text:
← Gundam is Ridiculous: A Post about Unicorns and Iron-blooded Orphans
The Scariest Anime This Season →
Romeo Tanaka's New Visual Novel: Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu – An Insider Look at the Visual Novel Industry
Romeo Tanaka is best known in the English-speaking anime fandom for writing Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, one of the better light novel series out there. He's also a visual novel writer, and two of the titles he's worked will be getting anime adaptations next year: Rewrite and Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu.
Today, I'm here to hype up Kouya. The full version of the game hasn't actually been released yet (it's coming out on the 25th March 2016), but a trial version came out a couple of days ago. I played it and I have opinions. I feel it is my God sworn duty to hype up the game and its upcoming adaptation for all you visual novel fans out there.
For those of you who don't care about visual novels, there is no hype. The anime will be shit. I guarantee it.
Here's the synopsis (courtesy of vndb):
Buntarou doesn't know what he wants to do in the future, he does not have any kind of dream that he wants to pursue. So currently he just spends his days hanging around with his friends. When one day his classmate Sayuki asks him if he wants to help with development of a galge. She says that she had become interested in his help after she read one his works intended for the drama club.
Buntarou doesn't know anything about gal games but Sayuki claims that she has the ability to make it a success. Can they make the game and will it be a success like she claims it will be? This is the story of youths taking a daring step into the unknown…
And here's the anime PV:
This PV is a very good representation of the Kouya story. "What story?" you ask. That's the point. The VN is almost pure slice of life in its presentation. It involves a bunch of high school kids making a visual novel, a la Saekano, and just like Saekano there are no real stakes nor tension – at least, not in the 5-6 hour trial version I played. It won't be an interesting anime, visually speaking. Most of the interest will come from the story's insider perspective on making visual novels, written by a guy who clearly knows his stuff.
Our heroine Sayuki is an interesting girl. Her brother works in the VN industry, which explains how she has access to so much insider knowledge. I also suspect (although it wasn't outright stated in the trial) that her obsession with creating a pro-level visual novel while she is still in high school is driven by a desire to reach her brother's level. Whatever her reasons, she knows what's commercially appealing and what's not. When Buntarou samples a romcom visual novel and says he finds all the slice of life content boring, she explains to him that high-profile visual novels are expected to have more padding in them in order to justify the high price. Considering that Kouya will cost ¥9,800 (and the limited edition will cost ¥12,800), I can't help but wonder if the game is making a meta-commentary on itself.
Sayuki also helpfully explains all the roles involved in creating a visual novel. The game tends to explain every little detail, but some of this stuff I genuinely didn't know. I'll just translate the important stuff for you:
How to make a visual novel for dummies: The visual novel production team
The person who writes the scripts for a PC game. They can also double up as producers, and plenty of them are directors as well.
While some write the script alone, there are also cases where a number of people write each scene separately. Since there's a demand these days for scenarios in PC games to have a lot of content, it's difficult to write an entire route by oneself, but nevertheless it's quite common for scenario writers to want to write it all themselves.
To become a game scenario writer, you can simply submit your script to a company, and if they think it's good, you'll get the job on the spot.
There's a lot of variation among scenario writers when it comes to output and speed, and many writers get paid between ¥500-2000 per kilobyte of text. 1 kilobyte is approximately 500 Japanese characters, so while some people get paid ¥1 per character, others are paid ¥4.
Ducer (short for "producer")
The person who holds all the real power over the production of a PC game.
In most cases, power over the production process is given to the director while the producer is in charge of the production costs, PR, sales etc., but in PC game production, the same person often assumes all those roles, so it's an extremely important and taxing job.
Since they're going to the workplace, talking with various people and accumulating information, knowledge and a desire for more money, they need to be able to get money together for a budget, a strategy for spreading the word across town, and the ability to communicate with potential benefactors… they're pretty much managers.
Not only is their skill set somewhat unusual, it's extremely rare for people to aim for that position from the start of their careers, so they receive a considerable remuneration. However, while they might be able to keep their position if they do the job properly and the game sells, they will be replaced by someone else if the game doesn't sell, so it's an extremely high-risk job.
Genga (Illustrator)
The person in charge of the key illustrations in a PC game.
While some illustrators join the team after studying basic drawing skills at an art school or technical school, others may attract a company's eye by uploading their illustrations on an online art community or their homepage, but most of them start off by submitting their own work and doing small jobs selling their art for money.
Though it's preferable to work on-site, many illustrators enjoy working from home, and in those cases the illustrator needs good concentration skills and self-discipline since they have to keep strict control of the schedule and budget.
Since colouring is the next step of the illustrating process, it's necessary for colourers to have a detailed meeting as early as possible to make the job easier.
Many illustrators are paid per drawing, so it's necessary for them to balance their workload and profits to a certain degree. Since they are paid purely by the amount they draw, it is possible for a quick illustrator to reap huge benefits.
(Note: "Genga" (ゲンガー) is based off the Japanese word 原画, which is also used in anime production to denote key animation – or, more precisely, the initial drawings upon which the animation (or douga) is based. Sayuki is confident that this word will eventually be adopted into the English language, just like sushi. It's definitely a useful word, so try to remember it.)
Grammer (short for "programmer")
The person in charge of the programming in a PC game.
They have a good grasp of programming skills, and their main job is to operate the game engine. The engine is a collection of programs that processes the graphics and sounds necessary for games, but when it comes to ADV* games, a lot of emphasis is placed, not on complex functions and machine power, but on sophisticated 2D graphics and reducing the number of bugs.
Again, since many of them develop the system in teams, they need more than just programming skills – communication skills and managements skills are highly sought after as well.
A lot of problems come up during the scripting and debugging sessions, so most programmers panic and get nervous at those times.
The overall number of people who can do programming work is low, so the pay is stable. However, programmers who are confident in their skills can take part in multiple large projects at the same time, so it is possible for them to make a significant profit.
* ADV = Adventure, as in "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. This is the Japanese term for the kind of visual novel where your choices affect the ending.
Phicker (short for "graphicker" or "graphics artist")
The person in charge of colouring the illustrations in a PC game.
Their main job is to use CG (Computer Graphics) and colour the line drawings produced by the illustrator. Many technical schools offer CG courses, and it is possible to learn the specialised knowledge necessary to handle painting software, so this job is easy to get. Not only do they need technological know-how to use CG tools, they need the creative power to grasp what the illustrator was trying to express with their drawings and convey it in 3D.
There are many cases where graphic artists take up a part-time job colouring and then join the company after they get recognised for their skills, as well as cases where they are judged according to the approach they took to the chosen title. Plenty of illustrators double up as a graphics chiefs, but in those cases, they work concurrently on illustrations and graphics, so they need stamina, willpower and concentration.
When the work is done in-house, it is possible for graphics artists to work and do retakes at the same time, but when the art is outsourced, most of it is done on a unit-by-unit basis, so it is quite likely that retakes will be a major source of problems.
Ripter (short for "scripter")
The person in charge of the script of a PC game.
They carry out the job of making the game more colourful and fun to play for the user, which they achieve by fiddling with the scripting language provided by the game engine. They figure out the game's theme and clarify how to get from A to B. From there, they prepare and gather the materials for the finer details. They are directors sought after for their both their creativity and technological prowess.
They piece together all the separate elements like graphics, sound and text into one cohesive game, which means that their workload is huge towards the latter half of the game production – not to mention they cover a lot of different jobs.
While they might be an extremely necessary part of the project, they do not actually have much to do until all the materials are gathered, so it is difficult for them to get a high wage.
The business of dubbing for anime, Western films, commercials, narration in television shows, and, last but not least, games.
There are also cases where they are asked to perform a wide range of activities: event performances, singing, and so on.
