Clephas

Mondaiji-tachi- Interesting isekai fantasy that never got a second season, sadly. Maoyuu- This fantasy series is one of my all-time favorites. There are a number of reasons, from the stylistic choices, to the characters, and certain key points in the series that made me cry or proud of the characters. Considering that it is only twelve episodes long, it is stunning how much content made it in. Zettai Karen Children The Unlimited- Even if you didn't like the original series, this prequel/gaiden is awesome to watch. Great esper action with a much darker atmosphere than the original series.

Most memorable for me was Zetsuen no Tempest. The complicated relationships between the characters and the sheer drama and scale of the story made it an awesome read.

Kingdom- First steps of the journey of Qin Shi Huang and his future general. Generally speaking, good action, excellent story SAO- SAO's first season is considered to be the best for a reason... Dog Days- Child-oriented isekai sports. Oda Nobuna- Koihime Musou-style protagonist goes back to a point in history. Pretty standard issue stuff from a VN perspective, the only unusual part being that it is an anime. Campione- Ecchi-heavy fantasy in modern times Dakara ore wa H dekinai- Low-quality ecchi fantasy comedy. Hagure Yuusha- Heavy on the ecchi and action, story goes unfinished and unexplained. Similar to Ikki Tousen and Queen's Blade in that nudity occurs at random times for no particular reason.

High School DxD- Pretty famous ecchi anime series that even had several doujin eroge made about it. Has surprisingly good action for a harem-ecchi fantasy. Papa no Iukoto- Good anime about a guy who takes in his cousins after their parents die. Lots of emotional moments. Mouretsu Pirates- Rather incoherent science-fiction series based in a setting where space piracy has been normalized through a rather slapdash privateering system.

HunterxHunter (2011)- Great shounen series. Ironically, the animation quality is lower than the original series. Fate/Zero- Kvan, I know you have something against the Fate series, but if you can't recognize the sheer quality of ufotable's work on this, there is something wrong with you. Haganai- High quality rom-com. Guilty Crown- Weird fantasy series that has a lot of cool moments but is a bit incoherent overall. Shakugan no Shana III- The conclusion of the series with the best action so far. Downside is that it jumps over a large swathe of developments between the two seasons.

Dantalian- I actually helped fansub this one, and it is one of a very few anime I fansubbed that I didn't come to loathe. The concept is interesting and the characters are solid and well-developed. It is just unfortunate that it never got a second season. Itsuka Tenma- I actually liked this one quite a bit, though it definitely is one of those anime you will either hate or love. Unfortunately, like many fantasy series of this era, it never got a second season and didn't end at a good cut-off point. Kamisama no Memochou- This one was interesting... but it isn't to my tastes. Mysteries just don't do anything for me anymore.

Ao no Exorcist- Low quality, overrated fantasy series with an interesting concept that was poorly presented. Hidan no Aria- Low quality science fantasy ecchi with a Shana clone for a main heroine.

One place where AI tools will probably shine is in artwork. To be blunt, the only thing that stands out in AI-made games so far is the visual shine. If you just want visual perfection, nothing does it like an AI. On the other hand, if you want visual brilliance, it will probably be reliant on actual artists until the first AIs gain self-awareness and human independence vanishes forever, lol. Oh and AI-made games' writing is...terrifyingly bland and informative without showing any signs of creative flair whatsoever. You'd think that with all the examples of top-quality writing out there, the base quality would be at least slightly better, but it hovers around just below mediocre.

Never said it was bad, it is actually a gem. I just thought the H was - typical of a lot of that era's VNs - intrusive and excessive at times. I also tend to prefer VNs where the protagonist is the central role or at the very least equal with the heroine on all levels. While there are a few paths (in the fandisc and in the main game) where he is central, the one that is considered canon has him being basically a side-character. If I had to compare this game to another one, it would be Aokana, because Aokana was modeled after it in concept. This game is executed better though. Edit: I used to make wall of text posts about stuff like this, but I just don't have that kind of energy in me anymore.

Walkure Romanze is pretty good except for the H, which is a bit intrusive. Downside is that the protagonist is a bit too much of a side-character in many of the paths.

I've seen the AI-generated games that are popping up on DLsite, and I even played a few. My first thought after doing so was... boredom. They look beautiful and technically hit the fetish points of those trying to play them, but they somehow manage to be completely bland and soulless nonetheless.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka- Ridiculous comedy everyday fantasy with enough violence for it to be a Fate series but the atmosphere of FLCL. Freezing- ecchi apocalyptic fantasy that somehow manages to be interesting for the first half but gradually just trails off. Dragon Crisis- Setting and series had immense potential, but without a second season, there was no way for them to bring it to life. I was really fond of the idea of using relics to use magic-like abilities, as it had immense potential for a shounen-style fantasy action anime or a Fate-style dark fantasy action anime, lol

Translators are the ones paid by the word, symbols or lines. While there might be VN writers out there paid by the line, most of the time when someone hires a writer it is either based on time or by the project. The company either pays a by the hour salary for time spent in office on the project or a single lump sum to contract for the project. I have only been hired with a by word count on three occasions in the last twenty years, since it is usually a recipe for contract disputes on both sides.

