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Chapter 76
Yuki is at front of her house door outside, thinking how her parents will react on her day.
Yuki: I know what to expect. Let’s just move on and deal with this.
She went inside her house and sees her parents, and her parents notices her.
Mom: Hey Yuki! How was your day?
Yuki is thinking on her head about why her mom isn’t reacting angrily.
Yuki: Hmm… Kinda rough.
Mom: Rough? How rough?
Yuki: Oh. Just a lot of school work I had to finish.
Dad: Did you pass them?
Yuki: Hopefully?
She is wondering why her parents aren’t yelling at her.
Ryo comes downstairs and sees Yuki.
Ryo: Yuki! You must come up!
Yuki: All right.
She runs upstairs and she and Ryo went to his room and sees Haruka.
Yuki: Hey.
Haruka: Yuki, we got some news.
Ryo closes his own door.
Ryo: Yuki, you must keep this a secret.
Yuki: What?
Ryo: I was the one who talked to your principle. I pretended to be Dad.
Yuki: You?! How?
Haruka: Your dad needed a favor from Ryo to check on his phone.
Ryo: He wanted me to check if there is enough space since he has many photos there. He still does, but then it was ringing in the middle of it.
Haruka: And before, your friends texted us about what happened to your school. We decided to help when the phone was ringing.
Ryo: I still recognize the school’s phone numbers. I decide to play Dad, and after that, I erased the history for that call.
Yuki: Wow. Interesting. I didn’t expect that, but good job. I thought they know already.
Ryo: Be glad they didn’t. You should find out why they got you in trouble.
Yuki: I know I do. I know I can’t go to school in the coming week, so I should be planning on the whole weekend.
Haruka: Also, I texted your friends that we covered for you.
Yuki: Thanks. Tram Phase are still together and planning things, despite us busting them on their last scheme.
Ryo: You guys are gonna try a lot harder to inspect what they just did.
Yuki: That’s what I’m thinking. We gotta know everything about them.
The next day at Saturday, Yuki is at Minoru’s house with Ayano, Retasu, Takahashi, and Leon.
Yuki: During my suspension, I do plan to go to my brother’s college. That way, it will seem like I’m at school.
Minoru: And what are we supposed to do?
Yuki: At best, you guys will do everything to know everything about them. Not just watching what they do, but learn more about what they are up to.
Leon: It sounds difficult. I can’t believe they knock you out of school for a week.
Yuki: And that’s why I’m not giving up to figure out how they did that.
Retasu: I don’t want to be near them again. I don’t want them to beat me up again.
Ayano: Do they know about me?
Yuki: I’m not sure.
Ayano: I can see if I can take a peak at them.
Minoru: So during your suspension, you are gonna find some information on each of Team Phase members?
Yuki: Yes. If possible, and if I do find something like that, I will send it to all of you.
Retasu: Cool.
Yuki: So where did Rin go?
Takahashi: She’s out with Shirou on a date.
Leon: Cool.
Later in the evening, Yuki and Minoru are at the ice cream shop, getting ice cream.
Yuki: Here is one for you.
She gives one to him.
Minoru: Thanks!
Yuki: Now let’s go to a place.
She takes him to a field, and sit at the bench.
Yuki: Does the ice cream taste good?
Minoru: Yes. Wow, I can’t believe Ryo covered for you.
Yuki: Amazing brother. I have something to say.
Minoru: What is it?
Yuki: If you want some defense when I’m away, just be with any of our pals. I know I would always want to defend you for everything, but I know I won’t be always with you at all times.
Minoru: I know. I just don’t want them to do something to me, and I just want to ask anyone to be with me.
Yuki: Yeah. Also, there is nothing wrong to be by yourself. You should at least know how to handle the situation on your own too.
Minoru: But I’m not strong like you.
Yuki: I know, but your brains could think of something to protect yourself.
Minoru: I see.
Yuki: I know you are a smart person, and I do believe you are capable of not letting them to get to you.
Minoru: Hmm… I know I won’t always gonna have someone on my side, but I just want to be safe.
Yuki: Don’t worry. I used to think the same for you, but now I realize that you can be safe, whether you have someone with you or not. Team Phase are not always gonna have time to get to either of you.
Minoru: Make sense.
Yuki: And now my mission is to figure out everything about yesterday.
Minoru: I believe we will find out about this.
Yuki: Me too, Minoru.
She kisses his cheek. Minoru blushed.
Minoru: Sweet. What about lips?
Yuki: Sure.
They both kiss by their lips.
They both get up.
Yuki: You finish your ice cream?
Minoru: Yes.
Yuki: Let me take this out to the trash.
Minoru gives her the empty stick, and she throws it to the trash.
Minoru: Thanks Yuki.
Yuki: No problem.
At Monday morning, Yuki is at Ryo’s car.
Ryo: Trust me Yuki, once you go in our campus, you will see how it is like to become a young adult.
Yuki: I always want to see how your place looks like.
Ryo: Also, it has a game room, a lobby to see popular pop culture, several snack machines, and sometimes we have attractions on the outdoors.
Yuki: Cool. I’ll go check these places.
Ryo: It’s awesome. You don’t get to wear uniform there anymore.
They park at the reserved parking spot.
Ryo: And here we are.
He shows Yuki the campus.
Yuki: Amazing! It’s even bigger than my school.
Ryo: Yep. Let’s go in.
They both went to the coffee shop.
Ryo: They have this in few places on this campus.
Yuki: Cool. Although, I don’t like coffee, it is interesting.
In the other place of the campus, he shows her the lobby.
Ryo: This is the lobby. You will find a lot of people who are into the shows and games you play.
Yuki: Wow. You said they have a game room here.
Ryo: It’s on the left hallway. You just open the first door on your right.
Yuki: Thanks.
Ryo: You could find a table anywhere here unless if you decide to look around. I gotta go find Haruka.
Yuki: I’ll stick here for a while.
Ryo: All right.
He left.
Yuki: This place got even more interesting.
In Fujiwara, Minoru talks to Ayano.
Minoru: Well, class starts in ten minutes.
Ayano: Ok. I wonder if they are here.
Minoru: It seems like they don’t use any of the students or club rooms anymore, but I know they meet somewhere.
Ayano: You may be right.
Minoru: Also, Yuki is already in Ryo’s place right now.
Ayano: Good.
On the other side inside the building, Rin sees Kaname drinking the water fountain.
Kaname leaves and heads to a room.
Rin: Hmm. She’s going to a musical room.
In college, Yuki walks around the lobby and sees group of people having manga and half are My Hero Academia.
Yuki: I collect these. It is an interesting series.
Guy1: Cool! We just read the latest one.
Yuki: I think several parts in the middle and the end are awesome.
Girl1: Nice. Who are you?
Yuki: I’m Yuki.
Guy2: Nice to meet you, Yuki.
Later in high school, on the first break, Minoru walks to the fountain.
After drinking, he turns around and he sees Lila coming.
Lila sees him and walks to him.
Minoru is frighten a little.
Lila: Minoru.
Minoru: Um…What?
Lila: After school, I want to talk to you.
Minoru: What did you do to her?
Lila: She deserved to get suspended.
Minoru walks back a little.
Lila: Look, I just want to ask you to meet me by after school at the room we used to have!
Minoru: I don’t trust you.
Lila: I’m just asking a simple thing! Meet me. There will be non hurting, no harm, just a simple talk.
Minoru: No. I mean, I know you got Yuki in trouble.
Lila: We did. That doesn’t mean I can’t have a simple conversation with you guys.
Minoru: Why?
Lila: It is about you.
Minoru walks back.
Lila: You’re such a scary cat! Stop walking back! I’m not doing anything!
Lia comes up and pushes her while holding a baseball hat.
Lia: You leave this guy alone!
Lila: You don’t know what I’m doing.
She left.
Lia: Are you all right?
Minoru: Yeah, but she wasn’t trying to hurt me or anything. She’s just creepy, so thanks.
Lia: No problem. Say, what is Yuki doing right now?
Minoru: She’s at her brother’s college.
Lia: Cool.
A while later, he is having lunch with Rin, Oka, and Leon.
Minoru tells them the story.
Rin: Hmm. So that was it?
Minoru: Yeah. Although, she didn’t lay a finger on me.
Leon: Good.
Minoru: Although, I don’t think she is trying to. She was just asking me to talk to her after school. I refused.
Rin: Good. She doesn’t need you or any of us.
Minoru: I’m just wondering what happens if I don’t. What is she gonna do? Will she get me into trouble?
Leon: That is the possibility, but I suggest not to go. She is just tricking you to go, and she may be worse than we could think of.
Oka: He’s right.
Minoru: But, I’m just worried.
Rin: Even if she said she won’t hurt you, don’t. It’s a trap.
Minoru: You’re right. I mean, I want to find clues about them.
Leon: You could just find another way.
Minoru: But what if she will do something worse if I don’t?
Rin: …She did get Yuki suspended. I think that is a risky situation, Minoru. It’s your choice.
Oka: I still think you shouldn’t. Yuki was the one who tried to stop them, so if you do nothing about it, she may not retaliate.
Minoru: Hmm…
A while later, Yuki is talking to the same random people in the lobby.
Yuki:…And that’s it. I loved that manga series.
Yuki feels a vibration on her phone.
Yuki: Excuse me for a sec.
She walks to the table where Ryo is sitting.
Yuki reads the message from Minoru from Lila.
Yuki: Hmm. That’s a hard decision.
Ryo: What happened? Anything related in Fujiwara?
Yuki: Yeah. Minoru just texted me about his story about Lila. She is trying to talk to him after school, but since she’s just another creep, Minoru is not sure if he should do it. I mean, she set up my suspension, so I don’t want her to get Minoru in trouble, but also I don’t want that guy to get hurt.
Ryo: Has she tried to?
Yuki: As far as I know, she only hurt Retasu with the gangs and little on Rin. However, she tells him that she won’t harm him either way.
Ryo: I mean, I don’t trust her.
Yuki: Same here. If she really means it, it would be a relief.
Ryo: So what is your answer?
Yuki is thinking.
Yuki: Well, going to Lila is risky, but not going may get him in trouble. I know Minoru’s not as strong as me, and I told him to depend on himself. I would have to say yes.
Ryo: You mean it?
Yuki: Yeah. It would be the safest. I hope she means it.
Yuki texted him.
“Knowing all the risks on both decisions, I say go for it. You can do it.”
Later after school, Minoru is walking to the room, and Rin and Shirou is behind him.
Rin: You’re sure? I know Yuki said yes, but you’re up for it?
Minoru: Yeah. I’m nervous though.
Shirou: Well, just be brave and go there.
Minoru: I’ll do my best.
Rin: Bye!
Minoru went inside the room and Rin and Shirou starts heading home.
Rin: I honestly don’t like this decision. It’s odd that Yuki encourages him to go.
Shirou: I mean, that’s the best option for him. He at least won’t get in trouble like what they did to Yuki.
Rin: I know. I just hopes he comes out safely, for Yuki’s relief.
In the room, Minoru sees Lila at the seat.
Lila: Hello, Minoru. Have a seat.
Minoru looks at her.

