Zalor

I'm adding stuffs
Pictures
http://1drv.ms/1st1DGH
 
Rainbow Album
http://1drv.ms/1sEGpDl
 
Feel The Rain Vocal
http://1drv.ms/1st1H9c
 
 
Some pictures are just look alike but I saved them as well.

How To Read Moege 101 - A Comprehensive Guide
 

 
Preface
      Many people struggle with learning a second language. If it just so happens that you're trying to learn Japanese, you can probably already tell by now that it's not an easy task. I can relate to the tormenting frustration of desperately wanting to read a certain VN, but being unable to merely due to a lack of Japanese proficiency. Having to look up every word in the dictionary is not only time consuming - it's also actually not that productive because chances are, you won't remember half of what you read. You shouldn't dive into a visual novel that's way above your difficulty level. You need to prepare body and soul with some hearty foreplay. Yes, foreplay. But alas, you don't have the slightest idea as to how you should go about doing that. You have my condolences. That's why I am writing this guide - not to teach you how to read Japanese per se, but to make it easier for you to read your very first untranslated 'moege'. After reading a few on your own, you will start to get the feel of Japanese writing, humour, expressions, and maybe even pick up some kanji. I am merely dropping you off at the doorstep - you still have a long road ahead of you. Good luck.
 
1) Understanding How Moege Work
      Moege is derived from the two words, "moe" and "game" (self-explanatory). You're usually going to be paying attention to the characters more than anything else in the game. Sure, they look nice, but what I really mean is their personality. Indeed, personality. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that personality is more important than looks! That only happens in 3D (but let's not get to that right now)... Anyway, there are a select few 'generic' and frankly 'stereotypical' heroine-types that you will find in pretty much every moege. I won't go into too much detail, but I'll describe a few of their unique traits. This will not only help you connect to the heroines better, but it will also help you guess or 'predict' what they are saying (even if you can't read the Japanese) which will be further explained in the next section. I am only going to list five, though I'm sure there are many more out there waiting to assault their onii-chans.The stereotypical heroine archetypes I am going to expand on are:
 
The Tsundere



 
The Senpai



 
The Onee-chan



 
The Klutz



 
The Osananajimi (Childhood Friend)



 
      Now, I realize that there may be a tsundere senpai onee-chan klutz osananajimi somewhere out there, but let's leave that for now. Due to popular demand, I will unveil a brand new section for everyone's favourite (including mine) - the imouto.
 
The Imouto



 
2) Reading Between The Lines
      Now that you have most of the basic heroine-types nailed down, it's time to learn how to read between the lines (or, "I don't know these words, but judging from their facial expressions, tone, the situation at hand, and their stereotype, I can probably guess what's going on!" for short). The point is that you shouldn't get stuck on a few words you don't know. Sometimes it's best to read through context instead. Like I said before, foreplay. You can grind (hue) all those difficult kanji symbols (that you may or may not ever see again) later. That's all just memorization, and a whole lot of studying. But right now we're tackling a more technical aspect of the Japanese language. Now's the time to sit down and enjoy a moege.
 
3) Kanji/Vocab You Should Probably Know
      These are kanji or basic vocab words that you will see in almost every moege. I will add to this list as necessary, so feel free to leave a comment if you think I missed anything key. I will cut it off somewhere so people don't get overwhelmed though, so pick the ones you think show up in 99% of exclusively moege. For now, I will briefly go through them all:
 



 
4) Where To Start
      Honestly, there isn't really a list of VNs I can give you. Besides, that wouldn't be fun. You should read things you think you'll really enjoy. But if moege are not for you, then suck it up. You have to learn to walk before you can learn to run. I guess all I have to say for now is that Cube, ALcot, and Favorite (albeit games by Favorite are harder reads) are all companies that make great moege that are, at the same time, relatively easy to read. If you find yourself bored to death starting out, feel free to pick another game. If you think it's still too hard for you (this is kinda late but make sure you've mastered basic hiragana and katakana), push on through. Don't stumble every time you come across a word you don't know, or you don't know what's going on. Just playing through will help you, even if just a little.

