense that it truly, really, feels like somebody learning to be human. From her earlier curious stoic self she develops into something with feelings and thoughts, opinions and who makes decisions. This is even better when contrasted with her earlier self or with any other androids present. The character development feels incredibly smooth, with no one chapter sticking out as personality changing, or her acting drastically to the point where it seems out of character. The side cast is also fantastic.
    I imagine the ending will be divisive. It is very much the kind of ending I'd typically hate -- not particularly conclusive, and with a thread left hanging -- but what happens next is implied to the point where I had no issues. It's also the kind of ending that'd make me revoke its "Romance" tag, but I'll be keeping it since she develops important bonds with many people, and that is romance in and of itself.
    Warau Kanoko-sama - Shoujo
    Finalizing the trilogy of pretty much not romances, this title introduces one of my favourite characters of all time: Kanoko Naedoko.
    The best thing about this manga is that the main character doesn't really change. wat is dis no character development wat wat arghdteggd,shs!!!!1!! Understand, the title in English would likely be something similar to "Laughing Kanoko-sama", and for good reason. Kanoko is someone who is primarily concerned with watching other people, and analysing/noting how the act and comport themselves. Understanding their feelings and rationale -- chuckling at their hypocrisy or interactions all the while. To achieve this, she must remain impartial and objective, and therefore, avoid befriending or interacting with anyone. And she does. Almost. She ends up 'befriending' a couple of people at her first school, and these people lead her to somewhat develop her beliefs, without intrinsically changing her personality, like many other manga tend to do.
    The story almost takes upon the format of a bunch of short stories that occur as Kanoko changes schools due to family circumstances. At each school, she ends up invariably interacting with people, though not through her desire in particular, and, through her coldness, bluntness, frankness, and analytical prowess, helping them. Even then, the majority of the time is spent looking at other people and their stories.
    Over the course of this manga the romance does not develop much, but that isn't the important part. For that there's a sequel, one I didn't like much, but fairly decent in its own right. Also, that one also takes a slowwwwww approach to romance. In general, this series just isn't the best in that particular department.
    Love Celeb - Shoujo, Nudity, H-Scenes, Smut
    Here's the story of a girl who aspires to be an artist. As it happens, she has the bad luck that her talent isn't extraordinary enough to attract the important people's attention, and that everyone else seems to be employing dirty tactics to get gigs and jobs. Oh, I do mean dirty very literally. In this depiction of the entertainment world, just about anybody looking to move up in the ranks does so by sleeping with the important people who decide if they get them or not. In this world, our pure hearted protagonist stands no chance. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for her, she happens to catch the eye of a super important guy, who proposes to buy her. Protagonist-chan is not amused.
    If you're reading this, you're reading it for the smut and/or "romance". I thought this was fairly racy, and really liked it as a result. There's little else of any worth, so far as I recall.
    Renai Shijou Shugi - Shoujo, Nudity, H-Scenes, Smut
    Much like the above, you won't find much in the way of coherent plot or logical progression. In fact, I am willing to bet you will find a lot of what goes on to be not only improbable and ridiculous, but also degrading. Regardless, something within it sparked something within me. The story goes from evil guy who almost rapes our protagonist to evil guy who almost/pretty much rapes our protagonist, where she ends up being saved by the male hero every time -- said hero also frequently has sex with her. Seeing a pattern yet?
    This is a story whose focus is on sex and love. Love buried by all the sex, but love nonetheless -- you can even see glimpses of it every now and then. The finale was also good. Once they were done with all the almost rape/pretty much rape/actual rape.
    Mint na Bokura - Shoujo, Gender-Bending
    There once were two twins who were very close to each other; a boy and a girl. One day, the girl fell for the coach of another school's basketball team, and decided to secretly transfer to said boarding school without telling her brother, who was very attached to her. Once she did, and he found out, he tried to transfer too, but there were no places left for boys! Well then, the solution is simple: transfer as a girl. And so he did. His main objective being, as the siscon he is, getting in the way of his sister's relationships.
