Clephas Q & A (9/28/2015 to 10/4/2015)

[Clephas]

I'm bored and working my rear-end off right now at university and with my job... so I thought I'd use this as a place to let people ask me questions...  for a single week.  I might not answer a question directly if it would compromise someone else, but there aren't many questions that would do that, lol.

 

A few intros... I've been an otaku (to one degree or another) for over twenty years.  I'm primarily an action, fantasy, and sci-fi fan when it comes to my entertainment, but I can be omnivorous if I think something looks interesting.  Good stories are my crack and I'll literally do anything to get my fix.  I cook, I bake, and I brew (alcohol).  I am fat and bald and I don't care what anyone thinks about it.  I am also incapable of having a sexual interest in someone (or something) in the 3D world, though this wasn't always the case.  I play primarily untranslated VNs and blog them on my Fuwablog (if you hadn't noticed).

 

Have fun.

[Kaguya]

20+ years, huh. What made you become an otaku and/or start playing eroge? 

 

Also, how is the experience of having a conversation with the whiniest of all mods? 

[Deep Blue]

How and why did you learn japanese in the first place? I think you are not from Japan or anything or am I wrong?

[melo4496]

Favorite anime?

[Nimbus]

What kind of music do you listen to?

[Clephas]

20+ years, huh. What made you become an otaku and/or start playing eroge? 

 

Also, how is the experience of having a conversation with the whiniest of all mods? 

First question... I became an otaku when my cousin (who was older than me) introduced me to Breath of Fire and Record of Lodoss War at the same time...  Second, I started eroge when an editor for m33w (the fansub group I worked with the most often) shoved Tsukihime in my face... and the next thing I knew, I'd restructured my entire life around VNs.

 

Edit: Whiny?  I didn't notice.  If you aren't complaining, you aren't living.

 

How and why did you learn japanese in the first place? I think you are not from Japan or anything or am I wrong?

I started in high school, because it was better than Spanish and I was already watching anime... I was fortunate to have a teacher who prioritized grammar over everything else (he was both a former Jet program veteran and one of the first five people to get a Japanese degree in the US), so when it was over I had the grammatical understanding of a college graduate (edit: because I actually studied ahead and used the materials he gave us for solo study) and the vocab of a second-semester college student for Japanese.

 

Favorite anime?

I've seen so many... for lasting impressions Legend of the Galactic Heroes is undeniably the best... the story is just so well-told and huge in scale... I also love Kara no Kyoukai for the addictive chuuni-ism.

 

What kind of music do you listen to?

Classical, jazz, and blues primarily... I generally prefer no vocals if I am just going to listen to music, though I make exceptions for exceptional songs (no rap though, blech).

[Nimbus]

 (no rap though, blech).

 

Will you marry me?

[Clephas]

Will you marry me?

Sorry, I can only love 2D women.

[Kawasumi]

Do you have a harem or one eternal waifu?

 

What is the best chuunige you have read so far? (excluding type-moon and masada stuff)

 

what is your favorite Kanji pun?

 

What classical composer is your favorite?

 

Pettanko Vs. Kyonyu?

 

Are you going to read the Tsukihime remake?

 

whats your favorite nukige?

 

convince me to read Dies Irae in one sentence

 

which VN has the best OST in your opinion?

 

do you like Netorare or do you hate it?

 

Why did you become an active user on Fuwa?

[Clephas]

Do you have a harem or one eternal waifu?

 

What is the best chuunige you have read so far? (excluding type-moon and masada stuff)

 

what is your favorite Kanji pun?

 

What classical composer is your favorite?

 

Pettanko Vs. Kyonyu?

 

Are you going to read the Tsukihime remake?

 

whats your favorite nukige?

 

convince me to read Dies Irae in one sentence

 

which VN has the best OST in your opinion?

 

do you like Netorare or do you hate it?

 

Why did you become an active user on Fuwa?

1- A harem of about twelve waifus... when you've fallen in love with as many heroines as I have, a single waifu just doesn't work anymore.

 

2- Evolimit.  It has a different direction from Masada's or Nasu's works, in that the protagonist is a more modern and less tragic classic 'flawed hero' and one of the actual themes of the VN is heroism.

 

3- After you've heard a few hundred Kanji puns, you stop thinking about them except when they come up... so I don't have a favorite. I mostly find kanji interesting from a linguistic studies point of view now.

 

4- Rachmaninoff

 

5- I'm fine with either, though I'm not into bakunyuu or lolis

 

6- Undoubtedly.  No chuunige has ever suffered so much from its dated visuals and audio than Tsukihime, and I'd love to see how they redid it.

 

7- Hard to say... I generally one-shot nukige and don't replay them when I have my rare surges of strong libido.  Erect is the only one I've played twice... and that is because the story was good.  It doesn't really fit my fetishes though.

 

8- "The story[of my opera] is trite but I believe the cast to be the greatest of all time." ~Mercurius (AKA. Karl Kraft)

 

9- Probably Hapymaher... no other VN ever stunned me based mostly on its soundtrack, though most of Propeller's games have great OSTs as well.