Maybe people have seen this, but seeing as it was uploaded 4 months ago, it still feels pretty new. I thought it was pretty cute. Check it out, and make sure to pause and read a lot of the little references they make during the video. The bulletin boards, the advertisements, the notes, the chalkboards, and the tests all have them.
 

 
Don't fail the test! A failing grade will result in having to watch a dub by 4Kids.

Yep.  I predicted the

twist a while ago, even though I haven't played that route yet, so I can't imagine that my feelings are going to change.
 
I would like to agree with you on that, except

, so I can't.
However, I would DEFINITELY love to read your character analysis of Torta, if your post above is anything to go by.  Please do analyze her.
 
You're welcome.
 
Thank you for your vote!
You're right, the drama was definitely telegraphed, but the twist changed everything, to my mind.  Regarding Lise, she was cute, certainly, but not particularly interesting.  Her route was easily the most predictible (not that that is a dealbreaker or anything) and probably the least interesting, for me.  It did, however, serve to make me like Torta more, as her scenes in that route were simultaneously sweet and heartbreaking.  Honestly, I think every route made me like Torta more: the standard bad ending, Fal's route, Lise's route, both Torta routes... I wonder if Phorni's route will make me like her more.
 
Regarding Snowtsuku and Zalor's little discussion above...



I've seen people say that Lise is the best heroine because "she needed Chris more than any of the others."  That could not be more wrong.  What Lise needed was a friend.  Anyone, boy or girl, to care more aout her than their own ambition.  Anyone could have filled that role.
Torta, on the other hand, needed Chris, speciifically, and nobody else would ever do.  She needed him, everything about him: his unconditional love and concern, his affection, his thoughts, feelings, words, music, likes, dislikes, interests, and time.  There was a far greater need on her side than from any of the other characters, period.
 
*whew*
 
I feel better now.
 
-Arvis

Don't hate on him and just enjoy.

Hey everybody,
 
Full disclosure: I'm still kind of in crisis mode (I've got a personal and family emergency going on), so I won't have time to proof-read or content-screen a second draft of this. Hopefully it comes across clear enough. Purpose of this thread: As I've reviewed recent threads and PMs it became clear to me that I need to speak a little to forum/community changes and direction. I've been accused of being "unreliable", "slow", "conceited", and even "Hitleresque". I choose to laugh those off and keep moving forward.
 
 
"Cleaning House"
Many of you have expressed frustration that the site isn't moving forward. I've repeatedly clarified that the meta-level direction of the website will be addressed starting in September.  We need a better organization to tackle the future, and from now until mid-September, my objective is to restructure the site ("clean house", if you will).
 
What do I mean by cleaning house?
More changes to the organization of the forums Releasing with gratitude many moderators The establishment of a new "board" moderator program open to anybody who wants to help and meets certain requirements A new system for choosing global moderators (meaning there will be a difference between board and global mods) Back-end stability changes A lot of changes to the front site (for which we do have several capable coders, and which are only held up now by host-side processes)  
The "cleaning house" period will be slower until ~ August 21. My personal emergencies and school responsibilities require this timetable. The "hot zone" of changes will run from August 21 to whenever we finish in September, and will encompass the majority of the changes.
 
 
"Burden of Leadership"
So let's be frank: there's too much on my plate. I'm not talking about my mental health, I'm speaking from an organizational angle. People are right to criticize me for being slow in enacting change or rolling out programs -- it's a consequence of my real life responsibilities. I ask that the community be patient -- I didn't ask to be left in a lurch by the departure of my co-admin. I didn't ask for similar departures of previous co-admins. Every time I've sought a partner, I've been left behind with twice the work.
 
