Dreamysyu

Hey folks! So, for those of you who don't know, I am currently studying abroad in Japan, and will be here for the next 5 months. It's something I have been looking forward to for a while, though moving to a foreign country, especially one as different as Japan, is quite a tough transition. I'll be writing some stuff about my trip here in my blog now and then, talking about how things are going, what I have been up to and stuff like that. Today I'll be writing a bit about the first few weeks here, and the things that has been tough to deal with for me.
(I have currently lived in Japan for about 2 weeks)
So, I have heard people talk about "culture shock" when coming to a country like Japan. I figured I wouldn't really experience that, because I knew so much about the culture beforehand. Well, I was wrong. That didn't help.
Japan is... different. I mean, I love it here, but man... everything is so different from what I'm used to, it has gotten to me for sure.
People here honestly look like robots to me. In Japan it isn't really normal to speak much in public at all. You are meant to be quiet to respect those around you. They also stand in nearly flawless lines on the subway/ train platforms, at restaurants, stores and so on. They stay at work and school until late at night, and you mostly see students studying, even at lunch time. They are incredibly diligent, almost to a scary degree tbh. Everyone picks up their own trash, and you won't find a single shred of garbage lying around anywhere. There is no noise like loud music or anything of the sort anywhere, (except for actual clubs and stuff like that, of course.) The buses and trains runs like clockwork, leaving and arriving exactly when they are supposed to, and the trains are filled with people sleeping, worn-out from long days at work/ school/ club practice.
It's like this country is literally run by robot overlords or something.
Honestly, it's a bit overwhelming. There are so many things you need to keep in mind. Don't do this, don't do that, make sure you remember this, never forget that, bla bla. From where to stand in an escalator to your body language when speaking to people, what forms to use when speaking to others in different social standings... My head hurts from trying to remember half of it.
Another thing that really hit me hard is the food. I love Japanese food, but eating it 4 times a day 7 days a week has taken a toll on me. I honestly just can't get the food down even if it tastes good, especially in the mornings. So, I have started looking for western styled restaurants and shops, and found a few, luckily. It's strange, but there is a certain... joint taste to all food in Japan. It's hard to explain it, but there is just a certain "something" to all of it. Without mixing a bit of western food here and there, I just don't have an appetite. It has been surprisingly difficult to adjust my body to eating Japanese food all the time. It will probably be a few more weeks, possibly even a month + before I get completely used to the food here. Until then I'll make some pretty frequent stops at western restaurants, to stop myself from starving, lol.
Ugh, and the climate. Holy crap, the humidity... please help, lol. The humidity here is constantly around 85-90%+, and with heat around 30 degrees C, it literally feels like you are walking around in an oven 24/7. You can't move an inch without getting sweaty. Go home and shower, then walk around outside for a mintue and you are already completely soaked. Not just sweaty, actually like, wet all over. You skin feels clammy from just being outside for a second.
And the bugs. They are some weird mutated monsters summoned from hell. Like, holy crap. Some of the wasps/ bees here are bigger than my finger, and the Cicadas and other bugs of that size look like they could literally eat me. There is also one huge ass spider living outside our apartments, and I am personally convinced he will some day grow large enough to take over Japan and rule as the new emperor. Luckily winter should be coming soon-ish, (heh,) so they should all die soon. As someone who is completely terrified of bugs, and who can't take too hot temperatures, I cannot wait for the winter. Please winter-san, just get here already!
 
Lastly, the university schedule really did a number on me. Today we were at school from 10:00 AM to 19:00 PM. In addition, each period is 90 minutes long, without breaks, and the classrooms are either way too hot or air conditioned too much, making them freezing. We will also have classes on saturdays, apparently. The club recruitment day is on Friday, and a lot of people are super excited about joining clubs, but all I can personally think about is: How on earth are you going to balance all this school work, and several hours of club practice each week? I'd die, lol. So yeah, I'll skip on the clubs, personally. They do have a few really fun looking clubs here though, like the TCG club, the cosplay club, the boardgame club, the English conversation club and so on.
The school festival is in a couple months. That will be awesome. Can't wait for that.
 
