#since it was the only way to access the official translation as mentioned

[suzuran777]

Analyzing some of the very first BL visual novels

First of all, I've talked about most of these topics during my Citrus con panel on Augustus 24th, so for those who missed it or who wanted a list of all the visual novels mentioned during the panel, those are also mentioned in this blog post! Japanese BL visual novels have been something I’ve been interested in since 2010-2011, and even these days many people in English speaking fanbases are familiar with games like DRAMAtical Murder and the other Nitro + Chiral titles. I've played many older titles which I've previously reviewed on this blog, and in this post I will be looking at some of the very first BL visual novels and how the industry has changed throughout the years.

Before the very first "official" BL visual novels were released, some visual novels already existed in which a male protagonist had romantic or sexual scenes together with one of the other male characters. Some examples of this are games like Sotsugyou Ryokou (1996) and Ko-Ko-Ro (1998). Most of the other love interests in these games were girls, so they were not promoted as “boys’ love” games.

The oldest visual novel I could find that was promoted as a game which focuses on love between boys, is a game called Sei Valentine Gakuen, released by a company called B.M. in early 1999. This is a game in which you can name the protagonist, and none of the characters are voiced. While checking their old website through Waybackmachine, it seemed like the game had a lot of game-breaking bugs which they attempted to patch out, however the website quickly shut down within what seems like only a year (or maybe a few years) after its release date. Since there's not a lot of information about this game available online, I was surprised that someone bought the game second-hand and made a youtube video about it, so I recommend checking that out! You can watch it here. Despite being promoted as a game that focuses on love between boys it seems like there’s not really romance in the game, so I am curious why they marketed the game in this way.

Next is a game called BOYxBOY, released a few months after Sei Valentine Gakuen in April 1999. This is one of the games I actually got to play myself, and I was surprised to see this game was released by King Records (the record label) as I didn’t know they used to publish games, let alone BL games. The protagonist has a face and a name this time, but even though all the other characters are voiced, they decided to leave the main character unvoiced for some reason. This game does have romance elements, like confession scenes, but it's still quite minimal. There’s only one character who actually gets a kiss scene for example. This game did get a fandisc a year later, but it seems to be more of a collection of extra materials and minigames rather than something that really adds something to the story of the game.

Another BL visual novel that was released around this time in July 1999 is a game called Graduation (or Sotsugyou) by Joinac, which as the title suggests, focuses on the protagonist spending time with people at his school right before his graduation. This one actually got translated, so it's probably the first BL visual novel to ever get an (official) English translation. Unlike most other games from this time, this one can still be easily accessed too, as a digital version is available for purchase on DLsite.

Entering the 2000s, game developer AliceSoft created their own BL game brand called AliceBlue and released their first BL game called Kakurezuki in 2000. Even though AliceSoft released 18+ rated titles in the past, this first BL title was actually also all-ages. Some reviews mentioned that they don’t really consider the game BL at all, pointing out the lack of romance, and I can definitely see where they’re coming from. Pretty much all the other games I mentioned so far take place in a modern-day school setting, however this game is more of a historical fantasy game (although the plot still only focuses on the protagonist and his daily interactions with those around him).

A lot of the games during this time period still highly resembled the typical dating sim-style game, which was quite popular in the mid/late 1990s. This kind of gameplay means that usually, the player decides what the character is going to do that day, for example, what subjects he takes in school, which club he joins and which locations he visits. In games like Kakurezuki, it’s a bit different you decide what magic skills you want to strengthen that day. This kind of gameplay kind of limits what kind of story the writers can explore, as the plot mostly focuses on the main character’s everyday life and their interactions with other characters, and eventually also became something that’s not commonly used in BL visual novels anymore.

Later that year, in August 2000, one of the most well-known early BL visual novels was released. This was Sukisho (short for Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shouganai) by Platinum Label. The company promoted this game as the “first 18+ boys love game” though Graduation also seems to be rated 18+ on DLsite. Sukisho gained a big fanbase, as many fans really liked the art (drawn by Tsutae Yuzu) and the characters. Even though the plot still focused on boys going to school, some characters do have a darker backstory. The company even created official forums where fans could discuss the plot of the game and fan theories. Some other boards also encouraged fan meetups at local conventions in Japan. It ended up getting 3 different sequels, a PlayStation 2 port, an anime adaptation, and various drama CDs and novels. These days a lot of BL visual novels get drama CDs, but back then this game really got a lot of extra content compared to other games. Like many others, I personally discovered this game through the anime many years ago, but I played the visual novel later as it has also been fan translated and was quite accessible back then.

Another visual novel that stood out, and which also got an anime adaptation, is Angel's Feather (2003). Unlike the rather confusing anime plot, which adds a new character that isn’t in the game, I think the plot of the visual novel is actually much better. Initially it does seem like another game about high school boys, but in reality it’s more of an RPG game that focuses on the characters learning more about the world they’re living in, and their own magic abilities. I think just like Sukisho’s artstyle, compared to many other games that were released at the time, the art of this game quite unique. The artist is Yamamoto Kazue, who worked on many visual novels, and is still active nowadays. This game also got a sequel and drama CDs, but sadly the third game they were working on was never released. The studio was also working on a completely new game called White Shadow, however this one also remains unreleased to this day. If you want to read a little bit more information about this game and other unreleased titles, I wrote a blog post about that too here!

The inclusion of RPG elements I briefly mentioned just now in visual novels was not something only Angel’s Feather did. For example, some of these other screenshots are from Ouji-sama Lv1, Teikoku Sensenki, and Apocripha/0. The gameplay varied from a simple battle system to complicated dungeons and hard to beat enemies, depending on the game. One downside of this is that it’s quite a time-consuming process if you want to see all kinds of different endings, as these parts of the game were usually unskippable. Gradually, this is also something that slowly became less common in BL visual novels.

Generally, a lot of older games were quite difficult to replay as most games only had a limited number of save slots, and sometimes there would be no preview images next to the save files either, so it was quite difficult to remember which save file you were supposed to load. Some of the oldest BL visual novels also don’t have a skip button, which means you have to play through all of the dialogue again if you want to see a different ending. The pictures below are my screenshots from Angel's Feather and Kannagi no Tori, a game that was released in 2001. Luckily both of these games do have a skip button, but there were never enough save slots!

Other than changes in gameplay and artstyles, something that has also changed quite a lot are the dynamics between characters in adult scenes. In most BL visual novels, the protagonist is either a top or a bottom, and this doesn’t really change throughout the whole game. For example, if the official website mentions that the protag is a bottom, that means he’s a bottom with every single one of the love interests. Something I noticed while playing older games is that this order wasn’t always fixed. In games like Laughter Land and Kannagi no Tori for example, the game would often let the player decide. A game that was released a bit later which also has this option is PIL/SLASH’s game Shingakkou -Noli me tangere. In every route, no matter what character, you make the decision. I think it’s kind of fun when the game gives you choices like this, although I’m not sure if they will ever bring it back.

Terminology and target audience When I talk about these games I use “BL game” and “BL visual novel” as these are easily understood when communicating with an English-speaking audience. However in Japanese these games are usually only called “BL game” or "AVG" which just stands for adventure game. In the early 2000s some official websites around this time would refer to these BL visual novels as ''boys games'' to distinguish them from a genre called “girl’s games” or galge, which are games that would typically target a male audience. Even though the term “yaoi” was becoming less common, some developers would also call them “yaoi games” on their website, as you can see in some of the screenshots below . It’s not like the term “visual novel” is something completely unknown to them, but it’s also not a term I ever see them using to promote their games.

As for the target audience, similar to a lot of BL manga, the target audience for many of these BL visual novels was also women. A lot of websites stated that these were games “made by girls for girls”. However, it’s better to not generalize the whole genre as something exclusively targeted towards women, as some games like Hotaru (released by Tarutaru in December 2000) and its sequels were specifically advertised as games "made by gay men for gay men". One of the games I mentioned earlier, Graduation, was also made by a doujin group that calls themselves the Gay Artist Support, and like the name suggests, they support gay artists and alleys. Therefore it can be concluded that even during this time period, it wasn't just women creating and reading BL.

Marketing and sales Some might be wondering; how did people discover these games back then? Around the year 2001, multiple websites were created by fans that kept track of new BL game developers, as well as any updates provided by the companies that were already established back then. A lot of these websites also gave fans the option to chat with each other in their forums. Some examples of these websites are BOY'S STREET and Boyslove Kenkyuujo (which translates to BoysLove research institute). They kept track of both commercial and doujin game releases. Companies and doujin creators would both sell their games at events like Comiket, Super Comic City and J-Garden too, where they would promote their games and chat with fans. Their games would also be sold at stores like Animate and Toranoana, which is not too different than how creators sell their BL games nowadays, as both of these stores still exist. A lot of BL game creators in the early 2000s were quite close to each other and collaborated. For example, some doujin groups like Anubis Label, Ritz, Moon Parrot and more created their own magazine called B-GAME, which featured information about their new doujin games, corporate games, survey results, game reviews and more. The picture below (on the right) is a picture I found on the website of doujin group Moon Parrot, promoting and selling their game Kuro no Tsuki at Super Comic City. Of course official BL game magazines also existed, but I think I will make a separate blog post about that (update: you can read it here!).

Well-known developers throughout the years Next I made a list of some BL game creators that established their brands in the early or mid 2000s, and who continue to be active nowadays. I will mention some newer games as well. There's way too many BL visual novels to include all of them, so I apologize if I missed some that were quite influential!

Langmaor/Tennenouji: The first game Langmaor released was a game called Enzai in 2002, illustrated by Yura. This game focuses on a boy whose name is Guys, who gets sent to prison as a result of a false accusation. In one interview, Yura mentioned that she was almost afraid that the plot of the game would be “too dark”, as the main character experiences a lot of abuse, but she concluded that at least the game would be unique. In 2004 Langmaor released Teikoku Sensenki, and a year later they released Zettai Fukujuu Meirei (or more well-known as Absolute Obedience). This game had a kind of unique system which focused on not one, but two protagonists. The final game this brand released was a game called Laughter Land (2006. The illustrations of this game were drawn by Yuzuki Ichi who had previously worked on Kannagi no Tori. Yura was also part of doujin group called Tennenouj, which already released their first BL game in 2000 called Sei Crain Gakuen, a BL game that you could play by opening HTML files in your browser. They released their second BL game in 2006, which was Miracle No-ton, a game about a notebook that could grand the protagonist’s wishes (horny wishes only though!). In 2009, Luckydog1 was released, which ended up becoming one of the most popular and well-known games in Japanese speaking BL visual novel fanbases. The game is about the protagonist Giancarlo, who’s a low-ranking member of the mafia and currently in prison, who receives the task to free 4 important members of the mafia from prison. Some BL gamemagazines like Cool-B have an annual popularity poll, and for years, LuckyDog 1 and its characters ended up in first place. On BL information websites like ChilChil it continues to be the highest rated BL visual novel to this day. Two years ago, Tennenouji also released the game Friendly Lab, of which the mobile version is still being updated, so even nowadays they are still very active.

Nitro + CHiRAL: Or just called “NITRO CHiRal” these days. They released their first game, Togainu no Chi, in 2005. In the early interviews the director stated that they wanted to create something different, as a lot of visual novels around this time focused on schoolboys and modern-day settings. So instead, they wrote a story that takes place in a futuristic version of Japan, devastated by a Third World War. Only a year later in 2006, they released their second game, Lamento -BEYOND THE VOID- which also takes place in a fictional world. Even though the characters look similar to humans, they call themselves Ribika and have cat-like characteristics. The characters in this game are struggling to survive, as a mysterious force called “The Void” is slowly destroying their world. Because of their unique stories and beautiful illustrations, Nitro Chiral quickly gained a big fanbase in Japan too. In some articles published in Cool-B magazine, they mentioned that they were taking even bigger risks with their next game, as the plot would be anything but happy. This was about their third game, sweet pool. Despite that, I think fans already expected dark and serious stories from the company, so it was still well-received. Before releasing DRAMAtical Murder, they released two more visual novels called Itsuwari no Alkanet and World’s end Nightmare, though these were only available on Chiral Mobile, an app that could only be downloaded on certain Japanese phones. These days these games are considered lost media, but I wrote a blog post about what I could find about them some years ago. Afterwards they released their more well-known games DRAMAtical Murder in 2012 and Slow Damage in 2021.

