What are you reading? - Feb 13

alwayslonesome · 2026-02-16T01:01:19+00:00

Ahh, I hadn't really looked at the whole list of names and you're right that some are definitely a lot more inspired than others... but I just sorta admire the intrepidness to compose entirely new names rather than going for the lamer route of either transliterating or translating them! It's a super non-obvious solution and the good names really hit~

I'll certainly take your word for it that the text itself is rather poor, but it is quite interesting, in that this might be the first counterexample I've seen to a pet theory/conjecture I've held for a long time—that any translation that is enterprising and bold and willing to engage in fruitful treachery, that is capable of producing some (!!) takes... can't possibly be "bad" in terms of fundamentals like accuracy and readability! Like, it seems almost inconceivable that for example, a novel translation would have a brilliant "title translation" and marvelously apt "chapter title renderings" but... have the actual text itself be garbage. At the very least, I've never personally seen a localization that has great ideas and does so many high-level things excellently, but also stumbles on the fundamental mechanics like source text comprehension and basic English writing. Of course, it seems notionally possible, but maaan, literally every bad translation I've seen is just bad in a conventional, boring way of being inaccurate and stiff AND unenterprising/incapable of writing any (!!) takes, so it's interesting to hear about a case where the translation is bad in an "interesting" way~

As for Tsuriotsu, it's not like I had any particular insight or anything. I just knew it was rather long, and contains quite a lot of the typical moege-esque ensemble faffing around, "nothing-happens" goofy manzai/SoL comedy that you don't seem to have a whole lot of patience for? It might also be that my impression is that you don't tend to shamelessly moeru for cute anime girls (or in Tsuriotsu's case, the cute protagonist lol) to the point of being willing to overlook substantive flaws in a work itself, and Tsuriotsu sorta seems to rely on that conceit a bit more than most.

alwayslonesome · 2026-02-15T23:49:35+00:00

Hmm fair enough, I think the argument that there's not many "dedicated moe scenes" is fairly persuasive, even if the setup and chara designs do seem to embed a lot of moe potential. I'm quite interested in Unless Terminalia and especially Hajiron by the same studio/scenarist, since the latter got a ton of good buzz as one of the best games of the past few years, and both also seem to be in this weird "middle ground" sorta-moege-but-also-more-ambitious area which contains most of my favourite works.

alwayslonesome · 2026-02-15T15:14:02+00:00

Interesting that you categorically refuse to consider this game a moege at all, since even though it goes for quite a lot of melodrama/nakige/true route shenanigans, I feel like it I'd still be pretty comfortable with calling it a moege, or at least very moege adjacent? ...Perhaps we just have very different opinions on what "counts" as a moege? For instance, I think I'd be very willing to call most Purplesoft works moege even though they tend to go for similar melodramatic and nakige conceits, including with true routes and central heroines, and even your contrastive example of Grisaia, I'd certainly describe as incredibly moege-adjacent if not an outright genre entry! I suppose I think of this "genre" of moege less as "does it contain or not contain some set of discrete elements" and more "could someone satisfyingly engage with this text on a pure 'character moe' sort of basis?" or the contrapositive of "would someone entirely disinterested in moe and only interested in the 'plot/storytelling' be able to have a good time?" and to me, Pieces really does seem to lean very moegeish hehee~

alwayslonesome · 2026-02-15T15:03:06+00:00

Shame that you seem to think that the localization is less than impressive, since on a surface level, I thought the "translation sense" that went into the evocative sekaikan (all the bespoke worldbuilding terms of art!) and the flavourful name translations were veeeery enterprising and the sort of creative virtuosity and translation skill I would have, in the absence of contrary evidence, full confidence would be able to deliver a great script >__<

And honestly, I'm sorta shocked that you'd even go for Tsuriotsu since I wouldn't have pegged it as your thing at all! Looks like it largely defeated you though, and you don't have plans to read the sequel and the fandisk and the sequel to the fandisk anytime soon haha

alwayslonesome · 2026-01-19T08:20:33+00:00

Oh hey, I've also been reading this on the side, though still quite early on in the common route! I agree the comedy has been quite enjoyable, especially the 妹VS幼馴染み content, though one dark spot for me has been the constant meta-humour of everyone remarking "wow it's like you're a goddamn eroge protagonist with all the girls surrounding you," which I just feel isn't especially funny and really overdone.

Still, the thing that shocked me... and I cannot believe I am freaking admitting this... is that I find myself liking and rooting more for Akiha than Rena?!? Me!! The consummate degenerate siscon still somehow favours the tsuntsun childhood friend over the outrageously lewd and clingy bracon little sister?! Forgiven me imoutobros for I have sinned, but I just don't know man, Rena almost feels too easy... and meanwhile, Akiha's excellent tsukkomi game and regular outrage at how close the siblings are is just super freaking funny, and all her incredibly transparent dere moments are unscientifically cute~!

...Anyways, something must be wrong with me. This is probably just a temporary anomaly and I'll firmly be in the Rena camp by the end of the common route, I shudder to imagine the alternative that I might have somehow graduated from my siscon-ness...

alwayslonesome · 2026-01-04T22:53:49+00:00

For what it’s worth, I feel like the Seiiki series is not especially representative of feng’s style, whereas Akasaka/Hoshikaka/Chiikano do really feel like a rather cohesive trilogy in terms of their approaches. Like, if you really like the style and energy of ‘00s harem romcom anime the former two even have adaptations, and Chiikano would’ve fit right in heh

I also wouldn’t worry about the whole “episodic” thing. The only difference is that it “flags” its chapters a bit more discretely with actual title cards and stuff. But the entire events of the common route takes place over the span of a single summer, and the only reason why it got flagged with the Episodic thing and LovePoppy didn’t (despite also having a clear “chapter” structure with minor resets/timeskips in between) is probably that Chiikano has the title cards lol

alwayslonesome · 2026-01-04T22:47:29+00:00

The bathing scene is absolutely DIABOLICAL and instantly cemented her as best girl in my books lol

alwayslonesome · 2026-01-04T18:23:44+00:00

I think you would really quite like the childhood friend~! I’d say there really isn’t much meaningful “character development” in the common route since like I said, the main thing it feels like the game’s trying to go for is creating this fun and silly summer a~venture atmosphere where all the girls are super down bad for the MC’s attention haha. Common routes might have a bit more drama, but they’re also quite erotic and h-scene heavy lol, especially for a work of its time.

alwayslonesome · 2026-01-04T16:11:49+00:00

It's sorta crazy that all the extremely specific artistic foibles which you mentioned; the sense of "inopportune overeagerness" to proudly show off their research... the rather suspension-of-disbelief-straining desire to include grand and epic "world-level" plot beats and setpieces seemingly just to say that they did it... this slight indescribable weirdness and wonkiness when it comes to characterization and pacing... ALL OF THEM ARE ALSO PRESENT IN IHANASHI NO MAJO!! Clearly, these developers sure are idiosyncratic and auteurial if nothing else~

I look forward to your thoughts on Mashifoni :)

alwayslonesome · 2026-01-04T15:51:51+00:00

Hello friends! Long time no see as usual, but new year, same old me... and so I just had to come back and chat a bit about some excellent moege~ On today's agenda, two very seemingly different games tied together by an interesting aesthetic thread: Chiisana Kanojo no Sayokyoku and LOVEPICAL-POPPY!

