New Manga Release! The Society of Fujoshi Cat Ladies

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life

The daily lives of a group of fujoshi and their two guy friends.

Fujoshi (腐女子) = lit. "rotten girl", someone who enjoys reading BL/Yaoi (content involving romance between two males)


Manga-ka Notes:

The characters are basically based off my friends and I. We had so many funny manga-esque moments that I couldn't help turning it into a series. It started out with me making a few pages for them to read until I finally decided to just release it to the public.

I have plans of releasing a Japanese version once I decide which site to put the manga on.

I hope you'll enjoy reading the rest of the series!

The City of the Sleeping God: A mystery novel with hackers, androids, and urban legends

I recently just published my NaNoWriMo novel from last year. Overall, it took around one month to write (because NaNoWriMo) and two months to edit. It's not so bad for a 70k word novel. Quite a lot of work squeezed into three months though.

I'd recommend this book for:
- People who love mystery
- People who like insightful dialogues
- People who like subtle romance
- Otaku (I placed in a lot of random references only anime otaku will understand)
- Haruki Murakami fans (Oh yeah, I added Murakami references too)

Topics this book also deals with (just a heads up):
- Suicide
- Death (the terminal illness kind)

Summary:

Once there was a city loved and protected by the god Sariya. One day, the god vanished mysteriously, leaving the city in the hands of those who wish for chaos. Strange events and an online bulletin board site bring together a mix of different characters: A mute detective investigating the incidents surrounding an urban legend called the Black Rabbit, a suicidal cellist whose first love appears before him again as a completely new person, a girl with a terminal illness who claims that there’s a giant goldfish in the sky, an android singer in search of her creator, and a feisty girl who vowed to stop all suicide attempts within the city.

Can they prevent the city from being destroyed? What are the true motives of the cyber terrorist group that’s causing trouble?

There are 2 main POVs in this novel: Viola, a girl working for the detective agency, and Daniel, a high school boy recruited by the underground hacker group Unknown. Rather than having a single main character, I wanted to show several perspectives and opinions on a single event.

I'll discuss the characters in more detail on another blog post.

You can get a copy of the novel here:


 

It's also available on Kobo, Barnes and Nobles, and Google Books.

The City of The Sleeping God is now available at Kobo! https://t.co/ncptxPVM2c #suicide #quote #book pic.twitter.com/z7mLJhK4CR

— Papina (@redbeancat) March 6, 2016

http://azukineko.tumblr.com/post/140510811892/whether-we-think-we-deserve-it-or-not-people

Papina's Life Update #11: Gradually Getting Deeper Into The Music World

CASE 3'S iOS VERSION IS FINALLY OUT!! *tears of joy* Well, it was actually out 2 days ago and Barnabas just mentioned it to me today.

I decided to lose the 'otaku' in the title because it makes me feel bad and aware of my obsession. Well, people usually refer to it as passion, but it's an obsession to me.

Anywho, my wrist hurts from all the music editing so I'll make this quick.

Azuneko Studio Stuff

The last chapters, cases 4 & 5 will be released together. The game script is about 70% finished. I'm around halfway through the images. I'll make a post with more detail soon when my wrist doesn't hurt.

What's the next game after Black Diary? Barnabas and I have two concepts in mind. He wants to make this comedy game set in our hometown. On the other hand, I want to make a cutesy dark game inspired by Kikuo's Gomene Gomene (this game is sure to be made cause I actually already drew all the concept art and sprites lol). If you've heard of the song, then yes. Prepare for some gore. More details to come when my wrist doesn't hurt.

Recent Works

Besides Case 3 getting released, I've mostly been working on music-related things, like Takane Papina's UTAU voicebank. I remade it from scratch since I purchased the mic earlier than expected. Again, I need to make sure I didn't miss out on any bad notes from the first screening and finalize the configurations, so it will be released after I do 15-20 songs or so (right now I did 6 songs).

