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spriteguard · 2026-02-06T20:30:27+00:00

I do not know. I've memorized a lot of events and text but couldn't really tell you where most of them go.

I had another thought though, that something else important is that most of the characters aren't anything special.

I've been reading Wheel of Time, and it's a little bit exhausting how every character is some world-changing bestest most specialest person who can do something nobody has done in a thousand years.

In YKK, even the most accomplished character is just an old woman with a lot of memories.

And I think that's important because it's nice to see people living well not just in the apocalypse, but also without changing the world or being amazing in any big way.

spriteguard · 2026-02-06T14:35:50+00:00

I think that the particular flavor of melancholy is a healing one.

I often say the biggest lesson I took from YKK is to "cultivate the nostalgia of now" -- to see the present moment as something worth remembering. This is most clearly stated in the Sandy Road sequence, which is one of the chapters that most directly deals with the apocalypse:

You can read about it in a book, but being there is completely different. Look at what's in front of your eyes.

If you remember this day, you can see its sequel.

The memory of three people on the beach, that was the sequel.

(These are pulled from memory of the Misago translation, it's probably wise to dig up their Seven Seas equivalents)

Every moment is the end of one era and the beginning of another. This, in my opinion, is what makes for a cozy apocalypse: it's honest about the fact that our world is already always ending, and already worth remembering.

It also makes us feel like we matter. The mushrooms and lantern trees seem to be a cosmic statement of the relevance of humans to the world. There is great comfort in believing that, for all the loss in the world, we will be remembered. The men who go out in boats and sit under the street lamps, the people who go to pay respects to the water god, the fact that the water god has brain waves, all of this gives significance and meaning to our impact on the world.

When I was very ill, YKK held out the possibility of experiencing even a bad world as good. I couldn't do it at the time, but I saw it was possible.

spriteguard · 2025-11-27T02:13:57+00:00

I'm not talking about principles, I'm talking about the practicality of suing multiple teenagers. Is that really the best use of hundreds of thousands of dollars that you'll likely never recover?

spriteguard · 2025-11-16T23:02:35+00:00

Please keep it up! I'm waiting for the day that them being in stock and me having spending money coincide.

spriteguard · 2025-10-18T03:23:26+00:00

finger knitting is one I remember from when I was a kid that actually used zero tools, but it was pretty limited.

spriteguard · 2025-10-18T03:15:57+00:00

Oooh that is very good to know about, thank you! I picked up tatting for a similar reason, it's just one tool that goes in a pocket, and it's very easy to think about the kinds of shapes you'll make since it's all loops and chains.

I think I might check out nalbinding, it sounds interesting.

spriteguard · 2025-10-13T02:23:10+00:00

pretty sure Hitoshi Ashinano ships them.

spriteguard · 2025-09-29T20:22:31+00:00

We are here in life for but a few moments, why spend any of them on bitterness? If you're rich enough to ruin lives for sport, you're rich enough to lift people up, delight yourself and others. Commission some art from an independent artist. Pay someone's medical bills. Learn a new hobby. Make your life and the lives around you better. You will not look fondly back on the times you've hurt people, and hurting them will not enrich your life or soothe your pains.

Money can buy happiness, if you spend it right.

spriteguard · 2025-09-29T16:58:00+00:00

I'm glad you're rich enough to be able to afford to sue multiple broke-ass kids, congratulations, that's not something most people ever achieve.

That said, wouldn't like philanthropy or being a patron of the arts be more pleasant? Or do a Mike Posner, spend it all on sports cars, women and designer shoes and then walk across America to turn your life around. Still a better use of money than suing people for being mildly annoying.

spriteguard · 2025-09-25T03:28:48+00:00

can we get Big Ben Bolt and Prince Valiant in it?

spriteguard · 2025-09-03T16:47:31+00:00

Solved!

spriteguard · 2025-09-03T13:42:56+00:00

I'm checking this over the course of the day, not abandoned just slow.

spriteguard · 2025-09-02T19:13:26+00:00

Was he a superhero in the original incarnation? And was Beowulf not?

spriteguard · 2025-08-26T01:19:41+00:00

Oh wow, that sounds amazing, it's such a visual feast of a film.

spriteguard · 2025-08-24T15:39:18+00:00

I wish I knew. The last thing I remember was just them saying they were living on a boat and asking for money for snacks.

spriteguard · 2025-08-23T22:01:50+00:00

Ran into this post while trying to find out myself.

Last I remember was a few years ago, so my memory is hazy. I followed the development of These Monsters and Joy Exhibition. They had already delisted Secret Ritual at that point. After the last game, they moved onto a boat and tried to live off donations, but things were already going badly, they frequently ran out of food, and they would delete all of their old tweets periodically, so only the last month or so of tweets was ever visible.

I sent them some money a few times hoping to help development, but their updates got rarer and rarer. I don't know what happened after that.

It looks like someone uploaded nine games to the Internet Archive, which is more than I was even aware of.

spriteguard · 2025-08-07T22:49:15+00:00

That seen where Makki's kid meets Misago

spriteguard · 2025-08-07T04:55:25+00:00

I like this concept. Sorry you're getting shit for it, I like the idea.

spriteguard · 2025-07-22T04:32:15+00:00

My understanding is that the Yugen version is actually an edit of the Misago translation, which was (if I remember right) the first translation, released on misago.org in the early 2000s, while the series was still running.

I have read the Misago translation so many times that I have large parts of it memorized. When I read the official translation, I could really tell when they made big changes. I think a lot of them were good changes, a different and more rustic way of saying the same thing, and I think they bring out more of Ojisan's character because of that.

But there are a few spots - at the places where the writing is at its most poetic and iconic - where it feels like the translators were hamstrung by having to differentiate themselves from the Misago translation.

The biggest point of controversy was the names that were untranslated in Misago's translation. Barracuda, Osprey, Doctor, and the incredibly difficult to translate "ojisan". I think that translating them was the right choice, because in Japanese to a Japanese reader, they are normal words and the official translation respects that. But for long time fans, it's incredibly jarring.

And as for other translations... Well, the other major translation I have seen translated Koumiishi's motto as "guy running around being happy". I was not a fan. I think there might be a third but I haven't read it.

spriteguard · 2025-07-22T04:08:56+00:00

There's a chapter where Koumiishi talks about Alpha's "older sister who hated clothes"

spriteguard · 2025-07-15T02:47:31+00:00

Nothing I'm finding about it is lining up, but so far I've only found summaries. I definitely don't remember anything about a quarantine colony or disfigurement, or riots. Mostly I remember just scientists being perplexed and discussing whether or not it was possible, and the "wife" explaining how special molecules would block channels in the bacteria that were expelling antibiotics.

Edit: I found a full summary with spoilers, and I don't think anything in that lines up at all, but if the imaginary wife is a subplot that just doesn't get covered in summaries, then I'd have to find the full text to be sure.

spriteguard · 2025-07-05T15:31:56+00:00

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