Next Chapter: Minoru’s Side Story
Lila talks to Minoru about herself, and it leads Minoru to a lot of questions. Minoru had no idea why would Lila decide to be with Team Phase in the first place. Meanwhile, Yuki has some adventure on the next day and tries to do more research about Team Phase. What will both learn about them? Tune in next time!

Hey. I know this is nearly two weeks late for International Women’s Day, but it’s still Women’s History Month to me.
This is a good month to see how women can show that they can just be as good as men on many subjects. Hard-working, talented, and many other things.
I did plan last year’s women’s day about this upcoming thing, but I haven’t had a chance to. This year, I didn’t keep track of this, but I do want to give something out.
This “Thing” I’m referring to is a good explanation about why I made Yuki’s Story. I wanted to explain about why I made the series and the characters, and explain about them.
I first thought of this in late August 2015. It was initially gonna be black and white with certain colors in my imagination, resembling how Wii Fit characters look. I also imagine some amazing girl who is very much interesting to have as much story as I can put out. Her name is Yuki Koriyama. She’s a tomboy who is really popular in her school due to her athletic talents and be kind to her peers. Yuki really enjoys doing sport activities and do challenges on games. She also has a geeky side who isn’t afraid to admit it or share it. Everyone sees Yuki as the popular girl in school who is really different than a lot of popular girl or boy portrayed in the media. She has a lot of friends, but frequently hangs with a few. She has two best friends, Rin and Retasu, who are her first female friends since 6th grade. While Yuki is usually popular among boys and hangs with them, Rin and Retasu are the only ones who have time to spend time with her, even outside of school. A lot of her fans, while they pay a lot of attention to her in their free time, a lot of them have their times occupied anywhere else. Yuki has a brother named Ryo, who is a year older than her. He also helps her out at times, and even has some time to hang out with her. Yuki has a boyfriend named Minoru, who is her first crush. Yuki knows that he has a lot of hard time in schools and wants to make up for him. She wants to protect him and make his life easier in school. Her main rival is Ron. Ron was a friendly rival to Yuki before she develop a crush to Minoru. Yuki then later dislikes the guy for having a problem with Minoru being with her. Yuki is a really nice girl, but she can be pretty protective whenever Ron and his buddies tries to bother or hurt Minoru. Yuki had a secret crush on Minoru for a while, and same with him. Until after summer break, they first met at the rooftop in school. They both realize that they both love each other and openly hang out.

When I create the series for the first time, what really changed after finishing the very first chapter in September 2015?
I did mention that it would be an art style of Wii Fit character, that the female one is Yuki, and the male one is Ron, while a more made up slender guy is Minoru. When I saw a flash game called Kisekae 2, it was the perfect one to make a character to show how the characters look like from Yuki’s Story. I did it when Yuki’s Story was just out, but I handled this better in February 2016. As for the characters, I liked the name, Yuki. It seems to be my favorite girl’s Japanese name. Her last name took a while to make it sound right. Her last name was initially Botome, but I think to myself that there should be a better last name for her. The last name turns out to be Koriyama, with altering Toriyama, the guy who made Dragonball and Dragon Quest, and a few others. I don’t know that much Japanese last names that time. I do watch several anime before, I also know a bit less on the first names. Minoru was Yunsu, but since both Yunsu and Yuki sounded weird since it sound similar, I thought of Minoru. Minoru’s last name is Tamara. It sounds unique. I also had Yuki’s brother named Fuyuki, and I did post it at one point. I decide to change his name to Ryo to sound really different from Yuki.

