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You're overreacting, but TBH, you'll be in monority pretty much anywhere on the Internet with how far your views go. I consider myself pretty progressive and I'm probably closer to you than Thyndd on this, but it's not like the progressive groups don't create intellectual aberrations of various sort, probletic political demands and institutional biases (those are of course much stronger in the opposite directions, at least in most places, but still). Things for people to criticise and while many blow it out of proportion or misunderstand the severity of the position some minorities are in, they aren't without legit arguements. Fuwa is a pretty tolerant place and the VN fandom, at worst, have some very progressive niches that are friendly to all kinds of diversity. You won't find much better than this over the internet, unless you close yourself in some kind of narrow, progressive echo-bubble. And that is never a healthy thing to do. And with the Attack Helicopter meme, I find it both questionable and genuinely funny, because it touches on various identity groups (ex. otherkin) and their public demands of respect that I personally find ridiculous. It's an interesting question whether there can exist a society of unlimited noncomformity, but people who ask me to take into account their identity as a dragon or gender identification I can't decipher even after my extended contact with feminist literature aren't helping the ligitimate opressed groups in their fight. This game, however, probably have little to do with all that - I'd be surprised if it was more than just something playing on the absurdity of out-of-context memes.

Making attack helicopter jokes to mock non-binary and trans people (and what they have to say) is not insightful, and is about as relevant and mature as exposing your dick to a vegetarian and shouting "so you won't eat this meat either, huh?????" while dancing in front of them. For all the claims about how this meme is satire, I find it perplexing that people have such a deep need to satirize something that's an important issue that still needs to be discussed. Trans and non-binary people aren't saying "let's call people attack helicopters", they're saying that for some people, the gender they identify as doesn't match their body. And they've historically been murdered and ostracized because of this. I see nothing "ridiculous" about this situation. "Oh, these people are being killed because other people can't accept their identity. How quirky and weird and satire-worthy." For all this "Oh, oh, it's to own the dirty SJWs!!!!!!" talk, it's the """""SJWs""""" who advocate most ardently advocate for trans rights. Funny how that goes. And no, people you call "SJWs" do not actually claim absurd shit just for the sake of shouting at people. Funny how if a trans person says "Please don't make these jokes, they hurt me and mock who I am" they're called an SJW and laughed at. An SJW -to basically everyone who uses that term- is someone who says "maybe we should watch what we say and do to not hurt others in unnecessary ways". That's it. And since people don't want to actually be critical of how they behave themselves, "SJWs" become these bunch of shrieking idiots offended at everything. Why? Because that makes it easier to laugh at people who say "Please don't hurt us." instead of examining our behavior and exercising some self-restraint. I wish we'd see the same level of coordinated mocking satire and criticism against actual bigots. And that's the key, "self-restraint". It's not about whether comedy should be allowed to satirize anything and everything. It's not about "shitty political correctness is taking our jokes away!!". It's about how shitty and hurtful it is to make jokes mocking people who have already been ostracized and hurt for who they are. It's not about whether it's "allowed" or not. It's about being good satire, which (besides general comedy) aims to portray something wrong in a humorous way in order to make a point that something is wrong about the thing being satirised. It's about not saying things that hurt people. And I think you can appreciate the fact that this is just a way of criticism, which is perfectly fine since free speech (including criticism) at its absolute is more important than anything else. Right? These jokes don't simply satirize a bunch of kooky extremists. They mock any trans person who says anything that's remotely new or uncomfortable. Memes mocking "SJWs" are fucking everywhere. Some people are a bit sensitive about some types of jokes and statements, wow, that's sure worth a level of coordinated criticism and mockery sustained for years we don't levy at sexual harassers, bigots, racists, homophobes, groups who actually hurt others. Guess it's their fault they're a bit ~offended~ at this stuff after being hurt for it for all of history. For all the snark about "SJWs can't take a joke!!!", people sure seem sensitive to having their behavior and words criticized. The idea that no trans person ever gets offended at these jokes (same with racial jokes, etc.) except "SJWs", and that it apparently doesn't matter if an "SJW" is offended (even if they're trans), is fucking absurd. It's a lie. It's just a way to sugarcoat hatred people want to spew when they're told something they're doing something wrong. This entire "b-b-b-b-but it's to own the SJWs!" argument is the most ironic aspect of modern society... Free speech -unimpeded, possibly harmful speech- is somehow worth more than anything else, but when some people try to exercise that very same free speech to express anger, frustration or hurt, they're mocked, ostracized and belittled for it. Comedy is allowed to criticise and mock everything but when "SJWs" try to criticise other things seriously, they're told "This actually isn't offensive, you have no right to feel hurt by this" and that they shouldn't criticise things. The entire SJW boogeyman is a lie people are using to avoid being told they can do or say harmful things. Knowingly so (even worse, if unknowingly). Obviously, I don't expect @neometalero to care about all this at this point, so all I'll say is that at least don't put a """trap""" character or something in this game.

hmm, spooky vns, huh? well let me just check my backlog. i should never have done that. my backlog is scarier than any vn ill ever read!

