It’s that time again: time for a word from our translator “DS55” about our upcoming release, Supipara Chapter 1! Be advised, this post may contain spoilers!
Hello everyone! It feels like it’s been quite a while since I last wrote a blog entry for the site. Those of you who keep track might remember that I’ve worked on all the official minori releases to date (ef – the first tale, ef – the latter tale, and eden* PLUS+MOSAIC). That trend continues with Supipara – Alice the Magical Conductor.
Story:
So what is Supipara about, you ask? The story follows Yukinari Sanada, who has been passed around for seven years after his father dies and mother goes into a long coma. He’s finally able to return home to Kamakura when his mother wakes up, and they are able to become a family again. On the day he arrives he is met by his “second cousin” Sakura Narumi. Sakura is an aspiring idol currently filming for her first role in a movie, and also helps out around her family’s cafe. She is the main focus of chapter 1, and she just might remind you a bit of a certain character from another of minori’s titles…
She shows him around the area since it’s been so long since he has lived here, and mentions to him a pretty forest nearby filled with “sakura” or cherry blossoms, which Sakura feels a real affinity with for obvious reasons. After finishing their tour of the town, being shown to his house, and saying goodbye to each other for the day, Yukinari ventures back to that forest to top off the day. This is where he finally runs into Alice, a self-proclaimed witch. Magic -is not- a thing established to exist in daily life in this universe, so Yukinari is very skeptical, although it’s a little difficult to deny what she is given that she’s floating on a broomstick on their first meeting…
This is where the real story begins. Alice explains that she is a merchant of sorts. She will grant essentially any wish for the right price, and her currency is her clients’ “happy memories.” The bigger the wish, the happier and more important the memory that will be taken in compensation. She wants to form a contract with Yukinari, but the cost is too high for him to be interested. Why has she revealed her identity and targeted Yukinari as a client? What will it take for him to bite and seal the deal? Well, you’ll just have to read the upcoming release to find out!
Thoughts:
I know I’ve gone on about this a bit back during my eden* translator’s corner as well, but it bears repeating: this project is a dream come true in progress. All of you supporting us and minori by purchasing eden* have all had a part in making this possible, and will continue to do so. This first chapter represents that the English visual novel community IS a community worth Japanese developers’ focus. While we always had hope, there were a lot of naysayers who believed even reaching this first goal would be impossible.
If all five chapters of Supipara are funded, there’s no telling what that sort of success abroad, where sales failed in Japan, could mean for us in particular, and the industry at large. Surely it would mean good things! There are already signs of a visual novel boom given overall increased sales across the board, and more and more highly-regarded companies throwing their hand into the English market. I’d love to see that future unfold, and hope you will all consider being a part of its creation!
With chapter 1’s translation complete, I’ve resumed working on other titles, but I’m looking ever-forward to chapter 2 being funded so I can continue work on Supipara. After seeing how chapter 1 leaves off, we -have- to get chapter 2 funded. You know you all want to see Hotaru’s story unfold! Here’s hoping I’ll be back sometime soon writing a translator’s corner for chapter 2!
Supipara Chapter 1 will be available in two weeks on both our site and Steam! You can pre-order right now for 10% off!
It seems Chapter 2 will be funded soon after Chapter is released. However, if Chapter 3 is more than $300,000, it will be long before it can be funded.
I admit that I was one of those naysayers, but your persistence is amazing.
Part 2 seems like an inevitability now. I wonder what Parts 3-5 will demand though.
Is there a chance, that the other chapters will contain 18+ content?
It was originally intended as an all ages VN, so that’s unlikely. I don’t want to force a creator to add 18+ scenes if he doesn’t want to.
Thank you for the information. I didn’t know that. I’am a little bit surprised, every other vn had some form of 18+ content.
Most Vn’s contain 18+ to sell in japan, but when companies reach a certain level of popularity they tend to do all ages and try to get away from porn, good examples being TypeMoon, Key, and Leaf. Supipara was minori’s shot at doing that and it failed for a couple of reasons.
Incidentally, it’srelated to why Frontwing tried to force Sekai Project into only selling the all ages version of Grisaia, and why Akabei Soft succeeded in forcing Sekai into doing so when they released G-Senjou.
I’m just happy Alicesoft is eroge maker.
Really happy that this project has had a good start. At first I was really worried but am glad to know I was among the many fans who gave this project it’s first push. Definitely going to purchase a few copies of supipara.