Most probably you have already heard about this game before. Therefore, I don't feel the need to introduce the story and the characters. I simply wanted to recognize this game for being the best VN I have read so far, beating G-senjou no Maou in terms of emotional impact I received. I’m going to share my thoughts on the game, which can be very subjective. Please don’t comment spoilers.
やばい。この子超可愛い... 俺の、ワイフになってください！
There are a lot of emotional scenes in the game, rooting from the protagonist's background and from the extreme situation the characters are facing. I had a lot of questions when I started reading. Most of them are basic ones which are usually given right away in the introduction of a setting. However, this VN slowly answered those questions, oftentimes in the form of flashbacks. Is this a good thing? It felt quite mysterious and new to me, so if you'll ask me I'd say it's good.
Some argue that Oumonbyou is vaguely described and it needed more information. I beg to differ. For readers like me who find infodumping mendoukusai, the writer of this game did a perfect job. If they go more scientific and specific, I might get bored and go with another VN like what I usually do. For me, the background of Oumonbyou is just about right, enough to make the readers realize that it's one heck of a fucking disease.
Why do I love this game? There are three main reasons. First, it managed to hook me from start to finish by giving a serious premise and ending the game the way I wanted to. Second, I love the cast specially the protagonist. Third, it made me cry which is rare in my case. Personally, the best thing in this game would be the family theme because it was able to move me even more than the romance. Ryuuji's relationship with his parents and brother, the heroine's relationship with her sister and parents, and the relationship of Ryuuji with the heroine's family. It feels like, the world is unfair but is kind at the same time --- a good balance of frustrating and heartwarming moments.
時よ止まれ――おまえは美しい！
Character development is excellent particularly in the romance theme. The progression of the relationship felt natural given the situation. This was even more emphasized in the last 5 hours of the game, where various emotions are presented in a way that gradually created huge tension, and eventually "snapped" on the ending leaving a strong impression. The ending of the game is my ideal ending, and the epilogue would be my favorite part. 何故でしょうかね！
This VN is not for everybody. From the time you start the game, you'll immediately get an idea if you can take it or not. If you have enjoyed Kara no Shoujo series which is another awesome utsuge, you might like this game too. I love the background music that reinforces drama, suffering and the light/heartwarming scenes. The standing CGs are great but there are problems with some CGs (ie. body proportions). There are tons of hscenes and I skipped through most of them but some actually contributed to the plot. This is an easy read, for those wondering about the language difficulty.
The OP is as good as the story. The musical arrangement, the lyrics and of course the vocals accurately portray the feels of the game. When I first heard the song last year, I have played it again and again up until now. For those who don't know, Shimotsuki Haruka did OPs of Innocent Grey games and tons of other great VN songs like "Sketchbook" in Tokisoku, "Stellar dream" in Hoshimemo, Hakoniwa Logic, etc. She's one of my favorite artists. めっちゃええわ～ 声ホンマ天使やで～
Four days have passed since I finished this but I still find it difficult to get up and pick my next VN. All I did was to sing Liblume over and over. Inochi no Spare will remain vivid in my memory for a long time.
いわゆる１つの、甘くて切ない物語ってやつ！
"This is a story, about doing something for the sake of a love one." That original line sums up Inochi no Spare pretty well, but I'm not confident with my translation. tehe
A year has already passed since I started, so I decided to write something about the things I did and some things I have learned.
I did say a year but actually, I informally began from the time I started watching anime. What I did was to listen attentively to the lines of the characters while associating them to the subtitle and to the scene. Doing this, I learned basic grammar and basic vocabulary.
The formal endeavor started on Sept. 10, 2014. I learned kana and some 300 basic kanji through writing. I doubt someone will do this but still, I do not recommend to do the same as writing takes a lot of time and it doesn't help that much in reading. Reading can only be learned by doing the actual reading. (But doing something others cannot, is always fun.)
I came to fuwa, met rains, then found a good news. Learning japanese can be done while reading visual novels.
After 3.5 months, I decided to read my first raw vn since I already learned basic grammar, basic vocab, kana, and some 300 kanji.
My first game was a moege. I started with this type of game because I heard around the forums that moege is the easiest type of game. But it was not easy.
