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The Western VN fandom has long idolised the Japanese VN market. Before the recent growth of the EVN scene and official localisations, Western VN fans had to subsist only on the occasional fan-translations of Japanese VNs while being told how much better the untranslated VNs were. However this faith in untranslated VNs rested on an unspoken assumption: that Western and Japanese VN fans enjoy the same content. But is it true? Through comparing the largest VN fandom site in Japan (erogamescape) against the largest VN fandom site in the West (VNDB), we sought to find out. Do we love the same VNs? While the ability of a numerical rating to summarise a subjective experience (like reading a VN) is debatable, the average score a community assigns a VN provides a useful approximation of how highly esteemed that VN is within the community. Both EGS and VNDB allow users to rate VNs they’ve read, so comparing how the same VN scores on both sites gives us an impression of how much the communities agree on which VNs are best. We can see there’s a strong correlation between the score a VN gets on each site, especially for higher rated VNs, showing that both communities tend to agree on which VNs are considered “the best” (despite the ferocious arguments within each fandom over that same question). But as the score drops, so does the agreement over the VN score. So while both communities tend to agree on what’s good, we disagree on what’s bad. There’s also another trend that’s a little less noticeable, but becomes more apparent if we remove the untranslated VNs... While the untranslated VNs in the last graph seemed to fairly evenly straddle the equal score line, the translated VNs are frequently below it (meaning these VNs score higher on EGS than VNDB). But is the translation a cause or an effect of the lower score on VNDB (i.e. does the release of a translation lower the score on VNDB, or are only low-scoring VNs being translated)? To answer this, we tracked how the VNDB score of a VN changes immediately after a translation is released. We tracked 117 of the most popular Japanese VNs that had an English translation released in the past 5 years. In the first 60 days after their translation was released, their score dropped an average of 0.146 on VNDB, with Fata Morgana being the blip on the far right that significantly bucked the trend and increased in score. There also seems to be slight correlation with lower-rated VNs on EGS dropping more than higher-rated ones. So it seems confirmed that the translations are the cause rather than an effect. But why does this happen? This remains the subject of fierce debate among my friends, but we came up with a few theories: Japanese VNs are made for Japanese tastes, so Western fans might not enjoy them to the same extent. Western fans who learn Japanese and use VNDB might align more with the taste of Japanese fans rather than with their fellow Western fans. Japanese VNs are made for Japanese tastes, so Western fans might not enjoy them to the same extent. Western fans who learn Japanese and use VNDB might align more with the taste of Japanese fans rather than with their fellow Western fans. The high barrier of entry for a Westerner to read an untranslated VN (they have to know Japanese) filters out those who have only a casual interest in the VN. So the pre-translation score is dominated by hard-core fans who are more likely to rate it higher. The experience of reading a translation can be inferior to reading prose in its original language, so VNDB users rating a VN based on that translation might assign lower scores than those reading the original text. The larger drop in score for lower-rated VNs might be because they don’t attract the same care and attention by their translators, with any official localisation likely done on a lower-budget. VN popularity It isn’t just through scores that we can measure a communities’ tastes, we can also estimate a VN’s popularity through the number of votes it gets. In comparing the number of votes the same VN gets on EGS and VNDB, we can see whether the same VNs are popular in both Japan and the West. Note that this chart is using a log scale. The most obvious trend is the clear split between translated and untranslated VNs. Unsurprisingly, translated VNs and EVNs do significantly better on VNDB than untranslated VNs. But we Western fans aren’t especially choosey, even fairly unpopular VNs on EGS can attract large fanbases on VNDB if they’re translated. Given that translations aren’t random, they require either dedicated fan-translators or a localiser willing to invest in them, it’s surprising that the translated VNs span the entire width of popularity on EGS. So we might have expected it to skew more to the right, with unpopular EGS VNs being much less likely to get a translation. While the ratio of translated-untranslated VNs is higher for more popular EGS VNs, no VN seems to be beyond the prospect of being translated, no matter how unpopular it is. Overall, while there remains a correlation in popularity between EGS and VNDB, it’s far weaker than the score correlation. This mismatch might partially be down to the age of the communities. VNs have been a popular niche of the Japanese market for decades, but were virtually unknown in the West before the 2010s. So there’s quite a number of 80s-00s era JVNs that have hundreds of votes on EGS, but are practically unheard of on VNDB. Differences in taste So far we’ve been looking at each VN as a whole, but can we delve deeper? A VN can be seen as a package of tropes: childhood-friend heroine, tsundere heroine, dumb male protagonist that’s inexplicably beloved by all (these 3 criteria should narrow us down to approximately 90% of all VNs ever made /s). Through comparing the scores of VNs that have a trope against those who don’t, we can get an impression of how popular that trope is. Fortunately we don’t have to determine these tropes ourselves, both EGS and VNDB allow users to apply tags to a VN which denote the type of content it has. So let’s start simple and see which tags are correlated with a higher average score on EGS. This world cloud ranks the EGS tags by the average score of the VNs they appear in, with higher scores being placed higher on the