A picture of Yuuko giving the V sign currently adorns minori’s overseas facing website along with a caption of “Hello!! minori’s overseas expansion has started.” Below it was an image that featured the logos of the three parties involved with cross marks between them. Clicking on this logo brought the visitor to the MangaGamer post about the collaboration.

According to the MangaGamer post, the first two games tackled will be the two parts of ef – a fairy tale of the two, which spawned several other derivative properties including the two animated adaptations ef – a tale of memories and ef – a tale of melodies. The game itself is essentially a modern fairy tale told in five chapters. Things that set this apart from many other games include using full frame images instead of character sprites and having different protagonists for each arc. The game featured writer mikage and illustrator Naru Nanao, who happened to have also worked on CIRCUS’s Da Capo and Suika, both of which currently have been released by MangaGamer. The videos in the game were created under the direction of Makoto Shinkai, also well known for his animated features Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters Per Second. Any other games from minori are currently a possibility, but nothing is solid yet. The mention of eden* in the press release (replicated below) has now been confirmed to be an error by MangaGamer staff.

The website for No Name Losers has a more comprehensive description of the upcoming release, including details about how this differs from their previously released “fansubbed version.” Essentially, the game will be split up again into two parts, esoteric references used by NNL in the translation will be removed, honorifics use will not have exceptions for Chihiro and Mizuki, wording will be changed to impart that all characters are over 18 and the extra bad ending added by the group will be removed. For those curious, the full script of that ending is now available in a link from the website. Lastly, because engineering for the engine is no longer a big hurdle, some of the things missing in their original release such as the feature to replay scenes/movies and the configuration screen will now be added back in.

The official press release was as follows:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Pickett, Head Translator/Marketing Manager, john@mangagamer.com

---

TOKYO, Japan, 27 September 2010 – Visual novel licensor and distributor MangaGamer.com is proud to announce a new partnership with studio and developer Minori, Inc. and No Name Losers (NNL) to officially distribute Minori’s titles in English.

This deal will see Minori’s titles on sale in their original, unedited form for the first time via MangaGamer.com with translation provided by No Name Losers. All releases will be use Minori’s original game engine. The first titles to be released under this partnership will be ef-The First Tale, and ef-The Latter Tale, which provided the basis for the the two anime ef – A Tale of Memories (2007) and ef – A Tale of Melodies (2008), as well as Eden*, one of minori’s other releases.

In addition to its elaborate story, the ef series features astounding visuals with a vast array beautiful CGs created by Naru Nanao, the illustrator for the original Da Capo, as well as animation by Makoto Shinkai.

ABOUT minori:
Formed as the software division of CoMixWave in 2001 and independent since April 2007, Minori has created a series of stunning and engaging set of visual novels including the highly popular Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two series. Their catch phrase, “We keep minority spirit”, reflects the studio’s independent mindset and creative desires.

ABOUT No Name Losers:
Originally created as a fansubbing outlet, No Name Losers are now working together with minori alongside MangaGamer for the purpose of officially translating and localizing minori’s games into English.

ABOUT MANGAGAMER.COM
MangaGamer.com is the world’s first legal download site for English translated visual novels, sometimes also known as bishojo games. Since its launch in July 2008, MangaGamer.com has offered services where fans can download and enjoy popular games, often with anime spin-offs, such as CIRCUS’s Da Capo, 07th Expansion’s Higurashi: When They Cry, and NAVEL’s Shuffle!. Our parent companies are some of the biggest names in visual novels, including CIRCUS, NAVEL, NEXTON (including the BASESON and LIQUID sub-labels), and OVERDRIVE, providing a varied catalog of both All-Ages and Adults Only titles.

No Name Losers originally started out in the old heyday of digital fansubbing, having released many fansubs of opening movies to visual novel games, such as Baldr Force and Family Project, as well as Wind -a breath of heart-, which is apparently the first one they did. They then teamed up with game translation group insani to fully translate minori’s game Wind -a breath of heart-, with insani handling the initial translation and coding and No Name Losers handling the editing and the rest. Meanwhile, they also fansubbed several episodes of the animated adaptations. The translator for insani, gp32, finished the initial translation in a few months and handed off the materials to No Name Losers for the remainder of the process. Before release, there was some debate as to whether minori should be contacted about this project. However, in the end, it looks like minori was not contacted, according to the README file that came with the final release, stating that “to [their] knowledge, minori has no idea that [they've] done this.”