What made my decide to make the character, Yuki?
I had several favorite female characters that I really like because they are really enjoying. There are also few other female characters that I heard who had interesting concepts. Characters like Konata Izumi, Aki Homura, Sakaki, Karou Matsubara, Kagura, and few others are my inspiration for Yuki. Her character is the highlight for the series. I did make her a tomboy because I do like a lot of tomboy characters due to doing things that shows that they really can do things and show to be mentally strong. Don’t worry, I know girly characters can be as interesting too, and I plan to make a list of them. I just think I want to make a tomboy character to be made more interesting without some norms holding her back. Yuki loves doing gym activities and she is really strong too. I made her a nice character to be more legitimately popular. I also decided to make her nice to have another tomboy character who isn’t really cold. There are some tomboy characters in the media who falls for stereotypes on the media like being cold or have a deep voice, but Yuki is not really cold. She knows who to be mean at. Sure, she likes a lot of activities that is considered masculine, which is interesting to see her try out with a big passion. She has a lot on her life to explain a lot more about her side of the story. Yuki was a troublemaker as a kid, and to an extent, still is. However, her mischievous leads to positives like she either gets in trouble to help someone or to make her classmates laugh. Yuki is really tall, like 5'10 inch, and she is considered the tallest girl and tallest student in the school. She’s grows to 6 by the end of her high school. I also made her into geek culture, like reading a lot of manga and watch anime. She plays video games too, mostly violent ones. Yuki is really a brave girl who has really great self esteem. I also can show that she can have flaws, like she’s not really good at cooking and allergic to flowers. She also is not good at feminine activities, even if she tried. Yuki being good at sports and talents comes from her childhood of wanting to be a ninja when she grows up. It took a lot of years of training on her own to be great at games and challenges. Yuki is a very brave, risk taker, tough, and fearless girl anyone has ever met in her school. She also has interested in cute stuffed animals and has a collection of them in her bedroom. As a whole, Yuki is your typical tomboy to have a lot of attention or to root for. With all that character archetype, it is a rare one and a rare type leads to subvert expectations more successfully.

What made her like Minoru and what is their relationship like?
Yuki likes Minoru because she is into boys that are not manly, more sensitive, and has a heart of gold. She only finds Minoru to be her mate. Minoru is a smart guy who gives really great advice. When Yuki dates him, she plays the dominant. Also including on her tomboyishness, she mostly plays a role of a typical boyfriend, like she is the strong and tallest one in the relationship, and is the one who helps Minoru on many things. She holds the door for him, carry heavy stuff for him while working together, and she is protects him at all costs. Yuki is really a violent protective girlfriend, meaning whenever Ron decides to hurt Minoru or if his buddies do, she will fight them and hurt them back, at the risk of getting in trouble sometimes. Yuki sees Minoru getting treated wrong in school because he has had trouble interacting to strict teachers, and it causes misunderstanding to his classmates. She feels the pain whenever Minoru cries or being treated unfairly, that she wanted to help him out as much as she can do. Thankfully, Minoru’s life has gone easier since he moved in to Yuki’s class and even met after school. They both had a secret crush on each other, and after meeting, they decide to hang in public, and eventually, her peers knows that they are a couple and are totally fine with it. Yuki introduces him with her friends and vice versa. She and Minoru really get along pretty well. They share things in common like reading same type of Manga, play some games, doing activities with each other, and sees each other to have great chemistry. Despite Minoru not being strong like Yuki, he does not care if she is a strong and tall girlfriend. In fact, he does admit that he likes her tomboyish nature because he finds Yuki to be entertaining, and being a rare character, he finds it incredible. They both accept their lives and root for each other. Minoru likes to watch her gym activities, and hangs with her. Minoru shares some good advice to help Yuki learn a lot of things. At the end of the day, her friends seems to like both of them going out because they support each other. I did make Minoru shorter than Yuki because he has height troubles, and also the fact that I wanted a relationship that has the tall girl and short boy trope because I wanted to show how that relationship plays out. I wanted to show how no one should mind about a boy dating a girl who is taller than him. It could be that he has height problems, or she is just biologically tall and that she has a good personality. I also want to show how a tall girl can be use as an advantage, like helping the guy out and show the others that relationships cannot be judged by their height difference. Lastly, I wanted to have a relationship that pairs a tomboy and a sensitive guy to have a rare relationship to be seen as something special to anyone’s thoughts. I know there are some pairs like this on some movies and TV shows, but a lot of them don’t seem to workout well. The girl is usually portrayed as an annoyed or cold person and always acts better than the boy, and the boy is mostly portrayed as annoyingly cowardly that many don’t like (may have misunderstanding) and are always a target as the butt monkey, you know, throw or abuse him with jokes many times that can make the girl embarrassed to have a boy like him to be that. Yuki and Minoru is nothing like that. They are both a team and unique, and didn’t need to follow traditional relationships. They work on their advantage on their different kind of relationship. Their peers at school see this as a unique, special thing that makes a lot of them happy to see them go out and that they didn’t need to shove in their different kind of relationship to everyone at all. They only play out by showing, not telling or forcing it. This is why a relationship between Yuki and Minoru is really awesome.

So how did her popularity started in Fujiwara High School?
On Yuki’s first day of school, she didn’t have a lot of classmates from her junior high in Fujiwara. She sees them, but not a lot of them. Yuki likes to meet new people. In her first day, not many people know her. In her first day of gym class, Yuki wants to show everyone how talented she is. On that day at the outdoors, Yuki sees the rock climbing by the building. It was there for an event that just passed and wasn’t taken out yet. Her class sees the rock climbing, and after that, Yuki decides to climb on it. She wears the safety attachments to climb, and then she goes up. Rin yells and freaks out that Yuki is doing this. Everyone notices Yuki climbing and decides to watch, even the teacher. The teacher yells at Yuki to come down, because she’s not supposed to do that. Yuki ignores it and climbs up until she catches the flag. It took her less than a minute to do that, and everyone got surprised of how she did that pretty well. Yuki climbs down with the flag, and came down safely. Everyone was shocked that she decides to risk this to show how great she is. With her mischiefs, the teacher of course yells at her and takes her out to the gym and stays there. Yuki was told that if she pull something like that off, she will get sent to the office. Later in the same day, her classmates ask her how she is really talented and she tells them the story about how she wanted to be a talented ninja as a kid. The teacher kinda changes his mind about Yuki and that he is happy to have someone like her in his class. They both get along quickly. Not just that story, but she stops all the bullying and helps her peers out. Yuki express a lot about of herself, like she likes anime, manga, and video games. She attends to geek clubs, but mostly attends after school gym activities. Of course, I didn’t write about this yet as of this date, but I only mentioned that she wanted to be a talented ninja when she was growing up. Before Fujiwara, Yuki was pretty much popular due to her mischiefs just to express herself, and also helps others too back then. In Junior High, Yuki meets Rin and Retasu for the first time. Both of them likes her jokes and thinks she’s funny. That’s how she finds her best friends. In Junior High, Yuki did get into fights to stop bullies, and at one time, she has everything going on her in 8th grade. Bullies were in several places, picking on her friends and classmates, and at that point, she fights them all, which leads her to be kicked out of that school and got forced to be home schooled. With that, she only went to school in the first few weeks of eighth grade. That is why Rin tries to stop Yuki when she was rock climbing.