    What makes this good? It feels like Josei. The characters aren't stupid or dense, and there's no 'one true love', characters pursuing multiple relationships, establishing bonds, and understanding when something doesn't work. It's also not only one couple and both the siblings are protagonists, to an extent. Essentially, the rivalries and relationships of highschool characters seem to be well represented without delving into unnecessary drama. There's also some good comedy.
    Difficult to explain, nevertheless a definite recommendation.
    Ultra Maniac - Shoujo
    By the same author as the above, this is a similar sort of story with a different premise. Expect multiple couples, good comedy, excellent characters and no melodrama. Things make sense and characters are neither dumb, nor do they act out of porportion with the issues they face. Other than that, it's a manga about a little witch who transfers into a human school and makes friends with a human girl, and her quest to be helpful with her magic despite being bad at magic.
    Spicy Pink - Josei
    Finally, my last recommendation by this author (though I'd actually recommend everything; for drama, Cappuccino). A depiction of a mangaka and her love life. Same traits as the previous: Wonderful characters, no melodrama, nice comedy. All three of these last recommendations are wondrous romances I'd recommend to anyone.
    Yeah, I know these are getting kinda short. That's mostly because they apply to all three and I'd like these to be more than just a rewrite of the manga synopsis. I'm just finding it difficult to better explain other than how much of a romance it is.
    Skill of Lure - Other
    Is this cheating? It probably is. This isn't actually a manga. Doesn't matter. It's still the best thing since the previous best thing.
    This is a story about your typical protagonist, who, by his panic-induced illogical actions, has a propensity to act as if he were a pervert, causing women to label him as such. But there's more. There's also his best friend, who you could label as a playboy, but a special kind of playboy -- one who thinks of the women first. His friend, then, decides to teach him how to interact with women, and how to pursue his love. And it's awesome. Putting aside how much of these life lessons are applicable in real life, it's fantastic to see him growing over the course of the story, and seeing his crush recognise him for who he really is. Other plotpoints and side stories are brought up, but those unrelated to our protagonists mostly end up dead in the water. And that's still fine, because the real story is about the protagonist and his friend, as well as the protagonist and his love interest, and how they sweet they are and such and such. You know, romance. The romance bit's well done, and the friendship bit is also well done, and that's what this list focuses on.
    Hapi Mari: Happy Marriage!? - Josei
    The premise is such that you are likely to have heard of it before. A woman whose family is buried in debt becomes engaged to the owner of a huge company. Even if you have heard of it before, though, that does not mean that the story goes on to be bad. Its main themes are learning to become a 'family', or, more specifically, learning to love each other, and it is in that way that it's very comparable to the Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie manga I mentioned way above. Which is also why it really appealed to me. It is not a story about following your passions and crushes, but about developing bonds and learning to love.
    Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji - Shoujo
    To truly appreciate this story you may need to thicken your skin a bit. The protagonist is, for the first fifth of the story, rather cold to the heroine, using her as his personal gopher and tricking her so as to make her think that he likes her. Whilst the transition from when he was tricking her to when he started just teasing, having fallen in love with her without realising it, is unclear, after they officially begun dating it became a story much to my taste. The focus was not always on the couple, but one the issues either one of them tackled, and how they supported each other to overcome them. They also had intimate moments aplenty, and strain the relationship, which they attempted to overcome. How lovely.
    Kanojo ni Naru Hi - Other, Gender-Bending, H-Scenes
    Be careful. This manga tackles the issues of changing gender and gender-specific urges/problems somewhat crudely, which may cause offence to some. If you're not bothered by any such things, you may find one of the greatest manga you have seen. Do you like couples fawning on each other? Do you like flirting and open displays of affection? Do you like the idea of lovers living together? Do you like to have each of them work toward their own goals, but support each other all the while? Perhaps this manga pushed my very particular buttons, but the vast majority of it represents a... peculiar relationship, due to the circumstances, but a real relationship nevertheless. If you've made it thus far, you know what I like: A couple working together to overcome their obstacles in life, establishing bonds and an open relationship and learning to love one another. And this title delivers that in spades.
     