When it comes to games, they voice act according to the script. Through their acting, they bring the characters to life, and so plenty of users are delighted with the voices.
There are many cases where prospective voice actors enter a technical school and audition for a seiyuu production. It is one of the occupations admired by many young people. For that reason, it is highly competitive.
And finally, here are all the CGs present in the trial version:
There you go, now you don't have to play the trial yourself. If you do want to, though, there's a download link here. It's only in Japanese for now, so have fun waiting years for this to get translated. On the plus side, it should be relatively easy to translate, although there are lots of pop culture references that should probably go over your head.
The preview at the end of the trial hints that the full game will involve dealing with a VN company. I'm not sure if I'll have the time or patience to play the full game, but I'd appreciate it if someone could play through it and share the juicy VN industry knowledge, as I've done here.
So what did I think of this game overall? As a game, it was a bit of a disappointment. Romeo Tanaka is well known for his powerful, poetic prose, but it was mostly absent from this game. He does make up for it somewhat by creating likable characters, and the story convey the MC's restlessness with his life very well. But it's still pretty cookie-cutter VN writing overall.
There are some great scenes, though. I think my favourite part was when the MC's friend, who has up till then been such a sweet, self-effacing guy, suddenly flips his shit about his ex-girlfriend and declares that 3D girls can all go suck a dick. Sayuki applauds and tells him, "Your hatred of the 3D realm will be useful for making a game," and lets him join the team.
There's also another amusing part where one of the girls (Rias Gremory with glasses) argues with Sayuki because she wants to make a BL game. I personally thought a bishojo visual novel about making a BL game would be really interesting and unconventional, but alas, Sayuki shoots down the idea straight away. This causes the two girls to have a major fight… only for it all to get smoothed over two scenes later.
Honestly, that's probably the biggest problem with the game. The plot works entirely in service of the meta-narrative about making a visual novel. The conflicts and relationships between the characters take a back seat whenever the visual novel explanations become a focus. For example, the story is set into motion when Sayuki asks Buntarou to go on a date with her out of the blue, but Buntarou's romantic feelings are never mentioned again after Sayuki convinces him to make a visual novel. It's also a bit jarring to see Buntarou transform from "visual novel noob" to "addict" literally overnight.
These issues aside, I think visual novel fans should find Kouya an entertaining read. So, yeah. If you have any questions about the game, feel free to ask. While I don't know everything there is to know about the game, I can look up any information you're interested in, hopefully.
In the meantime… GET HYPE FOR THE FULL GAME/ANIME! WOOHOO!
Posted on October 29, 2015, in Reviews and Impressions, Translations and tagged jinrui wa suitai shimashita, rewrite, romeo tanaka, saekano, shoujo-tachi wa kouya wo mezasu, visual novel. Bookmark the permalink.	30 Comments.
Silvachief | October 30, 2015 at 6:44 am
That was an interesting look at the team components required to put together a visual novel. It's not something i've thought much about in the past but you're absolutely right that communication is critical for putting together a work for which each of the separate features mesh well together.
As for Romeo Tanaka…i've -tried-, really really tried to like his visual novels and I simply can't (having played through four of them fully). Perhaps the writing itself is more enjoyable in Japanese but the fact of the matter is that his scripts lack impact, consistency and sometimes even sense. This one certainly looks nicer than his others at the very least (not that that's why I disliked them), but at this point in time I have no confidence in his writing ability.
This might sound funny, but I've never actually played any of Romeo Tanaka's visual novels. I've only read his light novels. I did hear Cross Channel was really good, though. Did that not impress you?
I'd also heard it was pretty good, being ranked 21st on VNDB. Partially due to the translation (no hard feelings toward Amaterasu's work, from what I can tell Tanaka's language simply doesn't translate well) and partially due to the fact that many of the tropes explored have been done to death since and done better, and partially due to the characters being dull, inconsistent and unrelateable…it's just not very good.
Sometimes when it comes to reviews I play up just how bad something is if it's bad, though if I do that i'll mention the fact somewhere within the review and a final score prevents misunderstanding, but with Cross Channel i'm not making anything up when I say that I have absolutely no idea why it's so popular XD
Kazoku Keikaku has an incredibly interesting premise, though it fails in execution, and Yume Miru Kusuri is simply average without realizing its true potential. Cross Channel, however? It's pretty darned bad (in my opinion, anyway).
Kai | October 31, 2015 at 4:10 pm
Dull characters aside, I did almost fell asleep playing the beginning-it's like the Endless Eight of VN :p
chinjianxiong | March 26, 2016 at 2:32 am
I translated a scene from Romeo's Visual Novel Saihate no Ima here with commentary. The first one is the version edited to fit English, while the second one is the scene with the Japanese for every line included as well as some comments on how I translated some lines.
https://therawlsianprincipleofmediaambivalence.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/amateur-translation-saihate-no-ima-sayaka-shinobu-at-the-factory-part-1/
https://therawlsianprincipleofmediaambivalence.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/amateur-translation-saihate-no-ima-sayaka-shinobu-at-the-factory-commentary-version/
Anyway the method I outlined that Romeo uses is balancing microcosm with macrocosm. In Japanese, he'll use the shortest possible pitch perfect sentences to build poetic tempo, and then lay you with a good one by showing how the poetic movement links to a larger picture, usually a soliloquy or meditation on society, science or the world. In the example above, he starts with a description of a ruined factory, transitions into a simple scene of two characters talking, adds a layer by having a psychological analysis of one character, then expand it into a commentary on modern society's degradation, all in the span of about 100 lines. Of course that's just one of his many tactics.
That higher poesy, I think, is more or less bulldozed over in the Amaterasu translation, but, for example, when Taichi first meets Misato on the roof, looking at a distance its otherwise a scene that you think would appear in any other kind of harem/anime setting: The pervert protagonist calls out to the glasses wearing student president and makes sexual jokes about being able to see her panties. Yet the mood is completely different simply because of how it's told.
For reference, I've transcripted the Japanese with the English here: http://pastebin.com/70LrXvDH
Also, there's this playing, which already does a lot for the atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OFclzQR120
The problem with English, which is actually one of its strengths elsewhere, is something called the 'double register'. English takes Latinate words mixed with Anglo-Saxon words. This means you can speak in two ways, one which is longer and ornate Latin, and the other which is shorter. Example would be "Obscure" and "Dark". Besides that we steal a lot from everywhere. What this means is that sometimes the words we want are just too long or varying in tone because English is a massive melting pot language.I'll show how this screws the translation process with some Amaterasu choices below.
Because you can excise stuff like the subject etc… in Japanese, you can cut short a lot of the sentences and still have the same meaning. You can also do this in English, but it's more limited because it's very casual and super specific. Romeo seems to always excise as much as possible to create sentences that are like hyper-short statements describing exactly what is needed to be described. This is quite hard to capture in English without sounding detached.
If you look through the translation choices from Amaterasu, there are some very questionable translations.
The most glaringly ruinous one is "her expression had become senile" which is just a straight mood-killer. While in Japanese (惚けた) one of the words meanings is that, it also can just mean having a blank look. Why the heck Amaterasu even chose that word out of all other possible word choices is probably because they wanted to link it to their translation of the second line of 'fading away'. They wanted to have a direct transition in meaning from the first line to the last line even though in Romeo's text, it was more subtle
Direct translation without connectors would be akin to:
A strong wind took her shimmering hair into a fierce stream.
Misato, befuddled, cut through the flow of hair with her hand, and peeked through.
Misato: "…"
A sudden increase in the strength of light, and a blank expression.
The dimming summer days.
That's why, with that, in a moment I knew how it melts and falls away.
