Plk_Lesiak

Ace Academy have some light, amusing romance with all the drama coming from protagonist's family story/secrets - it's great if you're aiming for something a bit shorter and somewhat-cheerful. It's super-tame though, maybe beyond reasonable levels with a college-age cast.

I've only now checked what that picture was about... It's so creepy... But... I... WHY CAN'T I STOP WATCHING??? Edit: After a few, shameful hours of checking out these anime YouTubers I have to say that I quite dig Mirai Akari Project, there's some really decent humour in there, while the girl voicing Akari has some genuine charisma and even seems to be a reasonably good let's player - by that I mean, someone putting some actual effort and even being half-decent with the games, apart from trying to entertain the audience (and her reactions feel genuine enough that it's probably her playing, not just talking over pre-recorded footage - or she's a really good actress). I wonder if there's any way to find out who's the VA?

That's the quote of the month, period. I'm more amazed at it being translated though. That Dekiru Translations guy know his priorities well.

Venting like this always helps me a bit. And well, I don't deal with actual depression (a lot of anxiety though), but the especially gloomy aura in Dectember hit me hard, I can only imagine how even more soulwrenching it can be across the sea, with even shorten days and more of that gray, snowy weather...

Aye, but I don't think it's a pinnacle of ecchi anime either and there's an awful lot of those "10/10, best if its kind" reviews. I can somewhat understand that in regards to the first season, it was something a bit different and genuinely funny, but after that it was mostly pure gibberish with characters and story devolving rather than being developed. ;p That Houseki no Kuni anime, it flew completely below my radar too. Reviews make it look phenomenal though.

Last weekend I was feeling pretty down and looked for someone completely mindless to relax with. So I've started watching Trinity Seven and man, what a surprise this turned out to be. I don't even like harems, but the protagonist nullified pretty much all the issues I usually have with the format - he's driven, rather intelligent and above all enjoys the hell out of the situation he ended up in, while never taking advantage of the girls or being an actual creep. The show uses the whole ecchi formula with a lot humour and lightheartedness, doing something similar to Highschool DxD, but much more tasteful and coherent in its storytelling. I like positive surprises. :3 EDIT: BTW, an I the only one thinking that Highschool DxD is heavily overrated?

Hope you'll enjoy them. :3 In March I'll put a few more yuri-themed posts (I read more Shoujo-Ai than anything else really, so they pretty much have to show up a lot), but for now I want to work on that Otome Month thing I previously planned for January. Syrup is also great if you look for something to cheer you up - that basically goes to most things Nami does, I'm working on a separate post about her work, although if I don't change my schedule it will show up somewhere in late March.

