One word for you: Plastics.

Everybody always asks how they can work in the anime or VN or porn or (fill in entertainment based) industry. In the final segment of this week’s ANNCast, our editor Sloanereinja tells you what you need to know to break into the industry and more importantly, why working it freelance is a very bad idea.

(Also, massive points to anybody who can get where the post title, screencap, and caption are from WITHOUT having to google.)

So, with 2011 coming to a close and 2012 soon upon us, we thought we’d offer a look at where things stand and what lies ahead!

First of all comes the hard copies! If you haven’t already pre-ordered them, you’ve still got time to reserve your copies of Go Go Nippon, Edelweiss, and We Love Master from either J-list or our European store.But what about the 4th one, you ask? Well, it’ll still be a while before we announce it, but here are some more details about it. First of all, it’s one of the games currently offered in our catalog. But then why would it be taking until 2012? Well, because we’re doing a lot of work to fix it up, and some big to-dos in the Japanese market was preventing the relevant people from attending to it. So in the past few months we’ve had one of our newer testers reviewing the text in the game to compile a list of all the changes that need to be made once work begins. The report is ready, and work on this patch will be starting once the new year is upon us.

Next up is the upcoming games. Most important right now is DEARDROPS. If you haven’t played the trial yet, you ought to check it out. The full version of the game is currently in beta testing, and hopefully our testers will finish by the end of January, allowing us to release it around the end of February or early March.

Dengeki Stryker will be getting its script work completed in the meantime, so if everything goes as scheduled, we should have it in beta within a couple months and on sale by Anime Expo. After all, only a game full of this much burning passion and manly superhero action will overpower the flames of summer!

Many of you are probably wondering about the status of ef~a first tale~ too. Right now, NNL is in charge of looking over the latest build minori has sent us. If they give it full approval once they’re done, then it’ll be the final build and we can start moving into promoting and releasing the game full-force. We’ll have a few things to discuss about the release as well once NNL is done and we’re able to move forward.

As for Harukoi Otome, one of our other translators has agreed to finish the last handful of remaining scripts, so we can send them all off to Nexton for scripting and testing. With luck, we’ll be able to release this at long last in the latter half of 2012.

The other title currently in the works is another one from Nexton which hasn’t been announced yet. The beta testing for it is finally finished, so given Nexton’s schedule, we’re hoping to announce it in the next couple of months and see it out in Q2.

What else do we hope to offer in 2012? Well, for starters, you can expect us to finally commence the launch of our H-Manga line in January! We’ll be releasing a couple titles each month, and we hope you all will enjoy them and recommend them to your friends as well. This is a field that we’re hoping does well, and definitely plan on pursuing it further if it does.

As for our line of H-anime, things are at a bit of a standstill. The first series of the line is translated, encoded, and so forth, but various hold-ups have been pushing it back. One of which has been testing the videos on a wide variety of devices to arrange for the broadest compatibility we can provide. (Sorry Android 2.1 & 2.2 users, your bit-rate sucks for playback.) Once this and a few other things are sorted, we should be able to start releasing those as well, so with luck we’ll have our first series out in 2012.

Of course, all this news assumes the world doesn’t end in 2012 like Mayan Calendars predict, so if we have a 2012 we hope to see you all in it! If not, may we all perish together with our waifu!

Yup, it’s Kouryuu’s birthday and he’s stuck at home instead of flying off to Comiket. He may not be locked in his house translating Koihime this year, but he’d certainly still appreciate you all sending him some motivational bottles of plum wine, or at the very least wishing him a happy birthday. Or maybe getting Kara no Shoujo up to #1 on the weekly ranking for him. And not asking when Deardrops will be done. And turning in your beta reports if you’re working on them. And so on and so on and so on.

Some of you may be wondering what changes were made between the previous download version and the one that’ll be featured on the Hard Copies, so allow us to show you!

Before...

...After.

That’s right, we’ve made adjustments to the font to help improve readability in the game. As a result of the font adjustments, several new instances of text-overflow occurred and the identification and correction of those overflow errors is what caused this game’s Master Data to take longer than the others.

