Is Moenovel the 4Kids of VNs?

[Happiness+]

 I heard that this company is trying to market to 12 year old french girls, which is cool and all.

But let's be honest the VN market is mainly a sasusage-fest of bros who like their 2D waifus uncensored.

So, it perplexes me that they are keeping them censored, removing routes, and some cases redrawing CGs.

But whatever, hopefully their sales figures make them wake up from their delusion.

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Happiness+
clarity

[VirginSmasher]

MoeNovel is like the EA of VN localization. They always do shit to fuck up their image, like censoring VNs and releasing bad translations, and they only keep doing it to profit from Steam VN sales. Luckily, Miagete Goran didn't sell well apparently and if Cross Channel fails, there's a likely chance they may not stick around.

[Dreamysyu]

So, does it make them 4YoungFrenchGirls?

~~~

More seriously, I saw it being mentioned in different discussions and I have a good idea about it, but what exactly is 4Kids?

[Ranzo]

14 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

So, does it make them 4YoungFrenchGirls?

~~~

More seriously, I saw it being mentioned in different discussions and I have a good idea about it, but what exactly is 4Kids?

4Kids used to be a American television production company. They  licensed a bunch of anime back in the 90s/00s

They typically heavily censored and cut content for children. Yugioh is one of their most infamous licensing debacles. Yugioh Abridged constantly parodied 4kids.

Apparently they are now bankrupt.

[VirginSmasher]

5 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

4Kids used to be a American television production company. They  licensed a bunch of anime back in the 90s/00s

They typically heavily censored and cut content for children. Yugioh is one of their most infamous licensing debacles. Yugioh Abridged constantly parodied 4kids.

Apparently they are now bankrupt.

And hopefully that's how MoeNovel ends up in a couple of years.

[bakauchuujin]

5 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

And hopefully that's how MoeNovel ends up in a couple of years.

I would say hopefully that's how they end up before the end of the year.

[VirginSmasher]

1 minute ago, bakauchuujin said:

I would say hopefully that's how they end up before the end of the year.

That's being too hopeful, but I'm glad you're ambitious.

[EastCoastDrifter]

More or more, yes. Moenovel is like 4kids, but also like EA like @VirginSmasher said.

[Silvz]

5 hours ago, Ranzo said:

4Kids used to be a American television production company. They  licensed a bunch of anime back in the 90s/00s

They typically heavily censored and cut content for children. Yugioh is one of their most infamous licensing debacles. Yugioh Abridged constantly parodied 4kids.

Apparently they are now bankrupt.

Don't forget Pokémon. There are many famous issues with Pokémon's dub and many redrawings that didn't make any sense. And then there is the whole Taurus situation, when they completely banned an episode that then got a recurring joke in the anime.

[McDerpingheimer III]

They’re not 4kids until they replace Cross Channel’s OP with a rap

[solidbatman]

Has Moenovel released anything other than that one pulltop vn?

[Kabu]

As bad as 4kids are when it comes to censoring and americanizing their content, I think that their dubs are still really fun to watch, especially Pokemon. Moenovel however just should not be acknowledged or thought of pleasantly in any way whatsoever. Really this comparison is just an insult to 4kids. Even EA is still better than Moenovel.

[milkteebaby]

A little off topic, but as awful as 4kids is, has anyone seen what Bandai did to Escaflowne? *dies*

(Now that I think about, I think 4kids also did a dub of One Piece...which I have rather conveniently scrubbed from my mind...)

Honestly, though, I'll all for a company that attempts to broaden the audience. Growing up in Asia, I knew a lot of 12 year old girls played VNs and otome games  (myself included). 

[solidbatman]

5 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

Yeah, those LoveKami spinoff...things...and MiaZora.

so some garbage basically. I would hope that decreasing sales would force the company to reevaluate their methods and work for a higher TL quality. The problem though, is something Mangagamer has struggled with before. VNs just don't sell well at all. Hard to want to pump money into a good translation knowing you likely won't make the money back, or just break even. 

 

[Darklord Rooke]

8 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

More seriously, I saw it being mentioned in different discussions and I have a good idea about it, but what exactly is 4Kids?

Check out this video if you want a feel of the anime community's angst with 4kids:

 

[solidbatman]

Steam was a double edged sword. One the one hand, it did wonders for getting VNs overseas that I never believed would be legally sold in the west. However, as you pointed out, VNs gaining in popularity somewhat also created a bit more of an ignorant market for VNs. I often find translation debates overblown since in most cases, the original meaning gets across (generally), but Moenovel has been something of an exception to that. 

