#also I admit I have fairly limited knowledge of these events this is mainly a general impression

[lizluzz]

You got to admire how, instead of the usual route of roasting your fellow celebrities, David Tennant chose to open the ceremony by roasting himself and his emotional support boyfriend Michael Sheen, but in the most ridiculous way possible. I love him

[donotstopthisdebatenow]

V3 Prologue Replay 0.1- It’s Time to Wake Up

Well, guess this is happening now.

Hello there. I figured I might as well write down things I picked up on during my replays and discussions with others, as well as some translation issues I (and many others from what I’ve seen) have noticed throughout out the game, with some fun trivia along the way too. This is mainly for the sake of my own peace of mind than anything, as I haven’t properly went through the game chapter by chapter in order recently, and I mainly compared translation as bits and pieces than going through line by line.

I will be recording the game both in English and Japanese to compare the lines and comment on differences if they seem of worth to note, which honestly most of it isn’t given that in terms of adapting the language in a natural sounding way -as a localization- they did a pretty good job. Most issues seems to come from lack of communication between the team in terms of context of some lines, but that’s mostly on the management of the team and I don’t have the insider’s knowledge beyond knowing that they were given some characters/sections of the game to translate so I can’t exactly comment on what was going on there.

For the trivia bits, please do keep in mind that it is me being nitpicky as a translator myself, and that I’m only pointing those out as how I would personally prefer those to be translated but at the end of the day, it really does come down to preferences since they do communicate the main thing they are trying to relay and unlike context relevant errors that do in fact cause geniune harm to gameplay and player’s experience (ie. inconsistencies in translation making Trial 5 a confusing mess) they are more what it says on the tin- some extra info/context on things.

All that said, let’s start~

Here we start with a shortened version of the V3 promo we will see in trial 6, as well as the V3 opening. Before I move to the latter though, I do want to note that for the “This story is not over” part, the Japanese counterpart uses “物語は終わらない” which due to the verb tense has a heavier “This story won’t end” vibe, which Monokuma kept insisting on in trial 6 as well.

It is not a big thing but simply a nice touch with the bold claims they make throughout the game on how it will never end.

It is also worth touching on given that one commenter in trial 6 was saying that it’s been three years since last season, so it is a bold “come back” line by whoever the group running this season 53 is.

Beyond that, it is just a nice recap and I personally love how the music blends fairly well together.

Hello there, “Team Danganronpa”. Still love how this spoiler was staring at us in the face entire time.

For the actual opening Tsumugi having a red string (of their fates) at hand and Rantaro being the only one who becomes one with their shadow to have pink eyes open was a nice touch.

The character in that pink blinking eye that for some reason wasn’t translated is the kanji for “lie” (嘘) btw. Also nice touch with Kaede facing the culprits in that blink and you will miss it scene before they dissolve to letters.

Tsumugi and Rantaro being on top of the slot machine just like how Monokuma’s ‘throne’ is between their trial stands is nice too.

The opening, which was supposedly used in-game as show intro as well, having the meteorities and that talent suppressing machine for the Ultimate Hunt plotline is of worth noting too. It is easy to dismiss the Gofer Project plotline for us players now, but the show was genuinely going for that angle before Kokichi’s takeover, hence it is worth keeping in mind while going through first four chapters especially.

For the game name, this is sort of a dead horse at this point but “Killing Harmony” rather than “Everyone’s [Mutual] Killing School Semester” was likely used due to character limit, so they had to get creative with an alternative subtitle. Character limit is a genuine issue translators face with especially with a language like Japanese and why we end up things like Yasuhiro telling us to call him Hiro or Korekiyo saying we can use Kiyo.

It is also interesting that they play the show intro twice in the prologue, one before and after their memories were altered by the flashback light, and given Monokuma when he appears later saying that this prologue was going on too long, it seems like whoever was in charge of that (supposedly Monophanie, if kubs indeed have their own AI, or the person using the avatar of said bear) messed up so they had that version aired unintentionally, hence having to go for an intro again later.

And now it’s time to wake up for one antenna girl.

If this part felt pretentious and weird to you when you first read it, don’t worry it is just usual “Kodaka trying to go purple prose except it comes off really awkward especially in English” and the translator chose to simplify a good chunk of it, going “yeah we ain’t doing that here” and I can respect that tbh.

But just for the sake of having it here: A more literal translation of that part would be “There is nothing here yet. No light, no sound. Nor my form or voice. Nobody knows who I am yet. Who I am? Who am I? I reach out a hand. A hand that doesn’t belong to anyone yet. To grasp my own existence- This is me. My name is Kaede Akamatsu. I finally recognized who I am. ...Nice to meet [you,] me. Miss protagonist of this crazy story.”