I'm a perfectionist so I worked hard to understand every single line, while reading it several times aloud, until I can speak it fluently. Darn perfectionist. Because of this method, a month has already passed yet I haven't even reached the 1st choice. Something has to change.
I changed my approach. This time, I just move on after getting the gist, while keeping in mind to guess how the repeating word is read, before looking it up in the dictionary. It's faster and is a lot more fun than what I was doing before.
I didn't completely comprehend everything but I still knew what's going on, thanks to the support from several factors:
a. context of the scene
b. background music
c. characters' facial expression & gestures
d. characters' tone & nuance.
These things are very important, as it fills the stuff I didn't get from reading.
The first game was specially tough. The key is not to give up. As much as possible, one should avoid reading two or more games at the same time and concentrate on a single vn. Avoid reading a vn then dropping it, then continue to repeat the cycle. Finishing a VN completely, gives motivation to read more. Also, one should not rely too much on Jparser. Atleast have a dictionary program for support. These are my suggestions for guys who are planning to read raw vns.
My goal is to enjoy visual novels without tools.
My initial impression when I was starting was, before attempting to read VNs, I should have a good grasp of the 2136 Jouyou Kanji first. This is a common misconception. Having solid basic grammar is the "go signal". Grammar acts like a backbone/outline/foundation in understanding Japanese.
As for kanji, grinding them one by one, is not as enjoyable & effective as remembering them in VNs wherein kanji is used in actual words.
For some words, I start by identifying them as a "unit" and not as "assembled parts". For example, the word 自動販売機 (jidouhanbaiki / vending machine). I think of this as【自動販売機】and not as 自+動+販+売+機. The first and the last characters are my main focus. Through its repeated appearance, I slowly recognized the characters "inside" the word and their respective order. Then eventually learned their on-yomi as well. 自 is "ji", 動 is "dou", 販 is "han",etc.
Also, I found the hiraganas that succeed the kanji of a word very useful in remembering the words. I'll just call them "hiraganas" here.
Say I'm not sure what the word 確かめる means and how it is read. But I can read the hiragana part so it will look like this in my mind. 〇かめる
"Now, I don't know any other word with 'kameru' as its 'hiraganas' aside from 'tashikameru'. I'm not sure though if that's correct. Hmm. *checks the dictionary* Oh yeah, it is 'tashikameru'."
Due to it's constant appearance in the lines, I started to associate the appearance of 確 with かめる and with it's corresponding reading and meaning. Then eventually recognized 確かめる reflexively. It also told me that 確 is "tashi", therefore, 確かに is "tashikani".
I believe that Repetition is key to learning any skill. Maji.
About 2 months ago, I began watching anime again but this time, without subs. Watching raw anime improves my vocab and it gives me satisfaction and enjoyment more than those with subs, since there is no distraction.
Now, I'm going to give few comments about the airing anime series this season that I am watching, which I arranged according to difficulty from how I see them.
Easy to understand
1. Danchigai - 3.5 mins / episode. A really soothing series.
2. Ore Monogatari - 好きだ！
3. Gakkou Gurashi! - Cute girls doing cute things, in a not so cute situation.
4. Prison School - Funniest thing on earth.
5. Ao Haru x Kikanjuu - Has similar premise as Ouran HSHC. This one though is action.
6. Charlotte - story by Jun Maeda (Key). Charlotte's episode 7 is one of the best episodes I have ever watched. Started to get quite complex on episode 8.
Not so easy
7. Shokugeki no Souma - Best anime. The cooking terms are not easy.
8. Ushio to Tora - Youkai terms. I normally hate noisy songs but I love this series' OP. Has a tsundere.
9. GATE - Military. Honestly I have no idea what's going on with the plot aside from the obvious.
Well, that's the end of this.
Screenshots from Le Labyrinthe De La Grisaia
In this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is)
(* = refer to JWPce User Manual)
JWPce
JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese.
Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION.
Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word.
The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English.
Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K)
How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels
Rains told me about this program. lol
This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet)
After opening the program, press F6.
On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options.
A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK.
Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH.
Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word.
This is the result of the procedure I described above.
If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck.
These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference.
Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too).
Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you.
In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme.
JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.*
It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.*
Note:
☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download
☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first.
☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook
☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme.
☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again.
☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info.
☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary)
☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary.
☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method
I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer.
Also please correct me for false information I might have stated.
