Well many of you guys have asked where I get the moe/kawaii/ecchi/*ahem* pictures of bishoujo characters. I basically grab them off imageboards.

Okay, a little history on the imageboards. I MAY NOT be correct.

\History <windbell’s point of view>/

<History>

So there was a huge image repository archive known as Danbooru. It was the image resource for anime fans (For me yeah). I remember firing up Opera, opening up each individual link, save or discard and continue. It was tough work but seriously rewarding.

So, it died early March 2007. One of the saddest news ever on the internets. Many people then began searching for other alternatives. I did. A fellow acquaintance of mine decided to leech the whole danbooru image database and had uploaded it on torrents. It was roughly 20GB. @.@ Soon after, danbooru’s source code got released and alternatives started popping up again.

</History>

  ^ Hawt looking Ringo when she isn’t wearing her specs ^^; 

\Alternatives Or Not/

Now, several alternatives to Danbooru exists. I shall just copy and paste the list from Danbooru’s main page.

Anime Mahou

Gelbooru

Konachan.com

Anime Chronicles

Sagubooru (Flash)

Sagubooru (Ajax)

moe.imouto.org (Go there for Hi-RES images)

Akibakko (A Thai Imageboard)

There is also Meidokon as well but it has a different interface. as

I usually frequent Gelbooru, Sagubooru (Ajax Ver) and Akibakko. All the imageboards are VERY VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK unless your boss’s okay with it ^^; Do note that Akibakko has started to remove it’s explicit content due to new Thai Cyber Laws which you can read about here. It has also stated that it is not meant to be a Danbooru replacement. Do read the wiki on each of the imageboards.

   ^ Louise and her mom. Hmm…..

\Effective Searching/

So what now then?

Your journey to searching for images has barely started. To start searching, type in the anime name/character/artist into the search box and hit ‘Search’ ! From there, you can start finding the appropriate image that you like.

Of course, there are certain search terms to use which can help improve your search results.

• Firstly, remember to use underscores rather than spaces. For example, if you would like to search for “Tohsaka Rin” , type in “Tohsaka_Rin” (Note the underscore) instead of just ”Tohsaka Rin” with a space separating the words. 
• These imageboards uses japanese romanji in their search terms as well. For example, “suzumiya_haruhi _no_yuuutsu”. You have to use the japanese romanji in order to get something. Or you could be lazy like me by doing using the search term “Haruhi” and carry on from there.
• There are exceptions though, like “Code Geass”. You don’t need to type in “Codeo Geasu” (spelling). Just the english name will do.

There are probably other search parameters you can use but I don’t know them at the moment ^^;

 ^ Please do catch Moetan anime. It’s so very good.

\What’s it’s source/

Okay, I got the image I want, but I want to know it’s source.

Getting the source of a image is probably one of the hardest thing to do as unless you do recognize the particular style that the artist uses or do know of Japanese artist sites, you’re pretty much stuck with the tags and the source link (if available) provided by the uploader. Do check the image for links in it.  I heard that there are boards that exist specifically for asking the sources of images. Post a image, and ask for the source.

If you do get the source, it would be best to always link back to the artist’s page if you’ll be using it for blog posts and stuff(if applicable). Do include a disclaimer stating “All works are copyrighted to its respective owners blah blah blah” and remember to leave your contact in any case the artist would want you to take the image down.

———————————-

So, that’s pretty much how I search on images on image boards. Now go forth and grab some quality pictures! May the Force be with you always ^^;

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