His comment about plotge being too padded/long is the one I was referring to. Mindless SOL and repeated dating scenes are unnecessary fluff even in SOL games, because they often don't do anything for the character dynamics or character development, which is supposed to be the point. I tend to subconsciously ignore that type of VN now that I don't feel like I have to play them all the time. Generally speaking, even in a romance SOL VN, you only need one or at the most two dating scenes that don't lead into drama or the conflict of the path. However, some companies (Yuzusoft comes to mind) include way too many date scenes (not to mention interminably long h-scenes), resulting in a lot of unnecessary padding. To be blunt, it might sound counter-intuitive, but I often thought of dating as non-SOL content, because (unless the characters are married or the characters have had numerous lovers) dating is a deliberate departure from daily life, a low-level stress-test for romantic relationships because 'dating' has been so beautified in anime culture. Despite jokes about cutting Kasumi's path (a lot of fans make that joke), there is very little you could cut from Dies Irae without weakening it. Dies Irae is a detail-oriented VN in the sense that every detail has its place in the story, right down to the deliberately exaggerated personalities of the main characters on both sides of the conflict. Similarly, I can't see a reason to cut anything out of Muv-Luv Alternative (though Muv-luv itself could have done with a major trim). Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai and the other games by that company actually base their appeal an their extremely detailed romance from high school to full adulthood, developing the relationship and having numerous tribulations. In that sense, I give that company kudos, because it got them a solid fanbase. However, it doesn't appeal to the people who want 'quick in, quick out' SOL romances like Wagamama High Spec. Another thing that needs to be accounted for is reading speed. Even in English, there are people who simply don't read that quickly and those who read excessively fast. For me, completing an 800 page paperback novel in six hours is normal, but for most people that is the work of weeks of scattered reading or several days of concentrated reading. The disparity is inevitably going to lead to differing opinions and preferences for VN length and narration styles. Someone who takes ten minutes to read a page in a novel probably isn't going to like a narrated battle scene that goes on for the equivalent of forty pages. Whereas for me it is simply entertaining. Not to mention those VN fans who work full time aren't going to have enough free time to really enjoy a VN like Dies Irae even if they have an average or slightly above average reading speed. For someone like that, the wordiness of a game like Dies Irae isn't something to relish but something that eats into their free time more than they think is necessary. ... why am I defending my opponents? Stupid fairness brain...

To be honest, this isn't one of your better videos... Length preferences are entirely a matter of taste and most VNs are too short, not too long. A lot of VNs cut out stuff so that they have excuses to make fandiscs, after all. To some extent, I can agree that Hoshi Ori is too long, but for a certain crowd (who want to follow the romance until they are in the grave) it is an attractive game. Your comments on Dies Irae were malicious and excessive. It was like listening to a 4chan troll's rant. I also found it amusing you were comparing it to Fate/Stay Night, when the experiences are completely different except for the beginning. Instead of pointing out things that could have been cut out to shorten the game (which was supposedly the premise of the video), you immediately decided to bash it in general, which kinda defeats the point of including it in the first place.

Kuroshitsuji II- This sequel gives me very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I hated how it invalidated the ending of season 1's drama. On the other, the ending and leadup to it is awesome. Densetsu no Yuusha- Great berserk scenes, weak comedy, generally an interesting series and concept. Unfinished. Nuraryihon no Mago- Youkai lovers watch, other people not so much. Asobi ni Iku Yo- One of the best ecchi harem anime to have come out ever. Not just because of catgirls, lol.

DMM does this periodically, thoroughly blocking foreign IPs for months at a time, easing the restrictions for a while, then doing it again. Honestly, I dunno why they do it... I mean, all it does is cost them business. Edit: I do know that early on it was an attempt to disrupt the pirates, but most of the people who do the actual work of ripping VNs live in China (incidentally why so many pirated VNs have spyware and ransomware on them), Korea, Southeast Asia, or Japan... IP blocks don't help at all with the Japanese, and it barely slows the rest, since the ones ripping are hackers in the first place. It's a pretty pointless way of doing things.

Have you tried Textractor yet? You can get agth by downloading Translation Aggregator, as it comes attached to that program.