Again, a few things are just reworded to sound natural in English for the localization’s take, but if the line “Nice to meet... me” confused you before, that’s because translator went half way cutting out Kodaka waxing poetics on regaining consciousness, so taking off the subject in translation makes it sound weirder when she suddenly seems to start to talk to herself.

Also, the heavy protag framing with her and Shuichi honestly did more harm to the game than good, at this point. It would be better if they started off without that last line, as it would blend better with unreliable narrator we just happened to see events from the POV gimmick way better. Same goes for Demo having her, Hajime and Makoto sharing the “Protagonist Room” and how much hype they caused by actively pushing that angle. Part of that was preserving the twist, yes, but I also get why people do feel like it was meant as a “take that” as well.

It also did not help with people recognizing that we were playing as “side characters” the entire time as far as in-universe story plotted by this TDR was concerned too, since Kiibo was set to be the in game Naegi-expy protagonist of the season.

But enough of that for now, because we have a title card to tackle.

蘇る超高校級

I have to admit, revival probably was the best choice to use there as looking back now, there are a few things this is refering to-

1-) The simpler explanation of how they supposedly had their memories sealed, hence the “restoring/bringing back memories” meaning of 蘇る, which also means “reviving” the title of Ultimate in the Gofer Project plotline universe given how they were supposedly last survivors of the earth and

2-) How this is a revival of Danganronpa, going again with the fact that show stopped for three years/some people were awaiting for a new season for a while now, hence the resurrection/revival of Danganronpa and by extention, the concept of Ultimates by using that meaning of 蘇る in that way too. After all, “Ultimate” is really just “Best in X field amongst other highschoolers” title (as commonly fan-translated and iirc even made it to anime subs as “Super High School Level”), so having high schoolers who are given memories and the title to match with it is reviving that.

Finally out of the closet locker, and before we move on, I want to add another side note that when you invert the UI, pre first flashback light UI turns a familiar pink.

While one reading of this could be that this lie magenta being the inverted version hints at prologue being a lie, I personally take it as due to the inverted color being the one we see, it means the prologue has the “truth” than later parts, since in trial we have blue truth bullet changing color to become pink lie bullet theme, that the color they are inverted to being opposite of what they are simply makes more sense to me.

We will see when we return to this locker again later that our UI changed to yellow which inverts to blue, reverse of truth, which is especially poignant with Tsumugi’s later trial 6 comment on “if they will call fiction a lie, then all their actions and words were indeed all just lies, since they were performed based on things some people wrote, fiction, too.

It changing immediately after we are shown that first light simply felt too relevant to not tack this on here, but moving on-

A mood tbh

Poor girl, honestly. This is not even the only time she will end up hitting her head when we are done with prologue.

A bit of a short fuse there, but also fair.

That’s what we all would like to know too.

Imagine someone goes through the trouble of kidnapping you while you are on the way to school, and brings you to... another school you’ve never been to. It almost sounds funny if you ignore the small big fact that they are brought there to kill each other.

You tried, Kaede.

Also I forgot how much of the prologue was really just “Kaede causes herself physical pain while trying to calm down simulator” wow

Dun dun duun

Insert “Wow, Kaede comes out of her own closet AND brings hat boy out his closet too? Doing Arceus’ work, Kaede” joke.

Also hi, Shuichi.

This is honestly a weird way to phrase it, as what Kaede says is that it is “A boy dressed in a normal school uniform...” than emphasizing on Shuichi’s own normalness, in the Japanese version.

It is also the only line that has a slight change in both takes as in the second take, she says “A boy dressed in a bit weird school uniform...” which due to copy-paste and adjective being used to describe Shuichi than his clothing in the translation, it ends up being glossed over.

On the one hand, still funny. On the another hand, this kid is justifiably terrified...

“Buddy I need some context here I have no clue what’s going on”

“Oh yeah that happened”

Shuichi: Sees a girl in high school uniform, kidnapped by likely people older than them himself

Shuichi:

Shuichi: You are working with them aren’t you?!

10/10 detective work there hat boy. I know he is probably just still too scared to think straight, but it is still funny on hindsight.

That’s one way to calm someone

And both of their names are the same both takes too. Their way of referring to themselves (私 for Kaede, 僕 for Shuichi, which are both used in the Chapter 1 title as well) are same, as well as their general speech patterns too.

Damn, girl.

Also a nice time to point out that Shuichi spends a good chunk of prologue retake and chapter 1 doubting if they can really trust everyone, and it is good to see that he had same tendency to assume he is the only one facing something/that people around must be enemy unless he is explicitly told or shown that they are not.

It makes sense in the situation, really, especially with how Kaede being the one who opened the door to his locker, his experience is that this girl could be working for/with the ones who kidnapped him, but still worth mentioning.