We hope you’ll all enjoy the new text when the hard copies go on sale! (Those who have already bought the digital version of the game can download the update patch now from our website.)

“Music you were destined to encounter, with friends you were destined to meet—”

We at MangaGamer are proud to present that a Trial Version of DEARDROPS is now available!

Five different people―each lost at different points in their life’s journey, each heading down different paths, each with their own goals and ideals―find themselves unexpectedly brought together by rock ‘n roll and the world of music. Whether their time together is fleeting or lasting, the crossing of such varied lives is sure to be an unforgettable one that forever changes them.

A tale of youth, fateful encounters, and the prime of life awaits the moment all is set in motion. With the spark of a cast-off cigarette and the opening phrase of a dead rockstar’s legacy, the first chapter of their new lives will ring across the crowded hall.

First up on the lineup is Go Go Nippon! This hard copy will be available for an MSRP of $15.

The next one seeing a release at long last, is the Edelweiss Deluxe Set! This set contains both Edelweiss and Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia on one disc for an MSRP of $40.

The last one getting a hard copy this round is We Love Master! This disc full of maids will be yours for an MSRP of $35.

As usually, all of our hard copies will be DRM free, and all three of these releases will be Regular Editions, with no bonus extras. Barring any unforeseen hiccups, Go Go Nippon and Edelweiss should be shipping from the printers to J-list by December 20th. J-list has already started taking pre-orders, so if you want to get your copy by Christmas, be sure to order it now!

There are currently some minor adjustments being made to We Love Master, so it’s a little behind schedule, but it should still be out and available before New Years… hopefully.

Here’s our first Tester’s Corner for Harem Party!

Hello! We’re Ally & Sally! This was our first time beta testing a game for Manga Gamer! We’re twin girls and unlike the other testers, we play most eroge together, so it was a bit different going through Harem Party!

Harem Party is a comedic, sex-filled game. When there’s a scene change, you can take a good guess that it will be an ero-scene. Most times it is. For  a nukige, Harem Party is pretty long. It took us roughly 30+ hours to complete it 100%! There are 57 ero-scenes in the game, and paths with all 6 girls (if you count Nia & Urr as one ww) which also includes your older sister and her best friend.

You play as the red-haired protagonist Moriuji Haru, who looks really similar to Fate/stay night’s Shiro. He can be a bit of an idiot and jerk at times, but he’s not completely like the typical spineless protagonist (ie. Shiro). I kind of wish he was though because he really gets on my nerves sometimes…The main heroine is Agnes Ardberg, the purple-haired knight. We definitely found her the most likable out of all the characters. She’s well-mannered and at times timid, but can be very vocal if something upsets her! She’s brave and has a sweet personality. While her ero-scenes were a bit boring to us, the descriptions and voices make them quite funny! If you listen carefully, there are a couple of ero-scenes where Agnes makes some really funny sounds while kissing Haru. wwww

To explain Ally’s drawing, there’s one scene where she’s getting strangled and her face turns purple. It was close to 5am and we hadn’t slept yet, so we found it very amusing that she had turned totally purple (her clothes and hair are purple as well). Thus, eggplant = Aggplant! www

The other heroines we liked were the twins, Urr & Nia. They’re cat girls that help guard Sofie, the clumsy, elf-eared, spectacled Mage. Nia, the elder, is a Brawler type character, while Urr heals the party. Nia is always energetic and often gets herself into trouble, only to have Urr, who is more lady-like and speaks  very properly, scold her. While the two are very different, both in voices and ways of speaking, they’re quite similar. Nia can get annoying sometimes, but overall they’re both pretty lovable. Unlike all the other characters, they never have separate ero-scenes, so if you like Urr but can’t stand Nia, sorry, you’re out of luck. This game is called Harem Party after all!