So. You should be glad to know that as part of "cleaning house" I'll be restructuring the leadership. I'm not going to give out details right now, but they'll be coming within the next 6 weeks. The fundamental principle of the new leadership structure will be codifying a Fuwanovel charter which will guide the future of the site and give it direction long after I've left
 
 
 
Retirement?
There's been some bizarre PM conversations screencapped and sent to me. Here's some clarification:
 
I am working towards retirement from the site. As I recently commented to sanah: my end-game at Fuwanovel is knowing that the community has a self-image and internal structure strong enough to carry it into the future. I am not going to abandon the community before I achieve those goals. As we get closer to that goal, maybe I'll speak more to why I'd retire and what projects I'm going to start working on, but those conversations are not applicable at the moment. I haven't set a specific timetable for this process. I'll be here for as long as it takes.
 
 
 
Meta-Direction: Torrents
In late 2012 Fuwanovel had two slogans "Visual Novel Repo" and "Make Visual Novels Popular in the West". I think these slogans illustrate well the division in the community (still) between a focus on fan-sharing culture and support of visual novels' development in the West. I plan on angling the community down the second path. 
 
I personally have significant ethical and logistical qualms with fan sharing culture. I acknowledge, however, that providing game torrents is part of Fuwanovel's DNA. I'm not going to change that. I will, however, continue to enforce the rule that we developed very early on to not host licensed games: all torrents for licensed games hosted on the front site will be taken down in September.
 
Many people have asked if I intend to move Fuwanovel into a "torrent-less" future. The answer: no. It's too ingrained in the community zeitgeist and history. Future community leaders will need to determine their threshold of cognitive dissonance and feel comfortable offering pre-patched, non-licensed games.
 
 
 



 
Hm.... Did I forget anything? Feel free to comment or ask questions below. 
 
Here's what I want you to take away from this post: changes are coming. Logistical changes to reorganize the forums/community will be made in a "cleaning house" period which runs from now until it's all done sometime in September. My schedule requires that I roll out changes more slowly from now until August 21, and after the 21st the changes will be rolled out quickly and efficiently. Please be patient during this process: I know that this pace may be frustrating to some, but it's necessary for planning, proper execution, and my own RL schedule.

I think I said this before, but VNs as a medium hold a lot of potential for grabbing the comics and novel-reading crowd.  The fact that the current niche is dominated entirely by Japanese-made games just means you need to completely ignore the Japanese side of the equation.  The Japanese defined the current niche, and they have polished it until it shines... so what you need to do is use a pickaxe to carve out your own niche, ignoring the conventions that a third-rate Japanese company will do better than you anyway.
 
Imitation is frequently called the highest form of flattery, but if you are serious about making inroads in the industry with VNs you made yourself, you really do need to not even try to write something you'd see out of a Japanese company. 

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. In fact one of the few things that I have to criticize Katawa Shoujo for is that it sold out to this narrow minded belief too. Even the Japanese don't follow this. Symphonic Rain took place in a fictional Italian town, Quartett! took place in a fictional German town. The only reason westerner game developers came up with this idea is because they noticed that their target audience are western Otaku. They figured their games would be more marketable (to this incredible niche audience) if they try to give them what they are used to (a Japanese feel). In several other threads I saw this as a reason why people don't like OELVN's because this is phony. If you've never been to Japan, and you don't really know what Japan is like, then using it as a setting is kind of shallow (which marketing often is). I have maintained, and will continue to maintain that if OELVN want to flourish in the west, they must sever their ties with Japan (somewhat). The problem is that doing so would mean having to create a brand new market for VNs and abandoning the current one. The sad part is that OELVN developers who make their stuff for-profit would rather maintain their small market, then take risks and create potentially a far bigger market. Capitalism is all about risk and reward, and currently we have very few OELVN developers who are willing to actually take a risk. (Dischan being the only company that comes to mind).
 
Look at it this way. Film is a western creation, but culture's all over the world have created movies. Would the heavily acclaimed Japanese film maker Akira Kurusawa been nearly as successful if he chose to imitate western films as opposed to add his Japanese influence to his films? Hell no! The same is ultimately true with any art form. OELVNs that add their western influence (like Dischan's visual novels) ultimately contain far better writing then any VN that pretends to be Japanese.
 