Anyways, this update has just been mostly about the stuff that overwhelmed me during my first 2 weeks here. I am getting used to them little by little, and there is of course tons and tons of good stuff that outweighs the bad. The next blog post I write will be much more positive

... Laplacian isn't a company I had any hopes for, after how much of a kusoge their first game, Kimi to Yumemishi was.  However, Newton to Ringo no Ki is a pleasant surprise, with a lot of nostalgia for people, like me, who were born in the mid to early eighties.
Why?  Because this is, in some ways, a tribute to the Back to the Future movies I watched as a kid.  While the time travel style is switched from a car to a telescope and there are a few minor differences (no vanishing protagonists), the idea is the same.  Time paradoxes exist, you can change the past, and you can never tell what will screw up the future.
This game has a true ending.  That probably won't surprise anyone, seeing how the game is all about Sir Isaac Newton, who is actually a pen-name for a twin-tailed loli named Alice.  Basically, the protagonist and his childhood friend, Yotsuko, accidentally go back to the past and screw up the moment when Newton normally would have gained inspiration for the final part of his theory of gravity.  The rest of the game is about fixing the damage they did to humanity's future by trying to arrange for Newton's work to be published regardless.
To be straight about it, all the other endings besides Newton's lead to failures for science, though the protagonist himself is happy in them.   I honestly enjoyed most of the game... but, similar to the previous game, it is poorly paced at times.  Also, Yuuji is not exactly an interesting perspective... he is the dumbest guy in the room throughout the game (which isn't hard, since everyone there is a scientist), which is depressing in and of itself at times.  These two elements definitely dragged the game down from where it might have been... and the true ending sort of put the final nail in the coffin, taking the game below the acceptable levels for a VN of the Month candidate. 
I did think Lavi's side-stories were hilarious though.

Since this one was released in English already, I'm pretty sure at least a good number of the members of this community have already sampled it.  However, this is also the last VN for this month (that isn't a nukige).  This has been a month full of short kinetic novels that are parts of a larger story... a setup that I normally dislike intensely.  Since this game is only a partial, it isn't actually a candidate for VN of the Month (VN of the Month's rules require that the release in question be a full game that stands on its own, which means individually-released chapters and fandiscs don't count). 
First, I will say that this game is significantly different from the original Grisaia series.  How is it different?  For one thing, all of the kids are, like Kazami Yuuji, individuals who are incapable of living a normal life for one reason or another.  For another, this game spends relatively little time in the protagonist's point of view, with the first chapter mostly being told from the teacher's point of view and the second chapter mostly being portrayed from the point of view of one or another of the girls.  Since this is an all-ages game, this works a lot better than it would with an eroge, where the protagonist's point of view is the one you use to judge the heroines. 
After the incidents in the original Grisaia trilogy, the agencies Yuuji worked for eventually chose to purchase and reuse Mihama Academy as an assassin and spy training school for kids who, for one reason or another, can't live in the outside world.  The story in this game is focused on A Class, which is made up of members of SORD (students who are already working for the organization).  The nominal protagonist of the story is Haruto, who, like Yuuji, was part of the organization since childhood (apparently from earlier on in life than Yuuji, though).  This guy is a bit more sane on the surface than Yuuji, and he is definitely better at dealing with people.  That said, he has his 'black' side, which tends to show at critical moments.  Unfortunately for him, he does retain the remnants of a human conscience, lol.
Volume 1
Volume 1 focuses mostly on the teacher, Arisaka Shiori, and her encounter with the killer girls in her class.  Shiori is a straight-out normal person, whose only black mark is a mother who is in prison (incidentally, this is sufficient reason for her to be refused employment at any other school).  She is also a bit cowardly on the surface, but she is definitely a hot-blooded teacher in the old style underneath.  That said, the class she is teaching is, quite naturally, a bit beyond what she expected.
In this volume, the writer uses Shiori's viewpoint to introduce you to the difference between the girls' viewpoints and that of the average Japanese person, while at the same time creating the conditions that lead to Shiori becoming the only truly normal person who deals with the girls and Haruto.  I have to give it to Fujisaki... he did an excellent job in this way, and the way he ended the chapter was excellent, in that it left me wanting more without giving me the voracious appetite that I experienced with Grisaia 2. 
Volume 2
This chapter focuses mostly on Rena and her issues.  Rena is a brainwashed assassin 'purchased' by Haruto at an auction for the specific purpose of making up for his inability to use guns.  She has no moral compunctions about killing, and when she is released from the restraints of normal life by Haruto's orders, she is pretty much a berserker, killing everything in her path.  The rest of the time, she is a big-eating girl who loves to ride motorcycles and clinging to Haruto. 
She is aware of her faults, but she is just a little too stupid to be able to fix them.  She is also insanely devoted to Haruto, even aside from the brainwashing that created the loyalty bond between them. 
This chapter deals heavily with Rena's past, which means some pretty nasty stuff that is just as bad - or worse- than Yuuji's, and so it isn't exactly for the faint of heart.  That said, it was an enjoyable read, and, like the first volume, while it leaves me hungry for more, it doesn't do that to excess (meaning I can wait for the next chapter with relative equanimity, though if this game goes beyond four chapters, I'll probably get murderous). 
 