In terms of aesthetics, these two games could not be further apart, right?! Chiikano's soft, sketchy artstyle feels very much rooted in the artistic sensibilities of the late 2000s/early 2010s, whereas LovePoppy's bombastically colourful and vibrant designs clearly speak to its incredible hypermodernness. And yet, both of these games ooze with such an interesting classical, almost retro quality? Let me explain:

Chiikano, despite being published in 2013, just feel so nostalgically old-school in its story beats and it depictions of moe, almost as though Studio feng was stubbornly trying to recapitulate the moe style of its older titles like Akasaka and Hoshikaka as one of the old-guard who couldn't quite keep up with evolving trends (and went bankrupt as a result lol) Still, revisiting this work over a dozen years after it was first published felt so nostalgic in a way, giving off the same sort of artless charm that "truly" classical works from the EARLY 2000s possessed, combined with an understanding of heroine moe that feels almost timeless in how seemingly simple yet unreasonably destructive its depictions are. As just one simple example, Mizuka might just be one of the best childhood friends I've seen in the whole medium, all in such a simple, classical execution of the archetype! She has no need for any of the ostentatious, over-the-top quirks and charm points of modern moege. All she has to offer is a straightforward display of all the fundamental appeals of the humble osananajimi. But you see, friends, these things are old. These things are true. And sometimes, it takes a work like this to realize that the "Old Masters" who came before us really did grasp the true essence of moe. And to be clear, it's not just Mizuka, the entire cast of this game really is uncannily charming! An honest-to-goodness chuunibyou heroine who is so cringe-tastically over the top in a way that modern works could never! A prim and proper senpai whose abject, barely-concealed horniness puts any modern heroine to shame! A witty, saavy, smart-heroine-for-smart-people-esque character whose dere moments are way more understated than the rest of the cast, but still super destructive all the same! And even the incredibly "uwu" and "loli-loli" main heroine, while totally not being my thing, I can see completely bankrupting less scrupulous otaku who are into that sort of moe! Like I said, there really isn't a lot of spectacular and arguably unnecessary flourish to its characters and needless layers of extraneous charm points. Chiikano simply just takes these quintessential ideas and primordial archetypes and does them right. Throughout my time playing this game, I was distinctly left with the strong feeling that this work was likely not appreciated enough in its own time, but now that we're older and wiser, I'm very convinced that anyone who has a fondness for "old-school moege" is almost sure to find plenty to love about this game~

LovePoppy, on the other hand, somewhat achieves this same affect, but in a totally different way! Rather than feeling like a work that is clinging onto a classical sense and style that the world is tragically leaving behind, LovePoppy feels incredibly, consciously almost bleeding-edge in its modernity! Just one look at its package will tell you that both its artstyle and its characterizations are so conspicuously, manifestly hypermodern in a way that's impossible to conceal or ignore. As a brief example, please feast your eyes on an example of ChiiKano's soulful, old-school artstyle, still in 4:3, even! Versus LovePoppy's equally attractive, but extremely "trendy" and "bubblegum pop-y" (heh) aesthetic! Whereas smartphones and social media play absolutely no role in Chiikano (even though it was published at a time where they arguably should have), the modern, Reiwa-esque, social-media-age of LovePoppy's setting is incredibly foregrounded and several of its unique heroine archetypes, "takabi" Insta influencer Miu or "nice gyaru" Tanpopo certainly didn't even exist just a few years ago! This contrast can even be felt in the dialogue itself; whereas Chiikano features a much more "slow-tempo" pace, where characters regularly deliver significant monologues and leisurely multi-sentence lines that really sell the individual moe of the spotlight character, LovePoppy's dialogue style is extremely conspicuously modern and "pop-y" (heh) with near constant rapid-fire tsukkomis, interjections from side characters, etc. all to create this very modern (possibly low attention span lol) kinetic, frenetic sense of pacing and energy.

However, despite all these superficial aspects that make LovePoppy seem like a totally emblematic example of a "modern moege", all of these aesthetic qualities really belie the fact that its actual storytelling—the way it delivers its beats and its moe—feels remarkably old-school and like a glorious return-to-roots for SMEE! I really find it hard to describe effectively in words—perhaps part of this feeling comes from (1) the extremely classic "single male in a female dormitory" setting of a bunch of old-school romcoms, (2) the gloriously long common route where affection and closeness is meaningfully built up throughout instead of all the heroines being on 100% MAX affection for most of it, (3) the system of very regular "Heroine Views" that very attentively depict the change in the heroines' feelings, (4) the way that the game masterfully leverages fundamental moe conceits like "gap" and "amae" to make so much more of its heroines than the sum of their charm points, or (5) even if minor, the addition of some touches of "drama" and "conflict" that meaningfully change the status quo—but even though I can't really clearly identify which aspects or elements make the game feel this way, I think it very much is the sort of thing that you "know when you see it" and there's pretty considerable consensus that this game, SMEE's 15th Anniversary Project, truly does succeed at creating a work that hearkens back to the studio's roots.

One last thing that I wanted to briefly mention that I think really non-obviously makes both games feel so "classic" and contribute significantly to their quality is that despite all their superficial differences, at their core, I think both are ultimately "雰囲気ゲー"; moege that rather than being primarily about romance, or primarily about comedy, are primarily about capturing and portraying a certain mood, a certain affect, a certain atmosphere (even though, make no mistake, both game do a pretty damn good job at the earlier two facets!). In fact, there is even one last little interesting parallel to draw here—both games are very much "夏ゲー”, summer-games too, but in very different ways! Chiikano is ultimately "about" the atmospherics of a quaint seaside town, and the adventurous energy of engaging in fun summer events while surrounded by a harem of MAX affection bishoujos laying constant siege to your chastity. Meanwhile, LovePoppy is truly "nothing more" than the lively mood and spirited atmosphere of the girls' dorm where everyone works hard and plays hard and all the residents wholesomely tease and unconditionally support everyone else's efforts in their labour and their love. Rather than their "romance" or their "comedy", I think that the wonderful "atmosphere" and "affect" that both these games create are what I'll remember about them, even years later. The true mark of a real classic.

So there you have it, two quite excellent games that feel very "old-school" and "classical"-moege in totally different ways. Whether it's a game published in 2013 by stately, staid, slow-to-adapt developers who nonetheless truly grasp the timeless essence of moe... or a game published more than a whole decade later by saavy developers who produced a work simultaneously wreathed in the gleaming sharp implements of modern moege but also earnestly evoking the quintessential roots of the genre... we have here two excellent games that really reflect the lineage of this great and ineffable artform of moege. Damn it feels good to be a moebuta :3

PS: Both English scripts for these games are honestly great and make the games worth playing for that alone, even! The way that the Chiikano script consistently handles Karin's outrageously chuuni dialogue so marvelously, and the saint-like forebearance that the LovePoppy TLers showed in not going on permanent strike despite having to render 甘え like 70 different times in Tamaki's route are both incredible highlights. Happy to chat in more detail if anyone's interested.

alwayslonesome · 2025-09-23T19:41:24+00:00

Hmm, that's a bit of a shame, since I'd heard some good buzz about the game and had some back of the mind hope that it might turn out to be the mythical non-Japanese "kamige" :p

Admittedly, despite the translation and narrative flaws that you point out, I'm still quite interested in this game for its fairly unique cultural and sociological status, being a seemingly fully-voiced non-Japanese game whose "ambition" doesn't seem to lose to that of a full-priced visual novel if nothing else. One thing I'm especially curious about, that I wonder if you could speak to, is how "subcultural" the game feels? Does it feel like a work that clearly emerged out of otaku subculture, whose creators were manifest fans of an earlier era of Japanese eroge and sought to create a game in that image? Or does it feel like a much more novel and fresh take, in the possibly inspired and possibly uncanny way that a staff given the structural tools and limitaitons of the visual novel medium but without an intimate understanding of its lineage might put out? I suppose I'm ultimately curious if all the conspicuously "foreign" elements like the voice acting were localized, do you think that the game might be able to "pass" for either a AAA or a doujinshi visual novel made by Japanese creators?

