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

Summary/Plot Sickness is a Visual Novel following the life of Koro, a high school student turned violent criminal. Following the deaths of his parents, Koro is left without a home or source of income. All he has is his twin sister, Sara, who he promises to provide for, even if doing so means throwing his life away. Using the entirety of their savings, the two move to another city, wherein Koro quickly finds work. Sara commutes to her old school, Koro works long, physically-demanding hours, and the two survive off instant food, barely scraping by. It isn't a happy life, but they make it work. Or at least they did, until a violent outburst set into motion a rapid descent. Amid a physical altercation with his boss, Koro blacks out, waking up to find a corpse laying at his feet. His knuckles bloody, his muscles aching, he realizes that he has just murdered his boss, the person responsible for his continued well-being. But rather than lament the loss of life, all Koro can think of is how badly he needed the money, and what he'll do next to get it. Drawn by the scent of blood, one of Koro's coworkers, a young man with criminal connections, offers him a not so legal revenue stream, one encouraging violent behavior and rewarding the capable. And from there, everything spirals out of control. As it turns out, Koro has a knack for crime, and the petty reservations he had about such acts don't last long. For the well-being of his sister, as well as his own self-interest, he becomes a killer for hire, taking out people anybody his new boss tells him to. He quickly adapts to life as a killer, adopting a double life his sister can never know about. But his new life is not without trouble. Facing death on a weekly basis is only the beginning; between avoiding police detection, eyewitnesses, and even the malice of his fellow professional killers, Koro's new life looks to be the death of him. Will Koro manage to survive long enough to keep his promise to his sister? Will he turn tail and escape from this life of crime, finding solace in the company of someone or something else? Or will he be hunted down and killed before he ever gets the chance? Main Characters Sara Tesla - Koro's twin sister Sara is a high school student who harbors complex feelings. To her brother, Sara is an angelic sister with a loving nature and endless affection; an image she cultivates and builds on daily. To everyone else, however, Sara is narcissistic and thoroughly two-faced. Family aside, Sara doesn't care for other people in the slightest, and as a result of her desperately trying to hide this fact, her family mistakenly believe Sara to be bipolar. Karasu - An up and coming crimelord Karasu builds his wealth through a variety of "services", including, but not limited to, gambling, corporate espionage, and organ trafficking. Above all, however, Karasu is most famous for providing "waste disposal" for neighboring towns, whether they request his services or not. His ultimate goal is to build an empire he can share with his beloved "children"; interesting individuals he has taken under his wing and granted a new lease on life. Though many view him as a sadistic narcissist who will stop at nothing to obtain what he wants, Karasu is ultimately a simple businessman who displays affection only for a chosen few. Sai - Karasu's right-hand man Sai is Karasu's most trusted and capable employee, responsible for overseeing his most lucrative business ventures, despite always working in the shadows. He is also responsible for “breaking in” new recruits, and as such becomes Koro's teacher. Unrivaled in what he does, Sai is a ruthless killer who feels no remorse; those who get on his bad side seldom live long enough to realize it. The only things more important to Sai than his work are his daughter's well-being and happiness. Misa - Sai's daughter Misa is a teenage girl who wishes for a normal life. Being the daughter of a professional killer (and protective father), however, Misa has trained from a young age in order to protect herself from the dangers of the world, and in doing so inevitably became aware of her father's line of work. As her father's work absorbed her life, Misa adapted her skillset to match those of a killer, using her youth and small figure to become the youngest and most discreet killer among her peers. Outside of work, Misa is still just a young girl. She's very friendly, once she warms up to someone, and is protective of those close to her. Greenlight Page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=533640139

http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/gary-lamphier-tpp-trade-deal-looks-dead-on-arrival This should qualm any fears one might have about the TPP getting passed. Seems to be highly unlikely now.

Ok. you gotta stop reading post-apocalyptic, dystopian future, sci-fi novels. XD Sadly reality is more boring than fiction and someone owning the internet anytime soon is a tall order. The repercussions of censoring all forms of free speech and expression would trigger your belated war anyway. XD

Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s an untranslated (i.e, romaji) word sitting there in the script you're editing, staring right up at you. It’s been left like that because the TL team figured people ought to know what it means. But will they really? And what are the ramifications if they don’t? You’re running out of time, and patch release day is breathing down your neck. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO? In the case of KoiRizo, I ended up relying on a journalistic standard commonly called “the first reference rule.” Here’s how it works. Visual novels for all! Let’s say you’re a journalist writing an article about efforts to improve educational standards in underdeveloped nations. At some point, you might find yourself needing to refer to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, aka UNESCO. But if just you dropped the acronym “UNESCO” in there, most people wouldn’t know what the bloody hell you were talking about. And if you went with “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” every time, your prose would be about as ungainly as me at my prom. So a compromise gets struck: you explain the term on your first reference to it, then use the shorter form thereafter. An example first reference: “The director-general of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), pledged to make visual novels part of the global curriculum by 2025.” Or: “The director-general of UNESCO, the UN agency focused on international education efforts, pledged to make visual novels part of the global curriculum by 2025.” At this point, you’d be free to use “UNESCO” in any future references, since you’ve already explained the term. Everyone wins: the reader understands what you’re talking about, and you only have to use one word instead of eight. Ojousamas for all! The same holds true for visual novels. Let’s say an untranslated term like “ojousama” shows up in your script. if the reader has consumed a fair number of anime/manga/VNs, they might know this describes a young woman of certain means and refinement. It’s a common VN archetype, after all. But a relative newcomer to these genres would have no way of knowing that. They’d be lost if you just started dropping O-bombs out of the blue. So the first thing to do is determine context. Is this a one-off reference? If so, you can probably just fully translate the line and be done with it. (“She takes a limo to school? She must be an ojousama” becomes, “She takes a limo to school? She must come from money.”) In the case of KoiRizo, however, the word “ojousama” is used several dozen times. In fact, a character’s ojousama-ness becomes the focal point of an entire route. It would be a fool’s errand to try and excise it, particularly when there’s no one English word to replace it. So we apply the first reference rule. The initial mention in the translated KoiRizo script reads: “Because she's an ojousama, it'd be a given that she wouldn't worry about matters like money.” It hints at the meaning, but doesn't quite go far enough. So applying our rule, we update it to: “She's a proper young lady of means — an ojousama — so you'd expect her not to worry about things like money.” We’ve now defined the word “ojousama” in context and set the stage for its future use. This will make the rest of the VN flow much more smoothly for both new readers and purists who prefer their tropey terms untranslated. If several hours go by without us using the word again, it’s common courtesy to provide a reminder of its definition, but otherwise we should be good to go. All for gruel! You can even apply the rule in reverse. Here, two characters are about to spend 50 or so lines talking about a certain home-cooked dish. Original translation below: A: “Okay ... What's in the pot?” B: “Rice gruel with egg broth.” We don’t want to spend the next 50 lines saying “Rice gruel with egg broth.” Nor do we want to just say “gruel,” which sounds like something ladled out in a Depression-era orphanage. In fact, this is a steaming bowl of Japanese comfort food deliciousness. So we apply the rule in reverse, and bring back the untranslated term from the original script: A: “Okay ... What's in the pot?” B: “Ojiya — rice end egg porridge.” Now we can safely use the term “ojiya” for the next 50 lines. This ends up working better on several levels: it makes the dish sound more traditionally Japanese, it strikes the right emotional tone, and it helps us shave extra words from our lines. P.S. - If anyone knows where I can get a really good bowl of ojiya in New York City, I’m all ears.

