Anime Expo 2017 VN License Announcements

[Tamaki Sakura]

1 hour ago, DharmaFreedom said:

I think ultimately, us readers won AX  , there's just so many choices, something for everyone and its not even the last convention of the year. Pretty content with the announcements. 

This is the correct answer.

[littleshogun]

4 hours ago, DharmaFreedom said:

I think ultimately, us readers won AX  , there's just so many choices, something for everyone and its not even the last convention of the year. Pretty content with the announcements. 

Well, I guess you got a good point there. Although if someone ask 'Which VN localization company that won AX this year?', then once again I would answer Mangagamer.

Edited July 4, 2017 by littleshogun

[Tyr]

9 hours ago, Decay said:

The "scene" being cut is a 10 line bestiality sequence with a CG attached. It's a very small part of a bigger scene, and its loss isn't of particular importance to the rest of the VN.

For the last 5 years, every time somebody mentions the bestiality scene, there was always someone who told you how important that scene is, totally deep and full with philosophy and stuff.

Now it's just ten lines and not important at all.

I love these shifts in the narrative as soon as a game is being localized. I hope you get paid for this, you are really good.

[Decay]

5 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

For the last 5 years, every time somebody mentions the bestiality scene, there was always someone who told you how important that scene is, totally deep and full with philosophy and stuff.

Now it's just ten lines and not important at all.

I love these shifts in the narrative as soon as a game is being localized. I hope you get paid for this, you are really good.

I have no idea who was saying that, but I've seen the scene and there's really nothing deeper to it. There's a definite argument to be had for the effect it has on the tone of the surrounding parts of the story, but it has no real philosophical depth or anything.

edit: It literally is 10 to 15 lines though.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Decay

[Tyr]

4 minutes ago, Decay said:

I have no idea who was saying that, but I've seen the scene and there's really nothing deeper to it. There's a definite argument to be had for the effect it has on the tone of the surrounding parts of the story, but it has no real philosophical depth or anything.

I'm was not necessary implying that you are wrong. Just saying that it's the complete opposite of what Subahibi fanboys were saying about that particular scene until now. I think that are two very biased statements and the truth is probably somewhere between and is certainly a subjective one.
However, my admiration for you turning around an established narrative and everyone going with it is sincere. Shows how much power your words have.

[kyrt]

I've updated the first post with information about Frontwing's reveals. We actually have more information about Momoiro Closet and how the subahibi release is being handled.

A kickstarter is going to be going up for Subahibi with a prefundia within this week. They say it's primarily for physical goods but I'm not completely sure how it would be handled if it fails to meet the kickstarter. 

Momoiro Closet will have multiple routes and the protagonist is female. A bit more information was given about it as well...no images yet.

[Mr Poltroon]

4 minutes ago, kyrt said:

Momoiro Closet will have multiple routes and the protagonist is female. A bit more information was given about it as well...no images yet.

!!!

[kyrt]

Frontwing is also potentially going to be working further with KeroQ depending on how Subahibi does...this could be good news and is good incentive to support it if you want more KeroQ-ish games. They also have a partnership with Akabei Soft2 so one of the secret projects could be another game from them. I think it's much more likely though that one of them is Frontwing's fantasy game and phantom trigger vol.4

[Fred the Barber]

30 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

However, my admiration for you turning around an established narrative and everyone going with it is sincere. Shows how much power your words have.

FWIW, Decay isn't the first or only person I've seen claiming this. Maybe it's just the places I frequent, but I actually haven't seen a single person pitching the claim that the scene is actually important. I wouldn't know either way; haven't read the game, or even read any commentary on it until this came up yesterday.

[yorikbad]

It's clear, that Frontwing losses the AX. The most anticipated titles are being pushed to 2018 and Subahibi suffers from deleted content. It's funny, that, apparently, from the lawyer's point of view lolis are fine and bestiality is not. Regardless, I'm more worried about Subahibi TL quality. I heard it has quite unordinary "crazy" style of writing.

