/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46723581
—
“Kosuzu, please explain to me what you’re doing here.”

Even with the loud Primsrivers, the clamor from outside is muffled to mere white noise the moment I set foot inside the small book stall, neatly wedged between two larger ones and covered with a tarp to prevent melting snow from ruining the skillfully arranged yet scattered book piles. Kosuzu hesitates for a split second but ultimately meets my eyes, her tiny and frail-looking hands hastily moving to fix and organize a bunch of books on her counter for whatever motive. “Sanae-san…” She whispered as pairs of eyes outside shifted to me, Youkai attempting to—poorly—pass as if not eavesdropping. Keine's orders were followed, and no Danmaku flew, but they'd make sure the librarian would not be harmed. I ignored them and headed towards Kosuzu, the woman frozen in place but for her hands, her neck being forced to bend back to maintain eye contact. “… Welcome to my mini-Suzunaan!”

“Answer the question, Kosuzu.” I reiterated, my eyes narrowing as I stopped in front of her. Kosuuzu kept fiddling with the book pile and it's clear she's buying herself time to calm down—

Or perhaps it was destiny since, all of a sudden, a group of giddy children—both humans and Youkai—invaded the mini-Suzunaan in search of new m-manga issues! Does Suzu have any new issues…? I could really use a break from all this to read some manga in peace.

Nothing of that, hm, eagerness is shown in my face; my frown creased as I watched Kosuzu deal with the group of children… The way she does it harness my attention, a 'green' feeling spreading inside: she answers each kid in heartfelt manner, not dismissing them and dealing with their demands as if remarkably easy… I wonder if she could've calmed Hana during her fit towards the end of the party. I doubt she'd have feared even Yukari at that point.

… Unlike me, who did nothing.

As the children leave gratified—man, I want to read manga too…—I stare at the booklet Suzu holds, the one that was until now on top of the manga, its cover simply reading: 'Cain and Abel'.

Such names… I've heard them before coming to Gensokyo, but it's been so long that I hardly remember anything…

“Are you interested, Sanae-san?” What…? “It's an old story about two brothers and the consequences of envy… It has a good lesson.”

Scowling, I glare at the woman; what should that mean…?

Moreover, a lashing rage builds up inside, begging to be freed. “… Why are you here?” Kosuzu pauses, her breathing seeming to hitch; whatever she was expecting to happen didn't happen. “You're not supposed to be here, Kosuzu; this is no place for those who cannot defend themselves… Do you know what Hieda's weapons can do to a person's body? It isn't like Danmaku; those bullets will rip you apart! And if not, do you think the samurai will feel pity? That they won't cut off your head? Why are you even here? Are you just that stupid?!” I don't understand this rage sparking and rising from unknown places within, pulsing through my blood and heating it to a boiling, whispering events coated in blind-hot fury… But the feelings of those events persist—feelings denied the light of day since their inception.

I turn my eyes away from them and towards Kosuzu, unknowingly seeking reassurance Kanako-sama cannot give; help Suwako-sama cannot offer—none of them understand… they weren't there—emotions tainted and, for some ungodly reason, now uncontrollable by this wrath at—

—I meet the sweetest eyes. It is enough to stop my words and, inside, to bubble one question: 'why does Kosuzu look so… peaceful?'

“I have family, Sanae-san. Two children, a husband,” she pulls out from her apron a white handkerchief and simply cleans the glasses. “… I know the weight of my life and what it means to have it here, hanging on a balance. I know that if a war breaks out, I will most likely die… I'm afraid, Sanae-san.” She puts on her glasses again, closing the book after marking down the page… Her hands, finally resting, began trembling. Or maybe they were always trembling but I couldn't see it. “I'm so terribly afraid. Those guns will tear me apart, won't they? The samurai will have no mercy, even on poor, old Kosuzu…” She pauses, breathes inwardly calmly…

Weak and very human Kosuzu rises from her chair and stands in front of me.

… I recall when she was a child, such a scaredy-cat—adorable and harmless…

She is not trembling.

“Yet, I have a role to play, Sanae-san. One quite small in the grand scheme of things, but a role anyway… Others could fill my shoes, but there's no one here but me! And I believe this role will change Gensokyo for the better; that my role will be part of our history!” Her fists clench the hem of her apron, fighting something only she knows the face of. “… That's why I'm here, Sanae-san: to play this role that scares me to my core. To do my part.” Her voice is barely louder than normal talk, shaky too, but sounds deafening to me. “And you, Sanae-san: What are you doing here?”

