#len'en anniversary

[tittletattles]

HAPPY LEN'EN 11TH ANNIVERSARY!!

i started drawing this for last year's anniversary but greatly underestimated the time it would take so finished it for this year instead :') ive been into this series for over 3 years now dang

[yamanoskk]

Outsider Songbirds and their Favorites

A collect of my birthday fanarts for outsider EE casts in 2023!

[yabutsuba]

Happy 10th anniversary to Len'en Project

[okulki]

HAPPY LEN'EN 10TH ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

Oh god, i cant belive it has already been over 3 years since i joined this fandom! Unfortunately i couldn't prepare anything for this ocasion, but here are some fanarts that i havent posted yet:

Portrait of tsuba without their hat and waistcoat, actually drew this today :3

Another tsuba but in polish folk attire (although i don't remember from which specific region)

Art i drew for a silly 50+ slide presentation i made, explaining the entire len'en lore (in polish) lol

This one is SUPER old

[kurohebi-pseudohuman]

first post on the eleventh anniversary?!?!

[naoiikumo]

Len'en 11 Anniversary Countdown 4!

[beyondfatal]

idk js some random art

ALSO ALSO ALSO HAPPY LEN'EN 10TH ANNIVERSARY !!!!! its also my birthday 2day i feel so special being born on len'en day

[lenenpopularity]

We gathered 116 Len'en fans to create a collaboration image for Len'en's 10th anniversary! Happy Len'en anniversary! || 116人の連縁ファンが一緒にこの１０周年記念コラボ画を作りました！　連縁１０周年おめでとうございます！ And if you'd like the full resolution image: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kw6u953q62her98yo2wst/LN-10A-FINAL-full.png?rlkey=r5bmoc16huad3kh0ovk27751t&dl=0

[randomshade]

Yeah I do Len'en art got a problem with that? /J

This was supposed to be the 11th anniversary art for Len'en but I was two days late

It is a remake of an art I did for a dead server 4 years ago

[rajuste]

Happy Len'en 11th anniversary !!!

[tittletattles]

finally, here are my contributions for the collaborative lenen anniversary canvas !

[yamanoskk]

[ One Line of Observer & One Connecting Story ]

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Happy 11th Anniversary Len'en Project!

This series always hold a special place in my heart. ;v; Thank you so much for creating this wonderful series, JynX! I'll continue looking forward this series!

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About the picture itself, it's a redraw of my older anniversary fanarts. I really like the main game's connecting/continuous story (as in, how an event in a previous game will has an effect that bring an incident for the next game.) And for BPoHC, Suzumi, who is the true mastermind behind the event, is an acquaintance of EE outsider casts. It feel like the loop of connection is now closed for the main game. So it's a reason why I love to present it quiet often!

+ the non-main game outsiders often act like a observer/reviewer of the main game event, so I often draw them like a parallel along with the group of main game casts too.

[singular-yike]

Getting into Len'en Lore: Part 1

Cause I mean there's a lot of it, isn't there?

With the 10th anniversary coming up I thought it might be nice to share my personal recommended reading order(?) for all the Len'en material, for people who really want to dig into the lore.

Of course, I'm sure most folks reading this are already neck-deep into the lore swamp but hey, on the off chance that it reaches someone new, right?

Getting the information in English

To start off, you'd either have to learn Japanese, or find a good translation for the series and its associated materials. Here I'll go with English, since it's, well what I'm writing in.

The Len'en wiki, for 99% of all cases, will absolutely be where you want to go to read up on the lore and translation of Japanese material.

All of the translations on the wiki have been diligently worked on by me and other brilliant translators, and even now we revisit old translations to polish them up, so I guarantee it's quality (I suppose there's no reason to trust me, but I do promise).

Now the wiki also has links to English patches for all 4 of the shmup games, if you'd prefer to read the dialogue in-game, though I must note that they won't be the most updated version of the dialogue, and have further paraphrasing to trim things down to fit textboxes.

Still, they're more than enough for getting a basic understanding of the plot, and the visual elements of the game are not to be missed out on, so do give the games a go!

The Reading List

Now that the preamble is over with, let's actually get into my recommended order for lore-exploration. Forewarning: It's a lot, so brace yourself for some good old reading.

