Posted: 4/9/2025
Whoops, I forgot to update for about a month! Well there are a few minor reports I'd like to make, if you'll allow me the time...
Firstly, as mentioned in my previous entry, I am--or rather, was dissatisfied with my site's appearance. During its initial creation, my thought process was to churn everything out as soon as possible to make use of the domain I'd purchased. As a result, the index and all other pages were very bland. While I understand that some might prefer the cutesy, "fluffy" vibe of v1.0, it is, frankly, not reflective of who I am nor my interests. Of course, I do enjoy cute things...but it the paradoxical nature of the aesthetics when compared to what my goal is with this site left me unfulfilled and irritable. There are, at the time of writing, still a few remnants of this former style: Piracy, Credits, and Literature. I often find myself extremely busy with work and thus, unfortunately, was not able to push out a complete site rehaul altogether. Things are progressing, albeit slowly, so please bear with me.
For the curious few who would like to know what games inspired which pages, the Index is based on Piaキャロットへようこそ‼3, About is based on HAPPY SAIN† SHEOL, and Music is based on Night Shift Nurses (Remake). Err, I'm actually not all that passionate about this last game...I just couldn't come up with anything else at the time.
What has been going on in my life recently? Other than lamenting my lack of time to work on this site, I've been preoccupied with resuming translation on a series I "dropped". Indeed--at the time, I lacked motivation and my love for the series had waned, but now that the dust has settled (around 6 months), I'm quite confident in my current abilities and want to tackle it once more. For the record, I handle, and always have handled, the following by myself: raw providing/scanning, translation, cleaning, redrawing, proofreading, typesetting, etc. As such, even seemingly "short" manga are extremely time-consuming! There was a period of time where I felt my skills were insufficient, and frankly, I still do (particularly in the English department). Yet I'd rather I remain in top shape in the rest of the aforementioned departments, and thus my return is...soon! Impending! For maximum "aura farming" (as the kids say), I'll be releasing all pages/chapters/extras at once after I've completed everything, rather than one-by-one. Unsurprisingly, this is eating up most of my free time. On average, pages only take 40~60min each, but quite a few pages have required extensive redrawing, which I do with a mouse rather than tablet. In fact, one page I finished the other day took around three days of work as I didn't want to burn myself out. I think I'm happy with how things are progressing, though I've yet to finish. I'll likely make a in-depth guide on manga/manhwa/manhua translation at a later date.
While we're on the topic of lengthy articles, I do plan on releasing some sort of think piece or essay when I'm able. One topic I'd love to cover is the bastardization of what it means to be an otaku, the fetishization of Japanese culture, and the increasing toxicity in fandom spaces online. I typed out a fairly "TLDR;" summary of these thoughts on the NW Discord server earlier, which is as follows:
i have to preface this with an apology for utilizing the word "normie" but it's the most accurate translation of the japanese term リア充
as older fandom members are acutely aware, covid changed everything in every community. the average person was forced to stay inside and many developed an interest--passing or not, passionate or not--in anime, manga, games, or other "nerd" subcultures. each of these communities have their own rich history where cultural rules were set-in-stone, particularly regarding discourse and arguments. so many new people flooded these communities and so suddenly, however, without regard for these predetermined rules; i'd say that lack of respect for "nerd hobbies" is one reason, and why you'll see a lot of people use phrases like "is it that serious?" when discussing these kinds of things :thought_balloon:
so, right off the bat, that has already made fandom spaces uncomfortable and regressive. there is no progress being made. discourse is repeated continuously with no end in sight. re: lack of respect: this nonchalant and flippant attitude regarding x interest/s is now the norm, perseverated by the now dismal and mean attitude of the internet (exacerbated by governments and general unhappiness but that's besides the point). it is very common to dogpile people online for disagreeing with an opinion, even ones that don't have significant weight...?
this is pretty obvious in the bastardization of the term "otaku" in japan and the way that akihabara is now not a place for nerds to hang out as too many "normal" people hang out there instead--literally taking over a former safe haven for those without, and otaku are often neurodivergent in some way. there are a lot of other things i'd like to touch on, such as the misinterpreting and misuse of "nerd" (otaku) terms or the constant fetishization of japanese culture by western self-proclaimed otaku (tiktok, twitter kids who are obsessed with aesthetics--can also be applied to many "swirl neocities" derivatives) but i digress.
I did keyboard smash all of that at 12AM, so forgive the...*waves hand* lack of elaboration and generally unfocused phrasing. Nonetheless, I believe that I touched on some very important points which will become highly relevant in this currently-in-limbo so-called "thought piece". If you're interested, well...pray remain by my side for a time.
All-in-all, I'd say things aren't hectic nor calm at the moment. It brings me shame that I possess not the time to focus on this site as I once did, but that is simply the harsh reality of adulthood. While I could put aside my translations, I enjoy releasing productive content before my self-indulgent content. I haven't forgotten about PC98.club, of course! Please remain patient with me, and if I don't speak to you again in April, I wish you a happy month.