>>46606767
Believe me I 100% plan to read it, I just don't know when exactly I'll get around to it. As of right now I'm more hooked on the No Game No Life light novels -- I'm on volume 5 right now -- mostly because the format of being an actual book is a lot easier for me to end up reading through the day while I'm at work during down time. As of right now I've got a blue collar job, so bringing a laptop or something with me for a VN isn't a good idea for multiple reasons. I'll probably pick it up when I get consistent opportunities to read it, or I might tackle it slower by reading a chapter or two in celebration of Watanagashi each year.

My love for Hanyuu has been pretty steadfast in just about every depiction I've seen of her, be it her normal depiction, her historical self in Hairyuun, or even that one arc in the manga where she lost it -- pardon my lack of knowing what that chapter is called but I'm pretty sure it was a manga only chapter. While I certainly wouldn't enjoy a "Hanyuu is the villain" theory, I'll definitely respect it if it can be substantiated; even if it's true, it isn't like it's impossible to love villains either. Looking at Higurashi, Takano was one of the closest things we had to a villain in the original story, and she was still plenty lovable in her own right, and looking at other media we can see characters like Sosuke Aizen from Bleach who is easily one of if not THE most popular character despite being a series big-bad.
My point is, I highly doubt anything can shake my passion for her, especially after so many years of emotional investment at this point. Knowing myself and my knack for detail in some cases, if I find that the theory is shakily substantiated, I could see myself defending her in an Ace Attorney or Umineko-like debate.

burnout isn't real
and even if it is, there's no way you can get it by watching anime and reading manga lmao

>>46525152
I cant remember her name nor the name of her manga despite reading it on a monthly basis

All I can think of when I see her is "BIG FAT WHALE TITS" even tough she isn't even a whale

First time poster here, because frankly I am not an anime guy. I was viewing hentai manga last night, whatever the manga form of hentai is (not sure what it’s called). Anyways after going back and looking at it in the morning, one of the characters is described as being under the age of 18. This was NOT intentional, and it’s not like I could tell without further reading because it’s a cartoon, not a person.

Am I fucked? It appears that it’s illegal in my state, but there isn’t a whole lot of case law on it. I’m also in the US military, and people have been charged for it before but as far as I can see not without actual possession of other stuff.

How likely is it that police are monitoring the website? It is called NHentai and the artist is Guglielmo.

I am having a full blown panic attack

>>46344019
This shit from BAJR never made sense. Not only is the source (Aya) dubious fundamentally, but Youmu supposedly having "no free time" is immediately contradicted by the fact she's often seen around Gensokyo casually hanging out and doing other stuff that isn't "work". Even in some other canon manga she casually spends time reading a book. Hell, she even spends time training her swordplay instead of "working".

Do not use this as a source for canon, especially since again it's written by Aya. They're lying to you.

Well, I guess I am a bitch/hypocrite to say the least. I look down on people who have lewd anime car decals and who wear anime tshirts a lot, despite having learned Japanese and reading and buying Japanese manga and visual novels. I don't mind talking about it as people get to know me better, or online if it isn't linked to my real life identity though. I make gunpla with my closest friend in real life too, etc. I guess I do associate people who are very open about liking anime/Japanese media with autistic idiots who can't shut up and don't actually want to listen to anyone else speak but themselves, and drag you into listening to their rants with no interruptions, people who can't read social cues of people who are genuinely interested vs people who aren't.
>>46322467
I don't think it's necessarily fair to say Japanese otaku are more dedicated, though I think being an otaku in Japan IS different from being an otaku in another country. Everything is so much more accessible, if that same person magically was in another country they wouldn't be able to indulge in the same way in their hobby/ or favorite series. ANY Otaku from another country basically has to put work in to close a certain cultural gap between Japan and their own native culture that a Japanese person just doesn't even have to bother about, let alone figure out the logistics of shipping certain things. That's not even counting the whole learning another language business a foreigner otaku has to go through. Obviously westaboo otaku in Japan aren't the same as ones that reside in their respective country etc in terms of their access to materials/things generally speaking.

>>46139509
>Cucked out of Knights&Magic's golden era.
>Cucked out of Rakudai's golden era.
>Cucked out of both Tsukikage kinovels (Nageki no Bourei and Kuraki Kyuuden) and by the time they got Nageki they got fucked over.
>They got Rebuild World right as the author writes himself into a corner after heavily sanitizing the LN.
>They got Koujo Denka by the time the Arifureta-style audience long started to just learn Japanese.
>They got Shinja Zero by the time that autismo audience was long gone.
>They got Meccha Shoukan long after it went on hiatus and edge started to be "cringe" with EOPs again.
>They got Infinite Gacha, guaranteed to be a big hit in the west by just being overlord but better, but ruined the appeal by turning it into a corny meme like the Kagejitsu EN LN.
>They got Hell Mode... Right as the isekai fatigue started to hit EOPs.
>They got TRPG by the time that autismo audience was long gone, extra painful because the translation is actually pretty good, ALMOST dendro-tier.
>They got Instant Death but that audience isn't the kind to care about reading and sticks to the manga.
I think the only recent wins they have gotten are Dorkness (whose translation is just meh rather than shit), and somehow, SOMEHOW getting Gushing over Magical Girls.