When it became time to release the final patch, things became a bit hot. This release took place about a year and a half after insani noticed that despite providing easy-to-use instructions for obtaining one of their previous releases, planetarian, the vast majority of people using their translation patch did not pay for the game, resulting in their policy to no longer take on any more such projects. It was decided amongst the project staff that the patch would be initially released to people who bought the game by asking each person who wanted the game to reveal information about the packaging of the retail version, meanwhile a fully public release would come later. The attempts by many to game the system brought out hostilities on both sides, and soon a system was instituted where a person would be required to present physical evidence of having broken the extra disc with update patches that came with the CD release of the game. Thus spawned the meme, “break the support disc.” This had also resulted in a scuffle between NNL and the predecessor of this site, VisualNews, because of the latter party’s reluctance to fully redact a story on this issue after the corresponding entry was removed from NNL’s website. In a recent interview, No Name Losers stated that this was the reason the meme spread like wildfire. However, despite the drama, a full version of the Wind translation patch was eventually released to the public several months later.

Approximately a year later, No Name Losers announced a project to translate minori’s latest game, ef – the first tale. This announcement was made controversial by the fact that this release would be made a standalone package that did not require the original game to install. At the time, according to at least one of the people involved in the project, engineering for the game engine in the full version became an issue; the use of the trial version game engine in one of the public releases was most likely a result of this. The staff also issued statements that a standalone release wouldn’t really be all that different from an anime fansub and that minori wouldn’t benefit financially from a patch since their games had short runs. This spawned heated discussions in a lot of places and some animosity from No Name Losers’s GipFace toward this site due to the mods not wanting to close a thread on the attached forums that had gotten quite heated. The ef project itself had its ups and downs, including periods of time when it was stalled due to lack of translators. Eventually, however, several releases were made, including a complete one most recently.

The next game from minori, the experimental work eden* was not without drama either. After failed negotiations, there ended up being two groups of people working on the game — No Name Losers and a collaboration involving Sekai Project. The latter had hosted their files on TLWiki, which became the setting for a heated edit war and debate involving minori. That project was dropped, but minori had also contacted NNL, asking them to stop what they were doing. NNL had refused to cooperate at the time.

However, eventually the two parties started talking after a second email was sent to NNL and posted on minori’s website. OVERDRIVE’s bamboo came into contact with minori and ended up discussing the issue with minori’s nbkz Sakai over a meal in late July. NNL leader GipFace had also sent MangaGamer head translator Kouryuu a polite private message a few days later after the initial contact by minori to start a conversation.

Things were winding up that it might’ve been possible for the three parties to announce a collaboration during MangaGamer’s Otakon panel. However, due to last minute communication issues, the plan fell through, although Kouryuu hinted at the collaboration at the end of the panel with an “anyways — just — you know, as you guys all go home tonight, just remember: ‘keeping the minority spirit’”. Tweets from MangaGamer also hinted at this minori catchphrase as well. No Name Losers eventually updated their website to reflect that they were now a subsidiary of minori and posted a message to the effect that they have discontinued their fan translations and that they would not want their works to be distributed any further.

Eventually, the three parties got their acts together and realized it was time to make the announcement. Strangely enough, before the announcement sequence started, a copy of ef – the first tale. had appeared on J-List’s shop. For the announcement, minori posted a sequence of images of Yuuko carrying a bottle and flying from Japan to Toronto first and then to the Netherlands, where MangaGamer.com resides. When Yuuko flew through Toronto, No Name Losers posted a hand-drawn image of Miyako having received a bottle in the mail. MangaGamer translator Kouryuu posted as sequence of five messages (one for each chapter of ef) on the official blog while he tweeted in character. The first message about a sore wrist did bring up a few jokes amongst the readers.