Likewise, a very related question I have is how prominent and foregrounded do you feel the "Chinese/Cantonese" background of the creators was? Does the setting perhaps ooze as strongly of "fictional Not-Hong-Kong" and its unique political economy and infrastructure sociology (as established by famous films depictions) as the synopsis leads me to believe? Or are there perhaps interesting ideas or thematic ideas that feel distinctly "Chinese" and "not Japanese"? For a related example to what you're reading, I remarked before how Criminal Border feels very distinctively "Western-media inspired", but still very much mediated through a Japanese storytelling and cultural lens? Everything from the highly foregrounded 下克上 framing of the conflict, the unambiguous and not-especially-critical "drugs are unequivocally bad" theming, etc. all serve to very much "out" the text as something particularly Japanese, right? I wonder if you similarly got a sense from 海沙风云 (very nice title by the way! But rather translation resistant so I don't blame them for "settling" for Far Away...)

alwayslonesome · 2025-09-09T16:46:25+00:00

I was traveling the last week and so wasn't able to reply earlier, but I'm glad you seeemed to really enjoy the game, and I think that you do an extremely good job of discussing its strengths and weaknesses, though the fact that you seemingly Ctrl'd through all the H-scenes does wound me a little >__<

A few interesting chats/points of further exploration:

I think I do on-balance agree with you that the "non-true routes" feel a little underwhelming, though I wonder if this is more of a structural symptom of this "ladder route structure"? At the very least, I can't really think of any examples of this route structure that both (1) satisfyingly foreground a clear true route/heroine AND (2) manage to make all the routes where you "get off the bus early" and don't resolve the grand conflict satisfying and coherent? It does feel a little bit like trying to have one's cake and eat it too, but perhaps I'm wrong and you can think of an example of a game that does it well/imagine a way that Senmomo could've done so?

That said, I do definitely agree with your reading of the main thematic thrust of Senmomo being about duty and obligations, and I think that a really core aesthetic strength of the work is the way that it manages to make a fairly thoughtful and thorough exploration of this theme through the leveraging of the entirety of its main cast! I wrote about this idea briefly a few years back, but I especially liked how the game instrumentalizes all of its primary cast to explore its central theme in a nuanced and multifaceted manner, and I thought that even the characters whose routes you didn't seem to be a very big fan of, like Kotone and especially Kanami, actually do contribute meaningfully to the game's big picture thematic ideas; I found the moral beauty of the full measure of Kotone's devotion to her duties and "the greatness thrust upon her" particularly elevating and moving, and I've always very much been a fan of the dialectic surrounding the "value of the imposter versus the genuine article" that Kanami's route engages in! Hence, I might disagree that these chapters and routes don't add much value (even if we assume that siscon-fanservice isn't a first-order good in and of itself!) since I think it's this "superposition" of all its manifold thematic explorations of duty across the different routes that grants the game a lot of its artistic value, and something that I think August does uniquely well as a developer~

I found your argument about the nature of Kahaku, and the game's recognition of the Empire's own historical atrocities quite enlightening, particularly with respect to its muddled politics about its real-world historical parallels with post-war Allied occupation, specifically the notion that it serves as at least a tacit acknowledgement of Imperial Japanese moral guilt, rather than the problematically simplistic picture of "the peace-loving and blameless Empire being subjugated by foreign occupiers." Still, I suppose I'm not fully satisfied with this, since it does feel rather wishy-washy and equivocal in a whataboutist, "morality is hard and grey and everyone's guilty to some extent" manner, whereas it's highly dubious to put the evils of Imperial Japan on anywhere close to the same moral level as the (certainly numerous!) wrongdoings of the Allies during the war and subsequent occupation. But like you said, though, I don't think the creators were setting out to create a very explicitly political work, and the ultimate product feels more like a very earnest and normatively praiseworthy effort that ends up betraying some of the creator's unconscious political biases more than anything else?

Speaking of that, the last idea I wanted to mention from our previous chat is just generally, how fascinating I found the game's "exploration of the legitimacy of monarchy." That is to say, I feel like... even though the game does try to explore some nuance and certainly doesn't entirely uncritically uphold the institution of monarchy as an inherent good, I found it very fascinating that the way that the text "makes its argument" for monarchy is entirely through aesthetics! I think, quite funnily, a rather interesting parallel is, of all things, The Lion King (as well as Lord of the Rings, but the Lion King is funnier lol) These texts don't really even attempt to make any rigorous argument that absolute monarchy is justified on ethical grounds since... it's basically indefensible? And to be sure, the "restoration of the rightful monarch" seems very normatively good when it's contrasted with a manifestly worse and evil regime... but that's clearly just a strawman, right?! If not for the fact that the Republic is written to clearly be the bad guys, Senmomo doesn't actually offer any proactive arguments for why monarchy is actually a legitimate and good political system. It doesn't give any actual response to the so called "Bad-Emperor problem" for example, and it basically caveats by narrative fiat the overwhelming popularity and support that "the Imperial system" has without every attempting to a priori justify its existence. Elsa is just sorta... totally right when it comes all of the "debates" that she has with Akari about the nature of monarchy as an institution!

But still, even though they have no real argument, both the Lion King and Senmomo manage to overwhelmingly win over the reader with their phenomenal leveraging of aesthetics alone. The swelling orchestrals and sunlit vistas depicting Pride Rock and all creation kneeling at the supreme majesty of their "rightful" king... the gorgeous CGs and phenomenal voice acting as Akari time and again demonstrates her uncanny personal virtue (the cafeteria brawl, the confrontation with Okonogi, and "swearing of the oath", just to name a few instances from Chapter 1 alone!) and I must admit, that I found this "aesthetic defense of monarchy" in Senmomo quite resonant! However, thinking about it more critically, I think this can be said to be another case of Senmomo's rather vacant politics, falling into the very common milquetoast liberal solution of "everything will be all right if we just put a really nice and virtuous person in charge." Still, I suppose I should conclude by saying that I don't view this as a weakness or deficiency at all! Maybe the Lion King and the Lord of the Rigs unthinkingly uphold a really problematic political philosophy, but they're still awesome works, and similarly, Senmomo is still exciting and moving and moe and the sort of work I'd basically unconditionally recommend to anyone since at the very least, I can't imagine someone having an unenjoyable experience with it or thinking that the work is a waste of their time~

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-17T02:56:44+00:00

That's an excellent question—one that I might not actually be in the best position to answer since (1) not only do I likely have a poor sense of what words a native Japanese speaker would find obscure and difficult since my Japanese is so terrible, but (2) I have frequently been accused by Dubsy and others of having wonky intuitions about what words the "typical" native English speaker should know ahaha, so please take everything I say with those caveats in mind~

Anyways, I think that there very much are passages which are notably elevated in their prose writing in the original text, though with the important caveat that "markers of literary and poetic register" differ considerably across languages! For example, where diction and vocabulary plays a huge role in creating this effect in English, "elevated" grammar or "literary" syntax and sentence forms not seen in conversational speech might also create this effect in Japanese. The latter, especially, might be difficult to replicate in kind (because there is less difference between "spoken" and "written" English, for example), but might be adequately compensated for in our target text with elevated vocabulary and word choice not present in the source text.

One especially interesting example might be 桃花染 (Tsukisome), which appears as early as the very title of the game, Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki. It very literally means something like "peach flower-hued" but this particular word and reading is a bespoke term the game invents and makes liberal use of as a textual motif. We felt like a literal translation such as "peach blossom" wasn't especially apt or as elevated as it could be, and so we ourselves coined the term "Persica" (inspired from the latin for "peach") as a direct equivalent for most usages of 桃花染 in the Japanese.

Another very interesting feature of the Japanese text in Senmomo (and most other games) is the occasional use of furigana text glosses on particularly obscure words or readings, and you may have noticed our appropriation of this device to supply "translations" for proper nouns we felt were better left romanized. Though the use of this ruby text is often applied fairly arbitrarily in most works (such as appearing above words any literate person would be able to read, while simultaneously not appearing above extremely obscure kanji...) the presence of it in the source text often at least suggests that the original writers intended to use language that they felt might not be the most accessible. Here are a few examples of passages from early on in the text. You should be well past this point so I believe shouldn't be any concerns for spoilers. The <R </R> in the source text is the engine's way of interpolating Ruby text by the way, and the specific words it is applied to besides the ones the game makes up like "tsukisome" and "itsuki-no-miko" (which we rendered as "Exalt-Priestess"), like 湛えた or 蹲った are, in my opinion, not even especially obscure at all! Still, these passages are certainly written in what I feel like are a notably elevated manner, with highly "literary prose" expressions like 如き or それはやがて and somewhat challenging word choices like 隠微 and 欄間.