Amaterasu narrowed the meaning to create a link specifically to her expression, starting with that bad usage of 'senile'. Romeo allows for a couple of possible approaches, allowing it to exist both as her expression and as a general meditation. Good writers are those who know when to specify, and when to hold back in order to create a mood through a mere subtle inference, but never actually touching upon.
But my version, although closer to what actually appears there, probably sounds over-weird in English. How a writer in English would get a terse mood is, like Hemingway, to cut it with full stops a lot. If I were trying to get that tone I may have to cut some of the descriptors that Romeo can keep because Kanji allows for much shorter syllables than English speak so it can carry on smoothly without being too purple E.g.:
A strong wind blew her hair into fierce streams.
Misato was troubled. She cut the flow with her hand. Her face peeked through.
A sudden increase in the strength of light. A blank expression.
That's why, with that, I knew how it could fall away in a moment.
Another questionable translation is "I screamed while thrusting both hands in the air". The word 'thrusting' creates too much jankiness and force. Totally unsuited when the original was "両手を突き上げて叫ぶ。"
Once again, closer to the tone, it goes more like:
Responded grin
Taichi: "I'm cooooming."
Misato: "Peke-kun"
Two hands raised in a scream.
Edited I would probably do:
A grinning response.
Taichi: "I'm coming" (italics if possible, rather than stretching out the letters)
With two hands raised, I bellowed.
(One of the things that may trip people up is probably tense, since you have to fix yourself into one tense in English, but ability to translate the poetics is severely limited if you stick to a single tense. One method to translate Romeo, or other Japanese that cut out the subject, is something I'm experimenting with, to try and mix present tense and past tense if you don't attach the sentence to a subject or time frame and 'float' it, getting something close to Japanese tone in general. Other things I'm trying includes playing with parentheses, colons and dashes.)
Anyway, you get the point. A style that focuses on being able to consistently strike at exactly what is needed for the scene becomes ruined when you overdo with either wrong word choices or over-ornamentation. The scene in the original is this poignant scene charged with a summer's atmosphere and deftly subtle poetic guides to the notion of trying to communicate with others (like how the wind muffles the voice but he can still read her lips, or the whole antenna motif) and ruminations on the fragility of their daily life. Amaterasu's translation places a tint of their own interpretation into the text, which kills the parts where it's left purposely ambiguous or lingering to create an emotional effect.
Now imagine that ability spanning a whole visual novel, intermixed with parts where Romeo can go the OPPOSITE direction and write comedic scenes with highly varying tones and puns (like the joke that comes exactly after that extract above) or long soliloquous psychological meditations. One scene in Saihate no Ima involves just the protagonist walking to school. In the process he meets up with his 6 other friends one by one on the street and they walk together. The entire scene has this light-hearted guitar tone in the background and it literally strikes to the atmosphere of just fucking around with the people you know. Furthermore all 6 other characters have their own personality traits, running gags, voice styles, and what occurs is this crazy mix of voices in banter. Because Romeo is Romeo, he also throws in legalese and satirical jibes in the conversation, yet is still somehow able to keep it in terse sentences and exchanges to create this constant witty-gag momentum.
I guess the main off-putting thing to some may be his ability to create crazy tonal changes (though, usually with a purpose). Sometimes he can write a scene that is poignant, but swaps into high comedy. If you analyze his structure at a deeper level though, Romeo's comedic slice of life scenes peters out usually once the primary conflict comes in, and furthermore, he usually has the importance of joy and daily life as his primary themes, and creates characters who significantly seek those moments because they're usually separate from them. Taichi's erratic zaniness, and the whole cast's interactions in general, is in contrast to the deep alienation and lack of connection between them. Rewrite even has a character commentate on how immature joke-slinging banter falls away simply because people will eventually attune themselves to what they want to do, and they'll be able to connect on the level where each one respects the other's space – the sign of maturity and hard experience. That, to me, is pretty much like slapping Key hard in the face. Romeo always places a dagger between modes of possible calmness and enjoyment, and the people on the fringe who are farthest away from that state, and how they cope with it. (I think the only other series that provides both sides of a coin is the Monogatari series or Oregairu, in both with the second season being the counterbalance to the naïve elements in the first season)
Also he is intensely logical in writing the plot although his tone will vary with his variety and density of comedic scenarios. Look at Rewrite for example and see what he does to Key clichés in the routes he writes. He conjectures correctly that the stupid 'forming a friendship club' trope will immediately dissolve once shit goes down simply because the characters have no proper depth of connection with one another. Then he stomps on Key romance clichés by having the plot expand beyond human connection into a greater connection with the world and a higher intelligence in general. And the way the whole scenario ends provides no easy answers, but wraps up nicely.
(Incidentally, yes, I did read your review – my method of reading Rewrite was to read only Romeo's writing and skip the other routes, and then everything came together quite nicely and I was able to see his full message. You have zany comedy stuff to tie in to that theme, Kotori's route as Romeo showing Key that he can pull a better Key route than they can though it suffers because of that, Akane's route as touching upon the main theme of what it takes to save the world. Moon is my favorite route because its like a surreal mix of hard science fiction that ends with a Shounen battle as a mood piece. Terra is the best part exactly because none of the heroines are really involved. It's the part where Romeo really hammers home the message that, when you're involved with the act of saving the world itself, what you have to do is to go beyond those idle pleasures from the past, yet you do it precisely because of the joy you earned from those moments, and by sacrificing that joy, you buy into future possibilities. Also why I love the ending because it puts a nice bow-tie on that message.
You have to look at Romeo's perspective as a freelancer roped into a Key project, and being forced to work on Key's terms, which is the lengthy comedic side route mixed together with heroine routes written by other writers, and forced to write in Key's style which is highly melodramatic. Yet, somehow, he was not only able to be on-point with top shape comedy for the entire common route, but he was able to take those limitations and the guaranteed fact that he would not be able to control the cohesive tone of the arcs due to the two other writers, and use that disjunction in tone to create his own message by transcending those cliches in his own way. Rewrite is incredibly flawed, but once you see through exactly what Romeo is doing, you suddenly gain insight into the whole structure. Also helps that I love the common route because I went into it knowing that the entire first part was like that, so I just took it as a long running comedy series written by Romeo that was separate from the rest of the game. Probably if you went into it expecting a more cohesive story, you would be less able to context-switch like that. I think, though, that Rewrite is cohesive, but in terms of its message rather than its story. If you abstract the content from the structure, you'll realize the brilliance of the structure.
When I ruminated on that fact, I came to love him as a creator. His illimitable love for writing simply allows him to be work on his own small little niche games in a niche industry, with a writing style that not everyone can get used to, and he's perfectly okay with throwing himself into these kinds of projects and he'll strive to do something with it to communicate his own message as much as possible even though everything works against him. He mixes up all sorts of themes and styles from his favorite writers, like SF writers, comedians, and even Japanese drama script writers. Also he's made his own name simply through word of mouth and people being enamored with his stories.)
Now imagine that ability spanning beyond just Cross Channel into his other light novels and visual novels, consistently hitting the mark exactly when he wants to hit, and you have one of the most consistently powerful writers out there with an entire oeuvre that seems to cut deep into profoundly human themes about loneliness, youth, alienation, human relationships, science etc… that is able to be all parts funny, heartfelt, and thrilling.
And that's why more work deserves to be put into fleshing out and understanding this whole entire world of writing he's created. Of course, having good translations is the first step.
Frog-kun | March 26, 2016 at 10:00 am
This is an absolutely amazing comment that deserves way more exposure than it would get on this old post. I'd like to repost it on my blog (and link to your site of course). Would that be okay?
chinjianxiong | March 27, 2016 at 12:43 pm
Sure, I don't mind.