There is a secret language spoken in the darkest corners of the visual novel world, a cant so ancient and intricate that none know its origins. To be initiated in its ways, one must drink from the Dread Chalice and be reborn in fire. Only then will the caul be drawn from your eyes. You shall know onomatopoeia. And you shall know fear. Sploosh 101: What is onomatopoeia? Before we jump in with both feet — *splash!* — let’s do a quick primer on terminology. An onomatopoeia is a word that imitates, resembles, or suggests the source of the sound it describes — i.e, it sounds like what it is. Like clink, yip, kaboom, swish, meow, oink. (That’s the verbatim transcript of my bachelor party, in case anyone’s wondering.) This is different from a word that describes a sound or action, but doesn’t actually imitate it — e.g., sneeze vs. achoo, punch vs. kapow, close vs. slam. The latter are onomatopoeia; the former, I call ononotopoeia. For the sake of brevity, let’s refer to these O and not-O. The Japanese language is rich in O. There’s a sound effect for everything. There’s probably a sound effect for there being a sound effect for everything. (If there isn’t, I’d like to propose one now: darubu.) There are even sound effects for things that don’t actually make sound — e.g., “jii” for staring. While it’s woven into the fabric of the modern Japanese language, O is especially prevalent in manga and, to a somewhat lesser extent, anime. Since visual novels draw heavily from these two worlds, they too feature lots and lots of these words. English is relatively impoverished in O by comparison, and therein lies the challenge for VN translators and editors. Do you leave these essentially untranslatable sound effects as they are? Or do you try to translate them, losing some of their immediacy and, for lack of a better word, oomph? Across the great divide The VN community seems to be fairly split on that question. In one camp, we have the purists. By and large, these are readers who are already comfortable with Japanese O through manga and anime. They consider it part and parcel of the VN experience. Learning and appreciating such terms is simply part of becoming an accomplished reader. It’d be like going to a fine dining restaurant and, instead of the chef presenting you with “the amuse-bouche,” he just came out and said, “Here’s this small appetizer thingy I made. Hope you like it.” The vocabulary is part of the experience. In the other camp, we have the reformists. To them, leaving O untouched isn’t translation; it’s mere transliteration. It denies meaningful content to the uninitiated English reader — e.g., if you don’t know "munyu" means to grope someone, you’ll be clueless when the best girl hauls off and smacks the protagonist in the very next line. To extend the fine dining metaphor, it’d be like going to the same restaurant, being handed a menu that was all in French, and having the waitstaff snootily refuse to tell you what anything meant. Hope you like thymus glands, mon ami, because that’s what you just ordered. When it came to KoiRizo, I was a reformist editor on a purist project. I joined the team after the translation had been completed and a lot of the big up-front decisions had already been made: Will this be a literal translation or liberal? (Literal.) Will we keep all the honorifics? (Yes.) Will we keep all the onomatopoeia? (Yes.) MDZ, the KoiRizo project lead, was very up-front about all this. And that was fine. The job of a VN editor is to facilitate and execute on the project lead’s vision. It’s great if you’re involved early enough to shape that vision, but it’s ultimately his/her show, not yours. (If you’re not okay with that, go start your own TL project.) So with that in mind, I did the best purist editing job I could. But what if I had carte blanche in how I approached O? What would I do differently? As luck would have it, I’ve given that some thought. Onomatopoeia in standard scripts For the majority of scripts, it helps to separate O-words into two groups: content-light ad content-heavy. The content-light group tends to consist of interjections, exclamations, grunts, groans, laughs, etc. These are mostly self-explanatory terms, communicating very little other than the fact that they’re a familiar sound. Some examples include: HoEAHehUuuAt most, I’ll clean these up to make them friendlier to Western eyes — “A! A sea cucumber!” becomes “Ah! A sea cucumber!” (In this case, it’d be too easy to mistake the “A” sound for a stammering repetition of the indefinite article “a.”) Otherwise, I’m happy to leave them be. On the other side, we have the content-heavy O-words. These are either (1) terms that have a very specific meaning you’d never be able to guess at without prior knowledge, or (2) common sounds that are rendered much differently in English than Japanese. These are the words that, if you ignore them, will result in meaningful content being lost in translation. Some examples include: Kakkun = the “sound” of hitting someone in the back of the knees. Based on a kids’ game.Su = the sound of something suddenly appearing (among other meanings)Gusu = the sound of a whimpering sobHakushon = the sound of sneezingChikutaku = the sound a clock makesOur first line of attack is to see if there’s any suitable English onomatopoeia we can swap in. It’s rare that it works out so neatly, but it does happen. So "hakushon" becomes “achoo,” "chikutaku" becomes “tick tock,” etc. If this doesn’t work, we fall back on another common approach: turning not-O English words into O by enclosing them in asterisks. So: “Gusu. Why won’t you return any of my calls?" becomes: *whimper* “Why won’t you return any of my calls?” As your final line of defense, you might consider abandoning O altogether, instead relying on some explanatory text to flesh out the intended meaning. So: Su. “Where do you think you’re going, jerk?” becomes: She appeared out of nowhere. “Where do you think you’re going, jerk?” I’d recommend turning to this as a last resort, however, since you can see a certain staccato elegance gets lost in translation. As for where you can find out what all these untranslated O-words mean, there are all sorts of online resources to be had out there. I tend to use the Japanese > English SFX dictionary over at The JADED Network, but I’m sure there are plenty of others just as good. Onomatopoeia in H-scenes Sex scenes are something of a special case. You’ll find there are large blocks of text that are nothing but wall-to-wall O. (I see what you did there, you sly dog you ...) Here are some sample lines from KoiRizo: Sango: “Nafufu. Fumu, Juru, Zuzuzu." Sango: "Rero, Chu, Chuu ..." Sango: "Hamu, Chuu, Chuu ... Rero, Juupu, Zuzu." Sango: "Jupo, Gupo, Zu." Sango: "Juzuzuzuzu." Sango: "Fumu? Fua ..." During editing, I liked to call these sections “word salad.” They’re an unholy mishmash of content-heavy O, content-light O, and nonsensical fuck-grunts. It’s a tangled mess of syllables that can make even the bravest editor or translator turn tail and run. In my earlier post on editing H-scenes, one of the commenters — smile for the camera, Ittaku! — suggested it might just be better to replace these sections with ellipses and let the VO do all the heavy lifting. It’s a tempting thought. But despite all appearances, there’s content to be had there — content the Japanese reader would have understood, and which the English reader will miss out on ... unless you take action. Let’s see what happens if we (somewhat liberally) run it through the techniques we’ve discussed so far. Sango: "Ummph. Umm." *slurp* *sluuurp* Sango: “Mmm.” *suuuck* Sango: *nibble* *suck* “Mmmm ...” *bob* *sluuurp* Sango: *sucksuck* *slurp* Sango: *slurpslurpslurpsluuurp* Sango: "Mmmph? Ahhh ..." Okay, it ain’t poetry, but at least we’ve transformed our tossed salad it into something with actual meaning. Even without having read the rest of the scene, you can guess that Sango is vigorously polishing the protagonist’s knob. Or is trapped in a vat of ramen and eating her way to freedom. It can be improved upon, of course; all those asterisks start getting visually distracting, so if the VN engine supports it, italics might be a better choice here. But I’d argue it’s much better than what we started with. Feeling more confident? Good. Go forth and sploosh.

