Naruto Fanart Recommendations
These is my recs of Naruto fanart sites. ^^ It's one of the most extensive compiles I've done in the Naruto fandom, and I've included a guide on how to search through Japanese fanart sites as well.
July 2007: Updated "III. Do it yourself: searching Deviantart"
April 2008: Narusearch moved. =\ Update your bookmarks. New link:
http://park21.wakwak.com/~narusearch/cgi-bin/tbookmarkp.cgi
I. Foreword and outside resources
II. Site recommendations by category
III. Do it yourself: searching Deviantart
IV. Do it yourself: My guide to fanart hunting on Japanese sites
V. Thanks
I. Foreword and outside resources
I've come across most of the sites I'm listing in II. and III. myself:
- by learning to navigate Narusearch for Japanese sites (see IV.), then by skimming through all the promising entries for certain categories
- by sweeping all the search entries for "Naruto" and other Naruto characters in Deviantart
Nonetheless, I'll start with outside recs, that have been helpful to me as well and that you can always check out as well. ^_^ You'll notice for example that I don't have that many recs listed under "yaoi". There are several reasons for that:
- I really, Really have nothing against yaoi, and support a bunch of yaoi pairings. I'm just not interested enough to specifically look for the fanart, given that...
- the yaoi couples are The most popular in the Japanese fandom. Given the way I searched for the fanarts on Narusearch though, it would have taken me forever to look through all the entries, so I chickened out. :S
- besides I find plenty of shounen-ai without having to look anyway. My team 7 folder is big enough as it is and frankly I'm a bit annoyed at the relative lack of Sakura fanarts in it. >.>;; I still didn't add "yaoi" to the description of many of the sites though (yes, just because it's not in the description it doesn't mean that the sites I've listed don't have shounen-ai/yaoi) because...
- I did this originally for NF, where yaoi has become accepted, but is still regarded as something of an oddity
- and since then I've simply been too lazy to check which of the various sites actually have yaoi as well and which don't. You can always look for yourself. =\ Read through section IV. for example.
- as for Naruto yuri... it's rare, period. >.>
The outside recs should cover all that in part though. ^^ By the way, even once you've come across a Japanese site, you might still have problems navigating it (since it's... well... in Japanese). Refer to IV. Do it yourself: My guide to fanart hunting on Japanese sites, for help with that. I'll assume in the meantime that you don't have trouble navigating English sites. ;)
Oh by the way, you might notice things such as broken links and whatnot. Actually, just leave them be, I'm too lazy to continuously check or fix them, and sometimes sites just close down temporarily. >_> It's not like you're losing much time.
And of course:
Please don't plagiarize from any of the sites
Plagiarizing is easy. Learning how to draw is hard. Give credit where credit is due, ne.
Other recommendation sites:
Fleeting Fancies - a recommendations site - Quite a nice recommendations site for Naruto and other animes! The Naruto section used to be 90% yaoi, now it's got general sections as well.
This French site - this site gathers fanworks while linking back to the site of origin.
Korean site ring - not really an outside compilation, I just chose to stick this here because most of the other recs point to English or Japanese sites instead.
Individual recs: These are favourites that people have specifically given me.
OccasionalUtopia's - With preference to yaoi.
Ruri's favourites - Ruri's DA favourites.
nwoppertje's DA favourites - He also gives short descriptions for each.
Fanclub galleries
NejiHina recs at the Hyuugacest fanclub
NaruSaku recs at the NaruSaku fanclub
Sakura recs at the Sakura fanclub
Hinata gallery managed by Ilovenaruto (in her sig)
All of the above try to credit the sites by linking back to them whenever they can. Many other NF fanclubs have their own galleries as well, so be sure to check them out.
II. Site recommendations by category
I've included a few Japanese recs others have given me, and credited them as appropriate, though you might have noticed that I didn't include all of their DA recs. That's because I'm being lazy once again (besides DA rec lists were a lot longer than the two or three Japanese sites others have pointed me to). You've got the links to other people's lists of DA favourites, go look through them yourself. >.>
You'll notice that most English sites tend to be general, while Japanese sites tend to be themed. Ah well. For the Team sites, I also include inter-team pairings in the given category (SasuSaku and NaruSaku into team 7 for example), for the simple reason that they're often the same: when a site centers around two characters of a team, they usually add the third for the heck of it, and this allows me to reduce the number of categories. ^^;
Oh yeah. And don't bother me with broken links. I'm too lazy to fix those. And many of the names for Japanese sites were made up, usually from the url: I don't speak Japanese, I have no idea what some of those sites are actually called. :S A bunch of urls aren't very telling though.
And again: please don't plagiarize from any of those sites.
1. General / Manga colourings
2. Teams and inter-team pairings
2.a. Team 7
2.b. Team 8
2.c. Team 10
2.d. Team Gai
2.e. Team Sand
2.f. Other teams: Team Yondaime, Zabuza and Haku.
2.g. Other major pairings: NaruHina, ShikaTeam, NejiHina.
3. Other groups
3.a. Yondaime
3.b. Uchiha brothers
3.c. Konoha adults
3.d. Legendary Sannin
3.e. Sound
3.f. Akatsuki
1. General / Manga colourings
Paint Pixel - General and manga colourings, did many of the manga colourings submitted with Inane a long time ago
Tasty Graphite - General
Soraya Reccio - General (though mostly team 7) and manga colourings
Vhea's fansite - General
Wratbox.com - "Wredwrat"'s site. General
Ninja Monkey Studios - "The-Z"'s site. General. Some impressive drawings of the guys.
http://pokefreak.deviantart.com - Also known as Dyanmic Dragon here. General and manga colourings.
http://eikichi-.deviantart.com - General.
http://gensoteam.deviantart.com - General
http://Red-Priest-Usada.deviantart.com - chibis! =3
http://Sven-da-man.deviantart.com - General. The guys, mostly.
http://vashperado.deviantart.com - General
http://sora-ko.deviantart.com - funnies!
http://SnowSkadi.deviantart.com - General
Chelsee's fan land - Chelsee's site. General
http://hikariix.deviantart.com - General
http://risachantag.deviantart.com - General
http://nanami_yuki.deviantart.com - General
http://limandao.deviantart.com - General
http://hastezone.deviantart.com - General
http://funny-neko.deviantart.com - General
http://siegeredwolf.deviantart.com - General
http://jadeedge.deviantart.com - General, the Kunoichis
http://mooguriklaine.deviantart.com - General
http://danny-boy.deviantart.com - General. Guys mostly.
10-Rankai - Sasuke, Team 7, General.
Eternal Life - Very dynamic pictures.