Pil/Slash: This is a BL visual novel developer that is well known for writing dark stories, with themes like abuse, noncon, physical and emotional torture. Though of course this is not too uncommon in BL visual novels, as all of the developers I’ve previously mentioned include themes like that in their games too.Their first game, Masquerade ~Jigoku Gakuen SO/DO/MU~, was released in 2006, followed by Koibito Yuugi a year later. In 2011, one of their most well-known titles, Shingakkou –Noli me tangere- was released. This game is about protagonist Michael who’s enrolled in a seminary. However, his school life is anything but peaceful, as his family gets murdered and he also discovers a secret society of devil worshippers in his very own school. At the moment this is the second highest rated BL game on ChilChil, after Luckydog1. After this they released Pigeon Blood in 2014, which was also a horror-themed game, and Paradise a few years later, which was quite popular in Japan too. In 2021 they released their newest game, Dystopia no Ou. This game focuses on protagonist Kiriku who dreams about becoming a rock star. Initially, this seems quite different than PIL/SLASH's previous games, but I promise the story still gets pretty dark. The writer credited for Paradise and Dystopia no Ou is Kyuuyouzawa Lychee, who's also the creator of doujin game group LOVE&DESTROY and games like CAGE OPEN and CAGE CLOSE.

Spray: This company’s first game was Saikyou Darling, released in 2001, but I think they are probably more well-known for their Gakuen Heaven series. The first Gakuen Heaven game was released in 2002, but since then they have released a few newer versions of the game, console versions and a second game. This is another one of these games that people might know because it has an anime and manga series. Spray has released quite a few different games like Soshite Bokura Wa, Piyotan, STEAL! and more recently Tsumi naru Rasen no Ori, but I think other than Gakuen Heaven their most well-known title is probably Kichiku Megane, released in 2007. This game focuses on protagonist Katsuya, a salesman who seems to be failing at everything in life. Just before he’s fired from his job, he receives a mysterious pair of glasses from someone. Whenever he wears these glasses, his personality completely changes. He suddenly becomes very skilled at everything, but also very sadistic. In recent years fans have started organizing fan events for this game at local conventions again, so it’s interesting to see how popular it still is.

Holicworks: Also known as LoveDelivery, as that’s the name they used to release some of their very first games, like Tsukigami (2007) and Beniiro Tenjou Ayakashi (2008). Their most well-known title Taisho Mebiusline, released in 2012. This game is a historical fantasy game which takes place during the end of the Taisho period, in 1923. The protagonist, Kyouichirou, moves to Tokyo in order to go to university. However, he runs into trouble soon after his arrival, as the Imperial Military becomes interested in his ability to see spirits. The writer of this game, Nakajo Rosa, is often praised for the historical research she did in order to write this game. The story covers all kinds of political issues, international affairs and military activity, and combines it with religious themes such as Shintoism. This also means that even for Japanese speakers, the game can be a bit difficult to read, as it tends to use difficult words and kanji. However, I think with a bit of research it’s not impossible. They also released games like Tokyo Onmyouji, Tokyo 24ku, and more recently Tokyo Satsujinki Gakkou no Kaidan, though the only game that has an English translation is Tokyo Onmyouji, which takes place in a more modern-day setting, but still focuses on supernatural themes like ghosts and spirits.

Karin Entertainment: Another developer that has been around for a long time, who released their first BL game series called Bois in 2002. Afterwards in 2004, they released the game Animamundi Owarinaki Yami no Butou~ (Animamundi: Dark Alchemist), which I’m not sure if I should be calling BL game as there are also a few female love interests. The games they released after this aren’t BL games, but instead they created a new branch called Karin Chatnoir Omega, which released the game Omertà ~Chinmoku no Okite~ in 2011. In this game the mafia controls the government, and the protagonist J.J. is a hitman who’s taking all kinds of assassination jobs. In 2016 they also released the game Omega Vampire, which is the first omegaverse BL visual novel.

Parade: This is a game developer known for creating games in which the protagonist is exclusively a top, or seme, which is also something that was not super common in the past. In a lot of other games almost all of the love interests are younger guys, so I think it was interesting to see at least two of the other main characters in NO THANK YOU!!! were over the age of 35. Even though most Parade games have a lot of 18+ content, like NO THANK YOU!!! and their second game Room No. 9, one should not underestimate the plot, as the writing is really good. My favorite game is probably their latest game, which is Lkyt., a historical fantasy game and my personal favorite.

CORE: This is the BL branch of a company called Orbit, and their most well-known game is Messiah, which was released in 2006. Though their first game was a game called Ever Loyalty in 2001, followed by Fanatica in 2004. Most of CORE's games only have 1 or 2 characters the protagonist can end up together with, although sometimes other characters in the game also have their own bad endings. In Fanatica, the protagonist only has one true love interest, but a lot of the other main characters are also paired up with each other, so even if they don't have their own route, you do get to see different scenes with them. Even though CORE released their last game in 2008, which is the Messiah fandisc Messiah ~ Paranoia Paradox. It was announced that they are actually working on a new BL project called Tokyo Gentou/Tokyo Phantasmagoria, under the new name Procyon.

Adelta: Not really 2000s as their first game was released quite some time later, but I think still important because they've gotten quite popular in recent years. This is a doujin game group created by Kurosawa Rinko. The first games this group worked on were Cocoon and Cocoon Black Noise, released in 2014. The game they’re probably most known for is Koshotengai no Hashihime (Hashihime of the old Book Town). This game is quite well known for its references to literature and real writers, and the story also takes place during the Taisho period. Originally it was advertised as a time-loop murder mystery. In 2020 Uuultra C was released, which is a completely different kind of game that takes place during the Showa period and focuses on heroes you’d typically see in a Super Sentai Series, or Tokusatsu movies in which the characters fight kaiju. Adelta is currently working on their newest game, Ooe.

Conclusion Of course there are many more BL visual novels which left a big impact on people, even less serious games like Gakuen Handsome which still get referenced a lot to this day. Another well-known title is Mada Koubou's Hadaka Shitsuji, which was mostly created by artist and writer Togo Mito. It kind of difficult to determine how many BL visual novels currently exist, but BL information website ChilChil currently lists 345 titles in this database. This does however include fandiscs and games that aren't technically BL games, and also doesn't include all doujin games ever released.

The early 2000s was a good time for BL visual novel fans and a lot of developers were making BL games back then, which also meant that there would be many new games to play. These days the number of active developers has significantly decreased, so most of the time you get about 1 or 2 big releases every year. Of course, there are still doujin groups and individual creators who make their own games, but the number of commercial releases is pretty small nowadays.

Some games that were released earlier this year however, are Tokyo Satsujinki Gakkou no Kaidan and Haiiro no Arcadia. I am personally also looking forward to the release of Adelta's new game Ooe, and Procyon's Tokyo Gentou/Tokyo Phantasmagoria, so I recommend checking those out when they're released!

[franzis-frantic-thoughts]

Who’s Afraid of Alex J. Newall? by Newt Schottelkotte is definitely worth a read to everyone who’s a fan of Rusty Quill Productions.

I count myself amongst those. Which is why I want to add to something mentioned in the article that I, alongside @nossorgs​ have special insight into:

The Transcripts.

In light of everything that has happened this year, the way people inside of RQ have been mistreated, abused, and exploited, the transcripts appear to be a minor issue. But as Newt has pointed out beautifully: They’re a symptom of something much bigger, namely disregard, miscommunication, incompetence, reliance on free fan labour and pretending to be something they’re not. In this case the producer of inclusive and accessible content.

The official RQ transcripts were launched early this year and it was immediately clear how terrible they are. Countless fans have surely reached out to RQ to let them know. After all, there’s a handy feedback form. A feedback form which, incidentally, is neither up-to-task, nor easily accessible as it isn’t linked anywhere near the transcripts, but only in the 26 January 2022 “news” update.

However, Nossorgs and I, as professionals in the language service industry, had concerns that couldn’t be addressed in the feedback form. So we sat down together and wrote a very long email, which we sent to RQ on 22 February 2022. We have received no reply.

I’m now, after checking with Nossorgs, publishing the email here, because I don’t want anyone to say “well maybe they didn’t know”. They knew. They just didn’t care.

They didn’t even care enough to fix these issues by today.

Here’s the email and all the exemplary screenshots are below a cut.

Dear Rusty Quill Team,

congratulations on launching your new website and releasing the transcripts for the RQ original shows.

Upon review of several transcripts (in particular the ones created for Rusty Quill Gaming), we wanted to voice some concerns with the company or software used to generate the transcripts, since there appears to have been a grievous lack of quality control and a large number of errors have made it to the released transcripts. Screenshots are attached and a list of general concerns can be found below.

As professional linguists, who variously have been or are currently employed as editors, translators, transcribers, or project managers in the language service sector (each with QA responsibilities), with over a decade of experience, we would highly recommend requesting a partial or total refund from the companies involved in generating these transcripts. As provided, the transcripts lack any form of serious quality control and may even indicate that the supplier(s) you have partnered with are fraudulent.

With the professional experience we have, we understand the difficulties that come with transcribing audio of this type. One speaker having multiple voices, crosstalk, and "unusual" turns of phrase (i.e. Pathfinder mechanics and terminology) being used pose great difficulties. However, the concerns we would like to voice are unrelated to the content of RQG, but basic issues that any professional linguist should have been able to avoid.

Many of the concerns we have can be traced to a lack of consistency, which could have been avoided by the simple creation and adherence to a style guide. Did your transcription supplier provide or request one? With a project as big as this, it would have been standard practice.

Please find a list of general concerns below, the file names of relevant screenshots have been added in brackets:

Many spelling and grammar errors, which indicate a lack of language skill (Spelling001 to 005). Professional linguists should only ever work in their native language to avoid such issues. There are official ISO guidelines regarding linguistic qualifications, which any agency of worth is aware of and regularly audited on.

Misspelling of player and character names and misattribution of lines (Spelling001 to 005). We do not know whether RQ provided a list of cast and character names to the transcription provider, but they should have realised that many unusual names are included and references are needed. They should have reached out and requested a list if it hadn't been provided. If it was provided, it was clearly not consulted.

Lack of organisation: The very first episode is mislabelled as episode 25 in the transcript (Episode1_mislabeled). Episode 25, in turn, only seems to be available in a word format, not as a pdf (this also seems to apply to other episodes, such as 203). The transcripts are not labelled in a consistent pattern, meaning that they are not sorted consecutively by episode number in the RQ Sharepoint, making browsing difficult (Filing001).

Lack of consistent speaker tagging: In most transcripts, the players are not distinguished from the characters they are playing, and the formatting is inconsistent in the episodes that do note in-character speech (Characters001 to 003). This is probably due to your transcription provider splitting the work over multiple people. This is a common and reasonable approach to spread the workload. However, the linguists should have agreed on a common system, or the central project manager should have dictated one. Lack of cast/character distinction renders the transcripts as good as unreadable.

Lack of basic QA regarding completion: Episode 183 includes internal formatting remarks of the supplier, which should have been deleted by them prior to delivery (CW001).

Content warnings: Listing of content warnings is inconsistent, if present at all, with one remark noting that content warnings were unavailable because they were not listed in the (fan-made) wiki (CW002). It is concerning that the transcription provider would refer to a fan-made, unofficial source, when RQ provides content warnings with all episodes in the episode notes. Surely, these are also available at RQ internally in a centralised document which could have been requested by the supplier.

