monkeybanana4

yo
 

we didn't take a single photo during the anime convention lol 
but my bff insisted that I at least send her the photo of my outfit so here I am, after 13 hours on foot with no AC X'D
 

Gundam SEED Destiny
 
First 13 eps were good, then they completely dropped the ball by having so many recap eps, stock footage, flashbacks, and couldn't figure out who was the main character in the show.

Received some Verxina's goods~
- Both photoset types
- Keychains of Kaie and Mar 

the internet needs to stop with the romanticizing of clinginess and possessiveness in relationships. it leads to so many abusive relationships yet people think it's normal so they stay, but these ideas that "my partner is my happiness, my world, my other half, etc" are so incredibly dehumanizing and WRONG and often end up in codependency. why aren't we teaching people to learn independence and at least some sense of self-worth and their own source of happiness before deciding to get into a relationship? why are we taught that we'll get those from our partners, rather than being two whole people coming to share their lives?

I normally don't post W.I.Ps (work in progress) but since I know it'll take me another year to finish them (<- that's pushing it a bit, but'll will take some more time)
I think you know who they are or better going to be =P
 

 

 
and yeah my cat loved them...their shirts are covered with hair X_x

All VK pickups from this year so far. Super happy with all of these!
From left to right:
 
the GazettE:
MADARA
STACKED RUBBISH
DIM Ltd Edition
Tour 2006-2007 [Decomposition Beauty] Final Meaningless Art That People Showed at Yokohama Arena DVD 
TOXIC Ltd Edition
DIVISION Ltd Edition
NINTH Ltd Edition Box A CD&Blu-Ray
 
Dir en Grey:
Withering to Death. CD&DVD US Pressing
The Marrow of a Bone US Pressing
UROBOROS US Pressing
The Insulated World EU Pressing
 
lynch. 10th Anniversary 2004-2014 The Best
 
DIMLIM:
CHEDOARA 1st Press (Extremely happy about this one. Paid a lot to get it [5845 yen total shipped] but ...worth it lol. My new favorite album)
Rijin
 
MALICE MIZER Bara no Seidou
 
Canzel NeO PRESENCE E.P.S.
 
AND -eccentric agent-:
1st Full Album -&-
AGENT FILE

Wow, ok, and I felt kinda bad for my long post XD ❤️ 
 
Well, to start of, that's very sad news that there might be no otome on par with Hakuoki atm. Now I kinda wish I didn't stumble upon it quite so early on in my otome journey, so maybe the B-rate games would have seemed like masterpieces without that comparison. I was hoping you would magically provide me with some hidden gems and my thirst could be finally sated, but alas I shall settle for everthing and anything available on Steam I suppose ^^;; I think the only other Otomate game that's on Steam is Amnesia: Memories, which I really liked also, but is much smaller in scale. Everything is smaller in scale comparing to Hakuoki geez, I think it took me over 100 hours to finish, which is like an AAA RPG game scale. 
 
Ah yes, the main character is kinda ridiculous if you look at her from certain angles. She's supposedly a badass demon with healing powers, has some sword training and enough of a brain to disguise herself as a dude and travel alone AND on foot to another city, and all of those facts get barely any screentime. I wish she would have stayed in some sword fight for more than 5 seconds. That's why Kazama's route was one of my favourites, at least she had some spine SOMETIMES. 
 
When I think about it, it must have taken some serious work to rewrite the entire story to fit 3 more characters and not make them seem like a slapped on afterthought. And each of them got a fairly original storyline too, which after dozens of hours with the same story from different angles, was a breath of fresh air. 
As for the new artist, I really don't understand the drama, but then again I'm not a longtime devoted fan or anything, so I'm not as invested I suppose. Before I even knew those 3 were drawn by a different person, I did notice that they're kinda more....shiny? XD As in, frankly, they're prettier (to be clear, not that they art is more pretty, just that they were drawn as prettier men?). I'd wager that Takeda and Miki were also drawn by the new artist? They pretty shiny too. And oh that lucious hair.
 
Yes I saw that an anime exists lol I was wondering how does it work, does it follow one route or something, do you know? Probably Hijikata if so.
 