A real flashback time-

Which is coming soon, because tumblr refuses to add more pictures to this post OTL

[thej13579]

Paper Mario Sticker Star: Really That Bad?

This will be the first in a series that I have made called Really That Bad? It's where I judge a negatively reviewed product to see if it's really as bad as people say it is.

If you have your own suggestions for Really That Bad? or you just want to give out your own opinions on either this critique or the game itself, comment down below.

Paper Mario is a series that I really liked growing up. From its humble roots as a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG to its generally considered superior sequel in The Thousand Year Door to even its weird diversion into platforming with Super Paper Mario, I considered these three games to be some of the best Mario games ever made.

But starting with the game that I’m discussing today, the Paper Mario subseries has gone in a different direction that has not been received all that well. Considering that Paper Mario: The Origami King just came out recently, I have been wondering if Paper Mario: Sticker Star deserves all the hate it gets, or is there something worthwhile in the direction that the subseries is undergoing. Let’s find out if I think Paper Mario: Sticker Star is Really That Bad.

Story and Characters

Let’s start with the story. A basic rundown is that Bowser has disrupted the beloved Sticker Fest by causing the Sticker Comet to explode. Now Royal Stickers and pieces of the comet have been flung far and wide, and it's up to Mario and his ally Kersti to set things right by recovering them. That’s basically the entire story. A basic Mario story with nothing aside from the paper theme making it stand out. 

Sadly, the characters don’t come out much better. Nearly all of them are basically bland and generic with very little in terms of personality or character design making them stand out from each other. (The Toads in of themselves have become a meme because they’re all the same exact character model) Even Kersti, an ally that follows you on your entire journey, stays static from beginning to end. Characters like Mizzter Blizzard, who actually does have a fairly sympathetic reason for what he does with him wanting to live longer and not melt, are very few and far between.

Overall, the story and characters lack any real charm from the other games and it comes across as a generic Mario story at the end of the day. While the first Paper Mario game had this exact same plot with the stars instead of the stickers, there were several things making that game stand out with its unique and memorable cast of characters and you also get to play as Peach every now and then to help Mario on his quest which was always rather nice. Not a particularly great start to this analysis.

Graphics

The graphics definitely are one of the highlights of the game. It’s fairly bright and colorful and the Nintendo 3DS takes good advantage of the fact that the world is paper. Some may dislike the extra emphasis on paper compared to the previous three games but I think it does add a little charm to the game that is sorely needed.

My main problem with the art direction essentially boils down to the locations; mainly, how generic they are. The designers fall back on various Mario locations that have been done to death by the time this game came out: Grasslands, deserts, jungles and finally Bowser’s castle. You take out the paper style, there will be nothing distinguishing it from most Mario platformers in the franchise and that’s a shame because the game actually looks pretty good on the Nintendo 3DS.

On a side note, I don’t really care that much for the 3D function of the Nintendo 3DS so I’m not taking that into account when evaluating the graphics.

Overall, the graphics, while good at taking advantage of the paper theme, suffered from a lack of originality when it comes to its locations (a flaw that later Paper Mario games did fix). It’s good but not great.

Sound

I’ll admit that the soundtrack is actually pretty good. It does have plenty of great tracks and the jazz motif throughout most of them really make it memorable in my eyes. Special mention goes to the main battle theme, Boo Night Fever, the Gooper Blooper battle themes, and the final boss themes.

I honestly don’t have much to say in this section. I just find this a very good soundtrack and I bet even most of the people who hate Sticker Star will agree with me on this.

Gameplay

Now, here’s the main part that many people have been criticizing this game for; the gameplay.

Let’s start with some positives. I liked the exploration aspect. I liked roaming around the areas, looking for stickers, solving puzzles. It really does feel like I’m accomplishing something whenever I found a secret passage that leads me to a different goal than when I was going down the beaten path.

There’s also the paperize power where you can reveal areas where you can place stickers down to enable certain events whether it is simply placing a sticker to make a ? box appear or a Thing that can really affect the environment, allowing you to progress further into the level..

That leads to the Things that you find by looking around the levels and I kind of like how they can affect the environment such as using the Faucet to fill up a dry oasis in the desert world and I especially like the animations that are played when you use them in battle. My personal favorites are the Goat, the Turkey and the Water Gun with how fun and bizarre they are. Sadly, they are not perfect for a major reason that I’ll get to in a bit.

Then we get to the battle system and here’s where most of my criticisms on the game design start to pour in. For the most part, it seems fairly similar to the RPG battle system from the first two games. You and your enemy take turns attacking each other and you have to get their health points down to zero to win the battle. Sounds exactly like the first two games... but that’s where the stickers come in.