We understand you are probably very busy creating and promoting your new shows and troubleshooting your new website, but transcripts of this quality actively harm your reputation as an accessible and inclusive company. The mantra "better than nothing" only applies to a certain extent here. Low-quality transcripts, such as these, are of no help to those who rely on them. Clear labelling of actors vs characters is needed in order to follow the podcast, and content warnings should have been included whether they are available on the fan wiki or not. Even if these transcripts are intended as first drafts, to be revised and polished at a later stage, they are at best unuseable and at worst dismissive towards those members of the fan community who are hard of hearing or have auditory processing issues.

Professionally, we recommend that you reach out to your supplier with the list of concerns and screenshots we have collected and request corrections. Whether or not you also request a (partial) refund is up to you, but we also recommend you do. If you do not trust your original supplier to take care of the required corrections accurately, it would be standard practice to request a quotation from another supplier and contact the original transcription provider with this quotation in order to bill them for the additional financial burden. Before choosing a (second) supplier and contracting them for all 200+ reworks, it would be advisable to do a small batch of transcripts first, in order for you to get a feeling for their quality, as well as allow them to make an accurate estimate of the effort involved and ask any questions that may already have come up.

In the language service industry, it is not uncommon to have to rework one's deliveries. Language is subjective and linguists are people. Mistakes happen. We understand this better than most fans. However, no professional, qualified linguist would have signed off on these transcripts with the feeling of a job well done. There are human errors, and there is a gross lack of basic quality assurance. Unfortunately, the RQG transcripts, as they are, fall into the latter category.

If you would like to get in touch, we would be more than happy to share our professional knowledge and experience regarding linguistic projects such as these, in order to help you avoid such problems in the future, for instance if and when you decide to add transcripts for side quests, specials, and bloopers. We are aware that you don’t usually work with fans and understand and respect the reasoning behind the decision, however, many linguists in the fan community are prepared to offer their own services as transcribers. You have a wide range of professionals in your fan community, and all of them come with the additional benefit of being familiar with the source material and understanding what format these transcripts should take in order to be of use.

With kind regards,

Spelling001

Spelling002

Spelling003

Spelling004

Spelling 005

Episode1_mislabelled

Filing001

Characters001

Characters002

Characters 003

CW001

CW002

[cttrajan1206]

hi!! im here to ask about your ocs!!

first of all i would like to say PLEASE read the shadows house manga if you werent planning on it already...! youll get so much more that wasnt offered in the anime since it cuts off at season 2 , its just so good.. SO GOOD ok. ok

about astral and anjem!

i know you said you dont have all the details worked out so its ok if you dont have an answer to any of this atm!

could you talk a bit more about their dynamic/relationship, if you have anything else you wanna say?

what are their goals in the house? are they pursuing roles within relief team, starbearers, etc? are they wanting to get invited?

how good is astral at controlling his soot power? do you think its likely any of his experimenting on anjem could go wrong + how would he react, would he be able to fix it?

love ur ocs :}

WAAA HELLO?? i never original post ever so i was really surprised and excited when you reblogged it saying you'd read it later - AND NOW IN MY INBOX TOO? WAAAA.... >O<

But waa ok ok so! Funny enough, @tsukiomoon was over at my house and convinced me to read Shadow House (having watched the anime) while we were at a bookstore. I'd already glanced at it a few times over the years so I was. Very easy to convince tbh djdhfjf So I actually began with reading the first two volumes!! Then after that, I was thoroughly hooked so we proceeded to binge the entirety of it together in two days. That said, I'd love to read the manga. I'm debating on it because the official translation -> scanlation currency exchange is not in my favour ToT but I think I like it enough to bear through it, the anime missed a few scenes from even just the first two volumes after all.

Onto the ocs!!

Dynamic/relationship: This is a fun one. I've mentioned they both very much love each other already, I think at first they're both very superficial about it and build up versions of each other in their head (Astral even moreso having known longer). It gets deeper as time goes on but Astral isn't obssessed with Anjem just as a person, but also for his quality of being human. Anjem is similar likewise but there's a mighty power imbalance there.

Astral is actually also a special shade! He remembers before morphing. He's probably the worst one to do so though because he doesn't really care about the Shadow House - not when it gives him license to not only have Anjem to himself, but also such close access to humans. To him, the memories just give him a clearer understanding if the Faces' limits. He gets very annoyed with seeing others treat their living dolls badly and will pick fights about it or ask Anjem to give them recompensary gifts to them.

Anjem I'm less clear on... He's bad at cleaning but Astral doesn't mind particularly (and also doesnt produce enough soot for it to be a problem). The rigid structure of his life gives him comfort in its reliability but he does often long for some of the luxuries Shades get. Like nice clothes and better food. He doesn't like coffee though haha. I don't think either of them ever realise the brainwashing thing bc Anjem's too picky and never fully swallows the coffee anyway, sometimes vomiting it out. He still gets the effects partially though

Goals: I think Astral does want to escape the House eventually - he doesn't care too much for getting everyone else out, he just wants to find more and more humans and learn everything he can about them. Anjem I haven't decided too much yet. He knows Astral's goal and wants to be there with him to see it too, to travel the world, but I think he'd be scared of taking that step.

I think he wants to see his siblings again, one last time

Roles: Oop... Astral's power is very good for healing wounds so technically the relief team would be good for him but I personally wouldn't put him in a room with so many humans in it XD He keeps his power very downlow but regardless, I think he'd have made his way into the relief team. He's their bigger advocate on training to treat dolls better.

Anjem wanted to be in the research team instead but, as a Face, he has to tag along and look pretty

Power: At first Astral was pretty bad at controlling his power. He doesn't have blood himself after all, it was very unknown territory. In fact, the only way he Did grow better at it was When his experiments on Anjem failed. They could be very dangerous failures too, in case his soot clogged a vein or he clotted uo the wrong part or forced it to produce too much blood. In his panic to fix it, he tended to reflexively reverse whatever he'd done and so far, though there have been catastrophes, Anjem hasn't died. There was a time when Astral stopped his heart but that's whatever, he's immensely better at controlling them now. He doesn't frequent the training room (especially since his powers require blood), but instead has perfected his powers through practice in his room. He does also keep a few vials of blood he requests from the relief team that uses to practice with at times.

He prefers it best when it's with Anjem though :)

There was once, when the brainwashing had worn off more, where Astral fucked up. In attempting to heal a wound on Anjem's wrist, he accidentally sped up the production of the blood and it poured everywhere, spilling out faster than healthy. Anjem, wide eyed and afraid that this time, he was going to die, scrambled away from him screaming. He tried to run away but the pain was blinding him so much he could barely concentrate. Nothing Astral said could convinve him to calm down, and the last thing he saw before passing out was Astral roughly grabbing at his arm.

Astral was able to stop the blood, working with this as an experiment to control his area of effect, and sealed the wound. He bandaged it up and treated it with care, pressing a careful kiss of regret on the bandage and on Anjem's hand, the black mark staining his skin.

Anjem woke later in his box. He was afraid and angry and upset. He didn't talk to Astral for a full week, only interacting with him as a Face. Astral was heartbroken by this and apologised many times. They made up finally, after Astral stopped him from cleaning and held his hands, about to apologise again, when suddenly Anjem lifted the shade's hands and pressed a kiss to each.

"I'm tired of this. I miss speaking with you. I forgive you, so stop apologising every time I enter a room."

That mended things but going forward, Astral started getting external vials until he was better at his control.

Tidbits!

Astral likes his name but also wants to be separate from it. In private, he asks Anjem to call him "Aster" as a similar compromise. Anjem means "star" in arabic - he named his Face to match the name he preferred :)

Anjem is mostly good at reading Astral's emotions but they have a system of handsignals and body language to indicate the faces they want to make.

I've been thinking on them and their age awhile. I hadn't noticed when I made them that adults get finer clothes than the chikdren but I refuse ti change my design, I'm attached </3 I think they're similar to Barbara and Maryrose - old but still in the children's wing by virtue of not being given an invitation

This is partly due to Anjem's scar but mostly due to Astral's refusal to be useful outside of the bare minimum (this is not a noble thing, he's lowkey just lazy)

Oh my god I wrote a lot sdjbhf

Yeah!! That's them! That's my boys. I'm thinking of making a couple more too - I want to explore the idea of someone using their Face to hide disguise their real emotions

Thank you so much for asking 😭 it means the world to me and got me to think about them more

As an extra, have a doodle of Anjem's second sight of Astral:

[foma2000info]

The story of Jimmy Cage according to the Inmortal Kombat Wiki

Well, as I said in the last post, it's time to share more information about this buffoon. This time it comes from the Inmortal Kombat Wiki, a spanish speaking MK wiki which somehow has the most detailed information about MK: FOMA I have been able to find.

Despite its lack of real sources (it claims everything is in an old Threshold Entertainment website which I haven't been able to find), I can confirm that bits of info from it are 100% real and can be obtained using Wayback Machine in the official MK website. Since this proves whoever wrote these wiki pages had at least access to an amount of information I do not, I am going to try to translate the pages of the new characters of the show for anyone who could find it curious, even if I cannot really guarantee all the bits of information are real.

First we have the story of everyone's favourite character: Jimmy Cage (click to access the translated page in question). From now on, everything written in this way is my direct translation of that the wiki says, and everything written in this way are my personal comments:

Jimmy Cage is a character who only appeared in Mortal Kombat: Federation of Martial Arts, being defeated by Kitana. The fight between them is a reference (or parody) of the fight between Johnny Cage and Goro in Mortal Kombat (1995). The name of the actor who plays him is unknown.

Author’s Note 1: Despite saying this, the wiki page then shares a link to this website, which says Jimmy was played by John Melden, actor of Ermac in MK: Annihilation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At first sight the character could confuse, since he was identified by an image of Johnny from the first movie, with the code “JIMY” at its right side. However, according to the known written story of the series, it is mentioned that Jimmy Cage is Johnny Cage’s little brother and a loyal member of the Black Dragon. The family bond isn’t mentioned in the Mortal Kombat 1 prequel comic, so it is assumed this familiar connection only exists in the Threshold Entertainment Continuity.

Author’s Note 2: First things which prove this wiki have information only accessible through Wayback Machine, the start of this paragraph describes Jimmy’s bio, which can only be found in the Mortal Kombat official webpage from the early 2000s. The part of Jimmy being a Black Dragon is also true, according to some old forums about FOMA I found. All sources for this can be found in my previous post about Jimmy.

According to the written story, Jimmy simply appeared, showing an unexpected resemblance with the late Johnny Cage. He doesn’t do anything relevant until Ruby’s murder, and then theories were created about him being the unknown ninja who murdered, with him being the main suspect. Later on, Jimmy demands a fight against Reptile whose result is unknown. Raiden tried to get him back to Earthrealm’s side with Nightwolf’s help, but the latter was received with hits by Jimmy and eventually attacked by other Black Dragon members. Aware of this, Sonya and Jax chased and captured Jimmy.

Author’s note 3: The part of there being theories about Jimmy being the murder of Ruby (something that happened in the series) and Raiden going to meet with him are true, since I found this in the FOMA forum:

After Jimmy was arrested, he spent more than 60 hours without eating, drinking or sleeping. Sonya and Jax interrogated him without success to obtain information about Ruby’s murder. However, what they obtain are some clues that finally reveal that Kano is still alive. They manage to confirm Jimmy’s information is correct and the Special Forces go after Kano.

The mission sends them to Hong Kong, where Sonya is captured by the Black Dragon. However, this situation and Sonya’s influence end up making Jimmy change his loyalty and help to save her life. The last thing that was mentioned is that Sonya and Jimmy remained in a hospital to treat their injuries.

Author’s note 4: Some of the FOMA extra online content (unreadable today, at least for me) seems to make some reference to the events of this curious story in which SF torturing prisoners is apparently legal:

There is also an extra bit of info in the Inmortal Kombat wiki which I will add before finishing this post. According to this, some complete Jimmy bio in that supposed old Threshold website (no link to it offered) said:

"Jimmy, a mystery for the Federation, who renounced to his friends and his loyalty to Earthrealm, swears he'll do what his brother couldn't in the last tournament. It has been reported that he is now an active member of the Black Dragon Organization."