I've decided to do some singing myself, so I can just do the vocals myself when I compose the opening and ending songs for my games. I honestly don't think I'm THAT good, but I'll do my best to push my skills to its lvl cap.

Papina's Otaku Life Update #10: Living in the UTAU World

It's been a while since my last update, huh? I've been working on a lot of things (mostly music and game sprites).

But first off! My Corpse Party light novels finally arrived! Whee! I'm sorta confused about the timelines for them, but as far as I read the one on the left follows the events of Blood Covered. I might post up some summaries if the Heavenly Host forum members want it.

And the current game in my PSP is Persona 3 Portable! I swear this game made me experience a wide range of emotions. There should be more games with this kind of script writing.

Recent Works Released

After talking to Sango, the CV of Neko Kanochi, I decided not to switch the vocals and just keep the currently released version of the song Open Eyes for Black Diary's ending song.

Along with that, I'm also working on a voicebank to sing covers for me. I plan to make a clearer recording once I get my new condenser mic, but that'll be a few months from now. Takane Papina's voicebank won't be released until after I do 10 songs at least. I need to make sure the configurations and clips are just right.

Papina's Otaku Life Update #9: World End Fates;Gate Extra

Okay, maybe merging those three titles into one wasn't such a good idea, but... *shrug*

I'm on game playing mode this week cause I have extra free time, so I am simultaneously playing three games right now. I'll probably make a review or walkthrough for some of them after I finish playing.

After leaving it sitting around in my computer for a while, I finally started on Steins;Gate. Special thanks to Yuki-senpai for giving me a copy as a gift! I'm still on Chapter 2, but I've already been absorbed into the story. I can't believe I got used to Rintaro's chuunibyou narrations. I swear. If this was a dating sim, he'd be the worst protagonist ever, but he'd be the most entertaining one. Speaking of dating sims, there's a spin-off romatic comedy PSP game for Steins;Gate. It's not English translated though, but I heard of a recent effort to produce an Eng patch. I'm gonna give that Eng patch a chance and wait before getting the game.

I heard Steins;Gate has some heart-crushing moments right around the end and some crazy plot twists (cause time travel makes stuff like that happen). Bring on the feels!

Another game I'm playing is World End Economica I. I've been wanting to play this game for a while now. Finally, I managed to obtain a copy. Yay! It's a doujin game by Spicy Tails about life on the moon. I like the whole concept of building a city on the moon.

Although this game isn't voiced, they make up for it with the art and story. There is an official Eng translated version available (yay!).

The last game was recommended to me by Kimiko-chan. Actually, it was Fate Extra CCC she was recommending, but I played Fate Extra cause it's in Eng. I was expecting real time battle, but it's apparently turn based with a rock-paper-scissors kind of gameplay. It's rather hard to explain in words so please refer to this video instead:

The Holy Grail War goes on for 6 weeks. You spend the week training and gathering info. At the end of the week, you have a boss battle. There are some surprises here and there like getting poisoned or getting locked out of the arena. Overall, it's entertaining. I just find the battle system kinda annoying cause if you don't keep a cheat sheet with you, you're forced to either memorize or guess the attack patterns of enemies.

And those are the games I've been playing. As for updates on Black Diary, Case 3 is around 70% complete. That 30% is just basically adding in the music, sfx, and character expressions. Everything else is pretty much done. It should be released before the end of this month. :3

Papina's Otaku Life Update #8: Tokuen Ranbu, Fodder for Your Otome Heart

So my friend Toru, who frequently swims in the vast ocean of tumblr posts made by bishie-loving fujoshis, came across this Japanese browser game called Tokuen Ranbu where you fight with swords who are bishounens. Now she's getting the rest of our circle of friends to play it. The game is still new, around a few weeks old. If you're interested in playing it, there are instructions over here in this post.