Silvachief | March 27, 2016 at 1:10 pm
I was incredibly surprised to see such a lengthy reply to an older comment, but despite what I have already said about Cross Channel and Romeo Tanaka's writing and what I will go on to say when I eventually post my review of Cross Channel, I think it's absolutely fantastic to see such an enthusiastic and educated fan of his style of prose and subtext. I've had to re-think my approach to commenting on his work.
However, I -do- have to make the observation that what we seek in visual novels (and most likely other works of fiction as well) is different and because of that my articles and reviews are written from an alternate perspective with differing priorities. I'll try to be brief with this since i've discussed my thoughts on this particular difference in taste previously, but if you want me to elaborate on anything please let me know.
First off I completely accept that a great deal of the…well, artistic power behind Tanaka's technique is lost in current translations. I think the skill and understanding required to adequately comprehend the goals of his writing (those including a sort of poetic rhythm as well as implicit commentary) and translate them as you are attempting to are significant. That said I still wonder whether a comprehensive translation would have changed my opinion had that been what I had experienced when first encountering the work of Romeo Tanaka.
I'm a fairly straight-forward kind of person. Literature from an academic standpoint does not mix with me at all and trying to evaluate that aspect of a text completely drains any enjoyment from the experience for me…so I try not to do it. Writing that flows well is always enjoyable but many of the individual style techniques that you have outlined are simply accessory when it comes to what I seek from my entertainment media. I highly respect the people that have the ability to pick those aspects out and enjoy doing so, however. For me, such things can only contribute positively to my enjoy once I have identified the story as appealing and well written on a macroscopic level (in my opinion, anyway). For instance, while this doesn't necessarily relate to the literary skill you have praised, the Muv Luv series features an incredibly detailed set of lore, rules and schematics that back up its heavily-featured mecha. While for some fans that may add an extra layer of depth to the story that captures their attention that much more, for me it's simply an interesting addition with little impact on the score I would give to the production.
So where you see Kotori's route as an example of Tanaka's ability to take advantage of a disagreeable situation, I see it as an rushed and poorly concluded tale that had far more potential than it realized. Where you see Cross Channel as a beautiful example of prose and social commentary, I see it as a confused mess of plot with bland and inconsistent characterization. Your set of values creates one truth, while mine creates another, which is what I seek to share with my target audience; them being other people with similar values.
But I have also said before that it can be beneficial to present other arguments and points of view when reviewing so that the reader can determine which opinion best aligns with their own set of values, and your comment is by far the best argument i've seen for Romeo Tanaka's skill as a writer. Would it be alright with you (and Froggy, of course!) if I were to link to it when I post my review?
chinjianxiong | March 27, 2016 at 7:05 pm
I appreciate the reply!
I also accept the fact that people have many different approaches to a work and many things they look out for in a work itself. There's a writing movement in Japan called the New Orthodox Mystery movement, for example, whose works are a revival of the old school whodunits of the English Golden Age of Detective Fiction. They absolutely don't care about things like characterization or prose and write solely to present as complex a mystery as they possibly can. The anime adaptation The Perfect insider was an example of this. When you scroll through the reviews of that show you can see the divide between people who thought that the story was absolutely ludicrous, and people who were completely in love with it. To me, that was just two different mindsets at play. The people who liked how the crazy mystery unfolded didn't care at all that the main characters were basically like philosophy spouting robots that made constant metafictional comments about the genre (and, in fact, when the New Orthodox Mystery writers first published their works, those were also the criticisms that they received).
Yet, because I knew what type of vein The Perfect Insider was written in, when I watched it I was able to 'refocus' my brain onto those aspects to derive the most from the show itself. I agree that everyone has their own kind of style to read, but before I watch something I always try to look for the 'frame' that its situated in so that I can get the best out of it. Just because I went on about prose and all that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy stuff like the Muv Luv series for its crazy action. Also I felt that the ending of Kotori's route was horribly done, but it was still much better than anything else I'd seen from Key. I do try to approach something in a way where I can get the most level of enjoyment from as many things as possible.
I would also go against the characterization of it as 'academic'. For me, Romeo's prose emotionally affected me directly just upon viewing it. I only analyzed exactly how he achieved that effect afterwards. Then again, I was only probably spontaneously susceptible to that effect because I've read so much poetic things before that already so it was intuitive parsing for me. Incidentally your criticism can probably be applied to a person like Shakespeare as well, whose plots can be considered as complete rubbish (only in Elizabethan England would people believe that a girl can crossdress so easily and get away with it), but who is able to dig into certain core essences of human nature simply by the power of his writing. Romeo cuts his prose minimally, but it also doesn't make it an easy read because of how packed with density everything is.
But, because of the above, I would really really disagree with the part about the characterization, although I would say that it's definitely more 'archetypal' than psychological. Half of the reason why Romeo has his following is because he's able to cut very deeply into certain kinds of mindsets, like the outsider-mindset or how people connect to one another through relationships, then he takes those aspects and places them into bigger than life situations. If I were to give an analogue it would probably be the manga writer Inio Asano, or even Eva. The social commentary or macrocosm soliloquies that he uses would not work if he didn't link it to the microcosm, or the character aspects (also, what he writes as person to person interaction and loads of jokes can have a lot of subtext underneath). Likewise people who watch Eva and were expecting a Mecha story with all their questions answered instead got this psychological profile of tortured adolescence, which is why the show is so polarizing. Or people commenting on Shakespeare's characters etc…
Trying to separate the characterization from the prose is like trying to watch a version of Toradora where all the characters were played by elderly people. You just can't buy that it's a great melodrama of adolescent romance because you can't see the great style of art that makes it easy for you to buy how these two misfits would fall for each other. (Although, personally, I think that Romeo has waaaay better characters than that)
I would say that, personally placing a lot more faith in the work than in myself is a key to enjoying greater things. I aim to write reviews and analyses that can show those missing aspects and teach people how to view those things. Sometimes I come across things that I initially really really despise, but then somehow I hear some things about it and then I go back and it manages to 'click' for me. I think that Cross Channel may be a work where it structure seems haphazard on first glance, but then when you return to it, it somehow opens up into vistas of knowledge and character. And because Romeo leaves quite a number of ways to approach the work, you can have people placing their own vision upon it. There was that guy who made the second translation, George Henry Shaft, who wrote like a dunno-how-many hundred page thesis on Cross Channel and had a Christian interpretation of it. While I think that most of what he wrote was bonkers and narrowed the meaning of the text, the very fact that he was able to draw so much from it at least goes to show how much is going on underneath.
Anyway, I myself am one of those who wants to try my hand at a translation of it eventually, although my Japanese is incredibly lackluster now. Translation in general though is a mountain to surpass and a lot of people underestimate what needs to be done to get into it properly. With World Literature, a good translation is usually either done by a person with the poetic skill who can approximate very well the meaning of the text and has enough tricks up his sleeves to find alternatives to convey the sense of it, or a scholar who makes up for his lack of poetic skill by years of research, or, for the best, a person who does both. At the very least, I want those under the radar writers to have a better chance in the public eye than what they currently have now, and I also want to discover writers who have that thing that's worth spreading.
Also I don't mind you linking the comment. Thanks!
Silvachief | March 28, 2016 at 4:49 am
WordPress wouldn't let me reply to your latest comment (presumably because they're getting too thin), so i'll reply here instead so you still receive the notification.
