Mr Poltroon

I really like uniforms. Especially military uniforms. Let's get that out of the way first. Secondly, I like representations of bodies or organisations of people, such as the armed forces or the police or firemen or an inspection department or whatever. I like bodies with authority, and I like bureaucracy and hierarchies. And then, I especially like when that authority is then used to do "good". Catch criminals, keep the peace, eliminate corruption, help people, etc. These guidelines are very vague, so I do think a lot of different things might fit. Don't be afraid to recommend something! Here's some examples for those who wish to help me, or some recommendations for the like-minded. I've never watched Library Wars, but from the synopsis alone, it does seem to be within what I'm looking for. Any recommendations? TL;DR: Recommend me anime or manga (completed) with an organisation/group/body with some authority as a focus (specific police branch, specific military branch, specific section in the crew of a large vehicle, church doing good).

Fixed. I have serious doubts that 'bat' in that context is used widely enough for that to be an astute translation choice.

Too many choices will never ruin my VN experience, provided some walkthroughs exist out there. Even if guides do not exist, I will only become exasperated with the visual novel if the game does not give me feedback and the choice system possesses a lot of complexity or too few acceptable choice combinations to progress. But I find that the question is too vague. There are many kinds of choices, and the way they affect the reading experience is what actually makes their frequency relevant. Let's take CLANNAD as an example: There is a high number of choices, but this is only a problem because you need an exact combination of choices to access the routes, and these choices aren't clear. Getting into the routes and endings you want is as easy as checking some 15! combinations of choices. Contrast it with Majikoi: The number of choices is still high, but these do not affect the route you are on (except for extraordinary circumstances or well-signaled bad ends). Getting into the routes and endings you want is as easy as selecting your preferred character's portrait. So yes, some games do choices wrong: One ~To the Radiant Season~ or Canvas 2, where all heroines share space in the common route in such a way that you could be halfway through someone's route when you notice you missed a choice 3 hours back and get stuck on the default bad end. But this is a problem with how the choices affect the game, not their number (though, admittedly, the problem only becomes evident when you have high numbers of choices). Here are a few examples of systems in Visual Novels where a high number of choices shouldn't ruin the experience: Fate/stay night has a high number of choices, but not only are they relevant to the story, their consequences are immediate (in most cases). You don't have to wait until you reach the default ending 5 hours from that point; you immediately know you failed and, more importantly, where you failed. Their fail-safe system, post bad end hints, isn't even necessary! In Steins;Gate, the true route is only accessible through a mindbogglingly precise combination of choices. It is figurative hell without a walkthrough. Here, the very setup of the choices supports the narrative: The actual chance of getting the True End is supposed to be infinitesimal. It makes for a poor player experience but... is it truly wrong? Sometimes, the game simply doesn't let you progress until you make the correct choices. The existence of these tends to have a narrative purpose, or is part of a minigame involving the choices. Lucid9 comes to mind, as, at certain points, you must reach the correct answers before advancing with the story. There are some visual novels that play it safe even when there's little need. SakuSaku has a tie breaker in case you are nice to every single girl, and a second tie breaker (where you literally select the name of your preferred lass) in case you still manage to not opt for a girl through the well-telegraphed choices. But even with a lot of complicated choices, external systems may help make the experience quite bearable. School Days has a bar indicating your affection points with each of the two girls, for instance. It also happens to be a horrible example because that bar is horribly broken and there's still quite a few endings outside the realm of that bar, like with other girls or bad ends. And do not forget the visual novels that are meant to be choice-mazes. Despite their high number of choices and unique combinations necessary to get into certain endings, they are designed so that you see or learn something new every time you play. In Crimson Gray your ultimate objective is to, uh, not get a crappy ending. Light spoilers for the structure of the game: Over the course of the story there are a number of bad ends, which generally occur shortly after you make the wrong choice, and a number of unique ends. On your first few playthroughs, these unique endings are accessible through avoiding all of the other bad ends - reaching the end of a path, essentially. And there are a couple of paths as a result of your choices early on. Each time you reach a unique path, the game triggers some flags behind the scenes, which make it so that, once you replay the game, not as many choices lock you into a bad end, and makes it so that some of the choices start helping you get to a good ending. It's more intuitive than I'm making it sound, and tied to the narrative. Reaching these unique ends will give you information that informs and affects the choices you make, getting you on paths more likely to reach a good ending. And then you should consider how a high number of choices can also serve other purposes, like comedy or facilitating replays. Majikoi, Key games, and One ~To the Radiant Season~ have provided me with a lot of laughs as a result of their choices. At least half of them are for the sake of comedy, and are there specifically so replays always have something new to offer.

