Just a filler post.
By uiti
There are many popular and expansive imageboards on the internet that feature various works from Japanese artists. Some of the most popular include DeviantART, PIXIV, e shuu-shuu, and Danbooru. When I use the word “imageboard”, I mean a website that is primarily dedicated to images, even if it can be used as a social networking site, most people simply use it for artwork. So, the imageboard that shall not be named, 4chan, won’t be referenced here. While I love these imageboards to death, and use them very frequently, all of them have annoying setbacks that hinder image searching.
I’ll focus on DevianART first. Even if you don’t have an account there, you’ve probably visited DeviantART once or twice. This website is the primary English-speaking (sometimes non-English speaking) imageboard. Everything from poetry to flash games can be uploaded and found here. Not only that, DeviantART functions as a social networking site, allowing users to friend each other and join clubs. But sometimes those regulations can get annoying. First, the icon size is only 50×50, which seems too small for such an immense site. Second, DeviantART has strict, but vague, restrictions regarding mature works, and what constitutes mature is left up to interpretation, personal choice, and the honor system. The description when uploading something that describes what is generally mature is barely a few words long and only states things along the lines of “nudity, extreme violence, and sex”. But what crosses the line into mature territory? Obviously it’s evident in works on the extreme end of the spectrum, but what exactly constitutes bring mature? Pictures containing panty shots, side boobs, or a character with an arm cut off? It’s a murky business, and one that could easily get your picture reported if you fail to mark an image as mature that someone considers mature. Even pictures rated mature are not guaranteed safety from being deleted, as that ambiguous “I saw something that offended me on DevianART” excuse crosses all boundaries. Not only that, but there is not an appeal system regarding the deletion of pictures. The picture will simply be gone one day, and you can’t do anything about it except upload the picture again and hope it isn’t deleted again. There is also the presence of bad artwork that seems to be in every corner of the site, but I won’t get into that.
This leads me into my second imageboard, PIXIV. I consider PIXIV the Japanese equivalent to DeviantART, although the former only accepts flash and image creations, not poetry, games, stamps, etc. PIXIV also functions as a social networking site, although being as I can’t speak Japanese I haven’t had a chance to explore this function. This brings me to the most prominent problem with PIXIV: the language barrier. Catering to a large Japanese audience, the site doesn’t provide English translations for anything unless a specific user purposefully uploads something into English, which doesn’t happen very often. Also a problem is the search function, which yields many results for broad categories such as “Vocaloid” or “Hetalia” but gives only a few images to specific series entries such as “Umineko”. I don’t think it’s a problem that I can’t type in Japanese, pictures appear with their Japanese tags regardless if I type in English, rather that the users who upload images just don’t submit many illustrations involving lesser known series. Not much I can do about that. But one of PIXIV’s most redeeming qualities is the lack of perverted, or all out pornographic, pictures.
Danbooru is the English translation of PIXIV. They do not accept works from users on the site and only allow uploads of images from PIXIV or various other Japanese imageboards. Because it’s an English website the board is easy to navigate and get involved in. The tagging function is easy and usually yields many results. But I have two major problems with Danbooru, and the number one issue is the overabundance of porn. The site mentions that in the rules for uploading images that they do not except grotesque images, usually involving characters with genitalia more than two heads large. This seems a pretty extreme rule, and since there aren’t many images that are like that, things like outright porn comics can slip through the cracks. And I’m not just talking one or two, I mean comics that can fill up three whole pages of search results. My biggest beef with this is not that it’s porn, though, it’s that there’s no such thing as a mature rating, like DeviantART has. I realize that sometimes the content of mature images can be vague, but is it really so vague to simply list a rule that says ”all images showing genitalia on a person must be marked mature”? I’m tired of getting nonstop images of porn when I look for images. The second problem I have with Danbooru is that they ask for a subscription to their website to be able to search more than two tags. I’m not paying money just to search more tags, and there’s not enough content I’d be happy with if I got the subscription, but for sites like e shuu-shuu, which allow people to search the image boards using unlimited tags for free, it’s kind of annoying.
The last main imageboard I’ll talk about is the E Shuu-shuu (or sometimes just listed as Shuu-shuu) image board. Have you ever seen an anime picture and were curious about its origins? Look no further than this site, which lists thousands of images like that and usually include the source, character, and artist who made them. The site, once it’s been used a few times, is pretty simple. Clicking on the search function yields a host of boxes, and the most commonly used ones are character, source, artist, and description. Description is where you enter tags that fit the image you want to find. A handy-dandy drop down box appears whenever you type a tag in that shows the tags that are available on e shuu-shuu. The drop down box usually explains slang terms in tags, but you might want to catch up on your definition of nekomimi before using the site. Source is used for series searches, and the fields for artist and character are pretty self-explanatory. And while I use this imageboard a lot, there are some setbacks. The first is in the rules, which state that no picture can be uploaded without a female character in it somewhere. Sorry, if you wanted to search for anime guys you’ve got to find a different image board. The second problem is the over abundance of Touhou images, which clog up the site and are guaranteed to add three more pages to the search results simply because half of the images uploaded have a wide range of tags accompanying them. Get used to Touhou if you want to use e shuu-shuu. but, e shuu-shuu has very strict rules regarding perverted content, and all of the images are pretty much safe for work.
I know these aren’t all the image databases that exist, but these are the ones I use most often. As you can see, each has their redeeming qualities but with that comes some problems. Which is why I find the best way to go is to link directly to the artist’s website, but that’s just me.