Stickers come in a fair amount of variety with various forms of jumps, hammer attacks, and items. The main problem with them comes in the fact that all of them are consumables, even just the regular jump and hammer attacks. If you ran out of them, your only options are to either wait to die, or run away. Granted, you usually find enough stickers around the area just by looking around so it never really became a problem for me during my playthroughs. But the fact that it’s possible is not good game design.

The idea of your basic actions being entirely reliant on consumables would have been bad enough on its own, but then there’s the fact that, unlike nearly every other RPG ever, you get no experience from fighting enemies. What do you get from enemies? Coins and stickers. Two things that you can easily find on your own throughout the levels and you get plenty of the former the first time you actually complete a level. Not a very good incentive to battle if I say so myself. You are basically better off just avoiding enemies and saving your stickers for scripted encounters and boss fights.

And here’s where we get to what I consider the worst part of the game, the boss fights. The main issue can be boiled down to the fact that they are puzzle bosses with too much emphasis on the puzzle part. They are so powerful with their high health points ranging up to the hundreds and attack points they are all but guaranteed to wipe the floor with unless you have the proper Thing (and without a walkthrough, you probably don’t). If you do have the proper Thing, the boss quickly becomes a joke, hence the puzzle boss with too much emphasis on the puzzle. This is the flaw that I was referring to earlier when it comes to the Things. You have very little knowledge of what Thing you need for the fight until you’re already fighting the boss. Without a walkthrough, the only way to know is to die and possibly get a hint on what Thing you actually need.

To best describe what I’m talking about, let’s go with the very first boss, Megasparkle Goomba. To beat this boss, you have to fight the boss like normal until the sixteen Goombas that the boss is made out of reveal themselves and start to flip. From there you need one of two Things: Scissors or a Fan. Seems simple on paper (pun not intended). However, the main problem is that there is no indication that you need either of those Things to beat the boss. 

It’s far from the only example of this design issue at work and not the worst, the final boss takes that spot, but it’s a perfect example of how the Things work when it comes to bosses and how poorly designed the bosses in this game are. This is not helped by how the game actively discourages trial and error considering that, one; you only have a limited amount of space for stickers and Things take a huge chunk of space in your inventory. Two, they go away once they are used so you have to either buy them which costs quite a bit of coins, or you have to go to the place where you originally found them which can be long and tedious depending on the level.

Overall, the exploration aspect of the game is kind of fun with plenty of clever puzzles and platforming. But the battling system ranges from pointless at best to downright cryptic and poorly designed at worst. The gameplay is an extremely mixed bag ranging from pretty good to pretty bad.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

So, after all that, is Paper Mario: Sticker Star really that bad? Yeah… sort of.

I will admit that all the parts the game gets flack for do genuinely deserve all the criticism it gets and then some. The lack of emphasis on story and characters, the uncreative environments, and especially the battle system with its stupid reliance on consumable items to do anything in battle and lack of any good incentive to actually fight enemies along with the awful bosses. Aside from the art style, which I do like, the game lacks the charm that the first two Paper Mario games, and even Super Paper Mario, had. The fact that the very first Paper Mario did this exact same plot but did it better with more creative characters, environments and better game design just makes Sticker Star look that much worse by comparison.

But, I can’t find myself to really hate this game and that’s for several reasons. First, when I’m not battling any enemies and I’m just travelling the world, overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles, Sticker Star can actually be pretty fun. There may be some issues with that, mainly when Things are involved, but I’m still having a good time just exploring the levels, uncovering whatever secrets they may have.

There’s also the graphics and music which are still top notch with the extra emphasis on paper in the former and the excellent jazz motif throughout most of the tracks in the latter. The game overall, looks and sounds nice and it’s definitely a point in Sticker Star’s favor.

Overall, I wouldn’t call Paper Mario: Sticker Star a good game as it has too many flaws and inadequacies to push the overall product beyond okay. The game was rejected by most Paper Mario fans for fairly good reasons with its lower emphasis on writing and a poor battle system that gives the player very little reason to battle. But I think that the game does have some potential as an action-adventure sort of game. If the people at Nintendo are really that insistent on this direction for future games then I think that these are some of the things they should take into account if they really want to go in this direction. Perhaps The Origami King could take those criticisms into account?

[polar-stars]

👹🍅💥🏀 ⭐🍏 🐉 💧🐟🍇 🔮🌸🌷 ❤️ 🧡💚💗 for chieko Mika yasu shigeo kazuo please ;)

I’ve decided to answer these in multiple parts....I hope thats alright with you ;v;

This one will feature Chieko and next on will be Mika and so on...

But thanks for the ask ^^ The questions are really fun to answer

Chieko

👹 How does you OC act around different people and how does their personality change to match the environment they’re in? How do they act with: friends, family, strangers, children or their lover(s)?