You get to select a starting sword and they're also voiced! Yeesss! Here's one of them:

If you've played Kancolle before, you'll notice that they are sorta similar (probably because they're both browser games from the same site). You repair the swords, gather materials, collect more swords, and keep upgrading things until you have a powerful harem-- I mean--- swords who will fight for you.

There are a lot of swords to collect. Including traps. Who knows what other swords are out there?

As of the moment, that's all I can say about the game. I still have to check out the rest of its features. xD

Papina's Otaku Life Update #7: Aura Kingdom

I've been sick this week, which sucks cause I can't do any work. Now that I recovered, I am once again distracted from my work. Buuut, at least I get to talk about it here since this is a game blog.

So I've been playing Aura Kingdom lately. I'm currently hooked, probably because it reminds me of Dragon Nest so much except without the overly repetitive dungeon. I can't help but compare the two because of all the similarities in graphics, game play, and character upgrades.

I don't want to get into long boring details, so I'll just summarize them into points:

Stuff I Find Awesome

1. Quests galore! 

Hidden Quests, Main Quests, Daily Quests, and Achievements... Will I ever run out of things to do? (Still too early to tell.)

2. Loyalty Points

You know how you really need this item but it's only sold in the cash shop so you're either forced to use real money or spend a lot of in-game cash just to obtain it? The game uses Loyalty Points, which you earn from quests and achievements, as currency for a separate shop that also sells cash shop items. It may be harder to obtain costumes, but hey... I'm able to easily expand my inventory slots so I'm pretty happy.

3. Easy Leveling

I feel like this game makes leveling easy. I know it usually is easy to level at early stages, but this game provides so many opportunities to speed up leveling with the many daily quests (including repeatable hidden quests that don't require much work) and XP bonus charms included in the daily login.

4. Convenient Auto Run

Are you too lazy to look for this NPC or monster for a quest? Just click on the quest objective and it takes you there automatically. So convenient.

5. Free Permanent Costumes

Well, costumes are basically your actual clothes. If you take them off, then your chara is left in his/her underwear. At early levels, you already have access to some nice costumes to add to your wardrobe.

6. Interesting Quest Objectives

It's not just the usual "Kill 500 slimes" or "Talk to this guy" then "Talk to this other guy". There are actually minigames (more like sneak missions) that come with some quests

7. Eidolon Buddies to Kill Stuff for You

Eidolon are like your pets that follow you around. They have skills which you can control. You actually can sit back and let them do the killing if you're that lazy.

Stuff I Don't Find Awesome

Before I go off into a rant about how they nerfed my class, the Ranger. I will point out the things I have observed from my end. Do note that it is possible that some of the things I mentioned is caused by lag.

Most of my complaints have to do with the battle system. I find it annoying that most of the Ranger's skills have to be charged for max damage. Uncharged attacks barely hit hard. In my previous experience playing as an archer in other games (except Monster Hunter), most skills don't necessarily have to be charged to deal good damage. Maybe charging would have been fine if they didn't require 4-10 seconds. Also, I find it really annoying how you have to click on a single target to do AoE skills. It's not a highlighted area you can select. Having to select a target before you can even use the skill causes a delay, which sucks cause I want aggressive hoards to die fast. So far, I only have a few AoE skills. I'm hoping the rest aren't the same way.

Additionally, the cooldowns are also annoying. There's a cooldown after I use the skill AND after the shot is released. And if that's not enough to annoy you, once you activate the skill there's a delay between the time you activate it and the moment it hits the target. That makes it hard to time things for combos with other party members.

Shorter version of above: Many things about the game's battle system slows you down (at least for the ranger).... that or I'm so used to fast-paced battle systems.

And now for some screenshots....

And here's my eidolon friendzoning another eidolon lol

I want to get on that ship

"I CHOOSE YOU!"

Papina's Otaku Life Update #6: Translations Projects and Other News

I don't know if I'm late on hearing things or if the news is fresh, but this is what I've picked up lately from lurking in the HHE forums, and talking to Skybird, who seems to be updated with things.