For those of you who don't know, TPP stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it's basically a big "fuck you" to just about every regular citizen in every country that it will apply to. We don't know all the details yet, but part of it was leaked to Wikileaks, and there are some pretty concerning things in here. First off, you'll probably want to stop pirating if this does go through, since companies will be able to force your ISP to give them information on people who pirate their work (something that doesn't happen very often, if at all currently, since it's actually pretty hard to trigger the three warning flags and have you get fined). The average citizen can get fined insane amounts of money, and even face jail time. Now I don't think this will mean a shit ton of people are going to get rekt with charges or anything, since not only is suing someone really expensive, but incarceration fees are insanely high as well. It just wouldn't be worth it to them. Another pretty concerning thing, maybe even more concerning given that most of us are anime/manga fans, is that you can get charged with a criminal offense for doing fansubs, making doujins, making AMV's, and even cosplaying. And the copyright holder doesn't even have to file a complaint, you will just get charged regardless if you are caught, even if the copyright holder doesn't care about it. Here is an article on that whole shabang: http://goboiano.com/original/3219-anime-and-cosplay-fans-could-become-criminals-with-new-international-trade-agreement There is also something in the TPP that could raise health care and medicine prices, to the point where there might be a considerable amount of casualties just because people won't be able to afford the healthcare and medicine they need. Obviously there is a lot more to it, and we won't know all the information for about another month, but it isn't looking good at all. Anyways, I just wanted to spread the word about this ludicrous agreement, in hopes that more people will be vocal about it getting turned down. What do you guys think about this? Do you think it will go through? Sorry for the wall of text