Aye, of course, but also consider that left does similar things, dilluting racism and misoginy into general slurs that slowly lose all meaning. There's little room for common sense and moderation in how polarized and emotionally-loaded the discussion is, especially on the internet. The way you state your arguenent about Attack Helicopter meme reminds me of Funyarinpa's arguement why trap characters shouldn't be a thing - they perpetuate negative stereotypes about transgender people. I mean, maybe, but it doesn't mean that context and intent is irrelevant. Cross-dressing "trap" characters are usually not written as transsexuals and shouldn't be read at such, discussing the issue with other fans and shaming actually offensive cases feels more appropriate to me than raging against the whole trope. The Attack Helicopter meme was made by a guy to break gender identity discussions on a game chat - definitely a form of trolling, but not necessarily that malicious. People can easily get offended by it, but it was targeted above anything else against bizzare identity declarations made in inappropriate contexts. You can't reasonably argue that this kind of thing don't happen on the net. I believe that everyone deserves respect as a human being, but people's behavior is always up for criticism. Even if they find it offensive or insensitive - I'd never go out of my way to insult people, but if mocking Mormon lore or the fact some people identify as deers and ask people to accept it as a fact makes me an asshole, the are relatively few meaningful things that can be said without being one.

The attack helicopter meme was already unfunny a decade ago. The problem with jokes like these is that they're harmful regardless of their intent. It's like stepping on someone's foot and breaking their toe. The fact that you didn't intend to step on their foot doesn't change the fact that you broke their toe. You're still responsible for the hurt you caused that person. And like it or not, emotional hurt is harmful to a person's well-being just like physical hurt is. Maybe not in the same ways, and not always to the same extent, but not everyone can just decide that having their identity mocked and invalidated doesn't affect them--nor do I think that people should have to make that choice. I'm not trans myself, but I am bi, and I've been told (or heard other bi people told) that I'm actually just a closeted lesbian, that I'm just a straight girl looking for attention, that everyone picks a side eventually, so on and so forth. It's exhausting to live in a world where people think that gay and straight are the only possible orientations out there when you're neither, and I don't think that I or any other bi/pan/ace/etc person should be responsible for others' decisions to be assholes. And likewise, if someone makes derogatory jokes about trans and/or non-binary identities (and like it or not, the attack helicopter meme is inherently disrepectful towards trans and non-binary people), people who are hurt by those jokes shouldn't be blamed for that hurt, and people who make those jokes shouldn't expect to say those things without receiving criticism simply because Free Speech. Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences. I'm not saying that being bi and being trans are the same thing (although obviously there are bi trans people out there), but in this particular issue they can be similar. I know plenty of trans and non-binary people both online and IRL, some of whom I consider dear friends, so I don't like watching people making fun of their identities. In short, I agree with just about everything @Funyarinpa said. Also, personally, I've never really took anything that complains about "SJWs" seriously, but there have been two incidents which have convinced me that the phrase has no meaning beyond "person I disagree with": a Tumblr post years ago on which I witnessed people sincerely calling a neo-Nazi an SJW for saying "it's okay to be afraid of black people" an argument I had on Reddit a few months ago where the other person called a right-wing group SJWs because their goal is social change

Happy birthday to @wei123 and @Radi the Synergia dev! :3

Well, what do you know, I might as well be pretty progressive myself then, because I can't bring myself to disagree with anything @Plk_Lesiak said. Really, you just summed up pretty much everything I was struggling to express in a few lines. This is what I was referring to when I made the knife analogy. This meme can be either directed to a genuinely opressed collective, or towards the noisy minority making ridiculous claims and demands and giving said collective a really poor public image, hardly helping their cause. How you use it it's up to you, that's why it's a matter of intentionality. Denying such problematic political groups exist and are much more than just some crazy teens on tumblr is closing your eyes to the truth; at the same time I'm not denying that the other side of the coin also exists, where trans people and other minorities are overly discriminated. Where we might disagree is on the impact each of these problematic groups have on our society as a whole, and I'd be open to different opinions. Well, on the one hand I find myself agreeing with a big chunk of this. On the other, I was called transphobic just a little while ago. I'm not sure what to think anymore

Happy 19th birthday to our @wei123, and i hope that you'll have a good year ahead.

If one is unsatisfied about pairing chosen by scenario writer, VN comes to the rescue - it has endings/routes for all girls

Happy birthday to @wei123!