Celluloid-Acme - Girls
c3 - General
IQ18 - Cute kunoichi pics
UTD - The Konoha guys
Kuronowish - General
2. Teams and inter-team pairings
2.a. Team 7 and team 7 pairings
Afuji - Team 7, SasuSaku, and lots of funny comics =3
http://loveariddle.deviantart.com - Cute team 7
http://naruto-madness.deviantart.com - Team 7 mostly
http://augest.deviantart.com - Team 7
10-Rankai - Sasuke, Team 7, General.
Shel - Uchiha Family, SasuSaku
Haruka - Naruto pairings
Royal Family - NaruSaku
2co - Sasuke
Tororing - KakaSasu
Ponpons - Team 7
Heiko - KakaNaru
First Sky - Sasuke, Team 7, Team 7 pairings
(Also see: Uchiha brothers)
2.b. Team 8 and team 8 pairings
THK - Team 8, KibaHina
Inuyamasiki - Team 8, KibaHina
En-ju - NejiHina, KibaHina.
Vitamin B2 - Team 8, KibaHina
Shojodrop - Hinata-centric
Aiongloom - ShinoKiba
2.c. Team 10 and team 10 pairings
Kurogane - team 10, ShikaIno, some NejiTen and NaruHina
Negiko - team 10
Happy Collection - Team 10, ShikaIno
Kay-u - Team 10, ShikaIno
Hinagiku - AsuChou, Chouji, team 10
Taiheiraku - AsuShika, Shikamaru
2.d. Team Gai and team Gai pairings
Jurty's gallery - Team Gai, some Team 7
Yukizora - Neji
Closed Orbit - Lee, GaaLee
Lag - Neji.
Karock - Neji, NejiNaru, recced by Chauron
Osozaki - Team Gai, HayaNeji, NejiTen
HanaInu - Lee, team Gai
Shinge - Lee, Special jounins, Sasori
Lapse - Lee, team Gai
2.e. Team Sand
http://sandfreak.deviantart.com - Sand.
http://lucrecia.deviantart.com - LeeGaa
Wicked Smile - Team Sand
Fade to Black - Gaara
Sackcloths and Ashes - Gaara (rec by nwoppertje)
Kimitoiuhana - NaruGaa (rec by nwoppertje)
Tsugura - Kabuto, Gaara
2.f. Other teams
senkou-banrai - Team Yondaime, Obito, Rin
Momochintei - Zabuza, Haku, KakaZabu
2.g. Other Major pairings
NaruHina
Keroyon-jima - NaruHina.
Seiren - NejiHina, NaruHina, ShikaTema, NaruGaa.
Sunny Spot - NaruHina, KakaIru
ShikaTema
Candy Store - ShikaTema
Seiren - NejiHina, NaruHina, ShikaTema, NaruGaa.
NejiHina and other Hyuugas
Hidden Youth 365 - NejiHina.
En-ju - NejiHina, KibaHina.
Pororoca - NejiHina.
Seiren - NejiHina, NaruHina, ShikaTema, NaruGaa.
A NejiHana site - NejiHana (duh)
Mumps - NejiHina
3. Other groups
3.a. Yondaime (and "son" - hey, don't look at me)
Uzuringo - Yondaime
Koronariya - Yondaime
Botan - Yondaime, Kakashi
Shirou Usagi - Yondaime
Silent Sea - Yondaime and Naruto
Fairytale - YonKaka
3.b. Uchiha Brothers
Pockybox - Northern Banshee's websites. Uchiha Brothers and some Sound and Akatsuki. Also funny comics.
http://angeliq.deviantart.com - Uchiha Brothers.
Kachiru - Uchiha brothers, KakaSasu
Grappe - Uchiha, Akatsuki
Shel - Uchiha Family, SasuSaku
Hiro Setsuna - Sasuke, Akatsuki
3.c. Konoha Adults
http://technoelfie.deviantart.com - A lovely realism style. The Konoha adults mostly.
http://devosama.deviantart.com - Konoha adults.
Seventh Heaven - Kakashi
Shunshokankai - Hayate, Kakashi
Darling Darling - Hayate
Aniiti - Kakashi, Yondaime, Jiraiya
Matsuyama - Kakashi
Koronariya - YonKaka
Ancha - Iruka, Kakashi, Sasuke.
Oekaki club - Kakashi, Iruka, etc
Hatsunetsu - GenRai
Yonata - Konoha adults
Shinge - Lee, Special jounins, Sasori
Satetsu - KakaIru
Offlimits - Konoha adults
3.d. Legendary Sannin
http://croaky.deviantart.com - Legendary Sannin and female Kyuubi
Ronronshuka - Legendary Sannin
3.e. Sound
Silver Eclipse - "Maeva-Pierre"'s website. Sound (Orochimaru, Kabuto, Tayuya)
Plastinated - S3mtex's site. Orochimaru and his underlings.
http://frostious.deviantart.com - Sound 3.
Miyako Hiro - Kabuto
Tsugura - Kabuto, Gaara
3.f. Akatsuki
Theater-K - Akatsuki
Echigoya - Akatsuki
Fukurou House - Akatsuki
Hiro Setsuna - Sasuke, Akatsuki
Syun Syun - Itachi, Sasori, Deidara
bjc - Deidara
Queen Dolls - Sasori
Shinge - Lee, Special jounins, Sasori
Ellishr - Sasori, Deidara
Empty Dumpty - Sasori and Deidara
III. Do it yourself: searching Deviantart
1. Use the favorites section of other artists
2. Use the "popular" option of the general search bar
3. Navigate by category, popularity and time range
4. If necessary, refer to additional tips
1. Use the favorites section of other artists
Use the favorites section of other known artists. If you manage to find an artist that is interested in a particular topic, chances are the artist would have favorited artworks of similar topic, allowing you to find other artists drawing this topic.
If you really, Really don't know where to start, you could always try the rec account I've started for the purpose. I haven't updated in a long while though, so just use it as a starter.
2. Use the "popular" option of the general search bar
When you're starting out, just type something into the search bar and use the "Most popular" option. You can just type "Naruto" to get Naruto fanarts in general, or use more specific search terms.
Warning: even though DA claims that popularity depends on the number of "favorites" a work has received, often it seems not to be the case: a crappy work (with few favorites) may be on the first page, while a great work with several dozen favorites may be hidden away several pages back. It isn't completely random: very popular results will often still come on top, but sometimes it behaves strangely, especially for more narrow searches.
3. Navigate by category, popularity and time range
A nice person gave this tip to me! On the Deviantart main page, chose one of the following from the upper-left menu:
- categories -> fanart -> all fanart
- categories -> manga/anime -> all manga/anime
Chose "Popular," and select a date range. You can also "search this category" to narrow down searches even more.
Warning: besides having the same problem as 2., often "search this category" simply won't show fanarts that are actually there. Again, I don't know the reason: maybe it's listed under another category, or maybe the artist forgot to "tag" it correctly, or maybe the search engine simply needs tweaking.