I'm glad you're open to other viewing "strategies" (which is a term I think i'll start using more often) as I often find others dismiss conflicting views as unintellectual and shallow-minded. I'm always intrigued by those divides in opinion when they pop up because I'm usually firmly entrenched on one side or the other rather than in the middle. I'll have to look up The Perfect Insider (though from your description I can already imagine those examples of criticism you've shared will become my own), though I would be interested in hearing whether you've read Umineko and, if you have, what you thought of it. While I found the mystery/fantasy conflict explored by Ryukishi07 to be fascinating it was another example of a production that was let down by its macrostory. I would hazard a guess that it would be right up your alley, however.
I definitely didn't mean to suggest that you didn't enjoy Muv Luv or similar productions (though I -am- glad to hear you enjoyed it XD), and academic was merely my way of gathering all those aspects into one place, so I can appreciate your assertion that it was slightly off the mark. You hit the nail on the head with your other examples; my experience with Shakespeare is limited (Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream) but "complete rubbish" or at the very least "utterly tedious" would certainly align with my view of his work. That said, I also appreciate the appeal of his plays at the time of their writing and his contributions to the English language. Incidentally, Eva was also not my cup of tea for reasons similar to the one you have identified, though i'll leave that for now.
I'm also aware of that second translation (and it's reputation), so I get what you're talking about there. The stuff about Cross Channel's characters, though….is harder for me to accept. If you're around when I post my review i'd be more than happy to talk about them then. In any case, if you were ever to attempt a re-translation i'd be willing to give it a shot, so that at the very least I can get a handle on what Cross Channel is to real fans.
So, basically, good luck! We may have different views but your arguments identify yours as valuable to me, so i'll poke around your blog a little and see if I can't broaden my horizons a little to better cater to my own audience.
fireminer | October 31, 2015 at 12:44 am
Should I say "Finally something useful and educative"?
Are you implying my posts are not useful and educational? :P
arbitrary_greay | October 31, 2015 at 10:04 am
Graphicker is Best Girl definitely go for her route
Or she is Worst of Worst Girls
(Because then you can use the phrase Phicker Fucker. Phucker, for short)
Lambda | October 31, 2015 at 10:23 am
"There's also another amusing part where one of the girls (Rias Gremory with glasses) argues with Sayuki because she wants to make a BL game."
Always thought she looked like she was gonna be Best Girl.
It's really interesting the types of jobs that exist in visual novel development…. I didn't even realize the person that drew the CG may be different from the one that coloured it, oops.
And I didn't realize what Producers actually do…. that sounds incredibly fun and difficult, really. Even if Romeo's writing the script and Takahiro's planning the thing, you still need to get it across that Romeo's writing the script and Takahiro's planning the thing…. (Although maybe you have a liiiittle more leeway if you're Minatosoft in that case…) And the eroge market in Japan is shrinking so their job can only get more difficult… And they have to make sure the final product is good and on point with the vision and that everyone is on task….
It also makes sense that people become writers just cause their scripts get read, although I think I'd be just as hard to become a VN writer as it is a novel writer…
Although I find the demand/supply information even more interesting…. Would that mean that programmers wouldn't get fired cause of some bugs, if there's a low supply for them? Would that mean that, for example, the School Days series is infamously buggy cause they kept the same guy around for all the games…? It's an interesting thing to think about, although I think in that case he'd get fired, it sounds like the type of job environment where I'm not certain that'd happen….
Thanks for the post, Froggy! It was very interesting, and now you've got me thinking….!
Frog-kun | October 31, 2015 at 2:36 pm
Thanks! I'm glad you found the post interesting as well. I don't know much about the VN industry so it was a learning experience for me.
The VN industry definitely sounds taxing. Even the characters in the game refer to it as a ブラック企業 (lit. "black industry"), which is a popular term used to describe businesses that work their employees like slaves. Like the other otaku industries, VN creators put in a lot of hard work for little reward. It's pretty much entirely passion for the art form that drives them.
It is difficult to become a VN writer these days, I imagine. They probably also don't make enough money to entirely sustain themselves these days, which is why we've been seeing more and more VN writers branching out to other mediums.
gustave154 | October 31, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Great insight on the eroge industry!! Thanks for translating this for us
You're welcome! Hope this was helpful.
Gj | October 31, 2015 at 9:10 pm
i don't know if you are going to be interested in this but there is a manga called eroge no taiyou that explains a bit about the eroge industry.
Ah, I've read some of that. It's a pretty cool manga.
draggle | November 2, 2015 at 3:34 pm
How can writers feed themselves
Can they even afford cup ramen
Frog-kun | November 2, 2015 at 4:21 pm
I believe they feast on the tears of moe girls. Pretty sure that's how Jun Maeda pays the bills.
Yuu Kusanagi | December 9, 2015 at 5:20 am
Is the MC any good? or is he just a regular generic mc?
Frog-kun | December 10, 2015 at 1:22 am
Interestingly enough, the MC is voiced in this game. Maybe because of that, he feels less like a self-insert, even though his niceness is his main defining trait. He's also characterised as a fairly popular guy, not an otaku or a loser. I'm still not sure whether I would call him a memorable character in his own right, though. The other characters are better defined than him, I would say.
chinjianxiong | March 31, 2016 at 10:48 am
Strangely I've never read Umineko (I watched the anime, but that was so long ago and I wasn't really the type to pay attention at that age), but a good review by a person who is more in the frame of mind would probably be Gwern's here (go all the way to the bottom)
http://www.gwern.net/Book%20reviews
Gwern is this anime fan/statistician that takes really strange but fun rationalist approaches to things, and is also super well-read with like 7k books under his belt. His does stuff in his reviews like using information theory analysis on Death Note to show how Light could have maximized his anonymity when using it. So, at the very least, I trust him for the 'intellectual' critique.
Anyway in the critique Gwern notes that many of the uses of the intellectual devices, like Devil's Proof, Raven's Paradox etc… are spot on. He also notes that the depiction of magic within Umineko is actually very similar to real life hallucinations:
"The "magic" system elaborated by Ange and Maria (for characters like the Seven Sisters or Sakutarou) may seem opaque as mud, but when one thinks about daydreams, meditative/psychological practices of creating tulpas (see references), and one looks at the charismatic Christian methods for "hearing God" described in Luhrmann's When God Talks Back, then it becomes much clearer and much less nonsensical/moronic, and the work that much richer."
On the other hand he also admits that the whole work is definitely flawed, but he also states:
"I find it plausible that Ryukishi07 may never surpass Umineko. (I would analogize Higurashi and Umineko as similar to RahXephon and Evangelion: the former is, in many respects, a more competently done and solid work, with excellence in all areas from music to artwork to plot to overall conception, without the large flaws and stylistic choices that make many people cringe away from or even hate from the latter; but nevertheless, the lightning struck the latter, those who have consumed the latter may never forget it, and it is easy to predict which will still be debated and watched decades later.)"
Then Gwern provides a full critique of the solution to the mystery and argues the exact reason why Umineko has problems, because of its violation of the reader-author contract, and because of the parts where Umineko was not fully dedicated to the message it was providing. Needless to say I find it the fairest assessment of the work so far, because it seems to deal with the work on the grounds of what the work was aiming to offer. Gwern critiques in that 'frame', but even in there he still brings up how there are problems.
Regarding characterization. The problem of characterization depends on what exactly you're looking for in it. Does good characterization mean that the characters have to take consistent action from start to end, does it mean that they have to be likeable, or does it mean that they have to deal with human emotions in a raw way, or does it mean that they have to have actions that work in the real world?
Likeability is subjective of course. Personally I like characters with a flawed edge to them and my personal favorites have quite a number of assholes among them. Shinji is a character that fits the criteria of being consistent, emotionally raw, and closer to reality than a lot of other character types in anime, but the aspects of his personality, like his timidity and his pathetic nature, are just so off-putting that a lot of people despise him for that reason.
