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Slightly nsfw:

The answer is probably yes, because I do the same thing and I am in fact a bad person. Confession: Sometimes, I place my Dog on top my lap (leaning back against my belly), grab her ears and proceed to make motorcycle noises, while slighly moving her head around. Whenever my mom sees that, she starts laughing her ass off.

... I've created an account. I'm actually around lurking the forums for a few years now, but since I was mostly active in the MangaGamer forums I always hesitated to create an account here since I prefer to have at least 'some' presence in one forum instead of no presence in many forums. Unfortunately, the MangaGamer forums suffer from 'Down Syndrome' for quite a while now and I'm slowly beginning to believe that they axed it for good. I was even worried that the Fuwa forums got infected too, considering they were down a few times too recently. Creating the account was already an adventure of itself, because the account confirmation e-mail wasn't sent and I had to contact the admins to get the account validated. Anyway, I think I've never written an introductory post in a forum, so bear with me. Hmm, I guess it's best to start with how I got to VN's: My first visual novel was Fate/Stay Night and I found out about it because I heard that the anime was based on it and there was a route for Rin Tohsaka who is one of my all time favorite characters. I couldn't resist and then searched for other visual novels for animes. And so I found Shuffle through a... *cough* torrent *cough*. That brought me to MangaGamer (where I bought it later on) and with Koihime Musou I got more or less addicted to VN's. What draws me the most to visual novels is the same that brought me to animes: Art, and especially bishojo art :-). I was always a huge art junky, not just manga art, but also western fantasy and science fiction art. I was and still am a big fan of drawings from Luis Royo, Cris Ortega, Jonathon Bowser, Jose del Nido or Keith Parkinson just to name a few. My favorite VN's in English so far are Fate/Stay Night, G-Senjou no Maou, Koihime Musou and Tick Tack. In general I like stuff from Navel, AkabeiSoft2, BaseSon, Innocent Grey, Caramel Box, Eushully and Favorite. My favorite character is Ai from Tick Tack *points to avatar*. Last year I also started reading Japanese VN's with a text hooker since I ran out of English VN's that interest me. I had about 2 years preparation time with educational books but it was still tough, because the kanji are very hard to learn and extremely easy to forget. The Japanese also tend to drop particles left and right which is a particular nasty habit of them. Still, it kinda works and I've now access to the Japanese VN's I always wanted to read. Last year I read everything from Ricotta (Walkure Romanze, Princess Lover) and some stuff from Ciel (Fault!! eries), Feng (Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi + fan disc), Atelier Kaguya/Astronauts artist M&M (Kiriya Hakushakuke no Roku Shimai, Demonion) and from Clip Craft (Unionism Quartet). This year I try to tackle some stuff from Hibiki Works/Akabei Soft3 artist Iizuki Tasuku (Lovely & Cation 1 & 2, Melty Lovers), Tigre Soft artist Tomose Shunsaku (Akatsuki no Goei, Reminiscence), Purple Software artist Koku (Mirai Nostalgia, Hapymaher, Chrono Clock), Ensemble artist Kimishima Ao (Hana to Otome ni Shukufuku o, Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas, Otome ga Kanaderu Koi no Aria) and Eushully artist Hatozuki Tsumiki (Ikusa Megami series, Madou Koukaku, Kami no Rhapsody). I won't manage to read everything but we'll see how far I'll come. I'm about to start cross reading Akatsuki no Goei and Lovely & Cation. I'm also interested in stuff from Light and August, but I'm not sure if I can handle the story heavy content yet. I'm not a big fan of straight nukiges since I need at least a bit of story, but I like some ero heavy titles like Koihime Musou, Unionism Quartet, Walkure Romanze or Kiriya Shimai. I keep my distance from fetish heavy stuff like Black Lilith, Clock Up, etc. Semi-dark stuff from M&M is pretty much my limit. But I can stomach gory stuff if it's of non-sexual nature like in Innocent Grey VN's. And while I can read nakige, I do have problems with utsuge if it gets too depressing. I like mystery and moeges although I'm slowly getting fed up of the never ending school life theme. Especially since I prefer more mature characters. I usually don't play loli routes even if some loli characters are amongst my favorites like Eden's Sion, Hoshizora's Mare, Comyu's Mayuki or F/SN's Illyasviel. A relationship requires a certain maturity of the involved characters, both in a mental and physical sense. If I don't get that feeling then I prefer to stick to the role of the responsible and caring onii-chan. There are also characters I just like to hang out with because they are funny or otherwise entertaining. I like interesting characters in general, not just female ones. For example, G-Senjou's Azai Gonzou is a fantastic antagonist character. I don't read VN's just for heroine routes with H-content. On the other hand, I'm not a big friend of story VN's with characters that are just mere plot devices. A VN without interesting and/or likable characters is just a soulless husk for me. Ah, I fear that got far too long already, so I better stop now with a final greeting to everyone.

Katana are from the land of glorious Yamato whose superior bunka (tl note: bunka means culture) the mere likes of you westerners can't even begin to understand. They are superior weapons made of superior metal folded over a thousand times by the masterful nippon artisans. They are wielded by the samurai, whose code of budou, martial arts and philosophy of mono no aware far surpass the petty warriors of the west. If you can't recognize the superiority of katanas you're nothing but a baka gaijin.