Finally, the official announcement was made by the three parties after some furious F5-key pressing by many, bringing the story to a close(?) with a certainly eccentric finish.

UPDATE: More details and links added to writeup and certain statements were removed at the request of our source. The article has also been reordered and NNL has issued a comment, stating that:

[W]e appreciate the summary of events that [have been] written up — and that we’d prefer that everyone: the community, Gemot Encubed, and No Name Losers, move on from the bitter events of the past, as the minori/Mangagamer/No Name Losers partnership demonstrates so beautifully.

UPDATE: minori’s site has now been updated to redirect to http://overseas.minori.ph/ for people accessing from outside Japan and currently has Yuuko Amamiya flying past Japan carrying a bottle. It currently has the text “See you tomorrow !!”

UPDATE 2: On minori’s site, Yuuko now appears to be headed towards Toronto, Canada, and No Name Losers’ website now has a picture of a smiling Miyako Miyamura standing next to an open mailbox with a bottle protruding out of it. The image file is aptly named “received.png”.

UPDATE 3: Yuuko is now seen zooming off east, leaving a prone and scantily clad Miyako behind next to a Canadian flag marking Toronto.

UPDATE 4: Yuuko is now on her way to what appears to be the Netherlands, and the caption was changed to: “Japan-Canada-??? See you tomorrow !!!!!”

UPDATE 5: The top image on minori’s website has been replaced with a picture of super-deformed ef characters. There’s Miyako talking on the phone along with a frantic Mizuki trying to stop an angry Kei. “Tomorrow!” seems to be what the three are shouting.

2010年7月12日に私たちはNO NAME LOSERSの皆さんに次のメールをお送りしました。

NO NAME LOSERS の皆さんへ

以前にもメールでお願いいたしましたが、
貴方たちが私たちの願いを受け入れて頂けなかったこと、
非常に残念に思います。

貴方たちが私たちが制作し販売している「ef – the first tale.」、「ef – the latter tale.」及びPS2版「ef – fairy tale of the two.」（以下、「ef」と総称する）や「eden*」、その他のソフトウェアについて英語に翻訳を行い、私たちの許可無く公開する行為は、各国が相互に批准する著作権法の翻訳権および公衆送信権を侵害する違法行為です。

私たちが既に発売している「ef」について貴方たちが許諾無く翻訳し、しかもグラフィック、音声、映像、音楽、そしてその他全ての内容を不特定多数に対しネットワークを通じ公開したことは、海賊版の頒布行為と同様であり、それは私たちだけが持つ権利を侵害しているのです。また「eden*」や、私たちが9月に日本国内で発売を予定している「天使の日曜日」についても翻訳し不特定多数に頒布する行為を予告しておりますが、こちらも違法行為にほかなりません。特に単独で起動するソフトウェアを不特定多数に提供する行為は私たちが創作者として得た権利全てを否定する行為ではないでしょうか？

貴方たちは私たちのファンを自称していらっしゃいますが、私たちは貴方たちの行為は私たちを傷つけるばかりで、ファンとは言い難いと思っています。

私たちは貴方たちに以下の全てをお願いします。

1.「ef」およびそれに関連する作品を翻訳したものを、私たちの許可無く不特定多数に頒布をしないこと。
2.「eden*」を翻訳したものを、私たちの許可無く不特定多数に頒布しないこと。
3.「天使の日曜日」を翻訳したものを、私たちの許可無く不特定多数に頒布しないこと。
4.その他、過去に私たちが発売した全ての作品についても同様に、私たちの許可無く翻訳したものを不特定多数に頒布しないこと。
5.今後、私たちの発売する全ての作品についても同様に、私たちの許可無く翻訳したものを不特定多数に頒布しないこと。
6.引用権やフェアユースの範囲を越えて、私たちのWebサイトや作品中から画像などを無断で引用しないこと。

私たちは作品を作るために莫大なお金や長い時間を掛け、そして、自らの命を賭しています。貴方たちはそうした多くの犠牲の中から生まれてくる、いわば、私たちの努力の結晶を、貴方たちの快楽といった身勝手な理由で壊そうとしています。