Who are Rin and Retasu?
They are her best friends since Junior high. They met since sixth grade when they see Yuki as a funny person. Both Rin and Retasu really like her talents. Rin Rosada is a girl who can give good suggestions. She is also a perky girl who knows how other feels. Retasu is Rin’s best friend since grade school. She is the intelligent that can make some plans work, and works out their problems. Retasu also helps out their homeworks by figuring them out. While Rin and Retasu are girly than Yuki, Rin is the girliest of the group. Despite that, they like to spend time with Yuki because they find her cool. They are Yuki’s first actual friends who are girls. Before, Yuki rarely has friends with girls as a kid because of her differences. Rin and Retasu are her only friends who have plenty of time outside of school to hang with in their high school years since a lot of her peers don’t have a lot of time outside of school. In fact, Rin and Retasu weren’t popular when they met Yuki. They enjoy her talents and play games together as well as spending activities that Yuki finds best. Retasu’s twin brothers used to hang with Yuki before Sophomore. Her main peers are Rin, Retasu and Ryo. Rin and Retasu loves video games and play a lot of categories, but they have different genre taste. Rin likes rhythm and adventure games. Retasu likes games that has problem solving and RPGs. Yuki plays more on harder games including violent games. Rin specifically loves the Pretty Rhythm, PriPara, and Pretty Cure franchise. She is into boys at school and had taken summer jobs before to meet them. Retasu likes to learn about many things and had worked at the shrine before. She is very nice and has a crush on Takahashi, Minoru’s friend. Both girls have their own actions. Rin isn’t really that great at gym class, but she does like ice skating and yoga exercise. She doesn’t mind getting into fights if her enemies are harming her, and that she has a good strong slap by hitting them really fast. Rin may be the weakest next to Eru Hibika, but she can decide to fight back if it’s her choice. Retasu grew up with her twin brothers who are a year ahead, and that she enjoys playing sports with her brothers that are considered challenging. She also prefers anime and manga that are shouen. Retasu likes to think about others and wants to help them.

Is the new girl Eru Hibika?
In Spring 2016 when I was only doing journals, I created her. Eru Hibika is a new student since Junior year. She wears glasses and has black hair. Eru is the smartest girl in the school and is into coding. She’s a gamer and often plays older games because she finds something special about them. Eru is a shy girl who doesn’t talk that much unless of someone else talks to her. She’s rather timid, and may act odd due to her asocial behavior, but she does try to hang with friends and wants to stick with them. Yuki and her friends see her as a very eccentric person. Eru lives in a rich family who lives in a bigger house. She has said that she not that rich, but she doesn’t really see her family as a typical rich people. She does get a ride home by her butler. Her parents works at video game companies, although each work in different companies. Eru owns many of her consoles, and she has a goal to code a game that many will enjoy. She’s learns a lot about coding. Eru hangs with Yuki and them sometimes, but hangs less often than Rin and Retasu, like Yuki’s other fans. Although, she still is willing to visit Yuki and her friends from time to time. Eru is another recurring female character that is found to be interesting. She is diagnosed with learning disability, mainly autism spectrum. Despite that, Eru sees herself as a normal person who wants to legitimately have better social life. Unlike Rin and Retasu, Eru has no interest in relationship during her whole high school year. She’s afraid if she would have to deal with either drama or have wrong mates. In the end, Eru Hibika is another friend of Yuki and them, and they saw her coming out from the car with her butler on the first day of junior year. Yuki and Minoru decide to meet her, and that’s how Eru made friends in Fujiwara.

Interesting characters. I see that you have enemies in the story. Ron and his two girls, Aki and Ren.
I created them since Ron’s character relies on the story. Ron is a guy who was just popular like Yuki, due to having similar activities. He only wanted Yuki to me his mate, but Yuki refused and pretended that she doesn’t want a relationship. Since Yuki likes Minoru, Ron has been a jealous person and blames him for Yuki falling in love with him instead of Ron. He threw off Minoru from the table, and it shows that Yuki is a violently protective girlfriend, by punching him in front of the cafeteria. After that, Ron decides to hate Yuki as much as Minoru. Despite that, all he wants is Yuki to change to like him instead. Ron ended up bring a criminal later on. He hired his gangs to beat up Minoru one time, and Yuki ended up hurting them. Before Sophomore year, he met Aki and Ren. They both were best friends with him. Neither of them have interest in Ron, but decides to help him get Yuki to he his girlfriend before they knew that Yuki likes Minoru. I names the two, Aki and Ren, because I was playing a mobile game once, and there were two girls who are also named Aki and Ren. They doubt a player and doesn’t really respect him, and are stereotypical tsunderes, a cliche that I don’t really like, and it included accidental perversion. They act mean to the player and since I know it’s gonna get weird, I delete the app and didn’t like the two. I decide to create them as the antagonist with Ron. I originally was gonna have Aki and Ren to be unlikeable, and it seems to be that way in the journals for few years, to an extent. In my MMD panels, they seem to be more like interesting antagonists. I mean, it’s more interesting if the antagonists are made to be more interesting. Aki and Ren had stories about Yuki in the past, and holds on to it. Ren was found to not be trustworthy by Yuki in Junior High and had a fight. Aki used to date Yuki’s brother, Ryo during her freshmen year, and Aki was a spoiled girlfriend who cares only about herself. They only dated for a while, and Ryo dumped her. Aki was thinking about beating him up, but he stopped her. Yuki blamed on her and told her to back off. In the journals, Aki and Ren still decide to be bad even after Ron got sent to juvie. They relied on themselves to be the brats to everyone, up until the beginning of Senior Year. In MMD panels, they both decide to be redeemable after the incident with Ron getting Minoru getting beaten up. Generally, Aki and Ren just wanted at least good attention. They are also fanatics. Aki is an anime fanatic who acts like a typical fangirl, and similarly, Ren is into video games. Not just adventures games, but also role playing games and few others. Aki and Ren are good best friends.

Are there moments you regret doing in Yuki’s Story?
As a matter of fact, I do. Especially in the first year of doing the journals. I regret bringing Ron back in Junior year, and say that he came back from juvie with proofs that he hasn’t harmed anyone specifically, but he hired his gangs in the day where they beat up Minoru, and that Ron was in charge of that innocent. I had to put him on the bus later on because I thought there was not much point of bringing him back to school and still be the main antagonist. I had to have him removed by saying that he’s getting therapy to be a better person. I know there are better ways to have him back from juvie, but I did that too soon. I also regret making Karen in their junior year. She was the new leader for Aki and Ren when they still decide to be narcissists. She was taught to not like Yuki and them without a personal reasons. Although, she does like Minoru, as in love. Karen seems like a jealous person and acts all whiny at front of Yuki, and I thought she was too unlikeable. Also, It made me realize that a creepy girl liking Minoru is somewhat cliched. She just likes him without good thoughts of him. Of course, she was the first person to be put on the bus, before Ron. Karen left the team and the school when Ron came back and didn’t like Karen for liking Minoru, which also gives me thought that their junior year is my least favorite year for them in the journal entries. Karen was nearly a wasted character, and I bother not to include her in MMD panels. Ron won’t be in majority of the MMD panels since after Chapter 10. My other regrets are initially making the chapter 53 another season. In Late 2016 and most of 2017, I did not make that much chapters, only making about ten of them as opposed to 53 in Sept 2015 - Sept 2016. I reverted 53-60 to stay as one season. I was going for a style of anime style of episodes per season. During those years, I was busy trying to figure out to improve the MMD panels strips. I also finished college and trying to find jobs. I already mastered the MMD panels enough to do more journals, but not as often as it’s first year run. In Dec 2017 - 2018, I only made 14 chapters. It’s somewhat better, but I had to do moving and even finding jobs. I recently worked with someone for three months for a job, but it didn’t work that well. That’s why there hasn’t been much uploaded since November, or rarely anything posted. I got more time now to do Yuki’s Story. MMD panels got regularly back on track. If there is anything else I regret deciding on Yuki’s Story, it goes for very minimal problems that can easily be done. And also changing the dialogue style in mid 2016 to late 2017. I prefer doing the journals much like a script. Besides that, I should announce things in a better way. I would delete my previous progress blogs since some progresses has either changed or already done, and myself changing. I guess I got enough break on the journals to make better stories that are superior to how Junior year looked. It’s not terrible, and I can read them, but it does have some decision I wished to solve already. Currently, I can think of great stories.