chart, so we can see what type of content is most lauded on EGS. The text size is proportional to the number of VNs that tag appears in, so we can see what’s a common trope and what’s rare. A full size version of this image is available here, and a spreadsheet version is available here. Note that this is mostly using google translate for the EGS tags, so the labels are… imaginative. Generally, it seems like complex VNs (with tags such as “intelligent,” “to solve a mystery” and “difficult to get”) are the most highly rated, while more sexual oriented tags seem to be linked with lower average scores (which is probably due to nukige/porn VNs). It also seems Japanese fans value the *novel* over the *visual* element in their VNs, with “CG is beautiful” being rated quite poorly. Towards the bottom are tags mostly related to being old or low-budget (with tags such as “Low price” and “XP supported”). This has only shown us what Japanese fans like, but we’re more focused on how Japanese and Western fans compare. So instead, let’s try comparing which VNDB tags are correlated with a VN scoring higher on VNDB or EGS. A full size version of this image is available here, and a spreadsheet version is available here. It seems like Western fans value romance and slice of life type stories more than Japanese fans do, whereas Japanese fans are more generous with their nukige/porn ratings. Perhaps we’re more judgemental in our view of sexual content here in the West? Japanese settings also seem to be more favoured among the Western fandom than the Japanese, the weeabooism is real /s. Slightly disappointing is how poorly female protagonists do in the Western fandom. While otomes are widespread in the EVN market, they remain a relatively unpopular niche on VNDB. Differences in the marketplace We’ve compared the taste between the Japanese and Western fandoms, but we haven’t looked at the differing availability of VNs in the markets. Are certain types of content more likely to be translated than others? How does the the home-grown Western VN industry differ from the Japanese one? A full size version of this image is available here, and a spreadsheet version is available here. It seems that action/violent type content -whether in the form of police investigations or wars- are especially popular subjects for translated VNs. Female protagonists are also surprisingly high, especially since otomes don’t seem to be translated that often, but that might be because an even smaller proportion of nukige/porn type VNs are translated, and they overwhelmingly have male protagonists. Lastly, let’s look at the EVNs. With a negligible presence in Japan (there were only 4 EVNs on EGS with at least 4 votes), we can’t really compare what the fans prefer, but we can see how the markets differ in the kind of content they produce. This next chart tracks which VNDB tags are more common in EVNs vs JVNs. A full size version of this image is available here, and a spreadsheet version that includes more tags is available here. The sexual content tags were removed because there’s so little sexual content in EVNs that it seemed a waste of space, and it gave room to include rarer content type tags. The clearest difference between the markets is in the amount of porn, there’s exceedingly little in EVNs. This is likely due to the smaller budget for EVNs which would preclude h-scene artwork, and restrictions on adult content on Steam discouraging such content. EVNs encompass a broader range of protagonists than JVNs with LGBTQ+ related content being much more common, and female protagonists being as common as males (unlike JVNs where female protagonists make up only a small proportion of VNs). But JVNs can be inclusive in other ways, like being the sole representation of protagonists who can turn into panties. Stories relating to personal difficulties, especially regarding depression, seem much more common in EVNs too. They also seem more willing to break from the usual high-school settings of JVNs, having more university aged and above characters. Criticisms Before we get carried away with forming any stereotypes of Japanese and Western fanbases from this data, let’s consider a few issues with the data. The VNDB and EGS userbase might not be representative of the wider Western/Japanese fandom. As per some of our earlier analysis posts, VNDB significantly undercounts the popularity of EVNs for example. So some caution should be taken in extrapolating what the wider fanbase likes based on this data. The VNDB and EGS userbase might not be representative of the wider Western/Japanese fandom. As per some of our earlier analysis posts, VNDB significantly undercounts the popularity of EVNs for example. So some caution should be taken in extrapolating what the wider fanbase likes based on this data. It’s easy to mix up cause and effect. Are sci-fi stories better than other stories and that’s why they’re associated with higher scores? Or is it that VNs that care about their story are just more likely to have a sci-fi setting? Some trends, like what type of content is more likely to be translated, might just be tracking the changing tastes of the era. With older VNs being less likely to be translated than newer VNs, the charts might just be picking up on what kind of content has become more popular in recent years. The dataset has some errors. EGS and VNDB catalogue VNs differently and that can cause some mismatches in the data. We’ve done our best to account for that, but with the dataset being so large, some mistakes will have slipped through. Acknowledgements A big thank you to /u/8cccc9, Part-Time Storier, and Cibelle for helping with this analysis. I hope you enjoyed reading through this, and if so, you should check out my tumblr and twitter for more VN analysis posts. If you have any feedback, questions, or suggestions for further analyses then you can reply here, on twitter, or DM me on Discord (Sunleaf_Willow ／(^ n ^=)＼#1616). Our next analysis post is likely to be on h-scenes. What type of content is most highly regarded by the fandom? How has the popularity in the fandom of certain sexual acts risen erect and fallen limp over time? How is the EVN market handling sexual content in contrast to Japan? Hopefully we’ll have lots of answers (and some painful puns) next time~