I disagree, on many levels. 1. No, the Kooky Tumblr Dwellers are nowhere, NOWHERE as prominent as the entire "hurr sjws" demographic. And that demographic misrepresents marginalized people entirely. Because when someone comes across such a thing and asks why it's funny or what it's about, the answer is going to be "It's making fun of SJW's!", and then that's going to be connected to other, more important concepts, much like the exact thing you've done with your examples. The thing that catapulted these subcultures into prominence wasn't the subcultures themselves spreading aggressively, it was all the alt right YouTubers and shit posters going "HEE HEE LOOK AT THESE STUPID POOPY TUMLRINAS", often to an audience of thousands, even millions. And then since those people gave no shits about actual trans (etc.) issues (its just memes to them), they carried that hatred over to hating marginalized people overall. 2. I'm proposing that we keep assholes from hurting people by criticizing harmful jokes and cultural things. You cite really, really obscure Tumblr subcultures, but you seem to be unaware of how much casual bigotry and harassment there still is in many online spaces. And if you don't want to stop harmful jokes from propagating, then you're just enabling the people who perpetuate that harm in the first place. You can't eat your cake and have it still. Some shitheads getting to make shitty jokes is far less important than the well being of other people. 3. You are blaming the victim. There will always be assholes, sure, but that doesn't suddenly mean that it's my fault or anyone else's fault that their assholery offends other people. That's fully, completely the asshole's fault. Pronouns are actually important facets of someone's identity, especially for a trans person, so you saying that that's "just the SJW's being really sensitive" proves my entire point. You were supposedly only criticizing Tumblr extremists, but now you're complaining about pronouns, a very fundamental thing about gender expression and trans identities. I'm very convinced that you actually are about trans people now. 4. Your knife analogy is incorrect. You use your own words and you communicate your own way. You're not a detached manufacturer, you're openly brandishing a knife because it's your knife, and you're walking in public with it, and you're saying it's someone else's fault if they bump into you and get a bleeding gash on their arm. A knife also has actual non-violent purposes, unlike these bigoted jokes, which only serve to mock people. Like it or not, you're responsible for the effect of the things you say, regardless of your intention. Regardless of intention, you can hurt people. 5. You've done the exact thing you claimed you weren't. Your examples aren't just weird people on Tumblr talking about gender. No, you've fully started to claim they're in your government and all that jazz when the far right is globally on the rise. You're looking down upon someone for wanting their pronouns to be respected, and that's textbook transphobia. That's the exact sort of thing I was telling you about. "SJWs are stupid because they come up with weird things and want to take our freedom of speech away, it's not about marginalized people!" is how it starts, and now you're saying something that is fully transphobic and you're blaming the "sensitive SJW" for it. It's because how almost everyone who uses that word is like you, they blame other people for their own misconceptions (after ostracizing them for decades, trans people do not owe the rest of society any blame for how they're represented), they refuse to reevaluate their behavior and they fall back on harmful stereotypes while blaming the demographic itself for having it (because that weird community you talk of is far more welcoming to trans people than you'll ever be) and yet claim to respect trans people. 6. It's almost funny to see someone claim a vast SJW conspiracy. It's not even been two years since the far right (and the alt right) surge started, with Trump getting elected (despite many sexual assault allegations) and Brexit passing its referandum, and yet somehow it's still the evil vile SJW's that is ruining everything. The same SJW's you complain of are the very people who unearthed the culture of sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, in workplaces, elsewhere. The American president has nine sexual assault allegations against him (and a voice recording), who just nominated a judge for the supreme court who also has three allegations against himself. The point is that we're far from any point when we'll fear accusations are being abused, not when the general trend is that a lot of abuse that was being kept under wraps is getting uncovered. You've persuaded me of one thing, though. I don't want to be a part of Fuwanovel anymore. Because I know I'm in the minority when it comes to all of these ideas. I'll probably leave for good in a few days.

If you scroll back a few pages on this thread (maybe somewhere in the last 20?) I actually have a full review of Maison Ikkoku.

Well, with so many episodes no wonder it's slow But slow pace in itself isn't a problem for me, so maybe I'll go with it now - especially since you say that ending is great. I've made it through 200 episodes of "Sailor Moon" (and enjoyed it ) so 96 is nothing

I've seen (or tried to watch) all of them. Those three are very different from each other, and none are as satisfying as Toradora. Hachimitsu to Clover is one of those meandering angsty romance shows where no one ever gets what they want or need. Maison Ikkoku is a classic romantic comedy that moves at a glacial pace by today's standards before a final extraordinarily satisfying finish after 96 episodes. School rumble is pure no-progress situation romantic comedy.