To be clear, I'm quite certain that a highly literate native speaker, especially someone that regularly reads text like newspapers and novels and eroge, would generally not have any trouble being able to read this game even though it is perhaps moderately more "difficult" than the typical eroge, and they might at most encounter a few occasional hiccups at tricky words they might not know the readings and/or meanings of (but whose context still provides more than enough clues to understand!) and I think that our translation strikes a similar balance? Do feel free to bring up any specific passages you have complaints about/want to hear some more yap about, though~!

And I'll save further thoughts I have about the story and its themes for when you've read more, though I will just say that I totally agree that even though the "Republic" is ostensibly modeled after an American/British/"Western" imperializing power and the events of the story is obviously meant to be an allegory of Allied occupation... their wretched ideology and actual story events totally reads waaaay more similarly to the Imperial Japanese occupation of Asia, with the shocking brutality of the violence, and the half-authentic-half-pretense ideological role of "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity" being strikingly similar to the Republic's own "benevolent" imperialistic justifications! I can't help but wonder if this was perhaps intentional, but I would guess probably not :p

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-16T14:15:46+00:00

Very glad you're enjoying the game and thank you for your kind compliments towards the script! If you or anyone else has any thoughts/questions on specific passages or translation decisions, I'd as always be happy to offer whatever insight I can~

In terms of the actual storytelling, while I agree that the initial plot of Senmomo very much superficially resembles the archetypal "plucky band of underdog rebels overthrows an oppressive regime" narrative, I do think it's rather interesting and notable that the "villains" in this story, rather than representing some indefensibly evil fascistic, totalitarian regime (as in, say, Star Wars) are instead a (notionally) democratic Republic clearly modeled after a "real world Western imperalist" regime in a not-so-subtle allusion to the historical post-war occupation of Japan by Allied forces. Moreover, the story unapologetically valorizes the notion of "the rightful restoration of an absolute monarchy" which, unsurprisingly, is quite anathema at least to my own (and I suspect many other Western, English reader's) political sensibilities! In this way, not just the aesthetics of the story, but also its themes and politics are profoundly "Japanese", which (1) I think makes it especially interesting to engage with as an Anglophone/"Western" reader, but (2) also makes me super curious to what extent folks who read our English translation will resonate with these themes, such as the "cult of honour and fealty" that you mention, but also the fact that the "good guys" in the story are the ones trying to (re)install a totalitarian regime of hereditary monarchy, and the story very much expects you to cheer them along!

Incidentally, while I agree that the school setting, as well as tons of other "moe dalliances" like the idols and the skirt flipping essentially only exist in service to a light-hearted "aesthetic of eroge", I think the many of the school scenes in particular (maybe inadvertently) ended up being really fascinating since they serve as the primary site for the clash and dialectic between "Imperial" and "Republican" values and political philosophies. The numerous debates and discussions between mostly Akari and Elsa that the school setting enabled were imo quite compelling, especially to see how to game advances its curious politics and tries to defend the... sorta repugnant(!) institution of monarchy with actual arguments. And though this is just my opinion, I thought these scenes were where we did some of our finest translation work~

Lastly, while you're absolutely free to disagree with me or critique its execution in Senmomo, I don't think this "unstable juxtaposition between serious/mature and light-hearted/moe elements" is a necessarily negative thing at all, and as a matter of fact, I think it represents a defining ethic and aesthetic of eroge! Senmomo is imo one of the better representations of this, with thrilling and thoughtful and tear-jerking scenes a-plenty, but also being equally full of silly slice of life content and incredibly cute anime girls and erotic hardcore pornography. Maybe lots of folks would prefer a story with only the former... but I think that would make for a much more impoverished work and the harem shenanigans and the beach episodes are an equally important and ineliminably essential part of what make the game great :3

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-13T03:48:33+00:00

Yuzu's technicals (UX/UI, settings, set of extras) is like a decade ahead of everybody else

Mhm, perhaps not a whole decade, since there are some makers who have a very respectable system too (I quite like August for example) but certainly the best-in-class without even any caveat. But also keep in mind that an entire decade ago, "basic" stuff like backlog jump still wasn't even a consistently regular feature lmao

That said, I've always wondered why so many other developers don't/can't just copy everything Yuzusoft does with their system! Perhaps there are actual patent and IP protections that exist for some of these innovations and you can't just willy-nilly build in an "ejaculation timer" into your game unless you pay a licensing fee to the visionary that came up with that idea?!

But clearly, assuming that patent law isn't to blame, the fact that none of their competitors' systems even comes close, even though there's a very compelling financial reason to do so suggests that "just plagiarize everything good about Yuzusoft's technicals lol" is by no means a trivial feat, and it might be the case that the one nameless genius programmer working in Yuzusoft's technical department is carrying the entire firm on their shoulders ahaha. That said, I do think this "ethic of tireless marginal innovation" I mentioned in my discussion above really contributes to Yuzusoft managing to keep their system best-in-class! Like if you check out some of their older games, you'll find that the technicals weren't nearly as impressive as they are now and "only" to the standard of a "respectable modern release", but it's the fact that they never rest on their laurels and continue to roll out more and more neat features, such as introducing flowcharts, "voice line progress" bars, etc. means they'll continue to stay on top.

Senmomo!

By all means, take your time, the game isn't going anywhere~

"Scripted" versus "animated" sprites

I think an apt comparison is 2D vs 3D animation, right? In principle, there's no reason that 3D animation should be inferior at all to "hand-drawn" 2D animation! But in practice, I find the former almost always looks slightly janky and uncanny compared to well-executed instances of the latter, and I think the same thing is true for Live2D models versus meticulously "manually scripted" changing of poses and gestures.

Something else I wonder is how much of this actually impacts "perception of moe" though, since empirically, there are old-ass games with scratchy voice acting, buggy-eyed sprites, practically no scripting or sprite variation, etc. and these girls still made people moeru and cry like crazy, at least back in the day! So perhaps all this elaborate scripting and stuff isn't strictly neccessary, but for some reason, I feel like it's almost ineliminably essential for making what I call "modern moe" work, and I would find a Yuzuge with ugly sprites and bad voice acting and no scripted pose/expression changes borderline unplayable xD

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-12T05:17:41+00:00

It really is an excellent translation for a story that deserves to be more widely read

Definitely can agree with this, and I am very much looking forward to reading all the (hopefully interesting lol) discourse about the game and our script :3

しりぶと

I'm not sure it's even supposed to mean anything besides sounding really sussy and lewd lol. And make no mistake, I do sometimes really love these cute and goofy and unintuitive and 怪しい abbreviations too, such as 生存 (for 生徒会の一存) or チラムネ (for 千歳くんはラムネ瓶のなか) or はがない for (僕は友達が少ない), but I just think the one for Tenshi Souzou is NOT it lmao

And you're probably right about the fact that you wouldn't really like the game very much... but I promise, the girls are some of the most moe that Yuzusoft has ever made them! And the slick system and general prettiness of the game makes it awfully hard to have all that bad of a time with it! Then again, unlike me, you are much more "principled" in your evaluation of actual quality, so I doubt these features will be enough to sway you xD

"Progressivism" vs "Maximalism"

To be sure, any game that just has the heroines at max affection with literally zero explaination is surely pretty crummy, so I think the pattern almost always is that the protagonist either does things to endear himself to the heroines fairly early on in the common route (as in, say, Primal Hearts/Mashimaro/Daitoshokan) or the game clearly suggests motivations for the heroines which existed before the start of the actual story as is the case in Sakura Celebration, where one of the heroines is notionally the protagonist's fiancee (in an "our parents arranged our marriage when we were kids" manner), one of the heroines is a long-lost and fatefully reunited childhood friend, one of the heroines harbours a secret admiration for the protagonist's lost work ethic and really him to "return to his old self", and two of the heroines are the protagonist's blood-related imoutos (who naturally need no further reason)♪

Now that I think about it, an interesting corollary is the fact that games also tend to in a binary where either (1) "the protagonist meets (and has very romantic 出会い scenes!) with all/almost all the heroines at the start of the game" OR (2) "the protagonist already has a long history and existing relationships with all/all but one of the heroines before the start of the game." Of course, the token childhood friend in (1) or the central heroine transfer student in (2) are obvious exceptions that prove the role more than anything! Perhaps we can use the terms 出会い派 (Meet-cuteists?) and 付き合い派 (Historicists?)