What Yuki’s Story’s demographic is aimed for?
I did make it more interesting for teens to adults. No mature content are in the series, like drugs, alcohol, or fanservice as seen in most animes. It does have dark moments, and have valid romances. It’s also an action oriented series. For gender, if this was made as a manga or light novel, the industry would most likely list this series as Shouen or Male. It could be because of Yuki’s character and that she appeals to boys. I personally want to aim this series for both genders. Both genders in the series are treated fairly, and both genders in it are divisive. Viewers may favorite Yuki, Minoru, Rin, Retasu, Ryo, Eru, or other characters based on their taste. It is taught that both genders don’t really matter if an individual wants to be good at something or be an interesting person, without forcing some agenda. We just see how each characters can show that they are interesting. Also, there is no weird fanservice, or accidental perversions or anything like that. I never liked these cliches. In the end, it is a series that is made for both genders to see and aims for adolescence and above.

Last thing, will you like to get help from others to help you improve the series?
I would welcome them if they decide to. I don’t really make a profit out of Yuki’s Story or my videos. I don’t plan to make Patreon on Yuki’s Story since barely anyone reads them. Only one commented that they read the MMD panels, but that’s it. I don’t mind, but also, I do want to give a bit more attention in a legitimate way. I just don’t want to shove the series to everyone unwillingly, but only suggest once to see it. I would let others to help out the series as an optional thing. I would want to see good suggestions to help out the series. I can have others to help me to improve the acceleration for releases. However, I never have contributions or members for it before. I know I don’t have that great experiences on this, but I do want to be fair with others as much as I can show. If you find this story interesting, I can ask is to let me know. I do Yuki’s Story as a hobby, but I do want to improve the management of it. If you decide to give suggestions for the series or if you decide to help in any way, let me know. If you decide to join to help the series, I would lend you how the ideas of the series and know each character to fully understand them. I do think suggestions can be a good thing, or if you notice any grammar errors and want to help out, you are welcome to comment about it. If somehow you are unable to help or join as a team or something, I understand in any situation. If you can suggest a PM, notes, discord, or start a group, you can suggest it and I’ll see there is a best way. I have said before to someone that I don’t use discord that much, but if that’s the best way to communicate out of all the options, I may use it more often. Aside from that, if you enjoy my content, I also make Youtube videos, making MMD ones. I have Tumblr and Deviantart, and Twitter, but I mainly use the first two to publish my work. Youtube is also that, but I only post videos there and didn’t find the communication that good for a long time. If you read the entire or parts of this posts, I highly thank you. I know how important it is to create your original story and that’s the same for me. I help out Skinny Zach films for special effects for his videos.

It’s been long since I posted anything related to Yuki’s Story. I know, it goes against what I said on my previous post. I had some things I had to do in personal life, experimenting things to learn, and fixing other stuff. Finally presenting, Chapter 75.

