Zalor

RTK isn't for everybody (It's taken almost finishing the book to realize that). And it should be viewed as nothing more than a head start, or prologue to learning Japanese. Will it help you with reading directly? No, you are correct about that. Will it make learning how to read faster and easier once you do get started? Yes. It will take years for anybody to learn to read kanji, but by getting most of the important symbols in your head early on, it makes the long term goal more attainable. You will not see immediate progress with RTK. It's kind of like when a teacher made you learn something you thought was stupid and pointless, and years later you appreciate it. There is a method to the madness, but it will take time to see it.

Isn't the visual novel translated? (I'm honestly confused whether it is or not). If so, couldn't you read that to see if things get better?

That's misunderstanding the purpose of RTK. By being able to recognize individual kanji in a compound, it is much easier to learn and memorize them. While there are some Kanji in RTK where the kanji is almost always what the keyword says, like 雪 being snow, or 青 being blue, many Kanji in RTK can be used in multiple ways with multiple definitions. Being able to understand kanji through RTK is a bonus, the primary advantage of RTK is being able to easily remember Kanji, hence the title (Remembering the Kanji). Most people who don't use this method will either easily forget kanji, or confuse similar looking ones. Having studied Chinese for two years in school, I can say that RTK is the best method for memorizing the damn things. Once you have them memorized, it makes learning them in context a lot easier since you are already accustomed to the symbols.

Welcome. I read The Count of Monte Cristo, but I never got around to watching the anime. I heard from a friend that it is a pretty interesting adaptation. That anime has been on my to watch list for ages now. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your experience with Visual novels.

Considering that he reads/watches Game of Thrones, I would say yes.

Most of my friends and acquaintances are familiar with Otaku sub-culture but are not as involved with it as I am. So when early on I mentioned I read VNs, they labeled me as a pervert. It took a while to convince some of them otherwise. The people who are most likely to hold misunderstood concepts of VNs are generally geeks who vaguely heard of them and just made wrong assumptions. Some people are just really stubborn and unwilling to try different things. For instance, I managed to convince one of my friends that Swan Song was an interesting story, but the conversation ended by him saying something along the lines of "Sounds cool and all, but even if its just a few scenes, I'm not reading something with 2D sex." -.-

I wish the best of luck to you. I want to do the JET program eventually myself, but I'm currently too young. Still have to earn a Bachelor's degree.

So did I, and sadly I was disappointed. It didn't feel like it captured or immersed me as a musical student. It felt like the musical aspect was more an excuse for characters to interact and get to know each other. I really wanted to experience what it would be like to live the everyday life of a promising musical student, but instead story focused on the musical competition, and didn't really flesh out its characters that much. However, after I read Quartett my next VN was Symphonic Rain. Which was great since Symphonic Rain succeeds in all the areas Quartett failed at. So if you haven't already, I suggest reading Symphonic Rain after Quartett. I believe I gave Quartett a 7, and that was mostly because of how impressed I was by the visual presentation. Had Quartett not used an innovative and unique presentation, it would have received a way worse score from me. I always reward art when it does something interesting, even if it fails. By the way, the angel girl was from Period.

Lamdba provided some good feedback, and I stand by most of what he said. Especially when he said: When describing a visual novel, I would recommend emphasizing it as a reading experience more than a gaming experience. Regarding your recommendations. Since you are trying to promote Fuwanovel, you should stick to to VNs that are available on the site. So avoid Shuffle, (plus imo Shuffle really isn't that good anyway). Also, your writing is very repetitive (this is a general problem), but specifically you said, "List of Good Starter Novels" then you listed Katawa Shoujo and Juniper's Knot. After mentioning those you then continued and said, "List of Good Starter Novels possibilities" and then recommended Symphonic Rain, Clannad, and Little Busters. You don't need to repeat the same category twice. This is less a critique and more a suggestion, but if you're making an article that is trying to appeal to people who have never read VNs before, try to recommend broader genres. Do somthing like Tragedy: Narcissu (give some info about Narcissu) Swan Song (give info about Swan Song) etc. Romance: Clannad (info about Clannad) Kanon (info...) etc. Chuuni: (Explain how this is a unique and popular genre in VNs, read this thread started by Clephas: Chuuni: What is this genre) G-Senjou no Maou (info...) Tsukihime (info...) Comyu (info...) etc. It is crucial for newcomers to know what type of stories are available for them in this medium. So breaking things up by genre is a good idea.

Same happens to me for both VNs and anime. When I find something to watch/read, I will only focus on that work until I am finished with it. I just don't like reading 2 VNs or watching two anime concurrently. As for the main question. I've only done this with shows that I've been told were good (hence why I don't drop them earlier), but realize that they don't get better. I hated Toradora from the first couple of episodes, but I ended up sticking with it until episode 18 because people kept telling me it "gets better". In all honesty, if you feel like dropping a show early on, just do it sooner rather than later. The chances are it will never "get better" for you. Initial impressions are important. And if you start out hating something, you probably won't grow to like it no matter how much you force yourself to watch it. In fact, your hate for it will only grow.

