As you know, what I used to do was to maintain about 740 images, give or take. Every once in a while I'd come up with a bunch of new ones, and then I'd remove most of the older images and add a lot of new ones, to maintain about the same total.

With this new flash file, which chooses images randomly instead of cycling through them, the new plan is just to keep adding pictures without removing any old ones. Every time I do that I have to change the flash file itself, but it's easy and quick to do so. Right now there are about 550 images, and I'd like to start adding to that.

Coming up with new stuff is pretty tough, though. I just got through going through Hyakka Ryouran Samuran Girls and I took 70 grabs. Probably about 20 of those will be usable; most of the rest involve nudity or simply look lousy. (The art style was too dark for the most part.)

So it seems to me that it's time for me to revisit alumni. There are a lot of series which I used in earlier incarnations of the top rotation, and I think I'm going to go back to them.

What got me thinking in these terms was Pete reminding me of Magikano. It's not a great series, but the girls are cute and it's got the kind of shots I want.

Which, I think, I should describe. I think the best way to explain it is, "Safe For work, but only barely so." Pretty much what I'm looking for is cheesecake: girls with nice bodies, wearing tight clothing that doesn't hide their shapes. Swimsuit pictures are perfect but not required. Ideally the girls are smiling.

And no guys in the pictures, except maybe in deep background. Also, no blood and gore. These are supposed to be nice pictures.

And guns are an added bonus.

That's why Rio - Rainbow Gate ended up such a large presence in the current group. Whatever else you may say about it, good or bad, the images were great and the girls are gorgeous. The show was pretty much continuous cheesecake from beginning to end.

I won't be using lolicon bait. In one incarnation, something like half the top rotation cycle was pictures from Card Captor Sakura, but I won't be including any pictures from that series, or anything like it. So no Nanoha or Nanoha A's. (Yeah, there's Miyuki and Arf, but still.) Likewise, no Petite Princess Yucie.

I won't be using shows where the image quality isn't very good. That means no Ranma 1/2, for instance. Nice as the show was, it just doesn't come down to us in very good shape. Seven of Seven is borderline but probably a no.

So, some possibilities:

Magikano
Stratos 4 -- but probably not very many pictures. The art got kind of repetitive.
Aika Zero -- but avoiding panchira, which won't leave a lot
High School Girls -- maybe a couple of episodes worth
Hanaukyo Maid Team la Verite
Tenchi Muyo GXP
Najica Blitz Tactics -- avoiding panchira
Gravion
Grenadier (Yay, Rushuna!)
Divergence Eve
UFO Princess Valkyrie -- but avoiding the lolis.
Kirameki Project
Mai Otome Zwei
Sekirei second season
Zero no Tsukaima -- later seasons, where the story-telling got bad but the cheesecake got good.

Rejects:

Aria -- isn't cheesecakie enough.
Keroro Gunsou -- isn't cheesecakie enough. (There is some, but I'd have to hunt for it.)
Vandread -- the show has come down to us letterboxed, and the images aren't large enough to work with.
Sugar -- lolis.
Seven of Seven -- the art isn't crisp looking.
Dokuro-chan -- nightmare bait
Eiken -- barf
Nanoha Strikers -- the art quality isn't good enough
Negima! -- The art isn't very inspired.
Realbout High School -- I love the show, but the art quality isn't good enough.
Chu-Bra -- I tried going through it for the current set, and in like three episodes I only found a couple of images I felt I could use.
Dragon Crisis -- too much loli, and I don't like the cousin.
Fairy Tail -- too much sweaty guys. I tried going through some episodes of it recently, and the only pictures of the girls had them getting beaten up.
Fractale -- not really cheesecake.
Madoka -- not really cheesecake.
Haibane Renmei -- no cheesecake
Slayers -- art style isn't up to snuff.
Kamen no Maid Guy -- the art isn't good enough
Kanokon -- problem is, I don't like how the girls look. Chizuru is fat, and Nozomu is pettanko. Neither make for good cheesecake.
Kemeko -- the redhead is great, but only when she comes out of her armor.
Umisho -- Art quality isn't good enough
Macademi Wasshoi -- sigh. The art quality isn't really good enough.
Moetan -- lolis
Nagasarete Airantou -- art quality
Ichigo Mashimaro -- lolis
Occult Academy -- I've looked at it a bit, and I think I'd have to really hunt to find appropriate pictures.
Potemayo -- not cheesecake
Queen's Blade -- just a bit too gross. Boobs shouldn't be that large.
Shakugan no Shana -- too loli.
Someday's Dreamers -- not cheesecake
Sora no Woto -- not cheesecake
K-On -- please, don't make me watch this!!!
Haruhi -- It's hard to come up with cheesecake pictures that don't have guys in them.
Tears to Tiara -- Most cheesecake pics have guys too.
Sacred Blacksmith -- surprisingly little in the way of cheesecake. Mostly she wears chest armor.
Railgun -- no cheesecake.
Spice and Wolf -- not really cheesecake. (Except for the nude scenes, which I can't use.)
Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki -- art quality isn't good enough. (Not even the third season.)
Tactical Roar -- art quality isn't good enough.
Popotan -- If I avoid nudity and lolis, there isn't anything to use.
High School of the Dead -- maybe there are good pictures in it, but I don't want to search for them.
All Key romangst fests from KyoAni -- not even at gunpoint.
Cyberteam in Akihabara -- the art quality really reeks.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi -- loli, mostly. There's Munemune, but I don't want to use just one character. Also, the art style isn't quite up to snuff.