[spockandawe]

You know what, I'm not happy about this either :T

Unless I'm t-boned by another reblog from someone huge, this likely won't reach as wide of an audience. And I regret that! Because either I presented myself badly or people are taking the wrong thing away from my words.

So, I strongly, STRONGLY believe in supporting writers. I also strongly believe in archival work and preservation of online media. I mentioned my own binding of the raksura patreon short stories earlier this year, hoping to manifest an official printing to buy, which.... folks, the implicit logical endpoint is that I went and expanded them all and saved them locally too.

It wasn't scraping, since I've seen that description being tossed around in the notes. My copy was manual copy and paste, because I don't respect my own time, and so was the other recent version. If you're going to rail against that, I guess you've successfully transported nft rage about right click + save as to a new medium.

Frankly, the patreon interface is a pain for this. Infinite scroll is part of the enshittification of the internet, this is a lot of text and posts, patreon isn't a powerful archival site, and it started choking horribly by the time I was halfway through. Now that I know people can still sign up (which i didn't, for years, that closed label is misleading), I still emphatically encourage them to do so and fight through the lag to read the stories.

I also quoted the thing where I said I owned all the books in three formats - physical, ebook, audiobook. Guess what copy I use for most rereads - that's right, none of them, because I was a dumb youth who didn't understand how awful kindle drm is and I can't word search in a paper book, so the secret fourth format is pirated ebooks, which I know amazon will never be able to yoink out of my grip. If I ever git gud at illumination and make a hand-illustrated compendium of the series, that's going to be my starting base, because there arent digital rights to lock me down to owning ACCESS to a copy of the book and not the copy of the book itself.

Now, the existence of pirated ebooks isn't all sunshine and roses. I've seen the talks about how new books IMMEDIATELY get pirated and shared and start cutting into an author's livelihood and future publishing prospects. I think it's incredibly important to support authors directly and in ways corporate marketing teams are able to observe. But especially in light of the Hollywood strikes, I'm sure many of us have seen posts about corporate entities playing shitty games with what they'll make available and withhold, and what they'll CHARGE versus what the customer has PURCHASED.

The only thing in the original post I take issue with is the reposting of something that was still available directly through the author. That has already been addressed. The originator is remorseful. I still understand if the patreon vanishes, to be clear. But i quietly made my own copy years ago BECAUSE i understand how easy it is for something like that to vanish, for much more arbitrary reasons. It could have been vanished because of site policy, patreon abruptly archiving all posts more than X years old. Online media is dangerously ephemeral.

I bind a lot of cnovel fan translations. So many amazing stories are getting licensed for translation - great! But it's also a massive extinction event for all the backbreaking translation work other fans have been sharing for years for free. And from that perspective it's a fucking TRAGEDY. I have... a Lot of files that I'm not sharing publicly. My goal is never to preempt or undermine the translators who did the actual work. But that hoard of files is still precious to me, because it takes about five seconds to delete a gdoc of translation, and there's not always warning to save a copy first.

Again, emphasis, my only issue here was the reposting. I'm not happy that it happened. I'm glad the files were quickly taken down, whether or not the patreon itself goes away. I'm glad op is remorseful for overstepping, and I can... mostly see how they didn't realize the problem, and mainly wanted to help more people experience a story they loved.

So it's also worth saying that I'm also not too stoked about the direction tags on that post were starting to go. 'Piracy is inexcusable, piracy is the death of--' STOP. I recognize that begging for nuance while tossing thoughts out onto social media is a losing game. But actually, I'm out of patience for black and white thinking happening on my post. Piracy is a valuable tool for archivists and a hazard to creators, which is why it should be practiced quietly and with deliberate care. It should be practiced in a way that attempts not to damage the creator's livelihood or take away control of their creations. That's where the misstep was here. OP understood they had misstepped and they were expressing remorse even before I got on my high horse, and it sure doesn't seem like the notes care about that, so! I'm done letting the outrage machine feed on it.

That's probably enough. I'm not saying anything I haven't said on here before. If you've ever grieved for a beloved fic missing from your ao3 bookmarks because it was deleted, you understand the basic archival urge. If you lost access to a favorite artist's extensive archives because the images were flagged in the 2018 boob ban, you should be able to understand. I manually saved 36,000 pictures in that brief grace period before I completely burned out. The fundamental impulse shouldn't be that hard to grasp. The rest is just responsible practices, and people fuck up sometimes. It sucks, but sometimes you don't recognize a boundary is there before you blunder right over it with the best of intentions. I think a lot of us have been there too.

Anyways, this is too much text, how boring to look at. Here's my remaining pictures of my own little anthology copy. Still manifesting an official release someday, or any books of the raksura material at all. Money will literally fly from my pocket to purchase it in every available format.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Festival Accompanying Chapter 25

*In a deadpan voice* Oh no. Rika's dead. How tragic. Oh well. Series over.

A quick meta detail I want to mention about the chapter as a whole is none of the club members appear. This whole chapter is about Takano frantically trying to figure out what's going on with the sudden report about Rika's death and Ooishi doing his part to stop her.

What the club is doing isn't important at the moment, but their absence sets up the question "Where is Rika and what's going on there?"

Takano, you're panicking a bit too much. Just because a speculative aspect of your grandfather's research was wrong (and it is indeed wrong) doesn't mean the whole thing is wrong.

Meanwhile, Okonogi manages to start putting things together and realizes that Tomitake likely found out about their operation and is planning to use this sudden leak of Rika's death to find evidence to report.

Also, Okonogi's ears are getting pointier.

So Old Man from Forensics is officially called "Old Medical Examiner" in the english translation. I'll guess that he most likely wrote up a convincing autopsy report that would pass a general inspection and be able to fool anyone who doesn't have direct access to the corpse.

I'm also going to make a guess here and assume he's the one who always inspected "Takano's" corpse, identified her death date as June 18th, and then updated the report to say she died on June 19th.

Ooishi and Old Medical Examiner are at that age where they love seeing the higher-ups panic and freak out. So they've probably been giggling excitedly to see how Tokyo will try to fix everything.

The guy who got sent to snoop around and fix the problem shows up. His name is Ootaka. At first, I thought he might be the Sonozaki defense attorney from Massacre chapter 15. But I'm so glad that I was mistaken.

Ootaka is all bark and just tries to throw rank and authority at Ooishi to make him back down and Ooishi isn't having any of that. I genuinely love how Ooishi is upfront with Ootaka about why Ootaka is even there in the first place. Ooishi assume Ootaka doesn't know anything going on and he calls him out on it to see whether or not Ootaka is willing to do what is right.

Back in Massacre, Ooishi genuinely wanted to help Keiichi with his efforts to save Satoko. But when having to choose between what is right and what is lawful, Ooishi chose to be lawful and only advised Keiichi on how to get around his obstruction. And the moment there were no legal reasons he couldn't help, Ooishi was willing to work with the village to save Satoko.

But this time, Ooishi is choosing to do what is right. He's willing to sacrifice everything because he knows that what he's doing is right. He's thought long and hard about his decision. And thanks to Akane, Shion, and a little girl he's never met, Ooishi has chosen to take on the burden of helping the village this time.

Also, it's kind of funny that Ooishi asked Ootaka how much he's being paid to do this. It's like he's saying "If you're going to be corrupt, at least make it financially worthwhile."

Ootaka was probably told to throw Saburo Sonozaki's name around if the Okinomiya police district got into the way. And it blew up in his face when the actual Saburo shows up.

Saburo looks very different from what he looked like Massacre.

Assuming it's not coincidence Akane and Saburo showed up at the police station when they did, I'd say this means the Sonozakis are part of Operation 48 hours as well. It's not too hard to imagine how they'd get involved. Mion is the heir to the family and it's easy to assume Oryou knows what's going on since Rika and Satoko were hiding at her estate for the last several days.

It would be easy to tell relatives about the situation and get ready with every legal, tactical, and potentially shady resource they have to help the operation.

The Sonozakis and Ooishi blocking every attempt to investigate the autopsy report, Irie giving conflicting eyewitness accounts that cannot be used as evidence, Tomitake's disappearance, and Nomura breathing down Takano's neck is starting to squeeze her and the Wild Dogs. And then she gets some good news: They've found Tomitake.

While hiding out in a hotel, Tomitake has found evidence of Takano using funds for bribes (Most likely to pay off the Wild Dogs) and the story suddenly turns into an action series when Tomitake jumps out of a third-story window, lands on and crushes a car, and charges through the Wild Dogs.

We're treated to SEVEN pages of buildup to Tomitake attempting to charge through the Wild Dogs blocking his path. We're given a third-person narration comparing his charge to a locomotive that will not and cannot be stopped.

And then he is captured immediately.

I thought the entire train comparison was weird and out of place, especially since this is the only time the story has used a third-person narration. But it was totally worth it to see all the buildup get subverted. It was basically just Tomitake trying to hype himself up to try a desperate escape that was doomed to fail.

Look at him. Tomitake is so confused about why his dumb plan failed.

back

[for-yoongi0309]

BTS’ Suga Returns as Agust D to Tackle Loneliness, Humanity & Being Acknowledged

Most famously known as Suga from BTS — but also by the solo moniker Agust D, as well as birth name Min Yoongi — the artist who works as a rapper, singer, producer, dancer, fashion muse and NBA ambassador wants to remind listeners that, above all, he is a human.

“In the past — and I’ve always said this in my interviews — personally, I think loneliness is being together in modern society. I always talk about loneliness in my interviews, but regretfully, it isn’t always in the final interview. Not only me, everyone has this loneliness inside them until the moment they die. However deep you are in a relationship, how much you engage with other people, how many friends you meet, or how often you meet with your family, you always have the loneliness inside.

So, I started with this keyword of “loneliness” three years ago, and I wouldn’t say there’s much difference in that everybody can feel pain and agonized. It’s the same with me. Whether it’s me from BTS, SUGA, Min Yoongi, or Agust D, I always have that inside me too. People might see me as someone who wouldn’t have any concerns or worries or that I don’t feel any agony, but I feel those emotions too. I’m trying to find a way to fight those and overcome those too.”

Today, April 7, marks the return of Agust D, the name Suga uses when releasing solo projects away from BTS, with the new single “People Pt.2” featuring K-pop superstar IU. Not only does it mark the duo’s latest collaboration after teaming for the No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart “Eight” from May 2020, it also acts as an extension from “People,” a fan-favorite cut from Agust D’s D-2 mixtape released that same month. While the original “People” saw Suga reflecting on himself and meditating on how others judge and change, Part 2 longs for connection with others. As multifaceted as Suga’s world is, loneliness is a permanent source of inspiration and intrigue for the 30-year-old. Hours before “People Pt.2” drops worldwide, his call with Billboard occurs alongside multiple international teams who work around the clock for Suga and BIGHIT MUSIC artists. Some are beside him physically, others via Zoom connection virtually — but loneliness remains a muse for the star, assisting him in searching within and speaking to listeners in larger, universal ways. Since its debut, BTS’ musical appeal has reached globally largely through the septet’s extended metaphors and imagery, translating into accessible storytelling alongside boundary-pushing compositions and choreography. Suga’s range of material is vast, after producing on essentially every BTS album, not to mention scoring high-profile collaborations with everyone from Halsey and Juice WRLD to Epik High and Japan’s ØMI. But now, he’s emphasizing the topics that move him personally — and ensuring he’s properly heard.

Despite an already packed spring and summer with album promo, his solo world tour, ambassadorship duties and a YouTube series, Suga cheekily closes out our chat “Yeah, it’s fuking busy,” he says with a wink since he has no time to waste. Read on as he narrows in on the release of “People Pt.2” and all that’s led up to this reflective pop/hip-hop collaboration.

We’re hours away from the release of “People Pt.2,” your official return as Agust D for your D-Day album. Is there a different mindset when you prepare music as Agust D versus solo or as SUGA alongside BTS?

SUGA: They’re all music made by the person called Min Yoongi. So, I don’t actually have a very different mindset for each moniker — but I would say that the purposes could be somewhat different. Ultimately, the goal of releasing this music is for as many people to listen to my music as possible. So, “People Pt.2” was made thinking about how people will receive Agust D’s music, which is why we also featured IU. It’s kind of a trial to release this music under the name Agust D. I’m actually a little bit worried.