The comments inside that thread will pretty much answer all your questions

There was an interview with Majikoi translation team on Fuwacast if you're interested:

Indeed they are but I prefer to see -ise which makes it clear it's not American (unless it's a typo.)

Would you look at that, these are two of my favorites back to back! Also, have to post a Umineko one. Counting the PS3 port's two OPs, there are a total of six OPs for Umineko and they're all great. I think my favorite is Kiri no Pithos: Lastly, I used to watch Danganronpa 2's and Steins;Gate's OPs over and over again. Won't post those, they're well known.

I have no idea but I heartily endorse your use of the English language with respect to spelling.

Aiyoku No Eustia (https://vndb.org/r24024) A fan transation project by Eustia Translations Partial Patch is out! https://mega.nz/#!no0DyQza!DZShSFgME_-iW6vaEdYy3oek-794a1yiuiW48U05dBQ Covers up to Eris' chapter (Chapter 2). Opening Movie: Description (modified VNDB description): Personal words: Translation Video Sample: Team: Project Lead/Translator/TLC: eplipswich @eplipswich Head Editor: Desertopa Head QC: Angeldeath Reserve/Former Members: Translator (Reserve): TakoRin @TakoRin Editor (Reserve): kumada Translator (Former): goodluckmyway/Be Water @goodluckmyway Editor/QC (Former): Vermillio @Vermillio QC (Former): Esham @Esham Progress: You can check out detailed real-time progress update at the following link: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AhHDq_NSwaAqgSnImaDDLTME-lmi?e=ai9dey ---------------------------------- You can follow me on Twitter: @eplipswich Job Opening(s): None at the moment, but feel free to PM me if you feel you can contribute to the project.