    NOTE: This list is the same as the one in a reply below.
     
    ...I would go on, but I fear I'd be here all year. Literally. This post was started on February of last year.
    There's plenty more lovely romance manga out there, but I don't believe I can write about them all. But feel free to ask, should you find any one my list you want to know about!
    https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Poltroon
     
  11. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Plk_Lesiak in Anyone who knows japanese culture a bit better   
    I think I'm with Clephas and others pointing to genre conventions and shitty business practices more than Japanese culture as such. If even non-eroge VNs can have normal romance progression, I blame the inconclusive/grotesquely stretched out character of most shounen & seinen manga, and the stress on fanservice and harem tropes over genuine romance. As you said yourself, in shoujo, where you are way more likely to have a single love interest for the protagonist and romance scenarios developed with genuine care, you get more expressions of affection and even mild sex scenes. They just fit the formula.
    Generally, romance in anime/manga sucks more often than not. VNs are really the way to go in this regard, as they strive to tell complete stories, rather than tease you for 800 chapters before delivering something even vaguely conclusive.
  12. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Seraphim in Anyone who knows japanese culture a bit better   
    One thing I find even more annoying than open endings is when you reach the end of a long story and they wrap everything up with marriage, time leap and whatnot in like a single chapter. This problem is especially apparent in manga, where it can take years to reach the conclusion.
    If they spend so much time building up towards that ending, why can't they put some more effort into it and make it more memorable by showing more of what happens later? I've lost count of the amount of manga that I liked at first but was ultimately disappointed by because the ending felt rushed.
  13. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to adamstan in Craving a good tsundere   
    I read it in May, and I'd say it holds up. For me it had painfully slow start, but it was just in the very beginning. Once it gained momentum, it was good. I was only disappointed by Namiki's side route - I liked her as character, but her route was pure fanservice.
    If you plan to replay it now, remember about sound fix:
    Also, running it in fullscreen mode with upscaling is neccessity, as in modern resolutions 640x480 window is so small, that reading becomes eye-straining.
  14. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Nandemonai in Dracu-Riot   
    Oh, that's easy.  Those projects aren't "basically finished", and Sekai has terrible project management skills.
    People will put up with fan patches that are glitchy, require people to install locale support for a language they don't even speak just to run the game, and has a kind of crappy presentation cause the 'patch' is made by hacking the executable so there's lots of little engine issues.  People will not put up with that kind of thing from a legit company.  The customer base will be like 'what the fuck, dumbasses?' and the licensors may be offended at how poorly their products have been treated.  A crappy release like Leyline or Hoshizora does more than just make Sekai look inept.  It also tarnishes the reputation of the licensor by association.  They aren't likely to be fans of that.
    Sekai seems to repeatedly suffer from issues that ... to put it charitably... speak to a lack of experience managing IT projects.  The sort of trouble Sekai is having is what happens when you have incompetent management.  Incompetent rank-and-file employees produce one kind of bad result.  Incompetent management produces bad results that are often far worse, and larger scale.
    Take Leyline for example.
    1) Sekai should have known there were untranslated lines in the product.  Why didn't they? Because they fell victim to one of the classic blunders: they made a small change after testing was finished.  I.e. they shipped an untested build.
    2) They should have known better than to ship a game where, if they ever patched the game's script, the engine would delete saves and make people start over.  This is a technical limitation they absolutely should have known about.  They don't seem to have considered the high likelihood that this engine limitation would vastly complicate their lives.
    3) The first two items combine very poorly.  Releasing a build that is untested has been known to be playing with fire for a long time.  It drastically increases the odds that you're going to have some kind of problem.  Hell, this is so well known that in some places I've worked, doing that is grounds for termination. And when you know that, if you do have a problem, it'll be an enormous clusterfuffle to fix it, then you either fix the engine before releasing it, or you be extra super careful to make sure it's perfect before it goes out, so you won't ever have to update it.
    Here, they decided it would be too much work and delay the project too long to try and rework the engine.  (Not without reason; look at how long the delay was once they had no choice but to do it anyway.)  That's ... not exactly 'fine', but sometimes you have to go with the least bad option among your bad choices.  But then they did something that increased the odds that something would be wrong with the scripts.  Something that's widely known to be a terrible idea.
    Or take Hoshizora or Chrono Clock.
    Both of these games shipped with localization issues severe enough they decided to redo it.  Well, how did that happen?  How did this not get caught much earlier in the process?  It would have been a lot cheaper and quicker to catch these issues after (say) 5% of the game text was done.
  15. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to adamstan in Have you ever read a VN twice?   
    Ekhemmm...
    As for me - I did read Princess Evangile twice - second time it was to check out All-ages version. I loved it, and whole experience was like coming home, or meeting old friends again.
    Some day I may revisit it again. And I think that I actually prefer all-ages version. I absolutely loved "morning/cuddling after" CGs for Chiho and Ayaka that were added in this version.
     