Chieko’s behaviour mainly depends on whether she’s talking to someone her age or an adult. Though the closeness to whoever she’s talking is also a large factor. 

She’s very polite and well-behaved when talking to adults. If it’s authority-figures or people she admires, she’s very cautious with her words and tends to be a bit shyer. If she’s a bit more closer to them (Satoshi, Daigo, Shoji), she’s a bit more open and more comfortable to vent and rant though. 

With people her age, she’s usually more or less polite with strangers, but if you rub her off the wrong way she might become more snarky quickly. Around her friends, she’s definitely more than comfortable to rant and whine about how frustrating everything is. She’s definitely grouchier and quicker to nag, but at the same time she’s also more cheery (if she does end up in a good mood) and less stiff. She’s the same around her family and also the Ibusakis. 

🍅 How easily is your OC embarassed? What subjects make them flush and why? What event has made your OC the most embarassed they’ve ever been?

It’s rather easy to make Chieko fluster. She’s not much used to praise and compliments, so that alone can make her blush. It only gets worse if it comes from anyone she holds admiration for.  Given that she’s also pretty innocent in that regard, anything sexual will certainly turn her into a tomato as well. 

Then there’s also the feeling of being out of place. Chieko does have some insecurities about her looks and thinks of herself as insanely plain. When she’s put into a pretty dress and sent to a fancy party, at times (not always but sometimes) she tends to feel small and stupid being surrounded by girls that she thinks are just so much interesting than her. 

💥 Are there any emotions your OC doesn’t know how to deal with, doesn’t understand or hates having to feel? Any reason behind this?

Chieko is certainly conflicted about the attraction she harbors for Shigeo Eizan. She’s pretty confused about how she’s perfectly aware about how excellently he lies and how cruel he is, yet still she can’t help but to feel drawn to him despite the NUMEROUS warning-sings. She’s greatly inexperienced with love and lust to begin with honestly. She never had much of a Love 101 course so to speak, meaning she never really had any innocent teenage-flirting with a nice, uncomplicated kind-off guy but rather gets thrown right into the advanced course. 

Another thing she’s honestly rather unfamiliar with is true, deep grief but most of the kids honestly are. 

🏀 Does your OC have any skills that people wouldn’t expect them to have? Do they have a hobby or pass time that others would consider strange or weird? How did they learn this particular skill or pick up this hobby?

She actually knows archery. It was taught to her by Yuki’s father who’s just simply very enthusiastic about bows and arrows and wanted to show it to his grandchildren very badly. Chieko’s not perfect at it and she has less and less time to practice it when she grows up, but its still something not many would expect. 

She also knows how to play violin, which is also something not all too many know. She just wanted to learn it as child to impress kids at her school and because she liked the instrument honestly. 

⭐ Does your OC like to sleep alone or do they enjoy sharing their bed? Have they been to any sleepovers? Have they ever been camping? What did they think of the experiences if so?

When they were very young, Yasu and Chieko at times did sleep in the same bed. It was always rather fun for both of them, as they could tell each other stories till deep in the night and such. She also, to this day, at times has to share a bed with her little brother. Sleeping with Takahiro can be a bit more annoying, because Takahiro certainly loves to poke and tease his big sister a lot and falls asleep very hardly. However, once he is actually asleep, Chieko can’t really deny that another presence in bed is in one or the other way comforting. She won’t think of it as a great necessity though, until she actually shares the bed with a romantically loved one. Because then she’ll grow very fond of it. 

🍏 When your OC says “I had a bad day” what does that tend to mean? Is it really as bad as they’re saying or are they being a bit dramatic?

Chieko has a little knack for overacting a bit and she can certainly be a bit overdramatic here and there. Her saying „I had a bad day“ can very easily just be a string of just plainly annoying events that frustrated her enough to be grouchy for the entire day afterwards. 

🐉 How religious is your OC? Do they pray to any god(s) or do they not believe in that kind of stuff? What is their view of religion in general? Where do they believe people go when they die? If your OC is not religious why not and what do they believe in otherwise?

Chieko likes to say she’s an agnostic atheist. Personally she does not believe in any deity. However, she’s also one to pronounce that there’s no way of her safely knowing that there’s no deity or such. She just thinks that the proving of wether god/an afterlife exists or not is outside of mankind’s capabilities. 

Despite not being religious herself, she does think of religion as immensely interesting. Chieko’s a history-nerd in the end and the impact religion had on humanity all around the world is massive. And that’s just something she finds intriguing to analyze. 

💧 What is something from your OC’s past they’re the most ashamed of and why? What is something they’re really proud of? And lastly what is something in their past that could make them shake with dread?