4. Additional tips
1. Whichever method you use, some results may not show up to specific tags. For example, imagine you are searching for a "ShikaTema" fanart. The artwork might not show up for "ShikaTema," but might show up for "Shikamaru Temari." Conversely, searching "Naruto" (hoping to get all the fanarts for the Naruto -series-) may not give all the results for specific items, such as just "Sasuke."
In particular, when using method 3, I often don't use "search this category," instead look at all the results in that category. It's a bigger pain, but you're less likely to miss anything.
2. Some fanarts unfortunately won't show up easily using the previously mentioned methods. When that happens, you'll have to do things the very hard way: use the "most recent" option for searches, and look at them page by page.
If you want to browse through them quicker, I do the following:
- from the first page, I ctrl-click (in Firefox) the next 3 pages to open them in new tabs in the background.
- I go to the last page and repeat. In the meantime, the other pages have probably loaded, so I go check those.
- Before checking the last three, I shift-click the next 3 results in the last page again.
- If I do find a nice result, I just open it in the tab (or a new one if there are several good results per page) and check the other pages to see if they've loaded.
"What's with this crazy tactic"? Well, to me, it ensures that I never spend time waiting for the page to load. I'm always doing something. It's much easier on my time (and sanity) than spending three-quarters of the time waiting.
Be warned that "most recent" won't give you All the fanarts ever posted either. For "Naruto," my observation is that it lists less than 2 months of results. The rest is what the "Way back" option is for, but you have to pay for that.
IV. Do it yourself: My guide to fanart hunting on Japanese sites
What better way to find more sites than to find them yourself? For English site, the method of choice is usually to just go to Deviantart and look through search results, or look through the favourites section of a few choice artists. From there people can follow up on the links to actual websites. But what about all those nice Japanese fanarts? This guide.
1. Foreword
1.a. Installing Japanese fonts
1.b. Narusearch!
2. Japanese character and pairing names
2.a. Characters naming
2.b. Pairings naming
3. Now what? Navigating a Japanese site
3.a. Where's the damn entrance?
3.b. Where's the gallery?
3.c. What the hell is this? (the gallery)
3.d. What do all those other links mean?
4. An alternative approach to navigating Japanese sites
1. Foreword
1.a. Installing Japanese fonts
First, you'll need Japanese fonts installed for viewing. I originally just told people to google the way if they didn't know how. But Dilemna on NF provided an explanationm so here we go:
Links to installing Japanese fonts
1.b. Narusearch!
Now! First stop: Narusearch. This is a extensive listing of Japanese Naruto fansites by group, by character, or by pairings. You'll need to know what all the categories in the left bar mean.
Here are a few Narusearch tips by the way:
- the "new" tag: obviously, this means that a site is new.
- the "up" tag: this means that an existing site has just been updated!
The above is convenient for two reasons: both bump the site to the front. It means if you're just looking for the most recent updates, you just look at the first page. In the meantime, if you plan on looking through all the sites in a given category over the length of a certain period of time, then the best way is to start with the end rather than with the constantly updated front. Also, when you first arrive at the Narusearch mainpage, it will display the 100 most recently updated or new sites. So if you check often, you can just stick to that section.
Note: sites with fanarts in Narusearch usually have "CGイラスト" (CG illustration) or some form of イラスト in its list of attributes, though really most of the fansites have fanarts in them.
2. Japanese character and pairing names
Here's a Japanese name guide I put up, by village and/or group:
2.a. Characters naming
ツナデ -> Tsunade.
自来也 -> Jiraiya.
大蛇丸 -> Orochimaru.
砂隠れの里 -> Sand village
砂三兄弟 -> Suna three siblings.
我愛羅 -> Gaara.
テマリ -> Temari.
カンクロウ -> Kankurou.
音隠れの里 -> Sound village.
カブト -> Kabuto.
君麻呂 -> Kimimaro.
音の忍四人衆 -> Sound 4.
音忍３人衆 -> Team Sound.
霧隠れの里 -> Mist village.
白 -> Haku.
再不斬 -> Zabuza.
暁 -> Akatsuki.
イタチ -> Itachi.
鬼鮫 -> Kisame.
デイダラ -> Deidara.
サソリ -> Sasori.
木の葉隠れの里 -> Konoha.
下忍 -> Genin.
７班 -> Team 7.
ナルト -> Naruto.
サスケ -> Sasuke.
サクラ -> Sakura.
８班 -> Team 8.
ヒナタ -> Hinata.
シノ -> Shino.
キバ -> Kiba.
１０班 -> Team 10.
シカマル -> Shikamaru.
いの -> Ino.
チョウジ -> Chouji.
ガイ班 -> Gai team.
ロック・リー -> Lee.
ネジ -> Neji.
テンテン -> Tenten.
四代目班 -> Team Yondaime.
四代目 -> Yondaime.
オビト -> Obito.
上忍 -> Jounin.
カカシ -> Kakashi.
ガイ -> Gai.
アスマ -> Asuma.
紅 -> Kurenai.
シズネ -> Shizune.
特別上忍 -> Special Jounin.
アンコ -> Anko.
ハヤテ -> Hayate.
ゲンマ -> Genma.
ライドウ -> Raidou.
中忍 -> Chuunin.
イルカ -> Iruka.
試験官 -> Examinators (for the chuunin exam)
コテツ -> Kotetsu.
イズモ -> Isumo.
火影 -> Hokage.
暗部 -> Anbu.
ナルコ -> Naruko (girl Naruto...)
2.b. Pairings naming
I'll just put some common ones, you can figure out the rest with the list above. Notice that in NaruSearch, the pairings are in the Seme x Uke format (seme = one on top, dominant one, uke = not), so SasuNaru and NaruSasu for example exist in seperate categories.
Het:
サスサク -> SasuSaku.
ナルサク -> NaruSaku.
ナルヒナ -> NaruHina.
シカテマ -> ShikaTema.
シカいの -> ShikaIno.
キバヒナ -> KibaHina.
ネジヒナ -> NejiHina.
ネジテン -> NejiTen.
リーテン -> LeeTen.
アス紅 -> AsuKure.
Yaoi
カカイル -> KakaIru.
サスナル -> SasuNaru.
我ナル -> GaaNaru.
桃白 -> ZabuHaku.
イタサス -> ItaSasu.
サソデイ -> SasoDei.
カブオロ -> KabuOro (haha)
その他CP -> other pairings.
うちは兄弟 -> Uchiha brothers.
日向一族 -> Hyuuga clan.
三角関係 -> Threesomes.
♀×♀ (34) -> Yuri.
総受 translates into "total receiving" apparently. In short, everyone -> that character.
総攻 translates into "total Seme" apparently. I guess that means that character is a playboy?
片思い means one-sided.
他ジャンル -> others/general.
