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My life of a working man straddled with student loans: ＼(^o^)／ (^o^)／ ... (°o°) (°-°) (°.°) ... (・.・;)(・・;) (°°) (´･ω･`) （ つ Д ｀） Sayonara $$$

Hm, I'm rather fond of this series. It actually took a lot of time to try and come up with a way to describe what it's about that felt right for me, but I think I did it. https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2017/02/13/rance-5d-vi/

Do some vocab exercises that include grammar and stuff... and just read a lot.. a whole lot. Also if you start out and only learn Japanese for VNs than kanji is not that important as you can parse it. Oh and you should read easy VNs. You might want to check this thread out. Good luck!

Source: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=705370

While the final cause of my chronic insomnia has been a subject of much consternation on my part, the answer was none too subtle last night. Indeed, something weighed heavily on my heart, compounding the recurring problem of Arby's-induced arterial blockage. If I were to own a cat, would it ever catch on to my laser-pointing diversions? As any former or current participant in this activity can attest, it is very entertaining, such that one should enjoy it in the absence of concerns that it may someday become infeasible. I ruminated on this question after recalling this gif that tangentially addresses the matter. In other words, may I consider the feline mind analogous to that of a dog who, in a like manner, readily fetches the stick only to endure the same Sisyphean struggle moments later and without cessation?

He has an actual personality, unlike most VN protagonists. People may not like that personality, but at least it isn't dull.

It's already the 15th here... since 15 minutes ago... phew

I know MangaGamer probably loves the fact that there are no voices. Voices increase the cost of licensing games by an absurd amount.

My definition of a kamige is 'technically superlative+enjoyable'. Either one alone isn't going to be good enough to get that label from me anymore...

I remember being so exhausted when I jumped into text hooking jp vns that I could only last for an hour at a time. Powering through is a real option, and things will definitely get easier with time as your vocabulary expands. With that said, if you really hate it, there are other ways of getting vocabulary - I've heard people use anki decks of 3000 core japanese words, which might be helpful if you hate what you're doing right now enough. I can't give you anything specific, but you should be able to find something with enough research. All in all, don't be too discouraged if it's hard right now - it's normal, and you'll be learning a lot.

I trend away from mainstream opinion here. I'm a big fan of no voices for this exact reason. Less money spent on voice acting means not only the possibility of extra content, but it also means the game doesn't have to sell as well to recoup money. The latter reason means more risks could be taken with the content, whereas as a large budget game will have to try and pander to the largest possible audience group possible.

Looking up words is how you learn them. You have to start somewhere, of course it will be difficult at first - but there's not much you can do about that other than just push through. Either you will be learning word after word from textbook texts, or you will be learning a word after word from VNs - it doesn't really make much difference in the end, other than the former being a bit easier but potentially boring (and price-y), and the later being harder, but more fun. Just take it slow and slowly build up your vocabulary, it will only get easier the further you get. At least with VNs you have the advantage of text-hooking, making dictionary checks nearly instantaneous.

LOVE HINA LOVE HINA L O V E H I N A AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH also remember to watch slayers and nadia: the secret of blue water

Started watching Kokoro Connect as well. This is great so far!

