I'm Shy...

an internet friend: omg you should watch this movie, it’s on netflix. *narrator voice*: but alas it was not on netflix

ugly ass trains

listening to non-europeans talk about communism/socialism and dying inside because of the worrying amount of misinformation. public healthcare is not communism. stalinism is not marxism. personal property is not private property.

the “who actually started ww1” debate

“[insert country] doesn’t exist”

hearing a loud shriek at 2 am

far right governments

grandpa talking about the war again

dumplings

this guy:

and these bad boys:

also alcoholism at the ripe age of 13

those women who sell perfume at the train stations… there’s so many of them… how… why perfume…

walking in the capital and seeing bullet holes in the buildings because they’ve been left untouched for 70 years

inspired by this post, original images from this one

bonus:

Scarlet Fate 2: Seasons of love

Original title: 白華の檻 ~緋色の欠片4~ 四季の詩 Genre: otome, history, romance, drama  Age rating: 15+  Length: Medium (10-30 hours)  Developer: Design Factory Co., Ltd. & Otomate  Publisher: ReaderMishok Platform: PC (Windows 7, 10)  Language: English interface and text, Japanese voices Description: It is the sequel to “Scarlet Fate: Fragments of the past” which offers three stories: Song of Spring, Summer Festival, Autumn Harvest. Song of Spring  After the harsh winter season, spring emerges. Following the journey you’ve taken with your comrades- Gentoka, Kuso-no-mikoto, Akifusa Oki, Kodonomae, and Furugutsu Akishino- to free yourself from your fate in Scarlet Fate, you may now develop a romance with one of them.  Summer Festival  In Kifu Village, you and your comrades take part in the Summer Festival. As more unexpected company arrives, they compete for your attention, but you can’t help focusing on and admiring the sight of your beloved in a yukata. Together, you create lasting memories from a lively summer night at the festival.  Autumn Harvest  You and one of your comrades experience the trials of daily life together. On a day that seems like any other, you are faced with a variety of scenarios to share with your loved one, allowing for the opportunity to witness different sides of his personality you’ve never seen before. Links for Windows 10 (Winrar):  Yandex.  Mega. Drive.   Torrent file. Links for Windows 7 (Winrar):  Yandex.   Mega. Drive.  Torrent file. Links for Windows 10 (7zip):  Yandex. Mega. Drive. Links for Windows 7 (7zip):  Yandex. Mega. Drive. What should you do if you have Windows 7 32x:  1) You have to download Web version of Scarlet fate 2. 2) Next steps:  1. Open the file Scarlet Fate.exe.  2. Open Explorer (recommended) or your favorite browser.  3. Write in the address bar http://localhost:8080/  4. Wait. The game will open in the browser. If you just see black screen and nothing happens – click somewhere on the screen.  5. Profit.  6. If the game doesn’t want to reopen, and you just see black screen, you should allow the browser any actions with the site. Contact me, I’ll help. Some bugs:  0) The game is now in open beta testing, but stable performance of all its routes is confirmed.  1) Sometimes the game can just up and freeze on you without a reason, reboot helps. ヽ(。_゜)ノ  2) Opening settings on an animated background is not recommended.  3) Too much skipping can result in a crash. Consider saving data every time you get a choice option.  Some errors:  1) Error file not found:./data/scenario/system/plugin_third.ks  Place the attached file here: /data/scenario/system/, error should disappear.  Source of safe files:  Disk:\Users\(Your username)\AppData\Local\tyranoscript

(I love these nerds so much)

@classic-literature-snob​ asked me for some Polish book recs, so here we go.

Polish books translated into English:

The Witcher Series by Andrzej Sapkowski (fantasy)

The Doll by Bolesław Prus (historical fiction: 19th century)

The Fictions/The Crocodile Street by Bruno Schulz (magic realism)

The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman (non-fiction: WWII; escaping from Warsaw Ghetto)

Who Was David Weiser? by Paweł Huelle (historical fiction: post-WWII)

On the Road to Babadag by Andrzej Stasiuk (contemporary)

A World Apart by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (non-fiction: WWII; memories of a Gulag survivor)

Wedding by Stanisław Wyspiański (play; pretty heavy symbolism)

The Peasants by Władysław Reymont (historical fiction: late 19th century; Nobel prize winner)

The Shoemakers by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (play; magic realism)

Short stories by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (especially Friends & Lovers of Marona, if you can find those)

Like Eating a Stone by Wojciech Tochman (non-fiction; civil war in Bosnia)

Story For a Friend by Halina Poświatowska (kind of an autobiography)

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (historical fiction: Roman Empire; beginnings of Christianity; Nobel prize winner)

The Trilogy (With Fire and Sword, The Deluge & Sir Michael) by Henryk Sienkiewicz (historical fiction: 17th century; respectively: the Khmelnitsky Uprising, the Swedish invasion, also known as the Deluge & war against Ottoman Empire)

Solaris by Stanisław Lem (sci-fi)

The Stranger by Maria Kuncewiczowa (psychological)