I expect large quantities of salt to be delivered

woe humanity, as the dawn of utmost humilation draws near again! - bunnyblack 2 is almost done by now. only abit editing/qualitychecking/bugfixing/building of a patch remains, which basically means a full release ergo patch 1.0 is to be expected on january 26th. any voluntary help is still much appreciated in terms of making this a gaming-experience everyone can enjoy.

http://www.yano.co.jp/press/pdf/1489.pdf On January 15, Yano Research (矢野経済研究所) released the summary part of their Otaku Market Report 2015 (「オタク」市場に関する調査結果 2015). This report estimated otaku-related market size of 2014 by calculating domestic end user retail prices. Overall, the otaku market is expected to increase except a few fields (分野) like Adult Games (アダルトゲーム) which observed to decline. There are two fields in this report that are related to visual novels: adult games and date simulation games. Adult games are defined as computer games that aims to attract players by sex content and are rated 18+ or 15+ (18歳未満（もしくは15歳未満）のプレイ・購入が禁止され、性的好奇心を満足させることを主目的としたコンピュータゲーム。). Date simulation games, or renai games (恋愛ゲーム), are defined as games simulate dating with fiction character in game but excludes adult games from above; computer games, console games, mobile games and online content that fit in this criteria are included. Price of platforms, connection fee, mobile packet fee are not included when calculating . ( ゲームに登場するキャラクターとの仮想恋愛を主目的としたゲーム。但し、上記「アダルトゲーム」に該当するものは除く。家庭用ゲーム機やパソコン向けゲームソフトの他、モバイル端末向けコンテンツ、オンラインコンテンツを含む。ゲームに用い るプラットフォーム、接続費用、パケット代は除外。 ) 2014 年度のアダルトゲーム市場規模は前年度比6.4%減の 191 億円であった。不正利用や、参入事業者及びコンテンツの減少により、縮小傾向が続いているものの、縮小幅は緩やかになってきている。 Adult game market in 2014 has declined by 6.4% and the size was 19.1 billion yen. Piracy, decrease of numbers of developer and content contribute to this trend. The market is expected to decline but not as sharply as a few years ago. (Well, strangely, Yano's otaku market report 13 says the size of adult game market in 2013 was 18.8 billion yen...) 2014 年度の恋愛ゲームの市場規模は前年度比5.4%増の137億円であった。業界内における競争は激化しているものの、一般女性向けコンテンツが好調に推移していることから、市場は拡大基調である。 Date simulation games in 2014 had increased by 5.4% to 13.7 billion yen. The competition with in the field has become fierce, while the growing size of otome content (games for female players) forms the basis of a blooming market. In addition, 95 people answered the survey about their expenditure on adult games. The average expenditure was 18,354 yen, which contrasts 41,877 yen reported by 103 people from otaku market report 2014. That's what you guys may be interested in. I may translate the rest of the report if I have the chance. ------updated------ Other markets in 2014 Doujinshi Market: Increased by 3.4% to 75.7 billion yen due to expansion of download sales. Plastic Model Market: Increased by 2.8% to 26.1 billion yen due to expansion of character and scale model (real-life vehicle, jet, building and more). (I assume there is only retail price calculated; tools and paints required to complete a model may not be included) Figure: Increased by 1.4% to 31.6 billion yen due to weaker yen and higher retail price, growth of female fans and prosperity of inbound consumption (foreign visitor's purchase), Doll: Decreased by 0.7% to 13.4 billion yen due to fixed user group and no significant user growth. Railway Model: Increased by 4.5% to 9.2 billion yen due to more people are interested in Shinkansen. Idol Market: Increased by 37.4% to 118.6 billion yen due to support from core fans of Johnny & Associates as well as AKB48. Rise of many new groups cannot be ignored too. Professional Wrestling Market: Decreased by 1.5% to 12.1 billion yen. Though new fans were attracted, the expenditure was lower. Cosplay Consume Market: Increased by 1.7% to 43 billion yen due to expansion of light users. Maid/Cosplay Related Business: Increased by 0.9% to 11.2 billion yen. The boom of Maid Cafe and cosplay eateries has ended. General people and foreign visitors led the market. AV (Pornography) Market: Decreased by 0.8% to 51.2 billion yen. Increase of number of heavy users and internet users counteracts the shrinking trend. Boy's Love (Yaoi) Market: Decreased by 0.9% to 21.2 billion yen. There is a struggle of increase in drama CDs, despite strong growth of digital books and doujins. VOCALOID Market: Increased by 3.4% to 9 billion yen due to increase of user generated content, character goods of Miku and booming lives. Airgun Survival Game: Increased by 10.8% to 14.4 billion yen due to more places in city center are suitable for survival game and more female novices are attracted. Anime and manga are not included, but they have been surveyed by the Association of Japanese Animations and Japanese Research Institute for Publications. Anime industry (including oversea market and character goods) has increased by 10.4% to 1.6296 trillion yen in 2014. Published manga (retailers and magazines) has been declining, to a biz of 360 billion yen in 2013. The same goes for South Korea comic publication too. Nevertheless, digital manga has experienced tremendous growth, estimated to exceed 80 billion yen years ago. Yano used to survey the size of digital manga market but they did not continue these two years... Consumer Survey: "Are you an otaku perceived by yourself and others?" Surveyed 9,862 people aged 15 to 69 in Japan, 21.1% of them answered "yes" and 78.9% answered "no". Of the 2,080 people who answered "yes", "are you married or have been in love?" 31.2% of them answered "I'm single and I have not been with anyone", 17.8% answered "I'm single but with someone before", 13.2% answered "I'm unmarried but with someone now", 37.9% answered "I am married or divorced/widowed now". Omake: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/efemeral/20121016/1350386490 "These years eroge market size has decrease by 300,000 volumes each year (around 2011)"(近年エロゲの市場規模が毎年エロゲ30万本分ずつ減少している) https://www.yano.co.jp/market_reports/C53112100 Yano's cool Japan/Otaku market report 2011 「アダルトゲームオタク」の推定人数：約125万人、男女比：88.0%：12.0% It's estimated that there are 1.25 million Japanese claim themselves as adult game otaku and the gender ratio is 88% male and 12% female. 「恋愛ゲーム（恋愛シミュレーションゲーム）オタク」の推定人数：約179万人、男女比：45.6%：54.4% It's estimated that there are 1.79 million Japanese claim themselves as date simulation otaku and the gender ratio is 46% male and 54% female.(Well I just rounded the number) I am pretty confident but English is not my mother tongue and my Japanese is not as good Feel free to give feedback:)

