I'm getting a different kind of flood today. But I don't have the slightest idea where it's coming from. It's two different hashes from a site called t.co and one from is.gd.

There isn't any way for me to trace them back. It's weird that three different strings are being used; makes me think this is moving by email, or twitter, or something. If it were a web site there would only be one getting used.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 08:26 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I got Slashdotted today, for the first time in a coon's age. Hasn't been an unreasonable amount of traffic, and I get the impression it isn't a very busy thread, but it's like old times. Or something.

Takes me back.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 04:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We're having some cockpit problems with the top rotation right now, which should be cleared up soon. If you get a blank gray image, that's why. Sorry about this. (It's my fault.)

UPDATE: In case you're wondering, I'm trying to do an update. Here's what's getting added:

20  Ano Natsu de Matteru
60  Fairy Tail OVA
29  Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun
33  High School DxD
51  Ladies versus Butlers
61  Maji de Watashi
46  Medaka Box
75  Omamori Himari
65  Shining Hearts

That will bring us to 1434 total images, including 440 new ones. That's 30%.

The flash file is updated and ready to go. The only thing going on now is getting all the new images uploaded, and Pixy and I had a misunderstanding about where they were supposed to go. Which was my fault. (flogging self)

Once that's all straightened out, I'll upload the new flash file, and you'll start seeing new images. You'll also be able to tell by hovering over the upper left corner. The new flash is version 23.

UPDATE: The new flash has been uploaded. You should dump your browser cache to make sure you get the new version.

Also, in my brief testing, the "Ladies versus Butlers" images aren't loading. I'm checking into that.

Ah, heck. Maji de Watashi isn't working, either.

UPDATE: OK, another version of the flash uploaded (remember to dump your browser cache) and now everything should work.

UPDATE: By the way, it wouldn't be very surprising if you see new images from the series which were already in the rotation.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 07:13 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Lots of cuteness in this update. The effort is appreciated.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at July 04, 2012 09:25 AM (2XtN5)

2 Makes every visit a little different.

Posted by: sqa at July 04, 2012 12:04 PM (5/dUV)

3 If you ever search this spring season for images, you'll notice a certain type of girl showing up frequently.

Posted by: muon at July 05, 2012 06:04 AM (JXm2R)

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55 candidates from that series, mainly from episodes 5 (beach) and 10 (track meet), but a few from 11, 12, and 13.

I still find the entire concept of the series to be a bit nauseating. The entire "idol" business in Japan is incredibly cynical. In terms of morality, idol producers are only about one step removed from pimps. The girls are used for a few years, and then discarded like yesterday's newspaper so that an entirely new batch of girls can be cycled through.

And sometimes they start them early. One of the groups begins recruiting the girls when they're in grade school, for a special loli-division of the organization.

These girls are having their childhood's stolen from them. You're only a kid once, only for these girls they aren't even a kid once. They're products, recruited, processed, used, and thrown away. What kind of life do they have after that? What kind of life even while it's going on?

I find the morality of it all completely repulsive.

Of course, IdolM@ster was a game, and the girls on the screen weren't real people. And likewise for the anime. But I'd find an anime about a pimp recruiting girls to be prostitutes to be revolting, even if no real girls are involved. And I find this revolting, too.

I got 55 frame grabs, but I'm not sure I'm going to use them. It would make me a pimp, too.

Hell of a time for me to get religion, ain't it?

UPDATE: Pete doesn't like this post.

In response to him I say this: there's a difference between children and adults. If an adult voluntarily enters a profession with a short pipeline, well, it's his (or her) choice. Their life, their choosing, their problem.

Doing that to kids is a different matter. And it's the fact of them doing it to children -- the girls in this show are all fifteen -- that bothers me.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 08:47 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Have you watched any of AKB0048?  At least they're more honest there: they're recruiting them for a war!

While I can't say I like the industrialized practice, given what happens here in the States with the "teen pop" genre, it's not terribly different.  Though it's a bit more of an American take, certainly.

Posted by: sqa at June 06, 2012 08:58 PM (tmPk0)

2 No, I haven't watched AKBetc. That one is cynical^2.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 06, 2012 09:11 PM (+rSRq)

3 It's got otaku/idol fans with character-decaled personal mechas that help the Idols fight the battles.

Yeah, the world premise is stupid, but Kawamori decided he could make it glorious in only the way he can.   Which either makes him a fool or a genius, but I can say it's at least made him a good deal of money.

What's not to love about "Mic-Sabers"?

Posted by: sqa at June 06, 2012 09:23 PM (tmPk0)

4 Oddly enough, discarded idols seem to end up better off than the typical former child star in the US. I'm sure a lot of things are hushed up, and the financial structure of the contracts discourages tell-all books even years later, but perhaps the sheer number of former idols makes it easier to slip back into an anonymous and relatively normal life. 