“People Pt.2” (featuring IU) of course follows up “People” from the D-2 mixtape. What was important about continuing this story with IU?

SUGA: This is a story that you’ll personally love: The title wasn’t originally “People Pt.2.” Actually, “People” from D-2 is personally my favorite song — and we actually worked on “People Pt.2” three years ago. When I was releasing my pictorial [Photo-Folio Wholly or Whole Me] photo shoot, the company actually revealed the guide [demo] version and gave a glimpse of it to the public. But anyway, it was already finished when we were working on D-2 so I was thinking, “Oh, I should release this, I should release this.” But we had to get on with “Butter” and “Dynamite” so we didn’t get the chance. Originally, the title was “Sara (사라),” without the “M (ㅁ)” consonant in Korean — because that’s, like, one consonant less than the word “saram (사람),” which is Korean for “people.” Depending on whichever consonant you put at the end of the word sara (사라), it can become “saram (사람)” and “people,” or it can become “sarang 사랑,” or “love” in Korean. So, it’s the listener’s choice to put which consonant you want at the end of “sara” (사라). But I had my friend listen to this song and people heard it as “sal-ah (살아)” which kind of means “live” in Korean and I was like, “This is not going to work.” So, we finalized the title to be “People” in the end. And some people call me August D, some people call me Ah-gust D, but I’m actually Agust D. So, you know, people take my name differently and we had to sync the person SUGA and Agust D. This is a song that kind of matches that sync. We need that bridge and sync between my mixtape and this official solo album. In order to put that sync together, I had to make this a very pop song. We didn’t try to make the music video that intense — and, in that sense, IU really played an important role in doing that. I also think this is a genre that I can do best, this pop-focused song.

There’s this sync between songs, but the themes and lyrics are very different, right? “People” was self-reflective and examined other people’s judgments, but “People Pt.2” seems more about connection and fighting loneliness. What most differentiates the two in your mind?

SUGA: In the past — and I’ve always said this in my interviews — personally, I think loneliness is being together in modern society. I always talk about loneliness in my interviews, but regretfully, it isn’t always in the final interview. Not only me, everyone has this loneliness inside them until the moment they die. However deep you are in a relationship, how much you engage with other people, how many friends you meet, or how often you meet with your family, you always have the loneliness inside. So, I started with this keyword of “loneliness” three years ago, and I wouldn’t say there’s much difference in that everybody can feel pain and agonized. It’s the same with me. Whether it’s me from BTS, SUGA, Min Yoongi, or Agust D, I always have that inside me too. People might see me as someone who wouldn’t have any concerns or worries or that I don’t feel any agony, but I feel those emotions too. I’m trying to find a way to fight those and overcome those too. This album doesn’t really finalize everything in its message either. So, there might be a possibility there could be a “Part 3” later on. For now, we’re just trying to say, “Let’s not hate each other. Let’s find a way.”

I like that — because even in the Road to D-Day documentary trailer, there’s a moment you say you frequently consider quitting music. But when people come together, it makes you realize you can do it and have fun. Does this tie into themes of “People Pt.2”?

SUGA: This is kind of a difficult topic, because I started making music and writing lyrics [when] I was 11 or 12 years old. I’ve been making music for all these years, and now I’m 30. It wasn’t easy writing “People Pt.2,” and the album overall, but people really don’t know the whole process of that. Even though I’d been making music more than half of my life — and I’m just saying this because you understand this, Jeff — when we first started in the K-pop scene, we were in this ambiguous position of not being accepted as musicians and not being accepted as idols either. But the musicians close to me know that I’m very serious and sincere in music and that I’m a very natural person. So, the documentary started as I just wanted to capture and show this process. It started with the purpose of showing SUGA as a producer and songwriter, but it kind of ended up having the worldview of an album-making process. I tried to show the normal, individual side of me as much as possible, but as I am a Korean idol, or K-idol, a lot of scenes were edited out; there were more of those natural scenes and some very good scenes that couldn’t make it in the final version. The documentary and “People Pt.2” try to reveal the natural side of the human Min Yoongi. I just wanted to show that I am this humane person. I am just a human.

You need to release your “Director’s Cut” one day. While D-Day and the documentary are coming, I want to congratulate you on the worldwide release of D-2 and Agust D this week. My favorite song, “Agust D” with the sample of “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” was finally added to streaming too. You shared how J. Cole approved BTS’ “Born Singer” sample, what can you share about the process with James Brown‘s estate?

SUGA: I released Agust D when I was still very young, so, even as I listen to it now, it kind of sounds immature — if you listen to the tone, the rap itself wasn’t very organized, I wanted to do a lot of things at that time. It just kind of keeps going very tightly and quickly. But after doing so much various and diverse music, I think that people love the songs that have been released more recently than the songs that were released back then. So, I kind of dare say that people are starting to recognize and acknowledge these songs now. Since the musician actually passed away, I think it was the family who decided to acknowledge it. Same thing with [clearing] “Born Sinner” — and I don’t know what the path was for the musician themselves, but it was clear. And I take it as that I, as BTS, and Min Yoongi, and SUGA, and Agust D, was acknowledged as a musician. I’m really not thinking that broader consumers or audiences will accept it, because it’s not really popular music. Still, I would dare assume that it’s getting cleared because we’re finally getting recognized as musicians.

Interviewer: Jeff Benjamin at billboard

[sketching-shark]

Do you think its funny that the fandom treats the Monk kinda the same way he treated Wukong, he kinda deserve it but can we at least something different about him (like I don't see anyone make bug jokes or about all the poetry)

AUGH well anon as I've said before I'm well aware that the internet is were nuance goes to die & while yes I know fandom is a place were people often just want to have fun & not think to hard, I do find it funny but also increasingly frustrating how even though fandom often purports itself as a place of massive diversity more and more it seems to be structured around creating an Official Version of characters' personalities & relationships rather than trying out many different things, or even considering the implications of the source material.

Now of course it has to be acknowledged that a lot of this is often due to what's in the canon work itself (like Wu Cheng'en himself seems to have deliberately written Tang Sanzang in large part as a caricature of fussy Confucian scholars), but in addition I feel like the popular understanding of a character as one extreme or another goes double for stories where the only easy access that an audience may have to it is from translated works or from cartoony retellings. Speaking for myself for example it's been pretty wild having gotten into Journey to the West before Monkie Kid came out & now it often seems like the lego show version of the story (well that and the sarcastic youtube retelling) is the only version of Xiyouji that people in the western internet audience primarily know/care about. But I'm coming from a position where I had the time & access to both read through the entirety of the Anthony C. Yu English translation (which as per usual I need to remind people you can access for free in PDF format on multiple posts on this hellsite) as well as was able to access some of the scant few scholarly works in English about the story. And that's just not something that a lot of people know about or have access to.

As such, it's pretty understandable why many people wouldn't know about all the poetry because well that's never even been brought up in the versions of Journey to the West that they've encountered, or wouldn't make bug jokes because there's little mention of Tang Sanzang having been Golden Cicada in any retelling that they've seen, or if it is it's just presented like fun trivia rather than one of the primary reasons why Tang Sanzang was even chosen to be on the journey in the first place (or what the religious significance of the cicada was in China). Add everything that can easily get lost in translation to the further simplification that cartoony retellings demand, and you can see why many people's understanding of the Tang monk would just be "whiny idiot who's constantly getting himself kidnapped, falling off his dragon horse, & torturing the monkey," especially since between Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang the monk is by far the more static character (although a lot of Chinese retellings add scenes of him actually recognizing he was wrong & apologizing to the monkey in a reversal of the simplification trend afeawsdf).

Plus, well, I mean it's not like a cartoon is going to include all those scenes of Tang Sanzang tied up & sobbing his eyes out because he's literally in a gore-bespattered cave surrounded by yaoguai who plan to eat him, and they're especially not going to include the times when he's sexually assaulted. In a different approach than usual these things and the resulting trauma could be presented as explanations (but not excuses) for Tang Sanzang's ongoing hostility towards Sun Wukong (who lest we forget is the first yaoguai to try to kill him), but doing that well takes a level of nuance and care that's vanishingly rare in both big budget & fanon retellings of Xiyouji. Hell, in retrospect it's not even handled that well in Xiyouji itself, as if memory serves correctly the kidnappings & near death/consumption are mainly just framed as things that the monk needs to endure to get to the next stage in the journey, and Sun Wukong even makes fun of Tang Sanzang after he was molested by a female yaoguai for an entire night.

So YEAH I often do wish that Tang Sanzang was treated with more nuance (like I would LOVE to see a retelling of Xiyouji where he's more of an intelligent rule-breaker like the historical Xuanzang), but between how he was written in canon & the tendencies towards tropes & simplification in both big-budget retellings and fanon tendencies you can see how he would end up Journey to the West's Most Hate-able Character.

[bleedingmyway-blog]

on the subject of nintendo hype, i also miss pokemon hype pre XY (which are already 11 years old, wow !), which i know is : 1- oddly specific 2- really old ? i'm talking about basically, back in 2006-2007. now, while i was pretty much a kid back then, i remember that the internet was only useful for three things for me back then : 1 cartoon/anime openings (the dragonball Z op was the first thing i ever searched for on youtube) 2 videogame help and 3 pokemon. whenever i had access to the internet, i'd look for stupid fan art of pokemon fusions, fanfics shipping a variety of the characters from the series and news on the games.

the reason why i specified before XY is because Pokemon X/Y were the first episodes of the series to be announced globally.

on tuesday 8th of january 2013, pokemon xy was announced. i remember running home from school at 12 to open my laptop (that i had left on in the morning so i wouldn't waste a single second) to see the trailer

you have to understand that before, the games were first announced in japan, released there and then eventually announced for the rest of the world (europe, usa) and released. this was a BIG event. but prior to xy, unless you could speak japanese and lived there, you were practically left in the dark about the most recent pokemon news/events. "why not watch the trailer in japanese then and quit dramatizing past events lol ? "

the reason is that back then, a trailer was the culmination of months and months of mystery and hype. you didn't get the trailer first. rumors would circulate from "insiders" and so called trust worthy leakers from japanese and american image boards that a game was in the works (and these rumors would usually start 6-9 months after the release of the most recent mainline game), then speculations about the region, thematic, features would start; i remember how each gen we had someone saying "this time, we'll be able to explore ALL regions !" or "this is going to be open-world in 3d on the TV console !".

remember : the internet was a much more decentralized entity back in the mid/late 00's. information did not drip down from a single verified source on 3-4 social media accounts ; it spread unevenly, gathering misinformation, theories and the interpretation of the relayer along the way. you're probably going to ask "well, if you didn't get it from the official twitter/facebook (this is 2008), where did you get the info from ?"

we got it the old fashioned way. i present to you, the corocoro magazine

the magazine, launched in 1977 is a children's mag that advertised a variety of manga and most importantly video games to a younger audience. and you would not believe how dependant the online pokemon community was on this magazine : any info concerning a new game, teasers, shadows for the shapes of starters would be there. mind you, google trad was not as developped as it is today : you couldn't just up and whip out your phone to translate the text from your computer screen. you had to wait for translators to do so; and boy, was it exciting. i remember how on the french pokemon bubble, it was a race between various websites to translate the info first ; either from the english translation, or directly from the source, if they could comprehend japanese.

source : japanese TV show "Pokemon Sunday" circa 2010-11

and since i mentionned shadows, here is a tradition that sadly disappeared : shadows of the new gen starters as a teaser. surely, i don't have to name or even show you the starters on the picture above for you to recognize them. instead, let us see how creative such teasers got the community :

(i'm too lazy to currently fire up the wayback machine and get some of the fan designs which i remembered to be quite interesting back then)

and so it went on: drip fed teasers, leaks and speculations about info that we take for granted now, like the very names of the new pokemon in english, of the rival and the game's evil team, new or returning mechanics, etc. the hype would go on, info would become clear as we near the japanese release, then once it does, we all sit behind our screens jealous at the lucky ones who either lived in japan or uhm, accidentally received an online package containing a rip of the game's file (jokes aside to avoid getting censored, if this was the case, the games would have safety patches that didn't allow it to be read by the current firmware of jailbroken consoles).

the lucky ones would document their adventure, some try to prepare guides in advance for the international release, others cook-up fan translations ; and at that point, theories have begun. all before we even get the game !

to be honest, i did not expect this to be this long, but as i wrote, i remembered more and more, and like an old sailor, got to recall why i was so excited for pokemon back then. i lived for the hype : play pokemon, next game gets announced, get on the hype train, write theories, debate with other fans on forums, convince people that we're not getting a 3rd gen remake on the Nintendo DS, game releases, rinse, wash and repeat.

to me, this entire topic is an interesting look at the aspect of a bigger topic; the centralization of the internet over the years and the controlled spread of information. of course, i won't get into this here or now, but i'll also add that whatever i put down does somewhat apply to not only nintendo but also games from japanese manufacturers as well : even more obscure light novels on ps4 are getting releases in various languages now. before, you needed a japanese console to play japanese games, a german game would not work on an american console, etc. i am not necessarily nostalgic for this - it was annoying, and some of us missed many games because of it. but i will admit that the absence of teasers and hype when you can just datamine or immediately get the info on twitter from a game dev is saddening. i shall leave you, dear reader, with this trailer for pokemon black and white 2 that had me excited for a month :

[gamesception]

let's read rgu chapter 20

Sorry for the late, late update, got a bit distracted today. I'd just push it back to tomorrow, but this liveblog turned into a sort of accidental pride month project, and I don't want to miss the last day of June.

