From the translator

I had intended to update the old site with the rest of Sakuya's content before delving into the new PHP format, but that's proving a little difficult now. I missed the 2-year anniversary date since the last translation update as a result, and I'm gathering at least some of you had your eyes on it.

We get no signal!? What happen!? Any answer to that question would sound like an excuse, so why waste time attempting to excuse myself? That's not my goal here...

I still want to get some new content posted for you before I commit to this even more massive recoding project, even if the site is ten times more wonderful and easy to read. Anyway, keep an eye on the old site during the upcoming weeks. I'll try to keep this space updated with our current status, as well.

From the webmaster

With as many files as this site has, it has taken a while to assess what has actually been migrated over from the old site and what has not. I believe I started to migrate files in story order, until I saw how much they branched, and then started to do them alphabetically. I left off at the end of the files that start with 'K'. So I'm resuming with the first 'L' file today.

Also, some extensive parts of the site (glossary) have not been transferred over yet. None of Sakuya's route is on the new site yet.

Please bear with us while we get things in order!

From the webmaster

You may be wondering, what happened to this site? I wonder that too... Zohar was meant to take over coding where I left off, but, obviously, that did not happen. We've had a lot of life-changing events in the meantime: graduated college, moved to another state, got professional gigs, got married, went to Japan, got a new little kitten… =^_^=

Most recently, we're about to purchase a house, with plenty of room to spread out and have lovely working spaces where we won't be crowded out by our insane pets.

Anywho, thank you for your emails in the interim. They have guilted me into picking this project back up, and I know that when Zohar sees me working on it, the guilt will be enough to get this thing off the ground again. And keep sending emails! They lift our spirits and always make our day. ^.^

From the webmaster

Still making my way throught the re-coding of the translation pages, and right now I'm around 33% complete. Just so you know, that equates to 125 out of 388 pages done. Just goes to show how much work the translator has done to bring this to you, so shoot us an email if you appreciate this website. I'm sure it would brighten the translator's day. :)

From the webmaster

About 13% complete with the translation recoding.

From the webmaster

All of the non-translation pages (should be) up and running right now (this does not include the glossary, which I plan to tackle last). If you notice any errors with them, please let me know.

Now that I've begun re-coding (line by line...) the translation pages, I've found that trying to do them in order is VERY CONFUSING. Because of this, I've decided to do them alphabetically; this will cut down on the chance that I miss one of the side pages. Please continue to use our old homepage for the time being if you're following along with the translation. Thanks for your patience!

From the webmaster

Let's face it, this site deserved a facelift. And now that I've learned a thing or two about clean code from my job, I realized that it badly needed a fresh scrubbing too. This will be a long road, but it's worth it, so please bear with me!

What is Zohar's excuse this time? Zohar has no weekends! No weekends means no progress.

Well, Aoi Shiro had some part in that too, though I speed-read through that as quickly as I was able. I'll spare you the agony of reading a review to a game you can't play, but allow me to say one thing, at least:

Yasumi is the Hermione of the Fumotogawa-verse! (Fumotogawa-sensei is the scenario writer, in case you've forgotten.) I wasn't expecting much from her route after reading the web novel, but it turns out that she's full of surprises later in the game.

Actually, make that a few things:

If the red bull from The Last Unicorn haunted your dreams as a child, this game could keep you awake at night. In other words, it is far better at instilling the creep factor than Akai Ito.

So that's the end of that for the time being. As always, Akai Ito's translation suffers from a mixture of circumstance and procrastination, but I will finish it, sure enough. Allow me to extend my apologies to the readers (it seems almost as if there's one for every update now) who seem to think that I've dropped the translation entirely. ~_~

Seemingly in exchange for all my weekends this month, I've been given the first week of July. I want to say that it'll be ready before that week is over, but my linguistic spigot has been bone dry lately. I haven't used a single creative metaphor in this news update, for one. Let's just assume that I'm saving them up... At the very least, I aim to get a lot of work done.

And finally, for those who are trying to secure a copy of the limited edition Aoi Shiro, it is probably too late to refer you to this site, but they DO say that they're restocking, not that they're out of print. I wouldn't know how true that is, but if it's important to you to have the limited edition, you might want to keep a lookout here. (It turns out the limited edition package wasn't full of smutty pencil cards and pillows, as I'd expected, but actually came with two drama CDs and an art book! I haven't listened to the drama CDs yet, but the art book is very nice!)

I've made edits to several grammar mistakes that I (and a few helpful readers ^_^) found a while ago. That ties up one of the loose ends in maintaining this site (leaving several major ones, such as a page detailing how to import, Uzuki and Yumei glossary entries... hmm...), and while it was a small loose end, I really appreciate the people who helped me find the errors.

Oh, and by the way, Aoi Shiro is out, now. It only took one day before all the limited editions were sold out on Play Asia! O_O I wonder how many they were carrying. Maybe this will make them wish they carried a little more... Oh, and by the way, my bank was being stupid, so I couldn't get it. There is another source where I managed to place an order (www.yesasia.com), but they aren't listing it anymore. Most of the extra stuff that comes with it is just smut, but I think there is a drama CD. Hopefully I'll get a copy, then maybe I'll be able to translate that at some point. (I was never able to get a copy of the Akai Ito drama CD, by the way.)