 

10- I don't mind it when the protagonist is being NTRed but I'm possessive by nature so NTR of heroines (or heroes in otomege) just pisses me off/makes me murderous.

 

11- 2012 I think... though back then, it was mostly arguing with Aaeru on IRC.

[Darklord Rooke]

11- 2012 I think... though back then, it was mostly arguing with Aaeru on IRC.

 

It seems a lot of people made that one of their past-times.

[Eclipsed]

who's ur archnemesid

[XReaper]

is the densetsu no yūsha no densetsu series fucking awesome, or is it fucking awesome?!?


 

[Ryechu]

What are your thoughts on working with FuwaReviews - essentially doing exactly what you're currently doing, just on the FuwaReviews site?

 

(If you don't want to have this as a public conversation, let me know in PMs.)

[Clephas]

Did you ever call anime "Japanimation", and did you ever utter the line, "...It's like one of my Japanese animes..."?

 

What advice would you give me if I said I was intending to learn Japanese sometime in the future?

Yes.  Twenty-two years ago, everyone called it Japanimation except that core group of anime pirates who subbed anime and sold VHS's on the black market. No, I never uttered that line... for one thing, I spent most of my time trying to 'corrupt normals' and for another I'd already experienced weirdness with my D&D phase, lol.

 

What advice would I give you...?  Most poeple's brains don't work like mine, or so I have found.  As such, the ability to fill in the gaps to the degree I have is probably abnormal (might be, might not be... but from what other people tell me, it is).  In addition, there is a good reason culture is taught along with the language in most college courses... because Japanese is incomprehensible without a lot of culture background.

 

It seems a lot of people made that one of their past-times.

Yeah, she was fun to argue with... *sighs nostalgically as is required by the Association of Fuwanovel Old Hands*

 

who's ur archnemesid

... I don't have an arch-nemesis, because I keep eating them.  Something about a few years in one of my catgirl utopia stomaches turns all of them into my loyal slaves...

 

is the densetsu no yūsha no densetsu series fucking awesome, or is it fucking friggin' awesome?!?

 

It would be friggin' awesome if they hadn't stopped it so early.

What are your thoughts on working with FuwaReviews - essentially doing exactly what you're currently doing, just on the FuwaReviews site?

 

(If you don't want to have this as a public conversation, let me know in PMs.)

Unlikely, because what I do isn't really a formal review process.  I ignore all aspects other than the story and characters, and I only mention audio or visuals if they hindered or helped the presentation of the story or hit the sweet spot, for the most part.  I've said this repeatedly, but my point of view is that of a person who believes the VN medium exists to facilitate the telling of stories, and my thoughts on VNs are centered around this idea.

[Zalor]

Wow, I remember the first version of this you did. Only if I remember correctly, back then you only gave people 3 days to ask questions. 

 

1) What do you think of the broader VN community (also, specifically what are your relations to/thoughts about TLwiki)?

 

2) Relating to the first question, what is you history with the VN community? Like, how long have you been actively participating on forums about VNs? And retrospectively, how significant/active of a role did you play in those past communities? Do you have fond memories of them?

 

3) You mentioned you have a job. What do you do if you don't mind me asking? 

 

4) You also said that you are in University. Why did you decide to return to school? And furthermore, what are you studying? (if these questions are too personal you don't have to answer). 

 

I'll probably be back for more questions if that's alright. This is all that came to my mind right now.  

[Eclipsed]

(Response to working with Fuwareviews)

 

Unlikely, because what I do isn't really a formal review process.  I ignore all aspects other than the story and characters, and I only mention audio or visuals if they hindered or helped the presentation of the story or hit the sweet spot, for the most part.  I've said this repeatedly, but my point of view is that of a person who believes the VN medium exists to facilitate the telling of stories, and my thoughts on VNs are centered around this idea.

 

What are your thoughts on working with FuwaReviews - essentially doing exactly what you're currently doing, just on the FuwaReviews site?

I think they just want to have your stuff posted on FuwaReviews as opposed to being limited only to the Community Blogs, though if they really do want you to go formal review process then nvm xD

[Clephas]

Wow, I remember the first version of this you did. Only if I remember correctly, back then you only gave people 3 days to ask questions. 

 

1) What do you think of the broader VN community (also, specifically what are your relations to/thoughts about TLwiki)?

 

2) Relating to the first question, what is you history with the VN community? Like, how long have you been actively participating on forums about VNs? And retrospectively, how significant/active of a role did you play in those past communities? Do you have fond memories of them?

 

3) You mentioned you have a job. What do you do if you don't mind me asking? 

 

4) You also said that you are in University. Why did you decide to return to school? And furthermore, what are you studying? (if these questions are too personal you don't have to answer). 

 

I'll probably be back for more questions if that's alright. This is all that came to my mind right now.  

1) No real relation to TLwiki, though some of their old hands were fansubbers a while back and so I knew them from elsewhere.  To be honest, most devoted VN communities tend to be insanely insular... I stick with Fuwa, because even now it is still gentle on the beginners and the old hands, thus meaning I don't feel ashamed to be a part of it.