Czesław Miłosz (poetry; Nobel prize winner)

Wisława Szymborska (poetry; Nobel prize winner)

Tadeusz Różewicz (poetry)

Zbigniew Herbert (poetry)

Books that haven’t been translated into English (yet):

Dobry by Waldemar Łysiak (historical fiction: PRL)

Taksim* by Andrzej Stasiuk (contemporary)

Drach* & Król by Szczepan Twardoch (historical fiction)

literally anything by Miron Białoszewski (mostly poetry and diaries)

Czterdzieści i cztery by Wojciech Piskorski (fantasy/historical fiction)

Gnój by Wojciech Kuczok (contemporary)

Najgorszy człowiek na świecie by Małgorzata Halber (contemporary)

Kobieta nie-doskonała by Sylwia Kubryńska (contemporary)

Inne pieśni by Jacek Dukaj (sci-fi)

Śmierć w Breslau by Marek Krajewski (crime story/historical fiction)

Jeżycjada by Małgorzata Musierowicz (contemporary, YA)

Tango by Sławomir Mrożek (play, contemporary)

Siekierezada by Edward Stachura (magic realism)

Akademia Pana Kleksa by Jan Brzechwa (kids lit)

Wakacje z duchami by Adam Bahdaj (YA; detective story)

Pan Samochodzik i templariusze and the rest of the series by Zbigniew Nienacki (YA; detective story)

Kamienie na szaniec (non-fiction: WWII)

*available in German

This was a super fun and interesting question! Idk how to express what I like well though x’D No specific order as usual

1. H a n a m u r a M a i (examples: Amnesia, Collar x Malice)

I’m a big fan of her! The style has changed a little from how Amnesia initially looked, but I think both are very pretty. Especially the shading/coloring stands out to me. Plus I really like the fashion (though Amnesia is a bit wild sometimes lol)

Read Reblog for update on H a n a m u r a M a i

Those of you who are on Twitter and somewhat involved in the Otome community have probably heard about what’s currently happening. There’s a long and detailed post from Yukina [here].

I’ll sum it up briefly, though you should really read that blog entry. Yuiga Satoru, a mangaka who most of us probably know from her work on the Psychedelica Series has recently spoken up about being harassed by someone (both in the form of art tracing and on other levels). Initially without naming the person, Yuiga eventually started referring to them as “H”. People quickly jumped to the conclusion that it may be H a n a m u r a M a i. So over the course of the last weeks overlayed images comparing “H”’s art with pieces made by Yuiga and even other popular artists started surfacing on Twitter. However since there was no hard evidence yet people were still uncertain.

On April 2 H a n a m u r a took to Twitter twith a statement written by her Lawyers. Basically she claims to not have traced anyones work and uploaded a video which shows her drawing Mineo.

However, this video which is supposed to support her innocence is exactly what threw a lot of people - me included - off. It’s already off to a bad start since in the video, instead of drawing completely from scratch, there’s already a sketch. A messy one mind you, however, from a professional artist you’d expect that they would be able to start on a blank canvas. It kind of seems as though they purposely put a big emphasis on the way H shades, since that’s something she’s good at and her artstyle known for.

But that’s not the issue. The issue seems to be that H is putting pieces of other artists work together because she has big problems with anatomy. To be honest I can relate, but obviously that doesn’t justify what she seems to be doing - especially considering this is her job we’re talking about. And if you look at the anatomy there are big problems. The upper part (which I’d like to note was the most detailed of her initial “sketch”) looks pretty good, nothing unusual. If you look at the torso however it’s completely deformed. That’s not how bodies work. So looking at Yuiga’s statements you can’t help but be suspicious.

That’s the current state of events. I’d like to warn people not to enage with “H” however, since she seems to be pretty ruthless with people trying to shed light on the situation (hence why I’m trying to be careful too).

There’s one more thing I’d like to address however. It’s something I’ve seen pop up a lot and that I’ve been wondering about as well.

What about Collar x Malice? Can I still enjoy the game, knowing how the art was likely produced? Should I boycott?

"I miss you, Czech" "And I you, Pole"

Since closing borders due to coronavirus outbreak, many border towns like Cieszyn/Těšín, usually existing as one, suddenly became divided. Those photos of banners hung on two sides of the border appeared in most of our national news and social media and I thought I will share them here as well, as they are a proof that people's solidarity and just general kindness are even more evident in those trying times.

As usual MangaGamer has launched a survey for which games they should localize! One of the few chances for the voices of us Otoge fans to be heard, so if you enjoy Otome (or VN’s in general) you should definitely consider voting :)

You can find the survey link [here]

The following is very similar to my post last year since some of the games I suggested made the list but haven’t been announced (another year another chance!). The info at the beginning is updated though, since we’ve gotten some new releases since last time, so some things have changed.

For the people that want to look up some potential Otoge Mangagamer might be interested in the [Visual Novel database] is your best friend! I’ve already set the search to “Otome”, but you can add further filters if you want.