Ever had an idea for a Visual Novel, and wanted to share it? Well, you're in the right place! VN Idea Dump Thread! Throw your ideas here, and discuss what you'd most like to see. Maybe something similar to your idea already exists. Maybe someone might actually make something small out of your idea! Who knows! Valiant Heart by Jason An angel is testing the faithfulness of man, tempting them with adultery to find pure love. When she finds pure love, she falls in love with the male, and tries to get the most pure couple to break up, so she can have the man ( or woman ) for herself Fate/Stay Massacre by Zodai A man's fight to protect his family results in genocide. Emiya Shirou if Emiya Shirou turns into a mass murderer halfway through. Love Labor by Jason Protagonist loses a bet, and becomes the property of his childhood friend. You take it as a joke, but she gets it worked out legally, and you become her property. She could torture you, or fall in love with you based on choices My Sweetheart by Zodai A girl fell in love with her childhoodfriend and was going to confess to him on 14 Feburary but she Discover at he have already girlfriend. Now must she try to win her childhoodfriend heart before the day ends and Get her chance to confess on valentines day. Boukyaku no Rakuen by Storyteller Due to neglect, the protag starts "talking" to plants, and is sent to a remote academy that doubles as a mental institution for children who are "psychologically challenged". He becomes the only member of the Gardening Club and is effectively given complete control over the academy's extensive gardens. Over time, he comes into contact with other students and/or faculty who all have their own problems, to which he provides relief in the form of illegally-cultivated opium. Will he be able to provide the relief they seek, or will his relationships devolve into addiction-driven exploitation? Literally Hell by Zodai A girl runs away from an abusive home and falls into the underworld. Coming-of-age story, tries to make the world a better place. Murder-Mystery Evangelion by Zodai A college-aged boy loses his memory and becomes haunted by his lover's ghost. Evangelion if Evangelion were about mental trauma. Post-Apocalyptic Utsuge by Zodai A young woman has to assassinate a high-ranking official after inevitably causing the apocalypse. Official turns out to be her father, who was forced to abandon her as a child. An utsuge Butterfly, but spider by Palas Before the main menu: on the day of her college entrance exam, a girl wakes up in a desert during a sandstorm with no shelter but an abandoned cabin. Or as abandoned as a cabin where a witch lives can be. The witch gives her a box of matches and tells her each match, when lit, will give her a glimpse of a possible future for her, but after that this future will become impossible. Main menu: at first, the VN cannot be started normally but has multiple save files you can load, each one corresponding to a match in the box. You cannot save. Once seen, the save file disappears. The Start button is unlocked once the player understand who the witch is, what the box of matches is for and why she is in that desert. King of the Hill by TexasDice Our main character and his class are going on a ski trip. There, the protagonist gets accquainted to more characters and through unexpected developments, has to eventually win a race against an arrogant rich boy-type character to save the run-down ski lodge from rich boy's dad's construction company. The whole thing is written and toned as a mixture of happy-sappy Visual Novel and cheesy 80s/90s underdog sports movie. Bypasser Syndrome by Jason Protagonist wakes up, with no memories of who or where he is. Whenever he makes a connection to someone, he absorbs their memories that involve him. He learns he's done some amazing things, and some horrible things. He tries to piece together his past, while shaping his future. One Last Time by Storyteller Protag and a few friends (3~4?) wake up to find themselves in another world, where they must work together to survive and overcome hardships while searching for a way to return to their own world. With their teamwork, they easily surmount the various challenges presented against them, finally reaching their destination. However, they are told only one of them can return at a time. The rest will have to do it again from the start. You choose one of the characters to send back. Protag and a few friends (minus the one sent back last time) wake up in the same world, with no knowledge of the previous loop. Once again, they work through the same hardships, though a little more difficult this time, and reach their destination once again. There, they're met with the same decision: choose a character to send back. This keeps on going, with each loop becoming more difficult than the last as their numbers dwindle. In the end, with only two left, they barely make it to their destination. Both the protag and the remaining characters know that neither will be able to complete the quest on their next loop. The protag sends the last remaining friend home. The protagonist wakes up alone, with no knowledge of past loops. He must brave the hardships one last time, but this time, there is no one to help him along the way. Yami no Hikari by Ryukaze Two brothers who are potential heirs to a kingdom in an alien world battles one another for a reason the younger brother, Light could not forgive: the murder of their only parent. Light unleashes the sacred relic, Kradon to judge his elder brother, Dark with an intent to kill him. However something unexpected happened, the will of Kradon opened a gate between the human realm and their home world: Terrial. Dark wakes up in a foreign world oblivious to everything around him, and further yet, he loses his memories and his powers sealed with the exception of inhuman stamina and reflexes. After a few years of arrival to the human realm, the remnants of the attack from Kradon reaches the surface of Earth and granting a selective amount of humans with supernatural abilities and also awakening a small spec of Dark's powers. The choices you make will build up Dark's personality and ultimately the outcome of the human realm. Write your idea below. Include a name, a credit name ( if not done by you ) and a basic description. Keep descriptions under two paragraphs, just for ease of reading. Also, no longer editing them here unless they're an appropriate length and I have time.

thank you for gently popping my cherry back then 18years ago and remaining by my side all the time. thank you for the sheer amount of high quality novels you´ve produced over the past decades, which greatly helped me forming my own personality and therefore having influenced me in more than one way. happiness, hatred, excessive love and hellish pain - i experienced them all thanks to your awesome stories. Sayonara dear friend, the astounishing legacy of yours shalt not be forgotten. edit: they weren´t just some major game developer, they simply were ELF, as their works pretty much shaped a whole generation + x of otakus & personally i always loved them for the overly beautiful plus detailed artwork of theirs, with even olden stuff still looking great and appealing - something many other works are lacking these days, which i´m truly going to miss.

Especially one with such a long history in the business. The tribute you can find linked on vndb is decidedly touching. (I've not linked it as I'm not 100% sure it's ok to, but if you go on the Elf vndb page you'll see it in the descriptor) 27 years is a long time for a company. And my god, that tribute makes me want to replay Maro no Kanja wa Gatenkei once again. Oh and a bucketload more of tears has been shed.

10/10, simply because if it ever changes there's something badly wrong.

lol... the US's political culture is naturally isolationist and xenophobic. However, the experience of WWII basically convinced us that the only way to maintain our prosperity was to crush foreign opposition before it became a real problem and use economic force to take over the world. It doesn't change the fact that our society is naturally isolationist at its core... at present, our nation's political culture is split (on a dimension that still manages to cross the lines between parties) between internationalists and xenophobes... and the xenophobes are the vocal minority and a silent majority. Of course, as the nation moves rapidly toward edging the Caucasians out of their majority, some of that xenophobia will be relieved, but it doesn't change the realities at this point. Edit: I should clarify this point... interventionism is not necessarily in opposition to isolationism, due to the miracles of double-think. Interventionism is a tool of isolationism, at this point, though it wasn't so much so during the Cold War, ironically.

