Fred the Barber

Favorite character? I oddly haven't thought about it before, but one character immediately leaps to mind: - Usually very strong, but rarely very emotionally fragile - a tsundere that actually ends up paired with the main character - a tiny bit twisted - moe moe

Here comes a new challenger!

I absolutely adored Nodame Cantabile - it seems to me to be really underappreciated. That said, a decision among those choices is probably going to depend most on what you're in the mood for. ef is great, but it's kind of a downer. The first half of Spice and Wolf Season 2 is truly fantastic, but most of the show is merely "good", with Season 1 starting off rather slow. Nodame Cantabile is very light, is a great rom-com, with a really compelling plot, and it contains that rarest of creatures: the male tsundere.

Nearing the end (I think) of the Unlimited Bladeworks route in Fate/Stay Night. I gotta admit, this VN is ridiculously compelling.

Sekai Project talked to this WRT Key, a little bit. Although it doesn't answer how they got Planetarian in the first place, they directly credit the success of Planetarian with their ability to license Clannad. The "success" there comes in two forms that they explicitly talked about (and interestingly did not include any mention of sales): - Positive reaction from fans fed to Sekai Project, which they passed on to Key - Positive reaction from fans directly to Key On the second one, they told an interesting story. Some folks from Key showed up for an anime convention in the US (I missed exactly which one) and were promptly swarmed by people asking about, of all things, Planetarian. They were apparently floored: Planetarian, to them, was old. They weren't prepared to talk about it at all, and they found themselves surrounded by enthusiastic Planetarian fans talking at them. It seems like that was a wake-up call for those folks from Key, and Sekai Project is what made it happen. So, with that background, that kind of gives a good picture of what needs to happen for the English releases of both Clannad and Grisaia to be viewed as successful by Key and Frontwing, and for us English speakers to get more chances like this: they need to get a similarly huge fan response. Of course sales numbers are important, but it sounds like that personal touch is probably going to be more important. So, when it comes time, get out there and give positive reviews; send emails filled with effusive praise; when it comes out in the very near future, declaim your love for the English-translated Grisaia to Sekai Project and directly to Frontwing (you know, assuming you actually like it ). This could be a great opportunity for all of us to help the English VN translation industry pick up momentum.

True. ... is that actually something someone might not have done? If I'm asking that question, does it mean I'm old or weird or something? I suppose I've mostly looked up words in foreign language-to-English dictionaries, if it makes a difference, but I also infrequently looked up English words in a (real, made-of-dead-trees) English dictionary when I was a kid. Next person either has already played Nekopara or plans to play it soon.

Just got back from the Sekai Project panel at Sakura-Con (well... and the VN novel panel that ran for a couple hours afterwards), and thought I'd dump my notes here (although it seems I'm much too slow to beat Anime News Network's summary... oh well) New game announcements: - November Boy is a Boys Love VN about a stalker. Not really my thing, but maybe it's yours. They're claiming it's a really compelling story, so I guess there's that. - I'm not really sure how this counts as an announcement, since they have had it out on Early Access on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/340730/) for a while apparently, but they "announced" Sunrider Academy. It's the sequel of Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, which Sekai Project published last July, but unlike the first game, the sequel is a full-on dating sim. - Machina of the Planet Tree -Planet Ruler- is a JRPG. Apparently they are already in the editing phase. Didn't get a lot of details about the gameplay. Watch their Twitter and Facebook for further details on this one. It's interesting to see the variety here, since I at least had the impression that most of their credits were straight-up visual novels or kinetic novels, up to this point. Other interesting random announcement: - They're bringing Isuna Hasekura of Spice and Wolf fame to Anime Expo (utilizing the World End Economica connection). Kinda cool. They only gave vague assurances otherwise about in-progress projects: - WEE Episode 2 is coming "really really soon". - Fault Milestone 2 is coming out in Q3 of 2015. I hadn't even heard of this series before (apparently it's basically a doujinshi?), but they were praising it to the roof, so I might have to give it a try... - WAS is still in progress because of the work being done on the extra scenario that was funded as part of the Kickstarter (apparently it is quite substantial). Nothing even remotely approaching a release date was given, though I did separately get assurances from them that there will at least be a Kickstarter announcement coming soon. - Clannad is "still on target" - Fruit of Grisaia will be out "by the end of this month" - Ame no Marginal is coming out "in a bit". Still in translation. Memorable quotation of the panel: when trying to describe Sakura Spirit, the Sekai Project dude's preferred epithet was "geometrically-gifted".