もし、貴方たちが本当に私たち”minori”のファンであり、私たちの生み出す作品に今後も期待しているというのであれば、どうか私たちの未来を閉ざす違法行為をいますぐにやめてください。繰り返しお願いいたします。

2010年7月12日
株式会社ミノリ

追伸1:もし、貴方たちが私たちから正式なライセンスを受け、レーティング等、私たちの求める手順を踏み、英語圏で販売もしくは頒布をするということであれば、私たちのオフィスにいらして、ライセンス許諾のための交渉をすることは可能です。私たちは正式な手順を踏んで頂けることを期待しています。

追伸2:このメールの内容はminoriのWebサイトにて公開いたします。

The following is a translation:

We sent the following email to the people at NO NAME LOSERS on July 12, 2010:

To everyone at NO NAME LOSERS,

With regards to the email we have sent you previously regarding our wishes, we find it very unfortunate that you have not complied with our requests.

It is an infringement of the right to translation and public distribution, as outlined in mutually ratified international treaties, to translate and distribute without permission our software products, including “ef – the first tale.”, “ef – the latter tale.” as well as “ef – fairty tale of the two.” (hereafter referred to as “ef”) and “eden*”, etc.

It is a violation of our rights (in very much the same way as a pirate release) for you to translate without permission our already-released product “ef” and in addition make publicly available the graphics, sound, videos, music as well as the rest of the content in the game on the Internet. Furthermore, you have stated that you have plans to translate and disseminate to the general public [literally, an unspecified number of people] “eden*” as well as “Tenshi no Nichiyoubi”, scheduled for a September release in Japan; this is nothing more than illegal activity as well. Isn’t providing to the general public a standalone piece of software [of our games] a full rejection of all the rights to which we, as creators, are entitled?

You proclaim that you are fans of us, but your actions only hurt us, and thus we think it is difficult for you to be truly called fans.

We request all of the following of you:

1. To not distribute translations of “ef” and related works to the general public without our permission.
2. To not distribute translations of “eden*” to the general public without our permission.
3. To not distribute translations of “Tenshi no Nichiyoubi” to the general public without our permission.
4. To not distribute translations of any of our past works to the general public without our permission.
5. To not distribute translations of any of our future works to the general public without our permission.
6. To not use without limits, beyond the scope of quotation and fair use: images, etc. from our works and our website.

In order to produce our works, we have put in vast amounts of time and money and put our lives at stake. You are trying to destroy the fruits of our labors reaped from these many sacrifices with “fun” as your selfish reason.

If you really are fans of us, minori, and if you are looking forward to what we will produce in the future, then please immediately stop these illegal actions that are going to shut the doors to our future. Again, we would like to request you to [comply with us].

July 12, 2010
minori Inc.

P.S.: If you wish to obtain an official license from us, handle the ratings issue, follow our requested procedures and sell and/or distribute [our software] within English-speaking circles, then there is the possibility of your visiting our office and discussing with us a license agreement. We would look forward to people following the proper procedure for getting things done.

P.P.S.: The contents of this email will be published on minori’s website.

UPDATE: No Name Losers’ webpage has been replaced by a page claiming they are in discussions with minori in both English and (somewhat odd) Japanese.

No Name Losers is down until further notice.
We have begun preliminary discussions with the CEO of minori, nbkz Sakai.
Thank you for your understanding.

No Name Losersは追っての通知があるまで閉鎖します。
minoriのC.E.O. nbkz Sakaiと予備的な討論を始まります。
ご理解くださり、ありがとうございます。

UPDATE 2: minori has also updated their website, indicating they are in talks with NNL:

2010年7月14日から私たちminoriとNO NAME LOSERSの皆さんとの間で発展的な交渉を開始しています。どのような結果になるかまだわかりませんが、遠くない未来に皆さんに結果をご報告できればと思います。今しばらくお待ち下さい。よろしくお願いします。

A translation of the above:

Starting on July 14, 2010, we at minori have started constructive negotiations with the people at NO NAME LOSERS. We don’t know what will result from this, but we would like to report our results to everyone in the not-too-distant future. For now, please wait for the time being. Thanks.