There's one way for this situation to improve in the Western market also: Steam needs to stop greenlighting all these fucking trash OELVNs and shitty ass third party titles. By getting all this low quality crap sold in the market, it's giving visual novels in general a bad name and making people think: Oh it's just a bunch of anime girls and boobs and all this nonsense assumptions.

Please vote for an Iris after story... I honestly can't see the Aoi/Lycoris before-story being all that interesting, lol.

Sadly I'm hoping the kickstarter doesn't go past $146,000. I don't want a new english theme song the japanese one is fine.

@Deep Blue guess thats been i who told you to start reading it along kawazakike2. liked it alot, despite beeing abit aged by now. loved especially how the mc creeped the living hell out of a heroine due to him behaving quite lovingly, which came pretty close to what i expect from a protagonist in general. edit. in terms of dark themes, there´s still rasen kairou2 awaiting you, or try out omega no shikai what i´ve been doing right now. heck even fairytale requiems content is pretty dark at times, despite its somewhat overly cute appearance.

Hello everyone, I'm mostly going to use this thread as an introduction to my project and to go a bit more into detail about the development and team as we go along. First before I get started about the project itself I'd like to tell a bit more about the team. Our team, that I tend to jokingly call Y.R.S (Yuri Rescue Squad) is given its name primarily due to the fact a lot, if not most of the ideas we have tend to involve Yuri as a romantic background. However, even if this doesn't interest you, the Yuri element's presence often is different in strength from one story onto another so if you don't care about it, but can tolerate it you will hopefully still find a story to enjoy. Why Yuri? One reason is that I myself tend to feel a bit more motivated when it's involved in some form, while our artists either don't mind it, or actually even like it (for example our main series' artist pretty much was interested in this element cause a lot of her past works involved Otome settings, so this was a healthy change of pace for her.) The team's purpose has 3 goals. The first one is my personal dream of telling stories, and getting them to be read by a large audience. I love thinking up stories and seeing what people think about them, to the point that once a month I spend the day volunteering at a school to read stories to disabled children (and gods, let me tell you it's a wonderful experience, but sometimes pretty brutal cause those children are some of the most honest critics ever. If they find a story boring... you'll know it right away.) The second one is the desire to support artists financially who in my opinion have a lot of potential and skill, but for some reason often aren't able to make their living out of it. In the end it's a story everyone knows, an artist who loves to draw but for some reason (whether it's connections, fame or something else) are forced to combine their lives in the illustration world, with that of a regular everyday job. My goal is to give those artists a chance to earn money doing the things they like, not just so they can work more actively on a project, but so that by having more time to draw they can possibly grow into even more awesome artists. Finally, the third and last goal is my personal desire to see more English visual novels that don't need to feel inferior to those of the Japanese studios we all know and love. On terms of our team, we have a bit of a small, yet nevertheless dedicated group, albeit there are a few elements I can't openly talk about yet until January (mostly cause they aren't finalized yet, so anything I say might still change). Artists: Enjelia: http://otakumode.com/enjelia Akiko: http://k-meijji.deviantart.com/ Mystic: http://mysticswordsman21.deviantart.com/ Irvin: http://www.coolboysph.com/works.html To go a bit more into detail about each member their involvement: Enjelia is the artist in charge of our 'main project' a manga series. She is someone with professional experience in the field (in the sense that she had her work published in magazines before inside her country) and someone I'm very confident in when it comes to delivering quality. While Enjelia specializes in 'adorable or cute' looks, she will be surprisingly you all with some interesting changes to what you can see in her portfolio. Please look forward to some sneak-peeks of her work soon (as in, next week soon if all goes well) Akiko/Meijji is someone I known for a longer period and have often commissioned to draw my personal forum roleplay characters. She is the artist in charge of a side-project of our team and if all goes well we'll be able to tease you all with some art that will be used in it. This side-project is a visual novel not related to our manga series Mystic is another artist I had the joy of getting to know (amusingly as a result of him seemingly knowing Enjelia) and is the leader of the Indonesian doujinshi circle 'Nextheaven'. Mystic is in fact the artist who will be working on the visual novel aspect of our main series and will be drawing inspiration directly from the source material of the manga so that the style readers of the manga are used to, will remain familiar to them. After talking to him I have learned two important things: The world of artists has this huge secret network most of us are unaware of, and then the second bit is that I totally believe they are related to the Illuminati >_< Irvin is currently the one in charge of designs and concept art for something top secret *hush hush* Writing department: Me: Little old me, while most of my former experience in writing has come from forum roleplaying, I did dabble a bit in writing for visual novels before by means of helping out some friends, albeit later on I went my own way and decided I wanted to start working on my own stories. I'm pretty much working full-time on the project, and if it's anything story-related, whether it's the dialogue or narration, the characters or the story and its lore, you can expect me to have been hiding around writing them down (often throwing in unexpected curve-balls with sudden plot ideas that none in the team expected). The Red Pen coach of doom: http://www.theredpencoach.com/aboutnancy/ Ignoring my silly title for her, one of the important things I wanted to ensure that would happen at all costs is that the text would feel as natural as possible. Not only is Nancy a professional editor but she is also a writing coach. Whether it involves using that pen of her to tear through my scripts as if she was a sword-wielding warrior slicing up a monster (aka correcting grammar and ensuring the dialogue and narration are able to be read without someone needing to go 'what did he mean with that?'), or