First off, some Corpse Party news!

New Corpse Party Dead Patient Chapter 1 translation 
project?!

Iarumas and L3Z4 just announced that they are working on releasing an English patch of the game. Now that's some competition for Crimson_Flame and Red, who are also working on a patch for it (There are some heavy criticism in the CP community though about the quality of their translations).

Weell, whichever patch you pick in the end is up to you.

ME!ME!ME! already up on sale? I still can't find the official lyrics anywhere!

That viral video's music is already up on sale in 3 parts in iTunes and other sites like this. If you haven't seen the MV yet, then here's the video (though a little warning... it contains some NSFW stuff). NSFW aside, the animation was done wonderfully.

Black Diary Case 1 Update and Case 2 Coming Soon!

We've completed both of them, so we're just waiting for Apple and Dlsite to finish reviewing them and we'll be able to place them up once they're approved. Yay!

Translation Projects Status Update

For the Corpse Party manga translation collaborations, you can get updates from the forums or my tumblr site. Our pace is going a bit slow (considering the people I'm working with, L3Z4 and Iaru, are giving more attention to the game so even if the translations are done it's still left unchecked and unedited).

Hakozume vol 4 is still definitely on my list because my friend Toru requested it.

As for Dot Kareshi, I will resume translations soon, but I am unable to release an Eng patch because of the font. OTL If you'd like to see what the problem is, here is a screenshot:

And lastly.....

Happy Holidays to Everyone~! 
(yωy*) мёггу снгisтмдsﾟ･*:.｡. ☆

Papina's Otaku Life Update #5: GigaP's Voice is Awesome x Anthology

I've been caught up doing translation work for Corpse Party mangas (Besides working on Black Diary). We just released the Eng translated first chapter of Corpse Party: Coupling x Anthology, a manga that focuses on some popular pairings from Corpse Party. The first chapter is Naho x Kibiki~ So, if you're up for reading it, it's over here.

Besides that, I've been fangirling over GigaP, his voice, and his latest album No Title! (Which was released on my birthday. OMG. It's fate! xD) I absolutely love the songs in that album~ Here's one of my favorites:

I just posted the lyrics to it too in this blog. You can have a look at them here.

If there's one light novel I would love to translate, it's Misao. I still have to obtain a copy of it though. It seems kinda lengthy, but I find the story intriguing for some reason.

I want cold somen noodles~

Papina's Otaku Life Update #4: Kenshin Movie and More Corpse Party

I should be doing more important things right now like making the CGs for Black Diary case 2

The opening song of Mekakucity Actors is stuck in my head (hence the title). I really like the art style of that anime so I'll probably make some fanart soon.

I'm still switching between playing Corpse Party 2U on my PSP and playing Rune Factory 4 on my 3DS. xD At this rate, I'll take even to longer to finish both games. /facepalm

I just watched the new Kenshin movie (Kyoto Inferno) yesterday night. I ended up going home at 1am because there was a storm and the movie ended pretty late too. Nevertheless, it was a good movie. The fight scenes were really cool, though I think they made it too dramatic. I guess I 'm just so used to watching old samurai series like Zatoichi. Comparing the new samurai movies with the old ones, I can say ”Wow. There's a lot of improvement！” Though I feel that the new ones are drifting a bit farther from reality. And what's with the excessively dramatic background music during normal scenes?

I can't wait for the next part of the movie!

Now let me fangirl for a bit.... (´,,•ω•,,)♡ Ahh. Souji is so adorable！

As for translation stuff I'm working on, my friend Tsuki lent me her Brothers Conflict Short Stories book so I can translate it for her. I'll be prioritizing that though I can't help but do random short scenario translations from Corpse Party 2U because the scenes are just really hilarious and I want to everyone else who loves Corpse Party to understand it and laugh with me. xD

Papina's Otaku Life Update #3: Never Enough Corpse Party

I finally got myself to watch Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. I read the manga before, and the anime still portrays the scenes as hilariously as the manga. Oh gosh. My stomach hurts from laughing. This series has tons of really unique characters (I have no better term for them) who make you facepalm a lot.