    I also read Kotori's route in Konosora twice - when I played the game for the first time, I dropped it at Ageha's route, waiting for retranslation, so when the patch came out I read whole thing again. I enjoyed it all the same (or even more because of better TL ). I actually plan to read Konosora for the third time, but this time it will be Japanese all ages version - Cruise Sign.
  16. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to adamstan in Need a VN with drama.   
    I have played several VNs with boring or otherwise tiresome beginnings, that finally turned out to be great, so give it a try
  17. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Happiness+ in If you’re a fan translator, thank you.   
    I know it’s hard being a fan translator because for one you might get cease and desisted if the company finds out you’re translating their intellectual property, two it could be such an arduous task, third people will shit all over your translation for being “too literal”, “ bad prose” etc. I sincerely want to thank you all for helping the medium grow to this level. So, if you’re struggling right now with a translation:
    Please. Don’t. Give. Up.
    Because learning Japanese isn’t like picking up Spanish or French, it’s such a huge learning curve and nobody aside from the most dedicated of fans are willing to learn it just to read JVNs. I became a fan of this medium the moment I read Fate/Stay Night by the God and Goddesses of Mirror Moon. After that, I read Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. That wouldn’t have been possible without you guys. While there’re companies that will localize VNs, they have to localize only the ones they can make a profit off of or have permission to do so. Which is very limiting. There’s so many God-Tier JVNs like Mahoyo that remain untouched or the fan translation group gave up. You guys translate visual novels out of the kindness of your heart. I couldn’t be any more grateful. If I met any of you in person, in real-life, I would buy you a beer and give you hug. It’s the least I could do, because people forget how small this community really is. We’re extraordinarily niche. There’s many otaku who have no idea what a visual novel is and they might never even heard of it unless there’s an anime adaptation of said visual novel. But they wouldn’t be able to read it, unless it was translated. Such as the case with Fate/Stay Night and many other visual novels that were adapted into anime. 
     
    If you’re working on translating a visual novel, please finish it, you may not know, but there could be someone out there who will read your translation and join this amazing community. I am proof of that, and everyone else here who cannot read Japanese is proof of that. I want you all to know that. I want you all to know how important each of you are. Especially, when elitists are quick to belittle all your efforts. Keep going. Keep pressing forward. 
     
    Fan translators are the unsung heroes of the visual novel medium. You sacrifice time, effort, and many other things to put something out there without any pay. Translating has been such a thankless job, so I will extend my thanks and I hope many others will do the same. Especially since Fuwanovel is home to fan translations. There wouldn’t be a EVN renaissance without you. Hell. There wouldn’t be a fandom or a community here, since you guys literally make visual novels popular in the west. 
  18. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to ciel_yuri in What are you playing?   
    I just finished Chaos;Head and have a copy of Chaos;Child for PSVita on the way. I'm pretty hyped to start it.  Chaos;Head ended up entertaining me a lot more than I thought it would. I (regrettably) watched the anime back when it aired, so that thing spoiled some of the surprises. It's gonna be awesome going into Chaos;Child blind.
    (I've really enjoyed the entries in Science Adventure series I've read. I hope someday there's a way to read Occultic;Nine and Robotic;Notes in English)
  19. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to sanahtlig in Is it worth it to buy vita for playing visual novel?   
    If your main goal is to widen the selection of visual novels you have access to, buying a new platform is a poor way of going about it.  Instead, you should be text-hooking PC VNs and playing them in Japanese.  There's a handful of PS Vita-only VNs in English, whereas there's literally thousands of PC VNs that are available in Japanese but not English.
    More generally, if you can't think of at least 5 games you'd buy right now if you had a given platform, it's not worth investing in.  Multiply that by at least 2 if the platform is at the end of life.
  20. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in Is it worth it to buy vita for playing visual novel?   
    At this point in time, much as I'd like to say yes, I'd have to say no and suggest instead that you either buy a PS4, or a Switch. The Vita has a LOT of VNs as already mentioned, but most of those are in Japanese, and while there are quite a few in English there aren't going to be very many more (especially physically), so you'd cover your bases by going with the PS4, which has a lot of the same VNs alongside several others (Clannad is on PS4 for example in English, but only in Japanese on Vita) and should still get more VNs for a while to come. If you like otome games then it'd be an easier recommendation, but you didn't say anything about those in your post. The Switch on the other hand looks like it will pick up a lot of the market of the Vita but that'd be a longer-term investment that need you to wait for the library to expand. 
  21. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from ciel_yuri in VN Collection Post   
    Going to join in the fun and post mine :D. 
    Standard editions:

    Limited editions:

    Amagami: 


    Console VNs (I'm going by whether or not they have a VNDB page or not since something like Tears to Tiara II is a bit more on the half-and-half side):

    I'm quite happy to have this collection - I've always wanted a collection of some sort but never really been able to get to it, let alone decide what to collect. I'm not so much going for size as I am for VNs that I really enjoy, and on that count it's nice to have the physical copies for the sentimental value. 
     