giving me feedback on the scenes. She also is the creative adviser who ensures that the actual story stuff isn't one hotpot of messy ideas. If there is any point in the story where something super important is explained in a way you can understand it? Then you got her to thank for the fact you didn't read Latin disguised as English. Karlos: Karlos is a friend of mine from my forum roleplay days, and he serves as the first line of defense on terms of helping me with suggestions on how to deal with the wording inside scenes. You know, it's always nice to have a native English speaker with an eye for detail to watch over your stuff. After his opinion and input things pretty much go forth to Nancy, who is like the big bad my script has to defeat before it reaches your eyes. Audio: We are currently in the process of talking to some professionals to get their support as a composer, but will be looking at using some of our connections to get Japanese Seiyuu down the line, but that's a thought for when the visual novel actually is in a state where we can consider it truly needed. Secret Elements: ??? 1: I can't go too much into detail about them yet, but they are pretty much the ones with actual professional experience on terms of visual novels and manga, and hopefully will help ensure that the end result is something that WOW you all. (You might end up recognizing them when I reveal their identity) ??? 2: Potential publisher for the manga, everyone on this site of the internet likely heard about them at least once, albeit the reason they are secret is because things will only be set in stone in January when the first chapter goes out. ??? 3: A game developer studio, wait what are those guys doing in this project? Well, they are actually huge fans of manga! And as a result are looking into all sorts of ways to help us out, only reason I'm not saying their name yet is because I'm still talking with their CEO about the project, and an actual proper decision will all depend on the manga itself. However, things are looking really positive right now, so I might be able to tell more about them soon. Now enough with the boring real life stuff, and onto the exciting things... the projects! Our projects are mostly made up out of 2 series, and I'm already going to reveal one of them. Our main series: Misadventures of an Overlord Main cast revealed so far (far from everyone involved): On terms of giving a comparison to an existing series I would compare it a little to High School DxD, in the sense that the series has those fancy action scenes, a lot of comedy, some fanservice (yes, I know the example has a LOT of fanservice, but you could say that in this story it's a bit more balanced) and fantasy as its setting (but unlike the example this story takes place into an actual fantasy world.) also who doesn't love following the story of one of those who is labeled the 'big bad' in their world? Well, that and the fact our protagonist doesn't want to get her own harem, nor wants to become the Oppai queen... As mentioned before we are also having a visual novel being developed, and to provide a sneak peek: Visual Novel: Everyone likely knows that feeling, the dream of being a character in your favorite series. It's that idea that led to the decision to focus the Visual Novel on a different type of story than one might had expected. By introducing an original protagonist for the VN (who is either male or female depending on the player's choice) the involvement of this character pretty much changes the story of the manga. There will be familiar characters to talk to (and even romance), events from the manga (albeit those will obviously have potential changes or different outcomes depending on your choices and actions) but one of the reasons we went with this choice is to make it feel as if YOU the reader were given the chance to enter the story of the manga. Now on terms of the development itself I'll hope to explain a few things: The important thing to keep in mind is the fact that our projects are 'linked' together. What does this mean? It basically means that the progress of the visual novel depends entirely on the development of the manga. At its core our primary focus remains the manga series, especially since we plan to get it translated to Japanese and then use the studio involved in that work their connections to try to hit one of the Japanese publishing houses. I know, this is a crazy endeavor, getting serialized in a Japanese manga magazine is crazy difficult for a foreigner, and remaining in there is an even more insane endeavor on its own. It's part of why starting end 2016, you'll find me in Japan... studying Japanese (that sounds a bit silly.). I already been in contact with a language school in Fukuoka, where I'd be staying at if all things go according to plan. Ideally my dream would be to stay there at least for a few years to intensively learn Japanese, so that I'll be able to communicate with people through it (in the end communication and connections are some of the most important weapons at your disposal in the creative world.), of course I'll still be working on the project during that time. But one of the cool things about this studio is that they actually have been involved in the anime industry, so all in all we are given a fair chance to get our manga at least read (part of their service involves the submission of the manga, albeit I won't be able to provide details on that till later) and if we do get accepted? Then all the better! Albeit we're totally gonna release in English also, and it will be our main focus at first also. But back onto the visual novel itself. One of the reasons the Visual Novel will have a development that is different from most, is due to the link to the manga series. You could say the Visual Novel is going to be divided into monthly episodes, that pretty much serve as an update to expand the story up to where the main story of the VN reaches the same 'level' as the manga (or arc). I'd like people to know that I will also be using this topic as a means to communicate with everyone. Whether it's answering questions about the manga, or the visual novel or even just something like 'hey, how did you do this', as long as it isn't some top sensitive information, or a huge spoiler to the story I will be trying my best to answer every question. Aside from that I hope to be able to provide everyone with a little teaser in the form of a finished manga page (if you ever read or watched Bakuman you'll likely know how much work goes into making a manga) next week, and in the near future be able to provide everyone some concept images of the visual novel. Have a fine day, and a happy start to 2016 \^_^

nothing can beat this swords

Welcome! With your appreciation for art, you might consider playing Umineko and Higurashi with their original sprites for a good dose of horror.