Yuki meets Minoru at the rooftop at school.
Minoru: So how was your weekend?
Yuki: Pretty good. Look what I got!
Yuki shows Minoru a video game she got.
Minoru: Cool! So your brother got you that game?
Yuki: Yeah, because this is pretty violent and meant for adults. I lend him my money though.
Minoru: I see. So how was it?
Yuki: More challenging, so it was pretty fun.
Meanwhile, Team Phase are at the first floor inside school, and they opened the door that leads them to the lower floor.
They went to a new room.
Hiroshi: It’s a good thing no one else knows that this is our new private room, starting today.
Lila: We gotta thank our Principle for allowing us to take this room.
Touko: So, what’s our new plan?
Hiroshi: I’ve been working on our plan for a week. We want to get rid of Yuki. Not only that, but we should also have her lose her popularity.
Mizuro: How is that gonna work?
Hiroshi: We gotta frame her and that the blame will be put on her. That way, her audience will think she is turning away from being the good girl.
Lila: I see where this is going, but what will be the blame about?
Hiroshi: Oh, it’s a lot to cover here.
He opened his briefcase and gets his papers.
Hiroshi: I made copies for all of you. This is our first plan.
He hands them the copies.
Kaname: Sweet.
Lila: So good!
Hiroshi: This is gonna be good to have her in trouble.
Later, Yuki went to her class to get ready.
The teacher, Takigawa-sensei came.
Takigawa-sensei: Hey class. Today, we will be giving you each a work sheet.
Kaname is looking at Yuki.
Kaname: (mind) When is the best time to bust her?
Later, Kaname came to their new club room. She sees Hiroshi.
He has the package on the ground, next to his shoes. He kicks it and slide to Kaname.
Hiroshi: This is the plan for you. Extra ones. It includes the times sheet, so you can know when to frame her.
Kaname: All right.
Hiroshi: I already give the rest of our teams their own extra plans.
Kaname: Awesome!
During Lunch, Kaname sees Yuki having lunch with her friends.
She gets up and goes by their table. They refused to give her a seat.
Rin: What are you doing here?
Kaname: I’m just checking up on you guys.
Yuki: Go somewhere else.
Kaname sprays huge perfume on Yuki, and she coughs.
Yuki: Uuugg! It is not good for me!
Kaname tuns away.
Yuki: I don’t want this smell on my uniform.
Rin: Too bad most perfumes are sensitive for you.
Yuki: And now I’m gonna be smelling that all day. (coughs)
Leon: Kaname is really creepy.
Minoru talks to Rin.
Minoru: Is there anything to get rid of it?
Rin: No. The smell will stay until you wash it. It does calm down after a while, but it depends how much.
Yuki: She put a lot at me, so I will be coughing from time to time. It smells like fake scent.
Minoru: Hmm.
Later during the break, Yuki came out from a bathroom.
Minoru: So, how was it?
Yuki: I did try waving my upper uniform up and down inside the stall to yank off some smell. It somewhat did, but it’s still there.
Lila and Kaname are seem walking and approach to Yuki.
Lila: Yuki!
Yuki: What are you guys doing here? Why did you have to spray on me?
Kaname: We know you can’t resist that stuff.
Lila: Feeling sick yet?
Yuki: No. It doesn’t. It just gives me cough.
Lila: Aha. See you.
They both leave.
Yuki: (mind) Someday, they will regret of what they are gonna do later on. I will stop them from doing ridiculous plots.
The next day at school, Touko and Kaname are at the bathroom, seeing Yuki coming in. Kaname picks her phone up and texted the group.
“She just came to the bathroom without expecting it. Should we do the plan?”
Kaname: I send it.
Touko: Let’s see what Hiroshi says.
Hiroshi responded instantly. “It’s a good time to do so. I’ll send Lila to the fire alarm”
Touko: All right.
Kaname sees Yuki getting out from the stall, and both of them walk up to her.
Touko: Yuki! We send Lila to pull off the fire alarm now!
Kaname: We are stopping the lunch break!
Yuki: What is wrong with you guys?! Where is she?!
Touko: The first floor by the stairs on the left side.
Yuki runs.
Yuki: You guys are making ridiculous pranks!
She runs to the first floor, and sees Lila by the fire alarm.
Yuki: STAY AWAY FROM THE ALARM!
Lila: No way, Yuki!
Yuki: Why are you guys doing this?! Why do you want vengeance?!
Lila: Because you guys shut down our club, so we can no longer have one.
Yuki: That was for hurting my friends!
Lila: You can’t stop us! The rest of our group are at the fire alarms right now, and you got one minute before we all go outside!
Yuki goes behind the fire alarm.
Yuki: I won’t let you touch it! It may not be enough, but I’ll catch you guys again, and you both will be suspended.
Lila: Too late!
Lila walks back a little.
Yuki sees Ayano walking to the stairs.
Yuki: Ayano! You must go out. They are setting off a fire alarm.
Ayano: Yikes!
She runs away.
Lila: Saving others is your thing, but you can’t stop all of us at once.
Lila has a small remote behind her, and presses the button.
Yuki: Eventually, I will.
Lila tries to taunt Yuki by making it look like she’s running to her.
Yuki goes back a little, but didn’t touch the alarm, or the glass around it.
The fire alarm is sent off.
Yuki: Look what your partners did!
They are running out of the building.
A while later, everyone is at the courtyard.
Yuki told Minoru and his friends the story.
Rin: They’re really planning this well.
Yuki: Well, I got evidence of them planning to do it.
Minoru: How? What evidence do you have?
Yuki: Your sister. She saw me stopping her, and I told her that they are setting off an alarm.
Retasu: Ayano? Hmm.
Leon: Yeah. Is she the only witness?
Yuki: Well, random kids were walking, but I know they saw me yelling at Lila.
Retasu: They can tell the securities about it. The principle will know.
Minoru: According to the story, Lila said all the group was doing it.
Yuki: And we got cameras at every alarm switch.
Minoru: It should be one of them.
They see the principle walking with securities.
Yuki: This time, I will tell him about what Team Phase has planned.
Rin: All right.
Yuki runs to him.
Yuki: Principle! I got some evidence about this situation.
Principle: I was looking for you!
He yells at her.
Yuki: For what?
Hiroshi came behind the principle.
Hiroshi: There she is! She’s the one who pulled it.
Yuki: NO I DIDN’T!
Hiroshi: We showed him the evidence.
Yuki: WHAT EVIDENCE?! I WAS STOPPING LILA FROM DOING IT! YOU GUYS WERE PLANNING TO DO IT!
Principle: He showed me that you told Lila that you were gonna pull it!
Yuki: She was doing it! Not me! You should’ve seen the whole surveillance of each fire alarms!
Principle: I did! You went back to the alarm and pulled the trigger!
Yuki: I didn’t! I was stopping her from doing it!
Principle: IN MY OFFICE! LET’S GO!
They all walk.
An officer talks to the whole school with a bullhorn.
Officer: ATTENTION! We caught a student who triggered a fire alarm! In a few minutes, you all will return to the building!
Minoru and his friends heard the conversation.
Minoru: Yuki didn’t do it! I know they are the blame for this!
Leon: Why do they have to frame Yuki?
Rin: Here we go again.
In the principle office, He and Yuki are talking, alone.
Principle: I would like to believe your side of the story, but I watched all the cameras of each fire alarm.
He shows the clips of the surveillance on other fire alarms.
Principle: No one was by the alarms, except this one!
He puts the clip of Yuki allegedly pulling the alarm, when Yuki leans back near the alarm to stop Lila. It then shows disconnection.
Yuki: This is a setup! They set me up!
Principle: More like you did!
Yuki: No I didn’t! I said this many times!
Principle: Yuki! YOU KNOW SETTING OF A FIRE ALARM IS A BIG OFFENSE!
Yuki: I DIDN’T!
Principle: I AM THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE YELLING AT YOU!
He gets up from a chair.
Principle: Yuki, for setting off a fire alarm, you are in a long term suspension! Today is friday, and you will be suspended the whole week starting from monday!
Yuki: They framed me!
Principle: I don’t believe you.
Yuki: You think I’m lying?! You wouldn’t listen to me the last time I had a meeting with you!
Principle: You had no evidence of Team Phase at the time, but we saw the evidence of you doing it.
Yuki: And why was Hiroshi with you moments ago?
Principle: He came to me and knows where you were at. When I left the building, I was using a surveillance app from my phone and saw that footage, and I tried to find Lila, but I encountered Hiroshi before finding you.
Yuki: Lies!
Principle: No. You are! If we ever catch you in this property during your suspension, we will have a word on the police department with your parents.
Yuki swallows.
Principle: Speaking of your parents, I will call them right now.
Yuki: Go ahead!
He picks up his telephone.
Principle: Hello, Mr. Koriyama… This is the principle. We got a false alarm just now, and I caught your daughter, Yuki, doing it. She pulled the trigger, and she is getting suspended for a week starting at Monday.
Yuki looks frightened.
Yuki: (mind) I haven’t got in trouble like this for very long time. What should I do?
Principle: All right, have a good day.
He hangs up the phone and puts it down.
Principle: Yuki, since school is almost done, I will make you sit on a private room in the office department.
Yuki goes to the room, and sits there.
The Principle closes the door and Yuki looks worried.
Yuki: I never got in this trouble before since Junior High.
She has flashbacks of herself in Junior High.
Yuki was at a class with bullies, picking at classmates, and having Yuki as a target on the day she gets in real trouble.
Guy1: Yuki should be ashamed of herself!
Girl1: You didn’t help all your friends at all, as you promised!
The five bullies was about to run to her. Yuki remembers what caused her to fight all of them in class.
Yuki: I couldn’t stand seeing them getting picked on every single day. They never deserved all of the bullying. That’s why I decide to fight all of them and punched them. I know it was wrong, but I was more of a troublemaker back them, to show how much I cared for my classmates, and my friends.
Yuki was seen on a meeting with her parents.
Yuki: The principle on that school decided to kick me out completely, and forced me to be home schooled for the rest of the year. It was few weeks after the first day of school, back in April 2013.
Outside her flashback, the principle opened the door.
Principle: Here is all your belongings from your class. Your backpack and briefcase.
He put all of them on the table and left the room.
Yuki: I never got framed like this. Team Phase is at it again! They want to get rid of me, but what is the purpose of this?! I must find out sooner.
After school, Yuki is the last one to leave. She walks home and went by her main door outside.
Yuki: Hmm… I wonder how much trouble I’m in now.

Next Chapter: Phase’s Plan
While Yuki is suspended, Team Phase plans out what to do around the school now that Yuki is temporarily out. Minoru and his friends begins investigating about how they got Yuki suspended. What is Team Phase’s next plan? Tune in next time!