I'm sorry if this comes across as rambling but I really should have went to bed two hours ago...  

It baffles me how some people have ludicrous expectations from Fuwa.
 
People expect us to become some sort of army that'll lead a revolution, that visual novels will become super popular and everyone in the world/internet will know about them, that we're here to build an empire and be the number 1 site ever.
I swear this is the vibe I get from some people.
 
While Fuwa's goal, or at least motto, is to make visual novels popular, you should be painfully aware that visual novels, no matter how hard you try, are, and will always be niche, at least for the next century (and probably more). The otaku culture itself is niche, visual novels are just a smaller niche within that.
 
And another important thing, Fuwanovel is non profit, I'd like to point out that every user, staff or not, is here part time, as a hobby, to try and put some of their available time into Fuwa, wether it is for a project or simply to hang out. Fuwanovel is not some full time job where everyone must be 100% commited and strive for an ultimate goal and sacrifice their daily life for it, we never tried to be that. Everything we do here we do out of goodwill and in our available time and we're not getting any real life benefits for it. That's why stuff takes time, that's why things don't happen instantly, because we don't have all the time in the world to be here, because this is not a full time job. I feel like some people expect too much from some users for no reason and just want more and more stuff to happen all the time and don't even realize how chaotic things get behind the scenes due to it.
 
Certainly some people here put more effort than others and that is very much recognized and appreciated. But I'd like some people to calm down on the "everything here must and should be for making visual novels popular in the west and everything else is just pointless and silly and every person that's not putting their utmost effort all the time is lazy", because some people seem to think like that and i find it really disrespectful.
 
The staff gets bashed constantly no matter what they do, I won't even bother answering this part because i'd just get bashed as well and I don't feel like it, but i'd really like to call out to the fact that we're not here to be some sort of hardcore army, we're a community to discuss visual novels and make visual novels more accessible through piracy, that's really the jist of things and how Fuwa came to be.
 
The staff's job is and was always to moderate the forum, that's it, we never had any obligation to make projects, but guess what? We do, we do because we like the community and want to come up with new ideas, but we're human just like all of you, we're not a brainstorm of ideas all the time, we can't come up with anyting and everything because we're only normal people just like you, that's why we like community involvement, that's why, as suggested before, you should always post any ideas you have if you want to make them come true, because we're willing to work with you.
 
What we try to work on is ways to make visual novels even more accessible and as a consequence more popular, and right now there are plans for that, but I'd like to call out the fact that none of these plans were obligations, they came out of effort and goodwill and people who expect plans like these to come out of us all the time and at the speed of light really should settle down a bit because we're not anyone's pets, we're people that are here of our own volition to try and be somewhat helpful, but we have no obligation to.
 
So I'd really appreciate it if some people took into consideration that Fuwa is not meant to be a slavery site where we have to work 24/7 nonstop for "making visual novels popular in the west" because that was never the goal. This is a place where people who have the same likes come togehter and discuss the stuff they like and sometimes form new projects, that's always been it and it will keep being it. No one is forced to do anything.
 
Visual novels will keep being niche, our site will slowly grow and as it grows stuff changes, the rules changed recently due to that for example, we'll still keep trying to come up with new plans from time to time to make the site and visual novels more interesting, because our goal is directly related to making the site grow, and while some changes may not be the ones you like, while the site may not be what you envisioned, just keep a reminder that it's impossible to please everyone, no matter what.
 
And if you feel like things have become stricter now it's because it was the only solution to keep the forums in check, because when it wasn't strict we'd get complaints that it was too loose, but now that it's stricter we get complaints on that too, and the staff has to deal with these clashes of opinions all the time, yep pretty hard to please everyone isn't it. But I still am for a stricter enforcement of the rules and i experienced the hard way what letting people do whatever they want leads to.
 
Well that's my rant on fuwa.