[DharmaFreedom]

I don't know subahibi and i can't imagine how important a bestiality scene is, but 10-15 lines is actually a lot of lines. So much can be said with those lines, so much can be conveyed if used properly. For example: 

Quote

 

One day, around 5th August, when I had taken a brief rest from work and was walking down Gęsia Street, I happened to see Janusz Korczak and his orphans leaving the ghetto. The evacuation of the Jewish orphanage run by Janusz Korczak had been ordered for that morning.

The children were to have been taken away alone. He had the chance to save himself, and it was only with difficulty that he persuaded the Germans to take him too. He had spent long years of his life with children and now, on this last journey, he could not leave them alone. He wanted to ease things for them.

He told the orphans they were going out into the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood. The little column was led by an SS man who loved children, as Germans do, even those he was about to see on their way into the next world. He took a special liking to a boy of twelve, a violinist who had his instrument under his arm. The SS man told him to go to the head of the procession of children and play – and so they set off.

When I met them in Gęsia Street, the smiling children were singing in chorus, the little violinist was playing for them and Korczak was carrying two of the smallest infants, who were beaming too, and telling them some amusing story. I am sure that even in the gas chamber, as the Zyklon B gas was stifling childish throats and striking terror instead of hope into the orphans' hearts, the Old Doctor must have whispered with one last effort, ‘it's all right, children, it will be all right’. So that at least he could spare his little charges the fear of passing from life to death." – The Pianist

 

Thats like 13-15 lines i think. So it depends on the scene in the Vn and what's being said and how its used to invoke particular thoughts and feelings from the reader. All i'm saying is 10-15 lines can mean a lot. 

Edited July 4, 2017 by DharmaFreedom

[Chuee]

I don't think anyone's ever said the bestiality scene was essential to the story, in fact it's probably the least important h-scene in the game, and it's the shortest. Hell, the bestiality is only a PART of an overall scene that starts with like 20-30 lines of masturbation. If they cut it right you won't even lose any information, you just won't actually see the act take place. 

[kyrt]

I believe censorship no matter the cause is a slippery slope and one we should be cautious of. That said part of me thinks the lack of mosaics is partially in response to the fact they had to cut that scene...a compromise of sorts. I'm still going to purchase it but I don't fault anyone for not reading it if it compromises their stance on censorship. 

 

[Fred the Barber]

3 hours ago, kyrt said:

I believe censorship no matter the cause is a slippery slope and one we should be cautious of. That said part of me thinks the lack of mosaics is partially in response to the fact they had to cut that scene...a compromise of sorts. I'm still going to purchase it but I don't fault anyone for not reading it if it compromises their stance on censorship.

This isn't some weird game where they're trying to push censorship on us; they don't gain anything by that, and they know it upsets people. I'd bet the story is much simpler than that explanation: they know what upsets the English VN reading community, and they're trying to 1) eliminate all of it if possible, minimize it if not, and 2) be very transparent about where they have been unsuccessful at eliminating it. Frontwing has been doing mosaic-free EN releases for a while now (CoroBlo vol. 2 was their first, I'm fairly certain, and IIRC they even went back and de-mosaiced vol. 1 after that?). This isn't a change in their current plans, and it's not intended as a compromise. They're just doing the best they can, without assuming an unacceptable amount of risk, given their legal concerns.

I also want to add that I have massive respect for Frontwing's transparency for what they knew would be an unpopular call, and for the fact that they haven't been trying to rationalize it away. I know it's honestly asking for a lot, since the people messaging and marketing these English releases are typically publishers with only a tenuous relationship with actual license holders (Frontwing honestly probably has an advantage over the other localizers in this regard...), but I sincerely wish we always had this kind of transparency around VN releases, given the fairly regular controversy that often surrounds them. I'm an optimist: I tend to believe that the VN localization companies' interests are actually pretty closely aligned with those of the fans (since, you know, all of the people working there are, themselves, fans, and it's not like they're making a lot of money in this business; kind of the only rational explanation, really... but I digress). However, most of the VN community is not equally trusting. My hope is that, if localization companies can always communicate issues like this so early and so clearly, maybe they can actually start building some trust with the more pessimistic members of the community.