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but somewhere along the way, probably the same time the scans went to all two-page-spreads, we went from a fan translation to what seems to be the official English localization, and, as much as I respect the hard work and dedication of fan translators, the professional translation work is greatly appreciated.

Anyway, last time Utena won her rematch with Touga. New Hallmate? wait, have they moved into Akio's building, like in the manga's 3rd arc?

Psh, oh yeah. I guess Touga lives here now.

This is ridiculous, and I love it.

Oh, yeah, why don't you be useful for once and dump some exposition?

Did we skip over the exposition, or?

You know what, I don't care, this whole development is hilarious. The entire student council defeated, now following Utena around like imprinted ducklings. And Utena, embarassed, just stomping forward, her fists clenched at her side, just trying to ignore them. God, these nerds. This is great. Manga redeemed.

At least this domesticated Touga has the courtesy to ask Anthy to leave the room first instead of just talking about her like she isn't there.

Anyway, now we get the exposition. I guess Touga just wanted a full audience first. Key points of the exposition:

The duels are over. Utena won.

The point of the duels was to gain the power of the Sword of Dios

Because the Sword of Dios somehow grants access to the castle/Dios itself

Dios may or may not be a real person, but regardless has power over the movement of the stars, and can therefore change fate/destiny and thus 'revolutionize the world'.

World's End organized the duels to gain this power for himself, and Touga believes he will take action to manipulate or control Utena.

We also get a much more overt warning to Utena not to trust Anthy. Something Touga tried to say in the anime, but with far less explanation and far less reason to listen to him since it was only after his final defeat in the duels and thus easy to dismiss as sour grapes.

Touga's clearly still trying to get access to the power of Dios himself by getting close to Utena, he basically says as much, so still hard to take the warning seriously.

Despite being sent out of the room, Anthy heard everything, and she urges Utena not to team up with Touga against World's End, and Utena, in an uncharacteristic show of interpersonal insight, picks out that Anthy has been betraying this mysterious organizer of the duels rather than the duel champion the entire time.

Anthy is showing quite a bit of fear towards her brother here, something we didn't really see earlier. I guess it's more fear for what he might do to Utena, which I guess makes sense.

The next day Anthy's warnings start coming true, as Akio's first warning shot comes in the form of a fire at Wakaba's dorm.

Fuck you, Akio. Wakaba is a saint, if anything happens to her.

Wakaba's trapped inside and Utena rushes in to save her, but the doors are jammed and both girls are trapped by the fire and smoke.

Akio rescues Utena, of course, and she starts to suspect he's her prince. Rightly this time, unlike with Touga, but Akio is just there to exploit it all the same.

Most important panels of the chapter: Wakaba is OK.

The chapter ends with a confirmation that yes, Akio set the fire. Oh, and he's World's End, just in case anybody missed that. Threatening Wakaba does draw some heat, if you'll pardon the pun, but honestly I half expected that he would have made Anthy set the fire. Doing his own dirty work seems a bit beneath the Akio I know from the anime.

But still, we have a proper villain now, since the manga really never wanted Touga to fill that roll. We're still seeing new stuff happen, so I'm excited to see where the manga goes next.

[nicohverse]

Entropic Float in 2023: An Update!

 Happy New Year, everybody!

It's 2023 and I have a lot of plans! I'll start out by offering reminders that there's a survey to influence the contents of the Entropic Float DLC (Letters To A Beloved Ghost) and make sure that you get to see your favorite characters again, as well as a few pieces of official Entropic Float Merch available on my etsy store. There are stickers of the full cast, keychains of the protagonists and antagonist, and pin buttons of each standard ending- But if there's a particular piece of merchandise you'd want to see, feel free to contact me and let me know.

Entropic Float: Letters To A Beloved Ghost

As mentioned above, there's a survey to influence this DLC's content, but that doesn't mean I don't have plans for it! In fact, I already have a few of the side stories drafted. The DLC will be 5 USD or included in any pledge to the Entropic Float 2 Kickstarter. It will feature all new original art and music, and over 100k words of new content. By reading letters to you exploring unseen moments, past and present, you'll accumulate points toward meeting with somebody who's been hoping to meet you since long before you were invited to the clocktower. Not all letters will be required to finish the DLC's story, but all will be available.

Some side stories haven't yet been planned, as the survey is still open- But those that have been drafted include the pasts of Shinjiro Nozomi's friends, an oddly magical discovery at a small concert attended by Jasper Jasmine Jekyll, and a classic 'battle so we can become friends' between witches. Some will provide closure to doors left ajar in Entropic Float- Others will open up brand new doors for the sequels to shut- And others still will simply give you more time with the dear friends you made over the course of the game.

I plan to close the survey on 03/31/2023, and hope to have the DLC ready for release by the end of summer 2023.

Entropic Float 2: Land Of The Witch

I'm going to begin work in earnest on EF2 now that the new year has begun. I didn't 100% keep to my plan of not starting till the new year, but I managed to at least sort of take a break! I'm not going to be jumping right back into biweekly development updates, because this game has a lot more ground-up building to be done and I have a lot of other things to square away- I'd rather not post the same 'I got some of the point-and-click working the way I imagined' update too many times. I'll update once a month until development is progressing strongly enough to share more.

But you'll be getting introduced to the cast of the game quite soon- In next month's update, most likely! Though character trailers will come a bit later down the line.

Entropic Float 2: Land Of The Witch is... A point and click adventure game focusing on the 'Pine Creek Anomaly'. One year after the resolution of the anomalous clocktower in the Black Rock Desert, Kanatsune Ame is assigned a similarly difficult case. A rural town in the Appalachian Mountains disappeared five years ago- And the Anomaly in its place has only recently signaled its presence by opening an invitation. What will the World Anomaly which stole the town of Pine Creek reveal?

I can't give a timeline on EF2's development quite yet, but I'm tentatively hoping to run a Kickstarter in summer 2023, so that pledges to the Kickstarter can be swiftly translated into the reward of the Letters To A Beloved Ghost DLC. Before running the Kickstarter, I hope to have a demo ready to play, so that I can put my best foot forward. After all, EF2 is going to be a point-and-click adventure, not just a visual novel- Though I do plan, for accessibility, to also offer a 'kinetic novel version' in which the events of the game are arranged into a semi-canon order of experience.

The demo will of course be free, and will cover from the beginning of the game through to the first open exploration area.

The full game will be priced at 15 USD. While Kickstarter reward tiers will be determined closer to its launch, pledges of 5 USD will include the Beloved Ghost DLC only, while pledges of 15 USD or more will include both the DLC and Entropic Float 2, essentially giving you the DLC for free if you pledge at 15 USD exactly. I wish I could offer EF2 for the same zero-dollar price point as the first game, but I hope that the increased production value will make up the difference!

Any Other Projects?

Well, I wouldn't put this category here if I didn't have some other stuff going on. I'm considering participating in a few gamejams with short and sweet VNs. I'm also doing the art for an RPG that a friend of mine is writing. And of course, I'm selling on etsy, taking commissions, and working a day job. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just devote all my time to gamedev... Alas. Well, that's all I've got for now. Thanks for tuning in! More to come!

[0613magazine]

040723 Billboard

BTS’ SUGA Returns as Agust D to Tackle Loneliness, Humanity & Being Acknowledged

Back under his solo moniker, SUGA is feeling two decades of songwriting and producing connect universally: "We're finally getting recognized as musicians."

Most famously known as SUGA from BTS — but also by the solo moniker Agust D, as well as birth name Min Yoongi — the artist who works as a rapper, singer, producer, dancer, fashion muse and NBA ambassador wants to remind listeners that, above all, he is a human.

Today, April 7, marks the return of Agust D, the name SUGA uses when releasing solo projects away from BTS, with the new single “People Pt.2” featuring K-pop superstar IU. Not only does it mark the duo’s latest collaboration after teaming for the No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart “eight” from May 2020, it also acts as an extension from “People,” a fan-favorite cut from Agust D’s D-2 mixtape released that same month. While the original “People” saw SUGA reflecting on himself and meditating on how others judge and change, Part 2 longs for connection with others.

As multifaceted as SUGA’s world is, loneliness is a permanent source of inspiration and intrigue for the 30-year-old. Hours before “People Pt.2” drops worldwide, his call with Billboard occurs alongside multiple international teams who work around the clock for SUGA and BIGHIT MUSIC artists. Some are beside him physically, others via Zoom connection virtually — but loneliness remains a muse for the star, assisting him in searching within and speaking to listeners in larger, universal ways.

Since its debut, BTS’ musical appeal has reached globally largely through the septet’s extended metaphors and imagery, translating into accessible storytelling alongside boundary-pushing compositions and choreography. SUGA’s range of material is vast, after producing on essentially every BTS album, not to mention scoring high-profile collaborations with everyone from Halsey and Juice WRLD to Epik High and Japan’s ØMI. But now, he’s emphasizing the topics that move him personally — and ensuring he’s properly heard.

Despite an already packed spring and summer with album promo, his solo world tour, ambassadorship duties and a YouTube series, SUGA cheekily closes out our chat (“Yeah, it’s f–king busy,” he says with a wink) since he has no time to waste. Read on as he narrows in on the release of “People Pt.2” and all that’s led up to this reflective pop/hip-hop collaboration.

We’re hours away from the release of “People Pt.2,” your official return as Agust D for your D-Day album. Is there a different mindset when you prepare music as Agust D versus solo or as SUGA alongside BTS?

SUGA: They’re all music made by the person called Min Yoongi. So, I don’t actually have a very different mindset for each moniker — but I would say that the purposes could be somewhat different. Ultimately, the goal of releasing this music is for as many people to listen to my music as possible. So, “People Pt.2” was made thinking about how people will receive Agust D’s music, which is why we also featured IU. It’s kind of a trial to release this music under the name Agust D. I’m actually a little bit worried.

“People Pt.2” (featuring IU) of course follows up “People” from the D-2 mixtape. What was important about continuing this story with IU?

This is a story that you’ll personally love: The title wasn’t originally “People Pt.2.” Actually, “People” from D-2 is personally my favorite song — and we actually worked on “People Pt.2” three years ago. When I was releasing my pictorial [Photo-Folio Wholly or Whole Me] photo shoot, the company actually revealed the guide [demo] version and gave a glimpse of it to the public. But anyway, it was already finished when we were working on D-2 so I was thinking, “Oh, I should release this, I should release this.” But we had to get on with “Butter” and “Dynamite” so we didn’t get the chance.