False, I think, though I have trouble remembering even as far back as high school at this point. Next person attended The Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too, or at least knows about it.

Harry Potter was a bad example on my part, being actually pretty well-written. However, there are ample examples of ridiculously high-selling but objectively not well-written Young Adult books that can be pointed at in its place. I haven't read any of these myself (so, yes, this is unfair; but I'm not a book critic, and my time is precious to me...), so I'm obviously just quoting others' opinion, but: Twilight. The Hunger Games. More recently, Divergence. From all the accounts I've heard, these are not well-written, not deep, not meaningful. And, by the way, that's fine - they're still enjoyable for a whole lot of people. I simply think it's doubtful that everything on this list is so far better-written than hypothetical translations of everything on this list that those hypothetical translations wouldn't even be monetarily viable in the US. If I'm right, there's probably a great deal of money to be made by translating the latter into English and by doing the necessary work to pitch them to the same market that's consuming young adult fiction, rather than to the pathetically small light novel market.

True, but only in certain circumstances, like when I'm writing a speeding ticket. Next person has never been to a con.

Confession: I'm pretty sure I just irrevocably destroyed all my Rewrite save data while testing out installing the game from discs + patch before lending it to a friend.

Got answers for everything so far; keep suggestions and questions coming, and I'll keep relaying He hinted there will be some news about this at their Sakura-con panel tomorrow night, and promised that there will be a Kickstarter update very soon. Got a kind of boring, but understandable, answer: they don't know yet because none of their games that were initially funded through Kickstarter has yet been released (note that though there was a WEE Kickstarter, that was only episodes 2 and 3; 1 was funded through Steam Greenlight, IIRC). This one got a very interesting response: "That's entirely up to Key". My interpretation was that they're already very interested and probably even already voiced their interest to Key, and the ball's in Key's court.

Also: keep questions/comments/feedback coming, and I'll keep taking it to them. Sekai Project is also doing a panel presentation Saturday night, so I'll post it to Fuwa if they announce anything interesting there.

Thanks, guys - I doubt they'll say anything other than "it's a possibility" on the Angel Beats! question, but I'll ask it.

8/10. Nice, but... a little bit creepy.

3. a hand-made band-aid

I'm at Sakura-Con this weekend, and there are 3 Sekai Project people manning a booth. They seem to get about 1 person walking by every 15 minutes, and mostly seem bored and chat amongst themselves, so I've been keeping them company / pestering them. I learned two interesting things so far: - They're planning to release the World End Economica OST, eventually, but can't yet because they're still waiting on the assets (unlike the VN release, where they're just behind on translation). It seems they're planning both physical media and a Steam release. When I asked where they'd sell the physical media, the response was (paraphrased): "Well, at Cons. And we're planning on making our own online store, eventually. Or maybe through Amazon." Clearly not a settled topic, but at least it's on their radar. - They're very tentatively looking at getting into licensing and translating Light Novels. They are very eager for feedback on what to do next, both regarding which VNs to license next, and whether there's sufficient interest in Light Novels to try going down that road (and, if so, which ones, presumably). I honestly think light novels are the best area for potential expansion for a company like them. The potential market for LNs is waaaaay larger than the market for VNs, yet the only person playing in that market at all right now is Yen Press. While Yen Press does seem to be slowly expanding their licensing list, it doesn't seem like they're really trying to sell anything outside of the otaku niche, which I think is a huge lost opportunity. I don't think there's anything (except maybe ecchi content...) preventing light novels from really taking off in the US. Moreover, Sekai Project is now picking up the necessary connections to license this kind of stuff; as an example they cited, Isuna Hasekura is apparently working on a LN version of World End Economica. The Sekai Project guys are clearly thinking this would be a great opportunity for them to get into that market. Anyway, the point is, if you're got suggestions, random questions, etc., for Sekai Project but didn't feel like going to them directly for any reason, I've got their ear right now and will happily play messenger.