  22. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from adamstan in Recent (Japanese) Things You Have Purchased   
    Since November I've gone on something of a spree buying up a bunch of Japanese items, and so this will be a long post as I'll be putting in everything I've purchased from then to now. Firstly, the VNs. 

    In any event, it took a bit of a while to figure out if I did want to buy these but in the end I opted to and it was very fun opening the boxes as they came in one by one :D. I've wanted to read Umineko for a while now (since the beginning of last year I think), and I really liked the art of eden* so wanted to give ef a try as well. I'd love the limited edition copy of that but those don't seem to be available anymore without paying a bunch of money, sadly. Kara no Shoujo 1 and 2 were a bit of a gamble as I don't know very much about them, but I figured that it'd be worth giving them a try with the copies being as cheap as they were, and I wanted to be able to get the KnS 2 LE before it runs out. As for School Days, I do want to read it but like Kara no Shoujo 1 & 2 I'm not quite sure what to expect as I've tried to stay away from reading too much about it. I've also been reading a lot of more light-hearted romance stuff this past year in general, so I do want to try and branch out past that a bit. I was also extremely fortunate to be able to find a copy of Da Capo 2 for a reasonable price, which wasn't something I was expecting to find at all.
    I'd also made a couple of posts on here where I was considering buying these, and I did wind up springing for them. Looking back I think it was the right move. 

    For Little Busters, considering how much I loved the VN, I did want to have a physical copy to commemorate that. I do wish I'd been able to find an EX copy, but considering that this copy is still sealed, I figured that's a worthwhile tradeoff. I'm most likely going to keep it sealed as well, which isn't something I'd do normally but I figure it has extra sentimental value that way. Plus I can't quite figure out how to get the bubble wrap off it while being able to close the bubble wrap again, so... :x.   

    As for Rewrite, I've noticed that it appears frequently on VN collections, and looking at how much I enjoyed Little Busters I really want to read it. It's pretty heavy though - heavier than I'd expected. I'm planning on reading this relatively soon: hopefully within this year but we'll see how that goes. 
    Now for anime. 

    I was extremely happy to get these: Amagami is most likely my favorite anime and story (more on this later) and I also really enjoyed Zero no Tsukaima. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions is the anime that helped me start enjoying the medium (I'd never been able to get into it so much before), so I wanted to pick it up too. I've not yet watched "Rikka Version" yet though, so am very curious to see how that will play out. I also enjoyed watching MM! and Love, Election and Chocolate. For Photo Kano, I didn't enjoy it as much as Amagami but I did think it had its charms, and while I'd still really like to read the VN the anime will suffice for now. If you'd told me even 2 years ago that I'd have a small anime collection I'd think you were crazy - funny how times change. 

    Hatsukoi Limited is the other anime pickup. I've never watched it before, but it seems to be similar to several anime I've enjoyed, according to MAL. That said, I never realized until now that DVDs and Blurays had different size cases. 

    This was the other thing I got in Nov. I'm a fan of the story, and I can't help but laugh every time Suzutsuki Kanade shows up - she is hilarious and crazy :D. It's a real pity the original LN hasn't been translated though, but having the manga certainly helps. 
    Those are the ones that were done between Nov and December. This week, though, I got another set of items :D. I will start with the bonus items before moving on to the "main event"

    Bonus item 1: HajiOtsu. I really like this manga and blame it for making me like super sweet romantic manga (as well as anime and VNs). 

    Bonus item 2: Hadi Girl. Much like HajiOtsu, I really like this and the concept is hilarious :D. I wish it wasn't so hard to find stories like this, but alas :(. 
    And finally, main event time :D. 
    I'd mentioned before that Amagami is one of my favorite stories. In any event, I'd promised myself that I would collect some Amagami related items eventually, and that eventually wound up being a couple of weeks ago. 