And now,... more Corpse Party stuff because I love the series a lot:

Everybody Loves Yoshiki

Drama CD

If you're a Corpse Party fan, you should definitely listen to this. It's so hilarious! XD The story is just as the title goes... everybody looooves Yoshiki.

It's a little late, but I started playing Corpse Party -THE ANTHOLOGY- Sachiko's Game of Love ♥ Hysteric Birthday 2U. I'll post up my reactions review about it soon. It's been a really hilarious game so far.

All the hype for Corpse Party: Blood Drive is still going on in the Corpse Party community. Unfortunately, I didn't order the game cause I don't have a vita. Ugh. Well, I'll be patient and just wait. (Though I already spoiled myself from watching live streams of the game. Ehe. But they button mashed through the conversations, so I didn't pick up what they were really about.)

Ahh.. I wonder when will Gatchaman Crowds Season 2 will be be released.

Papina's Otaku Life Update #2: Awkward Moments

That awkward moment when you find out that crazy antagonist guy who kisses dudes from Gatchaman Crowds is voiced by Mamoru Miyano, who's this pop idol. (He also voiced Tokiya from Uta no Prince-sama)

I was at a restaurant with my friends when one of them suggested this drama CD to me. As I listened, I immediately recognized the voice. "MOCHIDA?!" ヘ（。□°）ヘ *imagination totally ruined* Derm it. Now I end up imagining Mochida Satoshi from Corpse Party whenever I listen to any drama CD voiced by Shimono Hiro. (。┰ω┰。)

Another awkward moment... but not anything anime related. I was at my friend Alis's place with my other friend Toru. As we were waiting for our other friend to arrive, Toru and I decided to go borrow Alis' prop swords and ambush our friend at the elevator. Toru was supposed to hold her hostage, then I appear declaring that I'm a warrior of justice (or something like that) and we have a short sword fight where I end up stabbing Toru. AND SO... we waited for our target to arrive. Once the elevator doors opened, Toru rushed in...!!! And...... *moment of silence* ........IT WAS ALIS' MOM!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ WHYY?!

Papina's Otaku Life Update #1: GATCHA MAAAAN!

I always ask myself nowadays: Where am I going with my life?
... but I'm not about to go on a rant on my personal life.

Instead, I want to talk about this anime I just watched because it's on my mind. I don't care if this is a blog for games, just let me off this once (or twice or thrice if I do it again in the future). Anyway, I was browsing through screenshots of stuff when I found a picture of Sugane from Gatchaman Crowds. I got intrigued, so I watched it... and now I love the show. GATCHA MAAAN!    (\˳˘ ɜ˘)˳ ♬♪♫

I really like the heroine, Hajime. She's so happy, playful, and carefree. She's extremely optimistic... even if the city just got burned down by aliens. I wish I had as much energy as her. I'm more like Utsutsu, the green-haired girl in the bikini who always looks sleepy.

I'm not into mecha animes. I think this is the first one that I actually really liked. This anime provided several perspectives on helping people, cooperation, and being happy. I got drawn by the whole "ideal world where everyone works together to help people in need through this social media called GALAX".

I totally ship Sugane and Hajime. lolol

Rui (guy with black hair and red glasses) is also so adorable! (●♡∀♡) He always cross-dresses when he goes out but he still looks adorable as a girl too! (´∀｀)♡ Kyaa~ Megane!

Now that I finished watching this series, I'm back to playing Dreaming Mary and Brothers' Conflict Brilliant Blue. I need to redo the Bro Con game cause I missed an important event in Azusa's route. OTL Yeah. Maybe it's a good idea to follow a walkthrough for this one.

Gatcha! (*＾▽＾)／