Well it's finally done. In side the spoiler contains a literary analysis of Mai Kawasumi and Sayuri Kurata from the visual novel and anime Kanon. I explore the complexities of their friendship through analyzing them as individuals. I don't want to say any thing more because of spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, if you have not watched the Kanon 2006 anime, or read Mai and Sayuri's routes in the Kanon Visual Novel then you have been warned. However, if you read Mai's route without reading Sayuri's, I personally wouldn't stray away from this paper as Sayuri's route is only around an extra 30 min - 60 min of original text. So I don't think you would be spoiling yourself from much, but in the end it's your choice. This paper does not spoil any other character routes.  
 
A few notes about how I incorporated quotes: 
 
1) Non-Directional Translations created the English patch for the Kanon visual novel, so my quotes are of their translation. 
 
2) After I finish a quote I cite the character's route by writing their name, and then I include the in-game day that it was said. For example: if Mai said "I like Usagi-san", and the in-game day was January 15th. I would write it like this: Mai said, "I like Usagi-san"(Mai, Jan 15). This is significant because... (It's not).
 

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/1322-how-to-liven-up-the-chatter/
 
wwwwwwwwwwwww
 
 
 
Oh yes the IRC Chat days. the stats by ThatPlayer actually made it into a competition too (Lewy, Zaka, and you) wwwwwwwww
 
 
 
Not that I'm too active nowadays until like.. less than a week ago, so I don't know the current state of things (general gist though probably)~
 
 
Ryoji vs Eldin was funny

Introducing the "Get to Know Your Community" Fuwacast series!
 
The community speaks, and I listen. After many requests to give the podcast a feeling of individualism, I have begun a series featuring you, the community of Fuwanovel, in 1-on-1 interviews. Each week I will release a new episode featuring a new member from Fuwanovel. I will ask them about their lives, their hobbies, and what makes them tick. How did they come to find visual novels in the 1st place? What are some things they enjoy about the website and Japanese culture, and what are their plans for the future? Instead of focusing on me all the time, let's take a walk in some new shoes for once.
 
But don't think it stops there friends. Instead of just talk, take a look at our very 1st episode on my Mixcloud account featuring yours truly, Nosebleed!
 
http://www.mixcloud.com/OriginalRen/nosebleed
 

 
Enjoy, and if you are interested in being interviewed, please let me know in a PM so I don't miss anyone!

Well it's finally done. In side the spoiler contains a literary analysis of Mai Kawasumi and Sayuri Kurata from the visual novel and anime Kanon. I explore the complexities of their friendship through analyzing them as individuals. I don't want to say any thing more because of spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, if you have not watched the Kanon 2006 anime, or read Mai and Sayuri's routes in the Kanon Visual Novel then you have been warned. However, if you read Mai's route without reading Sayuri's, I personally wouldn't stray away from this paper as Sayuri's route is only around an extra 30 min - 60 min of original text. So I don't think you would be spoiling yourself from much, but in the end it's your choice. This paper does not spoil any other character routes.  
 
A few notes about how I incorporated quotes: 
 
1) Non-Directional Translations created the English patch for the Kanon visual novel, so my quotes are of their translation. 
 
2) After I finish a quote I cite the character's route by writing their name, and then I include the in-game day that it was said. For example: if Mai said "I like Usagi-san", and the in-game day was January 15th. I would write it like this: Mai said, "I like Usagi-san"(Mai, Jan 15). This is significant because... (It's not).
 

Well it's finally done. In side the spoiler contains a literary analysis of Mai Kawasumi and Sayuri Kurata from the visual novel and anime Kanon. I explore the complexities of their friendship through analyzing them as individuals. I don't want to say any thing more because of spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, if you have not watched the Kanon 2006 anime, or read Mai and Sayuri's routes in the Kanon Visual Novel then you have been warned. However, if you read Mai's route without reading Sayuri's, I personally wouldn't stray away from this paper as Sayuri's route is only around an extra 30 min - 60 min of original text. So I don't think you would be spoiling yourself from much, but in the end it's your choice. This paper does not spoil any other character routes.  
 