And that is why all I'm saying is, don't be an asshole. Let's not be assholes. We'll only need to get rid of free speech to keep this sort of dicky "humor" from propagating if people are not willing to exercise the self-restraint to not make jokes like this. "I have every right to be a dick so you cannot tell me to not be one" is a really, really nonsensical assertion. Let's just collectively decide not to be assholes. And, sad as I am to say, intention doesn't matter that much. At the end of the day, regardless of intention, stuff like this sees more light of day than discussion of actual issues. This sort of thing, even if you just want to mock the kooky feminist boogeyman, drags down actual trans people and their struggle. People left and right don't give a shit about actual trans people unless they can mock a concept related to them. You perhaps aren't the sort of person who goes around saying "hur hur yer feelins dunnt determine yer gender hur hur", but the thing is, that's the stereotype you propagate about trans people. It gets generalized to trans people because like it or not, people will use these jokes to mock trans people by saying "oh you identify as male even though you look like a girl? what are you gonna be next, an attack helicopter?" and similar things. And honestly, it does not readily come off across as mocking the kooky feminist boogeyman and not trans people, anyways. People use the EXACT SAME ARGUMENTS to mock trans people. LIKE IT OR NOT, many trans people are hurt by this joke. Because it was never just "mocking SJWs". At every stage of history, including the internet, these sorts of jokes have circulated under the guise of "mocking extreme progressives", while shutting down the voices of all sorts of marginalized people. Is there a single meme or term related to trans people you've seen more than the attack helicopter meme? Note: "Futa" and "trap" do not count. And that's the thing. It takes the idea of gender identity and mocks that concept as a whole, regardless of your intention. I have, buddy. I've seen my share of shit. I know of the things you guys see as "SJW bullshit" when it's not being used by people who are out-and-out bigots in their own words. And you know what? I'll take a confederacy of nebulagender people over a single person who uses "gay" as an insult. And therein lies the rub. That's the most harmful or outrageous thing about these people you can come up with. A bunch of Tumblr posts made by people you probably won't interact with in your daily life, and which don't harm you in any way. That's the huge, unacceptable offence that these people commit in your eyes: Saying "If you say things that hurt people who are already spurned by most of society, you're an asshole" is unacceptable in your eyes. It's not a tirade against free speech. It's OFFERING CRITICISM OF CULTURE, LITERALLY THE ENTIRE POINT OF FREE SPEECH. Free speech doesn't mean "say everything you can because they're inherently good things to say", we can all say things that hurt others, and we should try to not do that. """SJWs""" are just people who claim that some things people say are hurtful, and that we shouldn't say hurtful things. And that's it, that's fucking it, that's the fucking crime against humanity that the social justice warriors have somehow committed to get more ridicule, anger, ire and mockery drawn toward them than any other demographic on the internet, more than literal, overt racism, more than homophobia, more than out-and-out sexism. And that's why all of this is bullshit. People claim to give two shits about trans people and that they're not mocking trans people, no sir, but when it comes down to actually caring about and supporting these people it becomes "but the gays talk about being gay all the time it's annoying" and "free speech, you can't tell me what to do", "don't make this about race/gender", "you're overthinking it", and endless derivatives of such shit. They don't watch their language or their behavior, they complain about "forced diversity", they talk about how much they love fapping to "traps", and aren't uncomfortable when people say things like "fake and gay". Basically, 99.9999999% of people who use the term SJW say these jokes aren't aimed at trans people, because they don't want to deal with the consequences of saying they don't actually give a shit. And guess what, it doesn't even matter to you if the joke's actually aimed at trans people or not. By your very own metric, people have some sort of right to make overtly transphobic jokes since apparently "comedy" or "satire" can't be hurtful or bigoted, or at least doesn't matter if it is bigoted. By your own metric, you're allowed to make jokes that are mocking trans people and apparently that's all that's important beyond not being an asshole, so long as you can be an asshole. People who cause much more harm (to free speech and other things) don't draw the same ire. Somehow people deserve ridicule and mockery (if not outright hatred) from millions for thinking up new genders but it's okay if they get off to drawings of children (even toddlers) because that is free speech and they don't hurt anybody so don't criticise them!!! Y'all can really fucking tolerate an entire culture built around lolis but can't tolerate a bunch of people coming up with monikers for themselves. Fuck off with the "we care about trans people this is mocking another demographic that's not related to or associated with trans people at all!" bullshit already.

Toradora is fantastic. It's so good that it's beyond that point where people like it - they hate it because it's so good that the popular opinion can't possibly be right. No, the characters are great, the romance is very different, and it has some absolutely magic moments that it'd be hard not to feel anything while watching it. Some scenes still make me catch my breath today. Flawed characters? Who cares when that's what makes the show. But like everything, it either works for you or it doesn't, and Toradora is exactly the opposite of what I just watched.