And, yeah, for a lot of the agencies, "pimp" is pretty close to accurate. When I was shopping in Osaka's equivalent to Akihabara, DenDen Town, there was a video store where the centerpiece of the porn floor was a large-screen TV playing loli DVDs. Watching the camera zoom intimately around the body of a girl no older than 11 (in a barely-there thong bikini) was quite squicky. There were plenty of adult videos featuring adults, but the first thing you saw when you walked in was the new-loli-releases table. (and, yes, this was also the floor where they kept the bikini videos for AKB48, Morning Musume, etc)

-j

Posted by: J Greely at June 06, 2012 11:50 PM (2XtN5)

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I  need to know what show the third picture is from. I might need to plunder it for the top rotation.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 07:40 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I think I have enough now. In terms of raw captures:

FairyTail OVA -- 62
Ninomiya-kun -- 36
High School DxD -- 38
Ladies versus Butlers -- 63
Maji de Watashi -- 77
Medaka Box -- 65
Omamori Himari -- 88
Shining Hearts -- 73

Total 502

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 09:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have this list I maintain of shows which might be raidable for the top sequence. One that's been on that list for a long time is MM! and just now I gave it a try.

I'm sorry, I can't do it. It's just too strange. Between the pettanko blonde beating the crap out of the hero something like five times in the first episode, I just couldn't bring myself to keep going.

So I tried jumping ahead to something like the 5th episode. And Our Hero is wearing some sort of belt that a Mad Scientist girl created for him. The pettanko beats him up, and he accumulates so much perv energy that he becomes a super saiyajin, complete with spiky blonde hair. He flies, fights a mech by firing a kamehameha at it, and eventually forms a genki dama.

Or maybe we should call it an ungenki dama. The energy comes from all the other perverts in the world, so the energy is not exactly healthy. Sheesh...

Sorry, there's got to be something else I can raid. I haven't gotten to Maji de Watashi yet; that should probably be next.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 11:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Six episodes of Ninomiya-kun and I've had enough. 36 candidates is a bit light, but I refuse to submit myself to any more punishment.

I just realized last night that the Fairy Tail OVA is a good source. So that's next.

UPDATE: OK, that was good for 62 raw grabs.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 05:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 All 3 of the Fairy Tail OVAs should be good source material.  Which is hilarious when you realize they're actually based off the mangaka's omakes.  He actually storyboarded the 3rd one himself.

It also goes with a trend in his own work.  He took his work on Rave Master and added bigger breasts, which is how we got Fairy Tail.  It's noticeably more popular.

Posted by: sqa at May 30, 2012 06:24 PM (TCkUS)

2

The third one was actually a pretty neat story. As we all know, it's hard to do a good job of a time travel story, and absolutely wrap up all the loose ends, but this was pretty decent.

It was kind of too bad that Grey didn't have any interaction with his younger self. On the other hand, it was neat that each of the other three had a different kind of interaction.

Erza spoke to her younger self and nudged the kid towards being less irritable. Lucy saved her younger self, and talked to her, but not face to face, and didn't realize who it was. And Natsu...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 30, 2012 07:35 PM (+rSRq)

3 And having Lucy as a bunny-girl and Erza as a catgirl certainly didn't hurt the third one (heh).

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 30, 2012 08:47 PM (+rSRq)

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I've been trying to put together a reasonable number of new images to add to the top rotation. In terms of raw captures, here's what I've gathered so far:

Ladies versus Butlers -- 63
Medaka Box -- 65
Omamori Himari -- 88
Shining Hearts -- 73

I won't be able to use all of those; maybe 80%. It isn't really enough, so I've been hunting for at least one more show's worth. Right now I'm downloading Maji de Watashi ni koi Shinasai, but it's going slowly. At the rate it's going it'll be Saturday before it's finished.

I might also end up going through one of the Ikki Tousen series that I haven't used here before. Haven't decided on that. And High School DxD is on the list.

I had a list of several other series I thought might be usable that didn't turn out to be:

Aquarion Evol
Rinne no Lagrange
Baka to Test
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls
High School of the Dead
Angel Beats
Mayo Chiki

There were lots of cute girls in all of them, but I just couldn't find reasonable candidates in sufficient number to make it worth looking any further.

I'm pretty sure that Maji de Watashi will be suitable, though. I only watched two episodes of it but I remember seeing a lot of usable images in them.

UPDATE: The first four episodes of High School DxD were good for 32 candidates. But what's far more surprising is that I'm getting into the story.

Issei begins the series as a despicable lech, but after he meets Asia he starts changing. Also, in the 4th episode he begins to understand his power.

I think I'll download more of it.

UPDATE: End of ep 6. 38 total candidates, and I've had enough. After the Asia arc ended, they started doing silly fillers.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 07:25 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Oh, good grief.

Oh, good griefer!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 07:38 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Some people seriously don't have enough to do.

Wait, I think I just got bitten by the Great Llama of Irony... 

Posted by: ubu at March 06, 2012 09:32 AM (i7ZAU)

2 Only the best for Steven Den Beste's readers!  There's always something interesting to see around here. 

Posted by: Mark A. Flacy at March 06, 2012 06:44 PM (Lbkvv)

3 That saved me some clicking.

At least they didn't do a statistical analysis to try to determine your favorite hair color or something.

Posted by: Mauser at March 07, 2012 03:44 AM (cZPoz)

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