Shakespeare deals with characters of raw emotion, and he can also keep with he consistency. In fact many of his character archetypes revolve around a single theme after all, like Hamlet with his doubt, and Macbeth with his ambition. They fit within their own world as larger than life characters, but this means they don't act on a real world calculus. Does it make them worse characters? To some, yes, but to me, not really. Because they're so archetypal and larger than life, these characters are stolen for all sorts of other works, like the Lion King and any star-crossed romance novel out there.
One show where all of the characters suddenly become inconsistent is School Days, where in the last two episodes things change so rapidly that the viewer is left in shock. Of course this fits wholly within the worldview of their creators, who aimed to make poisonous jabs at the harem genre as a whole. School Days is an example of a show that I feel is thoroughly un-entertaining, inconsistent, and ridiculous, but I still think that the characterization is better than quite a number of other shows of its kind out there.
Something like G-senjou no Maou, if you put next to Sharin no Kuni, have characters that comparatively are more archetypal and move around for the sake of the plot, but both are enjoyable on their own terms because in the first you look at the plot, and in the second it deals with a wider theme of the individual set in society.
That's how I view the question of characters. If a character turns me off, I try to view how that character fits within the larger picture. If a character is inconsistent, I try to see whether he's consistent with what the creator seems to be looking to provide. A lot of people who critique characterization don't realize that they're probably only critiquing on one type of criteria, when, even with characterization, there are quite a number of approaches to follow.
Anyway, thanks for being so engaging! I think that multiple viewpoints and reviews can really help to delineate what may be the possible mindsets to look at a certain thing, which is why I'm always keen to grapple with other methods, like yours, or someone like Gwern's, to critique a certain work.
chinjianxiong | April 2, 2016 at 11:37 am
Woops, this is a double reply because I thought that WordPress wasn't parsing my comment.
somebritishguy | May 14, 2017 at 10:33 am
It was a real luck to find that amazing stuff, you'll love it! Please take a look http://gwhost.brooksarchives.info
Cheers, cyan
Pingback: Amateur Translation: Cross Channel – Meeting Misato on the Roof (Commentary) – This is an Anime Blog, Among Other Things
Pingback: On Romeo Tanaka's Writing | Fantastic Memes
Pingback: [Visual Novel Review]: Cross Channel | The Geek Clinic
Leave a Reply to Lambda Cancel reply


Hello. I am looking for some help with an issue that I have not seen before when using an array to export the description field for user accounts. I can attached the entire script if needed although the arr used is below. On some users they have a long description for one reason or another and when writing out to a log file it breaks to a new line at some point in writing the description. I am writing 5-6 different attributes and description is last if that matters. Any help is appreciated.
' there is never more than one item in the array.
Take a look at you post. The text is unreadable.
But that only gets the last element of the array. Try catting them.
Thank you for the reply not sure what you are referring to by catting them; how would that array to capture the description field contents change?
My code is attached to show how I am calling the array. and example of the output capture is also attached. This does work except if the data in the description field is very long. I am not clear regarding concatenating.
It is used all of the time in every area of language and computers.
We "cat" something. In Unix there is even a command called "cat". It comes from "catenate". It has nothing to do with cute little kitties.
To be clearer. You are assigning an array element to a string. It needs to be catenated and not assigned.
There is a command that does that.


text:
MARI STATE UNIVERSITY
The university was founded in the year 1972. Currently, it has 8000 students, 6 faculties and 6 institutes. It has 4 schools:
Physics and Mathematics.
History and philology.
Agriculture ad biology.
In the year 1974, the university further established 3 more departments:
Botany department.
Human and animal anatomy.
Physiology department.
Also, the university was awarded with the "gold medal European quality" in the year 2009.
However, in spite of the fact that it is MCI recognized, its MCI Passing Ratio is very low. Logically, that makes it a major risk!
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY:
It is a nonprofit institute in Russia. The university lies in the city of "Yoshkar Ola" {Capital of Mari El Republic}. It comes in the top universities of Russia.
The "Association of Finno-Ugric" university was founded by the Mari State University.
The Mari State University is listed in the directories of Medical Council Of India, European Medical Council, UNESCO (world's major health organizations).
The 6 faculties of the university are;
Faculty of medical science.
Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.
Faculty of Foreign Languages.
Faculty of Law.
Faculty of History and Philology.
Faculty of Physical Education, Sport and Tourism.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
The 6 institutions of the university are;
Institute of Agricultural Technologies.
Institute of Economics, Management and Finances.
The Institute of Medicine and Natural science.
Institute of National Culture and Intercultural Communication.
Institute of Additional Professional Education.
Institute of Pedagogic and Psychology.
ABOUT THE CITY:
Mari el republic is the capital of Yoshkar-Ola. Yoshkar-Ola is called as the red city in Mari. Before 1919, the city was well known as "Tsaryovokokshaysk". In between 1919 and 1927 the city was termed as "Krasnokokshaysk".
The city was named after the Malaya Kokshaga River which flows through the city.
The city has a temperate continental climate. It is one of the ancient cities in Russia. There are a number of bus and railway routes which connects Yoshkar-Ola with different cities and towns.
The winters can be very cold. The lowest recorded Temperature is -480C. It remains between -10 to -150C. It is a great challenge for even the Natives.
The airport lies 9km north from the city of Yoshkar-Ola. There are regular flights to/from Moscow –Yoshkar- Ola.
WHY STUDY IN MARI MEDICAL UNIVERSITY?
No entrance exams are required and no donations are to be paid.
The education provided by Mari Medical University offers high standards of medical education.
The cost of residing and studying in Russia is comparatively low.
The medium of education in Russia is English.
Medical education provided by the universities in Russia is recognized by MCI and WHO.
It provides hostels with best facilities
The students can chose between English and Russian medium of study as per their convenience.
In spite of these, there are certain areas where there is serious concern like low MCI Ratio. A low MCI ratio would mean a lot of problems for an Indian student to get a License to practice in India.
FEE STRUCTURE;
MARI STATE INVERSITY,RUSSIA
TUTION FEE/ YEAR
HOSTEL FEE/ YEAR
FEES IN US DOLLARS
FEES IN INDIAN RUPEES
1ST COURSE FEES 5000 USD 300 US DOLLARS 5300 USD 3,45,000 RUPEES
2ND TO 6TH COURSE FEES 3200 USD/YEAR 300 USD/YEAR 3500 USD/YEAR 227000 RUPEES/YEAR
TOTAL FEES FOR 6 YEARS 22800 USD 1482000 RUPEES
Total fee for 6 years is Rs. 1482000(approx.). Fees include Tuition Fee and Hostel Fee. From 2nd year Tuition Fees also can be paid on half yearly / yearly basis as convenient to the parents. (1 USD = 65 Rupees)
LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY:
The library of the university was established on 1 February, 2008. Currently it has 12 departments, 7 reading halls and 7 subscriptions.
It consists of around 114 people working within it and library fund numbers over 10000000 items.
The 12 departments are;
Document Integration Department
Department of Scientific Information Processing
Electronic Resources Department
Readers Service Department
Foreign Literature Department
Scientific Documentation Department
Basic Book Depositary Department
Scientific Bibliographical Department
Law Faculty Department
Department of Humanitarian Education Popularization
Department of National and Regional Studies Literature
Methodological Department
SPORTS AT THE UNIVERSITY:
Every year a "sports day" is organized by the university. The university provides a wide range of different sports activities to the students in which they can actively participate.
The sports arena of the university consist of a mini football field, a track and field complex,2 sandy courts(for beach volleyball) and an asphalt court(for team sport).
The university also provides gym, indoor courts (for basketball), volleyball and fitness rooms to the students.