 

2) I was mostly on my own with the VN community, save for fellow fansubbers/translators until I got introduced to Fuwanovel.  While I was active in the IRC channel during its (brief) heyday, I didn't get really active in the community until mid to late 2012.  I did dabble in Hongfire, but I mostly spent my time finding my own ways to my entertainment and consuming the stuff my friend in Japan tried to sell me on.

 

3) I ghost write... I used to mostly do scut-work like editing romance novels and essays.  However, nowadays, I have regular work fixing up engineering manuals and internal reports at several corporations.

 

4) I wanted to widen my horizons, mostly... that and one of the companies I contracted with offered to pay my way to a bachelor's degree in exchange for not going to court with them over contract 'irreglarities'.  I'm currently majoring in Linguistics and Japanese, lol.

[Zalor]

I'm currently majoring in Linguistics and Japanese, lol.

 

Lol, you must have tested in to the highest level Japanese classes available. Out of curiosity, what does this entail? (since you already know the language). Like, do the professors give you graduate level work or something? Also, to what degree are you focusing on Japanese literature? (I'm extra curious because I'm also likely going to major in Japanese. Only I'm still a novice at the language). 

[Mugi]

What's your opinion on Katawa Shoujo?

As a long time otaku, how do you feel about dakimakuras? Do you own any? What about figures? 

Do you read books often? If so, i'm in need of a good read, what would you recommend?

[Clephas]

Mmm... I tested out of the four levels of Japanese, so that requirement is well behind me (though I got warnings about my horrible handwriting, lol).  In exchange, I'm currently considering adding Russian or Arabic for my second language requirement, since Chinese is too confusing for someone who has learned Japanese.  I'm not going for a Masters, unless someone gives me a convincing argument as to why I should bother... the cost is comparatively astronomical, and the deal doesn't cover anything beyond a Bachelors.  For the fourth level test, I was given Ningen Shikkaku to read and write an essay on in Japanese as well as an extensive written test and a verbal test.  That took me the better part of a month, even with the basic kanji-conversion software, because of my need to constantly go back and check the lines after I'd written them to make sure I'd picked out the right kanji... 

 

Also, literature-focused degrees are worthless, so don't bother, if you want to make money off your education.  Go for straight translation and transliteration focus if you absolutely have to have a language-related degree.  To make a living off of language-related degrees, you have to go for a teaching degree or be lucky enough to be taken on by a company that needs translation work done.

[Clephas]

What's your opinion on Katawa Shoujo?

As a long time otaku, how do you feel about dakimakuras? Do you own any? What about figures? 

Do you read books often? If so, i'm in need of a good read, what would you recommend?

I played it, it was good, but I don't have a desire to play it again, because it doesn't really stand out except for the disabled theme.

 

... I'm not good at dealing with half-assed crap.  Let me into the 2D world and I'll be happy, but dakis are a waste of time.  I got over buying figures during my D&D addiction. 

 

I read books constantly, though for fiction I prefer fantasy or sci-fi, with an occasional protagonist-as-assassin-or-spy thriller.  For military sci-fi, I recommend the Honor Harrington series (by David Weber) or Theirs is Not to Reason Why (by Jean Johnson), for cultural sci-fi the Foreigner series, and for blood-and-guts science fantasy, I recommend the good old Deathstalker series (simply because Green is so good at doing the screwy stuff with a side of explosions and bursting entrails).  For fantasy, I generally recommend David Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen or Glen Cook's Black Company for the darker stuff (no, I don't like Martin, because he doesn't have a sense of humor in Game of Thrones).  For general tongue-in-cheek hilarity in fantasy that surpasses generations, David Eddings is fairly awesome, though you can tell he is from the WWII generation.  The Second Sons Trilogy by Fallon is pretty good if you like a political-religious focused fantasy with a strong anti-superstition theme.  For urban fantasy, give me the Dresden Files any day.

 

Edit: Incidentally, I cried like a small child for about seven hours when I heard about David Eddings's death only two years after his wife and co-writer, Leigh's death... He was the guy who broke me out of my serial fantasy addiction and widened my fantasy addiction to encompass something other than Tolkien and variations on D&D novels.

 

Edit2: Also, something to keep in mind about the FuwaReviews issue... I just don't have the energy to always follow the same pattern.  In most cases, I'm basically putting my thoughts down as they come to me in the blog, with a consideration toward overcoming (or at least warning about) my own bias.  I never offered or was offered a chance to join FuwaReviews, and considering its primary focus on translated VNs, it was never really an option anyway.

[Narcosis]

Since you finished Tenkiame a while ago, which of the two girls have you found to like more? What are your thoughts?

(I know, it's a difficult question )

[Clephas]

Since you finished Tenkiame a while ago, which of the two girls have you found to like more? What are your thoughts?

(I know, it's a difficult question )

Definitely Shiro, despite the loli-ness... I thought Kon's character was a bit forced at times, whereas Shiro felt pretty natural.

[Zodai]

What kinds of steps do you think the OELVN industry will need to take in order to reach an equal level of respect to the Japanese VN industry?  Do you think it has the potential for VNs to become a more well-known part of gaming in general?