@above wow, that's a really good story. Good luck on your light novel! I would definitely read it. Very thought out.

I have one and I am currently writing it as a light novel (only the prologue so far). Not sure if I should share it here due to fear of plagiarism. But I guess a summary wouldn't hurt. Science vs Sorcery In 2326, Earth was invaded by an alien invasion force know as Vars. Facing extinction, humanity resorted to their final option, a galactic vessel called "The Ark" to flee from Earth before it becomes fully occupied. With roughly 2700 people aboard The Ark, the humans went on a long journey to find a planet across countless galaxies where they could live in peace and possibly rebuild so they can reclaim Earth again from its conquerors. Arriving on a planet similar to Earth after 32 years and 1286 people still living, they found a new ray of hope to thrive, however, there were already denizens in this planet and surprisingly, they could understand the same languages that the humans can speak. They also possess unique talents which humans can relate to as sorcery or magic. The original denizens of the planet welcomed the Earthlings with open arms and they exchanged all their wealth of knowledge and resource with each other. The Earthlings managed to rebuild their home, their culture, and their lifestyle and they also adapted to the new ways of life presented to them. The story follows Raynor, an 21 year old man born from 1st generation Earthlings after 30 years of human occupation of the new planet the denizens call "Myarlis". Earthlings focused on rebuilding and improving their technology with the new resources of the planet so they can reclaim Earth again. Raynor becomes one of the lead engineers of the reclamation project. He was also curious of the "magical power" of the Myarlisians, so he begins his quest to learning more about this so he can combine both the power of science and sorcery to combat the Vars and make Earth theirs again.

Quoting is pretty messy now. You end up with a series of 5 quotes nested within each other that can't be edited out. I used to trim out the unnecessary parts of the series in IPB3, but IPB4 won't let me do that.

To be fair, "nationalization" can be a euphemism for "theft" in some circumstances.

Post your idolised Nico day? Finee In another news, gonna start spamming the hell out of Triple Yume (lel) since it's one of the easier Super Hard

Thanks for reviving it, guys. I thought nobody wanted a thread separate from the common one. Just finished Hello,good-bye. Difficulty-wise it was above anything I've read up until now, what with that politics vocab and all. Stopped taking new words at ~200 and just read normally from that point on, it was much easier past the (long) prologue. Possible minor spoilers below I also finished Supreme Candy and Yui no Kotonoha a while ago, while this thread was dead. Some thoughts on Supreme Candy with possible minor spoilers.

i am on amene route now. Already played sachi and yumiko routes really liked them but cant decide who is better, kuudere or maid? Maid ofc OOhh and btw welcome to Fuwa

I don't think the rest of the world would characterize the US as """isolationist""". Especially those who don't like the US.

HOLY SHIT IT HAPPENED

You need the crack if you didn't purchase the game, though I'm not at liberty to tell you where to get it from

Hello there and welcome to the Fuwanovel forums. How are you enjoying Grisaia right now? It's a really good VN and it gets way better later on in the VN.

I don't necessarily like Japanese culture. I like the Japanese *counter* culture as expressed in the otaku subculture. It's key to distinguish the craziness you see in anime and eroge from what it's actually like to live, study, and work in Japan. Otaku culture is no more representative of Japanese culture as a whole than Hollywood movies are representative of American culture.

Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your stay! Illya best fate grill Have a moe:

It hurts now. I blame you.

as for me, though already been interested in otaku-culture agood while before, i first started reading eroge and the derivates of theirs around ~´97/´98 on sega saturn (doukyuusei), mostly as a means to distract myself from the lonelyless i felt back then, which ironically hastened the process of turning me in into a hopeless social outcast the more i immersed myself into the medium as awhole, almost breaking up contact with all of my friends, family members and other people once dear to me and basically kept on living my (shitty but enteraining) life, that consisted(s) only of earning money for allowing me to stay in my imaginary 2d wonderland. in terms of numbers, i lost the overview at some point, but the vndb list of mine is pretty much inaccurate, since i have not rated all of the ones i read yet, mostly nukige or those considered the worst and on the other hand numerousness never got finished by me btw. completed only a few routes that draw me in for various reasons and then stalled them infinitely. as for the content, i do prefer almost anything focused on interpersonal drama, twisted relationships (incl. netorare), excessive violence (both physically and mentally), realistic stories, authentic characters, prostitution, sexual slavery, horror, despair, betrayel, revenge, (dark) fantasy, chuunibyou, adventure, sci-fi, true love stories, conclusive plotlines and so on.

Hi new annoying person, I'm old annoying person ^3^

Just because you failed doesn't mean others can't do it. I'm reading untranslated stuff quite well after a year of learning.

