Yuri Visual Novel Spotlight: “I Became Gay from Translating My New Roommate's Short Story”
Welcome to our “Yuri Spotlight” series! As part of our mission to spread the word about all things Yuri and help grow the Yuri community, we will be highlighting current and past Visual Novel releases. Check out “I Became Gay from Translating My New Roommate's Short Story”!
Indie developer Prof. Lily released the demo for “I Became Gay from Translating My New Roommate's Short Story” aka “GFT” on November 16, 2021 on itch.io for Windows and macOS. The Yuri visual novel game is set to be released in 2022.
The 18+ single-player game is described as “a Yuri visual novel about two "working" adults in the city of Chicago. Through the peculiar relationship between an exhausted translator and a writer under severe creative aporia, this women-loving-women visual novel explores issues of art and social media under late capitalism. It is the first major project by the Prof. Lily visual novel collective, who aim to tell stories that face our harsh subcultural reality head-on.”
The game currently features text in English with a five chapter script spanning over a 50k word count and original illustrations. The VN also includes a customizable warnings feature for in-game sensitive content (Pictured above.) and will depict mature content including sex.
Synopsis: How do people create art under late capitalism without becoming fed up and burnt out? That is the question shared by Fiona Watanabe and Junko Takeda as they become roommates in the city of Chicago. Fiona, a Chicago denizen since her teens, is a competent but exhausted translator working on Japanese media she admittedly doesn't like. Meanwhile, Junko is stretching the definition of what an "up-and-coming" writer can be. These two unlikely protagonists see in each other their ideal selves, but do not recognize the other is still unsatisfied. They can only stumble through the worlds of translation and art towards blurry and barely-defined goals, enveloped in this late capitalist hell.
The characters include:
Fiona Watanabe - "I'm hanging up if this is gonna turn into another matchmaking session."
An eccentric translator, Fiona first became part of the translating scene through fan translation. Her years of experience in agency work have left her feeling jaded about the future of Japanese media and she seems to be beginning to lose hope until she meets Junko, her new roommate. Will this meeting change the direction of her life?
Junko Takeda - "Reading famous English authors only makes me feel embarrassed about my own writing. I find them to be too powerful...”
An emerging writer who has fallen deep into the depths of writer's block, Junko was sent to Chicago to room with Fiona for university. She wishes she was as hard-working and competent as Fiona. Perhaps, this breath of fresh Chicago air could do something for her...
“I Became Gay from Translating My New Roommate's Short Story” will be available to purchase in 2022 for $6.99 according to the developer’s Twitter.
Sources: Email correspondence and press release. Pro. Lily Twitter and Youtube. itch.io website.