Originally, the title was “Sara (사라),” without the “M (ㅁ)” consonant in Korean — because that’s, like, one consonant less than the word “saram (사람),” which is Korean for “people.” Depending on whichever consonant you put at the end of the word sara (사라), it can become “saram (사람)” and “people,” or it can become “sarang 사랑,” or “love” in Korean. So, it’s the listener’s choice to put which consonant you want at the end of “sara” (사라). But I had my friend listen to this son and people heard it as “sal-ah (살아)” which kind of means “live” in Korean and I was like, “This is not going to work.” So, we finalized the title to be “People” in the end.

And some people call me August D, some people call me Ah-gust D, but I’m actually Agust D. So, you know, people take my name differently and we had to sync the person SUGA and Agust D. This is a song that kind of matches that sync. We need that bridge and sync between my mixtape and this official solo album. In order to put that sync together, I had to make this a very pop song. We didn’t try to make the music video that intense — and, in that sense, IU really played an important role in doing that. I also think this is a genre that I can do best, this pop-focused song.

There’s this sync between songs, but the themes and lyrics are very different, right? “People” was self-reflective and examined other people’s judgments, but “People Pt.2” seems more about connection and fighting loneliness. What most differentiates the two in your mind?

In the past — and I’ve always said this in my interviews — personally, I think loneliness is being together in modern society. I always talk about loneliness in my interviews, but regretfully, it isn’t always in the final interview. Not only me, everyone has this loneliness inside them until the moment they die. However deep you are in a relationship, how much you engage with other people, how many friends you meet, or how often you meet with your family, you always have the loneliness inside.

So, I started with this keyword of “loneliness” three years ago, and I wouldn’t say there’s much difference in that everybody can feel pain and agonized. It’s the same with me. Whether it’s me from BTS, SUGA, Min Yoongi, or Agust D, I always have that inside me too. People might see me as someone who wouldn’t have any concerns or worries or that I don’t feel any agony, but I feel those emotions too. I’m trying to find a way to fight those and overcome those too.

This album doesn’t really finalize everything in its message either. So, there might be a possibility there could be a “Part 3” later on. For now, we’re just trying to say, “Let’s not hate each other. Let’s find a way.”

I like that — because even in the Road to D-Day documentary trailer, there’s a moment you say you frequently consider quitting music. But when people come together, it makes you realize you can do it and have fun. Does this tie into themes of “People Pt.2”?

This is kind of a difficult topic, because I started making music and writing lyrics [when] I was 11 or 12 years old. I’ve been making music for all these years, and now I’m 30. It wasn’t easy writing “People Pt.2,” and the album overall, but people really don’t know the whole process of that. Even though I’d been making music more than half of my life — and I’m just saying this because you understand this, Jeff — when we first started in the K-pop scene, we were in this ambiguous position of not being accepted as musicians and not being accepted as idols either. But the musicians close to me know that I’m very serious and sincere in music and that I’m a very natural person.

So, the documentary started as I just wanted to capture and show this process. It started with the purpose of showing SUGA as a producer and songwriter, but it kind of ended up having the worldview of an album-making process. I tried to show the normal, individual side of me as much as possible, but as I am a Korean idol, or K-idol, a lot of scenes were edited out; there were more of those natural scenes and some very good scenes that couldn’t make it in the final version. The documentary and “People Pt.2” try to reveal the natural side of the human Min Yoongi. I just wanted to show that I am this humane person. I am just a human.

You need to release your “Director’s Cut” one day. While D-Day and the documentary are coming, I want to congratulate you on the worldwide release of D-2 and Agust D this week. My favorite song, “Agust D” with the sample of “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” was finally added to streaming too. You shared how J. Cole approved BTS’ “Born Singer” sample, what can you share about the process with James Brown‘s estate?

I released Agust D when I was still very young, so, even as I listen to it now, it kind of sounds immature — if you listen to the tone, the rap itself wasn’t very organized, I wanted to do a lot of things at that time. It just kind of keeps going very tightly and quickly. But after doing so much various and diverse music, I think that people love the songs that have been released more recently than the songs that were released back then. So, I kind of dare say that people are starting to recognize and acknowledge these songs now. Since the musician actually passed away, I think it was the family who decided to acknowledge it.

Same thing with [clearing] “Born Sinner” — and I don’t know what the path was for the musician themselves, but it was clear. And I take it as that I, as BTS, and Min Yoongi, and SUGA, and Agust D, was acknowledged as a musician. I’m really not thinking that broader consumers or audiences will accept it, because it’s not really popular music. Still, I would dare assume that it’s getting cleared because we’re finally getting recognized as musicians.

Source: Billboard

[true-blue-sonic]

As it happens I also only recently found out about the Rivals games not releasing in Japan after I saw they weren't mentioned after Silver's Sonic Channel wallpaper story, and I've been stuck wondering ever since if they'll ever do anything about that if the Rivals games are apparently canon nonetheless? I realise that a rerelease and localisation are almost certainly never going to happen at this point and Japan isn't that big a market for Sonic and all but it just seems so strange that a piece of Sonic canon as substantial as a recurring character's literal first canon appearance and meeting with Sonic and friends is just entirely absent from that side of the franchise, especially if they're still going to allude to it occasionally in future media

It baffles me too, precisely for the reasons you mentioned. This isn't a fun little romp like TMOSTH that overall has little bearing on the mainline games and which can 100% be ignored in the grand scheme of things; this is indeed the first actual unerased appearance of Silver in the franchise! Even if Rivals 2 can technically be ignored if that is our criterium, Rivals 1 is quite important considering the fact Silver has appeared quite a bit afterwards while knowing Sonic and co. But I guess for Japan, Silver's story from '06 is his 'main' story, even if it never happened in the first place, and how they see his appearance afterwards where everyone just knows him already... I don't know. I unfortunately can't read or speak enough Japanese to go find for answers myself, nor would I know where to look. But that it's a messy situation is certain!

Related to that, something I realised... there is also a lot of things on the Japanese side of the fandom and official channels both that I am certain 99.9% of the West does not have easy access too. Think of all the Sonic Channel stories and background information. Like TMOSTH, this is also information that doesn't have that much bearing on the games, but it still both fun and important knowledge on the characters. We've got people here in the West making translations and of course we can put things through Google for a quick view ourselves, inaccuracies aside; perhaps in Japan they have done the same with Rivals 1 and 2?

Whether or not they'll do something about it, I have no idea. Silver is here to stay, that seems certain, and if in Japan they indeed have knowledge of Rivals 1 and 2 through the fandom I figure Sega might just leave things as it is. I don't get the feeling the Rivals games were/are particularly popular, with the characters being so rude to each other and the level design probably becoming quite repetitive in a while after running through the same place either 4 or 8 times. So a rerelease might not bring in enough money to make it worthwhile, and for Sega as a business that is the most important thing. Though, the idea the Japanese fandom might have knowledge of Rivals 1 and 2 in the way we have of Sonic Channel material is just pure speculation on my part, as well. Altogether I don't think Sega is going to do anything to solve this issue, unfortunate as it may be. Silver's got his place in the franchise now, they generally don't dive much into the deeper stories behind their cast anyway (ShTH wasn't that great a success either), and Silver simply hasn't been in a position of high enough importance in a recent video game to warrant any attention being paid there to how the cast knows him, I think. Basically the only potential allusion to Rivals 1 and 2 I can think of is the IDW story with Silver and Espio, and I have no idea if that one got translated to Japanese already (or ever will). So canon or not, the Rivals games are mostly forgotten in the West as well, though for us they are the answer to as to how Silver knows Sonic and co in later instalments. It's a situation where I don't see an easy reconciliation between the East and West parts of the franchise!

[whitecatlegend]

I've noticed that youtube has english subs for season 2, but up until episode 10 (which has the official translation as you said) the show is very badly translated; is it at the very least possible to translate episodes 8 and 9 and then let the official translation take over from there? as id assume most people dont have access to the official app nor know how to get their hands on the official translations that came before episode 10. I appreciate your help though!

The youtube subs for episodes 1-9 are probably autotranslated ones and therefore weird. As for my and official translations, it's all a bit complicated, but I'll try to explain.

Accessing the videos on the tencent app/website is somewhat complicated, particularly outside of China and/or without a VIP account, therefore most if not all available versions out there (including at least me) rely on whatever gets posted on various chinese websites. I have a reliable torrent for my releases, but - well, those files are from the time they were accessed by the original uploader, usually around the time of the release - when the subs were not yet available.

Honestly, translating, typesetting and preparing those episodes took a very significant chunk of my weekly free time - I don't particularly want to do that if a decent translation is already out there. Like I mentioned in the previous ask, I'll see how things turn out during next week and if I will be able to gain access to the files for updated episodes; if not, I will consider releasing episodes 8 and 9 in some shape (whether using the official translations or my own, since I already started on episode 8). No promises though, and it might be a bit late due to all the sniffing around I will be doing in the meantime.

TL;DR: Currently I'm not planning on doing episodes 8-9 from scratch, but I might do it if that's basically the only way for the English-speaking audience to experience the show.

[kariachi]

Okay, I mentioned shit about ‘official’ languages, so let’s do a little poking. A bit of history, a bit of basic info, few names because I’m lazy.

Imperial Osmosian

Okay, to understand Imperial Osmosian- the most common Osmosian language by several miles and the one that’s programmed into universal translators- you need to know the circumstances in which it came around.

I’ve mentioned The Hunting before. This is the Osmosian name for the multi-millenia period following the greater galaxy discovering Osmosians and Osmos V existed. Between their powers and the vast amount of metals and precious stones available on the planet, it went very very poorly for them. Like ‘capture what you can, kill what you can’t, dig out the dens, salt the earth’ levels. It was a very long period, a very difficult period, for most of which the majority of Osmosians lived in slavery and the majority of those who didn’t lived a life of fighting to maintain their own safety and freedom. A lot of shit went on, from slave revolts, to planets and systems declaring the enslavement of Osmosians enslavement and illegal, to mining operations on Osmos V getting destroyed, and so on and so forth. But the real meat of why Imperial Osmosian exists and in the form it does came from the cultural genocide amongst enslaved Osmosians.

By the beginning of the final war, the vast vast majority of enslaved Osmosians could not have told you anything about their history, their species, their ancestral cultures. It’s a downside of being a species that primarily lays eggs and can technically be raised from hatching to toddling with a heat lamp, a pile of rocks and metals, a dish of water, and the occasional slice of liver laid over their back. The typical way slavers handled their breeding was to knock out the dam, take the eggs, put the dam back to whatever they were using them for, and rear the chicks like factory farms rear turkeys. Most escaped slaves had never seen an adult Osmosian before their escape, and most had never seen another Osmosian at all after their teens. This is part of why The Hunting lasted so long, not only were the Osmosians incredibly outnumbered by enemies with often superior tech, but it was difficult for escaped slaves to organize en masse. The final war was the one where they finally managed it on the scale they needed while getting access to and figuring out the tech they needed to succeed.

Which finally brings us to the language thing. Originally the various Osmosian forces were working independently, though as they got in touch with each other they started forming a web of alliances as it were. It was inevitable that this web would eventually extend out to Osmos V and the largest rebelling force on the planet. Now until this point the Osmosian forces had been relying universal translators and Galactic Standard to communicate- most only spoke the languages of their captors or the regions in which they’d found refuge, and overlap wasn’t great- and this had been vexing the people in charge. They’d wanted something to help unify the lot, and a way to communicate that wouldn’t be picked up on by literally everybody they were fighting. Getting in touch with the homeworld offered a solution, this new addition spoke a surviving Osmosian language, one that wasn’t in translators due to the ongoing bigotry around them. Future-Emperor Stagoff, the head and face of the whole war, quickly saw the value of this. Something to help everyone reconnect with their lost history, something to unite them, something their enemies wouldn’t understand messages in. Quickly it was ordered that all Osmosians involved in the war effort learn this language, as well as all children, and they did.