For those of you using Firefox or the likes, you can copy the Japanese name and use ctrl-F or "/" to perform a search on that name to quickly find it in the left bar. If you really need to anyway. So now you'll have a listing of sites. You can just start navigating those you find interesting. Japanese sites now, can be notoriously hard to navigate for a newbie, I remember some unpleasant surprises so here's how to proceed.
3. Now what? Navigating a Japanese site.
3.a. Where's the damn entrance?
Okay, you find yourself on a rather nice page with a few banners and you don't seem to see anything else... Most (though not all) links to Japanese sites first bring you to an "intro" page. To access the main site, look for one of the following:
- the site banner (again): often this is the same banner as the one you clicked to get to this part of the site. Well there it is again, so click it again. >.> That or, identify the right entrance banner. It's not the group of banners on the bottom usually, those link to other sites or to fansite groupings. It can be the first banner on the right or left after a group of text, something in the upper corner, something in the center, etc.
- a big entrance image. You arrive, there's one big image in the center and nothing else: click and that's it.
- the site name.
- anything starting with the 入 kanji: 入 means "enter" in Japanese
- "enter" or equivalent <- apparently Japanese sites use English indications sometimes. Not complaining.
- sometime's it's a bit hidden for various reasons. Probably to force people to read through the text before proceeding.
- sometimes you arrive directly at the "main" page so that's that.
- if all fails, start clicking randomly until you find something. >.>
- if it Still doesn't work... look at the page source to attempt to find a link in there... (I do this more often than you think >.>)
3.b. Where's the gallery?
You finally arrive, and now you're staring at a bunch of hiragana and kanji. You can just start clicking at random, or you can look for one of the following:
- 絵, 画, イラスト: the first two are used for "drawings", the last reads "irasto" thus standing for Illustration. Find those and you can't go wrong. Incidentally, 漫画 stands for "manga".
- "gallery"/"pict" or equivalent: aheh, same for "enter", English again. Not complaining.
- Obbs, Pbbs, 絵bbs, オエビ etc: the Oekaki/Paint BBS board. BBS boards are usually used for comments, but the Oekaki-bbs board has the particularity of allowing you to leave drawings as well, sometimes by the site owner. There can be gems in there. So go look. Incidentally, oekaki means drawing.
- WJ, works, etc: works. This means drawn and/or written works. So check.
- anything with 宝: the kanji stands for treasure. They usually put presents (fanarts or fanfics) from others in here.
- キリバン, Kiriban: it means "hits". Pics they put up when they reach a certain number of site hits.
- 展示: display? It'd be where all their works get displayed.
- お題: Themes. This is something I only noticed later on. Many Japanese sites have "themes" (50-themes, 100-themes) going on, where they have a list of themes and they slowly fill them in with fanworks for each. Things included in themes can include fanfics, fanart and fancomics, and they Can be all mixed up. So if you see a theme, and the first few topics are just fanfics, that doesn't mean that the rest don't contain fanart, you can always try to look if you're desperate enough.
- other sub-links: on some fansites, they have sub-pages for various works. You'll have to dig a bit to find those. Things like "Hyuuga room" or whatever.
- and if all fails... click on everything until you get something...
3.c. What the hell is this? (the gallery)
Alright, all those who have a bit of experience with Japanese sites might find this obvious, but it might not be for first-timers. The Japanese, as they draw a lot, often present the gallery as a bunch of little rectangles or similar (sometimes, but less commonly, they use thumbnails). So if you find yourself staring at a whole bunch of rectangles or other geometric shapes, pat yourself on the back because you're just found the gallery (that or a list of fanfics. Some sites present them this way as well. Oh well).
Just click on each to see the pics. Note at this point, that if you're searching for something specific, you can hover the mouse over the rectangle to attempt to see what the pic is about (duh). So if the pic is Neji.jpg (or Nezi, Nazi, whatever), you know what it is so reduce your risks of suddenly facing yourself with a hot SasuNaru smut scene (unless that's what you're looking for). Unfortunately, not all pics are conveniently named. Some are just called pic1.jpg. Then you'll have to click all of them to see what they are.
Oh and not all sites are Naruto-only. Just find the gallery called "ナルト". Or "Naruto". Heh. Weirdly enough though, on some sites, the gallery for Naruto on some Japanese sites is labeled "鳴門". :S Don't ask me.
Note: Sometimes a whole bunch of the fanarts are stuffed in another part of the gallery than "Naruto" or the likes. They're either stuffed in an "oekaki" part, an "old" part or a "junk" part, and frankly some of those "junk" pictures don't look bad to me at all... Dig around!
3.d. What do all those other links mean?
If you've still not managed to find that convenient gallery link and are thus left with clicking everything, then I guess it's helpful to know what the rest is? Here's a listing of common head bar items:
- はじめに : Welcome. Often used to present the author or site.
- 管理人, 自: the first means site owner, the second means "self".
- サイト説明: site explanation.
- 小説 , anything with "文": the first meant stories. The 文 stands for written work.
- bbs / オエビ/掲示板: the bbs board. To leave comments for the site. Oekaki-bbs (obbs) board can have really good images at times as well.
- 日記 or anything with 日: diary. Where the site owner leaves comments. Pictures too if the "diary" is in oekaki bbs mode.
- メール : Meeru. Mail.
- リンク : Rinku. Links, in short. They can be a way to find more sites of the theme you're interested in.
- 更新: means "newest".
Note at this point, you can see if the site if part of a "webring" with the theme you're interested as main theme. If that's the case, you can always find more sites this way.
4. An alternative approach to navigating Japanese sites
Well, the above was the relatively tedious way of navigating a Japanese site. A rather easier way is:
- Go here: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/ - website translator site
- paste url in bar
- click on the Second circle at the bottom the of url bar (for Japanese -> English translation and not the other way round)
- Go.
Why didn't I say this earlier? Hmm... *dodges rotten tomatos*
You can also attempt to decifer some of the Japanese fanfics this way. >.>? If you just want to translate bits of text, use this: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/
That said, have fun! ^^
V. Thanks
I'll conclude this guide with credits and thanks:
- Zeroxblade: Your "favourites" Photobucket gallery gave me the idea of the reference gallery. Thanks! ^^
- Ruri and Kakashi Fangirl: thanks a bunch for helping me find back some of the sites that left me banging my head on the table because I could no longer find them back. ^^;
- the nice person who gave me that DA hint
- All my fellow fanart hunters from the fanclubs I'm in, and all those who have recced fanarts to me. Thank you so much guys. *glomp* The list includes but is not limited to: OccasionalUtopia, 9-tailedHokage, Althor/Mandorallen/Yami no Takeshi/Aww Man Yummy no Taco, Chauron, nwoppertje, my fellow NejiHina fanart hunters, my fellow Sakura fanart hunters...
- The ones that brought us Narusearch and Deviantart.