Hello Ladies & Gentlemen! The western visual novel market, unlike the high-budget JP scene, thrives mostly through amateur passion projects and products of small, indie development teams. While this causes most of the Western VNs to be of relatively poor quality, it also promotes creativity and good stylization over huge word-counts and high production values, which are simply unattainable with highly limited budgets and manpower. This philosophy is further supported by various events oriented towards indie developers, such as NaNoRenO and Yuri Game jam – and while most games produced there might be extremely simple and rather forgettable, there are important exceptions to this rule. And, what’s probably worth mentioning, the rare, memorable games coming from these contests are still just as free as all the other ones. Today, I’m presenting you a list of top 5 Yuri Game Jam VNs – although short and often minimalistic, these games will provide you with enjoyable and creative f/f romance stories, without asking for anything more than a few hours of your time (you can download each game for free through the links in the titles). The Sad story of Emmeline Burns The Victorian drama by Ebi-Hime is the best know and probably most-appreciated Yuri Game Jam entry - and not without good reasons. While short and, as a kinetic novel, following a purely linear formula, this tragic story offers excellent writing, emotionally impactful storytelling and a great aesthetic, all way above the level you would normally see in a contest like this. It also doesn't rely on shock value or leave the reader with a depressing conclusion - with all the titular sadness still in place, it's a hopeful, touching story of love cut short by fate and a great reading experience - one which might have yuri romance as its main theme, but offers much more than just that. Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet While extremely sweet when it goes to artstyle and even the main theme (candy), Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet by Nami is a wonderful short story about prejudice and friendship, that delivers much more than its cutesy exterior might suggest. With well-written dialogues, charming atmosphere and cast of quirky characters it’s a great casual experience – in many ways a polar opposite of The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns, but equally worth reading. Also, with romance being implied rather than in any way explicit, it can appeal to anyone looking for a funny, warm story, rather than just fans of the genre. Once on a windswept night Once on a Windswept Night is most likely the most ambitious Yuri Game Jam VN, with an intricate meta-narrative and multiple mysteries for the player to uncover. With two touching romance stories, multiple hours of content and very solid writing, it delivers much more than you would normally expect from a free game. The visual side of things suffered slightly from the relatively short development cycle, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a very creative and in many ways unique experience and, for a game jam entry, an impressive artistic achievement, in many ways on par with Ebi-Hime's commercial projects. First Kiss at Spooky Soiree While not as interesting and brilliantly-written as Syrup…, this tiny VN has a lot of the same charming artstyle and heart-warming mood as the previous Yuri Game Jam game by Nami. Even if it’s too short to offer a comprehensive story of any kind, it works great as an amusing distraction between “serious” readings, with some great lines and creatively-designed characters. Closer to what you would typically expect from a game jam entry, it’s still a pleasant, worthwhile experience. To Libertad This story of a runaway slave and a warrior who saves her life and leads her to a safe haven of Libertad is a pretty standard, but well-written fantasy tale with mild f/f romance added on top of it. The author’s focus on the main characters’ journey and fight for survival, and the bond that forms between them during that struggle effected in something rather universal, that should prove appealing not only for fans of yuri VNs or love stories, but anyone looking for a solid, short adventure tale. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again, I hope you’ve found this list interesting and if you want to see more recommendations for short VNs, that are too small to offer material for full reviews, but are still worth looking into, please let me know by liking this post or sharing your thoughts in the comment section below (as YouTube'y as this might sound, I'll be really thankful for feedback). Have a great week everyone!

*Warning, minor spoilers, kind of?* I've watched some let's plays of DDLC and it made me respect that game even more. There was quite a few things I've missed on my own playthrough, including giving proper attention to this song: Maybe I was too tired when I finished DDLC to fully feel this song's impact (it was basically a middle of the night), but it definitely got me when I've heard it today.

Literally. And Herpes. And Syphilis... (etc., etc).

Well, I think it's less about what's possible (I mean, nearly everything is that doesn't involve straight-up magic or super-contrived sci-fi), but how things actually look IRL. Typical multi-route VNs rely on some very specific fantasies of accessibility (every girl's a virgin!) and love that will always bloom between two people after a fixed number of positive interactions and won't turn out to be a huge mistake or a momentary infatuation. From this point of view, VNs don't try to be realistic - they usually try to portray a compelling, believable story, but offer a certain utopia (or even dystopia, in case of darker titles) that's meant to stimulate the reader rather than say something about our reality or stay true to it. The counter-examples, such as Narcissu, are definitely less numerable - and "serious" romance stories maybe even rarer. That's how I see it at least.

Well, the kind of problems I sometimes have with using proper grammar, spelling of various English and Polish words, my slow reading and poor visual memory, mixing left left and right side (this one weirds people out) all match typical lists of symptoms (those lists are pretty expansive BTW, so it's not completely unreasonable to think dyslexia is a kind of catch-all term for various learning deficiencies). Kanji mostly take me a lot of time to learn honestly, but I still make mistakes with hiragana and katakana, for example switching symbols in weird situations where it really shouldn't happen at this point (also pretty typical). Certain parts of English orthography are completely beyond me, no matter how many times I go through them, but that's obviously present in writing, my reading and hearing comprehension are generally ok, both in English and the very limited Japanese that I know. :] It's very hard to compare kanji and English orthography, because in English I'm obviously using the same phonetic alphabet as in Polish. And definitely, being able to take your time and finding your own motivation to learn is pretty much everything in my case. I've had German classes for 6 years in middle and high school and I honestly don't know any of it, I just hated being forced to learn it and never used it anywhere, Japanese I've picked up for fun and it's a completely different experience, even though it goes slooooow... :]