For the last few months, I’ve published reviews and top lists, presenting worthwhile or interesting OELVNs that usually have little presence on Fuwa and don’t get discussed as much as they deserve. From the very beginning, however, my goal was to focus not only on the games themselves, but also the people behind them – the independent creators and small studios that make the core of the Western VN market. Today, I present you with the first “Developer Spotlight” post, where I’ll be talking to Jackie M., the founder of Reine Works, authors of multiple yuri and otome VNs and the studio behind the recently-published otome title Seven Districts of Sin: The Tail The Makes the Fox, about the game’s somewhat-turbulent release and the realities of today’s OELVN market. Be sure to check out my review of the game first, where I also touch on its unusual appearance on Steam. ------------------------------------------------- Plk Lesiak: Hello and thank you for agreeing to this interview! Let’s start with your latest VN. It’s pretty rare for me to be the first person to rate a game on VNDB, especially four months after its release. What happened to The Tail Makes the Fox that it went so much below the radar of the VN community? Jackie M.: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are nearly as many users on VNDB who rate otome games, as compared to anything that could be construed as aimed at men. I took a quick look at some other developers' titles out of curiosity, and it seems that female-aimed titles in general tend to have very few votes. Funnily enough, I can confirm that we do get sales referrals from VNDB. We've had a few of them. PL: For a few months, your VN was only available on Itch.io, a platform usually associated with free games. Regardless of other plans, what was your experience of trying to sell your title there? JM: Itch.io isn't really a storefront where a developer can make a profit unless the game in question is very low budget, nor should they particularly expect to, what with the smaller userbase. From when pre-orders opened before release till today, itch.io sales have only amounted to roughly 1/4 of the game's development cost. That said, we do like it, because it isn't subject to a lot of the restrictions that similar shops are, and transferring earned funds out is also much quicker than anywhere else that I'm aware of. We just wouldn't recommend that anyone only ever sell their games there. Blossoms Bloom Brightest Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Hello there! I was recently going through a major number of notoriously bad VNs and came up with an idea for a new segment for the blog, focused solely on said shovelware. As the games in question are not really worth of formal reviews, I've decided to create a separate format and separate rating system for those. For that reason, I'm in need of three original, cartoonish graphics representing the three possible ratings: 1. Smelly Poo (It stinks!) - for those really shitty, gross VNs with little or no redeeming qualities 2. Rabbit Poo (Better just ignore it...) - for those VNs that are just of poor quality, but don't stand out very much in any way 3. Golden Poo. Shiny! (But the smells is pretty bad...) - for VNs that are definitely still bad, but have some kind of charm or strong elements that make them amusing and possibly worth experiencing by yourself In my vision, the ratings would be represented by round badges, featuring the name of the rating as listed above (probably the name of the badge in the upper part and the description in the bottom part), along with an appropriate illustration. I'll be willing to pay for it, if someone's willing to make it in an appropriately decent quality. :3 Where the fuck do I get these ideas from? :s

It has finally happened. A thread where shitposting won't be off topic

Yep, I have some similar thoughts about my country. On the other hand, one thing I realized when thinking about it is that history is pretty much filled with propaganda. Real history is just a sequence of semi-random events, and quite a lot of countries try to chose one narrative of these events to make their country seem better compared to the others. And, like @Plk_Lesiak said, quite a lot of countries did some controversial stuff in the past (and some continue doing it in the present).

Don't worry, while Turkey has some particularly shitty policies when it goes to Armenian Genocide denial, nearly every country has a lot of nasty shit in their history and the nationalist propaganda tries to erase all those events or shift the blame onto others. Don't ever let them convince that you're in the wrong for acknowledging these facts and being able to look at your own country with a critical eye. That makes you a decent, open-minded person, not a "traitor".