- And of course the artists that brought us such pretty works in the first place. ^^
I hope this guide was helpful! If you have any questions, drop me a note. ^^
July 2007: Updated "III. Do it yourself: searching Deviantart"
April 2008: Narusearch moved. =\ Update your bookmarks. New link:
http://park21.wakwak.com/~narusearch/cgi-bin/tbookmarkp.cgi
I. Foreword and outside resources
II. Site recommendations by category
III. Do it yourself: searching Deviantart
IV. Do it yourself: My guide to fanart hunting on Japanese sites
V. Thanks
I. Foreword and outside resources
I've come across most of the sites I'm listing in II. and III. myself:
- by learning to navigate Narusearch for Japanese sites (see IV.), then by skimming through all the promising entries for certain categories
- by sweeping all the search entries for "Naruto" and other Naruto characters in Deviantart
Nonetheless, I'll start with outside recs, that have been helpful to me as well and that you can always check out as well. ^_^ You'll notice for example that I don't have that many recs listed under "yaoi". There are several reasons for that:
- I really, Really have nothing against yaoi, and support a bunch of yaoi pairings. I'm just not interested enough to specifically look for the fanart, given that...
- the yaoi couples are The most popular in the Japanese fandom. Given the way I searched for the fanarts on Narusearch though, it would have taken me forever to look through all the entries, so I chickened out. :S
- besides I find plenty of shounen-ai without having to look anyway. My team 7 folder is big enough as it is and frankly I'm a bit annoyed at the relative lack of Sakura fanarts in it. >.>;; I still didn't add "yaoi" to the description of many of the sites though (yes, just because it's not in the description it doesn't mean that the sites I've listed don't have shounen-ai/yaoi) because...
- I did this originally for NF, where yaoi has become accepted, but is still regarded as something of an oddity
- and since then I've simply been too lazy to check which of the various sites actually have yaoi as well and which don't. You can always look for yourself. =\ Read through section IV. for example.
- as for Naruto yuri... it's rare, period. >.>
The outside recs should cover all that in part though. ^^ By the way, even once you've come across a Japanese site, you might still have problems navigating it (since it's... well... in Japanese). Refer to IV. Do it yourself: My guide to fanart hunting on Japanese sites, for help with that. I'll assume in the meantime that you don't have trouble navigating English sites. ;)
Oh by the way, you might notice things such as broken links and whatnot. Actually, just leave them be, I'm too lazy to continuously check or fix them, and sometimes sites just close down temporarily. >_> It's not like you're losing much time.
And of course:
Please don't plagiarize from any of the sites
Plagiarizing is easy. Learning how to draw is hard. Give credit where credit is due, ne.
Other recommendation sites:
Fleeting Fancies - a recommendations site - Quite a nice recommendations site for Naruto and other animes! The Naruto section used to be 90% yaoi, now it's got general sections as well.
This French site - this site gathers fanworks while linking back to the site of origin.
Korean site ring - not really an outside compilation, I just chose to stick this here because most of the other recs point to English or Japanese sites instead.
Individual recs: These are favourites that people have specifically given me.
OccasionalUtopia's - With preference to yaoi.
Ruri's favourites - Ruri's DA favourites.
nwoppertje's DA favourites - He also gives short descriptions for each.
Fanclub galleries
NejiHina recs at the Hyuugacest fanclub
NaruSaku recs at the NaruSaku fanclub
Sakura recs at the Sakura fanclub
Hinata gallery managed by Ilovenaruto (in her sig)
All of the above try to credit the sites by linking back to them whenever they can. Many other NF fanclubs have their own galleries as well, so be sure to check them out.
II. Site recommendations by category
I've included a few Japanese recs others have given me, and credited them as appropriate, though you might have noticed that I didn't include all of their DA recs. That's because I'm being lazy once again (besides DA rec lists were a lot longer than the two or three Japanese sites others have pointed me to). You've got the links to other people's lists of DA favourites, go look through them yourself. >.>
You'll notice that most English sites tend to be general, while Japanese sites tend to be themed. Ah well. For the Team sites, I also include inter-team pairings in the given category (SasuSaku and NaruSaku into team 7 for example), for the simple reason that they're often the same: when a site centers around two characters of a team, they usually add the third for the heck of it, and this allows me to reduce the number of categories. ^^;
Oh yeah. And don't bother me with broken links. I'm too lazy to fix those. And many of the names for Japanese sites were made up, usually from the url: I don't speak Japanese, I have no idea what some of those sites are actually called. :S A bunch of urls aren't very telling though.
And again: please don't plagiarize from any of those sites.
1. General / Manga colourings
2. Teams and inter-team pairings
2.a. Team 7
2.b. Team 8
2.c. Team 10
2.d. Team Gai
2.e. Team Sand
2.f. Other teams: Team Yondaime, Zabuza and Haku.
2.g. Other major pairings: NaruHina, ShikaTeam, NejiHina.
3. Other groups
3.a. Yondaime
3.b. Uchiha brothers
3.c. Konoha adults
3.d. Legendary Sannin
3.e. Sound
3.f. Akatsuki
1. General / Manga colourings
Paint Pixel - General and manga colourings, did many of the manga colourings submitted with Inane a long time ago
Tasty Graphite - General
Soraya Reccio - General (though mostly team 7) and manga colourings
Vhea's fansite - General
Wratbox.com - "Wredwrat"'s site. General
Ninja Monkey Studios - "The-Z"'s site. General. Some impressive drawings of the guys.
http://pokefreak.deviantart.com - Also known as Dyanmic Dragon here. General and manga colourings.
http://eikichi-.deviantart.com - General.
http://gensoteam.deviantart.com - General
http://Red-Priest-Usada.deviantart.com - chibis! =3
http://Sven-da-man.deviantart.com - General. The guys, mostly.
http://vashperado.deviantart.com - General
http://sora-ko.deviantart.com - funnies!
http://SnowSkadi.deviantart.com - General
Chelsee's fan land - Chelsee's site. General
http://hikariix.deviantart.com - General
http://risachantag.deviantart.com - General
http://nanami_yuki.deviantart.com - General
http://limandao.deviantart.com - General
http://hastezone.deviantart.com - General
http://funny-neko.deviantart.com - General
http://siegeredwolf.deviantart.com - General
http://jadeedge.deviantart.com - General, the Kunoichis
http://mooguriklaine.deviantart.com - General
http://danny-boy.deviantart.com - General. Guys mostly.
10-Rankai - Sasuke, Team 7, General.
Eternal Life - Very dynamic pictures.
Celluloid-Acme - Girls
c3 - General
IQ18 - Cute kunoichi pics
UTD - The Konoha guys
Kuronowish - General
2. Teams and inter-team pairings
2.a. Team 7 and team 7 pairings
Afuji - Team 7, SasuSaku, and lots of funny comics =3
http://loveariddle.deviantart.com - Cute team 7
http://naruto-madness.deviantart.com - Team 7 mostly
http://augest.deviantart.com - Team 7
10-Rankai - Sasuke, Team 7, General.