Thank youuu for that handy link of this guy's work, it's quite lenghty lol and wow aside from the games and animes, there are some interesting roles : Castiel in "Supernatural" (Live action), Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) in "Fifty Shades of Grey", Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in "Black Panther", Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Kinda want to hear those FOR SCIENCE.
 
HAHAHA so you're saying there's no escape from this money sink? Damn but are some of those so expensive. 
 
Yeah, they've stopped producing the PS Vita a while back from what I remember. So maybe I should just bank on all those otome porting to something different sooner or later, as the consoles will eventually die out. It's a moot point anyway, since I really couldn't afford that at the moment lol Thank you for your opinion though ^^  You're right, I'm probably not quite as obsessed yet as to get a dedicated console just for this one genre.
 
So, do you speak Japanese then, if you play those in Japanese? I've seen some people playing the Japanese or Chinese releases without knowing the language and it's mindboggling to me o-o how? 
 
Pleeease, your brain? I was confused about the Switch because in my drunken brain I was thinking of Wii and was wondering what kinds of moves would you have to make to play an otome game LOL
Seems like we're just two peas in a pod there ^^;;;
 

saw that picture somewhere on twitter and had to use it as wallpaper.

garbage as always
 
totally love it

01.Cruel Pain

02.Dusty miller

03.Holy Night With EMIRY The Witch

04.DESIRE

05.Amethyst Rain

06.Blue Romance
 

No worries~ I was half-tired/sleepy writing my own post, so I apologize since I made some mistakes in my own explanations/sentences (as you will see later ><;)
 
I think, from all the different otome games I've played (which compared to some hardcore fans is barely much, lol), Hakuouki stands out as being one of the better series for the artwork and the quality put into the writing (for the most part), although characterization of the main character is a bit lacking. I guess that's why even though it has been created so long ago, Hakuouki still remains popular. Aside from the plain main character and the typical 'blood'/'vampire'/'demon' element/trope, I think the characterization of the guys were great and seeing how the game isn't afraid to deal with the complicated history of that time (with some liberties taken, obviously) fascinates me.  A part of me wishes, though, that they'd stop milking the series at this point ^^; I love the series, but I'd love it even more if Ideal Factory/Otomate could create another series with just as much quality and thought. I think they've put out some decent ones afterward, but somehow, I don't really see anything beating Hakuouki in terms of popularity. 
 
Haha, not sure if I'm not a veteran, I just love the series a little too much, lol. (I even own a wall scroll of Saito and Hijikata standing together ^^;) Ah, no. Souma, Iba, and Sakamoto were not a thing until the Steam/PC version. They were specifically added for this latest release. (In Japan, I think this version of the game was released on the PS Vita.) Originally, it was just the original Shinsengumi men and Kazama. Also, Kazama's route was lacking quite a bit in the original versions if I remember correctly. Yeah, the original artist, Kazuki Yone, got laid off or left the company. I'm not exactly sure what happened, although, it seems her and the company are on bad terms. I remember she had once made a finished sketch of Harada and showed it off on her social media, but she had to take it down due to Otomate/Ideal Factory getting on her butt about it. So yeah, there's some definite bad blood, but as to the exact reason why; I'm not sure ^^; (Fun fact: The company likes to hide the fact that she's not really drawing the series anymore even though it's not really a secret at this point.) So they had to get a replacement artist to replicate Yone's artwork for the later releases. (I've read that the artist's name is called Ikemeda Go or something along those lines on some random otome blog years ago, so I'm not sure if it's correct or not). I always thought it looked fine, but as you've seen, many people were unhappy with it. If you're curious, I think the replacement artist draws other Otomate/Ideal Factory games. (I'll have to get back to you on the name of those games because right now it's escaping my mind. Many apologies~ ^^;) Also, as a random note, there's lots of anime series/spin-offs for Hakuouki. But I wouldn't recommend watching it since the quality is not on par with the games. Well, unless you like to see your beautiful 2D characters move and talk in 'real time', lol.
 