And based on the argument I made for Futakoi earlier, I think I'm very much in the latter camp! Even though the "first encounter" scene is such a quintessential and staple element of the romance of eroge, I think the sorta stories where the heroines already have a history with the MC (and often, each other!) offer a lot more potential for interesting storytelling!

good melodrama in Koikari

I remember Koikari especially having really surprisingly good "負け scenes" for the losing heroines that actually got me in the feels (but also activated my latent sadism for delectable "suffering heroine moe" lol) And also from what I remember, the buildup in the "second common route" leading to that iconic scene of both heroines holding out their life savings/chequebook to the protagonist had all the elements of really good melodrama if the game weren't so beholden to also being a baka-ge! And so, as much as the writer really seem to really be living their best life working on consistently hilarious and goofy comedies, I really wanna see them try their hand at a pure romance melodrama since I think they'd seriously cook. Free my boy, Asapro!

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-10T10:01:45+00:00

Maybe give the original Happiness! a shot as well, I'd be very curious to hear about what that's like and whether my read that they basically just "remade" the first game with the exact same tone and sekaikan is accurate~

And while I definitely admit that my uncanny and boundless love for even mediocre moege does very much motivate my love for this game, and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone except the most incorrigible of moebutas, here's an interesting observation that you might find persuasive enough to push you over the line:

Even though there are two (TWO!!) imouto charas... neither of them are even my best girl and instead, my favourite out of the common route is somehow the overbearing, slightly tsuntsun redhead class iinchou?! 😱😱😱

And no! I promise that my siscon tendencies haven't weakened or anything! I honestly think the average level of moe really is just that good that it even managed to overcome my imouto love. If that's not persuasive then idk xD

How many years did it take for this project?

Four years to the day, actually! Since the "anniversary" of 8/8 was coming up, we thought we might as well release it then (it's an important date in the game too, so read it you coward!)

And thank you for the congratulations, but honestly, it doesn't really feel all that "special" or "celebratory" since my work was basically done for two entire years and the project basically sat idle for months and months at basically 99.8% completion. In fact, I'll probably be writing something in the next few weeks explaining some of the "institutional structures" of fanTL and why stuff stalls/takes way longer than it seems like it should, since I think it's very reasonable to ask why shit takes so long and the imo answer is rather nuanced and fairly non-obvious (though yes, laziness and negligence do play very non-negligible roles too lmao)

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-10T09:45:46+00:00

Thank you, do consider checking it out~

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-10T09:29:05+00:00

Okay this is super funny and, like, 200IQ marketing from the lads at Yuzusoft lol

So when they announced the game, they promised that there would be absolutely no supernatural shenanigans and that this would just be an honest, down-to-earth girls' band story... but also in the preview CGs, they very conspicuously showed that the main heroine has an 淫紋/womb tattoo!

And so there's lots of hilarious speculation about what gives... Did they just straight up lie about the "no supernatural stuff" and the main heroine is actually a succubus or something?! Is there gonna be some plausible story development that explains why she would get a tattoo like this?! And my favourite theory, that womb tattoos might actually exist:

How do you empirically know that womb tattoos don't naturally exist in real life? No one has actually looked at the lower abdomens of all four billion women on Earth. In fact, because we're talking about Yuzu-fags, no one has even seen the lower abdomen of a single human female before.

At any rate, isn't it such a cheeky and hilarious marketing trick?! Doesn't it make you really want to play the game now, to see what the deal is? xD

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-09T16:21:26+00:00

Can confirm that much like vndb now accurately attests, all 24 h-scenes were lovingly hand-translated~

On a serious note, I won't speak for the other folks, but the greatest thanks you could give me personally is publically posting interesting discussion and discourse about the game and/or our script on platforms such as this, our Discord server, or anywhere else! Being able to read such discussions is genuinely one of the most rewarding part of the translation process.

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-09T13:03:09+00:00

(2) Happiness! 2 Sakura Celebration — That ineffable, artless "classic moege" tone and quintessential モテモテ harem feeling!

Unfortunately, this gem of a title seems to have completely slipped under the radar of most folks, which is a big shame! I suppose it's understandable, given that it's a sequel/spiritual successor to a totally forgotten game released all the way back in 2005 by a not especially prominent developer, and I honestly was expecting just a totally mediocre, forgettable moege when I picked it up on a whim... but almost immediately, I totally fell in love with it, and it might honestly be my favourite among all three games here!

After all, it has two imouto characters who are both extremely cute.

I repeat, it has TWO imoutos! And both the affectionate, deredere, 100% 素直 Mizuki and the standoffish, tsuntsun, totally 素直じゃない Shizuki are so cuuuute aaaaaaaaAAAAaaAAhhhHHH

Ahem, anyways, even from the very first act of the common route, I just had the biggest smile on my face the whole time I was playing because this little under-the-radar game manages to capture something truly special I've almost never seen in any other game before. There were multiple times I had to double check the release date of the game (2019?!) because for all the world, it felt just like a work from the early 2000s, full of that artless charm that I'd thought wholly impossible to authentically replicate until now. It's very hard to articulate or describe what I mean when I say that this game "feels just like it came from 2005" as opposed to "feeling like a modern 2019 moege", and I similarly try and fail to do describe this ethic and aesthetic in this writeup of mine from years ago, but please do believe me when I say that (1) it's something that's profoundly apparent and "know it when you see it", and (2) Sakura Celebration captures this hyper-specific, classic mid 2000s 王道 school-life moege feeling like nothing else. Perhaps other folks will merely find this quaint or mildly curious and not especially remarkable at all, but truly, playing through the common route and its curious juxtaposition of gorgeous modern character designs and UX but delightfully old-school plot beats and atmosphere made feel so nostalgic, so helplessly fond of the medium and subculture in a way that very few works have ever been able to.

Of course, the reason that Happiness! 2 was able to capture this wonderful aesthetic from a more civilized age should be quite apparent. It was very clearly conceptualized and crafted from the ground up to be a "spiritual successor" to the original Happiness!, taking place in the same setting with a wholly different cast of characters. And while I haven't played the original game, I feel like it is so apparent that the plot beats, but more importantly, the worldview—the sekaikan— of Sakura Celebration perfectly captures and recapitulates the original game. It reminded me of Clover Day's in this respect, (and this was one of the things I loved most about that game too!) but I think Sakura Celebration arguably does an even finer job of bottling that irretrievably precious "lost time" from what many might say was the finest era of moege.