Shel - Uchiha Family, SasuSaku
Haruka - Naruto pairings
Royal Family - NaruSaku
2co - Sasuke
Tororing - KakaSasu
Ponpons - Team 7
Heiko - KakaNaru
First Sky - Sasuke, Team 7, Team 7 pairings
(Also see: Uchiha brothers)
2.b. Team 8 and team 8 pairings
THK - Team 8, KibaHina
Inuyamasiki - Team 8, KibaHina
En-ju - NejiHina, KibaHina.
Vitamin B2 - Team 8, KibaHina
Shojodrop - Hinata-centric
Aiongloom - ShinoKiba
2.c. Team 10 and team 10 pairings
Kurogane - team 10, ShikaIno, some NejiTen and NaruHina
Negiko - team 10
Happy Collection - Team 10, ShikaIno
Kay-u - Team 10, ShikaIno
Hinagiku - AsuChou, Chouji, team 10
Taiheiraku - AsuShika, Shikamaru
2.d. Team Gai and team Gai pairings
Jurty's gallery - Team Gai, some Team 7
Yukizora - Neji
Closed Orbit - Lee, GaaLee
Lag - Neji.
Karock - Neji, NejiNaru, recced by Chauron
Osozaki - Team Gai, HayaNeji, NejiTen
HanaInu - Lee, team Gai
Shinge - Lee, Special jounins, Sasori
Lapse - Lee, team Gai
2.e. Team Sand
http://sandfreak.deviantart.com - Sand.
http://lucrecia.deviantart.com - LeeGaa
Wicked Smile - Team Sand
Fade to Black - Gaara
Sackcloths and Ashes - Gaara (rec by nwoppertje)
Kimitoiuhana - NaruGaa (rec by nwoppertje)
Tsugura - Kabuto, Gaara
2.f. Other teams
senkou-banrai - Team Yondaime, Obito, Rin
Momochintei - Zabuza, Haku, KakaZabu
2.g. Other Major pairings
NaruHina
Keroyon-jima - NaruHina.
Seiren - NejiHina, NaruHina, ShikaTema, NaruGaa.
Sunny Spot - NaruHina, KakaIru
ShikaTema
Candy Store - ShikaTema
Seiren - NejiHina, NaruHina, ShikaTema, NaruGaa.
NejiHina and other Hyuugas
Hidden Youth 365 - NejiHina.
En-ju - NejiHina, KibaHina.
Pororoca - NejiHina.
Seiren - NejiHina, NaruHina, ShikaTema, NaruGaa.
A NejiHana site - NejiHana (duh)
Mumps - NejiHina
3. Other groups
3.a. Yondaime (and "son" - hey, don't look at me)
Uzuringo - Yondaime
Koronariya - Yondaime
Botan - Yondaime, Kakashi
Shirou Usagi - Yondaime
Silent Sea - Yondaime and Naruto
Fairytale - YonKaka
3.b. Uchiha Brothers
Pockybox - Northern Banshee's websites. Uchiha Brothers and some Sound and Akatsuki. Also funny comics.
http://angeliq.deviantart.com - Uchiha Brothers.
Kachiru - Uchiha brothers, KakaSasu
Grappe - Uchiha, Akatsuki
Shel - Uchiha Family, SasuSaku
Hiro Setsuna - Sasuke, Akatsuki
3.c. Konoha Adults
http://technoelfie.deviantart.com - A lovely realism style. The Konoha adults mostly.
http://devosama.deviantart.com - Konoha adults.
Seventh Heaven - Kakashi
Shunshokankai - Hayate, Kakashi
Darling Darling - Hayate
Aniiti - Kakashi, Yondaime, Jiraiya
Matsuyama - Kakashi
Koronariya - YonKaka
Ancha - Iruka, Kakashi, Sasuke.
Oekaki club - Kakashi, Iruka, etc
Hatsunetsu - GenRai
Yonata - Konoha adults
Shinge - Lee, Special jounins, Sasori
Satetsu - KakaIru
Offlimits - Konoha adults
3.d. Legendary Sannin
http://croaky.deviantart.com - Legendary Sannin and female Kyuubi
Ronronshuka - Legendary Sannin
3.e. Sound
Silver Eclipse - "Maeva-Pierre"'s website. Sound (Orochimaru, Kabuto, Tayuya)
Plastinated - S3mtex's site. Orochimaru and his underlings.
http://frostious.deviantart.com - Sound 3.
Miyako Hiro - Kabuto
Tsugura - Kabuto, Gaara
3.f. Akatsuki
Theater-K - Akatsuki
Echigoya - Akatsuki
Fukurou House - Akatsuki
Hiro Setsuna - Sasuke, Akatsuki
Syun Syun - Itachi, Sasori, Deidara
bjc - Deidara
Queen Dolls - Sasori
Shinge - Lee, Special jounins, Sasori
Ellishr - Sasori, Deidara
Empty Dumpty - Sasori and Deidara
III. Do it yourself: searching Deviantart
1. Use the favorites section of other artists
2. Use the "popular" option of the general search bar
3. Navigate by category, popularity and time range
4. If necessary, refer to additional tips
1. Use the favorites section of other artists
Use the favorites section of other known artists. If you manage to find an artist that is interested in a particular topic, chances are the artist would have favorited artworks of similar topic, allowing you to find other artists drawing this topic.
If you really, Really don't know where to start, you could always try the rec account I've started for the purpose. I haven't updated in a long while though, so just use it as a starter.
2. Use the "popular" option of the general search bar
When you're starting out, just type something into the search bar and use the "Most popular" option. You can just type "Naruto" to get Naruto fanarts in general, or use more specific search terms.
Warning: even though DA claims that popularity depends on the number of "favorites" a work has received, often it seems not to be the case: a crappy work (with few favorites) may be on the first page, while a great work with several dozen favorites may be hidden away several pages back. It isn't completely random: very popular results will often still come on top, but sometimes it behaves strangely, especially for more narrow searches.
3. Navigate by category, popularity and time range
A nice person gave this tip to me! On the Deviantart main page, chose one of the following from the upper-left menu:
- categories -> fanart -> all fanart
- categories -> manga/anime -> all manga/anime
Chose "Popular," and select a date range. You can also "search this category" to narrow down searches even more.
Warning: besides having the same problem as 2., often "search this category" simply won't show fanarts that are actually there. Again, I don't know the reason: maybe it's listed under another category, or maybe the artist forgot to "tag" it correctly, or maybe the search engine simply needs tweaking.