Yes, I thought his voice actor, Tsuda, starred in many other otome games aside from Nightshade. (I was wrong. Blame my dysfunctional brain for trying to work during the wee hours of the night 8']) Other than Nightshade and Hakuouki, I don't think he's played as the main character in other otome games. He has been a side character for some, I think. Not sure about the mobile games he's taken part in, though. However, he has been in other videogames like Tales of Berseria and the recent game, Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice. He has also voiced a lot of characters in various anime shows. Here's a more thorough list of his career than I could ever provide, lol: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=39751. But yes~ I love his voice in the game ❤️ It's a part of what made me warm up to Kazama.
 
Ah, that's cool to have majored Japanese language/culture in college! I feel once you get into your first otome game, there's no going back ever x) Once you're in, you're in for life  
 
Hmm, I guess it depends how much you're (general usage of the term here) willing to spend on the games (in terms of time and money)? Cause, as you've mentioned, most are not released and/or translated in the West. And, as far as I know, most otome games in Japan still get released through the PS Vita or mobile/phone. If I'm not mistaken, some ports/versions of Uta no Prince-sama (and other lesser known otome games) are still stuck on the PSP, lol. Also, not all games are on the same level of quality like Hakuouki. Some otome games can be quite... um, the slough, to play through (depending on your tastes/opinion, though). So, I guess if you want to spend many hours on end playing imported otome games, then yes, I'd say it's worth getting a PS Vita. (Although, I think they've translated a few otome game for the PS Vita in the West.) If you want to casually play a few, then I think it might not be worth it since the PS Vita seems to be a dying handheld system. But that's just my humble opinion ^^; 
 
Ahem, yeah, I've seen the English translations for the otome games. Phew whee. It's, uh... something else very special, lol. It's one reason I try to avoid playing otome games in English, but it's a lot cheaper to buy the games once they're in the West @_@
 
Apparently, otome games on the Switch only exist in Japan, I think. (Oh, what was my brain thinking?? Maybe the beautiful pictures killed my brain cells ^^;) I agree. My brain. Can't comprehend this. (Here's the article talking about the picture hidden by the spoiler: Nightshade on the Switch in Japan)
 
 
Also, sorry for the insanely long post. I have no life when it comes to otome games ^^;

Individual Shots ❤️ 
 
 

I only play on PC (fortunately/unfortunately?), so I only played Hakuoki on Steam in two parts that they have. From what I gather, there are some new routes on Steam, comparing to the previous releases? Maaaan, the Kazama route. I was like, are you crazy, game? this dude? and then it turned out to be my fav route ^^;;;  (the same seiyuu's on Nightshade otome as Hanzo, just sayin'). 
 
Discovering the genre came like a revelation to me really (I'm a long time RPG/manga fan and it pretty much combines both), I even briefly considered acquiring a PS Vita even though It's pretty much a relic at this point. Fun fact, otome's what brought be back to vk after that 10-year hiatus.
 
How did you play Hakuoki??? Also, do you have any recs, pretty please?? I have dozens of questions really. There's not that big of a selection on Steam for otome games and I'm afraid that I've experienced the peak with Hakuoki and it's only downhill from there 😭

Otome games are always nice to play when I simply want to stare at some bishounen characters and read some text  Have you played the re-release/remake for Hakuouki? (I think it's the one on Steam right now.)

Otome games are always nice to play when I simply want to stare at some bishounen characters and read some text  Have you played the re-release/remake for Hakuouki? (I think it's the one on Steam right now.)

I KNOW RIGHT! Ehh, anime's not so big in Poland and My Neighbour Totoro was dubbed here in 1995 so it's basically a collectors item at this point. I shall continue to hunt this DVD though, because I think it's a great movie for children (and well, everyone) and I need to establish my cool-aunt cred early on duh.
 
I'm on a quest to watch the anime classics starting from the oldest one on my list. I'm slightly ashamed to say that before Totoro I've never watched a single Ghilbi movie.... I'm past Totoro, Akira and Kiki's Delivery Service and next on is Ghost in the shell~
 

Outrageous....I watched my brother's copy and I believe he got it from a store in the mall in the next town over. They have many Ghibli movies there; I saw Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle many years ago, and now I need to see Kiki's Delivery Service.
 
Very ♥ I've never seen anything so pure and I had lots of feels ;w;