Mid-Video Update - Fighting God's Will Edition
Added 2024-06-26 10:56:09 +0000 UTCHello all, and welcome to yet another mid-video update! This one is again a bit late because... I got mysteriously sick again, just a week after the flu I had ended. I think it's just a regular cold, maybe some sort of new bacteria here that I've never been exposed to before, but my right ear and throat took a beating that made focusing on work extremely difficult. I think whatever God favors the US is cursing me for trying to leave, but that's okay, I can fight God.
That, could not have been timed worse with me being knee-deep in legal documents to file for residency and a visa extension, establishing a network of doctors here, and still adjusting to a new flow in life. I've also made some changes to my workflow that are a huge help, but, changes are changes.
Those are all ultimately good things I think, but I can't work full eight hour days when dealing with all that crap -- but thankfully, much of it is taken care of and much of it is down to just waiting, so I should be able to have this video done by the 15th or so. As always, I appreciate y'alls patience, and your general generosity and kindness!
Anywho, it's time for the good ol' monthly schedule, and this one is a bit more planned out than usual due to sponsor reasons you'll find out about in... 2 or 3 weeks? As a result, there were some things I couldn't pull from the list due to shenanigans relating to game availability, and my game selection was based on my boyfriend helping me out along with my memory of titles I've been told to cover.
July: Winner of last month's poll, SeaBed! I've been really enjoying this one so far, at least partly because the long break from covering pure horror titles has helped my brain reset a bit from the anxiety of repetition I was getting with my videos. Maybe a creative non-fiction yuri mystery is what I, and everyone really, needs.
August: CARNIVAL. This... I've heard is a very bizarre game, with a very bizarre production history, with some very messy and fascinating content, and a novel adaptation that retroactively makes the awful shit added to the game as part of publisher pressure actually meaningful. Hell of an introduction to Setoguchi Ren'ya.
September: Harumade Kururu. I've known this one for a long time as one of the first titles a dear friend of mine and friend of the channel read, and it's stuck in my mind because of apparently being frontloaded with a ton of ero scenes that give way to fascinating hard sci-fi.
THE LIST: IT STILL HUNGERS. Feel free to suggest other games to possibly cover; I'll be getting back to this thing in October! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WF_2ADCa5UY63yygiElEyGr35UPCf-jfGivuHAeaiqs/edit?gid=0#
Finally, I guess I should write a bigger explainer about why I'm not covering more horror in this upcoming span despite it seeming to be what a lot of people expect from my channel. I've had a number of people say they love my guro and psych horror and denpa videos, and that's genuinely heartwarming to me. They're videos I put a lot of effort into as I do with all, and part of why I feel they resonate is because they - in order to engage with fully - require the reader to be emotionally honest with the works about some very dark, fucked up feelings.
I am very proud of my videos covering these games, but during the production of Kusarihime, I felt like I had to actively fight talking about the same things I've always talked about. Definitely, each of these games brings something unique to the table, I don't want to say VN horror is homogenous; but things like abuse, trauma, etc, are very often major themes, and I really don't want discussion that ties into my personal life to turn into a formula, not least because I think that turns my life into a product more than YouTube already makes it, but because I think that's a disservice to the games and their ideas.
So, I'm diversifying a bit to get myself out of the headspace I've had for a while now when writing videos on these games, so I have more time to reflect on myself and my life, come back with new perspectives, and then maybe I can deliver more diatribes in a way that isn't just telling my history or traumas again. I realize this may not be the most profitable or growable approach, because videos not on horror (or something wacky like Sex 2) garner far fewer views and Patreon growth than a big denpa title or some such, but in the long run I value diversity and quality over that. I'm in a stable enough position now thanks to you all that I don't have to worry about catering to a specific idea. <3
Okay, that's all for now! As always, feel free to post a comment on this... er, post, with a question for next month's Q&A session, and give suggestions for games to add to the list.