The language spread among the Osmosian forces, and since the number of Osmosians off of Osmos V- therefore learning the language- dwarfed the number still on the homeworld by orders of magnitude, when the war was over and the Empire so named, Osmos V returned to, it was the most common language in the Empire. But it wasn’t the same as the language it had started as. As said before, everybody was coming in from different worlds and different languages and so the one that was returned to Osmos V had so many fucking loan words in it. The ‘official’ language didn’t, the one you used for work, but in day to day life, people continued to use a lot of words they’d grown up using. Because of their wide usage and how they spread, when the language of the Empire was being codified to go into translators, these words were included as they were the way the species was speaking.

Over the more than 2000 years since the language has evolved and changed, the loan words have shifted and altered to fit in better, the base language has evolved with time as languages do, but at it’s heart Imperial Osmosian remains the same- a melting pot of languages emulsified with the unifying history of the species. Most Osmosians speak at least a little Imperial, as most Osmosian shit is in it and if you want to watch a movie or something, well. Still, if you’re outside the Empire it’s probably best to default to the local language, as most Osmosians there will probably speak and understand it better anyway.

~*~

Imperial Erinaen [’Traveler Talk’]

Like with the Imperial Osmosian, to understand why Imperial Erinaen is the way it is requires you to know a bit of history.

Carit are amazing creatures theorized to be from an entirely different dimension. They’re primarily organic shapeshifters with a degree of teleportation ability who form loose psychic bonds. They have a base form and a larger form, the second of which is not only capable of flight- even interstellar flight- but also contains a hollow area which can be used to hold cargo or riders. There’s more to them, but this is the base information you need to know about these domestic animals that are by far the most widespread and culturally significant on Eri. You need to know these things to understand a key fact.

Erinaens had high speed travel before they had written language. They had high speed global travel and trade ages before they made first contact. They had a very low tech level as determined by the greater galaxy, but they’d already been up close to their moon. First contact was literally made by a teenager who got their hands on one of the large trade carit and decided to see just how far from Eri they could go, all but crashing into an alien vessel that hadn’t even known Eri existed nonetheless that there were people there.

Nowadays a mid-sized carit can take you around the circumference of Eri in a leisurely few hours. Going to a new continent is like going into town. Not as accessible due to having to, you know, have the specific carit (most families don’t, household carit are fine enough for them but don’t get large enough for passengers) but still an incredibly common occurrence and it’s not difficult to get a ride. The result of this is that Erinaens essentially evolved alongside globalization. Different colonies are still distinct from those distant from them, but there’s always been a lot of cultural interchange from literally everywhere, leading the place to seem more like a unified species than they actually are.

Which leads us to language. There’s a few important things here- 1) The Erinaens have been, from damn near the start, dedicated to presenting a unified front. They aren’t a unified species as it’s generally known, but they go out of their way to present as one to the greater galaxy, mostly as a safety matter. 2) When they were accepted as a distinct people, languages were requested for use in universal translators, and they of course wanted to present themselves as unified, see above. 3) They already sort of had a language for that.

You’ll note the designation of ‘Traveler Talk’ up there at the start of this section, that’s the proper name. Individuals who did a lot of traveling ended up picking up bits and pieces from a wide variety of Erinaen languages, and eventually a sort’ve pidgin language was formed among traders and travelers on Eri, combining bits and pieces from around the planet. When asked for a language, this is what the Erinaens turned to. The language was taken, adjustments were made, and it was codified as the ‘official’ Erinaen language. As with all languages it’s evolved in the millennia since, gaining a lot of loan words from primarily the Osmosian Empire to fill in gaps where the Erinaens just didn’t have a concept.

Nowadays you can generally expect most Erinaens to speak enough, though it’s more common in more tourist heavy areas. Most Erinaens in Erinaen territory speak primarily in their own distinct home tongue, sometimes with Imperial Osmosian as a second language, sometimes with Imperial Erinaen as a second language. Most Erinaens you meet outside their territory will speak Imperial Erinaen to some degree or other, but again, generally good to default to the local language. If they don’t speak it well enough, trust they will let you know.

~*~

Major Languages of Ha’n

The situation on Ha’n is a tale as old as time. Motherfuckers A gain power. They decide that having that power means they can run roughshod over Fuckers Just Making Do B. Everything goes to fuck for everyone who is not Motherfuckers A.

The good news is, Perison women aren’t prone to overseas travel, and Perison men aren’t prone to conquering territory, so these things were typically restricted by continent.

The bad news is, industrialization caused so many problems.

It goes like this: Group A, who may or may not have already been a big name, has the resources/trade access to get together the best possible tech in their region. Group A proceeds to use this to take over as much of their continent as possible. Even when Group A eventually collapses under their own weight, the impact of their rule remains for a damn long time.

Now, as with all species prone to warfare, Ha’n had been through a load of these cycles. The problem, was that industrialization made keeping a grip that much easier, things more violent, places had whole capitalism bubbles, and by the end of the last period of ‘fuck, everybody grab as much as they can’ you had nearly entire continents having spent ages under singular rule, with dominant languages being forced on fuckers. Which they still could’ve recovered from, but First Contact came not too long after and with it a drive for the whole of the planet to make alliances with each other and present a unified force. These languages that had been forced on large swatches became an easy way to maintain consistent contact, and having a singular language from each region meant less work for fuckers trying to work together in what became a single unified government.

Nowadays, Ha’n has plenty of minor, local languages, but pretty much everybody learns the major language of their region. If you visit Ha’n, know what continent you’re going to and that’ll tell you what language to go for. When dealing with Perison offworld it’s harder to tell and generally best to go with the local language or Galactic Standard, which most Perison who leave their homeworld learn.

~*~

Major Languages of Hasiel [’The Trader Calls’]

Hasiel is a planet with a kajillion languages, or at least a kajillion dialects.

The major languages of Hasiel, the languages that ended up in universal translators, are the languages of the coasts. They’re trade tongues, hence the ‘proper’ name of ‘Trader Calls’. Essentially, whichever river system had their trade expand furthest up and down their coast? Their trade partners picked up the language for use in trading over sea. There wasn’t really any trade across seas and oceans, because Lenopan biology makes traversing open water like that incredibly dangerous, you generally didn’t get many people reaching the other side.

As a result of this, there’s actually a lot of ‘major’ Lenopan languages. They followed the coast down until they either reached a point it wasn’t worth going past or they bumped up against more influential traders, and their languages spread accordingly. The languages didn’t tend to spread far upriver though- all things move harder upriver- and so these languages were generally left as secondary or tertiary languages of coastal regions, The river systems and their nearby water bodies all have their own languages, though the dialects seem to change with every fork, and these languages are rarely if ever known off of Hasiel itself.

Visitors are advised to stick to coastal regions, as communication gets harder the further inland and upriver you go. What language you’ll run into will vary wildly, but a universal translator should be able to handle things for you no matter which of these languages you come across. When dealing with Lenopan off of Hasiel, it’s recommenced that you default to the local language, as the odds of any language from Hasiel you choose being one they speak is very low.

~*~

Anodine

Anodites don’t have a verbal language. Yeah when everybody kept going ‘but no where are you from’ they pointed at a planet to shut them up, but they’re a deep-space species and sound does not travel well. Instead Anodine is a language of light and color. Imagine if cuttlefish could glow and knew morse code, that sort of deal. By altering their own brightness and changing their colors Anodites can communicate with each other over vast distances- which is part of why, despite being a social species, they constantly seem to be alone. For an Anodite somebody speaking to them from the moon is about the same as somebody speaking to you from across the livingroom. As a result conversations in Anodine tend to be far slower than verbal languages on a planet, but the fuckers live for an eternity and a half so having to wait a few hours for a response doesn’t really bother them.

It’s advised that you don’t try to speak to an Anodite in Anodine if you meet them, if nothing else because unless you are one of a very few species you won’t be able to. Anodites as a rule don’t bother trying to communicate with non-Anodites in Anodine anyway, and with how old they can be most know at least one other language in which they can converse with you. Keeping a universal translator handy is suggested, as there’s no guarantee the language they speak is one you do.

~*~

Incursean

Please picture that we had to suddenly abandon Earth. Most of humanity didn’t make it, it’s a ragtag load of people all fighting over what we should do next, and having a really hard time of it because nobody understands each other. This fucker only speak Swahili, this fucker only speaks Vietnamese, this fucker only speaks French, and so on. Eventually, a leader arises from the chaos, gets everything under control, and declares that she is going to solve this language crisis.

Everybody’s learning Latin.

This is kinda what happened to the Incurseans. Everything went to fuck, not even a downward spiral so much as a plummet, and out of the resulting chaos came the head of the first Great Incursean Empire, now known simply as the Incursean Empire except on official paperwork. Emperor Joia did a lot of good things, she kept her people together, she ended the panics, she made sure everyone was fed and taken care of (by leading raids on other planets- really they were more a pirate fleet than an Empire at this point but don’t tell them that), but she also decided that everybody was going to follow her religion. And that religion came with a traditional language, like Catholics working in Latin. So she made her religion the official state one and to ensure there wasn’t any ‘oh no we’re totally going with this we promise’ shenanigans instated the attached language as the official state one. You could not speak anything else in public, which certainly helped with people learning the religion because for a while most people didn’t know the language enough to speak freely and had to talk in fucking scripture.

It’s been a long time since then, the dynasty has changed many many times. There have been five different state religions. But the language has actually managed to stick around. The name hasn’t though, due to a period where the state language was completely shifted to something entirely different. Unfortunately for the Emperor who made the change they didn’t manage to wipe out the language that came prior and so after a few generations it just got reinstated since everybody was still using it anyway. Chose a period of otherwise relative leniency so, bad timing. But the original name itself was lost in the shuffle, so now it’s just known as Incursean, after the Empire.

Every individual of the Empire speaks Incursean. On their held planets you’ll find pockets keeping native languages alive, but even then Incursean is the Official Language. On the other hand, few people outside the Incursean Empire speak Incursean. Generally only those who do regular work with them, typically from their trading partners. Still, if you meet an Incursean outside of the Empire and imperial matters, it’s best not to try to speak to them in Incursean. There’s actually thriving populations of Incurseans who have no affiliation with the Empire, despite the stereotype, and as a general rule they won’t speak Incursean. If they somehow speak any ancestral language of theirs, it’s more often from before the destruction of their homeworld, and often in things like folksongs and little household rhymes. 

~*~

Khoron

It will shock nobody to know that Khoros has a singular dominant language because it once was ruled by a singular dominant force. I know, Tetramand, conquering people, who’d have thunk?

Once upon a time there was a lordling with great ambitions. Cruel ambitions. This lordling proceeded to conquer the entire damn planet over the course of many, many years. Lordling’s descendants kept hold of their rule for several generations, forcing things like singular religion and singular language and a ridiculous level of taxation, that sort of ‘evil dictator for eternity’ sort of shit. Rebellions and civil wars were regular occurrences. Constant occurrences. They started overlapping. They started getting nesting dolls of rebellions within rebellions within civil wars. Nothing and nowhere was safe. It was chaos of the highest order.

The Incurseans were watching with their equivalent to popcorn to see the planet made uninhabitable by their own actions. It almost happened!

Khoros was ravaged by the wars, full ‘Mad Max’-brand wasteland apocalypse situation. It took many generations to build back up to where they are now, a number of kingdoms of various size trading territory back and forth in still endless warfare, of which the most powerful and most expansive is the Red Wind kingdom.

 And somehow, though all of that, the language maintained.

Everyone was starting from the same point, is the thing. So while the language changed from region to region, with no other languages to mix with it it more became different dialects of the same language than it split into more languages. So, rather than fully replace the original language that was already in translators, what was there was altered to better fit the most common changes over time. Khoron is still the most common and ‘official’ language on Khoros.

As a result of that, every individual you meet on Khoros who speaks will speak Khoron. It may be a dialect, but it will be Khoron and more or less understandable. Tetramand you meet off Khoros will also probably know at least some Khoron, though how much will vary. Still, in this case you probably aren’t going to go wrong making an attempt.

[irnjehernandez]

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