#themoeway

[meimae]

Hello Japanese language learning friends and media enthusiasts! It's time to dive into my favorite guides, resources, and tools to get the perfect Japanese language immersion learning setup. All for free!

It is never too early and never too late for you to start consuming native Japanese media. Whether you're a complete beginner, stuck in the intermediate plateau, or an advanced Japanese language learner looking to improve, you are bound to find something useful in this list. These are guides and tools that I have tried and tested, and I plan to add on to this list when I encounter something new and good.

ANKI: The Ultimate Spaced Repetition System

Let's just say that if I had never discovered Anki, I would still be having the worst time of my life trying to memorize vocabulary using paper flashcards, writing them repeatedly, and eventually just forgetting them anyway. With Anki, I have thousands of vocabulary and grammar flashcards from the media I've consumed - also known as sentence mining - with native audio, context sentence, and images.

Even if I complain about Anki sometimes, it has fast tracked my learning so much that I will never go back to whatever I was doing before. I would highly recommend starting Anki at twenty new cards a day (never more!), and be familiar with 600 new vocabulary in a month. That's 7,300 words a year all on one application.

If you're a complete beginner and don't know how to sentence mine yet, there are vocabulary decks (Tango N5 and N4 and Core 2.3k VN Deck) from TheMoeWay that you can use to start.

ANKI SETUP GUIDE: Animecards/Vocabulary Cards

Speaking of adding words to Anki, I recently switched to vocabulary cards or anime cards and it has been better for my recognition in the wild, and my time in Anki has been reduced to less than half the time I used to spend using sentence cards even when I have 300 reviews for the day. Check this Anki setup for animecards to start your sentence mining journey.

YOMICHAN: The Best Dictionary Browser Extension

Read anything Japanese on your browser with Yomichan as your dictionary extension and instantly add words you don't know to Anki with a few clicks. Check this guide to setup Ankiconnect and Yomichan. I also recommend setting up Yomichan on KiwiBrowser on your mobile so you can read and lookup words on your html or epub on the go with Ttu's Reader.

MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES: TheMoeWay's Monolingual Transition and the Best Dictionaries for Yomichan

Of course, you can't use Yomichan without a good set of dictionaries. Boost your Japanese comprehension in both vocabulary and grammar with monolingual dictionaries. All of my Anki cards have monolingual definitions on them, and my lookups while reading (save for common nouns, technical terms, etc.) are monolingual.

TheMoeWay has the best compilation of resources and dictionaries out there and it is constantly updated. My most used dictionaries are 大辞林 第三版, 新明解国語辞典 第五版, and 旺文社国語辞典 第十一版 since I found that they are the most comprehensive and easiest to understand.

ViSUAL NOVEL GUIDES: Easy Setup Guides to Reading Japanese Visual Novels

I learned how to setup Visual Novels through theMoeWay while the animecards site walks you through how to sentence mine from them for Anki, which makes use of programs like Textractor and ShareX. These guides are extensive and may seem complicated at first glance, but since it helps you read raw text and make cards that come with the target word, context sentence, image, and audio if available, they are not only high quality, but also makes reading easy and fun even for beginners!

GRAMMAR

Tae Kim's Grammar Guide - Read through this and get a decent grasp of grammar from basic to advanced

Cure Dolly - I haven't watched every video robotic voice rip but I did learn a lot from the few that I have

Dictionary of Japanese Grammar Series - Not free unless you read TheMoeWay then it totally is and comes with an Anki deck too but a very good textbook reference to most if not all grammar points that exist.

Yomichan with Monolingual Dictionaries - probably the best way to learn grammar but may be intimidating for a lot of people

DISCORD COMMUNITY

TheMoeWay has a language learning Discord that I spend too much time in that has a ton of resources shared daily, monthly reading challenges, anime and movie streams, and pretty sweet immersion leaderboards to help gamify the process of language learning.

I highly recommend reading the site thoroughly before joining the Discord especially the resources page, since it provides you with a lot of information on how to learn Japanese at all levels, and it overall offers good advice on language learning through immersion.

I go by meimae there as well. Come say hi!

-☆-

Thanks for reading, and I hope these resources make your immersion journey easier and fun as it did for me!

#language acquisition #language learning #langblr #study blog #studyblr #japanese language #japanese #language immersion #japanese langblr #japanese studyblr #themoeway #animecards #sentence mining #visual novels #visual novel #dictionary of japanese grammar #dictionaries #monolingual dictionaries #japanese dictionary #yomichan #anki #language learning resource #japanese language learning resources #日本語 #learning resources #language learning resources

[meimae]

Hi, Mae! I wanted to do an audio deck but making it would take forever. What should I do? Is it better to just immerse in some material or is it worth investing time in that deck. Thank you ;-;

Hi!

Always, always, choose immersion over Anki, in this case, more listening material. Just pick out some anime, drama, tv shows, audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube channels you like and listen to those. You will improve over time, I assure you.

If you want some easy listening material, I always recommend condensed audio - you can find a bunch in this site under Condensed Audio:

If you were planning on using the audio deck to practice hearing pitch better, I recommend practicing with this site instead of Anki, then continue immersing more to hear them better.

Alternatively, if you really want an audio deck (and I'm going to assume that you have the basic vocabulary card setup with Yomichan that already comes with audio), then you can just take your existing cards (or duplicate them) and convert them into audio cards by going into Cards in the Anki Browser, and instead of having the Word or Sentence in the Front Template, have the Audio field in Front instead. That's the easiest way to turn your cards into audio cards that I know of.

Hope this helps!