You may ask yourself “What kinds of games might be a good suggestion though?”. Obviously I’m not involved in localization matters, but we can look at a few things that we’ve learned over the years:

1) Rejet and Honeybee have no interest in the overseas market whatsoever. I know Dialovers is popular, it ranks high in the survey each time. But putting the fact that Mangagamer is already well aware of this popularity aside, we also know that Rejet is not particularily fond of the idea that their games might be localized. Same goes for Honeybee (Starry Sky series,…).

1.2) Vice versa companies that have had some of their games localized (Otomate, Hunex, Kalmia8, Primula…) are likely more open to give the overseas market another go. Companies that have no experience with localizaion could be hit or miss, though on the other hand everything has to start somewhere.

2) MangaGamer will only release games available for PC at this point in time.

Those are the two main points I think. Games that have a more frequent release date (I’d say after 2016) might have a bigger chance as well, ultimately that may not be the deciding factor though.

As you’ve probably guessed I’ve also done my homework this year. So if you don’t want to search through the VNDB yourself or think that there is strength in numbers here are some games that might potentially be interesting to Mangagamer in my opinion:

(Small disclaimer that all of the following info is from the VNDB website, I did not translate or take credit for any of this)

Kannagi no Mori

(Opening Movie)

The protagonist Kinami Mizuki has been able to see things that others could not since she was a child.

Her mother, who was the only family she had told her to keep it a secret from everybody and Mizuki has kept that promise. One rainy night while looking out her window Mizuki saw a person walking in the rain without an umbrella. That person looked exactly like her mother who had died three days ago. –On a rainy night, the dead will return… [continue reading]

This game has a very interesting premise. The reviews I’ve read praised its story as emotional and heart wrenching which is always good. With it’s release date in 2018 it’s also pretty new. The Developer and Publisher have not worked with the overseas market before so they might be open to the idea of a localization.

Tricolity Eyes

(Opening Movie Vol. 1)

Tlicolity Eyes is a part of “triAngle PROJECT,” a collaboration project between Otomate and Frontier Works. Each series will have 3 games released in span of 9 months for Windows under the same concept: one heroine, two heroes, and triangle love.

Tlicolity Eyes theme is entertainment industry x love comedy x triangle love. [Story] ――This is a story a bit ahead in the future. Approximately 30% of the population have a magical power and are called the “Ability Users.” It is rumored that many of ability users are shining in the world of entertainment… [continue reading]

Honestly the biggest advantage of Toriai is that Otomate and Idea Factory are involved. They’re both familar with the overseas market so they could be very interested in working with Mangagamer. I also like that the protagonists are adults working a job, since it’s a break from the often used school setting.

Majestic☆Majolical

(Opening Movie Vol. 1)

The magician Lapis is the youngest daughter of the distinguished Idocrase family. Her parent’s and four brothers are all elites with great magical power. However Lapis only has lower than ordinary magical abilities, she spends everyday at magic school getting ridiculed as the ‘Burden of the Idocrase Family’. In order to go to a higher school she challenges a certain test. The details are to gather the ‘Twinkle Gem’ that is created from a strong ‘feeling’ in a humans heart. And so Lapis goes to the human world in high spirits, where a bunch of hard to deal with men are waiting for her.

I’ve seen this game on Twitter a few times and found it a happy surprise that this is a PC Otoge. Like Toriai it’s split into 3 different Volumes that focus on different characters. I’m really liking the premise (Witches and magic are 👌) and the art is beautiful. Reviews also said that the MC is great which is always a plus. This is the publisher/developer’s (dazkarat) first game so they could be interested in getting more revenue from the overseas market. Also might be a good partner for the future.

Suggestion for R18 Otoge fans:

Yoshiwara Higanbana

(Opening Movie)

It’s the Edo era. Lust and desire swirls within the “other side” of the luxurious and gorgeous Shin-Yoshiwara. At the long-standing brothel called “Oukaya”, the protagonist Chihaya works as its top-ranking oiran (courtesan). In order to go back to her motherland, she enterains male strangers day and night. Her unchanging everyday life… Yoshiwara might be a small world, but to Chihaya, it’s a treasured place in which she can prove herself. The brothel’s owner, Shigure. Her servant, Yuzu. The strong-willed fellow harlots that work alongside her. Surrounded by irreplaceable people, though her line of work is called “the world of suffering”, Chihaya is proud of being a courtesan… [continue reading]

Obviously if you want some R18 content Mangagamer is the right place to ask for it. I’ve been wanting to suggest something but didn’t manage to find a good game on my own since a lot of these titles have very unpleasant themes and just generally bad plot. A lot of thanks to everyone on Twitter that helped narrow down my choice!

I’ve heard good things about Yoshiwara Higanbana, especially that the MC is proactive during R18 scenes and that the story is good. Similar as with Majestic☆Majolicalthis is the developers first game, so getting more revenue from the overseas market could interest them as well.

-

As usual these are suggestions. I can’t and won’t dictate what others vote, that choice is yours :) Whatever happens let’s hope that there might be some more Otoge releases in the future!

so she’s hilarious and she knows what she’s talking about