Latest News & Updates

I received a notice from Google Adsense that one of pages, Ogenki Clinic Adventures, contained sexual content which was a violation of their policies. While that page is about an anime that contains sexual content, the page itself did not contain any sexual content, but it's pretty much pointless to argue with gargantuan Google so I removed AdSense ads on that page and added the standard adult content warning. Since it would have been weird to add the warning to a page without any adult content, I also added a couple of images showing a few of the female characters topless.

Converted the Anime List, Character List, and HD Loader List common page navigation links from using a query string parameter into clean urls. Using the form filter for filtering or clicking on the columns for sorting will still use query string parameters.

Fixed more typos and removed the rest of the old, manually-created thumbnails.

Fixed several typos and removed a bunch of old, manually-created thumbnails.

Posted the character profile of Lucario (from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl).

Fixed up a bunch of information in the description of Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years. Added a section about the toco toco short documentary series on the home page. It's an interesting series that follows Japanese anime and manga creators and artists.

Posted the article Anime fans would love if these Retro Games are brought back.

Posted my review of DuckTales: Destination Adventure!.

Posted the anime profile of Land of the Lustrous.

Posted my review of Hongyu T95X Smart TV Box. Added dropdown menus for Home and Forums on the top navigation bar.

Posted the anime profile of KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!.

Updated the backend coding of several pages. The Add Anime and Add Character pages each had two separate pages, one for the form and one after the form was submitted, which is a silly way to do it but I coded up those pages a long time ago when I was just learning about PHP and form submissions and didn't know any better. So I finally got around to merging them each into a single page and then broke apart the PHP from the HTML with templates. I also made it so that if you submit one of the forms and there is an error you will still see the form and it will still be filled in with everything you already entered. I also converted some other pages to use templates: FAQ page, Feedback page, Contact page, News page. I added anime images to the FAQ page, News page, and Archived Updates.

Posted the articles Check out these top apps for watching anime on mobile and Top 10 Anime Tech We Wish Were Real.

Updated the JavaScript on the File Explorer page so that when a link is clicked on it will be registered as having been visited. This wasn't happening before because the page content was being loaded via AJAX instead of the browser actually going to the page. Fixed a minor bug in my image thumbnail generation code which affected images that were in a different folder than the page displaying them. Updated the animated GIF images on the homepage, replacing one with a new image and replacing the other two with larger versions. Updated pages to allow for the File Explorer sidebar width.

Posted the character profile of Agni (from Black Butler). Changed the path where thumbnails are created.

Posted the anime profile of Assassination Classroom and the character profile of Nagisa Shiota (from Assassination Classroom). Improved my image thumbnail generation code by having it preserve transparency when creating thumbnails of images that contain transparent areas. Removed the thumbnail from the 404 Not Found to just let the browser scale down the full size image, because I had generated that thumbnail manually many, many years ago and nowadays browsers do a better job than I had done with it. I got rid of the multiple 404 pages which would redirect various places based on whatever, so now there's just a single 404 page which handles everything, and I moved the HTML part of that page into a template.

Updated the File Explorer sidebar so that it remembers what file arrangement order was selected, and removed the link to switch arrangement orders if there is only a single time of file in the selected directory (since there's no point in switching between arranging by type or name if there's only a single type).

Updated the Javascript and AJAX files for the homepage and made it work and display properly when viewed from the File Explorer page. Removed Infolinks, those slightly annoying green advertising links that get automatically populated throughout the content. Moved the Google Analytics, Facebook, and Pinterest Javascript code from the bottom of the template file into the main JavaScript file that gets loaded at the bottom of the template file. Fixed a bug that prevented the animated gif images from animating on the homepage.

Replaced the list of social media share buttons with one social media sharing icon that will show the other buttons when clicked. It think this gives a cleaner look. I didn't hide the Facebook LIKE button because it's about liking, not sharing. I moved the HTML content out of the Configure Preferences file and into a template file and merged the separate CSS and JavaScript I had for it into the main CSS and JavaScript files. I removed Google Adsense ads from the File Explorer page as pages with adult content could be loaded there and Adsense isn't allowed on pages with adult content.

Updated the character profiles of Grell Sutcliffe and William T. Spears (from Black Butler). Made some cosmetic fixes to the mobile version of the site. Moved my phpBB 3.0 MODs page from the about folder to the phpBB extensions folder and updated the backend code for both of those pages to use template files instead of generating the HTML from within the page scripts.

Posted the character profile of Ronald Knox (from Black Butler). Renamed the "admin" to "about" since it primarily contains pages that tell about the site and myself and doesn't contain any admin controls or anything.