#language acquisition #language learning #langblr #study blog #studyblr #japanese language #japanese #language immersion #japanese langblr #japanese studyblr #listening immersion #anki #audio cards #kotu #pitch accent #themoeway #tmw #yomichan #sentence mining

[meimae]

I assume not, but I'd like to ask if you ever go back to a novel after you have read some other stuff. Perhaps I'm weak willed but paying attention to so many things are rather difficult. Going through them so slowly is unsatisfying thus I'd mine words first, then read another one the same way, after that going back to the previous one to mine sentences, paying attention to grammar etc etc. Do you think it's better to do them at once or seperately?

Hello! As someone who likes intensive reading and is obsessed with looking up and learning every single word, this interesting question speaks to me, so thanks!

As of the moment, I haven't gone back to reread anything yet (except for some manga and a couple of books I read in English years ago which doesn't count for this question), although I do plan on doing that far into the future just to see if there are improvements in overall comprehension and ease in reading.

I do however switch reading materials a lot when I find something too difficult (looking up multiple words in a sentence continuously for several paragraphs). I'll later then go back to it if I feel like I've mined enough words to tackle it again.

Right now, the "hard level" book for me is 1Q84, because although I read it in English and have context for what's going on, there's just so many words to look up that I feel like reading it too early would do it injustice. After mining a couple of hundred words, I usually go back and check the first few paragraphs again. There's always some improvement, but I have yet to hit that perfect balance of reading continuously enough and looking up words occasionally to not get bored.

I get how overwhelming it is to look at a page where you don't know like 40-60% of the words/grammar. Do not force yourself to read anything so far beyond your level of comprehension because that's the perfect recipe for a burnout.

I never did this with English books in Japanese, I' ve turned into my worst nightmare - a serial starter and reading procrastinator help, but I literally have 4 books, 5 VNs, and a ton of manga that I have been shuffling around and reading when I'm in the mood for them. A lot of them are interesting, but are either too hard or too long or easy that it puts me to sleep or have topics that puts me off, so its hard for me to stick to one thing at a time. Occasionally though, when something does grab my attention, even if it's above my level I never put it down for like a week or however long til I finish which feels great! So always try to find something that interests you first and foremost. It's easier to get comfortable with ambiguity that way.

You can always try VNs with its one sentence at a time feature. Its great because you only have to look and concentrate on so little at a time, so it makes reading less overwhelming which enables you to read for longer periods given that you've been consistent at doing so.

Anyway, don't be afraid to switch to easier material when reading! You might think it's useless because you know most of the words, but even reading easy material is practice and helps cement what you already know. I have a book review coming out soon regarding this so stick around!

Also, and this is not for everybody, I like hoarding keeping a large backlog of words to learn that I have encountered in previous material, usually from novels and VNs, labelled accordingly in their own subdeck. For example, I have all the words I have mined from the visual novel Island in a subdeck that I've been slowly reviewing alongside a few other VNs. A lot of them have pictures, and most of them have word audio from Forvo, and even sentence audio if I bothered recording, so I always have some context even though it's been a few months since I've read it. Knowing that after I review everything necessary in those decks would mean that I can go back one day to Island and have close to full comprehension gives me enough motivation to review them. The words being a good chunk of N1+ words is a bonus. So yes, I read and mine at the same and I keep my precious them to review at 20 new cards a day.

If you want a gauge of what level a book would be and how many new words you will encounter based on your existing Anki decks try jpdb.io . Rating difficulty is both word frequency and opinion based so take it with a grain of salt, but its a great resource to look into to find your next read. Also look into vndb.org for VNs. You can always filter by all time ratings or by your own preferences, too.

Other than that, TheMoeWay Discord, a Japanese language immersion learning community, holds reading clubs for novels, visual novels, and manga every month. They have both beginner and intermediate picks that anyone can read, and if those are not your cup of tea, there are a bunch of other recommendations that people share in different channels. August is about to start, so this is the perfect time to join in on the fun!

A bit of a word vomit, but hopefully something here helps you!

#language acquisition #language learning #langblr #study blog #studyblr #japanese language #japanese #language immersion #japanese langblr #japanese studyblr #i rarely get asks and i get super excited aha #anon ask #answered ask #discord #themoeway #look man this aint miss universe i aint about to answer as concisely as possible anytime soon wwww

[meimae]

4/1/2021

遅かったけど、明けましておめでとうございます!

Ended 2021 on a high note...

...and started the year by continuing good habits.

Didn't think I would be able to keep up this blog and language immersion learning for close to two years now, but I am glad I've made it this far. Very happy as well that there's at least 400 people out there that have been interested enough to follow me on this journey, and hopefully inspired to keep studying languages regardless of the methodology. If you're reading this: hello, let's do our best this year as well!

I also did not expect to be behind six reviews (5 VNs and a LN) and one monthly immersion update for my blog. I guess that just means I've gotten in such a nice immersion groove that stopping now is impossible. A good time to remind you that I hang out in TheMoeWay Discord a lot, which is a fun immersion learning community I discovered last year and have been actively participating in, particularly in the VN and Joseimuke Media Clubs.

For the time being and if you're interested in what I've been reading while I pull myself together enough to sit down and write all of them, here are the media tracking sites I use frequently:

Anilist - Anime and Manga

Bookmeter - Novels and Light Novels

MyDramaList - Dramas

VNDB - Visual Novels

I think that's probably a hint for myself that I should be a lot more concise in the way I write but what can I say, learning Japanese still is as exciting as the day I started!

That's it for now, and I'll catch you all next time! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

#language learning #japanese language #language acquisition #study blog #langblr #studyblr #japanese #language immersion #japanese langblr #japanese studyblr #anki #i want to make one of those fancy blog intros but tumblr has been kinda weird with removing my links so rip

[meimae]

01/02/22

Hello and welcome to my first immersion overview of 2022! ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧

If you're new here, hi, I'm Mae, and this is a list of media I listened to and read this month using the immersion or input method for Japanese language learning.

