Zalor

This pretty much sums up my thoughts in a highly comedic way: Regarding Zankyou no Terror, I'm looking forward to it. I've yet been busy recently so even though I have the episodes downloaded I have yet to watch any. At this point I'm wondering if I should wait for the season to end and just marathon the whole thing.

Hmm... I've never really though about these questions. 1)My ideal protagonist (assuming the story around him is well written and well executed) would not have siblings. 2)His parents can be alive or dead, but in either case he shouldn't have (or had) good relations with them. 3)I personally like more realistic stories so I would prefer no super powers be they Sci-Fi or fantasy. However by no means do I want a mundane self-insert protagonist. I want an interesting character who had rough experiences in his past that either made him fucked up, or that scarred him as a person. 4) Rich! I want a story that has the main protag involved in the intrigues of upper society. I want him involved in economic and political manipulations. 5) Generally speaking, I would want my protagonist trapped to circumstances that he wants to break out of. However if my wish from number 4 is granted, meaning that he is rich, then I would like him to be free. 6) I want society to see him as a great person, but for him in reality to be a far more shady and complicated. I want him to use his good public image for deceptive means. 7) Neither a scientist or a criminal. But I would like him to be a son of an oligarch, be he the son of a son of a wealthy politician or capitalist it doesn't matter which.

Without getting into the details of whether I think it is likely for them to stop, or even severely cripple piracy (which I don't), I'll take this on hypothetically instead. So hypothetically speaking if they did succeed in getting rid of piracy and uploaded subbed anime for streaming for us western fans, I personally would hate it. My room has really shit internet speed, and I often take my laptop to my living room (where the speed is much better), download what I want to watch fairly quickly, and then I can watch and rewatch whatever I want in high quality without relying on the internet in my room. While I like the idea of supporting the anime industry (which is why I buy the DVDs when I can), I hate streaming as it is a huge inconvenience for me.

Even though I edited it out in this quote I am very appreciative that you wrote a wall of text. I think you pretty much provided me with a path to follow on my quest to learn Japanese and read VN's. This is a great post.

Welcome! What type of stories do you write? Do you have a particular genre you like writing, or is what you write more dependent on your mood?

Thanks so much man. Thank you as well. Also if you were able to learn Japanese grammar only through using Tae Kim than I suppose that is enough of a testament that shows how good his guide is.

Where did you guys learn the grammar? I heard about both Tae Kim and the Genki text books. I don't really have much spare money right now so I'm thinking about using Tae Kim (as his guide is free), however if their are other alternatives for learning the grammar I am interested in hearing them.

Actually I could picture myself enjoying audio books, however I've yet to try them. Also whenever I hear the term audio book it always reminds me of this scene from Seinfeld:

I always liked video games that were plot and character driven. Since I was around 8 I was a huge Fire Emblem fan. While I liked playing Fire Emblem, more than anything I liked reading the dialogue's between characters. That fact that they had well made anime styled sprites, and would speak to each other with well composed Game Boy music in the background just absorbed me. When I discovered that VN's were like this but without the game play to interrupt the story, well lets just say I was hooked. Also I never really enjoyed reading plain books. Even now while I enjoy the ideas that a book can present to me, I don't enjoy the actual process of reading (I enjoy thinking about what I just read far more). However, I actually enjoy the process of reading VN's, not just thinking about them afterwards.

Does your interest in Early 20th century Europe include the Austria- Hungarian empire and the role nationalism played in WW1? If so you would love speaking to my father (he's a historian who specialized in nationalism).

I would do that if my internet wasn't so crappy. My internet connection is really poor in my room (I usually have to bring my laptop to the living room to have fast internet). So using the print function is easiest for me.

Pretty much what Fiddle and YeahWay said. Listen to as much English as possible, (try to mimic the tones if you feel your pronunciation is poor) and find somebody who knows English to practice with. Also, coming from a native speaker and writer of English I have to say your writing is pretty good. Believe me, I know native speakers who are far more sloppy in their writing. You're doing well.

That's what I do as well. Often I don't want the whole CG set, just one or two images. So this is the easiest method if you're not after the entire CG.

I love anime, in fact for me anime is my main hobby. (I read VNs when I'm not watching anime. ) I don't really like following new stuff but I love watching older stuff, especially anime from the 90's. Aside form the Otaku stuff I love anthropology and political theory. I've spent hours arguing with my friends about Marxism. One of them happens to be a Libertarian who loves capitalism and we always get in debates. However we're still good friends regardless of our opposing views (If you couldn't tell I usually argue pro-Marx, but sometimes I criticize him depending on the nature of the discussion). I also often use anthropology to buttress my arguments. I did Tae Kwon Do for quite a while (6 years). However my academics got really rigorous and in order to keep up with school I had to quit. ;(

Welcome! I can tell from your list that you've got a fair amount of VNs under your belt already. If you liked Clannad I would recommend Kanon (KEY's first VN and my personal favorite from KEY). And if you like stories with darker themes I highly recommend Swan Song.

Holy shit a translated VN Clephas actually has enthusiasm about?! I was on the fence before but I guess I got to download this now.

Interesting interpretation. That's at least how I read things. This is easily my favorite route in Kanon because I find it to be the most open to interpretation.

You did it! Although some how I feel like you were planning to do this long before I suggested it yesterday...

*wipes sweat* Close, I got into VNs in my later months as a 13 year old. Assuming its been several years since you got into them how was it like for you having VNs as a part of your life while you were growing up?

I read Quartett a couple of months ago. What do you think of it so far? I personally loved the visual presentation (which was my favorite aspect of the game). It felt like a VN mixed with a comic book it. Oh and welcome.

There seems to be such a stigma on reviews in this site (I got in trouble over a year ago for posting a link to a review). Anyway, every good reviewer does what your goal is, to objectively deconstruct the technicalities and substance of a product. I fully support what you want to do (we need some reviewers on this site), I just slightly object to your claims that what you're doing is radically different from what a reviewer does. Also two of the most accessible VN reviewers (PhantomZwei who is on Youtube and NeutralDrow on the Escapist Forums both avoid spoilers). The moment you use spoilers by my definition it is no longer a review, but a commentary/ analysis. Well good luck, I like this idea.

Delete all these except Swan Song! Swan Song is probably one of the best English translated VNs there are. Clephas is just biased since he has a pet-peeve against multiple perspective story telling (which Swan Song does).

How old were you when you started reading VN's? (I hope not younger than me =x) Also welcome to the community.

Thanks, and I hope your changes are well received.