I removed the H1 HTML element from the website title so I could use it for the title area of the first section on the page, as that title is more important to focus on than the title of the website. For the image popup box I moved the image title from above the image to below the image so that long titles that wrap will not get cut off by the image. I also tweaked the style of the buttons for closing the box and for opening the image in a new window so that they're a bit wider and flow into the top and sides of the box instead of just the top, and made it so that the box doesn't auto-close when clicking the button to view the image in a new window. Updated from Jquery 2.2.4 to Jquery 3.3.1, and performed other minor tweaks and fixes.

One bug I fixed would prevent the file list sidebar from remembering which leaves had been opened. I changed the cookies that store file list sidebar statuses into a session cookie so it should be cleared when the browser is closed, that way the sidebar only stays open for the current session. I made a minor improvement to the filename sorting and made the bottom file list section flash when it loads after clicking a link in the upper folder list section, just to draw attention to it. I did this because I found myself clicking a link in the folder list section and then just waiting, not realizing that the content loaded in the bottom file list section because it looked so similar to the previous file list.

The biggest change came behind-the-scenes as I'm now using PHP to build thumbnail images instead of having my pre-processor script build them. The image galleries were already using PHP to build thumbnails and that had been working well so made the switch for all other images. Let me know if you notice any bugs with this such as certain images not being displayed.

Posted the character profile of Ichigo Amano (from Yumeiro Patissiere). Added an announcement to the page header asking for more anime and character profile submissions since I only have a few left to do before I run out.

I hid the controls on the popup image box until the mouse is moved over the image. I think this makes for a cleaner look.

Anyone remember HTML Frames? Not IFrames which are used to embed content into a page, but the old Frames that divided the page into separate independent sections? Well up until today I was actually still using those on Absolute Anime to display a sidebar of directories and files. But no more! I finally got around to converting that file list sidebar into an fixed DIV that is loaded via AJAX and controlled via Javascript and cookies. It can be accessed by clicking the folder icon off to the side of the browser and won't load the content until it's opened so it shouldn't slow down your normal browsing. As always, if you notice any issues with it please let me know.

Posted the character profile of Spin (from RollBots). Sorry for not doing any updates these past couple weeks. I was working on converting my Prime Post Revisions phpBB 3.0 MOD into a phpBB 3.2 extension. I got that finished and posted a few days ago.

Slightly updated the look of the Add Anime and Add Character pages, and the News page. Added a new title to the PS2 HDLoader Compatibility List.

Added a new page for my phpBB 3.1/3.2 Extensions.

Added a few titles to the PS2 HDLoader Compatibility List.

Added a few titles to the PS2 HDLoader Compatibility List.

Fixed the Google Search bar again. After performing a search, an icon would display to the right of the search field for clearing the search terms and that would cause the search bar to drop to the next line.

Posted the anime profile of sola.

Implemented a new script for processing and displaying all the updates pages. This script reads and processes the data files on the fly. Prior to this I had a local script that built the pages prior to uploading to the web server. Processing data files on the fly means that multiple files can be processed and displayed on the same page, so an entire year of updates can be displayed even if those updates are spread across multiple files. This is one more step in my efforts to get all pages to be built on the fly so I can get rid of the pre-processing scripts I currently use to build most pages. The new updates page also has an nicer, simpler URL: https://www.absoluteanime.com/updates. While I was working on that script I also fixed some HTML errors and some incorrectly displayed UTF-8 characters.

Posted the anime profile of Voltron of the Middle Universe. Fixed some more messed up links and more typos.

Posted the anime profile of Starvengers. Fixed bugs in my indexing and page build scripts that got introduced when I removed file extensions. Fixed a bunch of typos and corrupt Unicode characters in Japanese names. Found two separate profiles of the same anime so I merged them into one. Found an orphan character profile which I attached to the proper anime series. Fixed the button in the top toolbar that scrolls you to the top of the page when clicked. Fixed the Google search bar.

I put a new serpentine belt in my car yesterday. I didn't have the correct tool I needed, a 19mm torque socket wrench, but thanks to Nextdoor.com I found a nearby neighbor who let me borrow one. This was my first time changing a serpentine belt and it went a lot easier than I was expecting, taking less than half an hour. Once I was done I started up my car and there was no more squealing!

Posted the anime profile of Dino Mech Gaiking.

Posted the character profile of Alcyone (from Magic Knight Rayearth). Posted the anime profile of Grandizer.

I removed the file extensions from all the internal links and while doing so fixed a bunch of typos I came across as well as messed up links and various other minor issues.