I came into the month thinking I knew exactly which books I wanted to read and dramas I wanted to see. Of course, not all my plans worked out and I had to work around some weird immersion material choices and unexpected but probably overdue gaps in my learning.

And so we come to this, a month where I almost didn't watch any dramas - I wouldn't have even watched 消えた初恋 literally on the last day of the month if I didn't realize how short it was. It had a standard fluffy plot, so it was simple and easy to listen to in the background while I was dying in grammar hell. ヾ(｡>﹏<｡)ﾉﾞ✧*。

Ah yes, grammar. The bane of my Japanese language learning journey. There's a reason I picked immersion learning as my method, and it was because I absolutely hated grinding grammar exercises in the classroom. I just wanted the language to wash over me, obviously while obsessively doing look-ups while immersing, and somehow magically be able to turn my passive knowledge from input into active output.

But alas, my anxiety has gotten the best of me, and I started to fear that the language books I did read and grind in Anki, Tae Kim and the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar, had run its course and it was finally time to sit down with another grammar resource to stitch up the loose ends.

So for the past week, I've been taking advice from people who seemed to be better at the subject than I am, and I have started to grind through the 新完全マスター 文法 N1 and N2 books, and yes, even the exercises.

Can't say I'm too happy about it, since it has so far drained my energy to read for fun, but if its going to help me somewhat based on other immersion learners' experiences, then I'm willing to give it a try. On the bright side, at least its written fully in Japanese! Never a break from immersion.

And so while I was struggling to get back on the reading grind this last week, I started to read a few chapters of 無職転生. Admittedly, still not much of a light novel reader and its not even for a lack of content I'm interested in, just a lack of drive and motivation. It's something I'd like to work harder on this year.

On the other hand, ひいきびいき is as fun to listen to as ever, now that I have a better reading base. I can still tell there are gaps in my comprehension, but at least it does not sound like gibberish to me like it did a year ago. Progress!

I wish I could tell you guys that I had a good time reading visual novels this month, but honestly it felt like a mess. If seven different visual novels shuffled within a month doesn't clue you in with the kind of concentration struggle I had, then I don't know what to tell you. At least I kept my 1M reading streak. (ﾉ∀`)

My motivation reading VNs started strong and promising, and I finished PARQUET (the beginner VN at TheMoeWay Discord) within the first few days of the month. I was also made aware of the fact that the Steam version of 剣が君 had a lot of bonus content that I missed out on because of the version I played, and so my friend Alex kindly let me read everything I missed. It was absolutely lovely, 11/10. It has been months and nothing has beat this game yet for me.

Then, with my reading high, I turned my attention to the intermediate VN from TMW, and that's where it all went south. 紙の上の魔法使い' s blurb sounded so promising, but I couldn't read past (or listen past for that matter) some stupid lines from the female characters, and so it now unfortunately sits on my stalled pile of VNs. I feel like I got baited into thinking that the characters in this game were smart because they supposedly liked reading. Who knows, maybe I'll revisit it when I'm in the mood for moe girls, but something tells me that it will take a while or never.

In my frustration with the previous game, and due to some previously hyped conversations with my friend Alex from Discord, I decided to play her favorite VN on a whim without looking at the VNDB tags (which proved to be a mistake on my part - always read the tags to filter out games with triggers). Let me introduce you to Omega Vampire, something completely far from my comfort zone, which proved to be detrimental to my reading as well later on.

Count this as the review I have for this game, apparently omegaverse is a huge thing and this game does it well, but it was not enough of a pull for me because I have no idea what the omegaverse is, and I also don't particularly enjoy vampire/werewolf stories thanks Twilight so there's that. So after a while when this VN kept on showing me disturbing sexual content without consent, I had to quit after two routes. Honestly, if I sat and read for another four days or so I could have finished it, but if I had to rinse my eyeballs everytime I tried to read then I'd rather read something else. So yeah, this goes into the stalled pile as well.

Luckily, the TMW Joseimuke Media Club pick for the month, レムレスブルーの午前２時, seemed to be wholesome, so alongside あかやあかしやあやかしの, and because I was heavily inspired by my friends in voice chat, I finally ventured into output territory and did a few hours of 朗読 with these two unvoiced VNs. I also had a brief opportunity to read in voice chat while a native Japanese speaker was watching and got 上手'd for the first time - a clue that I need to put a focus on output more.

The real star of the show this month for me though was the VN Club's quarterly pick, White Album 2. My expectations were high for this one, since its one of the admin's favorite games, and finally, finally, I was not disappointed.

The writing has been spectacular so far, and the music just adds to the mood and vibe so much that I couldn't stop reading the introductory chapter for three days within 6 hour sessions.

Gosh, so jazzy, its so good! My favorite kind of music. I love vibing to this while studying grammar - it makes it less painful to do.

I'm actually still very excited to continue reading White Album 2. It gives me so many butterflies when I think about it, so it will be my main read for February alongside the VNs I've dedicated for 朗読, and quite possibly yet another otome game from the club.

At least I learned something from this - my comfort zone is my comfort zone for a reason. It's fine to try out new things, but if it makes me frustrated or uncomfortable, its not going to be worth it regardless of how much it can improve my skill. *coughgrammarcough*

-☆-

Here's to hoping for better concentration and grammar progress in February! Still don't know how I'm going to go about studying it, but hopefully whatever it is includes better time management and just reading more than I currently have. Clearly, something I was doing was working, since I could comprehend well enough and in turn produce lengthy and detailed reviews, but output, output, is where it comes down to, and the thought of it getting stalled makes me worried. It's either the dedicated grammar study or the 朗読 that's going to push it further, and I'm going to try my best on dedicating time for both.

Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you all next time! (*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡

#language acquisition #language learning #langblr #study blog #studyblr #japanese language #japanese #language immersion #japanese langblr #japanese studyblr #kieta hatsukoi #shin kanzen master #dictionary of japanese grammar #grammar #mushoku tensei #hiikibiiki #parquet #ken ga kimi #omega vampire #akaya akashiya ayakashino #lemures #lemures blue #white album 2 #white album #kami no ue no mahotsukai #Spotify

[meimae]

18/9/21

Finished my first 乙女ゲーム, 剣が君! I don’t really know why I waited this long before I dove into this genre of visual novels - it just makes sense for me to read something that targets a female audience. Too soon to say, but this genre really is battling for a spot next to my 少女漫画 loving heart. 

This VN is definitely an excellent entry to the genre. I love this game. This is right up there with Island for me. The moment this got included in the voting list for TheMoeWay’s visual novel of the month, I was so invested in it by just reading the blurb and seeing a few screenshots. Never mind the fact that I generally enjoy historical fiction in media - I believe its called 時代劇 in Japanese - so I often actively look for and watch period dramas and read books with historical settings. This was perfectly up my alley because of that, and I really loved that aspect of the game more than anything else.

And my goodness, the CGs in this are top of the line indeed. Do you know how hard it was to narrow down to just a couple CGs for every character in this game for this post? Definitely had to be a little creative in my formatting! All the imagery in this game was so beautiful, the character sprites very detailed and so full of life and individuality, including the female protagonist. This is also the first VN I’ve played that allowed me to name the MC - a chance to self-insert in an otoge no less? Heck yes, sign me up! 

This also comes with a built-in dictionary which was so helpful for understanding a lot of the 江戸時代 references - nothing that Yomichan and some good monolingual dictionaries can’t cover, but it was very useful nonetheless.

Every end in this game (four for each character, from worse to best end, aptly labelled as 荒魂-奇魂-和魂-幸魂) varies significantly from each other so it makes it worth the time it takes to read each one. Obviously, not all ends were fantastic, and there were some disappointments, and possibly some loopholes, but they were results that still made sense for the characters to do, which made most if not all routes well rounded. Honestly, this makes ranking the characters (which I will do in the spoiler section) so difficult because I like most if not all ends in this game.

The only thing I will complain about is the skip functions. The common route was incredibly long if you play for 100% completion, and I just wish that the text changed colors at least to indicate what you have read. The skip does stop on new lines which was good, but I made the mistake of using the scene skip to the next choice, which was admittedly my fault, but because I hadn’t saved I had to do all the skipping again. Other than that, this game is golden.

Verdict: 9/10 will absolutely read again, preferably when I'm less of a Yomichan cope reader. ( ´∀｀) I also am eyeing the fandisk, because apparently there’s tons of new content and more CGs, maybe as a Christmas/birthday present.

STATS

Time spent reading per route: Majority of the common route: 15.51 hours; 黒羽: 9.88 hours; 縁: 10.31 hours; 螢: 10.06 hours; 左京: 9.3 hours; 鈴懸: 9.79; 九十九丸: 8.62 hours; and ご褒美 (貸本屋): 1.45 hours.

If it weren’t already so blatantly obvious how much I enjoyed reading this, I hit a few Japanese reading milestones for this game, the first one being that I managed to read 100,000 characters twice during the 18 day period I was reading. If you weren’t aware, that’s about a single volume of a light novel’s worth of reading. I also managed to read for 7.8 hours during that same session which is a first for me. Usually I give up after 2 or 3 hours of intensive reading, but I literally had to pull myself away from this one, which meant that I also read above 35,000 characters everyday (except on day 18, because the 貸本屋 part of the ご褒美 section wasn’t that too long of a read) which was my daily goal. It was also my first time reading at 16,440 characters/hour at one point, finally trumping my slightly suspicious reading speed for Island’s end game. This also meant that I’ve managed to achieve an average speed of 14,016 characters/hour for a game that’s close to or above a million characters long. In total, I read for 74.92 hours, 12.93 hours less than Island.

I’m absolutely bubbling with excitement for the prospect of finding more VNs such as this and beating whatever I achieved here once again. A tall order, maybe, but this is what makes immersion learning so worth it for me. Just reading and listening to the stuff that I like and learning not only the language, but also culture, and history, and so many other things in the process.

Please, if you haven’t read this VN but would like to, skip everything below and read it first. It’s worth experiencing for yourself.

Spoiler CGS and discussion about every route including brief thoughts on all 24 ends

I followed the recommended order from this guide, even though you can choose whoever's story you'd like to start with. However, I will be talking about the characters from the least liked to the most liked so this whole part doubles as a tier list.

COMMON ROUTE

The common route was pretty long as I mentioned, but the story in it especially during the first run through was pretty interesting, the 偽の花嫁行列, basically a secret ploy to transport one of the 天下五剣 (swords that are able to seal 妖怪) to 駿府, the journey filled with encounters with 妖怪 and 山賊, in which the bloody sprites of the six guys looked so cool in. It also introduces the lore and power of the マレビト, and the attempts of 朝倉 宣正 and his cronies to use this power to resurrect someone of importance to the 将軍 using one of the five legendary swords (the same one that was transported to 駿府) held by one of the 一番刀 (鼓 法眼) and a virgin (七重) as a sacrifice to make the ritual work. Not gonna lie, it got a little boring seeing it again and again in the common route, but it always changed a little in every end, so it retained my interest in it.

Other than that, a lot of the journey was horse troubles, probably a standard for anything remotely princess-y themed, which was almost funny to see in a Japanese context. So used to reading about the same runaway horse troubles in Western books and media.

The flowers that suddenly appear when you make a character specific choice suprised me. Never played with anything that had a mechanic like that. Makes choosing the correct route without a guide way easier to notice. It was an oddly specific otoge choice I believe, flower graphics. I wonder how dudes would react if it was the same for eroges or something.