We didn’t enjoy the other characters very much though. We found it tough to become attached to a certain character in particular, which was disappointing because the character designs were nice. We were especially disappointed with Sofie, who surprised us when she turned out to be a sex-fiend! She seemed like such a cute, ditzy elf…

Generally, the ero-scenes are similar for all of the girls. If it wasn’t an ero-scene with 3+ girls, it was either in the park, alleyway, or (sometimes) in the house. If you like that kind of stuff, that’s great, but we weren’t terribly impressed. The translation was great, and there’s a good amount of memorable lines in the game that made us face-palm and laugh out loud (at 4am) such as “My cock was a baton, and her pleasure was my symphony. I played her fiercely.” wwww

There are 13 different music tracks used during the game, and 2 are always used for the ero-scenes. One of those 2 is even used for sad scenes during the game! For us testers who have to marathon these games, they got repetitive quickly, so it’s probably best not to do so. The voices are pretty good, but they’re a bit over the top during the ero-scenes (ie. Cleo, the thunder witch, screaming at the top of her lungs).

Overall, this is a good title for erogamers looking for a nukige filled with sex and little (serious) drama or plot. Although they tried to create some drama between the characters, it felt rushed and thrown into the game. Harem Party takes itself quite lightly, and it is a pretty funny and entertaining game. However, Sally & I played it in 5 hour+ sittings, and experienced intense “nukige burnout” and resultant mind numbing. This is definitely a game to play over the course of a year in little pieces, ero-scene by ero-scene. If you’d like a light-hearted, comedic game with lots of sex and not much story, Harem Party is the perfect game for you!

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Ally & Sally can also be found at their blog futagokei.com, where they review other eroge, manga, and anime!

Get ready to feast your eyes on this cornucopia of women! We hope your holy sword is hard and powerful, because when these sexy heroines get tossed out of your favorite RPG and into your lap, the Demon King is set loose to run amok in the real world too! Your hand-picked party of sexy warriors and mages are going to need all the HP and MP they can get in order to defeat the foul villain, but their inventory’s all out of mana potions!Make sure you’ve invested points in VIT, because you’ll need it to support these girls and keep them fully charged and combat ready if you want to have any hopes of vanquishing evil and saving the world!

You play the game as Moriuji Haru, a big JRPG fan. You go to the local community college (of course), have a sexy onee-san who cooks for you, and live in front of your game console. At least until the girls break through the fourth wall and fall into lap, requiring mana recharges and giving you no say in the matter as they start training you to vanquish the Demon Lord.

While most of the game takes place in the modern world, there are a couple fantasy setting scenes on a specific route (we won’t spoil it by telling you which one). The sex is consensual throughout (often with multiple party members) and 8-9 times out of 10 it’s vanilla and cuddly, though there’s a heaping helping of siscon and sissex on a certain route as well.

You thought we were lying about the wincest, didn't you?

If keeping it in the family keeps you feeling queasy, this is one to read spoilers for so you can avoid the path in question or skip. There are also Urr and Nia, and…uh….we’re not sure how to classify them. There’s also Cleo getting mad, but she’s got an apprentice to take that out on…

Plot-wise, this is definitely a nukige, but the storytelling is present and charming in a number of places, at least when you’re pursuing healthy relationships outside your own bloodline. Each girl has a good and a bad ending, and there are a couple amusing omake scenes as well.In short, if you like JRPG story-lines and character tropes and want some plot with your porn, Harem Party’s a good bet. For those of you awaiting a return to plot-heavy games….well…Christmas is coming and if you wish upon the right star, something magical may be completed without further delays.

You all may have wondered if something was up when J-list asked what hard copies people wanted to see on twitter, and if you guessed that we were talking future titles to release, you’d be right! We’re currently hard at work drawing up the designs for them, but we’ll be waiting until they’re finished before we announce which games are getting a hard-copy release. (Hopefully we can announce them soon–in time for Christmas, mayhaps?)

What we will say for now, is that there are currently a total of 4 titles on the schedule, though one won’t be ready until 2012 for certain. (Why? It’s a surprise!) Of the other 3, only one is a nukige we’ve released or will be releasing this year. As for the others? You’ll just have to wait and see! Once we’ve announced which titles they are, you’ll be able to pre-order them from the usual sources.

Though, before you get your hopes up: No, Shuffle is not one of the four. No, Kara no Shoujo is not either. For various reasons, we are unfortunately not able to print hard copies of these two games at this time.