Confession: It bothers me deeply to look at my country's history. We have so many controversial actions, I'm wondering if I'm being a traitor to be against my country's policy in many past events or if I'd be gobbling up propaganda if I supported them.

Man, this is so nostalgic.

I was thinking about writers that i like the most and when i thought about Jun Maeda, i realized that i don't like him that much as a writer and the main reason Key VNs are some of my favorite was because of Baba Takahiro's directing. That was just me being dumb and not knowing what a executive producer does. Have you ever thought about a VN where you praised a writer and realized the greatness of his product really came from the directors or executive producers? Do you think i'm getting confused and directors aren't that big of a deal?

*Insert obligatory Kuu-chan hyping* Seriously tho, Steins;Gate 0 is the first MAGES' visual novel being released by spike chunsoft in the west, the first of many (i hope), tbh, all i hope for is a Chaos;Child + Robotics;Notes PC release, and if S;G 0 is what it takes to get these released, well so be it. Good luck for everyone who'll buy this fantastic visual novel. I have to include some bit of context to S;G 0 : Read/Watch steins;gate before, because S;G 0 relies a lot on previous VN/Anime (it is a sequel, after all).

If the trolls actually are the main reason for that, wouldn't the ratings for more anticipated titles, like Steins;Gate 0, be even less accurate prior to release, compared to an average moege? Trolls vote for the titles they know. Also, even if you simply read some discussions about some recently translated "kamige" it's very noticeable that quite often the reactions tend to be more mixed than before they are translated.

Default. Dark colors are easier in the eyes and the letter coloring is just right. F/SN's seal brown is a close second but the letter coloring isn't as good.

So, what are your favorite opening movies in the VNs you've already read or want to read? As for me, if I had to pick one opening, I'd choose Steins;Gate 0. It really shows how popular the SG franchise is, because it looks like bigger budget went into this OP's production than some VNs have a a whole. Incidentally, I haven't read S;G0 yet, so I can't say how well it connects to the actual story. There are a lot more openings I like, including the Minori works or Muv-luv Alternative, but I would also want to mention the second opening movie from Hello, Lady!. It looks pretty spoilerous, so watch on your own risk. The reason: I wasn't particularly interested in the title before I've seen this opening, but it looks so intriguing so I was immediately sold out, and now it's one of the top untranslated VNs I want to read.

Who the hell cares. I never aimed to be mistake-free here. Let ittaku be a spelling police / grammar nazi all he wants

In this case then I'll recommend Dracu Riot, and despite what people said about the translation it's really fully translated. Have same comedy as Noble Works, so you should be able to adapted to it easily. Other than that, maybe you can try Saku Saku as well. I hope my recommendations will be helpful to you

One important factor that heavily affect vndb untranslated ratings is the japanese proficiency of the voters and i think that could be one of the reasons of why the scores tend to differ more on "bad" vns. Not to related, but one graph that i like to see is votes cast x user average score.

I have a theory, which can explain it. Not all users on VNDB feels like they need to have read a VN in order to vote for it. This is easiest to spot when a VN gets one or more 10 votes prior to release. This will result in a wrong vote average on release day, but as time goes on, people will finish, give a realistic vote and the few who votes based on expectations or whatever will vanish in the average due to their low numbers. VNDB has counter measures against voters like that, but it's possible that enough slip through to cause this effect. Another explanation could be that those who start a playthrough marathon on release day will be more likely to give it higher votes than people reading in a more normal speed.

A while ago I thought I'd give Gintama a go, because it was supposed to be really funny and popular. I dropped it midway through the first episode. It just seemed really stupid to me. Just recently though, as the popularity of Gintama doesn't seem to be waning at all, I thought maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just being really uptight and anal about stuff. So I sent it to my sister saying "give this a try, it's supposed to be really good". If she says it's good I'll give it another go. I got a message back today. "This is, most likely, without a doubt, the worst show I've ever seen." "I know", I said. "I thought it was pretty terrible also." "Then why did you pass it on for me to try!" So yeah, now I can safely ignore Gintama without thinking I'm missing something special. Happy days!

