Zalor

God damn fucking katakana, I really need to rememorize those bastards. I can read Hiragana just fine...

I've found it quite fascinating for a while how global of a community this is. When I first joined this site (quite a while a go) I assumed everyone would be from England, America, Australia, (other English speaking nations). And while there are a fair bit of members from English speaking countries, many aren't. Considering how niche of a hobby this is, it's really quite cool how global of an experience Visual Novel fandom has become. Many of us, (including myself) lie about our location on the location tab of our profile. So what country do you actually live in? Regarding myself, I live in America. New York City specifically.

Happy Birthday Bolverk! I was sort of surprised to see your birthday listed today. Edit: Just noticed you turned 21. I don't know about where you may live, but in the US you are of legal drinking age.

As much as I hate the Genki text books (because personally I'm primarily interested in reading and I find them patronizing), since you want to learn all aspects of the language (speaking, reading, etc.) Genki 1 and 2 is probably the best fit for you. Also, you may want to consider watching this video if you want to learn efficiently: Personally I memorized the 2200 basic use kanji using Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, and it took me around half a year. Heisig's method is highly controversial and many people find great benefit in it, and others hate it. Regardless of whether you use it or not, I recommend at least researching the Heisig method so you can determine for yourself whether it's a method for memorizing kanji you want to use. Edit: You may also want to watch this video

Don't worry I'm watching your videos in conjunction with Tae Kim's guide. I've been doing things Aaeru's method, and quite fittingly you started this series a bit after I finished RTK. That said, I haven't watched week 5 yet. Again, thanks for doing this Rains!

Alright, I finally got it working. Huge thanks to LinovaA! But I'm also grateful that other people were trying to help me as well.

Thanks! But my antivirus was being dumb and blocked the download for the program, lol.

Do you know where I can get that?

I installed Aiyoku No Eustia on my computer, but when I try running the VN I get this weird error: Yes my Locale is set to Japanese, and yes I ran it as an administrator. Does anyone know what is wrong and/or a solution for my problem?

Holy crap, it's both Astro's and InvertMouse's birthday! It's rare for two active members to share the same birthday. Happy Birthday to the both of you!

That's why I said I would discuss either Narcissu or Swan Song/Saya. The way I choose the direction of the conversation to go all depends on the vibe I get from the person. If they are slightly (and seemingly genuinely) open minded you could bring up Swan Song. If not, then stick with Narcissu. I wouldn't go with something like Little Busters (or anything KEY) because that represents the standard of the VN industry. You need something that back ups your argument that this is a new "art form". I wasn't kidding about the more pretentious you sound the better. If you present your interest in VNs as an intellectual one, they are more likely to become genuinely interested in them. If you leave your argument as "They're cool and I like them", they won't care. At least that's my experience when dealing with these situations...

Around 30 years ago anime was extremely niche, and hardly know about in the western world. Few had fan subs, and most anime was virtually Japanese exclusive (this was Ryoji's day). Now you look at anime and virtually anybody age 20 or younger has at least watched an anime (even if it's just DBZ, Pokemon or Naruto). VN's have a huge potential as an art form, and will eventually become popular. And believe me, when they do become popular (may not happen for another 20-40 years btw) it will suck for people like us who have been around when they were obscure. So my advice, enjoy the obscurity while it lasts. ;D I prefer a niche community filled with people who are deeply passionate about their hobby (fuwanovel), then a huge community with a bunch of casuals (the contemporary anime community). If I had to respond to that person though (and I've been in that situation before), I would emphasize how VNs are a new and in some ways an "experimental" art form. Honestly, when dealing with these people the more pretentious you sound the better. In these conversations I always either bring up Narcissu, because 1) it is sort of avant garde, and 2) it has no sex scenes which invalidates their accusations. Or I bring up Swan Song or Saya no Uta (two VNs where the sex/rape scenes actually serve to develop characters) and compare it to popular contemporary fiction like Game of Thrones or something. Because honestly, it's not that different. People have no problem with sex and rape in Game of Thrones (neither in the books or the TV series) but for some inexplicable reason they can't stand 2d sex scenes? Also emphasize how if somebody were looking for porn, no sane person would read through a 30+ hour story just for a handful of sex scenes.

What are you talking about. After Fuwa took down torrents I'm sure Tay got plenty of angry emails, and I'm willing to bet some of those may actually be funny. I have faith that his thread will live on!

Apparently she's a YouTube star (kinda). Here's her channel: MissNosebleed. Also I think she lives in Japan, so possibly that hints at Nosebleed's real location. Why have you been hiding her from Fuwa Nosebleed? Ashamed of her knowing your obsessions with 2D girls?

A dozen hours!!! You're making me feel dumb Bolverk. I initially read (skimmed) Tae Kim's basic grammar guide in around that much time, but honestly I didn't get that much from it that initial read through. I then reread it thoroughly (memorizing the given vocabulary, taking my time with each section, doing the practice problems) and while much slower, I'm understanding things much better this time. I'm also retaining more knowledge. However, I've never been linguistically talented so I suppose the extra effort is required for somebody like me...

Hey, I knew you as Alex! But that's about all I knew of you before. Glad to see your drive to participate more actively in the VN community Nimbus.

Yes you are... In all serious of course you're not. All the VNs you mentioned sold really well and have relatively large fan bases. In fact, I feel like the minority for not liking super long common routes. In my view long common routes are often like filler in manga. Often they allow you to get to know the characters better, but they are distractions from the plot. Obviously scenes that allow you to get to know characters are important to establish those characters, but a good writer usually doesn't need to spend that much time establishing their characters. In my view the sooner the characters are put into action and the plot progresses the better.

Lol, I've noticed that as well. It's like Astro lurks in the shadows waiting for the next opportunity to make a trollish comment. A professional hit and run, except with forum comments. I mean that in the best possible way. <3 Sorry for the interruption, I don't have anything more to say for now.

I did vote for the the other one. I forget the other options, but I know I didn't vote for this one. Bye tay.

Hmm... interesting question. I'll interpret the question as flat chest vs curves. Regarding real adult girls this question is impossible for me to answer as I am primarily attracted to facial features. Especially smaller rounded noses, which is why I love how east Asian girls look and the reason I envy you for being in Japan. If I had to choose, I would pick a girl with my ideal facial features over a girl with an average face and lots of curves. (Although a girl with my ideal facial features with curves is obviously the best case scenario). Regarding 2D girls where nearly all of them have the same beautiful faces, then I would choose oppai. I can appreciate the aesthetic beauty of a 2D girl with no curves, but I don't find them very arousing. 2D beauties with large breasts arouse me fairly quickly. So in short: Irl: Beautiful face > average face and large curves. 2D: large curves > no/small curves.