There was a time in which Chieko, desperate to make female friends, would try to make herself out to be more exciting. She’d occasionally make untrue additions to stories she’d tell in an attempt to make them more thrilling or funnier. It’s something she has resigned off from long ago and she’s cringing whenever she thinks back to it. 

What she‘s, so far, most proudest over is getting invited to the inauguration party of Totsuki‘s new library wing. She got said invitation thanks to various teacher‘s recommendations as they named her as an excellent example of intellect on Totsuki.

🐟 What was your OC like as a baby? What were they like as a child? A teenager? An adult? How do you think they’ll develop ten years into their future? Twenty years? Will they live to old age?

Baby!Chieko cried quite a lot and mind you, she was fairly loud. Her parents always had a pacifier somewhere near because of it. Baby!Chieko was also fairly clingy to her father and would sometimes start to cry whenever he set her down. 

She remained a crybaby throughout childhood and would begin crying at any sort of slight misfortune. As a young child, Chieko was immensely shy and soft-spoken and she was practically famous for hiding behind her father’s legs at all times. At the same time, she showed a lot of intelligence early on and began reading and such at an early age while also always having a lot of enthusiasm when her father taught her something new. 

As a teenager, Chieko ultimately toughened up a lot more, mainly thanks to Totsuki’s rough environment and the fact that she had to fight repeated battles over the rights to her room. She’s not as easily brought to tears as she was a child anymore and she also became more snarky throughout the years. At the same time, she of course kept on expanding her knowledge in a wide array of fields and grew into a little genius. She’s capable of more than people give her credit for, but sadly barely any of the people close to her have noticed that she grew out of her former crybaby-self. 

Once she’s an adult, Chieko will have become a lot more confident. Both in her talents and also her looks actually. She’ll grow into someone very assertive. Career-Wise, she won’t become a chef that opens restaurants and stuff. She’ll probably keep on operating in the landscape of culinary, yes but in a different field than restaurant-owner. By the way, but once she’ll be a mother she’ll actually be much of a worrywart as her father was. 

🍇 Does your OC have any bad habits? Does your OC have any addictions like smoking or drinking? How did they fall into these habits and why? 

Chieko tends to overwork herself. Sometimes she just forgets to take breaks and then her mother finds her having fallen asleep on her books while studying for exams. 

She only drinks on Polar Star Parties. She’s a lightweight though and does not really know her limit all too well. In Polar Star she has Yasu there to watch over her and also generally trustable people, but her drinking around strangers could possibly be more problematic. 

🔮What does your OC think is their best trait. What is actually their best trait? What about their flaws? Are they one to admit these flaws or do they like to pretend they’re perfect?

Chieko herself would definitely name her intelligence as her best trait, but I’d say her best trait would be a combination of her hidden fighting spirit and a sense for justice. 

I think a flaw of her’s is that she does barely every allow herself to just let intuition take over out of worry to escalate a situation more than it already has. She makes her moves much more slowly due to overthinking and its also what mainly keeps her inner fighter and bravery hidden from most of the world. 

🌸 What’s a sentence that would make your OC’s day better? One that would make them laugh? One that would make their day worse? Why? What words would you have to say to them to completely ruin their day?

A sentence that would make her day better would be „I brought you green tea.“ She just greatly cherishes small gestures of kindness. It might not be much for the person who made her the tea, but it really makes her feel warm and fuzzy and like she matters to someone. 

Chieko is super easily peeved, so there’s honestly many things one could say to get her into a bad mood. One drowner is definitely when her dormmates confess they broke one of her things again. 

🌷 How much effort does your OC put into their looks? Do they care much about how they’re dressed or what their hair looks like or are they not bothered? Could they be considered a snob or a slob?

Chieko mainly puts effort in styling her hair and making sure her bun looks the way she wants it to look. She also takes pretty good care of her skin actually. 

On a normal day however, she wouldn’t be bothered to wear make-up or such at this point in her life. She thinks no one would notice anyway. Her casual wear is also mainly about being decent and proper in her eyes; wether or not it’s fashionable or not is second priority honestly. 

For some formal event, she’d put effort in dressing neatly and finding a nice (but still proper) dress to put on. However often her efforts just backfire, as she ends up thinking how silly she is spending so much time on make-up and dress when she’s really just a shadow on such a formal event. 

❤️ What inspired you to make this OC? How long have you had them? How have they changed in the time you’ve been developing them?

Chieko was the first fanchild ever created and I’ve had her since April or so 2016…I was just really excited about MarYu and wanted to try creating a fanchild for them. Because my OTP needed a kid ahshd. 

Chieko honestly hasn’t changed all too much personality-wise, although some of her more minor quirks and such changed from what I initially had in mind. What mainly changed about her is her story within SnKimiko. 

