OK, so when are we going to do this? I'm ready to pull the trigger on anything, but I'm going to mention something about Neo Metal Fantasy.
Just because the fight menus are icon based, don't let that sway you too much. If that's what it gets to get you to play it, then cool, that's all that matters. You need to realize though that after about an hour into any RPG, English, Japanese, or otherwise, you don't actually read that shit anyway. Its all reflex and such. 25 hours into the thing that isn't going to help you one bit and you'll be on autopilot with any game.
Regarding Kabuki Den: While this game is hella heavy on the kanji, its also one of the most well documented and understood JRPGs on PCE. Hell, I'm pretty sure if you get stuck on ANYTHING in the game Black Tiger can get you through it all by himself, never mind the other people here.
So anyway, I want to start this soon.