Not sad at all. While I admittedly dropped the Visual Novel, I simply don't believe anything with Period's quality of writing could make an experienced VN reader feel anything significant. But hey, the Protagonist has a face, which is apparently a VNDB qualification.

I treat HuniPop as a satire of dating sims. And it had me seriously laughing at times. Also, speaking as an American teenager/young adult, the stereo types these girls portray is hilariously accurate in some cases. Specifically, there are real people I know who remind me of Tiffany and Nikki.

It all makes sense now. If Tay is Ryoji than that means that the user Kotomi is actually Tay's wife. I've been wondering what happened to her as she has been inactive for nearly two years, around the time Ryoji went inactive. I initially though that they both quit Fuwanovel together, but in reality Tay killed Kotomi and used Ryoji's absence as an excuse for her inactively. Tay I'm on onto you. I would inform the authorities, but seeing as you're also President Obama, that would be futile.

Read her story route and you will find out!

Same pretty much. However, I've noticed that sometimes when I rewatch something but without the subtitles, words that I subconsciously recognized but forget, get remembered again. Meaning it's great review since it can be surprising how much you know but don't know you know. When learning a foreign language a lot of words get pushed back to the subconscious. For example my mom used to speak in Ukrainian to me when I was a kid. For various reasons she stopped. But when we visited a few years ago over the summer, a lot of words that I never thought I knew came back to me. Immersing yourself through media like anime probably isn't going to be as effective as actually going to Japan, but it should still help with bringing words to the conscious level. I also think it's best to watch anime unsubtitled if it's a show you are familiar with. That way 1) you already kind of know whats being said, which makes catching/reviewing words easier. 2) You won't get invested in the details of what's happening since you already know.

Judging from this, I can ascertain that you are a girl. I might have learned something if your profile didn't give it away. ;p

Same. Although for me, its because I'm pretty cynical about contemporary stuff (contemporary literature, music, anime, VNs, ect). Also, in regard to VNs specifically, I can't read the new Japanese releases (not yet anyway). Also, I like older things because it reminds me of not-now. It's kind of weird, but thinking about the past (even if its as little as 5 years ago) feels nice because it allows me to intellectually escape the present. Most VNs I've read were made before 2010, so I really can't judge. However, about your last point. One thing that admittedly disappoints me about the VN medium is how art styles are never very different from each other (this criticism applies to anime and manga as well). I certainly don't like unattractive art, but a bit more variety would be welcome by me. Each time period seems to have its own standard of beauty for 2d characters. If you take a bunch of VNs that were released in an approximate time period, and compare the characters, it would look like any of the companies could have made all the characters. I'm generalizing a bit, but not much I think.

I was rambling about Snow as well. Holy crap though, a Sega CD VN, that definitely qualifies as obscure. The fact that it was translated into English shocks me even more though. I still need to read Kana. While not obscure, it's definitely a classic. Also about older Fire Emblem games, I highly recommend Fire Emblem 4. Fire emblem 4 is where my avatar is from But I agree it's nice not to ignore the old VN's (ahem, Lamune) I still need to read Snow and a bunch of older VN's from the classic era Too bad most of my time is taken up with work and anime-watching I assumed that since it didn't receive an anime adaptation or a fan translation that is was under-appreciated. Looks like I was wrong. You're tantalizing me so much~ Edit: Looked up Lamune. Wow, I just realized that you're translating that VN. I should really pay closer attention to news about VN fan translations.

That looks so 90's, I love that art style. Although I'm personally not that big on Sci-Fi, it's a great find!

So I recently was on YouTube looking at some old videos of old visual novels (specifically ONE~ To the Radiant Season). On the recommended videos section a video titled SNOW ~ PLUS EDITION ~ OP grabbed my attention. After watching the video, I desperately started hunting down a torrent for this obscure old game. The opening looks good, and VNDB gives it a decent score. A well written Nakige and a snow setting, what more could I want!? It will be like Kanon all over again, but different! (Maybe this will be the first untranslated VN I tackle?) In anycase, I was wondering if anyone else ever gets really excited when digging through old forgotten stuff? Have you found any hidden gems? What have your experiences been? (It doesn't necessarily have to be a VN, but it should be otaku sub-culture related). For those curious by the way, here is the video I was talking about:

I thought once you go untranslated you never come back to the translated scene. ;P This should be able to involve a larger part of the community. I hope you enjoy the stuff you reread~

I'm a bit late to the party, but congratulations~ Don't worry about not having a life, we are all VN readers, so we never had lives to begin with ;P

Tay, please make a thread like that. It would be hysterical.

That's pretty funny. I think I remember that topic... For most VNs I think having the option to toggle H scenes would be great. Some VNs like Kanon really don't need them, and could benefit from a toggle (the H-scenes were terrible in Kanon). But some VNs use them as a part of the story. Particularly one rape scene in Swan Song is instrumental to the story. But definitely most nakige could probably benefit.

I've had people criticize me for my aesthetic preference for Asian women. So I generally have to keep it to my self to avoid "offending" people. It's nice to see a character be so upfront about it.