4. Additional tips
1. Whichever method you use, some results may not show up to specific tags. For example, imagine you are searching for a "ShikaTema" fanart. The artwork might not show up for "ShikaTema," but might show up for "Shikamaru Temari." Conversely, searching "Naruto" (hoping to get all the fanarts for the Naruto -series-) may not give all the results for specific items, such as just "Sasuke."
In particular, when using method 3, I often don't use "search this category," instead look at all the results in that category. It's a bigger pain, but you're less likely to miss anything.
2. Some fanarts unfortunately won't show up easily using the previously mentioned methods. When that happens, you'll have to do things the very hard way: use the "most recent" option for searches, and look at them page by page.
If you want to browse through them quicker, I do the following:
- from the first page, I ctrl-click (in Firefox) the next 3 pages to open them in new tabs in the background.
- I go to the last page and repeat. In the meantime, the other pages have probably loaded, so I go check those.
- Before checking the last three, I shift-click the next 3 results in the last page again.
- If I do find a nice result, I just open it in the tab (or a new one if there are several good results per page) and check the other pages to see if they've loaded.
"What's with this crazy tactic"? Well, to me, it ensures that I never spend time waiting for the page to load. I'm always doing something. It's much easier on my time (and sanity) than spending three-quarters of the time waiting.
Be warned that "most recent" won't give you All the fanarts ever posted either. For "Naruto," my observation is that it lists less than 2 months of results. The rest is what the "Way back" option is for, but you have to pay for that.
IV. Do it yourself: My guide to fanart hunting on Japanese sites
What better way to find more sites than to find them yourself? For English site, the method of choice is usually to just go to Deviantart and look through search results, or look through the favourites section of a few choice artists. From there people can follow up on the links to actual websites. But what about all those nice Japanese fanarts? This guide.
1. Foreword
1.a. Installing Japanese fonts
1.b. Narusearch!
2. Japanese character and pairing names
2.a. Characters naming
2.b. Pairings naming
3. Now what? Navigating a Japanese site
3.a. Where's the damn entrance?
3.b. Where's the gallery?
3.c. What the hell is this? (the gallery)
3.d. What do all those other links mean?
4. An alternative approach to navigating Japanese sites
1. Foreword
1.a. Installing Japanese fonts
First, you'll need Japanese fonts installed for viewing. I originally just told people to google the way if they didn't know how. But Dilemna on NF provided an explanationm so here we go:
Links to installing Japanese fonts
1.b. Narusearch!
Now! First stop: Narusearch. This is a extensive listing of Japanese Naruto fansites by group, by character, or by pairings. You'll need to know what all the categories in the left bar mean.
Here are a few Narusearch tips by the way:
- the "new" tag: obviously, this means that a site is new.
- the "up" tag: this means that an existing site has just been updated!
The above is convenient for two reasons: both bump the site to the front. It means if you're just looking for the most recent updates, you just look at the first page. In the meantime, if you plan on looking through all the sites in a given category over the length of a certain period of time, then the best way is to start with the end rather than with the constantly updated front. Also, when you first arrive at the Narusearch mainpage, it will display the 100 most recently updated or new sites. So if you check often, you can just stick to that section.
Note: sites with fanarts in Narusearch usually have "CGイラスト" (CG illustration) or some form of イラスト in its list of attributes, though really most of the fansites have fanarts in them.
2. Japanese character and pairing names
Here's a Japanese name guide I put up, by village and/or group:
2.a. Characters naming
ツナデ -> Tsunade.
自来也 -> Jiraiya.
大蛇丸 -> Orochimaru.
砂隠れの里 -> Sand village
砂三兄弟 -> Suna three siblings.
我愛羅 -> Gaara.
テマリ -> Temari.
カンクロウ -> Kankurou.
音隠れの里 -> Sound village.
カブト -> Kabuto.
君麻呂 -> Kimimaro.
音の忍四人衆 -> Sound 4.
音忍３人衆 -> Team Sound.
霧隠れの里 -> Mist village.
白 -> Haku.
再不斬 -> Zabuza.
暁 -> Akatsuki.
イタチ -> Itachi.
鬼鮫 -> Kisame.
デイダラ -> Deidara.
サソリ -> Sasori.
木の葉隠れの里 -> Konoha.
下忍 -> Genin.
７班 -> Team 7.
ナルト -> Naruto.
サスケ -> Sasuke.
サクラ -> Sakura.
８班 -> Team 8.
ヒナタ -> Hinata.
シノ -> Shino.
キバ -> Kiba.
１０班 -> Team 10.
シカマル -> Shikamaru.
いの -> Ino.
チョウジ -> Chouji.
ガイ班 -> Gai team.
ロック・リー -> Lee.
ネジ -> Neji.
テンテン -> Tenten.
四代目班 -> Team Yondaime.
四代目 -> Yondaime.
オビト -> Obito.
上忍 -> Jounin.
カカシ -> Kakashi.
ガイ -> Gai.
アスマ -> Asuma.
紅 -> Kurenai.
シズネ -> Shizune.
特別上忍 -> Special Jounin.
アンコ -> Anko.
ハヤテ -> Hayate.
ゲンマ -> Genma.
ライドウ -> Raidou.
中忍 -> Chuunin.
イルカ -> Iruka.
試験官 -> Examinators (for the chuunin exam)
コテツ -> Kotetsu.
イズモ -> Isumo.
火影 -> Hokage.
暗部 -> Anbu.
ナルコ -> Naruko (girl Naruto...)
2.b. Pairings naming
I'll just put some common ones, you can figure out the rest with the list above. Notice that in NaruSearch, the pairings are in the Seme x Uke format (seme = one on top, dominant one, uke = not), so SasuNaru and NaruSasu for example exist in seperate categories.
Het:
サスサク -> SasuSaku.
ナルサク -> NaruSaku.
ナルヒナ -> NaruHina.
シカテマ -> ShikaTema.
シカいの -> ShikaIno.
キバヒナ -> KibaHina.
ネジヒナ -> NejiHina.
ネジテン -> NejiTen.
リーテン -> LeeTen.
アス紅 -> AsuKure.
Yaoi
カカイル -> KakaIru.
サスナル -> SasuNaru.
我ナル -> GaaNaru.
桃白 -> ZabuHaku.
イタサス -> ItaSasu.
サソデイ -> SasoDei.
カブオロ -> KabuOro (haha)
その他CP -> other pairings.
うちは兄弟 -> Uchiha brothers.
日向一族 -> Hyuuga clan.
三角関係 -> Threesomes.
♀×♀ (34) -> Yuri.
総受 translates into "total receiving" apparently. In short, everyone -> that character.
総攻 translates into "total Seme" apparently. I guess that means that character is a playboy?
片思い means one-sided.
他ジャンル -> others/general.