Here's a more decentralized (and lengthier) version of the TPP so you can clearly comprehend the scope of the issue and how your animu is the least of your concerns. (most of this are x-posts from reddit and other sources) By the way, this deal has already been agreed upon during a summit by all nations, including Japan, all that's left is for it to be agreed upon internally. This is when you really should push back against it. What is the TPP? The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a multi-layered deal whose particulars have just been agreed upon by the twelve participating countries. Its stated purpose is to reduce tariffs - taxes on bringing your goods into a country or sending them out - and therefore encourage industry by making it cheaper for importers and exporters to conduct business between these countries. Its other stated goal is to create a set of easy rules that businesses can live by when dealing between these countries. The TPP is far more complex than that, however. Its subtextual function is to serve as a foundation from which to spread that set of easy rules to other Asian nations, with an eye to preventing China from setting standards among these countries first. The Obama administration is concerned that it's either "us or them" and that a Chinese-led trade agreement would set rules that American businesses would find problematic. How does it affect you if you're in one of these countries? A deal like the TPP involves identifying which tariffs affect market access and competition by creating a market that favors some producers over others instead of letting price, quality and consumer preference decide. For instance, it is very expensive to bring milk in to Canada, so even if you could sell your milk at a lower price, you will have to account for the cost of the tariffs, which will make your milk uncompetitive on the Canadian market. New Zealand and the US both want to see Canadian dairy tariffs lowered so that their milk producers can sell on the Canadian market more easily. • When the market can decide and the barriers are down, we expect to see open markets offering more products/services than could previously have been made available. Prices should go down for certain products due to increased competition. • A deal with as many players as the TPP rarely functions on one-to-one trades; instead, each party has a list of things that they want and needs to go shopping around to find ways to get their positions filled - a chain of deals wherein, for instance, Japan pressures Canada on the milk issue so that they can in turn see motion on their own priority, such as car parts. This is why the negotiations have taken so long. • The TPP wants to standardize rules for trade among its participants, which cover a lot more than just tariffs and quotas. Other issues that have to be considered and negotiated include intellectual property rights and protections; rules regarding patents; environmental and labor regulations. In short, it tries to set standards on how business is conducted, both internationally and at home. It does this because uneven practices can result in uncompetitive market access. • This standardization is hoped to improve labor and environmental laws across the board, as the need to conform forces countries that have been lagging behind in their standards to catch up with the rest of the group. By setting rules that apply equally to the US as to Malaysia, it is hoped that people will be better off and enjoy more protections in their working environment. • To that end, the TPP will also have a process in place for what happens when someone breaks the rules - a tribunalwhich will decide based on terms laid out by the TPP instead of following the laws of any one government. This helps ensure that foreign companies are treated fairly and can conduct business under the same standards and with the same opportunities. Tl;dr the TPP is out to make business between these 12 countries more fair, predictable and even. It should provide more choice in goods and services and more bang for your buck, while making labor standards improve for people outside of North America who may be operating under less protections than a Canadian or American enjoys. What are the concerns? • The TPP has been negotiated in heavy secrecy. While it's easy to see why keeping such a huge deal secret from the public is problematic, it is also reasonable for governments to work on negotiations and come to terms before letting elected officials decide if the end result is in the public interest. It lets others at the bargaining table know that what is said there won't be changed by a public opinion poll two days later, and it has been argued that such secrecy is therefore necessary to make these meetings work at all. • The TPP has a scope that concerns many parties as it addresses trade and industry regulations on a 21st century scope - everything from upcoming cancer drugs to internet regulations to, yes, a cup of milk in Canada is all being covered by the same negotiation. It is a reasonable concern to say that the number of issues being covered in the same deal will make it hard for the public to reasonably read, understand and decide on. • The removal of tariffs provides new foreign opportunities for business, but it also means that industries which rely on a protected domestic market will become exposed. It is not unreasonable to suggest that any given country is trading away the success of industry A for success in industry B, which, if all things are equal, should come down to a zero-sum game. Economics does not, of course, work like that, but it's still a fair question to examine. • While supporters of the TPP say that it will encourage countries to improve their standards and reform, those elements are at their strongest during the negotiation - and the heat on issues such as human trafficking and human rights abuses have been sidelined as pressure to secure a deal of any kind has mounted on major nations facing upcoming elections. What should have been an opportunity to engage and demand reform as a condition of involvement in such a major global trade deal has been left by the wayside, a casualty of ambition. What are the biggest issues? • While the TPP has been kept secret from the public, large corporate interests have had a seat at the table throughout the process. These businesses have an obligation to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. This means that a great many of the deals that form the basis of the TPP have been negotiated with an eye to advantaging those businesses, potentially at the expense of the average citizen. • "Free trade" as the TPP proposes is nothing new - globalization has already happened, and we are all the beneficiaries. What this deal will offer is not for the average citizen, who might see a few price differences on common products - it is for the large corporate interests who will have more freedom to move jobs and production to areas where it is cheaper to conduct business. • There should be no such areas within the TPP zone, but part of the negotiation involves exceptions in place specifically to help these companies. The consistent standards that the TPP desires to set? Corporations would like to see those standards lowered - it is in their best interest to have access to a labor, property and capital market