Yep, with very slight editing, but it is the same, the console(and now PC) translation was validated by 5pb. the creators of the VN, so there is that.

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate - Don't see this title in recommendation threads enough, so I thought I'll mention it here. Has elements similar to Princess Evangile, especially the romance aspect (which is pretty heavy and serious stuff). Do take note the common route is a bit boring to read through, you cannot go into other routes without finishing Chisato's one first (there are good reasons for this), and her involvement in other routes is heavy and her character is a bit dramatised. Still a very good Rom VN imo. Princess Evangile W Happiness - For obvious reasons (being the FD of the original P.E) Noble Works - Rom-Com charage with a setting which is very similar to P.E (Story is about a down on luck MC who gets to attend a prestigious school by chance and what happens there). Storyline is quite funny (especially in Shizuru's route). Good cast of likeable characters too. To Heart 2 - Never read before, but could be what you are looking for Rest of the stuff I can think of are repeated very often in the recommendation thread forums: Clannad - Never played before, but accordingly to people everywhere (including in fuwanovel), a romance nakige with a story almost guaranteed to make you cry Rewrite - MC is proactive. Common route is well written. Lucia's (one of the main heroine) route is great and pretty romantic. Main things to look out for are the story itself is pretty convoluted and written very long (latter parts of the story answer more questions than it answers), huge wall of text to read through in order to complete/understand the story, romance is not a central part of the VN, and there's a unfinished / open ending (I HATE this part of the VN) Grisaia no Kajitsu - Common route is interesting, and comedic (but very long). Yuuji (MC) is pretty proactive. I like the heroines a lot, and the routes are deep and well written. One thing I would say about Grisaia is the romance is a bit thin comparatively The next couple of VNs will probably pop up at some point, but I think you should avoid them: Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa o Hirogete - A cult fav. The art is simply gorgeous. I enjoyed the romance in the routes as well. However, the common route is SoL-filled and a bit boring to read though. It is also very heavy on the technical aspect of aviation throughout the entire VN which absolutely bored me to tears. 2 of the routes is a bit mediocre; 1 is quite a bit messily-written, while the 1st of another route is so generic and short, it makes it look like a Yuzusoft side route (I like Nicola's route in Dracu-Riot is better written). Hatsukoi 1/1 - Slow, draggy, and SoL-filled story which can be insomnia inducing. It's quite over-dramatised too especially in the routes, with 1 route in particular so overly-dramatised that it puts soap operas to shame

I don't know if her route's any good as I've only ever had the PC version.

Goddammit, Japan.

I managed to fix it! Leaving the answer here in case someone else struggles. So anyway, in order to get みなとカーニバルＦＤ/Minato Carnival FD to work with ITHVNR you need to use the following: 1. Attach ITHVNR to the game process like usual and start/load the game till you reach the dialogue/narration box 2. then you need this code: "/HSN-10@41de01" 3. Paste it besides the process and hit enter: MAKE SURE THERE'S NO SPACE BETWEEN THE BORDER OF THE TEXT BOX AND THE CODE (i actually had it paste a couple of times with the space between and of course it failed). 4. After copying it in the appropriate place while the cursor is still in that place hit enter. 5. In the game make the text in the dialogue/narration box run once or twice. 6. come back to ITH and select the appropriate address: 7. Enjoy, i hope this helps! PS: this was tested with Windows 10 Professional Version 1709 OS build 16299.371 (Fall Creators Update), ITHVNR 3.5640.1 (& newer versions) and Minato Carnival FD updated to 1.20, you can grab the update for the novel from here: http://www.minatocarnival.com/support/carnivalfd.html

You hate everyone? Ok. Now tell me something I don't already know.

Avengers Infinity War spoiler