Yeah I don't know why, but nothing seemed to click. I just couldn't care less about any of the main characters... I didn't mind watching it, I just didn't really feel anything for any of them. Being different is perfectly fine but if I can't empathise with any of the characters, I don't get anything out of it. Compare it to, for example, White Album 2, which has some similar themes where I absolutely hated how it ended because it didn't have my favourite nice happy ending for everyone, but I felt so much more for the characters and was suitably shattered.

So, I've finished Fatal Twelve now, and what a pleasant surprise that was. It's probably the best story VN I've read in years. I'm particular impressed by the overall high quality in all areas - writing, graphics and music. It's also remarkable that the VN has a writing format I usually don't like that much - (mostly)kinetic with frequent POV switches - but I still liked it a lot. The story of the VN is about twelve people having died by different causes and appearing now in a divine selection, hold by Parca, a mischievous goddess of fate, who gives every candidate the chance for a second life. However, the selection will be a battle royale where only the last remaining candidate will have the privilege of a second life. The elimination process happens in a weekly selection round, where a candidate has to show three divine cards about another candidate, containing his name, cause of death and biggest regret in life. The candidates then have to try to get this data about the other candidates between those selection rounds. The VN roughly consist of two major parts: the elimination process and finding out what's behind the whole divine selection and Parca. The latter being the most interesting and tricky part. One of the first things that get clear when the first rounds of elimination start is that the candidates were apparently selected completely arbitrary since the preconditions for all candidates are not fair at all. Some wouldn't have any gain by winning, because they are either so old they'd die anyway soon after, or have a terminal illness which would lead to the same result. Pretty much only candidates that died by an unnatural cause like an accident... or murder, would really profit from a second life, since only the direct cause of death would be negated. This already gives a lot of stuff to think that there's something horribly wrong with the whole divine selection. Now, where the VN really shines in how it plays out the involved characters against each other. Unlike most other VN's that just consist of a hetare protagonist, a few infantile heroines, an idiot friend and maybe a few rapists, this VN has real multi-layered characters with different ethical values and personalities that react differently to pressure and extreme situations. The writer is also one of the rare ones with common sense and an understanding how certain situations could turn out and what consequences they could have. For example, at the start some of the more ruthless characters try to get info through pure violence and black mail, but then have to face the consequences of being investigated by the police. Since being arrested and imprisoned just for a few weeks is almost a death sentence, those characters are then forced to act with much more caution. Another interesting thing is that being just an innocent girl like Rinka or Miharu can also be an advantage, because sympathy also matters. Obviously dangerous participants like Alan or Odette trigger counter-alliances and characters who got their info revealed can get revenge by revealing their info to other participants they'd prefer to win. Besides that, several characters reflect on their actions and change during the elimination process - not always for the better though. During the last third of the VN the focus slowly shifts to the second major story arc - finding out the truth about the divine selection and Parca. That's one the most interesting parts of the VN, since the remaining participants slowly get aware that winning the contest isn't just a generous gift - there's a catch. Parca isn't neutral about the whole outcome and she has her own motives. It also goes full Stein's Gate when explaining the (pseudo-)scientific background of how the divine selection works - hope you didn't forget time lines and reality branches in Stein's Gate. Although the writing is almost consistently on a high standard and the plot well though-out, there are still some weaknesses. While the frequent POV changes show you the personality and development of the other characters, it also drags the pacing down a bit too much from time to time and can also spoil some otherwise surprising situations. The normal (Miharu) end seems a bit too undeservedly happy, especially in comparison to the true (Parca) end. The romance part is also a bit underdeveloped, I'd say the VN is more about friendship between Rinka, Miharu and Naomi and how they and the other participants overcome the trials of the divine selection. And while Rinka is a good-natured girl, she can also be a bit too hesitant at times. Miharu was certainly the more 'heroic' character. There were also some translation inconsitencies from time to time, expecially when Yu was referenced in plural - I didn't get why. The art of the VN is surprisingly good. While the character sprites might not quite reach the top standard of the industry, they are still well drawn, with a more unique - and less moe - western touch. There are also about 60 event CG's purely for the story, about 15 drawn characters and a good amount of background locations as well. And the background locations in particular are top notch quality. And last but least the audio, and this is probably one of the strongest points of the VN. There's a good amount of excellent and diverse music tracks that capture the mood of many situations perfectly. No ultra boring slice of life tracks that make you fall asleep in no time. There's real tense and thrilling music that keeps you on your toes. All characters are voiced and the voice acting is overall pretty good - no idiot friend voice abominations. Heroine ranking: Miharu > Parca > (Odette) > Rinka > Naomi Final Rating: 8.5/10 That's probably the highest rating I've given in years. Admittedly, I was also close to give it just a (still high) 8 at first, because it doesn't offer all too much in the waifu (though Miharu and Parca were cute) and romance department. But since it's so absolutely rare that a well developed plot comes along with good writing, decent art and great music, I've decided to give it a higher rating.