As for the game in general after the common route, I love that everybody still keeps appearing in other routes, and that the game does not pretend that they do not exist anymore simply because you chose a different person. It definitely adds to the depth of each character, and the world really feels full and alive. It also allows the game to hint once again at the potential to read the other routes in game in case you forgot what they were like. The side characters were very much involved in advancing the plot, even characters who I thought were only there as sidekicks had many opportunities to get involved one way or the other.

香夜, the Protagonist

Okay, so I changed her name, even though it was pretty, because self-insert time! My two braincells' pathetic attempt for a 漢字 self-insert name was 命 (めい). Just liked that it meant both life and destiny in definition, and it seemed fitting for what is essentially a dating sim.

Honestly didn't think the name mattered until I realized just how many times they were using the word 命 (いのち), and it became a slight in context guessing game. The name also mattered a lot in one of the routes which I will talk about later.

As for the character itself, the majority of her personality ends up being the damsel in distress type, to my slight disappointment. I was hoping for more 薙刀 action, which she does do in tiny bursts, but there was so little of it, it was almost as if it's there as a prop. The title screen for naming her has her sprite holding it, I feel like I got baited. Very much expectation vs reality, but I guess being an awesome weapon wielder was not exactly the point or goal for her character, especially in the 江戸時代, where women though not subservient to men and were able to participate in jobs and other activities outside the household, still held some clear gender roles and expectations. Also, her role in the 偽の花嫁行列 limits her ability to use her weapon, which a few characters remind her of, but I still would have liked it if she utilized it more than it just being there to make for interesting CGs. It does add a little depth to her family background, and her desire to keep her mother’s memory alive, but it mostly stays at that.

縁

My least favorite route simply because I felt that his character developed way too late in the game. I kept thinking if I had a language learning brainfart, and missed any hints of him wanting to settle simply, but his constant state of drunken stupor and nonstop 軟派 in literally every scene and route he appears in, really did overshadow whatever other personality he had in him.

He essentially wanted nothing to do with being the heir to the next 将軍, even his ownership of one of the 天下五剣 was acquired in farce swordfights, so the power of the sword does not respond to him. He is also extremely clumsy with his swordfighting - which only amplified my doubt in his capability to even handle one of the heavenly swords - and so he ends up getting hurt a lot.

Can't blame him much for hating his life; no matter how comfortable it was, a lot of it was built upon lies and deceit, so he tries to cope with the responsibility that comes with it by drinking and messing around with girls - MC included. Still, he walks around as a spy for the 幕府 looking for the runaway child, missing sword, and 朝倉's crew using his drunken persona as cover - gotta do his job at the end of the day.

Didn't think MC was impressed with him either, as she had to guide and reprimand his every decision like a child right until 柳生 三厳 bared the truth of his background. Was that enough of a turning point for romance to bloom? The truth coming out from somebody else's mouth (yes, I know he was injured at the time) doesn't really sound appealling to me.

荒

His encounter with マレビト ended up looking cool because MC helped him out in harnessing the power of his sword (神降ろし) to seal the gate. MC shows her prowess with the 薙刀 a bit which I still wish we got a common route CG of at least. Anyway, he ends up dying doing his job which I guess makes him kind of a hero. Not the worst way to die.

奇

Much of the same (荒) but he loses his memory instead including his drunken persona and womanizing ways. Isn't it kind of sad that his whole personality revolved at just alcohol and women? He just seemed like an even emptier shell of a person without it - his personality base wasn't anything at all, so he just seemed completely lost just as he started, maybe more.

和

Lady killer can't take no for an answer hunts MC down all the way into the farmlands because he can't cope with the rejection and the pressure of the way of the sword.

He latches on to 螢 and starts helping around as a patrol which he says he liked to do. Still a bit of a leech. Boring end.

幸

Again much of the same (和), but he properly threw everything he had - power, position, and money - for the simple life of a farmer. He genuinely feels interested and happier because of it, so that's good for him. Honestly, they should've made him interact more with 鈴懸, so they could have been plant buddies, and it could have added a different and better build up to him becoming a farmer.

鈴懸

I actually liked this route, feels bad man that it has to sit at 5th, because every other route appealed to me more, if only because of his age and really childlike curiousity with everything. I really thought of him more of like a friend or little brother for MC, so you better believe the kind of whiplash I got when they're suddenly confessing their undying love for each other. Yup, kinda forgot I was reading a otoge/dating sim, whoops.

If I had to describe this entire route, it's warm, mostly because of how the CGs are presented. It's such a lovely take on 妖怪, how not all of them are bad and evil beings, and it reminds me very much of 夏目友人帳, which is one of my favorite male protagonist shows for a 少女アニメ/漫画.

They present him a lot as a diplomatic and kindhearted doctor, but he does not back down from a fight if he needs to which makes perfect sense since he's been fated to wield one of the 天下五剣, the same one that got transported to 駿府, something that I was not expecting. He's just an all around nice guy, who would pick talking over problems more than stabbing at them, but I guess the heavens pick (semi-)decent people to hold that kind of power.

荒

He essentially just wins at life: he wins the tournament, one of the coveted 天下五剣, and a position in government, because he's both an excellent doctor and swordsman, all in exchange for less time with MC, but man, at least he's alive. Good for him, but it honestly made me super salty over the death of a different character which I will get to later.

奇

He dies protecting a doggo 妖怪, like seriously, how is this one the unconventional end? His actions felt both like a brave and stupid thing to do, but also very much in character. Can't be mad at character deaths that make sense.

和

I loved the idea of the 木霊 only talking to you if you're pure of heart - something both the MC and 鈴懸 acquire and reacquire respectively. This also opened a pretty interesting dynamic with 薬師院 神威, a government employed apprentice doctor, who only wants to be recognized by his 師匠. Too bad though, the old guy has the hots for 鈴懸 lmao. They end up bringing the kid to youkai land which was really kind.