>>45999966
I can see that, but that also feels like a mark against him. A solution that's possible to reach isn't a failure, it means you've constructed a (somewhat) internally coherent narrative that feels like it all fits. Thinking you can create a coherent solvable-yet-unsolvable mystery feels like hubris and just cluelessness about how the mystery genre even functions.
Unless of course the solution is so bad people can see it coming and are hoping it's not the case, lol. Funny thing is, he could have pivoted to some alternate Shkanon where they aren't the same person but have some other identity entanglement, and people really wouldn't have seen it coming because they were so caught up with single-person Shkanon. But he insisted on sticking to the most extreme and absurd version of it even though people had seen it coming and were dreading it, then didn't fully commit to it despite forcing it down the audience's throats in ep 6, then outright said it anyway in the manga but failed to actually explain it, just insisted upon it alongside scenes of Shkanon's emotional distress to gaslight the audience into thinking they were reading something deap and meeningful. Oh don't think about how this would have worked logically, think of how emotional Shannon would have been while leading this double life! What a shitshow lmao.

>>46000028
It really isn't though. And I'm not sure how "random cliffbaby uneducated servant leading an elaborate double life and nobody notices" is the simplest explanation.

>>45848455
>Every random guy that walks by
I mean, in all fairness, they're all literally descended from Succubi and only really do it because it's an easy way to make quick coin. There's also a cultural difference at play since most Japanese know prostitution is purely transactional, and in some cases isn't even considered infidelity. The series has a load of problems on its own but reading a manga about dudes fucking various species of monster girls who operate out of brothels and then getting mad because you read it is peak irony.

>>45668954
as for me, I just watched anime with subs until I could read with almost no issues if the font isn't mean, though I still feel the need to learn strokes after reading some manga

>>45584108
To zero audience demand, reporting back on my progress in reading 回復術士のやり直し LN
>Found the first nine chapters on what I assume was the official website, took me like...a week to read(1-2 hours per day), though I got noticeably quicker by the end of it
>lifted full volume 1 epub off nyaa (why don't they have separate categories for manga and books anyway?)
>ughhh....I can't feel my yomichan
>also the vertical right-to-left text puts my cranium in pain
I tried a Chrome extension for epubs and got my horizontal text back, but Yomichan refuses to work in this environment. I guess this isn't too much trouble since I can copy paste paragraphs in Jisho.
I had lots of fun so far, but I'm kind of losing interest and will probably drop it once I finish the volume and maybe read the manga.
Further plans -
1. Learn how to type and search kanji so I don't have to rely on text capture, so reading manga is less of a pain
2. Pick some other books to read since actually reading bare text proves to be the fastest way to improve
>>45584429
Peak female form btw

>>45575225
Was reading a manga a while back where the major plot twist in the incest romance was WOW they're actually NBR isn't that amazing???

oops it seems you used the wrong verb for manga which isn't reading

>>45422092
I am actually being trained (along with other people) by a bunch of companies for a Java/.NET junior dev position. Hiring isn't 100% sure but I will do my best. I have been an hikki for years and still with all the time in the world and so many possibilities I can't find the motivation to do anything in particular. Even stuff I like doing like listening to music, watching anime, reading manga feels like a chore. I think a job will make me appreciate my free time more and give me the motivation to do something great like learning Japanese

>>45348467
i checked the archive and the context is people saying manga isn't reading
and moe donda has a mal page listing all the manga he read so he never said that either

Autism incoming. This conversation made me look at trends for R18 otome. With commercial game releases, I kind of expected a slow drop off in numbers over the years, but looking at it, that isn't really the case. The first R18 otome game was Hoshi no Oujo in 2003, and for the next two years there wasn't much else, then in 2006 you suddenly get 12 games in one year. But this peak is over before it started as in 2007 there are now only 6 releases. This becomes the standard and you get 3-6 games a year, every year, until 2019 when it stops and all of a sudden there's nothing more getting made.
There are the Dusk games after this which sometimes get confused for commercial, but they're actually doujin works. And I'm not sure Dusk is planning on making more anyway. Trends in numbers for doujin R18 games are harder to track since I assume there's gonna be older games that are lost to time and and 3 minute kusoge that technically count padding out numbers in recent years.
2018 is about when audio works were really taking off. But I don't think it's a direct cause, more like a result of the same trends.
Another thing that barely existed before that does now is doujin TL manga. I am sure that when I visited garumani back in 2018 or so most of the manga were fanfic doujins or all ages. This is an even more recent trend, it only started taking off in the 2020s.
I honestly never find myself reading them that much. Having grown up reading doujins on pirate sites buying them feels alien to me, and exhentai doesn't have a tag for joseimuke or otome that I know of (it really should at this point) so I just don't come across them even if they are uploaded. But I guess they do quite well, better than the audios from what I can tell.
I'm really not sure what could be done to repopularise R18 otome games. Just got to hope there's people left in the world with enough resources and enthusiasm in what they want to make to be unconcerned with sales.