🧡 What traits of your own do you see in this OC? Are they a little bit self-inserty? Don’t be shy, we all put parts of ourselves into the creations we love!

Chieko comes closest to a self-insert of my Fanchilds. Thing is, that I also relate greatly to Zenji Marui to begin with, so what can you do? 

Chieko and I do have quite some things in common and also share a great deal of likes and dislikes. 

But in the end there’s still things about her that differ from me. Mainly the fact that Chieko does have an actual spine, while I’m a complete doormat. Her story about wanting to prove herself to a world that greatly underestimates her because of her looks and former crybaby persona is also something that I do not highly relate to. I’ve been underestimate here and there yes, but it’s not really a major theme in my life so to speak. 

💚 Are you writing anything with this OC or planning on writing anything for them? Do you rp with them or are they just for fun to mess around with?

I have….quite a few ideas for ShigeChi lately. Honestly I always have ideas for ShigeChi. I love them.

💗 Ramble a bit about this character!

Funfact, but the reason why I associate Chieko mainly with the color Blue is because Yuki & Zenji mainly wear blue in the colored version of the manga. Zenji’s polo shirt, which is colored orange in the anime-version, is actually blue in the manga while Yuki is rather often spotted wearing blue as well. 

So blue became not only Chieko’s favorite color but also the color I mainly associate her with. (It’s also my favorite color, yah) 

Another fun fact, but choosing a ship for Chieko was so chaotic. At first, I couldn’t really see her with anyone. Chieko is my precious baby and I needed everything to be perfect for her and out of the existing cast back then I just couldn’t really picture a very exciting romantic relationship for her with any of them. Later on I did eventually consider a few options…options that piled up more and more. There was a time where she had the most end-game-options to pick from. However, none of the options really did the ultimate „click“ on me. Finally I ended up developing Shigeo further and well…..

[strathoa]

Wellcome Workshop for funded researchers in the SSH

Pablo de Castro, Open Access Advocacy Librarian

On Fri July 5th the Wellcome Trust held a full-day workshop in London for their funded authors in Social Sciences and Humanities. Approximately 30 funded researchers attended the event, with a fairly homogeneous distribution across UK geographies and academic seniority. The only Open Access advocate in the room – attending the event on behalf of our institutional Wellcome-funded authors at Strathclyde – was yours truly.

The workshop meant a good opportunity to get a first-hand insight on researchers’ views on topics like Plan S and the Wellcome Open Research platform. Also, being an SSH-specific event, it provided the chance to explore to what extent the STM-centric compliance workflows can be tweaked to address the specific circumstances and needs of this community.

The agenda for the day included a few presentations (Robert Kiley and Diego Baptista, Wellcome, Steve Sturdy, Uni Edinburgh and Helen Saunders, Open Library of Humanities) and two lively breakout sessions to discuss (i) the main issues around Open Access and SSH and (ii) what the Wellcome could do to specifically support SSH authors and disciplines within the ongoing shift in the publishing landscape.

The discussions held at the event mostly focused on the Wellcome strategy to influence/press publishers in order for the publishing landscape to evolve towards more openness. A particularly hot topic was the perceived limitation1 in the choice of publishing venues arising from Plan S principles. This is part of a wider concern that the SSH disciplines may risk being dragged along a path that has been designed with mainly the STM publishing landscape in mind.

Robert Kiley’s presentation provided the rationale for the updated Wellcome Trust Open Access policy (to kick-off as of Jan 1st, 2021) and dispelled some of the most pressing concerns raised by SSH authors in the round of consultations held by cOAlition S. The main goals of this policy are:

to have all articles available Open Access upon publication (RK showed the current OA figures that prove it’s still a long way to go to achieve this objective), and

for all articles to be re-usable (meaning machine-readable for TDM purposes, with the “Mining the History of Medicine” project by the National Centre for Text Mining NaCTeM mentioned as an example).

Some concerns around Plan S mentioned in the presentation (together with the ways to mitigate them) were:

Limited choice of compliant publication venues: this needn’t be the case if publishers are capable of evolving their business models. Green Open Access (meaning deposit of accepted manuscripts in institutional platforms) is also an option for compliance, so the discussion doesn’t just need to focus on the suitability or otherwise of Article Processing Charges

Impact on international collaborations (see item 1 on the U Edinburgh feedback to cOAlition S): the Gates Foundation is also a Plan S signatory and they haven't seen any impact in terms of hampering international collaborations because of potentially limited eligibility of publishing channels

Issues with a strict CC-BY licence (also described in the Edinburgh response to Plan S): revision has softened the requirement for the SSH; “As an interim measure to address the concerns, particularly expressed by HSS communities, we recommend that funders should be willing to consider an exemption from the requirement for a CC BY license to allow the use of CC BY-ND on a case-by-case basis”

Too tight timeline for the transition: the first Open Access policy by the Wellcome Trust was issued in 2006. The transition has been going on for quite some time already, but the pace is too slow

Learned societies unable to find alternative business models for their subscription-based journals: the Wellcome Trust is working together with a number of learned societies in order to promote collaboration and explore various options in this regard – reporting expected on this strand later this year.