The second and third times they updated their site, they had this to say:

2010年7月17日、私たちからの提案をNO NAME LOSERSの皆さんにお送りしました。
私たちのメールに対する第一回目の回答期限は7月21日午前中（日本時間）と設定しました。
たくさんのblogなどでこの件が取り上げられていますが、私たちとNNLの皆さんは前向きな議論を開始したと確信しています。
海外の多くのファンの皆様、いましばらくお待ち下さい。

P.S.No Name Losersの皆さんから第一回目の提案についてお返事を頂きました。
ありがとうございます！

A translation reads:

On July 17, 2010, we sent our proposal to the people at NO NAME LOSERS. We’ve set the deadline for replying to us to be noon on July 21, 2010, JST. This incident has been written about on many blogs, etc. [TL: I assume minori is implying here that some of the writeups indicate that NNL and minori are not serious], but we are confident that NNL and us have started forward-looking discussions. For the many fans we have overseas, please wait for the time being.

PS: We have received a reply from NO NAME LOSERS with regards to our first proposal! Thank you very much!

A fourth update reads:

2010年7月21日、私たちは、私たちの作品を英語圏でリリースするため、NO NAME LOSERSの皆さんに協力を頂き、新たな枠組みを構築する作業を続けています。
本件については7月28日以降に新たなお知らせをできればと思います。
いましばらくお待ち下さい。

which means in English:

As of July 21, 2010, we have received NNL’s cooperation and are continuing to develop a new plan for the release of our works in English-speaking circles. We hope to have new information for you after July 28, so please wait for the time being.

NNL’s website now reflects this:

No Name Losers is down until further notice.
We are currently undergoing serious discussions with minori.
Please wait a little longer.

No Name Losersは追っての通知があるまで閉鎖します。
minoriと真剣な話し合いが進んでおります。
いましばらくお待ちください。

UPDATE 3: NNL’s website now embeds a YouTube video of a piano performance of ebullient future, the opening theme to the 2nd season of the animated adaptation of ef – a fairy tale of the two.

UPDATE 4: Both minori and NNL websites indicate an announcement may be possible in the next couple of days.

minori’s addendum:

7月29日追記：少し遅れていますが、あと数日で何らかのお知らせができる可能性があります。
今しばらくお待ち下さい。

Translation of minori’s addendum:

PS (July 29): We’re a little late, but we might be able to make an announcement in a couple of days. Please wait for the time being.

NNL:

There was to be an announcement on July 28th, but it has been temporarily delayed for special reasons.
Hopefully we can announce something within the next 48 hours. (July 30th or 31st)
Thank you for your continuing patience. Enjoy the music in the meantime!

As of writing, the current track on their player was LOOPCUBE’s remix of the Wind game opening along with random voice samples called “Wind -limited freedom mix-”.

Amaterasu translator Ixrec started a poll to see what would be the next game he translates after Sekien no Inganock. Unlike TakaJun’s non-binding survey, this poll’s intention was to determine the next candidate for translation. Just like Amaterasu’s previous poll, the entire process consisted of three stages: nominations, preliminaries and finals. However, unlike the previous poll, there were a lot more “rallying” and campaigning for the various options this time around.

No Name Losers offered to give away a few prizes should minori’s eden* win the vote, and asked people to submit their vote confirmation IDs as proof. However, they did not realize the polling process had multiple stages and confused the preliminary vote with the final vote, but they continued with the offer since eden* managed to make it into the finals.

Fansubbing group gg decided to also join in the fray, promoting BALDR SKY Dive1 as their main (and later to be claimed as a joke) option and Kara no Shoujo as their joke (and later to be claimed as the real) option for the preliminaries.

After the dust settled on the prelims, the top ten to be used for the finals were: BALDR SKY Dive1, MuvLuv Alternative, Swan Song, 11eyes, Kara no Shoujo, eden*, Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, My girlfriend is the PRESIDENT, and I/O. However, before the final voting started, Kara no Shoujo was replaced with France Shoujo, Swan Song was replaced with Katahane and My girlfriend is the PRESIDENT was replaced with Narcissu 2nd&3rd, all due to already existing (public or not) translation project groups for those games wishing for those options to be removed.