Anyway, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Play Asia or Yes Asia might restock, so you might want to check back with them every now and again if you missed finding a copy of your own. Unlike in the US, limited editions sell out extremely quickly in Japan, so I wouldn't get my hopes up, but...

This seems like it could be a good opportunity, however, to show Success the lengths of Aoi Shiro fandom overseas! ...Right? Well, I suppose one shouldn't be presumptuous, and I don't know exactly how many limited edition copies were alotted to the online import stores, but if you know the name of a trustworthy retailer that has copies for sale, let me know so I can inform your fellow readers! (Though be sure to secure a copy for your own, should you desire one.) You also might want to post links to such retailers on the shoujoai forums, etc. Anyway, let's give those copies a home!

......Oh, right. Come to think of it, $100 must seem like a lot to pay for a choose-your-own-adventure novel that you can't read, mustn't it? Although you have at least one route that's already online and translated (the web novel, in other words), although it doesn't lead to a true ending... Just so you know, you can rest assured that if some other capable person doesn't step forward to translate Aoi Shiro... once I've finished translating Akai Ito... and once I've had a chance to enjoy its sequel... I will offer my services.

You'd best understand, however, that Aoi Shiro seems to have a level of diction and cultural references a step above Akai Ito (albeit just by a superficial glance, thus far), and one character actually speaks in this archaic tongue that I haven't been able to make much sense of... yet... I'm about to get a lot of practice, though... The point being, if you want me to translate the game, you'd best let me know how badly you want it... ^^;

You can now use the Nav page for the newly added character. Also, to those of you who own the game, a notice:

No doubt, by now, you have experienced some confusion with locked routes and other little eccentricities in this game. One of these is a scene in Yumei's route, called "Jouhari Mirror - F". One of the branches in this scene was locked. Thanks to a certain reader for pointing this out, I have updated the route-branch information. You can look there for instructions regarding how to unlock the route.

I plan to make lots of edits similar to this one in the future, because goodness knows, I've missed a lot here. For all I know, you might not be able to finish Uzuki's route without dying in Yumei's route first, etc. -_-

If you notice something I haven't, please let me know. You should be able to tell when you've unlocked a route. (You'll see a picture of a mirror pasted with paper talismans, "sealed," to be exact, then a flash, an animated picture of the character whose route contains the scene you've unlocked, and a message containing the scene name.

If you feel up to it, and if the game allows, please try to make a note of what actions unlocked what, and let me know. (You'll have to match the Japanese to the Japanese scene names, though.) If you find an automatic branch where you went in a direction that doesn't match my instructions in the route-branch information, please let me know. I'm really too busy translating to play through the routes with new system data to find these right now. (By the way, to use new system data, you either need to erase the Akai Ito system data from your memory card or use a new memory card. System data is different from save data, but I think it's all consolidated into one file in the memory card browser. If you delete that, you delete it all, so I would recommend you use another card, if you can. -_-) If you do this and e-mail me what you find, that would be a big help.

By the way, the Japanese has been transcribed for the next update. Sakuya's route is long, and apparently has many, many informative scenes, with lots of glossary entries. Perhaps more than any other route.

So, yeah... I should have this next update done by... tomorrow! Well, not quite... you get the drill.

Also, there's a broken link to a glossary entry in the new character's route. That should be fixed now.

Prepare to meet the most adorable sadist ever. This update involves a change in the structure of the scene, "Crimson Admonition," so I'm routing you there to begin. This will be going up Monday evening, but I wrote it Sunday. Gagh... I'm too tired to tell you any more than that. Hopefully I didn't mess up the grammar too badly when I was coding. My fingers didn't seem intent on minding my instructions.

There are numerous reasons. Chiefly among them:

One... I work for a Japanese company, now. One thing you have to know about Japanese companies is that people work overtime... without being asked. "Huh? You have nothing to do? Think of something!" ...No, it's not so extreme. I speak in hyperbole--- but coming home at 8:00 with nothing in my stomach doesn't help nurture my creative energy.

Just about the only time I have for translating is weekends. Two weeks ago, we had to move lots of heavy furniture over 500 miles, largely on our own. (I translated several pages on the flight down--- that I subsequently left at our old residence. Urgh!) As for last weekend...... my S.O. received GTA4 in the mail. ^^;; (It took me a few days to wean off it, but I'm fine, now.)

At any rate, a fine mixture of mishap and misappropriation has mired us in a malignant morass of mallard maladies. (Do ignore that abcess of alliteration. I do not have the Avian Flu, though I did get sick once, and almost twice, for the move... please excuse my nonsense. I am in a state of somnolence.)

Right, so... if you haven't stopped reading yet, I want to say "thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" to the people who e-mailed me and wrote in the guest book. It's great to hear that you enjoy my writing, despite all the liberties I take with the English language.

Ours is a very patient and kind readership, so much so that it makes me all the more guilty for keeping you waiting. Even as Aoi Shiro appears in my mailbox, I imagine I will still be trucking on with Sakuya's route. (I haven't even read all of the demo, yet.) I'm going to get you-probably-know-who's route done over the weekend, and make a few critical edits (no Japanese text for one of the choices. I seriously don't know how I keep churning out errors like tha--- ah, right, sleep deprivation.) Just know that it probably won't go up until late Monday or so. You may have noticed that the updates of late are very sporadic. That's because we're on a Macintosh OS server. By the time summer classes end, this is probably going to change, so do keep a lookout for when it happens.