[Being]

It's fucking scummy to keep this shit in the dark, so yeah, kudos to FrontWing for being transparent about what they're censoring. Also, remember that even though it's a pretty small piece of censorship, it could be more important next time so as a principle it's a good to take the anti censorship stance seriously. The more they get used to that censorship is ok the worse the censorship is gonna get, they've got to know that the audience is displeased about decisions like this, even if it is relatively small concern to most... you may say it's only a 10-15 line scene but this scene adds shock value to a chapter that was meant to be completely miserable, so it's still unfortunate that it is removed since it will be a memorable portion of the game for a lot of people. It doesn't ruin the game, no, far from it, but it takes away a tiny piece of it, however insignificant it may seem.

Not really disappointed or anything because at least they understand that you gain more respect by announcing these decisions than by just randomly doing them and it coming as a surprise to the readers, and at least it is a relatively unimportant scene. It's hard to speak out too much against this censorship but I insist that censorship is bad and if they take away anything you will really miss you must make it known tbh

[Freestyle80]

23 hours ago, DharmaFreedom said:

I think ultimately, us readers won AX  , there's just so many choices, something for everyone and its not even the last convention of the year. Pretty content with the announcements. 

compared to a couple years ago this is a massive improvement indeed, i'm happy VNs are much bigger now

[Nier]

12 hours ago, Being said:

Not really disappointed

I am not disappointed because it's on PC and that means that eventually someone could patch in the censored content.

 

8 hours ago, Freestyle80 said:

compared to a couple years ago this is a massive improvement indeed, i'm happy VNs are much bigger now

Hell, 4 years ago I pretty much could keep up with the english released VN, but now so much stuff is releasing that I can't even keep up with it, more stuff is getting released than I can read,k that's a good thing!

Edited July 5, 2017 by Nier

[Tamaki Sakura]

If you think you're going to have to censor something, you shouldn't be releasing the game in the first place. Not because the it's bad, but because it should be left for those who would release it uncensored. IOW, SubaHibi should've gone to MangaGamer.

[Nier]

5 minutes ago, Tamaki Sakura said:

If you think you're going to have to censor something, you shouldn't be releasing the game in the first place. Not because the it's bad, but because it should be left for those who would release it uncensored. IOW, SubaHibi should've gone to MangaGamer.

Yep yep, some of the content in euphoria and Maggot Bait is a lot more hardcore than this and it wasn't censored, while in comparison this was pretty tame but still cut from the game.

Operation Rainfall basically shows you what was censored here:

http://operationrainfall.com/2017/07/03/ax-2017-frontwing-panel-announcements/

Edited July 6, 2017 by Nier

[iamnoob]

Wait Wait Wait...... SEKAI IS DOING 2 YUZUSOFT TITLES?

Senran Banka and Dracu Riot?!

[Decay]

1 hour ago, iamnoob said:

Wait Wait Wait...... SEKAI IS DOING 2 YUZUSOFT TITLES?

Senran Banka and Dracu Riot?!

And Tenshin Ranman. So three Yuzusoft titles!

Edited July 6, 2017 by Decay

[Tamaki Sakura]

2 hours ago, Nier said:

Yep yep, some of the content in euphoria and Maggot Bait is a lot more hardcore than this and it wasn't censored, while in comparison this was pretty tame but still cut from the game.

Operation Rainfall basically shows you what was censored here:

http://operationrainfall.com/2017/07/03/ax-2017-frontwing-panel-announcements/

I was imagining something much worse. That CG doesn't show anything due to clothing and the camera angle. Gimme a break, FW.

[Decay]

In this case, it's not really about the explicitness, but the context of the scene as well as the relative level of realism (which may make it more objectionable in some governments' eyes than fantasy stuff like maggot baits or bbh). Lawyers told them to remove it, so they did.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Decay

[Dergonu]

Since it is such a short scene, hopefully someone can make a fan patch rather quickly, to restore the censored content. 

[DharmaFreedom]

13 minutes ago, Decay said:

context of the scene

Could you spoil the scene for me? I shuddered when i saw the cg. 

Spoiler

I assumed it'll be some kind of twisted dream sequence, it looks more like rape and bullying instead. 

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by DharmaFreedom