i'm about halfway into genki 2 now and i want to start consuming some native material, i don't really care if it's novels or manga i just want to start reading. but i don't really think simply looking up every new word and then throwing it into an anki deck will help much. i already have about 700-800 words in my anki deck, and if i miss a day the review just becomes mind-numbing. so, while i do think anki works, what could i do alongside anki to study the words i encounter whilst reading? also, any suggestions on easier reading material that isn't for kids?

>>45132270
>People are actually reading translations of translations.
Look, I get it, but isn't it just tiring reading such dogshit texts all the time? Imagine reading some shit manga scanslation a guy used MTL for, and then someone else translating from THAT. Not everyone is going to want to go through learning an entire language like this, but holy fuck, if you're going to read a lengthy series, why torture yourself with such blatant, mind-numbing trash? People need to stop mystifying Japanese as some impossible feat and just read more novels. Damn.

>>45108343
It's still good but I shit you not don't proceed with Chihaya go with something else. The shitting on Taichi and Arata losing isn't worth it in the long run. Even as a Taichifag I won't recommend reading the rest of the manga.

>>45046163
>GINKA (10/26)
>Kanata no Ningyo Hime (10/27)
>Criminal Border 3 (11/24)
>RE:D Cherish! SS Des/Rogue no One Operation (11/24)
>>Boku no Suki na Hito no Suki na Hito wa, Josou Shita Boku Deshita (12/22)
>Yuzuriha no Uta -Inouryoku Soshiki Hanzai >Taisaku Bu: Tokushu Kidoutai Dai Ni Ka- (12/22)
>>Kokubyaku no Avesta 1st half (2023)
These all seem worth reading. I dunno why that guy keeps posting the list of upcoming notable VNs in /vn/ instead of here, but it's pretty helpful.
>>45046318
Isn't the manga a one-man operation that they just paid a guy to do? I wouldn't think that anyone actually working at Qruppo on art or programming or writing has anything to do with it. Also the manga's a great read, highly recommend.

>>44697956
>she strikes me like some form of insufferable College intelectual. look down on the hong for reading manga and belittle alice research for "playing with dolls"
God I want to be a pretentious pseud with Pache and look down on people we feel are beneath us. Imagine bullying Alice and reminding her how much of a disappointment she is to Shinki until she cries and pees herself. Imagine telling Meiling to educate herself and read a real book for once whenever she says something that isn't 100% factually correct. Imagine pretending to be shocked by Koa's lewd succubus lifestyle and treating her like she's some sex-obsessed bimbo even if she's actually smarter than either of us. Imagine hanging out with other self-important midwits like Remi and talking about nothing else but how everybody is so stupid and uneducated except us.

>>44597377
I read it in English. My Japanese isn't good enough yet to read actual novels, mostly just more simple Manga and LNs.
It's an episodic detective mystery spanning around 20 years of late 20th century Japan. I certainly enjoyed it, I just couldn't help but laugh thinking of someone like Aoi reading it herself. The author definitely doesn't shy away from subjects and themes such as child rape, incest, necrophilia etc. Maybe his other works are more tasteful lol.

Is vocab study through Anki really the only practical way to learn vocab as an absolute beginner? I've tried it a few times but I always feel like as soon as I miss a day, I just stop because its not fun and its even more tedious to get caught up than it already was to keep up.
I've tried just reading manga and looking up unknown words, but my brain just kills itself after a few pages having looked up every word they said, so I can only assume this is a method best used AFTER one knows a decent amount of vocab.
How do you guys do it? Are there any alternative methods to vocab study that are more fun to go through as a beginner? To be clear, I'm not asking for some cheap cop-out method that claims to teach me five bajillion words in two microseconds, but just something that I can do that isn't so mind-numbingly boring and tedious as a beginner that doesn't have the vocab to just go read and look up unknown words. Or am I just being a little bitch and should just suck it up and slog through Anki vocab?