This is the newest game by Sweet & Tea, the makers of the near-kamige (kamige in my heart) Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana. This has a different set of writers, with Ban'ya of Kuroinu and Mugen Renkan handling the sweaty H-scenes and NYAON, the writer of Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba (and a few charage and nakige besides that) as the main writer. Now, this is a kinetic 3P lovey-dovey nakige about a girl named Iroha who, after spending ten years trapped in a divine realm by accident with a wolf god, is returned to that realm... with wolf-ears! (lol) I say it is about Iroha mostly because of my fetish, but it is really about her, the protagonist Shuuji, his girlfriend Kana, and the people around them. Now, a few things to get out of the way before I put down my own feelings and impressions... for those who don't like cheater protagonists, I'm going to come out with it straight up. He cheats on Kana with Iroha. The fact that this is mostly a comedic element is because of Iroha's animalistic/innocent manner (she's actually just aggressive about what she wants and more knowledgeable than her speech patterns indicate), and the fact that Kana has pretty much been the seducer/brainwasher side of the relationship with Shuuji, who tends to be the type to give in to the girls he cares about in just about everything. Now, this game never goes really dark. It has some bad moments for the characters emotionally (the protagonist has his own issues and ten years is a LONG time), but that is all properly resolved in a cathartic way, as is the way with nakige. Unlike Karenai Hana, there is no aura of terrible suffering and despair, and the protagonist is mostly about compassion and love rather than self-sacrificing love and guilt. While this game is pretty short (think about four hours for me, six to seven hours for the average reader), it doesn't feel unsatisfying for what it is. I did want a more extensive epilogue, but the one I got was hilariously H, so I came out of this feeling mostly satisfied. Perhaps my sole real reservation is the fact that this didn't become a 4P with Chihiro, who is obviously interested in Shuuji (even moreso by the end). I'm thinking that they will eventually make a followup, sequel, or fandisc to advance the whole story more. However, with the immediate issues all resolved, the game doesn't feel as truncated as I usually feel with games setting up for sequels or fandiscs from the beginning.

New Game! The Challenge Stage! is a VN based on the manga/anime New Game and I think having gone through either of them should be essential before reading this VN, because of this I will just assume that the people reading this is already familiar with the manga or anime. Under here is the basics of how it is set up. The common route of the VN covers roughly the two last months of development of fairies story 3. This is some point after Nene has joined as a debugger by the way so the status quo is already established. Since it takes place during this time there are some events in the VN that are the same as those that happen in the anime though most of the scenes are VN original. There is also an extra added story element which is that Aoba has been given the job of working as the art director of a DLC afterstory for Sophia (the first character she made), which seems to involve her getting resurrected. In this part of the VN there are mostly short scenes that happen as you progress through the days with it being more story heavy towards the end of the common route when they release fairies story 3. After this there are eight different character routes following each of the different important characters in New Game, excluding those introduced in the 2nd season of the anime. These routes take place during a company vacation that last 3 days and take place either at Hokkaido or Okinawa with 4 character routes each place. The one in Hokkaido is a bit based on the OVA where they go to Hokkaido though I don't think the Okinawa one is based on any existing material, though I have only watched the anime. Now with the general structure of the VN out of the way I guess I can start with what I thought of New Game! The Challenge Stage! To start with I would have to say that I quite enjoyed New Game! The Challenge Stage! with the reason being that it does a good job at handling the different characters of New Game which is an anime I love. The common route of the VN is what I found to be the least impressive, in this part there is a gameplay element of choosing who to work with to get stats in their part of the game development which is then used to complete the DLC story and also start events with the different characters as well as determining the route you end up in. While the system isn't too bad the first time you play through it, it gets rather annoying when doing all the routes since you have to go through it 8 times and all it does is slow you down. The scenes during the common route are rather short but the interactions between the characters are rather nice and does a good job at capturing the same charm as the anime. Other than choosing who to work with there is also the weekend where you can choose between 4 of the characters on saturday and the remaining 4 on sunday to have events with. As for the later part of the common route, well that is rather heavily based on the later part of the first season of the anime since it covers the release of fairies story 3, it does a decent job mixing the suituations with a few choices to keep it from not feeling completely the same. The character routes were in my opinion rather good. All of the different routes has a completely different story and all manages to do a good job at handling the characters and making interesting interactions between them. As for the stories themselves none of them are really that deep, instead just telling smaller stories. Some of them focused mainly on comedy and some of them focused a bit more on something a character was worrying about though all of them fit right in with things I would expect from New Game like keeping itself energetic and fun. As for the end of each route I would advice anyone who wants to read it to not expect much, the routes end with the vacation ending and either a short nice scene between the characters or with them being back to working again. There is also an extra ending at the end which is based on the stats you got during the common route where I think you need 225+ or 230+ with different stats to get the different endings. These extra endings are rather short and pretty much just tells what Aoba end up doing after some time, things like for some reason becoming a programmer or game director, I personally just treat these as some nice what if scenarios with nice artwork attached. In conclusion New Game! The Challenge Stage! is a good New Game VN that manages to capture the characters and the feels showed in the anime. The common route has some rather annoying gameplay mechanics that seems unnecessary and otherwise have short but still fun scenes between the characters when they are working. The character routes are all smaller stories without much impact but does a good job at being entertaining which I think is what their aim should be.