Tested on 1920x1080 monitor:

I got an RX 570 8GB from MSI this Christmas. I can now test the results for Madvr. While this serves enough for 1080p display, this card is good for 4K content. NGU performance is noted that Polaris cards performs less than Nvidia’s counterpart. However, they look like a big upgrade from GTX 950 2GB.

Presets for 1080p display:

Turning on RCA with NGU Sharp shows that the performance doesn’t really change. Crispen Sharpening is used for users who wants to use it. It’s not neccessary for 1080p sources, especially 4K. We’re using Error Diffusion since it is good for 1080p displays on performance.

480p All:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: Very High

-Chroma quality: Very High (NGU-mid)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos3 AR

-Downscale quality: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 12 ms

Max rendering: 13 ms

Since the card is strong enough for 480p content on 1080p display, there is not really any setting that would beat the performance for 480p content. Even using RCA without NGU-Sharp, it still is solid.

720p 60fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU low quality

Image downscaling: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: High

-Chroma quality: High (NGU-Low)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos3 AR

-Downscale quality: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 13 ms

Max rendering: 14 ms

720p 30fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU low quality

Image downscaling: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: Very High

-Chroma quality: Very High (NGU-Mid)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos3 AR

-Downscale quality: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 28 ms

Max rendering: 29 ms

720p content on 1080p looks pretty good. I just put both profiles. However, I suggest picking the 60fps profile since you can’t tell the difference between NGU High and Very High on a 1080p display. 720p doubles to 1440p, and then it downscales to 1080p, so seeing the details difference is minimal.

1080p 60fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Image upscaling: NGU (Unused)

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: Off

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 + AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 9 ms

Max rendering: 10 ms

1080p 30fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Image upscaling: NGU (Unused)

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: RCA Luma 1 Med

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 + AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 21 ms

Max rendering: 22 ms

1080p content is fine for 1080p display. The 30fps profile only uses RCA without NGU Sharp involved. However, it’s uncommon to use RCA on 1080p content. I’ll go over the 4k display later.

2160p:

Chroma upscaling: Bicubic60 AR

Image downscaling: SSIM 1D 100% + AR + LL

Image upscaling: Lanczos AR (Unused)

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: Off

Image enhancements: Off

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 7 ms

Max rendering: 9 ms

4K content on 1080p display only needs downscaling quality. Chroma scaling didn’t need to be fancy since yopu won’t see any difference. Bicubic or Bilinear is fine. However, I get somewhat better speed on NGU Low on Chroma on certain cases. Check below. This preset is for all 4K sources without HDR. Debanding doesn’t alter the performance.

2160p HDR:

Convert HDR content to SDR by using pixel shader math

Chroma upscaling: Bicubic60 AR

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: Lanczos AR (Unused)

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: Off

HDR Settings: Balanced, Medium

Image enhancements: Off

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 11 ms

Max rendering: 13 ms

Debanding may not be needed, but barely impacts performance. However, it can help for much brighter displays. This setting is identical to the 4K presets, only changing dithering setting.

Presets from 4k resolution:

I changed the dithering to Ordered Dithering since Error Diffusions can be a little bit demanding on a 4K resolution. You may not see the difference on that high of a resolution anyway.

480p 60fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: Direct 4x High

-Chroma quality: Normal (Bicubic60 AR)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: RCN Luma 1 Med

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 13 ms

Max rendering: 14 ms

480p 30fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: Direct 4x Very High

-Chroma quality: High (NGU Low)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: RCN Luma 1 Med

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 27 ms

Max rendering: 29 ms

480p on a 4K display seems to be great for direct 4x NGU.

720p 60fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: Direct 4x Low

-Chroma quality: Normal (Bicubic60 AR)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: RCN Luma 1 Med

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 11 ms

Max rendering: 12 ms

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: NGU High

-Chroma quality: Normal (Bicubic60 AR)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: RCN Luma 1 Med

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 12 ms

Max rendering: 13 ms

720p 30fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: Direct 4x High

-Chroma quality: Normal (Bicubic60 AR)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 23 ms

Max rendering: 25 ms

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: NGU Very High

-Chroma quality: High (NGU Low)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Error Diffusion 2

Average rendering: 25 ms

Max rendering: 27 ms

I included both direct 4x and simple 2x image doublers. Pretty much, direct 4x looks sharper, but 2x is there for the results.

1080p 60fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: NGU Mid

-Chroma quality: Normal (Bicubic60 AR)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 11 ms

Max rendering: 13 ms

1080p 30fps:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: NGU

-Luma quality: NGU High

-Chroma quality: High (NGU Low)

-Upscale quality: Lanczos 3 AR

-Downscale quality: Bilinear

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCA & RRN: RCA (NGU Sharp) Luma 1

Image enhancements: Crispen Edges 0.5 AR

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 25 ms

Max rendering: 27 ms

1080p sources on a 4k are really good for just simply double the image from NGU Sharp. Any quality can make 1080p look much better on 4K. Although I used RCA with NGU Sharp, you may not need it since mosat 1080p sources are good enough to see NGU benefits without noticing artifacts. Compression artifacts are barely on those resolutions.

2160p all and without HDR:

Chroma upscaling: NGU AA low quality

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: Lanczos AR (Unused)

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: Off

Image enhancements: Off

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 10 ms

Max rendering: 14 ms

Although, I did test out the NGU AA chroma, it performs fine. I recommend using lower settings if the output is not RGB 4:4:4 or YUV 4:4:4, since there won’t be any difference on the color information. Bicubic or Bilinear is fine since you won’t be seeing chroma difference with a 4k source on a 4k display.

2160p HDR:

Convert HDR content to SDR by using pixel shader math

Chroma upscaling: Bicubic60 AR

Image downscaling: Bilinear

Image upscaling: Lanczos AR (Unused)

Upscaling refinement: Off

Artifact removal - Debanding: Medium/High

Artifact removal - Deringing: Off

Artifact removal - RCN & RNN: Off

HDR Settings: Balanced, Medium

Image enhancements: Off

Dithering: Ordered Dithering

Average rendering: 9 ms

Max rendering: 11 ms

Debanding may not be needed, but barely impacts performance. However, it can help for much brighter displays. Although on 4K sources, you can now see more separate render times between average and max. It can be due to how a video is decoded, or if 4K sources uses higher bitrates, like a hundred mbps or so. However, HDR videos decoded on some drivers or certain players can show better results.

4K results are pretty good for the RX 570. Being near $140 4GB card is a good value for Madvr. NGU scaling seems to be fine. I haven’t had any terrible performance on NGU. 4GB VRAM is plenty, so you don’t have to play around the buffer settings. It does perform better than GTX 1050 Ti.

All Test:

Smooth Motion: Enable

Trade Quality for Performance: Unchecked all

3DLUT was off, but doesn’t really change the performance at all.

The reason why I listed 60fps and 30fps presets is because certain sources are rendered at 60fps. Sources like camera capture, screen and gameplay captures, capture cards, bob deinterlaced video, video testing, and variable framerate sources can reach 60fps. Some users would want to go further because a lot of their sources are 30fps, 25fps, or 24fps. I personally want to only use the 60fps profiles just to be safe for any video sources. I also have certain sources that has variable framerates.

