Back in high school I read web novels every day. A lot of them were… okay, I guess. Some were way too terminally online, but at least they told a coherent story with a distinct flavor. If it was entertaining I didn’t nitpick the literary quality, and if it was actually serious I wouldn’t treat it like a power fantasy. Man, though, seriously written web novels are rare. Most are drowning in internet slang and come with their own snark. A little self-aware snark in a literary work isn’t necessarily bad—it can add flavor—but overdo it and it gets ugly. I remember two web novels I read: one called Sanguo Houhei Zhuan and another called How I Picked Up the Campus Belle. The latter is actually decent—I’d recommend it, it’s solid for a school romance. The former just made me shake my head… I bring them up because they share a trait: both love their own snark.

I was feeling pretty empty yesterday, then I saw an imouto game got a fan translation… and after looking it up, it seemed like the playtime was only an hour, so I figured I’d play it to relax. The Chinese name is 《妹妹的朋友与我的日常》, but that translation is already off. The original is 《妹とその友人がエロすぎて俺の股間がヤバイ》, which should really be “My Sister and Her Friend Are So Fucking Horny That My Dick Is in Trouble.” Of course, a name that dirty probably got sanitized—daily life it is, I guess… But as a fan-translated game that’s only an hour long, playing it was more exhausting than the fucking Japanese version. The whole thing felt like taking an exam… I guess that’s where the “educational value” comes in…