A few notes about how I incorporated quotes: 
 
1) Non-Directional Translations created the English patch for the Kanon visual novel, so my quotes are of their translation. 
 
2) After I finish a quote I cite the character's route by writing their name, and then I include the in-game day that it was said. For example: if Mai said "I like Usagi-san", and the in-game day was January 15th. I would write it like this: Mai said, "I like Usagi-san"(Mai, Jan 15). This is significant because... (It's not).
 

My friend has a phobia of pigeons (I'm not joking). So I plan on giving this to him for this birthday.

My friend has a phobia of pigeons (I'm not joking). So I plan on giving this to him for this birthday.

The saddest part is that many fansubbers produce a better product than some of the companies that purchase rights.
 
Netflix: I was browsing the limited anime selection they had. Pretty much every anime they had was subpar video quality, no subtitles during the OP/ED (much less karaoke effects) and the subtitles within the actual episode was that atrocious yellow serif font with the black outlines (Took me back to the 1990's subtitles on VHS).
 
Amazon: Same issue with the subtitles. There's also putrid video quality. I was taking a look at Clannad and High School of the Dead looked worse than playing some of my PS1 games on the PS3. Other series were actually completely out of order.
 
Hulu: Larger selections but not that many newer titles
 
Cruncyroll: Simulatenous broadcasts, some niche titles, but the library could be bigger.
 
 
But I'm 27 and can afford the actual purchase. The only thing I may download are unlincensed works or episodes of shows currently airing. Else, I can push harder and faster to be better at Japanese.

Well it's finally done. In side the spoiler contains a literary analysis of Mai Kawasumi and Sayuri Kurata from the visual novel and anime Kanon. I explore the complexities of their friendship through analyzing them as individuals. I don't want to say any thing more because of spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, if you have not watched the Kanon 2006 anime, or read Mai and Sayuri's routes in the Kanon Visual Novel then you have been warned. However, if you read Mai's route without reading Sayuri's, I personally wouldn't stray away from this paper as Sayuri's route is only around an extra 30 min - 60 min of original text. So I don't think you would be spoiling yourself from much, but in the end it's your choice. This paper does not spoil any other character routes.  
 
A few notes about how I incorporated quotes: 
 
1) Non-Directional Translations created the English patch for the Kanon visual novel, so my quotes are of their translation. 
 
2) After I finish a quote I cite the character's route by writing their name, and then I include the in-game day that it was said. For example: if Mai said "I like Usagi-san", and the in-game day was January 15th. I would write it like this: Mai said, "I like Usagi-san"(Mai, Jan 15). This is significant because... (It's not).
 

Well it's finally done. In side the spoiler contains a literary analysis of Mai Kawasumi and Sayuri Kurata from the visual novel and anime Kanon. I explore the complexities of their friendship through analyzing them as individuals. I don't want to say any thing more because of spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, if you have not watched the Kanon 2006 anime, or read Mai and Sayuri's routes in the Kanon Visual Novel then you have been warned. However, if you read Mai's route without reading Sayuri's, I personally wouldn't stray away from this paper as Sayuri's route is only around an extra 30 min - 60 min of original text. So I don't think you would be spoiling yourself from much, but in the end it's your choice. This paper does not spoil any other character routes.  
 
A few notes about how I incorporated quotes: 
 
1) Non-Directional Translations created the English patch for the Kanon visual novel, so my quotes are of their translation. 
 
2) After I finish a quote I cite the character's route by writing their name, and then I include the in-game day that it was said. For example: if Mai said "I like Usagi-san", and the in-game day was January 15th. I would write it like this: Mai said, "I like Usagi-san"(Mai, Jan 15). This is significant because... (It's not).
 

