blog & site info
THE BLOG
The blog is basically my work space, though it is also used to present material that I don’t feel comfortable putting onto the site.
Raw Information: storage of information that I’ve come upon while surfing, most of which gets incorporated into the site later after I’ve had a chance to verify information, collect more details, clean up parsing & translation, etc.
Blog Extras: usually images from trailers, official sites, news articles, or any other source that I can’t justify putting on the site for legal or quality reasons, but I think deserve to be collected for archiving before they’re lost.
Site Updates: any changes made to the main site or problems being experienced with it.
Information Pages: basic information for quick, easier reference. More detailed information is on the site.
Sidebar Links: general subjects tags, specific topics tags, and other sites. My goal is to provide the choice of general browsing or getting visitors straight to what they’re looking for. I don’t regularly check the outside site links, but as soon as I know a link is dead, I remove it from the list.
THE SITE
Limitations: a continual work in progress given Toyohara has been at it for well over a quarter of a century and I’m in just my fourth year… it’s quite a journey to track it all down (and in a language I can’t read). I’m also constantly evolving in my knowledge of how things work, so I’m never satisfied with how the site is laid out & presented and frustrated when something doesn’t work… incompatabilities among web browsers doesn’t help. I’m fortunate to have quite a bit of material to work with, but screencapping takes time & I have a backlog… I hope there’ll always be something in my box of discs I need to cap. Still in a state of needing to use free hosting services for the site and the images, which restricts bandwidth… thankfully there’s been enough thusfar for it not to be a problem.
Choice of images: although I’m fascinated by the nuances that convey expression, to me, an actor is more than a face. I’m also interested in body language, how they occupy space, the environment they’re in, and differences in light and angle. The consequence is that I don’t go for only the close-ups and glamour shots. I try to choose images that show Toyohara the artist and capture some of his performance, which means sometimes he’s not very attractive, sometimes you have to look for him, and sometimes a shot isn’t crisp. Sometimes close-ups are all I have to work with because that’s how the character was presented and that’s when differences between images come down to those subtle facial nuances. I try not to repeat, but it’s easy to slip up when you’ve been staring at thousands of frames.
Video Sources: come from anywhere and everywhere I can find them and in any format or quality. I’m very thankful to people who have recorded old dramas off of Japanese television for me, who quietly work at encoding recorded broadcasts of current dramas to share with those of us outside of Japan, who provide live streaming of the Tokyo networks, and any DVD supplier willing to ship things internationally… without them I wouldn’t be such a happy fan. I work on the idea that something is better than nothing, so there are images that do little more than give a glimpse, especially older work. Any time a better quality video comes my way for something I’ve already capped, however, I will replace them with new caps.
Home Page: dramas, films, dvd releases, events, articles & news for the current year… it always looks sad and lonely when the new year comes along. No matter how long it takes me to get images up, the Home Page is updated as soon as I have information in order to keep it as up to date as I can. I have no one direct source for information, so it can be lacking information that’s been announced in Japan.
Comments, suggestions, information… all are welcome, either in comments here or through the email link on the site!