I take a look at two websites for profiles and posted preferences.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=259188

https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146228

Benchmarks on few scenarios:

-1080p Chroma Settings (no scaling), no sharpening or artificial removal used.

Bicubic60 AR           7ms

Bilateral Old          7.5ms

Bilateral Soft         8ms

Bilateral Sharp        8ms

Reconsoft Soft         8.4ms

Reconsoft Sharp        12.4ms

Reconsoft Placebo      23ms

Super-xBR AR 100       8ms

NGU AA Low             6ms

NGU AA Med             6.5ms

NGU AA High            9.4ms

NGU AA Med             23.3ms

It is pretty weird that NGU Low has better performance than Bicubic60 AR on this test.

-720p 60fps image double, Chroma=Bicubic60 AR, Downscale=Bilinear, no chroma doubling.

None                   3ms

NGU-Sharp

Medium                 5.2ms (192+fps)

High                   7.3ms (137+fps)

Very High              20.7ms (48.2fps)

Super-XBR              3.9ms

-1080p 60fps image double, Chroma=Bicubic60 AR, Downscale=Bilinear, no chroma doubling.

None                   3ms

Low                    7.1ms (140+fps)

Medium                 9.2ms (108+fps)

High                   17.5ms (56.9fps)

Very High              44.1ms (22.7fps)

Super-XBR              6.1ms

For a Polaris Radeon user, I generally get double the performance with NGU from GTX 950. The RX 570 does well on NGU with latest drivers. I’m using 19.9 drivers. Polaris NGU issue relates to driver issues, but I haven’t heard about NGU issue on Vega or Navi yet, but can be present. MadVR still uses D3D9 assests even though you’re using DX11 presentation. I wonder if you get slightly better performance if MadVR somehow worked on Wine with Mesa Drivers using Gallium Nine or D9VK. Early drivers do have real issue on NGU performance when Polaris cards came out. As of Late 2018 and even as of November 2019, I do get around double the performance when switched out GTX 950, and RX 570 generally doubles the performance when I got it from Christmas. Although I only notice 1.5x performance when using NGU 4x, but I still got enough performance for tests above.

For sharpening, even with anti-ringing and anti-bloating 100%, performance is too good for 1080p or lower, and not really needed for 4K most of the time. I recommend Crispen Edges 0.5 AR since that sharpening filter doesn’t really bloat the edges when using NGU, compared to others, regardless if AB is set to 150%.

-1080p 60fps Reduce Compression Artifact (RCA) test, Chroma=Bilinear, RCA=3.

None                   4.7ms

Low                    5.3ms

Medium                 7.5ms

High                   14.0ms

Very High              38.1ms

Low+Chroma             6.6ms

Medium+Chroma          9.8ms

High+Chroma            20.5ms

Very High+Chroma       58.3ms

Doing RCA filter without NGU involved is a good way to reduce compression artifacts when watching a video in native resolution of your screen. If you don’t use NGU Sharp or can’t upscale any higher, you won’t get a free performance with RCA when using other NGU or upscaling methods currently if you want RCA active. Besides, RCA with NGU Sharp is done after other post processing effects like deband and sharpness, which is bad for sharpness if it picks up the artifacts from sharpen filters. The good order would be RCA+Deband+Dehalo, and then Sharpness to affect the artifacts less. Although this sounds good, it does involve performance compromise. If you don’t use any sharp filters and upscale with NGU Sharp, you can use free performance option.

Anyway, the quality of RCA between Low and Very High relate to how it can take a bit more artifacts away without using higher strength value to ruin details. Low to Very High can vary between lowest and highest strength value. I tested 7, the middle of the strength value, and the difference between low and very high are little. It can be noticable, but pretty little. Artifacts are slightly visible, but still blurred, and lines on very high are slightly sharp, but won’t matter when pairing with a sharpening filter. Lower strength values are subtle for differences. Higher values, especially at 14 max strength, shows quite noticable difference. Lines are sharper and parts of the details are more visible on very high, but still looks smudged all over. Lines can be blurred on animation. It’s not really bad looking, but you can tell it’s looks overprocessed, especially if you pair it with upscaling like NGU or Lanczos. I do recommend 7 for max processing since it gets rid of a lot of artifacts fairly while details have little loss, including a little difference between low and very high quality. As for Chroma, it does help a bit, but differences between low and very high can be similar, but you may notice it on small red chroma dots of the video. Difference between with and without chroma RCA is a bit less noticable than Luma one.

MPV Benchmarks:

720p Sources:

FSRCNN8 - 2.7ms (368fps)

FSRCNN16 - 7.0ms (142fps)

FSRCNN32 - 23.9ms (41.8fps)

FSRCNNX8 - 3.0ms (328fps)

FSRCNNX16 - 11.1ms (90.0fps)

I put out the benchmarks for MPV player, using FSRCNN and FSRCNNX. I only used FPS estimated numbers since they’re more consistent and easier to calaulate. Unlike Nvidia, I had issues with OpenGL when using FSRCNN32, not others, and Vulkan seems to perform a bit less. I use gpu-api=d3d11 to use the most stable API available. It performs the fastest out of all APIs. Lanczos is used for upscaling and bilinear is used for downscaling. It is used to show how these shaders actually perform. On Linux with Mesa drivers, Vulkan performs pretty well, and OpenGL works with all shaders. Vulkan with RADV drivers performs the best. On MPV, FSRCNNX16 is best for 720p sources, unless if you decide to throw a few more shaders and use 60fps, then use FSRCNNX8. I skipped FSRCNNX56 and GAN one since they are very slow to use on any resolution.

The best quality for upscaling would be NGU. As of April 2019, FSCRNNX are more competivive to NGU Sharp. The non-X variants has little higher performance, with sharpness being identical to NGU-Standard and quality is slightly lower. Generally, FSRCNN shaders have the lines with ringing, however. FSRCNNX are sharper with more better results than the standard, and can go through a bit more on compression artifacts. FSRCNNX-8 looks between NGU Med and NGU High, and looks slightly sharper, albert little more ringing, and FSRCNNX-16 looks between NGU High and Very High, and retains sharpness as FSRCNNX-8 with less ringing and lines are better. 16 performs around twice as fsst as NGU Very High, and competes pretty good with NGU Sharp Very High on the image benchmark below. 8 non-x is between standard low and med, 16 non-x is between standard med and 32 non-x looks something like NGU Standard High while performs lower, and FSRCNNX-56-16-4-1 doesn’t perform in real time. However, both NGU Sharp Very High and FSRCNNX-16 are great. 16 will look better than 8, but performance is more faster on 8. However, these are your alternatives if you use other OS like Linux or Android, but I recommend Madvr on Windows for easier usability. RAVU performs pretty fast and look similar to NGU-AA High on RAVU-R4. It does have few artifacts on certain X crossed lines that NGU-AA doesn’t have on any level. Super-XBR does look worse than NGU-AA or RAVU. For best quality on smooth upscaling, NGU-AA Very High is the best one out there. Here are the benchmarks on quality and performance on most of the shaders listed here:

https://artoriuz.github.io/mpv_upscaling.html

Setup MPV:

https://iamscum.wordpress.com/guides/videoplayback-guide/mpv-conf/

Edit 11/1/19: Added RCA test and MPV Linux info added.

11/2/19: Test on image double 1080p, benchmark test with FPS on most, and add more info about Polaris NGU and MPV shaders.