Posted the anime profile of Great Mazinger.

Posted the article Four Slot Games That Remind Us Of Popular Anime.

Back in August I made an update to the website which allowed pages to be accessed without having the file extension on the end. That seemed to work well, so today I made an update to automatically remove the file extensions when possible. Hopefully this will give URLs a little cleaner look.

Our local Kmart and Sears stores are both closing, which is kind of sad. They weren't the best stores in the world... or in the town... but I enjoyed getting free and heavily discounted stuff with the Shop Your Way program. I would usually play their sweeps games in the evening while watching TV and end up with about $10-$15 every couple weeks, enough to purchase various household necessities. Sometimes they would offer Surprise Points, which they now call Free Cash, that would get me other stuff for free or very cheap. The program wasn't that great and often had restrictions that weren't listed, but it was still nice to get free toilet paper or dish soap or whatever. Twice I even ended up really winning the sweepstakes! The first time I won some exercise equipment like a weight set, mini trampoline, jump rope, kettle bells, an exercise watch, and probably some other things I can't think of. I kept and used some of the things, gave others away, and sold the rest.

The other sweepstakes I won was called the SHC ONLY: FOR THE HOLIDAYS and the prize for that was a $100 in points... except that they never gave me the points and I assume none of the other 4 winners got theirs either. When checking the status of the sweeps it used to say that it was pending as they were contacting the winners, but then it changed to "We didn't get enough completed entries into this Sweepstakes within the time allotted, therefore a winner will not be chosen". The official rules don't mention anything about a minimum number of entries so I call shenanigans! The Shop Your Way (info@shopyourway.com) people said I needed to contact sweeps@searshc.com, so I did. Many, many times. But I never received a response and info@shopyourway.com had no other contact information and wouldn't do anything to help. So that was frustrating and disappointing... kind of like the closing of these stores.

Posted the character profile of Caldina (from Magic Knight Rayearth).

Posted the character profile of Tamaki Kawazoe (from Bamboo Blade).

Posted the character profile of Moomintroll (from The Moomins).

Posted the article The Rise Of Anime Culture In Western Society.

Posted the anime profile of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

I got back from Vallejo on Sunday after three weeks away. I enjoyed my stay, getting to visit with my grandparents a lot and finally getting to work on some phpBB 3.2 extensions that I hadn't had the time to work on before. It still felt good to be home, though. Unfortunately it now feels like I'm starting to get sick :( as I have a persistent headache, constant chills, and my muscles ache for no reason. I'm really hoping it doesn't get too bad....

Posted my review of Cool Tokyo Guide: Adventures in the City of Kawaii Fashion, Train Sushi and Godzilla.

Posted the character profile of Nanami Momozono (from Kamisama Kiss).

Posted the character profile of Kotonoha Katsura (from School Days) and the article Why Do You Need To Try Anime Slots?.

Posted the anime profile of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2. Set the site to automatically switch to the https protocol.

Posted the article Check out anime-themed games over at Wizard Slots!.

Updated the character profile of Vegeta Jr. (from Dragon Ball GT)

Posted the character profile of Ruka Tsuchiya (from Revolutionary Girl Utena).

The screen back plate for my laptop arrived last Wednesday so I was finally able to get that put back together. I then started preparing to do a fresh Windows reinstall on my main PC because it has been acting up lately. First I had to figure out how to get all of my different development environments set up on my laptop like they were set up on my PC so that after the reinstall I would know how to do it, and in case something went very wrong with my PC I would still have my development environments set up and available. Certain programs had to be installed in a certain order with specific SDK versions and environment variables had to be set and updated at specific points. It was a huge pain but I got it done and documented the entire process so I could replicate it once I finished reinstalling Windows. The Windows reinstall took quite a while with all the backing up and install and updates and reinstalling all my programs, but it went pretty smooth and my PC is up and running again and seems to be working well.

Posted the character profile of Kazuto Kirigaya (from Sword Art Online).

Posted the anime profile of Pokemon DP Galactic Battles and the article Can We Expect an eSports Anime in 2018?. Merged two profiles together since it turns out I had accidentally created two profiles of Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne a while back.

The noticeable lack of updates for the past few weeks is due to a few reasons, one of which is that my laptop is currently disassembled and will remain that way until the new back cover arrives. I put in a new power port the other day since the one that was in there was very loose and the power cord would constantly slip out, but until the back panel arrives which the screen attaches to I can't put it back together.

Posted the anime profile of Vocaloid.

Posted the anime profile of Bolts and Blip.

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great and safe time last night!