Overall
If their goal was to catch my interest, Front Wing did an excellent job.  The first two chapters both stand alone to some extent, and there is no sense that they left you hanging.  For a game done in parts, this is about as good as it gets.
VN of the Month April 2017
There will be no VN of the Month for April 2017, due to a lack of viable candidates.

Recent events have compelled me to contemplate the Oxford comma to an even greater extent than usual, so let me share a story to convince you that, in addition to using the Oxford comma in writing, you should enunciate it in your speech.
I was getting pizza some time ago. But I must note that it was one of those pizza places where they make little quadrilateral pizzas for a single person ("single" having two meanings, probably). I normally wouldn't concede to the expenses associated with such a bourgeois establishment, but the meal is quite cheap when one orders a full-sized square pizza―probably because they aren't meant to be eaten in one sitting―and, most notably, the meal comes with a free side order.
As such, the cashier asked which side I would like, and I will transcribe this in such a manner as to accurately represent her enunciation: "You want bread chips or carrots?"
I cannot think of how to tell this anecdote without now giving away the catch, which the keenest among you may have already ascertained: The sentence was actually, "You want bread, chips, or carrots?"
But I am not the keenest among us, and the fact that there was no pause between the "chips" and "or" suggested, in my mind rightfully accustomed to the Oxford comma, that there were only two items: bread chips and carrots. I sought to confirm this, asking, "Bread chips?"
And she, wielding the apathy of an employee who unwittingly tempts the manager into automating all the cashiers, recited the items with the selfsame cadence or lack thereof―"Bread chips or carrots?"
This corroborated my confusion, and I thought to myself, I have no idea what bread chips are, but I know I don't want carrots. So I said, "BREAD CHIPS."
She replied, "Chips?" And then I might have said "BREAD CHIPS" again―I forget―but apparently I conceded to chips eventually, and went to await the production of my comestibles thereafter. Not even at this point had I come to realize the situation, as my friend labored for some time to explain it to me.
The Oxford comma was not the instigator in this story; it was a reluctant spectator, a single tear running down its cheek. I implore you to take this experience to heart.

I've been asked in the past many times, 'How can you replay VNs?' and 'Isn't that boring?'.  In fact, I get asked that a lot with my 'Random VNs' posts.  I thought I'd answer this question...
Replaying VNs is a matter of passion.  To be blunt, if it is in a genre I don't like or hits my pet peeves too hard, I can't bring myself to replay it.  The fact is, VN experiences don't change through multiple playthroughs, and in this way they are much closer to a book than to the interactivity of many games. 
Something I should make clear is that I am a story-lover above all other things.  I don't just mean that I love games, anime, and VNs for their stories... I mean that I'll do practically anything to experience a good, well-presented story.  Hell, I learned Japanese for that reason.
This is actually the reason why I have so much trouble with pure romance, mystery, and charage.  These three types of stories follow some of the most 'confined' story patterns in existence, with a very limited selection of story elements, and as a result they are far easier to predict than many fantasy, sci-fi, or even conspiracy-drama stories... at least for me.  This is particularly fatal for mysteries, since a lot of the attraction of the genre, at least to me (when I still liked them) was how much trouble figuring out 'whodunnit' or 'what is going on'. 
Now, I have become experienced enough that very little surprises me.  Particularly, in the last five years or so, this trend has become marked in my own subjective point of view when it comes to VNs.  The issue now is the subject matter... what do I enjoy enough to experience pleasure with on a second run?  The genres I can take pleasure in on a second playthrough are limited... almost entirely to the sci-fi, fantasy, and conspiracy genres.  Rare exceptions exist, but that is due to a sheer, overwhelming level of quality or due to a powerful emotional experience that doesn't fade quickly through multiple playthroughs (Uruwashi no is an example of this type). 
To be blunt, with most VNs, replaying them is impossible.  There are no new angles to explore, the feels no longer touch me, and I honestly have no interest in re-experiencing slice of life scenes, lol.
So, it comes down, as I said above, to taste.  I can replay VNs i love multiple times.  However, I will never be able to replay say... Subahibi or Aiyoku no Eustia.