Tossups:

Negima!? -- Shinbo's version. Kind of lolicon, but several of the girls are physically mature, and the art is good. (Lots better than the other version.)
Yumeria -- borderline. dunno. If I did it, I'd avoid the lolis.
Ikki Tousen -- the art style is borderline, but damn the girls look good.
Ladies vs. Butlers -- Used recently; low on the list.
Magipoka -- Art quality is borderline
Otome Yokai Zakuro -- kind of short of cheesecake shots. Also, too many men.
Penguin Musume -- I'm not sure if I can come up with the kinds of shots I want.
Princess Lover -- Used recently. I'll probably come back to it eventually, but low on the list.
Prism Ark -- May be hard to find pictures without guys.
Saki -- Used recently, so low on the list.
Sekirei first season -- Used recently
Sengoku Otome -- defer decision until it's complete
Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo -- lots of good images, but how many brain cells will it cost me?

In most cases I'd try to limit myself to 30-50 grabs, if even that many. Eventually I'd like to get somewhere above a thousand images. But this is a long term project.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 11:08 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 1255 words, total size 8 kb.

1 Actually, a bunch of those series will be a problem because they're 4:3. Bummer.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 06, 2011 01:08 PM (+rSRq)

2 I guess not everyone agrees on the definition of "cheescake."  There are some very nice shots possible from Aria for example.  <p> Even if you can't find any shots that exactly match your criteria, I think you should get some Mahoromatic images back in the rotation.  Chizumatic needs Chizu!

Posted by: David at June 06, 2011 01:44 PM (/ZaEZ)

3

Mahoromatic hurts too much. I can't look at any part of it without thinking of the ending.

There are several series which I no longer can visit, because they were ruined for me by the endings. Cowboy Bebop is another. I'll never watch it again, or any part of it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 06, 2011 01:47 PM (+rSRq)

4 Coming here to read I saw Plug up top.  I assume, therefore, there's some Arresta in the mix?

Posted by: atomic_fungus at June 06, 2011 02:44 PM (1T0l5)

5 Yeah, she's around. But there are only 17 pictures from that series. 8 of them are Arresta, or Plug and Arresta together.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 06, 2011 02:51 PM (+rSRq)

6 The trick is to never watch the last episode of anything you like.  Sometimes, though, things go to pieces in the second-last episode and catch you anyway.  (Key the Metal Idol, I'm looking at you.)

I was just watching some more of Penguin Musume, and there's certainly cheesecake among the insanity.  Could be worth a shot.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 06, 2011 05:12 PM (PiXy!)

7 Nothing from Noir - is it in the wrong format as well?

Posted by: Siergen at June 06, 2011 05:55 PM (FiHIo)

8 It's actually possible to get pics from "Najica Blitz Tactics" and NOT get panchira??  Wow.

Posted by: Dave Young at June 06, 2011 07:24 PM (ZAk0Z)

9

Regarding Noir, first: this list isn't complete. Completists are the bane of my existence. Second, Noir was a hell of a fine series, but it ultimately wasn't my kind of show. It moved me, made me feel things, but they weren't things I really enjoyed.

I'm glad I watched it, but I never want to watch anything else like it. And at this point I never want to watch Noir itself again.

As to Najica Blitz Tactics, yeah, there are some swimsuit images, for one thing. And just as I was thinking about that particular episode, I remembered all the vintage planes that are in it, and in particular a flying boat at the end. I wonder if it was an Emily?

As to Key the Metal Idol, that was crap all the way through. Only reason I finished it was that it was the early days and I was hoping it would somehow redeem itself. It never did.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 06, 2011 07:38 PM (+rSRq)

10 It's been a long, long time since I watched Key the Metal Idol, and you may be right.  But for me the next-to-last episode killed it dead.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 06, 2011 08:26 PM (PiXy!)

11

Is that the one where the cute girl got killed?

That event, whatever episode it was in, certainly did an especially good job of ruining the show.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 06, 2011 10:00 PM (+rSRq)

12 It probably goes without saying that you have no interest in help on this.

Posted by: Mauser at June 06, 2011 11:38 PM (cZPoz)

13 Steven, that's always bad, but the one that killed the show for me was the special episode where two of the characters sat on a park bench and explained the plot to us...  For ninety minutes.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 06, 2011 11:53 PM (PiXy!)

14

Oh, by "second to last episode" you mean the first of the two movies.

Yeah, that was a case of utter incompetence. When you have to use an entire movie-length feature just to do plot exposition, there's something seriously wrong.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 07, 2011 08:17 AM (+rSRq)

15 So that episode was basically "My Dinner With Andre: the Anime"?

Posted by: Boviate at June 07, 2011 08:41 AM (RPpft)

16

Alas, nothing like that good.

The director of the anime was the original mangaka. It was his first involvement in anime, and he didn't understand the truth that it's a different medium and you can't tell the same kinds of stories.

His original story was complex and deep and he couldn't bear to part with any of it. After 13 episodes his story wasn't done. In fact, after 13 episodes it wasn't even really started. It took two movies to complete it, and all of the first movie and about the first quarter of the second one was all plot exposition.

And in the end the story itself wasn't all that good.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 07, 2011 12:49 PM (+rSRq)

17 "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi -- loli, mostly. There's Munemune, but I don't want to use just one character. Also, the art style isn't quite up to snuff."

I had a thought about that, with the one "Film Noir" episode where they were all grown up, plus it had the mini-skirt police uniforms. But when I re-read this, I have no answer for the art.

Posted by: Mauser at June 09, 2011 12:30 PM (cZPoz)

18 Kemeko had a beach episode and a couple of date ones, one with M.M. (the redhead) and the other with the ninja girl. Freezing has service, but it's probably NSFW (like Aika).

Posted by: muon at June 14, 2011 07:51 PM (JXm2R)

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