幸

Again, the only good people/妖怪 that actually cared about the kid being mixed in such a mess, probably because 鈴懸 got left behind as a kid as well and can relate to the struggle. It might not have been this route in particular, but I really started to despise 鼓 法眼 after a while since he either kept abandoning the kid in such awful situations or was willing to sacrifice the kid's life instead of 七重. Anyway, nice turn of events where they ended up living their peaceful lives in youkai land with the kiddie. I'm sorry I can't remember Chorizo's name in kanji for shit. Choushichirou.

螢

Not gonna lie, usually don't like tsundere types, but it made sense after it was revealed that he was an 鬼. It caught me off guard and made me much more interested in his story, because I was rather detached with his personality otherwise. Tragic childhood memory of his village being raided by humans and his family getting killed is standard fuel to get him to try and get back the right of his people to wear swords again to defend themselves.

He had a nice personality contrast - always angry to the point of violence, but he also just wants to use his prowess with swords to defend others, so he ends up with one of the sweetest ends in game. It honestly made me smile many times.

荒

He wins the tournament, but gets stabbed and dies afterwards. I thought this was one of the saddest ends in game, because all goes well at first and then it suddenly turns very sour right at the end. Terrible things happen when you take detours apparently.

奇

This was weird, but it was so nice seeing the gang back together to set up an instant marriage ending for the two who kept going around in circles.

和

The introduction of a fianceé by his grandpa felt rushed and was also resolved very quickly. It's basically just there to ruin his chances of winning the tournament, which gets puts aside to prioritize his elopement with MC.

幸

Dad highly opposes the relationship between MC and 螢, because of his background. Fair enough and makes sense until I realized he doesn't comment much about the stuff that goes down in 左京's route. Dad has double standards. Still, the whole sequence of him being challenged to pick a thousand flowers, all the way to the scene of them getting married in 鬼 land made for a satisfying buildup to best end.

黒羽 実彰

This was the first route I played in game, and it was my favorite right until I started the next two routes in this list. This was also my first 100k read ever - I couldn't stop myself from reading most of it in one go especially because it flowed directly after the common route. Any time he's in a swordfight, and goes either 「甘い」or 「遅い」 - chef's kiss.

I generally find the discussion of religion in reads fascinating, especially when it discusses a faith that compose only a tiny percentage of the population. Seeing 黒羽 take time for himself to practice the teachings of his faith, while also hiding the fact from everybody else, because he was going to be ostracized and persecuted for it, made me very interested in him. That and the fact that he's a master swordsman trying to run away from the way of the sword, but can't because he carries not just one of the 天下五剣, but a sword possessed by a playful 妖怪, ハバキ憑き, no less.

A secret Christian in the 江戸時代, with a dark murderous past, wielding a sword both possessed by a spirit and one capable of sealing them. It's so good! Really enjoyed how the dynamic of all of those things worked together to form this highly religious, gentle, and mature character.

荒

お松's revenge, since 黒羽 accidentally killed her sister, made for another layer of my interest in this character. He ends up continuing his life as a samurai, but now to protect MC and everybody around her, as atonement for his sins - again a very religious way of doing things. It's a perfectly bittersweet end, that I don't really have any complaints about.

奇

Again, reading straight from my first play through of the common route right to this epic ending just made me love this game from the get go. This is also the end that made me rather salty about 鈴懸 living a rather good life in 荒, when three time tournament winner and master swordsman 実彰 gets sucked into the void never to be seen again instead. How? Make it make sense! It was a fantastic first ending to play through though, I just can't get over the fact that 鈴懸 somehow beats 実彰's swordsmanship and apparently his ability to wield the one of the 天下五剣, too. Noooooo! ٩(๑`^´๑)۶

和

When he suggested that MC stay over at his house for the night...to avoid the 妖怪 of course. (〃ω〃) What a spicy thing to suggest, coming from a devout Christian.

He puts aside his sword and settles down with MC and helps out at the 茶屋. This also still makes sense, but it was so disappointing to see him throw away all his potential for the simple life. He's just a master at handling knives at the chef's station now. This feels more unconventional if anything.

幸

お松's forces him to confess that he wants to live his life with MC and not only accept death as atonement for his sins. He then whisks away MC and marries her eventually to avoid the 幕府. He also leaves his sword with the church, with the promise to only take it again in a dire situation. After 7 hours of reading, my heart was so full, and that's all you need to know.

鷺原 左京

Oh boy. I felt the need to atone for my sins like 実彰 after reading this one and liking all the insane stuff that went down. Once again, this game just blew my expectations out of the water. To be honest, he felt really feminine - the true pretty boy among pretty boys - and I thought that this was was going to be the standard revenge plot, made exciting because he doesn't hold back at all, but the 剣 ends in this were crazy good!

He's also the character where I thought MC's dad was the most oblivious of. There literally was a guy in his daughter's room for more than a week, and he barely even noticed, or was just letting things slide. He also is more unaware that compared to 螢, 左京 is generally more violent, and have a deep-seated hatred that have led to evil tendencies. He's possibly just blinded by how everyone introduced him as MC's 恩人 - essentially a good human being in any doting parents' eyes.

We also see all the gentle sides of him while he was recovering at MCs room. The transition from really kind teacher to uncontrollable murderer due to wielding the cursed sword, 村正, was so thrilling to read. Bloody sprites with crazy eyes, yes! It reminds me of Grog from Critical Role (popular D&D streams, if you aren't familiar) when the cursed sword he possessed was also convincing him to kill and how difficult the rolls were to beat that urge down, so I knew just how deep of a crazy circumstance 左京 had fallen into.

荒

He stabs MC to death and panics after realizing what he has done, and decides that the only way to stop was to kill himself and take the sword down with him. They both end up in the underworld, only to discover that 左京's crimes were too much so they still can't be together, so logically MC just dives into the pits of hell with him. Girl...you're insane.