And thus, today marks the day I sold my soul for a cupcake.

I've started Humanity Has Declined and finished High School Fleet. High School Fleet has that mix of light-heartedness and actual plot that I like. Sometimes it takes things lightly during more serious moments, other times there's a divide in the episode between the lighter and heavier moments. All of these methods work for me, as long as it doesn't stay serious or silly for too long. And silly here is a bit subjective. The entire premise is already ridiculous, so they tackle reasonable consequences that might come as a result of the setting, like running low on supplies (toilet paper) or potable water, and see how they tackle it. It's also got other aspects I really liked. Like Girls und Panzer, there's a huge cast of girls controlling heavy World War 2 Machinery and I tend to like huge casts. I don't always need to know who's who, or for their personalities to have deep complexity. Sometimes it's nice to simply know the group dynamics. The girls from engineering spend most of their time warring with the uncontrollable engines and fighting so that they remain combat capable for the entire duration of a battle. Because of this, every time they're out of their hole, they're lazy and just want to relax. Within the group dynamic, there's still individual characters. Generally the ones in charge of a particular section or a particular role that can be carried out by a single individual. Most aren't delved into deeply, but that's fine. It means that each character only needs one or two traits to stand out, as they get proportional screen-time. It doesn't get old, then. Since they've got such a wide array of stereotypes to pull from, we get to see a bit of everything over the course of the story. I'm still not sure what the job of about 30% of the crew was, but I knew who they were by the end of this, and that's something. Humanity Has Declined seems like it's something I'll adore. Humanity is doomed. There's nothing we can do any more. And so, we wait, as we slowly head toward extinction. In the meanwhile, the next race of humans are here! They're small, perpetually-grinning, and quite clearly mentally challenged. But alas, they're not the ones going extinct, so an organisation was established in order to communicate and deal with them. We follow a human liaison to these creatures. Her name? Irrelevant; but she's the protagonist. The entire show is about sarcasm and cynicism. It's a satire directed at humanity. It brings to the table many of society's bad habits that still aren't gone now that the whole race is going extinct. It puts us in the shoes of a main character who seems nice but really only cares about making things easier for herself. And we watch her day to day activities as she presents us with the irony of the situation or a general pessimist about thing: After all, it doesn't really matter any more, we're doomed anyway. Despite the way I set the whole thing up, perhaps half of the comedy is more about the ridiculous situations that come up in the semi-fantasy world than anything. Regardless, I've only watched one episode. I don't know what tone it'll take for the rest of the series, but thus far it seems like a black comedy that isn't really black, and I like that mix.

I can, but I need to recheck a few things now that the game was released officially. Since I can't buy the game right now, when eventually I do I'll check all the choices again. For now, though, it should be serviceable as is. Thank you for reminding me about this.

Finished New Game!! I would have to say I preferred the first one. My interest in the anime stems from the slice of life office shenanigans and not from the more emotional moments. As the sequel was packed with the latter, I find it natural that I would enjoy it less. Maybe I'll read the manga one day. It may have more of the filler I prefer, and it's easier to skim over that which is not to my taste.

Ooooor... if you don't mind the fact that you'll be "missing content", the all ages version is fine. I played it; didn't feel like anything was really missing until I heard about it later. Not a big issue for me.

True enough. What's all these extra "features"? Clearly they're no more than bugs! Liking? Tagging/Pinging? Bah!

That's the thing about Rooke's Excellent Default Theme. It never breaks!

Confession: I had always believed my family has always remained "drama"-free. To an extent that remains the case, but I now see that it has more to do with my general lack of interest than there being nothing worthy of note. I have cousins that are up to their ears in very unpleasant drama. Oh, me, how blessed you are. Though I would guess that I have a penchant for avoiding serious conflict, I'm sure glad there are no unsustainable conflicts in my close family.