ADMISSION IN MARI STATE UNIVERSITY:
Applicant has at least 50% marks in aggregate in physics, chemistry and biology.
Applicant is turning 17 years old in December, 2018.
Applicant has completed his 12th class.
Applicant is not suffering from any contagious disease i.e. tuberculosis, HIV AIDS, etc.
Applicant must have his passport ready.
Many better options exist and the following table would give you an idea of these:
15-20 Lacs Russia (A Grade) Ryazan State Medical University
China (A Grade) Nanjing Medical University
65 Lacs above with high NEET score India Indian Private Medical Colleges
MOKSH is going to hold seminars in different parts of India and shall come to your city anytime, DO NOT MISS this golden opportunity to interact with our expert counselors and get the right advice on your medical career! Click here to register for the seminar!
Also, it is highly advisable to attend one of our Online Counseling sessions on MBBS abroad till PG before attending the seminar as you would have your basics clear since the start! Click here to attend an online counseling session!
To register for a live Online counseling session and get all your doubts cleared with the CEO of MOKSH, Click here. You can also subscribe to our channel on YouTube in order to get constant updates on new webinars and videos on MBBS Abroad! Click here to subscribe to MOKSH Webinars!
In case of any error, Call on 7024240963!
TELE – COUNSELLING:
MOKSH has an extremely knowledgeable and experienced team of MBBS counselors who have an expertise in a specific topic like MBBS in Russia, China, USA, Ukraine, Germany, etc right up to PG. You can be in touch with one of the counselors constantly via phone calls, SMS, What's app, Emails, etc and they shall be there to solve your doubts and help you carve the right path towards your MBBS journey!
9699360370 - MBBS Abroad like Russia, China, Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, etc (if you have a budget in the range of Rs. 15 lacs and above)
8082143550 - MBBS in USA right up to PG (If you have a budget of Rs. 60-70 lacs)
8291922514 - PG in Germany.
MOKSH has its branch offices in 12 cities of India now so there is no need to travel all the way to the Mumbai Head office for a personal counseling! You can still do so if you wish though. To get to a MOKSH office in your own city for a free personal counseling session on MBBS Abroad right up to PG in USA/ Germany, You call on 9699360370 and our counselor shall arrange a Personal counseling session in your city or the closest location to you.
SERVICE / CONSULTANCY CHARGES OF MOKSH
We are a top overseas education consultant in India for MBBS with Head office in Mumbai. MOKSH has been successfully placing Indian students for Admission to MBBS in Russia.
As an official representative of many low fees medical colleges in Russia in India, you get the benefit of on line direct Admission System. Till now, 550+ students for MBBS abroad programs have been placed by successfully.
The Indian students can apply directly to MOKSH or its network of Premium Partner. It would give the Indian students a chance to get an honest guideline to select the right university suitable for MBBS in Russia.
MOKSH holds an Online Scholarship Test every year where in the students get the NEXT Online Coaching on a huge discount or even 100% scholarship which otherwise costs more than Rs.1, 25,000.
It is a 360 marks MCQ test focused on the 12th Board exams syllabus.
FREE NEET CRASH COURSE 2019

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Alec Burks to Leave CU26.JPG Alec Burks, left, is congratulated by CU Athletic Director, Mike Bohn after the announcement.
University of Colorado basketball player, Alec Burks, announced that he will leave CU and enter the NBA draft. For more photos and videos of Burks, go to http://www.dailycamera.com.


text:
Excerpt - Blood Lines by Mel Odom
Today's Wild Card author is:
Mel Odom
and the book:
Tyndale House Publishers (December 8, 2008)
A young Marine is seriously wounded in a heinous carjacking.
An NCIS agent is shot taking down a suspect.
Two fathers fight to protect their sons.
And somewhere in the jungles of Vietnam, a U.S. soldier lies in a forty-year-old grave.
Commander Will Coburn's NCIS team is investigating the carjacking and assault of a young Marine and his wife. All evidence points to Bobby Lee Gant, the son of notorious criminal and suspected international drug smuggler Victor Gant. When NCIS agent Shel McHenry is wounded and Bobby Lee killed during a botched arrest, the team rallies around Shel even as Victor threatens retribution for his son's death.
Meanwhile, in west Texas, Shel's father, Tyrel McHenry, struggles with his own demons as the events of his past threaten his son's life. As the NCIS team works to stay one step ahead of Victor Gant, Tyrel faces the most difficult decision of his life as buried secrets from a war long since fought come to light. The path he chooses will change his—and Shel's—life forever.
In his most personal book to date, best-selling author Mel Odom concludes his thrilling NCIS series with a story that combines fast-paced action, meticulous research, and true-to-life characters and military situations. It is at once a military saga, a gritty crime thriller, and a heartfelt drama of love, loyalty, and faith.
Mel Odomis a best-selling author with many published works to his credit. Mel has been inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame and received the Alex Award for his fantasy novel The Rover. Paid in Blood was the first book in Mel's three-book Military NCIS series. He has also published four military thrillers with Tyndale House; Apocalypse Dawn, Apocalypse Crucible, Apocalypse Burning and Apocalypse Unleashed. Mel teaches courses in forensic investigation, crime-scene investigation, profiling, and cold-case investigation. Mel and his family reside in Oklahoma City.
Visit the author's website.
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (December 8, 2008)
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
"Did you come here to play basketball or wage war?"
Shelton McHenry, gunnery sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, shook the sweat out of his eyes and ignored the question. After long minutes of hard exertion, his breath echoed inside his head and chest. His throat burned. Despite the air-conditioning, the gym felt hot. He put his hands on his head and sucked in a deep breath of air. It didn't help. He still felt mean.
There was no other word for it. He wanted the workout provided by the game, but he wanted it for the physical confrontation rather than the exercise. He had hoped it would burn through the restless anger that rattled within him.
Normally when he got like this, he tried to stay away from other people. He would gather up Max, the black Labrador retriever that was his military canine partner, and go for a run along a secluded beach until he exhausted the emotion. Sometimes it took hours.
That anger had been part of him since he was a kid. He had never truly understood it, but he'd learned to master it—for the most part—a long time ago. But now and again, there were bad days when it got away from him. Usually those bad days were holidays.
Today was Father's Day. It was the worst of all of them. Even Christmas, a time when families got together, wasn't as bad as Father's Day. During the heady rush of Christmas—muted by the sheer effort and logistics of getting from one place to another after another, of making sure presents for his brother's kids were intact and wrapped and not forgotten, of preparing and consuming the endless supply of food—he could concentrate on something other than his father.
But not today. Never on Father's Day.
The anger was bad enough, but the thing that totally wrecked him and kicked his butt was the guilt. Even though he didn't know what to do, there was no escaping the fact that he should be doing something. He was supposed to be back home.
Usually he was stationed somewhere and could escape the guilt by making a quick phone call, offering up an apology, and losing himself back in the field. But after taking the MOS change to Naval Criminal Investigative Service, he was free on weekends unless the team was working a hot case.
At present, there were no hot cases on the horizon. There wasn't even follow-up to anything else they'd been working on. He'd had no excuse for not going. Don, his brother, had called a few days ago to find out if Shel was coming. Shel had told him no but had offered no reason. Don had been kind enough not to ask why. So Shel was stuck with the anger, guilt, and frustration.
"You hearing me, gunney?"
Shel restrained the anger a step before it got loose. Over on the sidelines of the gym, Max gave a tentative bark. The Labrador paced uneasily, and Shel knew the dog sensed his mood.
Dial it down, he told himself. Just finish up here. Be glad you're able to work through it.
He just wished it helped more.
"Yeah," Shel said. "I hear you."
"Good. 'Cause for a second there I thought you'd checked out on me." Remy Gautreau mopped his face with his shirt.