False. I do usually claim to be lucky, but actually random things like dice just demonstrate that there's no such thing as luck. Next person mostly relies on simple tricks and nonsense.

had learned while

I finished up Atelier Ayesha today. It was a total blast from start to finish. It took me a long time to figure out all the intricacies of the game, especially all the ins and outs of synthesis, but I think I have it all down now, and am really looking forward to doing a New Game+, especially because I will know how to be much more careful with my time (and I will start with most of the items that reduce time consumption). I want to try to beat more of the really ridiculous optional bosses in this playthrough, which isn't something I often feel motivated enough to do in RPGs. That said, the way the game ended was a pretty weird experience for me. I finished the last fight ~4 months before the deadline, but the game let me keep wandering around afterwards, and even unlocked a new playable character and a bunch of new side-quests, without giving me any clear indication of when things would be over (aside from the "I'd say she has about 3 years..." comment early in the game, which I figured was probably my deadline, but which was definitely not crystal clear). When the appointed day came, I had kind of ignored it and was wandering across the map, and the game just dropped me into a loading screen, and then started the "choose your ending" cutscene. Rather jarring. I'm pretty unhappy with the New Game+ implementation, though. I hate it when games give me some but not all of my stuff in New Game+, because then I'm obligated to go optimize everything right before the ending so I can get the most advantageous start possible. Since they give me money but not items, if they did something nice like converted all my items to money, I guess it'd be ok... but instead I have to do that myself. I also felt like I had to go back and finish whatever panels I could in the ~4 days remaining, since all progress towards them was lost (though unlocked panels stayed unlocked), and I felt I had to go set up specific gear for all my teammates so I could carry over as much good stuff as possible (assuming that works, and it's not just Ayesha's gear that carries over). All in all, it probably took me about an hour of prep work just so I could start a New Game+. Ugh. That negativity aside, I want to reiterate that I really, really enjoyed Atelier Ayesha. Fairly trivial concerns like the above are really all I have to gripe about. Vastly outweighing those: - The massive, convoluted crafting system is nirvana for a detail-oriented person like me, and it actually rewards that attention to detail - Art and animation are both fantastic - Music is solid, though somewhat unremarkable - The world is populated with super-cute girls - Neither the story nor the combat was particularly deep, but both were good enough to carry me through the game and let me get the most out of the above positive points. I'm looking forward both to enjoying my New Game+ and to playing more of the series!

Yep, April 1st year 3, the game just... ended. It actually let me continue to that point. Kinda weird, but a great game. I'll probably play New Game+ for a while, trying to unlock all the panels and find/make badass stuff, now that I actually understand how the crafting system all works. After I get bored of that (realistically, I'm not going to finish it), I dunno... either Escha and Logy Plus, or Rorona Plus, I guess. I'm worried if I do Escha and Logy next, I'll finish it and be annoyed at there not being a Vita version of Shallie. I'll post more detailed thoughts on the game (and especially the weird way of doing the ending...) over in the Atelier thread.

I missed this thread the first time around, and then was appalled when I had to scroll more than a page before finding the right answer

Yeah, it's entirely possible that the expectation difference accounts for the different Chunibyo experience. WRT not watching Working!! season 2 yet: - I'm not being a coward, just savoring the anticipation - I'm also saving it for a time when I've just finished a bad show and need a reliable pick-me-up - It wouldn't really be finishing it anyway, because Season 3 is coming starting in July!

Wasn't that avatar only supposed to be for March / 10

Baby now / 10 And, no, of course I didn't change my avatar just so I could post in this thread and find the person daring enough to say "too small". No, I did not.