I decided to list and recommend all my favourite romances. You can read about my particular tastes here: Be fairly warned. I do not know what constitutes as a spoiler to you, so if you find things like whether or not there is a confession scene or how far the couple goes to be a spoiler, please avoid reading my comments. NOTE: Written in the wee hours of the night. Grammatical mistakes and logical incongruences may follow. Itazura na Kiss - As far as anime goes, this is the epitome of long-lasting romance. This anime does not simply go until the confession, or until the first night together, or until the first big dramatic event is resolved. It goes through years and years of the characters' lives, up until they have children of their own. The male protagonist is a jerk, as they so often are in Shoujo and Josei, but the female lead made me, of all people, go around spamming "cute~~~~" on whichever social services (skype, TS, Fuwachat) I had on at the time. CLANNAD and After Story - Highly dramatic as it may be, it has its fair share of happy moments and many happenings. While excelling on its own, CLANNAD wouldn't quite be the best fit for what I'm looking for. However, CLANNAD: After Story more than does. Life does not simply end after a confession. Things go on, and the characters truly become a family. While not quite beating Itazura na Kiss's feeling of years going along, CLANNAD: After Story does not only a good job in that area, but literally everything else emotional. Nodame Cantabile and sequels - Yet another anime with a long feeling of "time moving". Of the top of my head I can remember remarkably little about their relationship, but it was there without a doubt for the later seasons, queer as it was. I can't say the absolute main focus was on the relationship, like in Itazura na Kiss or in CLANNAD: After Story, but it certainly did more than sufficient to cater to my needs, with various dramatic moments and very odd characters, resolving their problems in very odd ways. The male protagonist, jerk as he may be, does not hold a candle to Itazura na Kiss's stubbornness. Has a high focus on classical music, hence me recommending the anime over the original material. Say "I Love You" - Completely diverging from everything else, this anime series solely entails school life. It could hardly be a more typical Shoujo title, so why am I singing its praises? I rated it 10/10 at the time, because not only had it been one of the first series I watched where the couple actually got together at a reasonable time, as I am also a huge huge fan of the female protagonists' archetype. Often compared to Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, for good reason. The female protagonist is very similar in both, and the story could be said to progress similarly, except Tonari went places I didn't like at the time, god if I remember what those were, and Say I Love You did everything in a way I liked. The manga, although not completed, is also Smut-tish, earning extra points in my book. Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry - The most recent anime on this list, who deigned to differ from the norm. Having taken the usual highschool and fantasy-like setting, where other anime would become harems, this one did not. Right from the start it picked a main girl, and made sure it was clear beyond doubt with a confession. This is primarily an action anime, although the romance is there and is not entirely ignored. I would have been fine even if there had been a confession and they left it at that, but they developed it, making it for an harem action-romance anime with some comedy. Very varied, you'll get all sorts of things here, romance, action or comedy. Pick your poison. Zero no Tsukaima, All Four Seasons - I hate harem. I've grown to hate them with a bloody passion. Zero no Tsukaima is no exception, however, it did many other things right in order to reach this point. First, it's no short tale, if you can stick to your guns and watch through one or two seasons of this light and fun fantasy world, the characters will grow on you, even if you hate their archetypes. Second, I like Tsundere's. If you like Tsundere's, too, there's no good reason not to give this a try. Unprecedented in this harem world, the main, dense and insensitive protagonist actually picks one of the heroine's and sticks to her... mostly. While a rush-job of an ending, it is a conclusive tale... but I'd keep my eyes peeled for the rumoured continuation of the novel series, which was left hanging with the author's passing (God bless him, and while I'm at it, the very same happened to Itazura na Kiss's author, God bless him, too. Even if it allowed the masterpiece anime to go off the rails and become original toward the end). Kimi ni Todoke and Second Season- You know what else is infuriating, beyond harems? Pardon my French: Cockblocking. You know the 'oh-so-original' stereotype where the male and the female appear to be about to kiss, but are somehow interrupted? Now imagine having this happen constantly throughout the first season, only for there to still be no actual conclusion! Even so, that's not what this story is about. It's about so much more, like friendship, and friendship, and being an outcast. Furthermore, the second season does go somewhere and the manga continues onwards with hardly any noticeable deviation from the anime. Such a shame I'm still left hanging on the centenary chapter. Ore Monogatari - AKA, everything I could possibly want from a highschool romance: the anime. There's two people, they fall for each other, eventually get together, and then date. That's it. Ok, maybe not it, it, but it's a fairly adequate depiction of the romance. Beyond the romance, the anime touches many other themes like friendship and