You mean something like this? (you can move around the boxes separately) Or like this? https://vndb.org/v3900 (you cant move them but have both of them at the same time) There are many vns that uses the second method (all of them old vns), but I've seen only very few ones using the first one.

It missed the "We need to fuck an internet browser" trend.

There are a lot of people that are going to be blown away when they realize someone actually finished the project. I was surprised to find this after all this time, feels like I have been hoping for it for like 10 years. You guys can do it. Good luck!

So this post is going to be about Maison Ikkoku which is an ancient anime 96 episodes long that I've finally finished. This is very old anime, and even if you have no interest in watching old school anime, I think it's important that anyone who's watched a romantic comedy of any sort in anime form should know about this. ANN Link: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=376 MAL link: http://myanimelist.net/anime/1453/Maison_Ikkoku As you can see from the links above, this is a very high rating show, and in fact the most common rating (the mode) in ANN is 10/10 which is a spectacular rating. This show dates back to a bygone era of anime, dating 1986-1988 and is a landmark show that pretty much defined the whole romantic comedy genre as we know it today in manga, anime and light novel form. This is the show you need to be grateful for, and curse, for everything there is you like and hate in today's romantic comedies. It inspired other classics such as Love Hina where the manga author clearly gives a nod to the show in both reproducing some of its original opening ideas, and using names from Maison Ikkoku in his works (such as Negima.) The story involves a college failure lodger falling in love with the lodge manager, 2 years his senior, who is actually a widow. From the outset, this is a LONG show. It comes from an era where there was very little rush in telling a story, the anime series were planned way in advance and lasted for many seasons. A far cry from today's shows which may come from spectacular original sources (light novels, manga, VNs) and yet only get funding for one season, lasting 12 episodes and doing a terrible job of conveying the original source material. It takes the time to set scenes, draw backdrops, show characters simply walking and pondering in thought at times. It also spans 5 years in story line from start to finish, allowing a generous amount of character development, maturity and meaningful relationship resolution. What this also means is that by today's sensibilities, this show is SLOW. I was 16 when this show first aired and I can tell you now, if it was available at the time I would have been religiously glued to the screen for 3 years watching this show without feeling it was slow in any way shape or form. However with what we're used to today, it is actually difficult to watch a show at this pace for this many episodes and not feel it's a waste of time. The artform has changed an awful lot. That said, it was an investment for me that I'd been meaning to do for over a decade because I knew how important it was in anime history. The animation quality is very good for its time, with bluray releases that are higher resolution than the TV broadcast and consistent right to the end. The music is decent for its era but nothing special. What you get as a basic plot in this show is the classic post high school failing to get into college that falls in love with a woman, lives in a lodge shared with lots of other unique characters, ridiculous high jinx all leading to an obvious, if extremely drawn out, happy ending. This is the show that started all the tropes we've come to love and hate. Hesitation when speaking, inconvenient interruptions, dogs jumping in at inopportune moments, trains passing to make critical words inaudible, payphones running out of money at the wrong time, people abruptly finishing a discussion before the other person gets to answer/finish what they're saying, walking in on people bathing at the wrong time, missed opportunities for sickness, failing to make appointments or meet deadlines conveniently for story purposes, love rivals, complicated love polygons, arranged marriage, beach episodes, onsen episodes, blackmail, big friendly dogs, butt monkeys, knowledgeable barkeepers, first name basis issues, fanservice, ojou-samas, high school crushes, tutors... even a zettai ryouiki and so on. You name it, almost every trope is executed in this story. The difference here is that a lot of this stuff had never actually been in a romance before and was introduced by the manga and anime that this belongs to. Now having said that this show invented a lot of the tropes, that doesn't mean that it's perfect in its execution of them. Some jokes fall flat, the repeated tropes get irritating, and the pace of execution of them often becomes problematic for a modern day viewer. This is a show where the relationship tensions introduced by misunderstandings are innumerable. There is no end to the how often a miscommunication or misunderstanding will lead to a plot device in its own right, and if you watch it thinking you'll get relief from it at some stage, you need to be seriously patient as these don't stop happening till almost the end of the monster. They're frustrating in the extreme and get tiring after so many episodes. That said, the