    First: Precious Diary. I really like this manga (the Ayatsuji arc is my favorite) and if I'm honest I think I would've traded almost all of the other adaptations (Various Artists being the exception) to get fully fleshed out arcs like this. I also like the contrast between the arcs in this adaptation and in the anime - you get to see different sides of the characters while maintaining the anime's strength - giving them enough time to be established before rushing in to things. I've often wondered what might've happened if they had indeed been able to publish more of this series, but alas. 

    Next: Various Artists. I like this adaptation a lot, as it manages to show different sides of the characters as well, but I think they pulled off the different-artist-per-entry idea pretty well and that helps keep the stories fresh and interesting. 

    Next: Love Goes On. I like Love Goes On quite a lot (especially the Rihoko arc) and didn't think it'd be right to not get it considering it has the bulk (by count) of character adaptations. As far as Dreamy Forever and Haruka LS Another, I haven't read either but considering they were really cheap I figured that they'd be good to get too. Hoping they'll be good as well. 

    Another Amagami manga that was cheap is this one. Strangely enough I'd never even heard of it until I started buying the items (I'd thought I'd known of all of the adaptations) so that was a nice surprise. It was also really cheap too...

    Next: the Amagami SS Fanbook. I've never really gotten artbooks before, but this is much better than a lot of the ones I have which will usually be about 40 pages of art and very little else. It's heavy, but packed full of illustrations and high quality pics and I like that they separated it into 7 booklets - one per arc and another for everything else. It was a bit of an impulse decision buying this but not one I regret. 
    And now, we get to the good stuff - not that any of the preceding wasn't good, but still  :D. 
    Next: Amagami Chotto Omake & Gianism Special. I've found it really difficult to find any sort of information on this in English, and the little I have been able to find has made it seem somewhat rare. Admittedly, finding a copy of all the discs for a good price is what convinced me to buy the items now, and now that I have I don't regret it :D. 

    Last, but not least: the Amagami PSP Limited Edition. This is probably the one item I wanted most - as soon as I laid eyes on it I wanted a copy, so to have one now is something I am extremely happy about :D. As with the artbook I think they did a really good job with making this a limited edition: the puzzle frame is really nice, and while I would've picked a different picture for the puzzle (Having Miya on it doesn't seem to fit) I do want to assemble it and perhaps hang it where the rest of the items will be. I also like that they included the manga too, and the art cards are also really nice as well. The best part is that I'd been afraid that the box might be damaged during shipping (it seems to be quite fragile) but it came in really really good condition. That said, I noticed after having purchased this that PS2 copies were more available where I hadn't seen any before, so I do kind of wonder if maybe I should've gone with one of those instead. 
    It'd been said online that the LE is really big, but I didn't quite expect it to be as big as it is. This is a pic of it with the Bluray for comparison:

    Those are the purchases for now but I'm sure there'll be more in future. I'm waiting to see what happens with the Sanoba Witch physicals, and I'm also planning on getting the ones for Aokana, Irotoridori no Sekai, and Melty Moment if that gets one. As far as Amagami-related purchases there are also a few other items I'd like to get, like the soundtracks, and perhaps a couple of the manga adaptations I couldn't get this time around. 
  23. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from Dergonu in VN Collection Post   
    No matter how many times I see it your collection remains one of my favorites :D. Lots of VNs, and lots of variety too.  
    Hahaha. It's actually thanks to seeing your copy that I decided to get mine :D. Plus, It didn't seem right at all getting the PSP limited edition and not them too. But you're right they seem really rare :(. Either you go new (couldn't find any sellers offering it physically) or you go used, and have missing discs, or other missing pieces. Mine was used and didn't come with the outer sleeve to hold the discs together but I figure that's not as big a loss. 
  24. Like
    snowbell55 got a reaction from Dergonu in VN Collection Post   
    Going to join in the fun and post mine :D. 
    Standard editions:

    Limited editions:

    Amagami: 


    Console VNs (I'm going by whether or not they have a VNDB page or not since something like Tears to Tiara II is a bit more on the half-and-half side):

    I'm quite happy to have this collection - I've always wanted a collection of some sort but never really been able to get to it, let alone decide what to collect. I'm not so much going for size as I am for VNs that I really enjoy, and on that count it's nice to have the physical copies for the sentimental value. 
     
  25. Like
    snowbell55 reacted to Marcus in VN Collection Post   
    I think I started buying PC visual novels around 2011, but decided to get seriously into collecting a few years later.
    The Clanned in the first image is Clanned Side Stories DVD pack.
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