where they pay the least amount of money to conduct their business. • Tariffs exist in part to protect domestic industry - jobs - from the vagaries of a global market. If cheaper US milk is sold in Canada, Canadian milk producers will have to choose whether to sell their own products more cheaply or else close down and go out of business. If it is not possible for these farmers to sell at a lower price and still remain profitable, then that choice is not a choice at all. • The TPP's intellectual property provisions, which have been the subject of several leaks, are harsher than existing law, a product (again) of corporate involvement in the deal. They aim to crack down on several ways people use intellectual property, fairly and otherwise, and their scope means there is significant possibility for abuse and harrassment. • More damagingly, the TPP applies those laws to drugs with an eye to preventing cheaper medicine from being available on the market - products that by rights should be subject to competition as their prices are heavily inflated beyond the cost of production. • The TPP will offer a method by which companies can attack laws that affect them, suing governments through a tribunal for such offenses as trying to protect youth from cigarette marketing images, trying to protect the environment from dangerous industrial contaminants, or even refusing to pass laws removing or suppressing regulations where beneficial to corporate activity. These are all issues that already happen under various trade deals. • We, the public, and our elected representatives will not have a great deal of time or means to push back against this trade deal if we dislike it. The text will only be released when absolutely necessary (a period of 60 days in the US) and steps have already been taken to ensure that elected officials cannot muck about with the deal. While this is logical (it would not be fair to negotiate terms and then change them back at home without discussing it), it does mean that instead of being able to debate and dissect we're committed to an all-or-nothing deal. What changes are being made to copyright law exactly? The leaked U.S. IP chapter includes many detailed requirements that are more restrictive than current international standards, and would require significant changes to other countries’ copyright laws. These include obligations for countries to: Expand Copyright Terms: Create copyright terms well beyond the internationally agreed period in the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The TPP could extend copyright term protections from life of the author + 50 years, to Life + 70 years for works created by individuals, and either 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation for corporate owned works (such as Mickey Mouse).Escalate Protections for DRM (aka Digital Locks): It will compel signatory nations to enact laws banning circumvention of digital locks (technological protection measures or TPMs) that mirror the DMCA and treat violation of the TPM provisions as a separate offense even when no copyright infringement is involved. This would require countries like New Zealand to completely rewrite its innovative 2008 copyright law, as well as override Australia’s carefully-crafted 2007 TPM regime exclusions for region-coding on movies on DVDs, video games, and players, and for embedded software in devices that restrict access to goods and services for the device—a thoughtful effort by Australian policy makers to avoid the pitfalls experienced with the US digital locks provisions. In the U.S., business competitors have used the DMCA to try to block printer cartridge refill services, competing garage door openers, and to lock mobile phones to particular network providers.Create New Threats for Journalists and Whistleblowers:Dangerously vague text on the misuse of trade secrets, which could be used to enact harsh criminal punishments against anyone who reveals or even accesses information through a "computer system" that is allegedly confidential.Enact a "Three-Step Test" Language That Puts Restrictions on Fair Use: The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is putting fair use at risk with restrictive language in the TPP's IP chapter. U.S. and Australia have proposed very restrictive text, while other countries such as Chile, New Zealand, and Malaysia, have proposed more flexible, user-friendly terms.Place Greater Liability on Internet Intermediaries: The TPP would force the adoption of the U.S. DMCA Internet intermediaries copyright safe harbor regime in its entirety. For example, this would require Chile to rewrite its forward-looking 2010 copyright law that currently establishes a judicial notice-and-takedown regime, which provides greater protection to Internet users’ expression and privacy than the DMCA.Adopt Heavy Criminal Sanctions: Adopt criminal sanctions for copyright infringement that is done without a commercial motivation. Users could be jailed or hit with debilitating fines over file sharing, and may have their property or domains seized even without a formal complaint from the copyright holder.Tl;dr countries would have to abandon any efforts to learn from the mistakes of the United States and its experience with the DMCA over the last 16 years, and adopt many of the most controversial aspects of U.S. copyright law in their entirety. At the same time, the TPP's IP chapter does not export the limitations and exceptions in the U.S. copyright regime like fair use, which have enabled freedom of expression and technological innovation to flourish in the United States. It includes only a placeholder for exceptions and limitations. This raises serious concerns about other countries’ sovereignty and the ability of national governments to set laws and policies to meet their domestic priorities. I'm not in any of these 12 countries, should I care? The TPP will affect countries beyond the 12 that are currently involved in negotiations. Like ACTA, the TPP Agreement is a plurilateral agreement that will be used to create new heightened global IP enforcement norms. Countries that are not parties to the negotiation will likely be asked to accede to the TPP as a condition of bilateral trade agreements with the U.S. and other TPP members, or evaluated against the TPP's copyright enforcement standards in the USTR's annual Special 301 process. This is terrible, what can I do? If you're in any of the participating nations, the first thing you can do is contact your local lawmakers and ask to speak out against this agreement. If you're in the US, on top of talking to your local lawmakers you can also join the EFF's rally against the TPP in Washington DC on November 14th through November 18th. If you're in Canada, you can use the Council of Canadians' tool to send a message to your international trade minister and members of the parliamentary trade committee to release the secret TPP text and negotiate the deal with proper public input. If you're in Australia, you can use GetUp!'s action too tocontact your senator and call on them to oppose the agreement in the Senate. If you're in Chile, you can join the ONG Derechos Digitales campaign against the TPP! If you're in Peru, spread the word as much as possible and contact organizations that are already against this. If you're in Japan, you can read information in the Stop TPP!! website.