Major Entries in Release Order

The first place to start is of course each of the series entries in release order, though there are some curiosities about how this series tells its story through changes to the games itself, so I'll walk you through those as well.

These are separated into "story reading order" and "additional reading", the first ones are pretty much necessary to, well, understand the story.

Additional reading, on the other hand, are not as crucial to grasping the story, and will be ordered from most important to least.

They often contain little tidbits of lore tucked within, and are fun reads perhaps only for fans of JynX writing or those who really want to dig deep.

Game 1: Evanescent Existence

We of course start with the first game in the series, Len'en Mugenri ~ Evanescent Existence (often abbreviated as EE in English).

Story Reading Order

Prologue

Yabusame Houlen's story — Main Story → Bad Ending → Good Ending → Extra Story

Tsubakura Enraku's story — Main Story → Bad Ending → Good Ending → Extra Story

Official Profiles

Additional Reading

Music Room Comments

Spell Cards

Documentation Pages — omake.txt, manual.txt, readme.txt, readme.txt (trial ver.)

Note: Bad Endings Bad endings are non-canon in all of the games, in the sense that the events depicted within haven't actually occurred. They're still very useful to read as "what-if" scenarios though, since they actually provide a lot of interesting information.

Game 2: Earthen Miraculous Sword

Moving onto game #2, simple enough. Here's Len'en Tasouken ~ Earthen Miraculous Sword (abbr. EMS).

Story Reading Order

Prologue

Main Story (Any character order is fine) — Yabusame Houlen: Story → Bad Ending → Good Endings A & B — Tsubakura Enraku: Story → Bad Ending → Good Endings A & B — Kuroji Shitodo: Story → Bad Ending → Good Endings A & B

Extra Prologue

Extra Story (Any character order is fine) — Yabusame Houlen, Tsubakura Enraku, Kuroji Shitodo

Official Profiles

Note: Good Endings A and B The two endings differ only in a single textbox at the very end, so no need to read it twice, just jump to the very end to see the difference. Or honestly, since it doesn't affect the story at all, you're free to just read either one and be done with it.

Additional Reading

Music Room Comments

Spell Cards

Documentation Pages — omake.txt, manual.txt, readme.txt & readme.txt (trial ver.)

Note: On the EMS Documentation Pages EE and EMS were actually released at the same time, as a result some files are unnecessary to read. ・omake.txt: Only different in the game title ・readme.txt files: Identical in every way in the trial version The manual and readme files are however different, so give them a glace if you'd please.

Game 3: Reactivate Majestical Imperial

Onto the 3rd entry: Len'en Reiretsuden ~ Reactivate Majestical Imperial (abbr. RMI). This game first introduces the team system, so each story features 2 playable characters.

Story Reading Order

Prologue

Main Story (Any team order is fine) — Shrine: Story → Bad Ending → Good Endings A & B — Bottle Opener: Story → Bad Ending → Good Endings A & B — Slaver: Story → Bad Ending → Good Endings A & B

Extra Prologue

Extra Story (Any team order is fine) — Shrine, Bottle Opener, Slaver

Official Profiles

Note: Good Endings A & B This time, the two endings have more differences, stemming from a slightly different outcome of the main scenario. So I'd personally recommend giving both a read. Though to be fair there's no functional difference between the two in terms out final outcome. So I wouldn't say that you must read both to understand the plot or anything.

Additional Reading

Music Room Comments

Spell Cards

Documentation Pages — manual.txt & readme.txt

★ Len'en Kanji Change

It is while working on the next entry of the series that JynX decided to change the kanji "Len'en" is written with, from 鏈縁 to 連縁, changing the first character, as you can see above.

There's actually quite a bit to read about this, though since it doesn't relate to the story, I'll just mention that this happened for now, more on this later. Onto the next game!

End of Part 1

This actually got so long that I couldn't fit it all in one post, so let's end things here and move onto part 2!

[shooks-stupid-stuff]

ok so i was wrong bc i forgot time zones exist and uhh it's still 11/11 where i am so-

happy 10th anniversary len'en! this isn't the big drawing i wanted to do/still am doing but it'll be late, but i still wanted to doodle something day of yknow lol

anyways you should play len'en. do it it's good-

[naoiikumo]

Len'en 11 Anniversary Countdown 3!

[toskarin]

WAIT FUCK I MISSED THE LEN'EN 10TH ANNIVERSARY