family. All of these are pluses to me. Do be warned, this anime has two very big flaws depending on your tastes: The art and characters may be too unusual for you, and nothing (interesting) ever happens. Romance tends to have drama in order to spice it up. This anime does not, and instead has slice-of-life and simple comedy. If you like calm, light-hearted and cute, you need go no further. Seikai no Monshu and Sekai no Senki I, II and III - Character interaction. If this intergalactic spaceship were to have something that stands out, it would be character interaction. I don't live in Japan, so I don't know how it is there, but I find it highly unusual for every male under 18 years of age to become agitated by being within one metre of a female, or for teenagers to ubiquitously get embarrassed 3 times per conversation with a female. The chemistry we find between the two main protagonists is incomparable to most other anime I see. It doesn't feel anime-like in the least, is how I'd describe the indescribable. Furthermore, the plot itself isn't bad either, so I recommend this both for the romance and the story. Akatsuki no Yona - You could say this is my number one public enemy: The harem with no confession by the end. It makes me wonder, then, why did I enjoy it so much? This story is about a spoiled princess who lived all her life in a castle as the daughter of an overprotective king. One day the king is murdered and she runs away with her bodyguard, becoming... I'm not quite sure what. She wanders the land searching for allies and trying to make the country better. There's a lot more to that later half, but I'll focus on what I enjoyed the most: Romance. There's no doubt in my mind who the one romantic candidate is. As a friend pointed out to me, the cast may be entirely composed of men, but the romance remains between two people alone. Do note I say "romance" when I mean conversation. It feels romantic, so there's that. What there isn't is any sort of ending. I liked it a lot. Especially the somehow paralysing fire in her eyes. Clearly this is meant to have further seasons, and from what I know, the original manga hasn't concluded either. We now play the waiting game. Kobato - So far I've been able to claim all the previous entries were romances but I'm not sure Kobato fits the category in and of itself. What I do know is that it sure is an enjoyable tale you wouldn't want to miss, and there is romance in there. In stereotypical magical girl shoujo fashion our protagonist has an objective to attain, and she progresses by making people happy. Every episode(s) we sort of see a mini-story on somebody she helps or a lesson she learns. The anime concludes on a confession, but it did by no means focus on it. Nice side quirk, our protagonist actually changes clothing to conform to the season. Very light-hearted, very nice. Usagi Drop - People have this horrible misconception that romance is about romantic love. Not necessarily, and this story will show you that. Usagi Drop is about a single man adopts a child and cares for it. We see her opening up. We see bonds being formed. We see them becoming a family. We see the scorn of the society and the nay-sayers. We see the people who support them. We see lots and lots of love, except this time, it's a familial bond. It also serves as a sort of guide for single parenting, presuming you're a hermit who just had a child dropped off on you. Very light-hearted. You'll be chanting "cute" for days. Honourable Mentions: Chobits - Gets a side mention for being made by the same people as Kobato. To surmise, a country bumpkin falls in love with a robot/android. That is all. It's lovely. It's slice-of-life. Working!! - Is not a romance anime... And you think I care? I'm looking for romance, it doesn't matter if it's a side story. If you find the comedy agreeable, there's no reason not to sit through the three seasons and enjoy the conclusion. Gosick - This is a mystery anime. Half of it. The other half follows some sort of plot as opposed to mismatched mystery solving segments. I've seen the story sections criticized in reviews, but I loved them. The romance I found in this mystery anime more than contented me, and gets my recommendation as a result. Durarara!! - You may have noticed being a romance is not necessary for it to have romance. Just to make sure I rub it in, here's another anime that isn't a romance, but has some. You can't really define it with a genre. Think large cast, lots of variation, everything is connected. Still, I chose this because I really liked the romances within, or maybe I just have an affinity for shows with two exclamation marks in the title. Honourably Dishonourable Mentions: Toradora - I'm incredibly tolerant. And I like all sorts of romance. If there were ever an anime I could say I have hated on unfairly, it would be Toradora. I loved Toradora's protagonists, male and female. Unfortunately, I disliked a lot of other stuff. I disliked pretty much any other character, I disliked the character interaction outside of Taiga and Ryuuji, and I hated the way feelings were handled in this anime. I felt, wrong as I may be, that Ryuuji was bullied into liking Taiga, that Ryuuji was bullied for not understanding his feelings (and magically understanding others', too), that everyone else was far too presumptuous of knowing how other people think and feel. Do note that this makes the anime get a grand total of 8/10. I liked how it ended, what else can I say? I only wish there were more, now that the dramatic, emotional balderdash parts were already over. And so I conclude my list. Do note, it is permanently IN-PROGRESS. New things will be added, maybe old will be removed, maybe I'll remember stuff I forgot to mention, and if you're lucky, I'll rewrite my 2am English.