For those of you using Firefox or the likes, you can copy the Japanese name and use ctrl-F or "/" to perform a search on that name to quickly find it in the left bar. If you really need to anyway. So now you'll have a listing of sites. You can just start navigating those you find interesting. Japanese sites now, can be notoriously hard to navigate for a newbie, I remember some unpleasant surprises so here's how to proceed.
3. Now what? Navigating a Japanese site.
3.a. Where's the damn entrance?
Okay, you find yourself on a rather nice page with a few banners and you don't seem to see anything else... Most (though not all) links to Japanese sites first bring you to an "intro" page. To access the main site, look for one of the following:
- the site banner (again): often this is the same banner as the one you clicked to get to this part of the site. Well there it is again, so click it again. >.> That or, identify the right entrance banner. It's not the group of banners on the bottom usually, those link to other sites or to fansite groupings. It can be the first banner on the right or left after a group of text, something in the upper corner, something in the center, etc.
- a big entrance image. You arrive, there's one big image in the center and nothing else: click and that's it.
- the site name.
- anything starting with the 入 kanji: 入 means "enter" in Japanese
- "enter" or equivalent <- apparently Japanese sites use English indications sometimes. Not complaining.
- sometime's it's a bit hidden for various reasons. Probably to force people to read through the text before proceeding.
- sometimes you arrive directly at the "main" page so that's that.
- if all fails, start clicking randomly until you find something. >.>
- if it Still doesn't work... look at the page source to attempt to find a link in there... (I do this more often than you think >.>)
3.b. Where's the gallery?
You finally arrive, and now you're staring at a bunch of hiragana and kanji. You can just start clicking at random, or you can look for one of the following:
- 絵, 画, イラスト: the first two are used for "drawings", the last reads "irasto" thus standing for Illustration. Find those and you can't go wrong. Incidentally, 漫画 stands for "manga".
- "gallery"/"pict" or equivalent: aheh, same for "enter", English again. Not complaining.
- Obbs, Pbbs, 絵bbs, オエビ etc: the Oekaki/Paint BBS board. BBS boards are usually used for comments, but the Oekaki-bbs board has the particularity of allowing you to leave drawings as well, sometimes by the site owner. There can be gems in there. So go look. Incidentally, oekaki means drawing.
- WJ, works, etc: works. This means drawn and/or written works. So check.
- anything with 宝: the kanji stands for treasure. They usually put presents (fanarts or fanfics) from others in here.
- キリバン, Kiriban: it means "hits". Pics they put up when they reach a certain number of site hits.
- 展示: display? It'd be where all their works get displayed.
- お題: Themes. This is something I only noticed later on. Many Japanese sites have "themes" (50-themes, 100-themes) going on, where they have a list of themes and they slowly fill them in with fanworks for each. Things included in themes can include fanfics, fanart and fancomics, and they Can be all mixed up. So if you see a theme, and the first few topics are just fanfics, that doesn't mean that the rest don't contain fanart, you can always try to look if you're desperate enough.
- other sub-links: on some fansites, they have sub-pages for various works. You'll have to dig a bit to find those. Things like "Hyuuga room" or whatever.
- and if all fails... click on everything until you get something...
3.c. What the hell is this? (the gallery)
Alright, all those who have a bit of experience with Japanese sites might find this obvious, but it might not be for first-timers. The Japanese, as they draw a lot, often present the gallery as a bunch of little rectangles or similar (sometimes, but less commonly, they use thumbnails). So if you find yourself staring at a whole bunch of rectangles or other geometric shapes, pat yourself on the back because you're just found the gallery (that or a list of fanfics. Some sites present them this way as well. Oh well).
Just click on each to see the pics. Note at this point, that if you're searching for something specific, you can hover the mouse over the rectangle to attempt to see what the pic is about (duh). So if the pic is Neji.jpg (or Nezi, Nazi, whatever), you know what it is so reduce your risks of suddenly facing yourself with a hot SasuNaru smut scene (unless that's what you're looking for). Unfortunately, not all pics are conveniently named. Some are just called pic1.jpg. Then you'll have to click all of them to see what they are.
Oh and not all sites are Naruto-only. Just find the gallery called "ナルト". Or "Naruto". Heh. Weirdly enough though, on some sites, the gallery for Naruto on some Japanese sites is labeled "鳴門". :S Don't ask me.
Note: Sometimes a whole bunch of the fanarts are stuffed in another part of the gallery than "Naruto" or the likes. They're either stuffed in an "oekaki" part, an "old" part or a "junk" part, and frankly some of those "junk" pictures don't look bad to me at all... Dig around!
3.d. What do all those other links mean?
If you've still not managed to find that convenient gallery link and are thus left with clicking everything, then I guess it's helpful to know what the rest is? Here's a listing of common head bar items:
- はじめに : Welcome. Often used to present the author or site.
- 管理人, 自: the first means site owner, the second means "self".
- サイト説明: site explanation.
- 小説 , anything with "文": the first meant stories. The 文 stands for written work.
- bbs / オエビ/掲示板: the bbs board. To leave comments for the site. Oekaki-bbs (obbs) board can have really good images at times as well.
- 日記 or anything with 日: diary. Where the site owner leaves comments. Pictures too if the "diary" is in oekaki bbs mode.
- メール : Meeru. Mail.
- リンク : Rinku. Links, in short. They can be a way to find more sites of the theme you're interested in.
- 更新: means "newest".
Note at this point, you can see if the site if part of a "webring" with the theme you're interested as main theme. If that's the case, you can always find more sites this way.
4. An alternative approach to navigating Japanese sites
Well, the above was the relatively tedious way of navigating a Japanese site. A rather easier way is:
- Go here: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/ - website translator site
- paste url in bar
- click on the Second circle at the bottom the of url bar (for Japanese -> English translation and not the other way round)
- Go.
Why didn't I say this earlier? Hmm... *dodges rotten tomatos*
You can also attempt to decifer some of the Japanese fanfics this way. >.>? If you just want to translate bits of text, use this: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/
That said, have fun! ^^
V. Thanks
I'll conclude this guide with credits and thanks:
- Zeroxblade: Your "favourites" Photobucket gallery gave me the idea of the reference gallery. Thanks! ^^
- Ruri and Kakashi Fangirl: thanks a bunch for helping me find back some of the sites that left me banging my head on the table because I could no longer find them back. ^^;
- the nice person who gave me that DA hint
- All my fellow fanart hunters from the fanclubs I'm in, and all those who have recced fanarts to me. Thank you so much guys. *glomp* The list includes but is not limited to: OccasionalUtopia, 9-tailedHokage, Althor/Mandorallen/Yami no Takeshi/Aww Man Yummy no Taco, Chauron, nwoppertje, my fellow NejiHina fanart hunters, my fellow Sakura fanart hunters...
- The ones that brought us Narusearch and Deviantart.
- And of course the artists that brought us such pretty works in the first place. ^^
I hope this guide was helpful! If you have any questions, drop me a note. ^^