Last Escort - Club Katze - Real Katze Pamphlet

Promo pamphlet for some random Otome visual novel I've never heard of which I picked up for cheap. Scanned it about a month ago, but I forgot to post it here on my blog. Anyhow, do enjoy, I guess. See ya!

Download

Read Online

Torrent (Soon)

Kanon - Rough Art Book [CLEANED RAW SCAN]

Bought and scanned this myself, but I did have to clean it since the sketches were bleeding from one page to the other. Also, I got one more Kanon book to scan, but I'll do that some other time. In any case, enjoy!

Download

View Online
Torrent

Kanon - Yakusoku Dayo Booklet [RAW SCAN]

Bought and scanned this myself. But I have 2 more Kanon books (sketch and setting data to be specific) which I also bought that I'll scan soon. Also, I gotta get around to watching this anime sooner or later. In any case, enjoy! See ya!

Download

View Online
Torrent

Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Character of the Slot Golden Witch

I noticed some guy posted a link to scans of this on 4chan if I remember correctly not too long ago, so I downloaded them and upload them myself to MEGA and exhentai. They were on Google Drive before of all places. Anyhow, some neat stuff in here and as you may have noticed, MangaGamer also released their Umineko Steam recently so you might be interested in his. Other than that, thanks to whoever scanned this. Bye!

Download

View Online

Pics

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition English Translation 1.0

Yippee! It's finally done! Thank fuck! Visual novel translating is a real drag. Anyway, for those who may not know, the Special Edition of Girlfriend of Steel features new scenes, a new ending, the ability to customise the games running resolution up to 1080p, and much much more. The latter being something that the original 97 release never had so that's a feature to come back and read the story again for. Hee hee.

Translated the setup screen so you can customize it before launching

Now, that said, what I did over the past months was retranslate the game line by line and fix everything up. However, that's not to say lines from the original weren't accurate for the most part, just the wording of things so there will be some similarities between my TL and the original seeing how it was spot on for the most part. Furthermore, I did cover some mistranslations the original team did in my progress reports so check them out for more info on that.

Game gave errors when I had commas and such so had to remove them

Moving on. Now, I'll leave clear instructions on how to patch the game files to get the translation running. It's the same procedure as GOS2 for the most part, but there's also a few other things that I want to run by you guys first before that. First, make sure you have Japanese language codec installed and the app locale stuff. That's basic stuff for running JP games. Second, Microsoft released an update the windows this year which turned off a specific driver that was used to run some old games and GOSSE is one of those that was affected. However, check out this thread on fuwanovel on how to get the driver back online and working.

That said, patch instruction time. Sweat baby sweat baby sex is a Texas drought, me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about, so put your hands down my pants and I'll bet you'll feel nuts, yes I'm Siskel, yes I'm Ebert and you're getting two thumbs up. Oh, sorry.

1. Dump all the files in the "Files to dump" folder into the games directory and overwrite
2. Open the "Files to patch" folder and patch each file like below
• Use the included xdeltaUI program to apply the graphics patch:
• Launch program
• Select patch file (example: event.xdelta)
• Select file to be patched (example: event.lb5, the original in game directory)
• Select where to output the file and make sure to name it for example "event.lb5"
• Select the patched file and replace the original games with it in the games directory
3. Do that for all 3 files that need to be patched
• event.lb5
• eve1024.lb5
• eve2048.lb5
4. Do it like they do it on the discovery channel
5. Play the game.

Now, I hope all of you can follow those instructions and enjoy the story. I put a lot of effort, time and pain into translating, playtesting and oh god don't get me started on bug fixing or the many problems that I encountered so it better pay off. All in all, enjoy this Christmas present from me and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Dr Jones signing off!

Download
Bug Fix

TL Notes

Youtube Playlist

Credits
Pearse Hillock                   - Translator/Proofreader/Production/Playtesting & Bugfixing
MarcoL from Team GOS  - For help with GOSSE Tools
Fansubs of Steel                - Original Translation Team

Note
I translated what in-game text and images that I could find in the games files and script but some of it I couldn't find anywhere and others were locked in different file types than the tools I had could decompress. A pity, but what JP you see in the menu's unfortunately stays. Also, I didn't bother to translate the credits this time round again. When you get to the end of translating a big project like this you feel relieved but when you see another huge wall of text to TL it honestly puts you off from translating it.

Update - 20th December - Updated DL Link
Since the graphics side of the patch unfortunately didn't work, I just decided to upload the translation with the edited files. Meaning, you just have to dump the files and that's that. Have fun!

Update - 12th January 2016
Thanks to a friendly email, a bug was reported but I got on that about a week later since I completely forgot. My bad. Anyway, it's just a two small files that had to be edited so you can find the link with the rest above. Just dump them in the games directory and replace.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition (PC)

Just to be make this post clear, no, this is not the translation, but the game itself so you guys can download it ahead of my English TL release. Anyway, I would just like to mention that the only source I found on the net for this was on the Russian Evangelion community so naturally they made a custom installer which is in Russian and there is no disc image, sadly. Now, do not worry, installing the game is simple enough. Just click through the screens and select where you want to install the game and that's that. I'll drop the download link below. Enjoy.

Download

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition Progress Update - 29th November 2015

Meh. It has been a while since I last did a progress update for GOSSE so I might as well get off my ass and do one. Now, I'll try not to bore on forever so I'll do my best to keep this short. That said, you'll be happy to hear that I finished translating the games main script not long ago, and also near finished bug fixing and play testing most of the game as well. Neat stuff, because there's not much left to do other than to translate the 2/3 of the new scenes and new ending that's left to do and the rest of the fixing and play testing. Yippee! At my current rate, I should have it out by Christmas.

At any rate, there's also a few TL things that I'd like to mention. First, the previous TL team translated "child soldier" as "junior member" for some reason even though the JP says child soldier. What went wrong there? Anyway, I'll leave the line below so you can see the difference. Original above and mine below.

I'm a junior member of the military assigned to observe the daily life of Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Eva Unit 01.
I'm a child soldier of the military assigned to observe the everyday life of Ikari Shinji, the pilot of Eva Unit-01.

Lastly, they TL'd Cozy Corner as Koji Corner. But, I guess they listened to the dialogue and couldn't understand what Asuka was really saying. It was in English and the Japanese aren't very good at speaking it so that's understandable. Also, FYI, Cozy Corner is a pastry shop in Japan so that scene was kinda a reference of sorts to it, and them getting it wrong kinda took away from that. Just sayin'. Now, there hasn't been much stuff they got wrong for the most part since it's more of a play on words and the like. And that's more or less all I want to say for now. See ya!

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition Graphics Rip (PC)

Okay, I have had this ripped for over a month now, but I kinda forgot to upload it like all those Eva games I keep forgetting to. Anyhow, you'll find most (some were compressed differently) of the assets in the download in the varying resolutions that the game supports. I really like how they included 1080p support as all the graphics are in (or near) that resolution, and that's a real good thing seeing how the original was released like back in 97 or 98. Also, there was a few sketches hidden in the game files which I posted on Evageeks and the sketches from the hidden in the regular 97/98 games files some time ago so you might be interested in those. Other than that, you can find the DL below so have a nice day and I hope you enjoy the rip. See ya!

Download

Review: Umineko Episode 1 - Legend of the Golden Witch (Visual Novel)

Like me. I'm cool, aren't I?

Hmm. I really didn't want to review Umineko for obvious reasons, but it'll always be on my "to-do" list and on the back of my mind if I don't. So, that is why I am here today. Now, I'll try not to hold you too long so I'll do my best to minimize and cram in my general thoughts on it. First off, I would just like to mention that I only read the first episode of Umineko. Why, may you ask? Well, the Umineko episodes/arcs are too fucking long for one thing and I ain't got the time to spend many hours on end reading a stupid, goddamn, mediocre visual novel. Meh. 

Now that I got that out of the way, on to the actual review and firstly what I didn't like. Now, the main failing of Ryukishi 07's writing is that he does not have the ability to properly write and execute his ideas. Sometimes the dialogue is flat and uninteresting, scenes go on for far too long, and there's about 10 sentences said when it can be summed up in 1. Though that can be said for near enough every visual novel or text based medium from Japan, leaving you just wanting to roll the above video. Yes, I went there. 

Okay. These are kinda funny I will admit.

Also, there's a ton of pointless dialogue and boring scenes which could have easily been shortened or been brief. But, no! We get like 45 minutes or so of the adults rambling on about father's inheritance, who will get it, and poking fun at each other's failings. It goes on for far too long and a lot of the info is rather unnecessary. Meh. Lastly, Maria promising to Battler that when she grows up she'll let him grope her... Yes, that happens, and it's an example of Ryukishi 07 letting his otaku side take over. Seriously, this was unnecessary and only serves as pedo-bait for his otaku fanbase. And that's the truth. People like to deny that he isn't "like that", but there is so much evidence in his works to support what I say that you're a fucking idiot if you say otherwise. Grow up and stop defending this freak just because "he created muh Umineko and muh Higurashi, and I don't want to bash senpai because of that". Ugh. 

Average Umineko fans thoughts on the series

Anyhow, to sum up what I didn't like, it was too long, there was too much text, fanfiction tier writing, often boring dialogue, self-insert Battler and his edgy past, long scenes which should have been shortened, and there was a bunch of literacy errors spread throughout the episode. I mean, didn't anybody spell check this shit or at least look it over? Because there was even full stops where questions marks where meant to be among other things. I do all my crap by myself and I do at least that. Sheesh. Some people. Also, just to comment on the translation itself, it was good but not necessarily god-tier like many people have said. Yeah, and it seems that people say god-tier whenever Umineko is mentioned, because the porn is just that good, right? 

Shit eating grin

Now, on to what I did like. The family interactions were nicely done. They laugh, they cry, they bitch and moan like normal people. Those parts were well done. However, it does become rather annoying every so often when it gets "too anime". Eva performing a martial arts kick, leaving her foot right off somebody's nose in the airport for one thing. Too anime. Ryukishi 07 should try to stay more in terms of realism and real life rather than letting his otaku/moe side take over and do the writing for him. And that's also something that I don't like about his stories. 

The character most of the toxicity is centered around. Because porn.

For example, Higanbana could have been much better if he for once stopped writing with his dick and otaku side, because a problem that I had with it was that it was "too anime". He honestly could have told the same story about "bullying" if he simply removed the anime-esqe supernatural yokai, and it would have been much better because of that. Then again, what do I know? I just hate on him for no apparent reason. Also, check out my Higanbana review if you're interested in more on that. 

And back to Umineko. The music was nice, but not god-tier as many people have said. Higurashi's music has more charm and is overall better. And lastly, I did enjoy the sprites and backgrounds, they were nice and are much better than the unholy PS3 one's which lack soul and charm. However, I didn't like how near enough every character has a giant rack because that's rather unnecessary and only serves to fuel everybody's titty monster fetish. And, no, I am not tumblr. And to sum up what I liked, good music, good character interactions, and charmful sprites. Hmm. That's a very short list. I said more bad than good. Though it is always easier to concentrate on what's bad than what's good. Anyway, moving on. 

Laugh. Troll face lol fam blt bbq

And that's that. I know I said I'd try to keep it short, but, there was a lot to cover so long heaps of text were expected. That said, I hope you enjoyed the review. However, don't expect another one on Umineko ever again because I am not going to read past the first episode. They're too long and I haven't got the time to read 'em. I have a life, and no way in hell am I wasting my precious time on something like this. All said, I hope I managed to cover everything I wanted to. I read the VN over a month ago, I think, so my memory of it may not be the best. It was all right, and could have been better, but it's not bad or anything like that. It just has a lot of problems. Anyway, that's all I have to say. See ya next time. Bye!

P.S. - The thing I hate the most about Umineko is its autistic fanbase. What a bunch of pathetic losers. Shoving the series in everybody's faces as well as being loud, obnoxious and meme spamming, and liking a terribly written contrived mess. Only a few people talk about it normally from what I've seen. Fuck you all, anyway.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition Progress Update - 15th October 2015

Gack! Time has flown by and man o man has it been over two weeks already since I last worked on GOSSE. Phew. Well, I did have the first chapter of Kyochuu Rettou to do and then 140 of Terra Formars came up so there have been more important things which needed by attention. Anyhow, when I did stop around two weeks ago I had about half of the game completely translated so a great deal of progress has been done. However, I'm gonna put GOSSE off for a while and work on it on the side after I get the first chapter of Terra Formars Rain Hard out since, you know, that's more important to me and to you. That said, back when I was working on GOSSE I was testing out a few things like higher resolutions and such so I have another video uploaded if any of you are interested. I'll link it below. See ya! 

P.S. - On the translating side, I noticed that the previous TL among other things had gotten Misato's rank wrong. It's Major, not Captain. How did that happen? Sheesh.

Saikano: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo English Translation Project (PS2)

Now, this is just something I’ve been having on the side until I finished translating just the prologue of the game, which wasn’t that long ago. However, I don’t want to TL any further since I may or may not even get help to hack the game and rip the graphics nor be able to implement a translation of what I’ve done or if I translate any further. And now we come to the reason for this post. I just want to put out there that if somebody has the know-how of hacking PS2 games and making changes to their respective font files, then please contact me as soon as possible so that progress can be made. I really want to translate this PS2 game, but I don’t have the technical know-how nor the contacts to make it happen. However, translating is my game and that’s what I do, so obviously somebody else has to help out and do the rest.

Chise, what did they do to you?

Anyway, here’s a little about the game from what I’ve seen. It’s a visual novel, obviously, has path routes, granted, has dialogue choices, granted again, multiple endings, granted again again, and mini game dialogue choices and various other minigames? Okay, that one I didn’t expect. Now, at certain points in the game you have the ability to drag your cursor and pick something that you can see on screen, either that be planes in the sky or Chise’s face or clothing and the like. However, you only get one choice most of the time so choose wisely as it does affect the following scene, a few lines of dialogue, or your relationship meter with Chise. Kinda odd since I’ve never seen that in a VN before. Interesting. (FYI, talking about the cursor minigame.)

Riveting, isn't it?

Furthermore, the cursor pick mini game isn’t the only one I’ve seen as there are also a few others. First up is some weird minigame where dialogue flows around the screen and you have to hit a key to select one of them, I think. Anyway, it affects the following scene since what you choose is what you say, again I think. I haven’t bothered TL’ing the minigame parts or their tutorials, was lazy. Moving on. Second is some character card picker minigame which first appeared at the end of the game's first chapter, and from what I can tell, whoever you choose gives you either a bonus or minus in your relationship with Chise. The characters are Chise, Akemi, Atsushi, Fuyumi, and Tetsu, and their respective increase or decrease are as follows:

• Chise + 1
• Akemi + 0
• Atsushi + 1
• Fuyumi - 2
• Tetsu + 2

Moving on. What I like about this game is that it actually gives you the chance to change events in the story. You can stop the world from ending, save Akemi from dying, end up with her or Fuyumi, and that’s actually a great appeal seeing how everything ends in the anime. Hubba hubba. Also, I don’t know if this always happens or not depending on your choices, but it seems that Take doesn’t die during the bombing of Sapporo, and instead lives. Interesting. I wonder what else this game has in store. Anyhow, the music is actually pretty good and I am liking it. And while the graphics may not be the best thing in the world, it manages to maintain the artstyle of the anime which is a major bonus that I really appreciate. 

What? Don't judge me.

However, it does tend to borrow a lot from the anime itself which in itself is a little worrying. Event pictures and even backgrounds seem to have been lifted for use with the game, and a ton of anime clips, too. But! I think the reason they did that was to first be cheap, and second, to maintain the artstyle of the anime. And guess what, it worked! Unsure, but I wonder if any other anime VN’s did this. Kinda unique if you ask me. Also, 15 minutes of new animation was drawn for the game and that I was able to rip with help from the God of War himself, Kratos. You can find the video on Youtube, but sadly, the quality isn’t that very good since YT likes to crush vids into ugly messes. Still, I have the original video file and I always will. Hee hee. Lastly, as with many VN’s voice acting, it tends to be rather flat and uninteresting at times. However, it’s not the worst I’ve ever heard so it’s mediocre at best.

And now we’ve finally come to the end of this post. Aww, too bad. I was getting kinda excited. Still, I hope you enjoyed reading as this game is rather obscure. It was only uploaded on JP game sites in 2012 which is the time that I downloaded it, but it died not long after and the only reliable, working link that I know of is the one that I myself uploaded, and that’s worrying. Furthermore, there’s isn’t exactly much information about the game itself on the net, so if anyone ever comes to looking for info, I guess right here would be their first stop. Anyway, if anybody knows of PS2 hacking groups or anyone who has the skills to help me out, then please fire them my way or at least let me know. Thank you for reading, and see you next time.

P.S. - I’ve only played as far as the start of the second chapter, so I’m unsure what the rest of the game holds in content. But if you’re interested in seeing for yourself, then I recommend you to download the game off my blog and try it out. Have fun!

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition English Translation Announcement

The greatest love story ever told

Heh heh. Yes, now I have my eyes set on the special edition of the very first Girlfriend of Steel. And while I know that there are only a few new scenes added and that everything else was translated back in 2003, I'm still gonna go ahead and check over the entire game's script to fix things up to become more literal and accurate to the Japanese script, fix those literacy errors, and make it more my own overall. In other words, it's a retranslation for the most part. However, that's not to say that you won't see some similar things seeing how aspects of the previous TL was pretty spot on for the most part, but only for the most part. Here's a few examples. The original TL is the above and my new retranslation is the below.

Don't go inside, you'll get scolded by the policeman.
If you go inside, you'll get scolded by a policeman.

With such a clear physical evidence, they still call it "a mysterious moving object."
Despite such clear physical evidence, they still call it "a mysterious moving object."

I don't want to be late so I'll go ahead.
Since we are late, I'll go ahead. 

Hey you, honor student! Where are you going!?
Hey, honor student! Where are you going!?

You're... Ikari-kun?
Ikari-kun... right?

It's pretty.
Beautiful, isn't it?

Now, while I know that more literal doesn't exactly mean better, I still think that it should be preferred rather than rewriting/rewording lines, and wording here and there. Here's a few more examples. Note how the previous TL is not totally off, but off by a bit. Furthermore, there is a complete lack of "ne" at the end of a shitton of sentences and that's a major glaring issue, as well as adding in questions despite the sentences being used don't have a "ka" or any related particle. Though the TL is from 2003 so I shouldn't be as harsh. Still, the comparisons are below, and note how Asuka is suspecting the new transfer student and not calling her strange. How did that happen? It's totally off.

Must be a strange person.
I'm quite curious, aren't you?

A new classmate is transferring in today.
A new classmate has come to change schools today.

Let's make friends with her.
Try to get along, okay?

I guess I'll have to give her a greeting.
Well then, guess I'll have to give my greetings.

If you don't mind, could you tell me your first name, Ikari-kun?
If you don't mind, tell me your first name, Ikari-kun.

In addition, note how they mention that the transfer student is a girl despite not actually knowing that. Kinda weird, huh? Well, that's because they don't say "her" since Japanese a lot of the time is like that and it's left up to interpretation in a translation. Anyhow, enough of me picking on the original TL. Mine won't exactly be God-Tier, but it'll be an improvement for the most part, or at least I hope. Now, I uploaded a short video to Youtube the other day as a test, but please take note that I will be making changes since I was working off a script and didn't exactly have visuals or context while I was translating.

The misc JP lies elsewhere and not in the exe, FYI.

Moving on. I also translated the setup utility so you too can also fiddle around with the settings beforehand. I hope people appreciate that. Anyway, what excites me about the special edition is that the game can go up to 1920x1080 and it actually looks pretty good, aside from the subtitle cut off that is. However, I fiddled around and found the best option for a widescreen monitor supporting 1920x1080 and the like is the 1680x1050 option. There is room for the subtitles if you use that setting. However, please take note that any or most lower resolution settings in windowed mode shouldn't have that problem. Furthermore, a recent Microsoft security updates disabled an old driver from Windows Server 2003 that allowed the game and many others to not run, and that is a major problem. However, I posted on fuwanovel and got an email from somebody not from that site who noticed my post and ran into the same problem not long after I posted informing me about the solution and what caused it since I had no clue why the game stopped running. Anyhow, that's just for reference since I know more people will run into that problem. Lastly, have a Mana, and I hope you are excited to replay the game with an updated translation, new scenes, and the game in general in higher resolution. See ya! Bye!

Review: Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni

Hmm. While the stories early on are good with the third one being the best, they tend to become rather mediocre and lacklustre thereafter. Lets begin from the first story and work our way down. It'll be easier to get my thoughts down and form a conclusion that way. Though before that, let me give you a brief introduction. Now, Higanbana is about a school haunted by its old school buildings stories of yokai who hunt and kill people with them somehow becoming involved in cases of bullying, which is Higanbana’s theme. Simple.


Chapter 1
Our beginning story to Higanbana as a whole. Overall, it's a good start but there were a few things that bugged me about it. First, rape. I don't need to explain why. Second, the character is underage and there’s unnecessary “fanservice” (nudity, an ass shot of Marie and much more) in the manga adaptation which leads me to believe that R07 was just fucking around and fantasising with the idea of molesting children. I mean, he is a known lolicon who panders just that to otaku, and since the manga came first, it’s almost as if R07 got shit for his “loli” fetish crap and then changed those parts when it came to the VN. Third, the molesting teacher is described as being good looking and has a fangirl following in the school, both of which are general tropes and hentai tropes, which backs up my argument. Fourth, an abandoned school building where nobody will know or see that a teacher takes a young girl (undefinable age. Whatever makes you feel more “comfortable”, I guess) into it for “fun time” after school? Is this hentai? How can this happen? Don't her parents notice anything different? Doesn't anyone make sure all children have left the school? If people let her and know she’s staying after school, who is accountable? Stop fantasizing, Ryukishi07! This makes no fucking sense! Gah! Put two and two together and you're conclusion is that R07 is a fucking lolicon, Japanese piece of shit self inserting under the pretext of "telling a story of bullying"! Ahem. That said, the story’s still very good overall but the abandoned school building thing, the pretty boy teacher, hentai tropes and the like are completely ridiculous, unrealistic, and stupid. R07’s fucking around and we all know it.

True. And you're an otaku pandering lolicon, R07.

Lastly, how does bullying fit in here, may you ask? Well, it is mentioned but it's not the focus of the story. Anyhow, Marie was being bullied by her classmates but the teacher stepped in and protected her, so to speak. Then one thing lead to another and they eventually entered into their little “deal”. He protects her from the bullies and she lets him “use” her. Mutually beneficial, right? Now, an elaborate plan like that could actually happen in hentai, but I live in real life. Stupid R07. I've already covered why so lets move on.


Chapter 2
I actually like this story overall, though the ending I did not. While it had great build up and events with the plot and the boy researching and finding out stuff after finding the camera, the ending with the whole lovey dovey forgiveness didn't quite cut it for me. That said, it's more of the regret part that both of the characters lived with that is cleared up during that end scene which bugs me the most. I wasn't expecting them to openly kill without any words, and laugh at it like it's great entertainment like Higanbana expected, but the whole “talk it out” thing I did not. For one, regret is something we all have to live with, it's not something we can take back. To put things bluntly, the entire scene where camera boy and the girl who knocked over the skeleton and put the blame on him forgive each other was a load of shit. She died because of him and they both regret the cause and effect of everything that led up to that point. Let’s just put this in terms of real life to simplify things. No magical entities will appear to grant you closure on anything. It's up to you and only you to deal with your own problems, and I know Ryukishi07 is just using the supernatural shit as a medium to tell his story, but the notion of that is simply ludicrous. If you're going to make a story for people to learn from and advance with their life then at least put it in terms of reality so those reading it can relate, because as we know, yokai don't fucking exist. All said and done, this was still an enjoyable chapter, except for that part. Meh.

The real yokai of Higanbana

Again, how does bullying fit in here? Well, I wouldn't really call it bullying myself, but it's something of the sort. Now, I'll have to give you a little info of this chapters backstory. Cameraboy before he became cameraboy was assigned to clean up the science room. However, a group of girls messing about knock over a human anatomy statue but put the blame on him. He became furious and realised that photos are the only thing that can provide evidence or “proof”, which is this chapter's theme of sorts, and so his fetish for cameras begins. He starts to stalk the girl that knocked it over, takes photos, spreads them around the school, people take notice of her and she eventually becomes a victim of bullying. She loses her friends and becomes all alone, but cameraboy doesn't let up and the girl eventually takes her own life due to the torture. And that is the bullying aspect of this chapter. Now, the above is a totally realistic scenario that could actually happen. I have no problems. All said and done, this chapter was very enjoyable aside from what I brought up. There’s good characterization and events to keep you interested. I loved the Headmaster part. It was like something out of a twilight zone episode. Good stuff. Check it out.


Chapter 3
Now, this was my favourite story out of the whole bunch. It's got a great story with great characterization and a heart-wretching ending. What more do you need? I have no problems. A solid story. However, I would just like to mention that the entire drama club thing was lifted from another manga. Just saying. Now, the bullying. Wa ah ah ah ah ah. It's so sad. I need to sing a song. "She'll say I'm not so tough, just because, I'm in love, with an uptown girl. She's been living in her white bread world  As long as anyone with hot blood can. And now she's looking for a downtown man. That's what I am". Ahem. Anyhow, the bullying aspects of it were well done for the most part but I found some sections to be rather extreme and unrealistic. I mean, cockroach curry? Seriously, that and an entire crowd bullying her while the teacher is in the room would never happen. All it says in the VN itself is that they crowd around her so the teacher can't see, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the teacher wouldn't notice. In fact, it could make the teacher notice even more. Think, R07.

Friendly reminder that this happened. R07 totally not pedofile.

Chapter 4
Ah, chapter 4. What a wonderful ball of love. Overall, this chapter was actually pretty good but like many of the others the ending kinda ruined it for me. That said, it’s about a bullied boy who suffers from “draw a girl, call it a boy” symptoms. Jokes aside, he tortures rabbits to vent his frustrations from bullying. However, a yokai takes notice of this and they enter a deal. He leads people to the music room to give him souls (I think. Rabbit killings maybe) and he gets to choose the targets. Win-win, wouldn't you say?

Typical R07 ending

Anyhow, he gets a few boys who bully him turned into rabbits, and he tortures them rather gruesomely (until death) may I add. However, he eventually gets what is coming to him and gets turned into a rabbit himself by Higanbana after trying to fight her with his yokai. Though this is where the stupidest thing I have ever read in an R07 story ever happens. Okay, get this. She turns him into a rabbit, and his punishment is that he must spent his entire life as such getting buttfucked by all the other rabbits………………….. What!? Overall, it is a good chapter but that freaking ending just
ruined the rest for me. I mean, there are good bits here and there but every time I think about this chapter all I remember is that it ends with a buttfuck. Stupid R07. Probably thought it was horrific or something. Idiot. Who even writes an ending like that? That said, they mention something about the new yokai being sent or invited to the school by someone but that plot thread is never brought up again after this chapter or in the second night so we get no closure on that. In other words, R07 dropped the ball again.


Chapter 5
Meh. I found this chapter to be rather pointless and boring. It’s not very good and the story isn’t interesting. Though the only thing that I did enjoy was the shameless reusing of *insert name* from Umineko. “Uruyu! I am a lion!” Aww, so cute! That said, I’ll give you some info on this story so you can at least fathom why I think the above. Let’s start. Now, the story begins with a chair falling off a roof on to a girl, injuring and placing her in hospital. However, it turns out she and her friends destroyed the front gate of the small shrine round the back of the school building. Oh, scary, divine retribution. Then, that group of girls (except the injured) discuss what happened but a eye-patched, loli, moeblob butts in and mentions the curse. Kowai! They tell her to, in other words, piss off, but a girl from that group comes to her afterwards round the back of the school buildings to talk. She recommends that they repent at the shrine for destroying its gate and bring everyone involved to calm the spirit before the end of the day (I think. My memory is kinda fuzzy). However, they cannot since one is in the hospital and another does not accept that some curse can exist. But the captain eyepatch say’s that if they not do so, then another “accident” may befall them soon. Scary! Ahem. Anyway, the girls become scared but the one who doesn’t believe attempts to leave school by herself, in fact, scared of the curse. And now we dive into what I like to call the “what a twist” segment of this story. The girl tries to leave but somebody prepares to drop a fire extinguisher from floors up on to her head. Ouch! That would fucking kill! However, as the girl prepares to leave, it cuts up to one of the floors above and we see that it was captain eyepatch all along. Duh duh duh!!! The horror! Jokes aside, Marie confronts her and convinces her to stop. The spirit was never angry at all, and it was just captain eyepatch carrying out punishment because the spirit never did it himself, or they were never punished for their vile act. Something like that. Story end!

Typical R07 plot twist

All said and done, it wasn’t very interesting or entertaining but the least we can take away from it is that it sets up characters and leads on into other stories. It’s like the first episode of an anime. It’s terrible, but it sets up the characters and general plot. Enter Lost Universe joke here. I give it a meh. Also, how does bullying fit in here, may you ask? Well, my memory is kinda fuzzy but I think it was just the fact that captain eyepatch was ignored by the rest of the class since she’s weird, and say’s she can talk to spirits. Scary, scary, scary! That’s actually very minor, and it’s not the focus of the story, either. Damn you, R07! You said this was about bullying!


Chapter 6
Another lackluster pointless story. Yay! This is taking forever to write so I’ll try and keep this one short. Remember that girl who knocked over that anatomy skeleton is chapter 2? No? Well, go fucking read that post, then. That said, she gets resurrected to live a normal, happy, fun school day. She falls on her way to school, messes about in class, has fun and a great time, and also knocks over the anatomy skeleton again but apologizes and takes the blame. Aww, how sweet! Stupid R07. However, it turns out at the end of the day that it was all in exchange for her soul by Higanbana. Yet, she say’s it tastes bad and lets her go, her soul ascending into the sky. What? Did she move from hell into heaven? Explain, R07!? Overall, it’s a fun, happy chapter full of love and joy. None of that pesky bullying theme Higanbana is supposedly meant to have. Meh. Kinda pointless if you ask me.

Typical R07 fan drawings

Chapter 7
And now we've come to the final chapter of the first night. Yay! I can wrap things up now! I'll keep it short. Let's start. Now, this is what I would say is the most developed chapter out of them all, so it was good story to end things on. However, there were a few things that bothered me about it. First, the bullying aspects of it were simply put to unrealistic extremes so those parts became rather unenjoyable and distasteful to me. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Second, the yokai amplifying/creating bullying in the class, instigating it, reaping the benefits I did not like because it takes away from the fact that people themselves are assholes and would do it regardless, not, derp it was der yokai hur hur hur. What message are you trying to teach here, R07, hmm? Fucking idiot. Third, the bullying gets so bad that they put cockroaches in her curry (reusing events, R07?). Again, like before where the same thing happened, but I don’t want to repeat myself why it’s unrealistic and makes no sense so meh.

Typical R07 characters

Fourth, I know it’s part of the story but if R07 is trying to give meaning for people to learn from these stories then this part right here makes no sense. And you don't even know what I'm talking about so let me explain. Now, a girl is getting bullied but all her class (all bullies) is killed on a trip (she was sick, couldn't go) by a yokai (Higanbana) driving their bus off a cliff. Realism. Because all your problems just get swept away like that due to supernatural beings like in real life, right? Fucking idiot. What is that meant to teach us, R07? To wait for someone else to come and fix our own problems? Think!? Didn't you yourself write Higurashi where Satoko was waiting for her Nii-Nii to come home which was the wrong decision? Hur hur hur, me R07, me retard. I can no write story properly. Fucking idiot. Rika fucking explains just that to Satoko herself and tells her that she isn't strong by taking Teppei’s beatings at all. Duh!!!? Do you even remember what you write? Fucking idiot. How many times have I said that already? Meh. Fifth, even though she is bullied by the class, the teacher joins in from time to time, also. I mean, what? This would never happen. Have you ever been to school, R07? Unrealistic and stupid. Meh meh triple meh.

Typical R07 "fanservice"

Sixth, during a section of the story one of the bullies forget his keys and has to go back into the school. However, he can't go home without them since his parents come home late and are thus passed due to stress and such, so he would get beat or shouted at if he went home without. Aww, poor bully has own problems and shitty life. Boo fucking hoo. Are you trying to make us feel sorry for someone who makes another's life hell, R07? Fuck you, asshole. People who take their own frustrations out on others are the worse kind of people, because they are fucking weak-willed pieces of shit who have no self control, fucktard. Stop trying to give bullies reason for their actions, straw man. Pathetic. I can't believe R07 actually wrote this into the story. Bullies are not meant to be sympathised with, but R07 wouldn't know that because he has never been bullied himself. He just writes all this shit from an “entertainment" perspective because he doesn't care about the effects of bullying at all, he just took inspiration from the time he worked as a social worker or whatever the fuck and said, hey, let’s make a story hur hur hur. Retard.

Seventh, when our lead doesn't come to school since she is sick or whatever, the bullies just violently kick the curtains in the corner while cursing our leads name because she never came to school. Yeah, because that's realistic. It’s not like they just find someone else to bully oh wait they fucking do! Idiot! It pisses me off even more so because they joke around and say they're just “playing” with her not bullying and laugh like fucking hyenas. Did you even research bullying, R07, because they don’t fucking do that. They know what they are doing and wouldn’t joke like that. Retard.

Ha ha ha, it's so fucking funny! Ha ha ha, ha ha! Fucking retards!

Anyhow, now we come to the part that I found to be the worst that Higanbana has to offer. Eighth. And let me just say for the record that it's fucking ridiculous. Let's begin. Okay. Now, at the tail end of the story there is a scene for how she gets injured so she doesn't board the death bus. It is a scene which starts off as her being bullied, but quickly escalates into something much more. She is getting picked on by the boys of the class during lunch, I think, because she supposedly smells like curry, which an aftereffect of the yokai’s actions from before when she spilled the curry pot during lunch and fell on it earning her the nickname captain curry.

Now, normally they'd just pick on her but things take a turn for the worse and get real weird. Get this, since she smells like curry, they surround her and begin to strip the clothes off of her piece by piece to “wash them" while the girls in the class laugh as she attempts to “defend” herself from their “assault”…………….. What!? What the fuck am I reading!? Porn!? Gah, you're so fucking annoying, R07! Why are you doing this? If you want to write porn, then just write fucking porn! And it gets worse believe me. R07 even wrote in that she cannot stop them but tries to resist when they attempt to remove her underwear.