It was awesome though, because it was the first route I've read that went beyond death, and actually showed what goes down in the afterlife. It was the most twisted end in the game, hands down.

奇

Just as crazy as the last, but 左京 doesn't pull MC to hell with him and she survives. She instead proceeds to go on a 墓参り for every victim that fell under 左京's sword. Not really the strangest thing to do, since technically 実彰's whole reasoning in joining the 花嫁行列 was the same - to pilgrimage to the gravesite of お松's sister. It's the kind and right thing to do if anything.

和

He recovers his original family sword and unlocks...special firefly powers? The whole gang is here again in an epic fight scene with bonus height difference screens. lmao

He goes back and to rebuild his clan with MC as his wife. This was honestly really cute, and a good recall to the original 花嫁行列, only it's not fake this time. I wish we got either another full cast CG or a bridal image even though in the CG that we did get he just looks like a bride anyway.

幸

He stays with MC and plans to build a school for children. Very nice to see the human side of him come through again after the whole revenge plot insanity. Pretty boy deserves some peace and happiness, too. (´∀｀✿)

九十九丸

My two braincells insisted on reading his name as 99○, but thank goodness I got used to reading his name properly before his route started, because I would have been so annoyed at myself for memeing through literally the best route in game, once again reading 100k of in 6+ hours. I'm geniunely so glad I followed a guide, because I would have picked his route if not first or next to 黒羽.

It's either I'm blind or can't pick up hints, but once again, his route blew all my expectations out of the water. I literally was able to observe most if not all his quirks, and yet, I still wasn't able to perceive what he really was. He's cheerful, clumsy, and goofy at times, but still shrouded in mystery. He's pale and cold to the touch with a stomach of iron, it smells like incense whenever he's around (he literally lights some for MC in the common route! Gigantic hint.), he has a black pet messenger bird, and that he was fascinated with competing at the tournament to bring back the victory of to his hometown along with a scroll or something for his master. The 妖怪 also run away from him for no apparent reason. They even ask him about the scar on his chest in the 温泉, and that he has a perpetually bandaged arm, and yet I took all of this information at face value, thinking that he just is one of the types to like to proudly wear his battle scars. Not gonna lie, it was probably a good thing, because I would have anticipated it and could have enjoyed it less.

Before reading his route, I was already thinking how useless the マレビト was as the main enemy in the game, because he gets sealed away again and again in every end, making MC's whole dream sequence feel really shallow. Evil thoughts as they are, I wanted to see the town actually burn to the ground, and for the 妖怪 to properly wreck havoc, and it wasn't happening. Granted, it still didn't happen, but the way it worked out made up for it.

Anyway, he ends up competing in the tournament, only to suddenly harness the power of the マレビト whenever he's about to lose.

Turns out that this entire time, the attempts at the resurrection ritual that I've been skipping repeatedly when possible, has been done before to the 15 year old body of 九十九丸 and that the マレビト has been essentially absorbing his lifeforce for the past five years. His dad sacrificed himself to the マレビト to bring his son back, but because it was a forbidden ritual, nobody wants anything to do with either of them.

Poor zombie 九十九丸, his arm already in decay, has been eating so much because he desperately wants to grow up more, and yet he can't because he's technically dead, and a part of his being was stolen away.

You can imagine how floored I was when everything clicked into place in my brain.

He's also the character that asks for permission to name his sword after the MC, which means my self-insert name, 命, gets a really poetic meaning because it's literally life and death. Things work out.

荒

He was essentially told to control the マレビト by bathing in the moonlight. He was also given a vial of healing water to be used for when he is gravely injured. MC then uses said water to revive him and bring him back from the endless battle with the 妖怪 in the afterlife. He then goes into pilgrimage to the gateways to rid himself of the マレビト, and so he leaves and continues sending letters to MC through ハヤト.

Pretty dramatic, but not the worse end by any means. He could have been permanently dead, and the マレビト could have just taken over, wrecking havoc like I once wanted to. Talk about a proper game over screen.

奇

He buys into the マレビト's logic and proceeds to go into pilgrimage to properly harness it's power instead of trying to suppress it.

It's super messed up and creepy, because the power he's about to harness is evil at its core, and for him to use it to what end? It's another rampage waiting to happen.

和

They journey back to his village to learn about the truth, only to discover that he could properly lose his life in the process, and he does because he gives up after his master gets engulfed and MC almost did, too.

MC becomes a shell of her old self without 九十九丸, and eventually finds herself back at the meadow where the マレビト I tricks her into coming with him.

The part where he says 「常世へようこそ」 in the creepy マレビト voice, is literally my favorite lines in the entire game. It's so creepy! It also means MC was a 馬鹿 and we lost 九十九丸 for nothing.

幸

The most epic battle scene in the game where 九十九丸 battles his マレビト self. We also get to see MC fight with the 薙刀 for literally two seconds before she stops because it hurts both versions. Girl keeps making me hope for more.

Somehow マレビト just ends up giving 九十九丸 his life back. Probably rolled a D20 charisma check to convice him. Absolute troll D&D logic kind of ending. The writers just needed to write an actual good end at this point so they just wrapped it up with a bow, and pretended that we won't notice that it barely makes sense. Everyone goes back home and is happy, and we get 20 year old, hot version 九十九丸. The end.

Writing it now makes it so underwhelming in hindsight, but who cares, it's over and it was still a pretty epic turn of events overall.

ご褒美 (貸本屋)

We also get some bonus stories where the guys switch clothes in their dreams while they were lodging together in the common route. Slightly funny, almost BL fantasy, that made me realize how much slower I read in 縦書き. Time to read more books or a least try reorienting the texthooker page.

-☆-

This was me struggling to write all my thoughts for like half a day. Why do I feel like it's physically impossible for me to write a half decent and short review, geez. Don't know what to do with my life now until I find something decent to read again (maybe, Eustia?).