Ef was such a good anime. I played a little bit of the VN as well. It was just as good. Still need to get back to that. I've only watched the first episode, but I hope to slowly descend into sad feels. Well, that is what people told me what is going to happen.

I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was... To fap to 'em is my real test, stamina is my cause... I will travel across the net, searching far and wide Each onahole will make me feel... The power that's insideeeeeeee~ ONAHOLE! (I know now what I must do.)

"Hit it with your crossbow, Steve!"

Mare-channnnn

I think you're forgetting about a certain gondola ride...

As any translator can probably tell you, Japanese jokes are a huge pain to capture in English. There are unfamiliar memes, cultural references, wordplay, riffs on kanji characters — none of which are particularly easy to convey to Western audiences. If you get lucky, a few nips and tucks in editing are all you need to make one of these unwieldy beasts work in English. If you get unlucky, however, you end up having to grab the rib spreader and do some major linguistic surgery. Sometimes the patients pull through. Sometimes they die on the operating table. These are their stories. Joke 1: Pearls before swine In this scene from KoiRizo, Soutarou has just finished giving one of the girls a bit of helpful advice passed down to him by his grandfather. The raw translation is below: Soutarou: “... That's the motto that they followed back then, I think. Well you know, according to my grandfather.” Riho: “Your grandfather's ball bag?” Soutarou: “A-Although I think that he got it from my grandmother...” Riho: “Ha ...?!” Soutarou: “...” Riho: “I just said a really strange thing ―!” Get it? Get it? No, of course you don’t. KoiRizo was intended as a literal translation, and read literally, this makes zero sense. At this point in my editing, the only choice I had was to go back to the original script, break out the Japanese > English dictionaries, and see if I could figure out what the hell was going on here. As near as I could figure, Riho meant to use the word “chiebukuro” — literally, “sack of wisdom.” She intended to say something about Soutarou’s pop-pop being a pretty smart guy, chock full of good advice. Instead, she uses “tamafukuro” — literally, “ball sack.” You can understand Soutarou’s confusion when Riho starts talking about his grandfather’s wrinkly old nuts. Nice guy that he is, however, Souatrou tries to give her a graceful out, suggesting it was actually his grandmother who provided the advice. Riho realizes her error and is appropriately mortified. Great. We’ve puzzled it out ... but at this point, the joke still doesn’t work in translation. “Sack of wisdom” isn’t a common English phrase, so the reader won’t catch the intended meaning behind Riho’s mistake. It just sounds like a plain old non sequitur right now. So our next task is to change her line to something that (1) works as a Freudian slip, (2) comes out of the blue, and (3) is sexually shocking enough to catch Soutarou off guard. The version I eventually settled on ran something like this: Soutarou: “... That was the common advice back then, I think. Well, you know, according to my grandfather.” Riho: “Your grandfather must have really liked giving you pearl necklaces, huh?” Soutarou: “A-Actually, it might have been my grandmother who liked giving out pearls of wisdom ...” Riho: “Ha ...?!” Soutarou: “...” Riho: “I can’t believe I just said that ―!” Here, we’ve keep the same basic structure, but rather than “sack of wisdom,” Riho tries (and fails) to say “pearls of wisdom,” a much more common English idiom. And now, rather than Grandpa’s gnarly ballsack, we have the even more shocking image of the old guy giving his grandson pearl necklaces on a regular basis. Soutarou still gets to save the day by pivoting to his grandmother, and then the rest of the joke plays out pretty much as originally written. Does it work? I hope so, but one could just as easily argue that I broke it. It’s a different gag; there’s no doubting that. But at the end of the day, I’d rather have a joke that works and maintains the original’s spirit than one that’s accurate to a fault. Joke 2: Deflowering the girls Here’s a joke I know I broke during editing. Smashed it to the ground and danced on the pieces. In my defense, it was looking at me funny. In the raw translation of this scene, resort manager Nagisa has just asked the staff to gather in their swimsuits for a big announcement: Nagisa: “I have a reason for calling you all here like this today.” Nagisa: “I'd like everyone to become the 'detergent' of the facilities.” Sango: “Detergent? Us?” Nagisa: “Oh, sorry. By detergent, I was referring more to advertising material.... In other words, I need you guys to photograph for an advertisement.” Again, another joke that makes no sense when read literally. And the only TL note I had to go on said, “This translation won't work in English.” Agreed. So I hauled out the J>E dictionary again, but had much less luck this time. At best, I came away with a wisp of a shred of a guess. My hunch was that Nagisa was using one very specific meaning of the word “senzai”— the foremost part of a garden, the loveliest flowers intended to set the stage and entice visitors in deeper — and Sango interpreted it as another more common meaning of “senzai” — namely, detergent. Nagisa clarifies her meaning, everyone has a chuckle, and the scene continues. I wasn’t sure if I was right — I’m an editor, not a translator — but lacking any better options, I decided to go with it. And I promptly flailed about like a clown being drowned in a bathtub. Right off the bat, I knew there weren’t any good English sound-alikes that would work here. So instead, I wrote about a dozen variations on garden and flower puns, but none of them managed to weave plausible misunderstanding with Nagisa’s actual meaning. Worse yet, they just weren’t funny. Next, I tried a few bawdier versions, but quickly abandoned those as well. This scene is going to get more risqué in a minute, but throwing in a sex joke right now would be tipping our hand too soon. (In one draft, I had Nagisa say she wants the girls to be the hook that lures visitors to the island. Sango replies, “What?! You want us to hook for you?” — i.e., she thought her boss wanted to pimp them out as resort hookers.) Having hit brick wall after brick wall, I decided to strip the joke down to its essence. What’s the basic structure here? Nagisa says she wants to use the girls to help sell the resort. Sango suffers a comic misunderstanding. Nagisa corrects her. The end. So that’s what I wrote: Nagisa: “There’s a reason why I’ve called everyone here like this today.” Nagisa: “I've decided to sell you.” Sango: “Sell us? Is that even legal?” Nagisa: “Oh, sorry. By ‘sell,’ I meant using you to help advertise the resort ... In layman’s terms, I need you guys to model for some publicity photos.” We lose the poeticism of the original — that image of the girls as flowers drawing visitors in — but in exchange, we get something that actually works as wordplay in English while still delivering the necessary plot info (Nagisa’s marketing brainstorm). It’s still not a particularly hilarious gag, but then again, neither was the original. In both examples, I ended up completely rewriting large chunks of each joke. And while I'm not entirely satisfied — I wish I could have kept more of the original language — I'm okay with the result. Editing is a balancing act. You want to remain as faithful to the original text as possible while maintaining the audience’s immersion in the work. If the reader suddenly comes across a joke that clearly doesn’t parse in English, that immersion is broken. They stop. They scroll back and re-read it a few times, trying to make sense of it. They wonder if they’re missing something, or if the TL team just messed it up. BAM. They’re now completely out of the world of the visual novel. The magic is broken. Because magic is only magic until you notice the strings. Or that dead clown in the bathtub.

I hear what you're saying, Deep Blue, but I think if you're going to translate/edit a work into English, you need to do so primarily with native English speakers in mind. Otherwise, you end up cutting yourself off from a huge swath of idiom and poetics just because the non-native speaker might not have been exposed to them. The resulting prose would be functional yet totally flavorless. Anyway, I don't think I'd call the entirely of the native English-speaking world "a very narrow audience." This particular slang usage of "pearl necklace" can be found in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia. I don't know about New Zealand, but I'd have to imagine that if the Aussies are on board, then so are the Kiwis. All that said, I honestly feel bad that non-native speakers like yourself might be (literally) left out on the joke. So you have my apologies for that. If you ever find yourself in New York, I'll buy you a beer as a make-good. ​

Yeah, I like kiss CG. Particularly where the protagonist is visible, this includes his face (eyes and mouth) and not just a blank slab of face. In search of the lost future spoi

I heard that lolis hold hands a lot. 10/10 would hold hands with a loli. This user has been banned.

Why not 2 CGs of kissing not in just one game, but one route!