I used a specific method for learning grammar, if it helps. First, read through all of Tae Kim's grammar guide. You have to become adept with the basic grammar before going on to the essential grammar, and the same with learning the essential grammar before going on to both special expressions and advanced topics. You don't quite need to memorize all the specific conjugation for every verb ending and such right away, but be sure that you have a general idea at first and that you'll master them throughout your practice.
 
Then there's the next step. When I finished Tae Kim's grammar, I had a vague knowledge of all of the concepts, but I couldn't memorize them all at once in such a manner that I could go on to practice. That's what I think the Amaterasu guide is good for. You can't use it to learn Japanese grammar from scratch, unless you're some kind of super genius who can memorize things and gain a holistic comprehension of them at first glance. It is good, however, to stuff into your memory everything you've learned from a more comprehensive guide, such as Tae Kim's. Read through it in such a manner that you can memorize most of the stuff, at least in the short term, and then you can move on to firsthand practice. For this, I recommend visual novels, since you can both hear and read what characters are saying. There was a nice list of easy-to-read visual novels that haven't been translated, but for some reason I couldn't find it. Well, just go with something by Yuzusoft. Also, use an electronic dictionary, such as KanjiTomo.
 
As for vocabulary, it doesn't need to be on the same level of comprehension as your grammar. You need to know the basics so that you can learn the grammar, of course, but Tae Kim should have that covered. Once you're generally finished with studying grammar, you can either find a good Anki deck, or just learn by immersion in visual novels, etc. I mention this because although you're focusing on grammar, when you're reading visual novels, you might not be able to distinguish some words from others when using an electronic dictionary, which is why you need to know at least some of the words.
 
If there's a specific grammatical concept that you've never learned or have forgotten, I recommend Imabi. If Tae Kim's guide is a step up in terms of comprehensiveness to Amaterasu, Imabi is another step up from Tae Kim's. It will explain even seemingly insignificant words in deep detail, so it's very convenient for when you can't find something specific elsewhere.
 
Also, when you can't find a certain grammatical phrase anywhere you look, copy&paste it into the sentences section of Jisho, and you'll be able to learn it through context. If nothing comes up, you can probably divide it into smaller grammatical phrases.
 
EDIT: Sorry, I hadn't originally intended the wall of text. -_-

What I used was Tae Kim, because it really is pretty good (I used it.)
 
http://www.imabi.net/
http://amaterasu.tindabox.net/guide/j-comi.php
http://www.nihongoresources.com/language/grammar.html

Unfortunately, I've ONLY used Tae Kim, so I don't exactly know how great these are, but I've skimmed some, and they seem pretty useful. There are plenty of other sites, which I can't really vouch the credit for, but assume are just as good.
 
Oh yeah, I've forgotten to use them to be honest, but I'm sure they'd be helpful too.

here is a torrent http://kickass.to/genki-i-ii-integrated-elementary-japanese-course-pdf-mp3-t1420010.html 
it contains genki level 1 and level 2
 
EDIT:oh i forgot to mention this http://depositfiles.com/files/7jtd6nh8w
amazing grammar book it'll take you from beginner to intermediate level 

I wondered about this as well almost a year ago. I chose to learn japanese, as I wanted to read more vn's I liked. The ones translated weren't the ones I liked the most.
If you mean by VNR Machine translators I'd pass on that. If you start using them and enjoy it, I won't hush hush you though.
First I studied basic jp grammar. Then I hooked up my vn's with ITH+TA (text extracter and a Dic). I learnt japanese by reading vn's, took me around 2 months to get to read at average speaking speed. I found it fun from day 1. But it was frustrating as hell up to around 1 month later.
Nowdays I can read major parts of easy-average vn's without Dic's. Watch anime without subs, I don't understand 100% everything though.
 
Basically if someone who half assedly reads vn's like me can learn jp. I'd say anyone can.. Ganbatte lol.
 
A active team uses around 1-2 years. Some use less. Most teams end up using 2-3 years or more..

Actually I could picture myself enjoying audio books, however I've yet to try them. Also whenever I hear the term audio book it always reminds me of this scene from Seinfeld: