#// this is my first time doing a souma cg i think. it was fun to do this one<3

[enstars-colorpicked-flags]

cinthean flag picked from souma kanzaki

requested by: @mcdonaldswifiii

[ID: a picture of souma kanzaki wearing his "Valiant Warlord" gacha outfit in the rain. He is holding a weapon behind his back and is looking forward with a determined expression. End ID]

[Image two ID: the cinthean flag with colors picked from the above image. End ID]

[confinedmadness]

[Review] Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds

Overall

I’ve now finished all the routes in Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds and would like to compile my thoughts into one last post. Every time I finished a bachelor’s route, I did write my thoughts about it in separate posts. Links to those posts are found below. This will be pretty long.

Art

I love, love, love the art! It’s so beautiful. My only complaint is that the guys don’t have equal numbers of CGs. For example, the most number of CGs for a character is 10. However, poor Yamazaki only gets 6!! And even among those with the same number of CGs, it isn’t equal. For example, Harada and Heisuke both have 10 CGs each. But Harada is with Chizuru in 7 of them. Meanwhile, Heisuke is with Chizuru in only 3 of his 10.

Music

The music is also good. “Corridor of Memories” and “Yearn for his Heart” are my favorites. I just really love good soft, touching music. Though the comedic music and the red light district music are also fun.

Translation / Text

I’m on the fence about this one. On one hand, the translation wasn’t wrong. However, sometimes the word choices and the tone just didn’t fit. When Hijikata suddenly says, “The hell you say?” or when Kazama says “Shit happens”, I just end up frowning because I personally feel the first one would have been better if it was written properly “What the hell did you say?”, while the second one could have just been “That’s just how things are.” 

I wish they’d taken into consideration the personalities of each character and took that into account when translating their dialogue. Not everyone speaks the same way. Not everyone spouts out slang. Some people are formal. Some people are too casual.

I also mentioned this in my post on Souma’s route, but “senpai” isn’t “teacher”. And though this is low priority, I wish they’d done something to show that Sakamoto speaks a different dialect from the Shinsengumi guys. (Especially since they’d taken the time to get a voice actor who actually speaks the dialect.)

Also, there were a lot of typographical errors--repeated words, missing words, wrong word order, etc. It becomes bothersome after the first 15 instances, and it breaks your immersion into the story.

Interface / Controls

I don’t really have problems with the interface and controls per se. The interface is easy to understand and navigate. The controls aren’t complicated, either. However, there are bugs here and there where suddenly the story won’t move forward no matter how many times I click my mouse. But then I pick up my controller and it continues no problem. As well as vice versa, I mash my controller buttons and it doesn’t work but I switch to my mouse and voila!

Voice Acting

Overall, I think the cast did a really good job. Some of my favorite voice actors that voice characters in Hakuoki are: Yoshino Hiroyuki (Heisuke), Miyano Mamoru (Iba), Kaji Yuuki (Souma), Ono Daisuke (Sakamoto), and Tsuda Kenjiro (Kazama). And while they did awesome as usual, other performances I enjoyed were by Morikubo Shoutaro (Okita), Toriumi Kousuke (Saito), and Ito Hasumi (Kaoru). 

I like the fact that they got Ono Daisuke to voice Sakamoto using his Tosa dialect. I found out through some searches that Ono actually voiced other fictional versions of Sakamoto Ryoma for the same reason. I know the Tosa dialect Ono speaks may already be different (evolved) from the Tosa dialect Sakamoto spoke in his time, but the fact that they made that effort was really nice. (Which again brings me to the point that I wish they’d made the effort in the English translation as well. But I understand that’s difficult to do when there’s no equivalent.)

Also, Tsuda Kenjiro’s voice is always a stand-out. I felt similarly when I first heard Kazama speak as when I heard Hatori Hanzo from Nightshade speak (which Tsuda also voices). Sometimes, I close my eyes and feel that any time now Inui (Prince of Tennis) will rattle on about his newest Inui Juice, or that Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!) will yell “YUGIIIII”  😂

History

Admittedly, I’m more of a Sengoku Era girl than a Bakumatsu Period girl. And my experiences of the Bakumatsu period in a fictional story is limited to the anime/manga/film Rurouni Kenshin, the drama Tenno no Ryoriban, and the otome game Ikemen Bakumatsu. None of which really inspired me to look further into the history. 

This time, though, I did a lot of reading. I really love how they incorporated the historical events into the storytelling. As well as how they portrayed the characters’ deaths.

What was a little confusing, though, was I didn’t know at first that the game shows dates following the lunar calendar. So I was searching for events that happened in January 3, 1868 only to find that it is equivalent to the western date January 27, 1868.

Routes

In order from ‘awesome’ to ‘meh’ according to me (though the middle is pretty dependent on my mood), here are links to my individual reviews on the routes:

Okita Souji

Kazama Chikage

Yamazaki Susumu

Saito Hajime

Harada Sanosuke

Sakamoto Ryouma

Toudou Heisuke

Sanan Keisuke

Iba Hachiro

Hijikata Toshizo

Souma Kazue

Nagakura Shinpachi

Well, that was honestly difficult to rank. In terms of raw fun, Yamazaki’s route is probably my favorite. But when story and depth and the like are considered, Okita and Kazama’s are definitely on top. In terms of whose route I’m interested to play in Edo Blossoms, Iba will be high up there. But I didn’t really enjoy his Kyoto Winds route that much. So yeah, take this ranking with a grain of salt.

I mention this in probably every individual review up there, but I wished they put more effort on the bad endings. I do understand though that there is little that can be done with the suddenness of the events in the bad endings but I wished more care and thought was put into it. Just a shame that it’s an ending but it’s really just there to tell you “Oops, not the right ending.”

Also, consistency is a problem depending on whose route you’re playing. Things that were mentioned earlier on suddenly become a surprise for the characters later on. It’s kind of frustrating.

Yukimura’s Ending

I really like this ending. It’s probably the most realistic, too. I’m glad it’s there.

[yumenosakiacademy]

metr0con 2019 thursday diary

Cosplayed: tsuka-sa suou, summer uniform, w my burger king crown n my leo sign. Breakfast: ramen. Snack: none, but i did bring a package of poptarts.

This is for future me, so i’d prefer if ya didnt read but i mean. w/e.

Okay so.. I had a crappy morning and I only slept for 2 hours BUT! Con tiiiime! I got there and arrived at the hetalia panel a few minutes late but that's okay, it wasn't by many. I remembered I asked sealand during truth or dare n he said dare n I asked him to reenact his favorite fortunate dance n he was like "oh I've been waiting for this" or smth and later, I asked him how his gamer youtube channel was doing n america was like “oh dude i was ur 5th subscriber!!” n sealand was like “subscribe to me plss” n america was like “dont forget to like n subscribe. n receive notifications.” n someone dared canada to b as loud as america n she yelled when they said “be as loud as you were when u lost to russia in hockey”. at another part, someone asked america if she would rather never eat fast food again or save sealand from falling into a volcano n she hugged sealand n said “my lil bro!”. someone dared america to speak in proper english and she was all “oh pip pip cheerio” and mocking england haha

at the end of the panel, a girl came up to me n she said she liked my costume n i was like “!! r u into ES??” and they said “almost” or like. kinda or smth but they took my picture n i felt so happy gjhns

OKAY then i tried to go to the adventure t!me sing-along n q+a panel but they only did truth or dare for a few minutes n im not big into AT anyway so i wasnt rly having fun then they decided to start the singalong when they got the wifi working via someone turning on their hotspot but i had a bad throat so i just left the panel and then had abt 4 hrs to walk around! aw jeez, right?

while on my walk i saw a riku n got their pic n i was like “male idols unite hell yea” n we talked for a bit n they were talkin abt a boy idol series they had heard abt called dank!ra n i mentioned i had also heard abt that! i also came across someone who said they liked my costume or knew who i was (someone in a red beret) n we were talking abt ES n i was like “best boys go” n they said shu and i think keito n i was like “chiaki n mika.. theyre baby” n they were like “ryuse!ta! n rabitz r the most baby in ES” n i was like “oh dude those r my fav units.....” at some point, i saw kuro again!! i saw them but was too shy then later they spotted me as i walked past them n went “tsukasa!!” n i turned around n i was like “erin!!!” n i hugged them n the beret person was there too bc they were their friend apparently and kuro said they were just gonna b kuro for thursday (they were cosplaying summer uniform!kuro like they did in a previous yr) n they just wore it cuz they were hot n went “summer uniform solidarity” (bc i was summer uniform!tsukasa) n we fist bumped and i was digging around my shirt pocket to show them my souma keychain n they were like “oh dude u reaching into ur pocket reminded me i need to get smth from my pocket. i hav Fangs” n they put on costume fangs! eventually they started looking at jojo figures at the stall we were next to n we eventually parted.

at some point, the person running the itabag booth (theyre an ES fan, i kno. their site has ens-tars itabags in the examples gallery n they cosplayed ES last yr) saw me n went “ousama!” bc of my sign n i went over n they were like “guess what ia ctually got to meet arashis va last week” n i was like “RLY??” n they were showing me their arashi itabag n they were like “yea i got to shake his hand n everything aaa. n during his talk/panel (?) i kept showing off my arashi stuff as if to say “I LOVE ARASHI” n i was like “arashi is best knights member.. ara-nee............”

at some point my crown fell off while i was on the escalator? i tried to go back for it but it was gone in the Minute it took me to ride te up escalator? i assumed someone took it to wear but kenyan said someone mightve thrown it away..

i went to metro night live n it wasnt all that funny?? idk what to talk abt from it. they did a “luigi being a gamer” video series n one of them was him playing hotl!ne miami (not knowing it was violent) n he was like “ive never been to florida but i guess this is a game to simulate it!” n it said “proloogue: the metro” n he was like “oh like the convention!” n when the mask selection came up he was like “oh look we can even cosplay!” n he went thru the door n saw one of the mafia members n went “look! a congoer! hello- oh” n accidentaly shoved one of the guys down n he was like “can i help you up-” but then the character (jacket) smashed the guys head in w the button press n luigi went “....o-oh. uh-” and some of the other games were fortnite n he played a violent game n he was like “THERE IS NO GOD HERE NOW” or w/e. they also had an “Edgelords anonymous” skit in which reaper was a new member of the group but it ended w ruby r0se describing brutal ways to kill people (while listing em cheerily) n the others being disturbed n alucard ending the session.