5 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

MiaZora was fairly good, from what I hear, but yeah, the LoveKami spinoffs were uninspired Sakura Spirit knockoffs, so complete garbage.

I wouldn't expect that to happen anytime soon.  They contract out to translation firms for TLs, so unless they actually hire permanent translation staff or attract some decent freelancers, there won't be an improvement in quality, and there's no reason for them to care, honestly.  The people that buy MoeNovel's games don't seem to be aware or even care all that much about the TL quality of the Japanese games they buy, so why should they put any effort into improving their TL quality?

They probably need to be forced into an adapt-or-die situation to see the error of their ways, but I just can't see that happening anytime soon, unfortunately.  They have a pretty decent-sized following that will buy whatever they put out, and the average Steam user only seems to care about price and art quality, not readability or good prose.

 

[VirginSmasher]

2 hours ago, solidbatman said:

Steam was a double edged sword. One the one hand, it did wonders for getting VNs overseas that I never believed would be legally sold in the west. However, as you pointed out, VNs gaining in popularity somewhat also created a bit more of an ignorant market for VNs. I often find translation debates overblown since in most cases, the original meaning gets across (generally), but Moenovel has been something of an exception to that. 

 

As I've said before, Steam helped flourish VN localization in the West, yet it killed the quality of translations in the process.

[bakauchuujin]

3 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

They probably need to be forced into an adapt-or-die situation to see the error of their ways, but I just can't see that happening anytime soon, unfortunately.  They have a pretty decent-sized following that will buy whatever they put out, and the average Steam user only seems to care about price and art quality, not readability or good prose.

Atleast it seems like A sky full of stars have sold rather poorly, according to steamspy. Hopefully this doesn't change much when they have massive sales in the future.

Edited March 19, 2018 by bakauchuujin

[Darklord Rooke]

4 minutes ago, bakauchuujin said:

Atleast it seems like A sky full of stars have sold rather poorly, according to steamspy. Hopefully this doesn't change much when they have massive sales in the future.

It's an indication of how far the VN industry has come in the West when 5,000 sales is considered to have sold poorly. A few years ago 2,000 sales was a blockbuster xD

[bakauchuujin]

19 minutes ago, Darklord Rooke said:

It's an indication of how far the VN industry has come in the West when 5,000 sales is considered to have sold poorly. A few years ago 2,000 sales was a blockbuster xD

Atleast it is poorly compared to their other titles, though the other titles have already had sales and humble bundles which ofc makes a lot of sales. Their marketing strategy seems to be to sell lots of copies rather cheap, $17.99 for A sky full of stars, as well as having a 10% sale at the start. 

 

3 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

and the average Steam user only seems to care about price and art quality, not readability or good prose.

I wonder about whether or not the art of Cross†Channel will appeal to the steam crowd or not, if not maybe the sales will be really poor since I think most people who really like the title are informed and therefore hates Moenovel

[Happiness+]

6 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

If anything, I think the story will ultimately piss off most of MoeNovel's demographic

How so?

[VirginSmasher]

2 hours ago, Happiness+ said:

How so?

It's got a different style of story-telling and isn't a moege in the slightest. MoeNovel's fans are definitely moege-fans so a serious story won't really be to their tastes.

[Dreamysyu]

4 hours ago, Happiness+ said:

How so?

1 hour ago, VirginSmasher said:

It's got a different style of story-telling and isn't a moege in the slightest. MoeNovel's fans are definitely moege-fans so a serious story won't really be to their tastes.

I think, the biggest problem isn't that the story is serious, but how disturbing it gets sometimes. I know some communities which tend to dislike works as long as they get even slightly dark, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Moenovel fans are like that.

[VirginSmasher]

35 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

I think, the biggest problem isn't that the story is serious, but how disturbing it gets sometimes. I know some communities which tend to dislike works as long as they get even slightly dark, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Moenovel fans are like that.

12 year old French girls do scare easily. w

[Okarin]

On 18/3/2018 at 6:19 PM, Happiness+ said:

 But let's be honest the VN market is mainly a sasusage-fest of bros who like their 2D waifus uncensored.

 

This might be the majority, indeed, but there are some genuine VN readers who don't buy into the H scenes' typical... cringe. I either read them with a poker face or skip them if they're really bad.

I bought Miagete Goran on Steam because the price was reasonable, I wouldn't miss the H (though Konosora's seemed fine), and everyone praised it. It's a lil' bit more boring than Konosora, but I think I'll manage to read it completely, I've read worse.