RK also highlighted a recent piece published by Jasmine Lange from SSH publisher Brill in the Netherlands ("Plan S and Humanities Publishing", Jul 2nd, 2019) where she states that an SSH exception to Plan S and/or the continuation of 24-month embargo periods would mean a high risk for the SSH being left behind on impact and funding.

Wellcome Open Research platform

This was followed by a presentation of the Wellcome Open Research (WOR) publishing platform by Diego Baptista. The success of this publishing channel (4th venue altogether by number of Wellcome-funded publications after Scientific Reports, Nature Comms and PLoS ONE) and its quick review process and affordability (average APC one third of the ‘externally paid’ one) are described in this Jan’2019 post. It’s also covering a wide range of outputs beyond articles (such as negative results, which happens to be the area for one of the two pieces published at WOR by Strathclyde authors thus far as shown on the figure below) and offering a safe publishing channel to Wellcome-funded authors in developing countries, thus tackling predatory publishing.

A number SSH researchers in the room raised issues with a publishing platform like the WOR, mainly focused on the lack of editors. The risk was highlighted for ‘toxic’ submissions akin to the Wakefield anti-vaccination paper in The Lancet to get openly posted on the platform while awaiting peer-review – even if the submission were eventually rejected, it could still collect a few citations while sitting in the WOR.

SSH disciplines are different

U Edinburgh Steve Sturdy (who has published an Open Letter on Biomedicine, self and society in the WOR himself) provided a wider context for the reluctance of SSH scholars towards publishing platforms by describing the specific role that well-established publishing venues play in the SSH disciplines in his presentation on ‘Open Access and HSS Disciplines’. He emphasised the ‘sociality’ of SSH journals, which act as knowledge producers and community drivers in a distinct way, see associated figure. A strategy for replacing publishing venues with a social mission in a specific discipline with either publishing platforms or new titles would put this mission at risk.

Four main issues were in fact raised – both in Steve’s presentation and in the subsequent breakout session to discuss OA in the HSS – with regard to the perceived threat for a restriction in publishing channels generated by the implementation of Plan S in the SSH:

Destruction of the current publishing landscape with ‘sociality’ at its core

Particularly bad consequences for ECRs: "I am not sure I would feel inclined to recommend my ECR to apply for a Wellcome grant should these restrictions be in force that will prevent her to progress in her career" – stated one researcher in the room

Implications for unfunded authors in a landscape where funding is scarce

Too tight implementation schedule: it will be very difficult for current publishing channels to come up with alternative business models in such a short time as the policy proposes

There was a further call for Wellcome to support the area of SSH as a whole and not just Wellcome-funded authors, for instance by ensuring the voice of SSH researchers is heard in the discussions around alternative business models. A widespread belief was expressed that a model based only on Article Processing Charges (APCs) will not succeed in the SSH and that there need to be multiple co-existing mechanisms for compliance, including Green Open Access and crowdfunded business models with institutions as supporters (the afternoon presentation on the Open Library of Humanities looked deeper into these crowdfunded models for both journals and books).

The breakout discussions touched on various specific topics such as the REF requirements and to what extent they may help evolving the landscape (including its eventual expansion to books), the specific relevance of languages other than English in the SSH or the role of institutions in providing information on and support for the implementation of Plan S (most researchers in the room admitted not being regularly in contact with their institutional Open Access support services at their libraries, and the Wellcome lead may consider a follow-up workshop to promote the engagement of institutions in the process).

The listening exercise was very valuable and key for building the 'bond of trust' that needs to exist in order for authors to take into consideration the funder's recommendations around the evolution of the Open Access landscape. A potentially very useful outcome could be the establishing of a regular information exchange mechanism that allowed researchers to stay updated on the way the landscape is evolving in their specific field (covering aspects such as evolving positions with regard to Plan S by different funders, steps taken by specific publishers in transitioning their business models, reporting on the discussions with learned societies etc). Communication is key as ever and institutions may have an important role to play here too. We will definitely try our best at Strathclyde, but it could make sense to make this a wider effort.

1. See this statement “some publishers are claiming that authors will no longer be able to publish in their journals - but this would not be the case if they were to change some of their policies” on the webpage that the University of Edinburgh Information Services have put together about Plan S.↩