G’day everyone,I thought I’d see how hard it is to deconstruct the first episode of Lain. Serial Experiments Lain is often seen as one of the weirdest, and most confusing anime but I think it’s blown way out of proportion. One of its strengths is that you don’t understand everything on the first watching, one of its weaknesses is that you don’t understand everything on the first watching, but I don’t remember it being too confusing. So to put that to the test I’m going to rewatch the first episode for the first time in a decade, and quickly write down my thoughts while viewing it. This will be a quick analysis, there’ll be things that are missing like the importance of certain artistic effects, but it should show that getting a general idea of what’s going on isn’t too hard. Obviously spoiler alert. EPISODE 1: Key points in the first episode: - First scene and we see a young girl distressed in an alley. She’s panting, hand on heart, either running or fearful. A group of passers-by stop to point and laugh, uncaringly. Is that not the way of the world? This uncaring disconnect between people? This lack of empathy? Amid the normal everyday actions of Tokyo’s (I assume) nightlife, that same young girl now appears on a rooftop. She strips herself of her glasses, her hair unties, a metaphor showing herself becoming free. She has a smile on her face and she throws herself off the building. That she wasn’t scared or distressed means she wasn’t running away from something, rather she was at peace and happy which means she’s running toward something. What was she running toward? No clue at this stage. Anyway, the silence of her suicide scene and her beautiful smile juxtapose harshly with her loud and violent death. Words appear on the screen - ‘I don’t need to stay in a place like this’. - Next scene Lain appears on a bright morning in school get up. She’s walking down the stairs and is on her way to school. The imagery here is interesting, there’s an electrical hum that permeates strongly and a focus on the power lines. The hum is a metaphor for the wired or ‘internet’ which is everywhere, connecting people and hovering eternally in the background of everyday life. There and yet not there. The powerlines are the same and they also connect everything, but they don’t hover in the background. However, the shadows splotched with what I assume is blood at times are annoying. It was a late decision to insert the metaphor into the anime connecting shadows with the wired, that the wired is everywhere just underneath the surface. A shadow world. I believe they stuffed up here. This was already done with the humming, it was already done with the powerlines, this is just a rather inelegant way of hammering the audience with a concept and I just think it’s ugly and gaudy. It makes things easier for the creators to get some stuff across, but I think it’s unnecessarily whimsical. Anyway what’s done is done, so most every piece of shadow is splotched with stuff. - Lain is on a train travelling to school. Everyone on board is doing their own thing as people in society tend to do. In silence. We are becoming increasingly disconnected with each other, so we have people reading, sleeping, gazing romantically out of windows, but nobody interacting and sharing their lives. However Lain comments on how noisy it is, asking why things can’t quiet down. It confuses the train’s inhabitants because it’s quiet in the real world, but I’m sure that electric hum indicates a greater interactivity and connectivity somewhere else. Also interesting that Lain can hear it. Lain doesn’t notice the commotion she causes those near her. - She arrives at school with herself gazing at her splotchy shadow, then looking up and seeing reality melt away. Obviously not a metaphor at all of something, which isn’t at all related to the metaphor on the train. - In class one of Lain’s classmates is distressed. It appears the young lass who just committed suicide (Yomoda Chisa) has been sending emails to everybody, but how can that be when she’s dead? ‘You shouldn’t be getting mail from a dead girl’ says one of the girls. What truly sage advice. Interesting theme of digital existence is raised here, though. I wonder how they will deal with it. It should be noted here that this show was created in the 90s, well before these themes became mainstream. Words appear on the screen - ‘What’s it like when you die?’ ‘It really hurts :)’ – only if you chuck yourself off a building, crash through some neon signs, and have a vending machine topple onto you after you hit the pavement. In programming class, reality once again begins to melt away from Lain. Sounds fade away, things begin to blur, white smoke from fingers. Lain’s beginning to see things. - Lain is walking again, presumably home from school. In her bedroom she loads up her computer to discover she has mail from Yomoda Chisa. Not just any mail but a very personalised email from Yomoda Chisa resembling a conversation. ‘I walked home with you once, do you remember Lain? I have given up my body, but through this email I want you to know I’m still alive. Rumour has it that this is a prank, but it isn’t. Do you understand? No matter, everyone will understand soon.’ Absent here is the MWAHAHA evil laugh every member of a nefarious organisation uses when plotting something. Pity. When asked why she killed herself, Yomoda responds ‘God is here’. - Lain is at dinner with a very cold, unfeeling family. They are thoroughly disconnected from one another. There's no sharing of lives and feelings here. The sister leaves without finishing dinner to do her own thing. When Lain tells her mother about the email from the dead lady, her mother doesn’t respond. From her facial expression she doesn’t care. - She goes to find her father, who is a huge computer nerd and is so lost in the tech word he also doesn’t take an interest in his family’s life. She asks for a new computer so she can see a friend and he’s obviously happy to oblige saying she’s being left in the dust. ‘People connect with each other, that’s how society’s function’ the father says as he interacts with faceless avatars on the computer/wired (metaphor alert.) Remarkably these futuristic computers look like they’re running Windows 3.1 or something xD - Next scene. Lain’s on a train riding to school when the train suddenly halts due to an accident. And when I say ‘suddenly halts’ I mean it looks as though Lain is violently thrown into the door. She shakes it off like a champ, though. Lain looks out the window and things become white, the electrical hum gets louder, and splotchy shadows tinged with blood drip from the power lines. That’s a pretty strong metaphor about what just occurred, blood melting into the wired, also it shows that reality is melting away taking Lain along for the ride (or is it the other way round?) - Scenes flutter quickly one after another, whether by chance or is Lain searching for something? The middle of a busy crossing, stairs leading out of a subway, an empty school courtyard, an empty room, then white smoke, train tracks and ... the silhouette of a girl? The girl hops the barricade and runs in front of a train, a fanatical look on her face as the train collides with her. Is she laughing? Was this the cause of the accident Lain was just involved in? Why is Lain viewing this? - Lain jerks back to reality in her school classroom drenched with sweat. The teacher admonishes her and walks away. The words on the chalkboard start blurring and reality once again melts away from Lain. New words appear on the blackboard asking Lain to visit the Wired ASAP. - As Lain walks home she’s walking in the splotchy shadow. It surrounds her. Possibly important, because at this moment Yomoda Chisa strolls past. ‘Where are you’ Lain asks. Yomoda smiles, then her normal sad expression returns. Yomoda disappears. So yeah, the anime is confusing but I think it’s blown way out of proportion. If you pay attention and possibly do a bit of research, you should be fine. You might not get everything, but you’ll understand the gist of it. Though I doubt anybody is interested in the brief analysis of an almost 20 year old anime's first episode.

I recently rewatched this. The first time, possibly even the first 2 times watching it, you won't understand jack shit. But this was my third time watching the show, and it was a really enjoyable experience this time.

Just finished Haibane Renmei. It was a beautiful story of redemption with angel themes without being openly spiritual or religious as such. It had virtually no themes or tropes from any of the common anime productions of today and was nicely paced without being too slow despite being quite old. It was also really nice to hear Motoko's VA (from Love Hina) in a big role again; I recognised her immediately. My only complaint was what I watched was BD resolution but clearly only about 480p so it had upscaling artifacts which were worse than just watching DVD res. Nonetheless I highly recommend it if you're looking for something different. It's like... Angel beats without the deceptive action and artificial soppy romance. Also I've started watching gintama... with my wife, since I have no intention of watching the whole thing through so far and then going back and rewatching it with her, so it's an experiment for both of us. We've made it 5 episodes in and so far it's okay and seems to be getting funnier as it progresses. Having survived that many episodes so far, I'm hopeful we'll both get an extended watch out of it.

Rewrite S2, yes yes the CGI monsters are terra-bad and all them non-VNers are getting totally shrekt on wtf is going on, but any1 who's read Moon route should've climaxed 9000x at the adaptation's version of it, seeing all the heroines' final moments in Moon along with the flashback snippets of their individual route CGs just gave me the biggest nostalgia boner ever.

26582/32977 been busy but still going for it

I'd feel okay living in a number of different countries but I would not want to live in Japan. From everything I've read, foreigners really get the short end of the stick there more than many other countries, and I actually pretty strongly dislike most of their cultural and moral values. I have nothing to gain by moving there.