Fate/Grand Order is the name of the mobile game/visual novel/card battle game that has become synonymous with the Nasuverse over the last seven years or so. For those unfamiliar with the game, I'll go ahead and describe the flow of events that lead up to this particular chapter-turned-anime in the spoiler box below. In the game, Camelot is considered to be the first 'serious' chapter and the one with perhaps the deepest link to the other Fate/Stay Night series in spirit (considering the characters involved). The sheer level of scenario quality and artwork that went into the game version was completely different than what you saw in previous chapters, and it lacked the somewhat oddly humorous aspects that went into them. The anime, split into two movies, is easily one of the top-quality Fate-series anime I've seen, if only because it shows the main reason why a lot of people keep playing FGO, despite the game being a blatant money trap waiting to suck your bank account dry if you aren't careful. Throughout the last few chapters of the first main volume and the Lostbelt Chapters, FGO continually jerks at the emotions, showing you both the dark and heroic sides of the Heroic Spirits that appear on both sides of the conflict. In a way, I consider Camelot to be the true starting point of the current FGO 'style', and it shows. I cried numerous times during this movie, and while the action falls far short of work done by ufotable on other Fate series anime, the producers did not fail in any way to grab the attention and emotions of the watchers. Most of the important moments of the original game are presented in an impactful manner, and the only real complaint I have is that certain characters didn't have the time to make an appearance in the first movie (Tawara Touta in particular is impactful in the sense that he and Arash were a team in the original content and brought life to the mountain people settlement part). The moments that stand out to me most in the second movie are Mordred vs Sanzo, Tristan vs Serenity and Cursed Arm Hassan, and the final conflict (Lion King vs Mash, Ritsuka, and Bedeviere). This is not so much because the fights were awesome but because the lines and their presentation were perfectly designed to produce a result that would remain in memory and impact the emotions. Overall, while the animation quality of this anime falls well short of the ufotable-made Fate series, in exchange the emotional impact is on a completely different level.

Sorcery Jokers Gensou no Idea I/O Edit: @Osakayu Also, Subahibi doesn't count because it has rape.

Gundam Unicorn- One of the better Gundam series from the Universal Century universe, I'd say second place behind the 08th MS Team series. Action is top-quality, as is the animation. The story... is typical Gundam, lol. Baka to Shoukanjuu- Low-quality comedy fantasy. Omamori Himari- I have a weakness for non-human heroines, so I loved this one, but I was still annoyed that it never went anywhere. Vampire Bund- A heavy-handed attempt at a modern vampire series that didn't quite match expectations. Katanagatari- Violent series that is reasonably fun to watch, story is absurd though.

Mmm... The question of whether this might stimulate the Western market... yes and no is the short answer, in my opinion. Yes, some people will spend more on EVNs and thus stimulate some people to make more... but it probably won't be as much as you might think. In my experience, many JVN addicts tend to outright ignore EVNs if someone doesn't insistently push them to play them. The reason why this is a problem from the opinion of someone who wants an outcome where the JVN crowd heads for EVNs is that there are a huge number of untranslated 'classics' and high-quality VNs in Japan. Ironically, in recent years, the most creative ones are the least likely to get a translation, which actually makes sense, since mindless SOL is the flavor of the month right now in the localization industry (because it is easy to read and easy to translate).

The JVN industry in Japan is dying (except for nukige). There are entire months where there are no serious releases these days. Covid pretty much killed most of the minor companies and several of the major ones. This just accelerated the trend that began in 2019, as demand for SOL games, which were the bread and butter of the industry, started to fall rapidly with the lower buying power of the demographics that primarily consumed them.

Some companies utilize the rigid playing order well, but others do so poorly, seeking to hide lower path quality by forcing you to experience the lesser paths first. A classic example of this is Rui wa Tomo o Yobu as well as Comyu. In the former case, Rui's path is by far the weakest path in the game, and yet it is the first one you are forced to experience. The same goes for Benio's path in Comyu. This has a huge disadvantage, as it gives an impression that the game is lower quality than it actually is and leads to people dropping it without seeing the best parts. Ruitomo is still a top-quality game, but more than one person who has tried it at my suggestion has complained about Rui's path being so weak before dropping it. On the other hand, Dies Irae does the same by enforcing that you play the game in the order of either Kasumi or Kei first, then Marie, than Rea. This actually works out ideally (especially since it links directly into the Shinzabansho canon), and it also allows you to ignore one or the other if you wish (Kasumi gets ignored the most often, incidentally, lol). The most common use of Rigid Playing Order happens in chuunige as a genre. This is probably because the scenario directors and writers in these cases are far more likely to have a specific pathway to the finale than other genres. The methodology I came up with is to split heroines/paths into four tiers. I call these tiers the 'introductory path', the 'sub path', the 'main path' and the 'conclusion path'. Introductory paths serve more as setting and character dynamic introductions more than anything else. They usually assiduously avoid presenting the 'hidden truths' of the setting and plot, while providing a truncated ending that deliberately falls short of what the reader would want. The aforementioned Benio and Rui paths, as well as the Anna path in Vermilion Bind of Blood all fall into this category. Sub paths are a bit of an odd man out. For some reason, some VNs throw in random heroines and paths that have no real meaning for the story as a whole. Ayaya's path in Comyu and the 'normal paths' that sometimes appear in various games fall into this category. Main paths are the most common type of path in plot-centric VNs. These paths have the quality of being conclusive when taken by themselves but do not resolve the plot's core conflict in a conclusive manner. Examples of such paths include Kei's path in Dies Irae, as well as most of the paths in Tasogare no Sinsemilla. Conclusion paths are often represented as a true route, grand route, canon route, etc. The universal aspect of these paths is that they all resolve the core conflict of the plot in a conclusive manner, as well as tear the veil concealing most of the mysteries hidden in the other paths. They will often include variants of events that occurred in other paths that lead up to a grand conclusion, and there are often aspects of the plot that only make sense because you played the main paths prior to playing this type of path.

About two-thirds of most web novel writers are just pulling it out of their rears as they write... including me.