Anyway, thanks for reading and updates in the future as always. ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧

#language learning #japanese language #language acquisition #study blog #langblr #studyblr #language immersion #japanese #japanese langblr #日本語 #ken ga kimi #剣が君 #otome game #japanese studyblr #visual novel #visual novels #vn review

[meimae]

31/07/21

Another month, another monthly immersion overview! ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧

Managed to finish a couple of reads this month totaling around 600k+ characters which is more than half of my monthly reading goal. Need to push myself harder still, but I'm quite pleased with the amount I was able to read. I also found some gems in the good old JDrama pile that I'm happy to share with you all.

ANIME

Honestly didn't think I'd be watching any anime this month as I just wasn't in the mood after being disappointed with my picks from June. Towards the end though, I started digging through my pile of anime that I put on hold and now here we are.

るろうに剣心

No particular rhyme or reason for this pick. I just vaguely remember watching this when I was younger, but I really don't have any context for what's going on. Also, Netflix dropped most if not all of the live action films, and I refuse to watch those before watching the original anime series, movies, and sequels.

This show got dubbed and televised where I live, so I had no idea what they sound like in Japanese, and 剣心's voice threw me in for a loop. I was expecting it to be deeper or something honestly, but it sounds funny sometimes in a good way.

NANA

I took I break from this, but I'm back and ready to finish. This series is actually really good, and is literally one of the best 女性's out there. The themes are pretty realistic and the art and fashion is really quite outstanding, alongside of course, Paradise Kiss, which is from the same 漫画家 and was my intro to the world of 女性漫画.

Honestly, I could not vibe with 小松 奈々's childish personality and her desperately jumping at the next boy who appears, but I'm slowly warming up to her.

BOOKS

Seriously why do they title LNs this way? The entirety of the plot is in the title. I mean, I guess it's convenient for a first time reader, authors guiding expectations by literally writing it on the front cover, but still.

Everything here is an 異��界ラノベ.

本好きの下剋上 司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません 第ニ部 兵士の娘II

An absolute mouthful.

Anyway, read a few chapters here and there. Still, pretty impressed with マイン. I read a lot, but there's no way I'd know how to make literal paper top of mind. Her patience is through the roof! I'd rather just embrace cross stitch and embroidery (lmao literally the hobbies I put aside in favor of language learning).

無職転生 異世界行ったら本気だす

Again. A mouthful.

Few chapters. Everyone was reading this series a few months ago and I'm only boarding the hype train now mostly because I saw a clip of the anime and I was swooning at how smooth the water animation was. Good motivating factor.

くまクマ熊ベアー 1 ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧

Okay, less obnoxiously long, more cute, and an absolute flex on just how many ways you could write the same word in Japanese.

I finished this! I'll be posting a review and stats in a bit.

JDRAMA

Also known as me having withdrawals from 嵐 (mostly 櫻井翔 saving me from this drought) and plugging the hole in my JPop heart with 星野源.

ネメシス

Look man, I love anything coming from 広瀬すず, but add 櫻井翔 or any other 嵐 member in the mix and I am sold. This however was not up to par with my expectations - the writing was kind of bland and the climax/ending was really weird. This would have been so up my alley otherwise, because I love mysteries, the soundtrack was pretty fun to listen to, and the comedic aspect of this would have been so perfect for this cast, and yet it was kind of meh.

逃げるは恥だが役に立つ と 逃げるは恥だが役に立つ ガンバレ人類!新春スペシャル!!

Someone from TheMoeWay Discord recommended this to me with the warning that it was kind of sexist. What a way to sell a show.

(；´∀｀)

This actually turned out to be pretty wholesome drama though, with these two really pathetically cute and romantically awkward characters. Really interesting too how they managed to insert the pandemic in the special and how it affects families with children.

Honestly, I don't know if I really love this drama or I'm just fallen into an obsession with ガッキー. She was so cute in this aaaa! This couple seriously 恋ダンス'd their way to my heart, man. They got married in real life! I can't deal with that cuteness.

Brb, jamming to 星野源's albums on repeat.

恋はDeepに と 恋はもっとDeepに

I swear, 石原さとみ is a good actress, but I still haven't seen her in anything that I ended up really liking.

This was a miss. It's hilarious though how they didn't even bother doing the whole ~she transforms into a mermaid~ thing that these shows usually do, so for all we know, she could have been a 河童 and we've all been baited. They did go the mermaid route, I'm just memeing. Would have been funny though.

家族ゲーム

櫻井翔's acting was through the roof in this one and I was pretty creeped out by him by the end of it. I won't even discuss this anymore. Just watch this show and discover why its a 8.6 on MDL. Should be higher tbh.

VISUAL NOVELS

ファタモルガーナの館

Completed! Here's my review and stats.

Angel Beats! 1st Beat

This was the VN challenge at TMW that I didn't finish on time, because I came to the realization that I liked watching SoL not reading it. Still finished a route though, and because I like reading all routes for that sweet reading immersion, I'm going to continue reading this no matter how long it takes. I'm not about to let a SoL VN beat my completion streak.

I have never watched any Key anime and started but never finished any Key VNs yet, so with all the hype it gets, I hope I get over the boredom soon.

白昼夢の青写真

Heard that they will be making a definitive edition of this, but I think I'll just read the bonus cases when the time comes 'cause I already started reading. I don't even know when the release date is, so there doesn't seem any point of holding back now especially because this turned into TMW's August intermediate VN challenge.

-☆-

And that's a wrap! As usual, any recommendations are appreciated. Really enjoyed the recs I received the past month.

Hopefully I can keep up with my reading and actually hit my reading goals this August. Really should utilize timeboxing better than just perpetually scrolling through social media without a time limit.

Updates in the future as always. Thanks for stopping by!

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