The real conclusion to chapter 7

Meaning that they strip her down to just that in a corner of the classroom while everyone laughs and nobody does anyone to stop it or help… what? Yeah, because that part’s necessary. He probably wrote it while jerking off to porn and thinking the scene is hot, the Japanese fuck. And you’re telling me that this can just happen spontaneously and nobody stops it or hears the racket from outside the classroom? Realism. And the yokai amplifying the bullying doesn't count. Also, this isn't the end. While they attempt to remove her underwear she manages to break through their “encirclement” and dashes out into the hallway in tears. But the horror doesn't end here as the boys of the class dash out after her like a bunch of fucking rapists. However, she reaches the stairs but is tripped by Higanbana and falls down, injuring herself with blood seeping from her head. The boys stop in wonder and a teacher instantly arrives and brings her to the infirmary. Yep, it makes no reference to the teachers reaction after seeing her near naked in just her underwear or as to what punishment (if any) the boys receive. Bravo, R07, you're a fucking terrible writer who deserves to be hanged for writing what could be seen as you fantasizing about a class of 10 year old boys (presumably) surround and attempt to strip a 10 year old girl naked. Fucking pathetic. Go fucking hang yourself right now you fucking pedofile piece of shit. I mean, I’ve fucking had it with you, you fucking pathetic excuse for a man. You're a fucking terrible writer and an even shittier person with a loli fetish. And I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out he “touches” his own child. He’s Japanese and took her to a maid café to dress as Rika, after all, and his thoughts of her go without saying. Porn, porn, porn, and more porn. Fucker!

R07 meet Rika

Ugh. Now that I got that out of my system, let’s continue. What, if the boys caught her did they intend to strip her bare and rape her on the ground? I mean, this entire scene is just ridiculous and it’s simply R07’s tiny dick doing the writing for him and that in itself is what it is. Take it at face value and don’t hide how disgusting the man truly is. That said, not covering the aftermath of this scene was freaking horrendous because shit would happen for fuck sake. It’s even worse because they still go on the school trip afterwards. I mean, what? They would get fucking expelled for pulling a stunt like that in real life, but no, this is R07 world, a world of hentai, unrealistic events and characters. What a load. This pissed me the hell off when and read it and just writing about it weeks later still makes my blood boil. R07 can’t write for shit anyway. And don't one of you bastards pull “the school didn't want a bad reputation so they hid it under the rug” bullshit. That’s not what the scene or the absence of the aftermath is. It’s bad writing and we all know it. Ugh.

My review in a nuttshell

Overall, this is a good chapter and the second best out of the first night, but there's a ton of shit that pissed me off about it which I insanely covered. Meh. The bullying is taken to unrealistic extremes and it really shows. And R07’s terrible writing style doesn't help, either. Meh, meh, meh, meh!


End
Yippee! All done! Yay! Now fuck off and eat a cock. Oops, sorry. Where did that come from? Ahem. Anyway, it’s hard to remember everything from the VN itself so I hope that I covered everything I wanted to. All said and done, Higanbana is actually a pretty mediocre VN with good music and atmosphere and only good. People said god-tier, but that’s really just an aftereffect of them sucking on R07’s tiny Japanese dick for so long. The music and atmosphere’s good, not god-tier, and any non-weeb neet regular human being can tell you that. Anyhow, the VN is good but suffers from what I like to call “Ryukishi07 Syndrome”. Every time you read one of his stories you can always feel that retarded magic of his at work. Unnecessarily sexualisation, otaku bait, perverted, stupid characters and character quirks, lolis, stupid stories, waifus, unrealistic as shit, troll characters and much much more. He honestly gets more credit than what he’s worth, and that’s not just me picking on him. Though I know others will say otherwise. Now, the sprites are nice and to my liking, though it feels as if some were half-assed in design.

That said, the last thing I would like to mention is that all the character seem to talk like they're freaking philosophers who have seen all the world has to offer at age 10 for some reason. It’s really fucking annoying and makes me think that R07 doesn't know what the fuck he is doing, which is probably the truth half the time. Enter Umineko joke here. Jab jab jab jab jab. Hee hee. And there’s also the fact that all the bullying is unrealistic and put to extremes. I didn't like that. And the bullying aspect of Higanbana as a whole comes off as rather poorly researched. I mean, R07 got the basics down but the rest isn't very well done. And only those who have never been bullied think it was well done, while in reality it wasn’t. Also, the actual last thing. R07 seemed to pointlessly contrast bullying to a hierarchy in a utopia and that it must be present for the utopia to exist, and bla bla bla, but saying crap like that has no real point in a story like this. It's just R07 trying to sound smart using big words, and that's all.

Now, for those of you who actually read this novel (all 5 people) I hope you all enjoyed my totally not biased review of Higanbana. It took quite a while to write, so I hope that someone can at least appreciate the effort I put into it. Also, I plan to do the same for the Second Night of Higanbana, FYI. So I'm sure you'll all love it. Ah ha ha ha ha ha.