nice part is that the love rival is also not immune from these issues and these jokes actually work extremely well. Additionally, there is no doubt that the more frustration you feel during a story, the more satisfying the resolution to the story will be, and this is absolutely true here. At least the misunderstandings generally didn't last more than 2 episodes at most, usually less. Primarily this is a comedy, and to be honest I didn't find myself laughing in every episode. There are long stretches where I watched, intrigued by the story, or compelled to get towards the end, and every few episodes I would have a right royal belly laugh when things were funny to me. It was never a show that made me "sleepy at night" because of the tension that would always be implied, and many episodes the whole romance component would be put aside for character building - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having said that, I was not really "glued" to it, finding a lot of it mundane and really not that amusing till much later on, by which time I'd fallen in love with (most of) the characters. What is great about this show is the character development of the main characters. The protagonist actually starts out quite a loser and you feel sorry for him only at the start, but as time goes on he evolves into a much more amicable character and you can't help but root for him, hoping (knowing) he ends up with his one-sided love. The other characters too evolve in not necessarily expected ways and new characters are introduced until almost 3/4 of the way through the entire series, yet they work well since they get fleshed out and 1/4 of 96 episodes is still a heck of a lot. This, unfortunately, brings me to the lowest point of this series. Not all characters develop. There are 3 main characters that play the other tenants in Maison Ikkoku who are a major feature of the story, and, to put it bluntly, are a bunch of fucking annoying morons. They spend their entire time annoying, blackmailing, stealing, siphoning, interrupting, getting drunk and generally pissing off the main character and the audience. While this may have been funny 30 years ago when this anime first came out, it's plain shit now, and it's bad enough at the start of the series, yet it lasts right to the end of the story with virtually zero character development on their part. Sure they occasionally accidentally or otherwise help forward the story, but not enough to redeem how unrealistically annoying these lowlifes are. No sane person would put up with what they do to the protagonist. It's strange because the review at nihonreview gave character development in this series a glowing review but fails to mention these three characters in the light I saw them http://www.nihonreview.com/anime/maison-ikkoku/ (they gave it 9/10.) An interesting point I noticed was the fanservice. One of the females in the series wears a see-through negligee through most of the series. Right from the very 1st episode you get nipple fanservice of her, which is a rarity in today's anime, especially one of this genre, though it's hardly arousing in such old school animation. This wasn't so much the interesting part as the fact that from the second season (after episode 24), her transparent negligee magically became opaque. Presumably at the time they decided it was too risqué for the target audience and toned it down (a bit late.) The pace of this show is problematic by today's standards. Modern shows have 300-400 lines if dialogue. This has more like 200-250, which doesn't sound like much less, but it is when you've gotten used to high pace shows and for example something like No Game No Life wouldn't have lasted 12 episodes in this sort of series, but more like 50. I didn't mind it that much, but I have to admit I found a little workaround. Since I playback my videos with mpv (on linux) which can speed up playback without pitch change, I sped it up 10% to 1.1 speed and suddenly found it much more in tune with what I'd expect. So there is one thing I have to mention on its own, and that's the ending. I freely admit to the fact I started watching this show because I knew it had a very happy ending. One thing about a 96 episode series that spans 5 years, unlike a modern romance anime of 12 episodes that spans maybe 3 months and ends with a confession 30 seconds before the final credits is that they had time to conclude this story slowly and completely. It's fair to say that the ending spans more than one episode (I won't say how many in the unlikely event someone watches this) and leaves absolutely no loose end. It completes every single storyline of every character we meet, and has the most satisfying and touching endings ever. I spent the last half of the last episode in tears and moments in previous episodes similarly. The ending was truly beautiful and I did not feel disappointed after having sat through 96 episodes. This show has THE absolute reference for happy endings. Rating this show for me is hard because of its inconsistencies by today's standards. If I'd watched it 30 years ago I'd have given it a 10/10. But with the slow parts hovering around a 6/10, the good parts an 8/10 and the ending an absolutely solid 10/10, I have to balance things out and say it's an 8/10. If you're patient, up for a very old school anime, and have plenty of time and love romance and want to see how the current artform came to be I'd highly recommend it.

Sigh.