See y'all soon! o/
Comments
yeah i get what you mean, i was mostly getting at how it seems like a lot of nerdy/otaku spaces in general seem to host a lot of people (or specifically, men) with reactionary views---places like 4chan and other imageboards like it. i think a thorough answer to that question would take LOTS of specialized research, i do think you're on to something because that's also a sentiment i see frequently in lefty spaces (like how many people just come out and say that they think japanese media is ull of weird tropes and creepy topics when they praise dungeon meshi, completely oblivious to how racist what they just said was)
maddie hunter
2024-07-17 00:01:05 +0000 UTCI've been trying to think for a solid half-hour on how to write this, but basically I think a lot of so-called "progressive" people still hold really racist and anti-sex views that clash badly with Japanese media (edit: i.e ideas of Japan as a perverted nation, anime as a sexualized media, etc), whereas a lot of right-wing people love anime because they see Japan as a politically "untainted" country which produces "apolitical" media, or media that happens to agree with them. If someone feels unwelcome in progressive spaces because of that dislike for otaku media (which is part of why I gave up on finding queer friend groups in the US, so many thought anime was icky and sexist), it's way easier to find right-wing groups that accept the interests than it is liberal groups, because right-wing people are REALLY good at indoctrination and availability. (edit: So a lot of the most vocal, visible otaku spaces, end up being right wing spaces, even though I don't think in reality that constitutes the majority of English otaku) Does that make any sense? I feel like I'm babbling, but it's the best explanation I can conjure. And I feel like I'd need an entire hour long video to explain how everything connects throughout the years, and there's no way I could explain this decently in a short blip in a video that I'd feel comfortable going public.
Noelle Aman
2024-07-08 22:20:16 +0000 UTCso, maybe a bit of an odd question and might be out of your scope, but would you have any idea how otaku communities online have seemingly become something associated with the right wing (regardless of how true that actually is)?
maddie hunter
2024-07-08 05:47:20 +0000 UTCSince this has been answered in my videos already - yup, quite a lot.
Noelle Aman
2024-07-05 15:23:33 +0000 UTCThank you! And, answering this here since I've gone into it before I think -- I'm down to cover EVNs as well as point and click stuff, I just need to find things that I think fit the channel well. I'll definitely look into those two you mentioned!
Noelle Aman
2024-07-05 15:22:23 +0000 UTCJust recently joined the Patreon and wanted to give special thanks to you for getting me genuinely invested into visual novels beyond just mainstream ones like Fate stay night or Saya no Uta. (Namely , I was motivated to read Gore screaming show after your review of it and thoroughly enjoyed its vibe and story , especially Yamiko’s route . On the surface cheerful and reliable but secretly traumatised older women as a trope seems to make for some really compelling characters) I wanted to ask if you’d ever consider giving the manga ‘Welcome back,Alice’ by Shuzo Oshimi a try? It’s honestly one of his most addicting works ; featuring some of the most meaningful discussion of Gender identity and sexuality in any piece of fiction I’ve ever read that ties deeply into his experiences with it growing up in male-dominated conservative Japan. Its main character Kei who is a boy but comes back a girl at the start of the story is who the story’s drama centres around and they have become one of my favourite manga characters of all time in its modest 40 chapter run time. Would love to hear your thoughts on it if you ever give it a shot! :)
Keagan Tan
2024-06-30 15:35:43 +0000 UTCit's good to take a break from heavy content and switch up your output every so often! here's hoping things go smoother for you from here on out. also, have you ever considered covering non-japanese visual novels or point and click games? if you ever did, i would love to hear your thoughts on unavowed or the blackwell series!
Sawyer
2024-06-30 11:20:11 +0000 UTCDo you play other games aside from visual novels? Just curious.
Lael Hochberg
2024-06-29 16:47:45 +0000 UTCthe video on parfait is one of my favorite all-time video essays on youtube. i’m here because i trust your discretion, and you’ve always steered me right
mercedes
2024-06-29 05:39:06 +0000 UTCWould you be interested in covering stuff like 16-Bit Sensation again, or is there a lack of that kind of stuff in your niche?
Hourai
2024-06-26 16:58:08 +0000 UTCI think the reasons for you switching up content types makes 100% sense for both your personal well-being *and* from a quality standpoint. As a viewer, I like the palette cleaners and variety.
Jesse James Slater
2024-06-26 12:17:52 +0000 UTC