My favorite Ending theme (especially just after Touko's route)

Generally speaking, if you are a weaboo and/or otaku and you reveal your hobby, you generally tend to end up on the receiving end of all sorts of unbelievably irritating questions. This is my list of the most annoying questions I've heard as an otaku/weaboo. 1. "Is that a cartoon?" Almost every anime fan gets asked this at some point, though generally speaking, this is an event that was a lot more common when I first started watching anime. To be blunt, American cartoons tend to be one of two types... the kid-oriented or the adult-oriented comedy (Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park). However, anime's sheer variance leads a lot of fans - including me - to want to clearly delineate a difference between the two, despite the fact that the actual Japanese anime definition includes Western cartoons. 2. "Why do you hate your country?" This is perhaps the dumbest question I've ever heard, but I've been on the receiving end of it countless times during my weaboo life. The fact is, I don't hate my country. My country does a lot of stupid things, but it raised me, it helped form my personality, and it has kept me fed. I simply prefer to study Japanese culture and language over American. Unfortunately, trying to explain that this is essentially a matter of aesthetic tastes is pretty pointless in the case of those who ask this question (since they've already made their own conclusions). 3. "Why are you dressing up like that?" When you cosplay, this is perhaps the most unbelievably obvious question you can ever get. Back when I still cosplayed, it drove me insane to be asked why I was dressing up that way when it was bloody obvious I was doing it for fun because I liked the anime/books/etc it was based off of. 4. "Why is there a poster of a cartoon character on your wall?" This gets old, fast. When I still bothered buying swag, it was as annoying as hell to have the occasional visitor to my room ask this and similar questions about the swag in my room. 5. "Why do you like the Japanese when they are the ones who started WWII?" This is mostly a question asked by someone who has only read US history books or high school level world history textbooks... WWII was the results of both sides' arrogance and over a half-century of bitter economic competition, preceded by an even more arrogant series of attempts to turn Japan into a Western satellite country (ie. late nineteenth and early twentieth century China). That said, the question has absolutely nothing to do with why I like Japan. I like Japan because its unique cultural development has so many interesting aspects to study, and I am fully aware of the insanity of war-era Japan and the cultural quirks that led to it, unlike the people who ask this question. 6. "Japanese games are all the same... why do you play them?" This is a more recent question and one of the few that has a legitimate point, though it is made from ignorance (usually some newbie listening to a long-time vet complain). The fact is, otaku media, in particular their games, are slow to change... The shifts in the market are slow, and so gluts of certain types of games are endemic to the industry. The same applies to all otaku media, really. Japanese business-people hate change and are slow to adapt to it. The eccentric exceptions are just that... exceptions. The answer to the question I usually give is that I honestly just enjoy Japanese style more than Western when it comes to telling a story, and more than half of my reason for living is experiencing good stories. 7. "That Japanese sword look like it would break with a single whack of this hammer... why don't you just buy a broadsword?" lol... this question I got when I was showing off my 日本刀 （a katana actually made in Japan in the old manner) to another guy who does broadsword fencing. The simple answer to this question that I gave him is that my sword is prettier, because I didn't want to get into the arguments about the difference in purpose. The more complex answer is that katanas make more sense in an era without metal armor than a broadsword (katanas are designed to slice, as opposed to the way western blades are designed to smash and crush as much as cut). Again, there is also the aesthetic, lol. 8. "Do you support what the Japanese did in China during WWII?" Now this question... I've never got how people can ask this question. Do people really think that even a weaboo would lack that much common sense and clarity of thought? Seriously?! Of course I don't in any way support Japan's actions during WWII. Only someone who hasn't read history could have. In regards to America, there were mitigating circumstances and legitimate reasons, but China was another matter entirely. China, for all intents and purposes, was basically a helpless, defenseless region (I don't call it a country because it wasn't and hadn't been since Britain won the wars in the nineteenth century), and there was absolutely no need for any of the excesses Japan undertook during the invasions and occupation there. The same goes for Korea. I almost punched the last person who asked me this question.

I abandoned anime and only watch maybe 1-3 series every month. Kinda pointless to get into them if they have visual novel/manga versions and those are just way better mediums because they tell you the whole story and arent affected by shitty production decisions.

Oh gods xD, i'm sorry for you...on the bright side...free trauma for her friend no regrets though

First of all this has been a very entertaining topic and reading these posts have made my night. So awhile ago i was reading Grisaia No Kajitsu and right when one of Amane's H-scenes came on my sister and her friend came into my room, and since i had a wireless mouse i was on the other side of the room on my bed no where near my keyboard. My sister gave me that "Really?" look and i think a traumatized her friend. Sad Face.

Hey! meow is a perfectly good greeting in the world of moe! Don't listen to hanana banana tomato! Meow is adorable! Meow is awesome!

Danganronpa 2, just about finished with Chapter 1's trial *Sigh* I get what they're trying to do with his character, but Nagito is a complete disgrace to The Ultimate Lucky Student title. Other than that DR2's goin' pretty well, I like this cast. and the new mechanics in the Class Trials are welcomed. Shame about the first vic though >.> he was a pretty interesting version of him.

And, done: All in all, I was truly delighted by Gahkthun; if every VN I read was this good, I doubt I'd do anything but read VNs all day.

Hapi Birthday Hanayo-chan~ (EN ver )

It won't come out, who pays for Regista's right? There's a reason the kickstarter has a base goal of 135k. The only hope would be a leak of the translation in the form of a patch.

I don't know why people are surprised. More women read than men, women read more than men, romance is popular with ladies, and otomes are on handhelds a lot of the time removing the 'PC' element from the equation, so seems like a reasonable result.

"Eh...? I-I'm the only one you can rely on...? Why...?" @Down Note to self: never try to look stuff up on a tablet. I definitely read it too fast lol. I couldn't even decipher "bring a change of clothes"properly. I feel useless.

You read that too fast. It's rather "If (it's 頼まれたら) someone called and said 'There was an accident. Come over and bring a change of clothes' (持って applies to 着替え which is therefore a change of clothes rather than the action of changing clothes), I would feel like complaining (言いたい＋なる, there's probably a better way to say it but it's not a negative nor a potential), you know... (to render the nuance of the わよ)' And yeah guys, try to post the line before and after the one you don't understand and a very basic idea of what's going on in the scene, it really helps.