This actually explains a lot! I'm dyslectic, my ortography is horrible in every language I use and I often struggle with grammar, even though I spend decent part of every day reading, including academic texts, and writing (both in Polish and English). I also have very poor visual memory (those kanji...). Relatively low English vocabulary definitely also comes from my lack of dedication in earlier years of learning and little interest in fiction literature or poetry, but in general there are important factors that can influence how hard it is for you to learn and how fast you make progress. Obviously, hard, systematic work is always the prime component of success and learning new languages definitely is fun (I have a lot of joy learning Japanese now...). But its really not the same experience for everyone. :>

Yeah, no surprises here...

I've actually got the exact same result as Mr Poltroon: http://testyourvocab.com/result?user=9512217 It's been literally a decade since I've last attended any kind of English class, but I simply watch, read and write stuff in English everyday, so it had to be on decent level at this point. If only I was able to put that "rich vocabulary" into practice, that would be awesome. It somehow doesn' t work that way though. I generally have very little talent for learning languages and only got this far by sheer length and intensity of using English in my studies and hobbies.

I wrote Aoishiro and Akai Ito in there and generally asked for more yuri and all-ages otome... I know so little on how the market works that probably there's 20 different reasons why these suggestions made no sense/can't happen. ;p Wrote those two on the Sol Press survey too btw, hope dies last.

I've heard about it, but you made a good point about how it shows the communities frustration with publishers especially well. At this point any thought/suggestion is useful btw, I didn't even start making notes and it will be a challenge to go through all this material available around here and try making sense of it on my own. Obviously, my goal is to pinpoint some tendencies and changes over the years, not just describe how it looks now, so the more examples and people's experiences I gather the bigger chance I'll be able to show some interesting patterns and dynamics.

H-h-h-h-hello there! I've mentioned once or twice in the past that I'm a PhD student - I actually specialize in fan and popcultural studies. There's a pretty neat cultural/new media conference coming in month and a half and I was thinking about preparing a paper on VN fan translations - as it's a pretty close deadline, I would have to hurry quite a bit when collecting data (and especially preparing the abstract to send in first), so while I would normally try to take it slow and don't ask for such favours, I wondered if some of you guys could direct me to interesting cases and information sources on FTLs, which can't be easily found on the forums (which, most likely, still be my main source for the initial presentation and the post-conference paper, I hope to later expand the study into something more serious and publish it in English). There's literally no papers on VNs and only one, fairly old book that focuses on completely different things that FTLs and localization, so I really have to rely on whatever I can find online (and, in later stage, most likely on interviews, but that also depends on whether the initial project leads me anywhere). I'm especially looking for: 1. Blogs and articles on VN FTLs, especially on its history and relationship with the developers/publishers 2. Cases of FTLs being used to create official Western releases of VNs 3. Cases of FTL projects being effectively blocked by the developers/publishers 4. Cases of aggressive attempts at blocking FLT projects that failed miserably (I mean, the attempts, not the projects) 5. Notable VN fan translators that got hired by the industry/went professional as freelance translators I'll be very thankful for any leads and even general thought on each of these topics.

If you enjoy yuri I would suggest going for Highway Blossoms. Another recommendation would be Analogue, both are fairly short but extremely good games.

Hello there! I guess it's a good moment to come back to VNs, there's a lot to choose from nowadays (that is, for non-Japanese-speaking plebians like myself, who don't have pretty much unlimited library of JP releases available to them). Hope you'll have fun posting again!

Those certificates are issued by a different institution.

@Kurisu-Chan @Zidan209 Enjoy!

Oh god, this is going to be a busy evening...

I guess you qualify too

Congrats, man! Have a diploma for your achievement