He was young and black, hard-bodied but lean, where Shel looked like he'd been put together with four-by-fours. Gang tattoos in blue ink showed on Remy's chest and abdomen when he'd lifted his shirt. Shel had noticed the tattoos before, but he hadn't asked about them. Even after working together for more than a year, it wasn't something soldiers talked about.
Before he'd entered the Navy and trained as a Navy SEAL, Remy Gautreau had been someone else. Most enlisted had. Then whatever branch of military service they signed on for changed them into someone else. The past was shed as easily as a snake lost its skin. Men and women were given a different present for that time and usually ended up with a different future than they would have had.
But they don't take away the past, do they? Shel asked himself. They just pretend it never happened.
"Where you been?" Remy asked.
"Right here." Shel broke eye contact with the other man. He could lie out in the field when it was necessary, but he had trouble lying to friends. "Playing center."
Remy was part of the NCIS team that Shel was currently assigned to. His rank was chief petty officer. He wore bright orange knee-length basketball shorts and a white Tar Heels basketball jersey. Shel wore Marine-issue black shorts and a gray sweatshirt with the sleeves hacked off. Both men bore bullet and knife scars from previous battles.
The other group of players stood at their end of the basketball court. Other groups of men were waiting their turn.
Shel and Remy were playing iron man pickup basketball. The winning team got to stay on the court, but they had to keep winning. While they were getting more tired, each successive team rested up. Evading fatigue, learning to play four hard and let the fifth man rest on his feet, was a big part of staying on top. It was a lot like playing chess.
"You've been here," Remy agreed in a soft voice. "But this ain't where your head's been. You just been visiting this game."
"Guy's good, Remy. I'm doing my best."
The other team's center was Del Greene, a giant at six feet eight inches tall—four inches taller than Shel. But he was more slender than Shel, turned better in the tight corners, and could get up higher on the boards. Rebounding the ball after each shot was an immense struggle, but once in position Shel was hard to move. He'd come down with his fair share of rebounds.
Basketball wasn't Shel's game. He'd played it all through high school, but football was his chosen gladiator's field in the world of sports. He had played linebacker and had been offered a full-ride scholarship to a dozen different colleges. He had opted for the Marines instead. Anything to shake the dust of his father's cattle ranch from his boots. None of the colleges had been far enough away for what he had wanted at the time. After all those years of misunderstandings on the ranch, Shel had just wanted to be gone.
"You're doing great against that guy," Remy said. "Better than I thought you would. He's a better basketball player, but you're a better thinker. You're shutting him down. Which is part of the problem. You're taking his game away from him and it's making him mad. Problem is, you got no finesse. He's wearing you like a cheap shirt. If we had a referee for this game, you'd already have been tossed for personal fouls."
"Yeah, well, he doesn't play like a homecoming queen himself." Shel wiped his mouth on his shirt. The material came away bloody. He had caught an elbow in the face last time that had split the inside of his cheek. "He's not afraid of dishing it out."
"Don't get me wrong. I didn't say that fool didn't have it coming, but I am saying that this isn't the time or the place for a grudge match." Remy wiped his face with his shirt again. "The last thing we need is for Will to have to come down and get us out of the hoosegow over a basketball game. He's already stressed over Father's Day because he's having to share his time with his kids' new stepfather."
Shel knew United States Navy Commander Will Coburn to be a fine man and officer. He had followed Will into several firefights during their years together on the NCIS team.
The marriage of Will's ex-wife was only months old. Everyone on the team knew that Will had taken the marriage in stride as best as he could, but the change was still a lot to deal with. Having his kids involved only made things worse. Before, Father's Day and Mother's Day had been mutually exclusive. This year the kids' mother had insisted that the day be shared between households.
One of the other players stepped forward. "Are we going to play ball? Or are you two just going to stand over there and hold hands?"
Shel felt that old smile—the one that didn't belong and didn't reflect anything that was going on inside him—curve his lips. That smile had gotten him into a lot of trouble with his daddy and had been a definite warning to his brother, Don.
The other team didn't have a clue.
"The way you guys are playing," Shel said as he stepped toward the other team, "I think we've got time to do both."
Behind him, Shel heard Remy curse.
At the offensive goal, Shel worked hard to break free of the other player's defense. But every move he made, every step he took, Greene was on top of him. Shel knew basketball, but the other guy knew it better.
A small Hispanic guy named Melendez played point guard for Shel and Remy's team. He flipped the ball around the perimeter with quick, short passes back and forth to the wings. Unable to get a shot off, Remy and the other wing kept passing the ball back.
Shel knew they wanted to get the ball inside to him if they could. They needed the basket to tie up the game. They were too tired to go back down the court and end up two buckets behind.
Melendez snuck a quick pass by the guard and got the ball to Shel. With a fast spin, Shel turned and tried to put the ball up. But as soon as it left his fingers, Greene slapped the shot away. Thankfully Melendez managed to recover the loose ball.
"Don't you try to bring that trash in here," Greene taunted. "This is my house. Nobody comes into my house." Sweat dappled his dark features and his mocking smile showed white and clean. "You may be big, gunney, but you ain't big enough. You hear what I'm saying?"
Shel tried to ignore the mocking voice and the fact that Greene was now bumping up against him even harder than before. The man wasn't just taunting anymore. He was going for an all-out assault.
Melendez caught a screen from Remy and rolled out with the basketball before the other defensive player could pick him up. One of the key elements to their whole game was the fact that most of them had played ball before. Greene was a good player—maybe even a great player—but one man didn't make a team. Special forces training taught a man that.
Free and open, Melendez put up a twenty-foot jump shot. Shel rolled around Greene to get the inside position for the rebound. Greene had gone up in an effort to deflect the basketball. He was out of position when he came back down.
Shel timed his jump as the basketball ran around the ring and fell off. He went up and intercepted the ball cleanly. He was trying to bring the ball in close when Greene stepped around him and punched the basketball with a closed fist.
The blow knocked the ball back into Shel's face. It slammed against his nose and teeth hard enough to snap his head back. He tasted blood immediately and his eyes watered. The sudden onslaught of pain chipped away at the control that Shel had maintained. He turned instantly, and Greene stood ready and waiting. Two of the guys on his team fell in behind him.
"You don't want none of this," Greene crowed. "I promise you don't want none of this." He had his hands raised in front of him and stood in what Shel recognized as a martial arts stance.
Shel wasn't big on martial arts. Most of his hand-to-hand combat ability had been picked up in the field and from men he had sparred with to increase his knowledge.
"You're a big man," Greene snarled, "but I'm badder."
Despite the tension that had suddenly filled the gymnasium and the odds against him, Shel grinned. This was more along the lines of what he needed. He took a step forward.
Remy darted between them and put his hands up. "That's it. Game's over. We're done here."
"Then who wins the game?" another man asked.
"We win the game," one of the men on Shel's team said.
"Your big man fouled intentionally," Melendez said. "That's a forfeit in my book."
"Good thing you ain't keepin' the book," Greene said. He never broke eye contact with Shel. "Is that how you gonna call it, dawg? Gonna curl up like a little girl and cry? Or are you gonna man up and play ball?"
Remy turned to face the heckler. "Back off, clown. You don't even know the trouble you're trying to buy into."
Greene was faster than Shel expected even after playing against the man. Before Remy could raise his hands to defend himself, Greene hit him in the face.
Driven by the blow, Remy staggered backward.
Copyright © 2008 by Mel Odom. All rights reserved
Adrianna O'Regan Tue Jan 06, 01:04:00 PM 2009
Thanks for posting this Camy! I've been waiting for Blood Lines to come out since it was first supposed to be released in July and was held back. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!