at 7 i had nothing so i walked around. then when 8 hit, i was gonna go to Whose Line Is It Anime but apparently its time had been changed to 7 pm?? the 8 in “8:00-9:00 pm” was scribbled out in sharpie on the schedule board in front of the room n it said 7 pm but now that i think abt it.. i think they meant 7-9 pm. ....shit. oh god damn it. anyway i got sad n left then since it was kinda empty/slow bc it was nighttime, i sat down on a wall thing to open up my sougo plush keychain n some guy next to me started talking to me abt my nails and we got ot talking n apparently he had wanted to go to the dealers room but didnt kno they closed @ 8 n he was here w friend n only had a single day pass bc he had work the other days (his name was spencer) so he was just lounging and i suggested he tell his friends what he wanted n they get it for him if they hav weekend passes n asked if he knew abt the game room n he said no so i invited him to go play smash w me so we went but couldnt figure out how things worked bc there were many consoles n screens w games, but mosst had no controllers but it turns out u borrow the contollers w ur con pass! kenyan was there running the controller borrower table. he said “psst” bc he saw me n i ws like “kenyan!!!” n hugged him n he was like “hows ur weekend going dear” n i said not that great but only bc it was thursday! also my throat hurt” n he was like “did u drink?” n i was like “well.. i have water but..” n he was like “drink juice. it’ll help. that’s what ur dad wwould say” (he woukdnt) anyway we got our controllrs and started playg smash n i went, in order: joker, robin, chrom, bayonetta, greninja n he was teaching me how to play w the gamecube controller (im used to a wiimote) n he beat me every time but i had fun!

after that i was GONNA go to the v-ld panel but i looked inside while walking by n there werent many ppl so i said “okay lets go to the BB panel then. take a look” so i went in there n there were a TON of ppl anyway it was kind of boring bc im not big on murder mysteries n stuff but apparently someone solved it by saying ciel slipped n fell, no one murdered him. then they did the raffle n i didnt win but thats okay! most ppl left after the raffle ended n q+a started n i couldnt hear many ppls’ questions anyway so i was bored n thought of goint to the vl-d panel but ended up not but w/e! oh! also everyone received candy at the beginning of the panel n i ahd a mystery lollipop n it turned out to b birthday cake flavor! id never had that before. it was Good.

after that i was just wandering around n i called dad to startdriving there but the ciel i asked for a picture of, them n their friends were gawking at my nails ns tuff n one of the teens’ dads was like “how do ya pick ur nose w it??” but after that, as i was wandering around, the gundam id sen earlier that day saw me n waved n i said oh hi n went over n they (it was them n an izuru) were like “wanna hang out w us for a while?” so i was like “oh. shoot. id luv too but im waiting for my dad to pick me up” n theyw ere like “it’s okay we can just hang out til then, then, if ya’d like” so i hung out w them n the gundam was talking abt how earlier, a mukuro complimented them on their outfit n they returned the compliment n went to leave n the mukuro was like “uumm arent u gonna hang out w me? we’re from the same series n all” n they were like “not w that f***in attitude” n i was like “did ya rly say that?” n they were like “yea. ppl dont expect me ta hav attitude” n we also talked abt piercings n how i said they seemed cool n goth (the gundam had a nose ring n the izuru had a piercing near their mouth) but how it must hurt n they said it just feels like a pinch. at some point i roled over my bag so my sougo wouldnt get dirty n the izuru saw my rei button n mentioned smth abt only findin one rei button at the idol table n i was like “UR INTO ES???” n they were like “i just kno undead n a few other characters. like [points @ my leo sign] i kno him” n i went “he’s dumbass supreme” n the gundam was talking abt getting the rythm game n i was like “jut read the stories on the wiki the game is boring imo” n the izuru backed me up by saying it wasnt a rhythm game n a lil while later, i showed them the 2 cool rei cgs n i was like “big sexe” n they agreed but the izuru had said theyd seen the croassroads one i showed em (the first of the 2) n the gundam said they wnted to cosplay bloody banquet rei (the other cg i showed em) n the izuru said they wanted to cosplay them All gjhnsm i showed them ryu-seitai too n showed them undead n gundam showed an interest in adonis! we also talked abt k!n stuff n all that! im not gonna go into detail on that (esp bc it’s so late rn as im typing!) but gundam was like “i dont trust junko k!n. like, evreyone else, yea, but junko? no. or like, any other character that’s just so irredeemably shitty”. oh they also talked abt this one messy, ugly, tangly junko wig they found for $300 which shouldnt have been that much n it was just a mess of tangles. anyway t’s getting late oh gosh. anyway they said they’d b on the lookout for me tomorrow so we can say hi again! 

random fun fact: SO many ppl complimented my nails today gjhnsm