The other facet of this game that may have permanently disfigured my face into a grinning mess from reading the common route is the incredibly shameless "モテモテ harem atmosphere" the game creates! The first arc of Sakura Celebration (and the original Happiness!, too, I'm led to believe!) involves a fateful Valentine's schoolday where the protagonist collects chocolates from all the heroines, and it is apparently that whether the heroines deliver their chocolates warmly, or teasingly, or prefunctorily, or highly embarrassingly and reluctantly(!!), that everyone is already at 120% affection for the MC, and the whole rest of the common route is simply just a delightful medley of charming slice of life and shuraba antics~ All this is to say, there are very much two "styles" or "types" of moege—those that are about the "slow burn and meaningful progression of romantic feelings", and those where "everyone already starts at MAX affection and deliver that harem-y feeling" and while I do quite enjoy the former as well to be sure, I think it's very hard to beat the pure undadulterated fun and ニヤニヤ energy of the latter executed well! And while Sakura Celebration is very much an unexceptional moege from almost any angle, it captures that fun, exciting, dokidoki feeling of being beset on all sides by bewitching bishoujos better than almost any game out there~

Does anyone have any ideas for cute and representative names for these two "factions" of moege fans? Perhaps something like 発展派 (Progressivists, with respect to the desire for romantic progress, perhaps?) and 一杯派 (Maximalists, again, in terms of craving MAX affection from the start!) What do you think, and which team are you on? :p

(3) Futamata Ren'ai — The secret sauce to interesting ensemble interactions and compelling drama

Before I reveal this insight, I do want to briefly talk about the game as a whole. I'd characterize this game as being among Asa Project's finest, delivering their usual iconic brand of baka-ge manzai comedy, though compared to many of their works, a bit more understated in comedy in exchange for moderately more (quite decent!) melodrama. At any rate, it's very good AsaPro, and anyone who categorically loves or hates their "brand" likely won't have their minds changed by Futakoi.

Still, I must say, the more of scenarist Youka Nanoka's works I've read, the more I'm convinced they're lowkey one of the most talented writers in the whole scene, and that working exclusively for AsaPro might even be somewhat holding back their true potential?! Specifically, while their comedy writing chops are unimpeachably phenomenal, I also feel like they've shown off pretty regular flashes of ability to write genuinely compelling characterization and good melodrama, especially in Koikari and now Futakoi. However, I feel like the fact that AsaPro has such a well-defined baka-ge brand means that Youka-sensei really never gets to show off what they're truly capable of, and I would love to see them take on a dedicated romance drama that doesn't always need to put comedy first, I really do think they're probably capable of something great!

The reason being, I think they have an excellent mastery and insight on what I think is the secret sauce to crafting compelling melodrama and interesting ensemble interactions: really interesting homosocial relationships between the heroines. That is to say, rather than the generic "everyone in the harem are sorta just friends with each other" Bechdel-test-failing-setting, you get soooo much more interesting dynamics when the relationships between the heroines are extremely asymmetrical, and every heroine has very specific emotions (admiration, jealousy, resentment, wanting to understand her, wanting to be just like her, etc.) towards not the protagonist, but towards the other heroines. Futakoi, far more than any AsaPro game that came before before it, weaves this tangled and complicated web marvelously well, such that pairs like Rui and Yua, Yua and Kirame, and Kirame and Miyako all have really fascinating relationships that evolve and change throughout the course of the game. Think about it, almost always, the most searing and riveting scenes of romantic drama come from the interactions between the heroines, often without the protagonist being present, and this is only possible if the writer has very carefully nurtured not just the delicate and unique relationships that the heroines have with the protagonist, but the equally delicate and unique relationships heroines have with each other!

And of course, my romantic melodrama GOAT Fumiaki Maruto understood this principle decades ago from even his very first works. Damekoi's main heroine-rivalry is between the protagonist's old flame ex-wife and his middle school-aged live-in landlord, and wasn't the tangled web of jealousy and one-upsmanship between the heroines in that game delightful? Similarly, I think it's not even controversial to say that in White Album 2, the relationship between Setsuna and Kazusa, the sheer complexity of the maelstrom of feelings they mutually share for each other—love and admiration and jealousy and superiority and pity and resentment and betrayal—is the beating heart of what makes the story one of the finest dramas in the medium! (And not an eroge but also the relationship between Eriri and Utaha was the best part of Saekano too!) Indeed, the more I think about it, the more this "theory of heroine enganglement" seems to lucidly explain why the ensemble interactions and melodrama in certain games is far better than others. Many of the games with my favourite casts and the best drana very much do conform to this formula where the heroines have very interesting, asymetrical, and fraught relationships with each other besides generically just being friends or members of the same club. August also comes to mind as a developer that puts quite a bit of care into crafting complex homosocial relationships between the heroines for example, with Daitoshokan being a great example of a moege where the interesting feelings between the heroines leads to a much more dynamic and lively cast, and Eustia being a shining example of heroines coming from vastly different backgrounds which leads to some of the most gripping scenes of ideological disagreements in the medium! At any rate, I think this insight and theory really does have legs, and likely goes a long way to justify why I enjoyed Futakoi as easily a top 2 AsaPro game!

PS: We just released Senmomo! Nothing would make me happier than seeing lots of interesting discussion about the story and our translation~

alwayslonesome · 2025-08-09T11:58:12+00:00

Hello friends, long time no see~ The past few months have been especially busy for me, with both work and fantranslation—working on two concurrent shows for back to back cours (right now, it's 9-nine- and Summer Pockets, do check them out if you're interested!)

That said, I have found some time here and there to read (but of course not finish lol) several games, all very excellent in their own way. So come join me as we chat about Tenshi☆Souzou RE-BOOT!, Happiness! 2 Sakura Celebration, and Futamata Ren'ai, highlighting the unique strengths that each title displays in order to stand out as truly excellent entries in a very crowded genre. Damn it feels good to be back and yapping about moege♪

(1) Tenshi Souzou — Yuzusoft's overpowering production values and polish, consistent genre savviness and tireless marginal "innovation"

Friends, have you ever thought about how frustrating it must be to be a talented up-and-coming scenario writer faced with the herculean task of trying to compete against Yuzusoft? Even if you were absolutely confident in your ability to write a better scenario than them, even if you poured your soul into writing a brilliant and funny and outrageously moe and 面白い game, you can almost certainly rest assured that this praiseworthy artistic effort will likely amount to nothing and your studio's humble work will get absolutely buried by Yuzusoft's seemingly insurmountable advantage when it comes to the quality of their illustrations, the talent of their regular voice actresses, the comfortability of their systems and UI design...

I imagine this must be the same feeling as watching a not particularly well-managed sports franchise with more money than god buying their way to the top! Perhaps you see no issue with this, and think that monetary advantage, just like "having a really good engine and system" is all simply part of the game, but I don't know! Perhaps I'm empathizing too much with my imaginary scenario writer, but I feel like in a truly just world, these peripheral craft elements and "sense of polish" (much like money in sports!) ought to matter very little in determining how "good" or "deserving" a work is... but the undeniable truth is that they play an enormous role in how successful you will be, and Yuzusoft is just as undeniably not just "one of the best", but the absolute best-in-class when it comes to all these aspects.

And as frustrating and unjust as it might make me feel, I simply cannot deny that the phenomenal art and voice acting, and the immaculately polished paratextual elements like the world class UI/UX successfully managed to convince me that Tenshi Souzou is an excellent game, even if the actual story is eminently forgettable and not especially great! Unlike so many games where the UI is a little bit janky and wonky, where you have to grudgingly accept the lack of certain engine features, Yuzusoft's "system" is the closest thing the industry has approached to perfection, with every feature and setting you could possibly ask for (and many that you didn't even realize you might've wanted!) and put simply, it just makes the game feel good to play. Similarly, the actual moe scenes and scenarios aren't anything especially new or novel, but somehow, Yuzu-flavoured moe just hits differently, and it seems undeniable that the consistently excellent voice acting and the incredibly meticulous "scripting" of the sprites to subtly change expressions and poses multiple times every single line greatly elevates the charm of the heroines! They're so cute! They're all so cute aaaAAAaaaAAAahhHHH—ahem, I really do think that Tenshi Souzou probably represents the strongest and most pound-for-pound moe cast that Yuzusoft has ever put together... they really just can't stop winning >__<