Why isn't Lovely Complex on this list? LiterallyHitler/10 Also I figured you'd be the kind of person to enjoy Your Lie in April, I'm surprised I rated it higher than you. Also thank you for being, like, the only person I met who thinks Toradora's romance was forced as hell, because I was honesty baffled at how Ryuuji suddenly just stops liking his age old crush like it's nothing and everyone else is pretty much forcing him into moving on like it's an objective truth that he must like Taiga. I still had fun with the anime and accepted Taiga in the end, but man the switching left a bitter taste in my mouth. Pretty good list though, I'd second most of these (actually probably all of the ones I saw). PS: go watch Koi Kaze already. PSS: If you didn't like Toradora, NEVER WATCH TRUE TEARS

[someone] suddenly called and said there was an accident and to get changed and bring [something/someone], I couldn't even say anything back...

Charage/moege quality has been falling though...

Majikoi has a high school setting with action, romance and comedy elements. Try it.

Broadswords being made to 'smash or cut' is as incorrect as the myths about the katana. Actually, most broadswords were light compared to katanas (unless they were ceremonial). They were double bladed, compared to katanas which had a wedge (obviously heavy), and so two handed longswords were longer and weighed about the same as a 2 handed katana (speaking in generalities.) Broadswords were made to cut and thrust. There's a whole bunch of European one handed swords named 'cut and thrust' swords, for a specific reason. Armour was heavy, and people wouldn't wear it unless it was effective. There were a few ways to bypass full bodied armour 1 - thrust at the joints. This is why a lot of European swords have a nice taper compared to Japanese swords. There's even some swords made only for thrusting, including a massive 2 handed one. 2 - Bash and crush bones underneath the armour. You don't do these with swords. You do these with maces, or halberds, or blunt weapons. Pole arms. 3 - Take them to the ground and finish them off there, polearms sorta combined reason number 2 with reason number 3. Hollywood likes to have people walking around with 'heavy' 2 handed swords, bludgeoning people. This didn't happen I prefer European cut and thrust swords mainly because of the versatility, but katanas are obviously far superior in cutting flesh.

Thank you very much for allowing me to come aboard! I promise to read through your work thoroughly and correct any mistakes I find I'm going to do my best in ensuring your LN looks very professional!

You even copy my posts by letting people know the status of the stream. This guy. Look at those likes. So salty.

A little context? Not sure who's speaking but: "Since Matsugami-sama's consciousness has returned, I'll contact her/his/your/their parents." (Yes I know what game you're playing )

Good idea for a thread, i've been trying to find out myself a couple of song names from KoiChoco ( mainly the song when chisato confesses on most routes the unskipablle parts) and the Ost which i've already found but not the other one, so i appreciate this thread ^^

I actually wanted to play that one a few months ago but I asked first and I can't remember who told me but he said it was a hard one to read so I never tried it again if I try it I will post it here.

adds ilkenie2 to the list and with bizarre scenes i didnt mean the ones from the game itself, but rather me surprisingly having managed of fapping to its content, means i pretty much enjoyed all those honour lacking sluts getting tortured & worse due to their overbearing sluttyness aka female pigs squeeling in utmost horror ahoy! edit: the supposed to be unfaithful married one was great upon the mc realizing her true self edit2: dont bother with its precedessor of sorts, should´ve listened to tyrosins advice & skipped on this crappy excuse for a piece of literature

Not sure what you're going on about, but glad you're sarcastically excited!

Piracy is a problem, yes, but a far bigger problem is that the industry overexpanded and dropped significantly in quality the past few years. Like the anime industry, I expect we'll see a period of contraction as lesser companies and fringe studios go out of business. When the market stabilizes, more new studios will appear, there'll be more new and interesting games, and the industry will grow again (until the next bust cycle). Remember, 2015 averaged 75-100 mid to major releases a month, with that many or more little doujin releases added on. That's still a LOT of games.

Dracu Riot Translation Status: Meme Release Date: Soon™

@LinovaA So I was browsing YouTube and found this (It's not the normal OP)...

Without doubt euphoria OST '' Rakuen no Tobira'' and ''Ketsumatsu'', that's one of the reasons because I played that VN. Those two are the most amazing OST I even heard in visual novels. violin solo ♪

yeah, basically everything R07 has been involved with usually involve a lot of deaths too :D. Also I fucking love him so yeah, definitely a recommendation there.

https://vndb.org/v1189 It was everything I could've hoped for.

I'm all for H-scenes until they're actually happening. Then it's just 'ugh, I can't wait for this irritating fuckfest to be over so I can actually continue with things.' Annoyingly though, I like the idea of 'couple-based' H-scenes (like, two people forming a relationship) because sometimes the sentiment behind it's really nice, so I don't turn H-scenes off in case they're actually relevant. That said, any H-scene which goes mouth/vagina/bum (or anything in that order...) in one go is either gratuitous and annoying, or so hilariously bad that the very idea of popping a cock-rocket is impossible.

Not too long ago I was playing Huniepop when my mom walked in. This wouldn't have been an issue if I hadn't been in the middle of a date with Celeste, where she was wearing one of her... skimpier outfits. (Read: you could see her nipples through her bikini top) Mom: "Why does she look like that? Me: "...She's an alien." The amount of disappointment in her eyes was unreal.