Indeed. Gamers! has been rather good. I haven't seen comedy based on misunderstandings I liked this much in quite a while.

Aho Girl - I've seen a lot of people complain that this is about making fun of the mentally retarded, and though I think the titular character of the show possesses certain traits that would generally exclude her from the label, others may not agree. That's fine. If you believe you would be offended by the concept, then perhaps it would be best to stay away. As for me, I find it hilarious. Tsurezure Children - This is very much my thing. Odd couple flirting/messing about etcetera. Oh, yessss

The problem with this thread is --what do you mean Never7 has a mediocre soundtrack?!!!1 Fight me, mate. It's one of my favourites. and such. I don't think you can quite define things like that. But best of luck to your endeavours. Edit: So as to actually partake... there's only about 4 tracks I like in Hoshizora, Chinamiism being one of them.

Japan was up to its Japanese things like hosting a radio show with the cast members of a popular TV anime when they were suddenly given a letter to read, on the final episode of the radio show:

I can only talk about the numbered titles, Da Capo II and Da Capo III. The former seems to be, by all accounts, the best they have done with the entire series. There's still plenty of vanilla blandness and still plenty of insanity. The main difference is that it is not quite as bland because they managed to create a cast of characters that all play off each other pretty nicely. The same cannot be said for Da Capo III. While the cast is still numerous, they aren't together quite as much and they get relatively few moments to shine altogether. It also moves away from the... semi-normal setting the previous two games had, so while the setting is somewhat interesting... not too much is done to make good use of it. I haven't finished it, though, so I don't know how many insane twists and turns it may or may not hold.

Like a puny, worthless, stalky thingie. I'd go with option C, yes. I happened to glance at the bottom of the forum homepage and see your name consequently.

Since I watched it to see all my favourite moments animated, I did not have too much of an issue, and rather liked it. Therein lies the problem. With everything. It shouldn't, but the existence of a "source material" affects one's enjoyment of an adaptation. It's not something people can just avoid. Just another application of my final sentence in the previous post. Ideally, things would be judged for what they are and nothing else, but that's not what happens. "Faithfulness" is a useful concept, but a lack of it should not lead one to dislike the material. It does, because it often leads one to think "it could have been better", even when such is not true. People who complain about lack of faithfulness have already been 'spoiled' about a version of the story: they know what happens and how, and thus its harder for them to clearly see how a removal of a scene would make the overall product 'better', so to speak. It seems likely that the ones who complain about a lack of faithfulness are the ones who thought the original material was good -- if it were bad, they would not care; therefore, it's not an inherent less=bad or not faithful=bad argument, it's also a mix with fandom and cult behaviour of "How dare you defile my favourite manga! Where's the scene where the main character was brushing her teeth in the morning?! Without it the entire story loses all meaning!!1". There's still plenty of more reasonable people who think "Scene A was boring and served no point, I hope they leave it out in the adaptation" or some such. Or simply do not care. As always, I presume these to be the silent majority. All of those points you mentioned are points I made as a hypothetical reaction a fan might have to an adaptation, for people who never watched/read other versions are not affected by said issues. I'm sure not all fans fall in these categories. I don't, for instance, and like to simply take things as they come. Changes aren't a problem so long as the overall product is good. But I don't believe any fan can be completely unaffected when watching an adaptation of something they love. If a fan doesn't think it is as good as the original there will be that small inkling in the back of your mind that will affect your enjoyment. Somebody who already knows the whole thing is less likely to be involved "in the moment", and instead may be looking at the big picture the whole time, and this affects how one perceives things. Experiencing a faithful adaptation is definitely affected by how good the material is at being rewatched/reread: Some products are simple entertainment or thrillers or emotion-hooks that aren't meant to be as good (or at least the same sort of experience) the second time around. A more vocal fan may try to latch onto any available excuse, such as how faithful it is or is not. So yes. I maintain the initial ideas I had about fans. Some want to re-watch things just in another medium; some want to watch all the good bits in a different form but don't care about the rest; some want something new and different done with the IP. The first two groups are the most likely to complain at the lack of faithfulness (the second group if a scene the person wanted to see didn't make it). Finally, when any fan feels that they aren't enjoying it as much 'isn't faithful' is the easiest excuse to use, even when it may not be the correct one in any particular case. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that even when the product the adaptation creates is good, but not as good as the original, fans are more likely to label it a bad product or, more commonly, a bad adaptation. Again, the cause is generally attributed to lack of faithfulness, for its easiest to identify. I have no particular opinions one whether transitioning between media should require large changes. I haven't looked, but I can think of no particular examples where a transition between mediums would be impossible or heavily degrade one of the versions (except for more apparent things like an anime about colours transitioning into black and white manga -- and that's still manageable! There's no lack of manga about music and other topics manga is not necessarily equipped to reproduce). This all said, I'm not very good at talking about such abstract and hypothetical concepts, so if anything makes no sense, do not mind it.