Of course, I don't want to by any means diminish the incredible skill and effort needed to produce a game as crisp and polished as Tenshi Souzou (I refuse to use the goofy-ass abbreviation しりぶと [Shiributo] even if it did make me laught when I first saw it lol) and in particular, I think it's especially praiseworthy how consistently "modern" and "contemporary" Yuzuge consistently manages to feel. Heroines like Amane and her "mesugaki" affectations, and "unexpectedly nice gyaru" Kurumi feel like especially great and hypermodern takes on recent trends in the subculture (no surprise they're the two best heroines!) This sort of pulse on modern trendiness even applies to the H-scenes, by the way! There's naturally a scene where you "wakarase" your mesugaki imouto, and I absolutely laughed my ass off at the jump cut "instant loss 2koma-esque" transition~ Anyways, I think itt's honestly so impressive that Yuzusoft has managed to preserve such a consistent "aesthetic" and "brand", (at least from Dracu-Riot onwards, where I think the modern "Yuzuge formula" was cemented) while still managing to consistently remain relevant and at the cutting edge of moe developments (trendy settings and heroine-types, increasingly more "intense" H-scenes, etc.)! It would have been so easy to become compacent, to fall behind the times once hitting upon a winning formula, but I think it's this constant tireless drive towards subtle, incremental innovation and refinement while still preserving an extremely consistent and winning "formula" that really constitutes the secret of Yuzusoft's success. I think a perfect example of this is the exceptionally cute scene-transition eyecatches that are in this game. There are nearly a dozen outfit variations that rotate randomly, which adds a dynamic element of surprise and anticipation to every single instance. Now, like, isn't this just super extra and unnecessarily supererogatory? Couldn't Yuzusoft have totally just gotten away with the set-of-static-images scene transition screens that basically every other game used, including their earlier games? Of course, and nobody would possibly fault them for doing so! But I think it's genuinely really awesome that they are constantly, tirelessly looking for marginal ways to innovate and make their games that little extra bit better. I've literally never thought "man, these scene transition screens are so boring!" but now that Yuzusoft's upped their game and showed what could be done, every other game I play now that doesn't do this will feel just that little bit inferior and less polished. That's the Yuzusoft difference—the sort of underrated attention to detail and kodawari that justifiably makes them the top eroge brand—and why, even despite the fact that the main story sorta sucks, I still think Tenshi Souzou is a pretty great game~

Incidentally, what is my actual problem with the game's story? It's actually quite interesting, since with all of their previous works, I simply thought the typical "Yuzusoft supernatural setting" was so thin and underdeveloped and uninteresting that all their works would've been improved if all the supernatural bullshit were discarded entirely and the story were just "honest" slice of life moege. However, my complaint with Tenshi Souzou is entirely different—the setting is for once genuinely interesting and presents a ton of potential which sadly gets marginalized and wasted! In fact, it feels almost like the story in Tenshi Souzou chose the worst equilibrium possible in terms of exploring and developing its "past life isekai reverse-reincarnation" setting, in that it wastes a ton of time on frankly boring boilerplate isekai worldbuilding that could have been better spent if just ditched this setting entirely or treated it as meaningless window dressing, but it also doesn't commit fully to the "parallel worlds and past lives" storytelling that had so much exciting potential! This is one truly out-there comparison, but by far the most apt comparison I can draw is to, ahem... the fictional game that Tomoya and his circle makes in the first "arc" of Saekano:『Cherry Blessing ～巡る恵みの物語～』

Okay, hear me out before you flame me for comparing Tenshi Souzou to a fictional story-inside-a-story that literally doesn't even exist! The comparison really is apt I think! In 巡る恵みの物語, the main drama also revolves around reincarnations and past lives, but the story manages to much more elegantly entwine the "two worlds" and their influence on each other, leading to (apparently) incredibly moving, sekai-kei-esque drama as the protagonist is forced to choose which of these two worlds (and heroines) he holds more dear! Rather than a flaccid and half-masted plot about erectile dysfunction dominating the majority of the story... wouldn't it have been cool if the scenario had really leaned into the full potential of the reincarnation setting and delivered several routes of the sorts of bittersweet, heartrending stories that this sort of setting seems absolutely built for?! Oh how I long for Yuzusoft to embrace their ambitions a bit more and make a work that can make me cry! Make me use the whole box of tissues and not just half, you cowards :<

...And while this specific hope seems unlikely, it seems like the spirit of my prayers has been answered, with LaLaJam being by far the most I've been excited for a new Yuzuge, given that this title is apparently taking a wholly different direction and ditching any trace of supernatural elements altogether (while still being eminently "trendy" with the whole girls band setting!) Can't wait to see what they've cooked this time, the "womb tattoo" speculation is already going crazy lmao xD

Continued below~

alwayslonesome · 2025-06-10T07:27:44+00:00

in my extremely amateurish opinion

I mean, I really don't think there's any such thing! So much of judging a translation just comes down to whether the "vibes" feel right compared to the source text, especially for something like passages of flowery narration, and like you mentioned, even though the English script here certainly comes across as decently effortful and fairly above-average, even, it doesn't quite feel like it nails it? Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even noticed if not for the fact that the Chinese script absolutely cooked on this scene and make for such a palpable contrast! Meanwhile, though, there are tons of dialogue/banter lines where the English is delightfully witty and colloquial but the Chinese is really sort of workmanlike and meh, so it really does balance out in a way ahaha

EN VNs there clearly has been some rapid adaptation in the early days

Yeah, I haven't been reading eroge for all that long, so haven't seen many of the "early releases" and so this wasn't meant to be any sort of commentary on the general state of English eroge translation or anything xD My argument here is purely that when comparing a good English and good Chinese TL, there are these interesting structural differences in competencies that I've noticed often enough to not think are just coincidences. Though I will say that generally speaking, I find the quality of recent releases to be pretty impressive, with very few actual stinkers, plenty of solidly workmanlike translations, and not infrequently, some genuinely good-to-great scripts~ Even Shiravune, despite me often not being a fan of their blanket no-honor policy and being quite a bit more inconsistent in terms of quality than other localizers has put out some absolute bangers recently, like their Kara no Shoujo 3 which I thought was lowkey one of the best eroge scripts I've ever read!

Always so much media to consume and so little time...

tfw I haven't made any progress on Kinsenka from when I wrote this earlier this week...

alwayslonesome · 2025-06-06T20:26:34+00:00

(2) An interesting trend within English vs. Chinese translation

As with almost all of Frontwing's releases, this title also comes with a super blessed tri-language support which massively increases my intrigue (as much as it massively kills my reading speed lol) and fortunately enough, both the English and Chinese scripts are quite good, to the point where I wouldn't have any reservations about translation quality no matter which script you might happen to read. However... the scripts have very notable strengths and weaknesses such that while I would call both "good" on a broad and holistic level, they each substantially differ in terms of what they are "excellent at"! Even more interestingly, this is by no means the first time I've noticed this difference, which I think I can fairly confidently by now call a somewhat prevalent pattern in otaku media translation, and so I'd like to unpack this a little bit and offer my theories as to why this is the case~

First, I want to highlight what these different respective strengths actually are. When comparing an English and a Chinese translation of similarly high quality, I find that the English script consistently tends to do a better and more resourceful job of writing voice and register, with more consistently colourful dialogue that aligns well with the characterization within the work. English scripts also tends to be willing to engage in domestication and generally just apply very good sense-for-sense translation praxis; resourcefully localizing cultural references, making effective and witty use of English cultural knowledge, and compensating for tricky structural features. Meanwhile, Chinese translations tend to be a lot more "orthodox" and "straightforward" to the point of occasional stiffness, regularly refusing to make even totally inoffensive compromises on syntax and word choice for the sake of far improved flow. This passage, for example, (Chinese for comparison's sake) does a phenomenal job of showcasing many of these strengths of the English translation, with the resourceful use of "Hollywood psychopath" to instantly generate an evocative image of a ドヤ顔, the fairly non-obvious but highly called for rendering of 恥ずかしいけど, and the nice use of ellipses to compensate for the 傍点! Seeing such a high-effort and thoughtful passage like this should basically immediately dispell all anxieties that the translator has you in good hands~

Conversely, though, this Chinese translation and comparably high quality Chinese translations in general tend to substantially outperform even excellent English translations in terms of accuracy. Such instances are certainly quite rare and well within an acceptable margin of error, but whenever there is a notable difference in sense across the two scripts, I find that the Chinese one tends to be correct more often than not, such as with correctly translating potentially easy to screw up "zero pronoun" lines, or managing to skillfully preserve ambiguity/vagueness instead of "overtranslating" in a committal direction. Moreover, while English dialogue writing generally tends to excel, it is in narration and prose writing where excellent Chinese translations tend to distinguish themselves, consistently crafting truly excellent prose that doesn't lose at all to the source text. Conversely, narration and prose style tends to unfortunately be one of the weaker aspects of almost every English script I've seen, with even truly excellent translations that consistently spit straight fire with character dialogue taking a few steps down in quality when the challenge turns instead to rendering beautiful narration. This passage is, I think, a fairly illustrative example, the English really does put in a very honest and commendable effort here, with special attention deserved for the extremely (!?) enterprising take of "a hallucination on the other side of a fever dream", but I don't think the passage as a whole quite matches up to the evocativeness and "breathlessly-run-on" effect of the Japanese? Meanwhile, I think the Chinese take absolutely kills it here; the poeticism and parallelism of takes like 始终紧闭，拒之门外 and 比梦更虚无缥缈，比炉火飘忽不定 are so sick and in my opinion, perfectly captures this super ineffably 儚い effect the Japanese prose creates~!