For the final vote, fansubbing group gg decided to do a massive promotion for Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu, stating that they would translate two new upcoming shows should the game win. At one point, their website went down and was replaced with a site that solely directed visitors to vote for their option in the poll. They even convinced various anime related groups to post the message on torrent comments. In retaliation, the poll was coded so that redirects from gg were sent to a YouTube video about a cat playing a keyboard.

One forum-goer decided to do some of his own campaigning on various forums for Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. Favorites BALDR SKY Dive1 and MuvLuv Alternative also received their share of rallying in such places as 4chan. One person even posted an ad on TLWiki, asking people to vote for MuvLuv Alternative, and there were rumors of an offer for an XBOX 360 as a prize.

In between 6PM PST 2009/11/23 and 6PM PST 2009/11/24, a total of 2648 votes were cast, with 83 of them determined to be illegible due to proxies. IRC channel #ammy was alive with activity during the voting and had gotten so hot that it had to be moderated. There were many complaints about gg’s involvement in the voting process, especially as it looked like gg wasn’t in the least interested in the game they were rallying for. The final vote placed Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu with a strong lead in first, followed by MuvLuv Alternative in second with appreciably less votes and BALDR SKY Dive1 a not-so-close third. After seeing the results of the poll, the staff decided that the poll did not “accurately represent the will of the VN community” and thus the game to be translated will be determined by the staff themselves after Ixrec has played them.

The translation project originally started a little over a year ago, but ended with the translator leaving for personal reasons. Since then, they’ve picked up a new translator and finished the translation. There are no plans to continue with the second chapter, as there appears to be a group working on a release of a full translation of the game. Therefore, NNL’s next project is to tackle the first chapter of ef – a latter tale.

In their documentation, they provide their reasons for releasing a standalone build. One reason is that they claim that minori would not profit from a patch release, because “minori is notorious for short print runs” and that the game would become out of print by the time a lot of people would want to buy it. They claim that “ef – the first tale is effectively abandonware because it is no longer possible to obtain a legal copy that will support minori.” Currently, ef – the first tale is still in stock in many Japanese online retailers and there are even copies remaining of the limited edition copies of ef – the latter tale.

NNL then goes on to argue that what they are doing can be compared to The Underdogs, a famous abandonware site, and anime fansubbing. They note that a standalone release is no more illegal than a patch release (both are copyright infringement). However, a standalone release not only violates the derivative works aspect of copyright, but also involves wholesale distribution of unmodified content, and may have a higher chance of invoking a publisher’s ire.

One thing the documentation did not comment on were the difficulties involved in hacking the game engine to support a translation patch. From the description, it appears that they are using a slightly earlier build of the game engine used in the trial version. Therefore, there is no flashback feature to replay scenes, something that was added in the commercial release. The commercial release also added in various copy protection measures as well as a check for whether the user had his/her timezone set to Japanese time. Hence, it looks like they still had issues inserting scripts into the original game, as was stated previously with their project:

Do not purchase ef – the first tale with the intent of applying a patch to it. We are unable to circumvent the numerous copy-protection schemes for this title. Therefore, our current plan is to release a ~1.8 GB standalone. Yes, this goes against the ethics of virtually every other visual novel fansub group. However, this project is not a joint effort with insani, and we are free to do whatever we please.

UPDATE: There is now a more detailed post on No Name Losers’ webpage detailing plans for a more polished upcoming release, various features they’ve added to the current release, and plans for their work on ef – the latter tale. Oh, and according to their post, this news article you’ve just read is anti-piracy propaganda.

On the site, GipFace states that the project was only around 20% complete and that there will be no partial release of materials related to the patch. As to the question on whether the project will be revived should another translator sign, the answer is that 30% translation of the game would be required to continue and that nothing will be announced until over half of the script has been translated. In the event of a cancellation after that, a Miyako standalone story release will be done.