Happy Birthday to @krill!

I take adaptations as they come. If it is a faithful rendition then I watch it so as to see all my favourite moments animated. I generally do not care for much else, so long as the story and characters are the same (and they're in character, of course). Others seem to care about different factors: I don't see what the problem with the Little Busters! adaptation is, but 'tis true that popular opinion of it is not very good. If it is not, then I watch it to see its take on the characters and setting. This has a much higher chance of going wrong, because 1) A viewer would not know what, exactly, to expect, and it could simply be bad and 2) it could not be bad per say, but it could contradict the themes/ideas an other version of the series was trying to convey. Imagine that a studio picks up a serious series and makes it all happy and light-hearted: This isn't necessarily bad, but fans of the series will most definitely have their expectations betrayed. Even if it is in the same style as the original some people are actively looking for faithful adaptations. They want to see their favourite epic moments in this new medium. Some also want not to be bored with all the not as exciting moments and are looking for some original content. In short, some people don't know what they want. As for cut content, that's a bit of a problem. If it's trying to be faithful but cuts out content then... not terribly faithful. In those cases a fan simply needs to decide whether the cut content was important and/or relevant to the story, and this depends on what the fan thinks -- people who are watching for the first time aren't affected by this. Another case that occurs often is altering content, generally keeping things the same, but adding elements to streamline or "increase appeal". Once again, this wildly varies depending on what you're looking for, assuming you're a fan of the series. Unfortunately, these latter two seem to be the most common, and they have a giant propensity for "defiling" the original. Not dissimilar enough to attract new fans, but too dissimilar to make the old ones happy... If you're looking for a recipe on what makes a fan like adaptations of stuff they love, I'd say you're out of luck, as it appears each has, like with everything else, his own opinion. Some want things to remain faithful; they just want to see that story they so love once again. Others do not mind changes, but not if they make the story worse and such. Some don't want to watch the same thing again, and want something new (this also depends on the source material; some things work well with an episodic format or with arcs, and therefore original content could be made without diverging too far from the original). Then there's also one problem I hate: X is good, but when compared to Y it's not... Therefore, X is bad. Replace X with 'adaptation' and Y with 'source material'. Something 'good' being hated on because 'it could have been better' is one of the arguments I hate most in everything ever and such, but it does reduce people's enjoyment, especially fans who have seen it done better.

I don't see Tsuki ga Kirei in your list, but I'm assuming you've at least tried it out. I would highly recommend it as a simple romance. It's very much a story that could happen to anyone, and that's also its strength: because the way characters act is not exaggerated in any way I found myself actually empathising with the characters. I didn't have much of a school life but I definitely felt that the characters were very much like students their age would be.

Chuuable did.

Choices are very high on the list of reasons why I read VNs. I've found that just about any 'game' that involves some sort of decision making, playing out various scenarios, has my attention. However, this is also closely related to my desire for stories. I've come to find that I can enjoy all sorts of stories. I'm still not certain on what exactly makes me like something, but small, self-contained stories can be very enjoyable indeed. The other two main reasons are character interactions and romance. VNs almost always take their romance a bit further than other media I consume... or at least develop it a little more. Other than that I like character interactions of all sorts, including, to a certain extent, many of the stock character archetypes so I can see how they lightly differ from one another.

...I can actually imagine, Once, as I was crossing a park where it appeared seagulls were fighting each other, or at least mad about something, they kept diving rather dangerously close to to where person's head would be located were they of average height. Rather thankful was I that my height is below average.