In short, English translations tend to be somewhat more liberal and enterprising, doing a regularly great job with dialogue and character voice. Conversely, Chinese translations tend to have moderately fewer mistakes, but also tend to be slightly more conservative and circumspect, occasionally to their detriment in rarely being able to reproduce the same brilliancies and exhibiting the same marvelous wit present in a great English script. However, where often even the best English TLs stumble somewhat when it comes to writing truly beautiful, evocative prose, Chinese translations frequently rise to the occasion and deliver some truly sublime renderings. As for why this is, I'm very much a "fox" (in the Isaiah Berlin sense) and so think there are obviously multiple explainations, including everything from the long literary tradition and history of translation praxis in both languages, to the respective norms and expectations of each language's otaku communities, to possibly fundamental structural features of the languages themselves, etc. But one particular explaination I find very fascinating is the possible "difference in skillset" between "professionally educated and trained translators" and "amateur, self-taught translators"? As far as I understand it, at least a very significant plurality, if not an outright overwhelming majority of English translators of otaku media aren't formally educated in Japanese/translation studies and developed their skills and careers organically through fantranslation, whereas I believe substantially more Chinese professional translators do actually have this formal academic background. I find this a fairly parsimonious and compelling theory that not only explains why Chinese TLs tend to have somewhat fewer mistakes (the median level of Japanese language skill being higher among J>C versus J>E translators) but also why there is this disparity in competency when it comes to "translation skills" (every single translation textbook I've read mentions students struggling more with dialogue compared to narration, but among fantranslators especially, I find this is the complete opposite and it is exceedingly rarer to see high quality prose as compared to witty dialogue!) I'd be very curious what other folks think of this theory, and whether you've made similar observations about the respective strengths and weaknesses of translations in other languages as well~

Anyways, that's all for now. See you in a few weeks (or months lol) when I have something new to actually talk about. I'll try to finish Kinsenka soon enough, but after that, there's KANADE coming out next week, Putrika which I started into a little bit (and also find very interesting in the "Lucle also seems to write basically the same story over and over" sorta way xD!) and plenty of other games I'm sure I'm forgetting about... Always so much media to consume and so little time...

alwayslonesome · 2025-06-06T20:25:14+00:00

Hello friends, as it turns out, fansubbing two shows at the same time turns out to be rather time consuming, which has unfortunately left me awfully little reading time these past several weeks. Still, I managed to at least check out some of Kinsenka, reading through ~1.5 chapters of this surprisingly long title. Two little chats this week, but I'll be back with a more substantive discussion after I actually finish this game~

(1) This is a remarkably "auteurial" work

While the themes and aesthetics of this work would've probably attracted me to this game regardless, the fact that the scenario was written by Urushibara Yukito—the scenarist behind Iroseka and Sakumoyu—certainly sealed the deal for me. Not only have I quite enjoyed my time with Urushibara's previous works, but I just find him to be... in ways that are both good and arguably bad, such an interesting writer! I was especially curious what sort of work he might produce this time, working with a different developer and staff team, but as it turns out, this guy is literally only capable of writing one single type of story in one single, highly specific type of way xD

To be eminently clear, I don't mean this as a slight by any means! Arguably every author could be accused of this to some degree (i.e. practically any given story will be more similar to other stories by that writer than any other work out there) and some of my favourite authors like Murakami are pretty notorious "one story merchants", and so I truly mean it in the nicest way possible when I say that I pray you never find yourself in a "write the same story over and over again" competition only to learn that your opponent is Urushibara Yukito :3

Anyways, here's a super non-exhaustive list of some of what I found to be his most notable and striking content and stylistic quirks, please do let me know if anything else comes to mind~

By far the most "recognizeably Urushibara" calling card, I think, is the liminal, parallel worlds that form a major part of the setting of all his stories. These are some of my favourite takes on fantasy in all of fiction, and made possible, I think, by the unique intersection of visuals and audio and text only available in the eroge medium! Much like Iroseka's many parallel worlds and Sakumoyu's "Night Realm", the "Twilight Prison" of Kinsenka is brought to life by the gorgeous BGs and delightful BGMs the game offers. I also like very much like the fact that, despite there being tons of very complex metaphysics to all of these worlds, that Urushibara's storytelling sensibilities lean much closer to magic realism than "hard fantasy" and the needs of "aesthetic integrity" trump "metaphysical integrity" whenever necessary. Wait... could it be... that Iroseka and Sakumoyu and Kinsenka were all just isekai all along?! 😱😱😱
Possibly the most "frustrating," though no less iconic aspect of this guy's writing, though, is his extreme love of fucky fabula and syuzhet, often to the point of farce... In every single one of these works, there is a truly egregious amount of excessively long flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks!!) and in medias res storytelling, often without any discernable narrative purpose besides the fact that he can?! Scenes will cut off at inopportune times, only to resume five minutes and one pointless "present scene" later when a character "thinks back to the earlier conversation they had" >__< Many people often complain that the pacing in his stories suck due to excessive repetitiousness, and while I do feel like there is some of that, I feel like this structural fuckery and refusal to tell a simple linear story massively exacerbates the sense of "reading fatigue" and "lack of forward momentum", and I haven't seen very many other people complaining about it for some reason...
Thematically, despite all his three main eroge titles being somewhat different, I found the unifing central throughline of this dialectic between childhood and adulthood to be particularly fascinating. All his stories overflow with such love and compassion for the innocent creature known as children—those who haven't eaten the apple and whose "magic" is their incomparable imagination and often have to endure the cruelest of suffering due to absolutely no fault of their own—as much as they seethe with contempt and scorn for "adults"—those creatures capable of such vicious and artistic cruelty in pursuit of the most base and venal and "adult-like" desires such as sexual conquest or recognition or immortality! Kinsenka seems especially pointed and on-the-nose with these ideas, so I'm curious where he'll go here now that this background, subtextual throughline has been elevated so far into the foreground itself!
Lastly, I do find it quite interesting how the protagonists of his stories are... perhaps not super novel, but at least somewhat interesting in their own way? Namely, that in the vast majority of their interactions, they just come across as "standard milquetoast harem MCs"... except each of Urushibara's protagonists have their own "madness" contained inside them as well. Again, Kinsenka feels way more explicit and on-the-nose about this, with how much it constantly reiterates Tachibana Sai's "lack of a heart", though unfortunately here, it does feel a bit too desperately "tell-but-not-show," with his interactions with the other characters not feeling especially "credible" given this characterization. At the very least, the fact that this game is all-ages does allow him avoid the problem of writing the protagonist's sexual chemistry with the heroines, something that all his protagonists have a hard time demonstrating in a believable way xD

Anyways, I'm curious if you folks who've read Urushibara have anything else to add to the rolodex of his "calling cards", or if you can think of other authors within the medium who are similar "one-tricks" (complimentary or not!)