How do you organize/catalog your otome library?

[Tenya]

So, this is my first thread, and I am curious: how do you all organize or catalog your otome library? Not just games, but CDs, magazines and any other content that you consume/collect?
I am a bit paranoid about my own collection, so I like to back things up and then have access to it 'later' (whenever that might end up being (ó﹏ò｡)), which also means that I have a BIG backlog that I'll get to... eventually... someday... (ᵕ • ᴗ •)
I have also played around with making an app to make my organizational woes go away (I'm not really familiar with coding, but agentic tools have made this very accessible and I've had great luck with just... solving my own issues), and I found that to be very satisfying. Do you maybe keep it organized in a folder, or do you have a dedicated program/software? Please share! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂)⸝♡

 

[oandcksfb]

I'm a bit particular, but at the same time I can be lazy, so some things are well organized while others are messy.

Of course I keep backups, but while some files are neatly sorted into folders, I also have a "to organize later" folder.

Basically, the things I download for now—especially CDs with pseudonyms, where I often don't even know who the voice actor is—tend to remain untouched, and I end up spending a huge amount of time organizing rather than actually going through them.

If you don't mind, I'd love to hear in detail about the folder setup that has worked well for you!

 

[Tenya]

[...]
If you don't mind, I'd love to hear in detail about the folder setup that has worked well for you!

Of course! (ㅅ´ ˘ `)
Honestly I had the exact same problem for a whiiiile. (And I know that whenever I put something off to do 'later', it'll probably, realistically, never get done unless I drag myself over to do it specifically...)
What ended up working for me is actually keeping/renaming the archive files into their DLsite product codes (RJ/BJ/etc) instead of the display names. That way I get no duplicates (since Windows would tell me if I wanted to save the same product code if one already exists). Then I built a small app for myself that reads the contents of that folder, pulls the metadata (so, like, the name, date release, the seiyuu, circle, all of the info that's on the dlsite page for the product) for each code, but in the app it shows up properly with a title, DLsite product code and even the description and a picture so you can tell at a glance.（´∇｀''）
And for storage purposes (because CDs specifically are BIG especially if it's .wav since that can easily be 1-3 GB per cd), I keep them in their archives unless I want to listen to a CD, so I don't need to unpack everything!
I still have some unsorted stuff, but this kind of automation honestly has solved the biggest issue for me: knowing what I have/what I don't/being able to sort by tags etc. (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ‹𝟹

 

[dungans]

I totally feel you on the backlog mountain — mine keeps growing too
For organizing my otome collection, I use SiYuan Note with its card view. It's honestly a game changer! You can create a card for each item, add tags, cover images, links, notes — and then view everything as a beautiful gallery. It feels like having your own personal visual database without needing to code anything.
Card view makes it super easy to browse through your library at a glance. Plus, you can filter by series, voice actor, or whether you've finished it ( "finished" is a rare tag for me ).
Hope that gives you some inspiration! Enjoy your first thread and happy collecting

 

[mirasaki]

I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, but it's a bit difficult to organize the data I've collected and stacked in "random" folders, so it really depends on the time and intention to sort it out
But lately I've started organizing as usual based on content and then creating a folder by release year, especially for CDs with various seiyuu, it's enough to just organize them by year
I also thought about whether it was necessary to separate the files I got bc some CD I got is from several sites other than DLsite (either pokedora or lovecul) but in the end I still combined it into one, as long as it was separated by year with folder names in the form of title and seiyuu name
The problem with DramaCD is that sometimes WAV files take up storage space, so in the end I chose to convert WAV to MP3 for more efficient

 

[oandcksfb]

Of course! (ㅅ´ ˘ `)
：

What an ideal archive—it's amazing!
Thank you so much!
I can't build an app myself, so I organize everything manually in a Google Spreadsheet. And honestly, that process is what makes organizing feel like such a chore… it's a vicious cycle. But I can't live without that list, haha.
I think it would be so much easier if this part could be automated.

 

[jokerblackjack]

I feel the same about this—I tend to leave a lot of things unfinished too. I try to back up my files since they take up a lot of space.
For ASMR, I usually organize them by voice actors I like and remember their names. Some of what I listen to I bought myself, and some are shared here by others.
Honestly, I probably can't get through everything in a day—I've got games to play, plus anime, movies, and series to watch. So I try to organize everything in a way that's easiest for me… even though I can be pretty lazy, haha

 

[Nihilistic]

Due to limited space I don't tend to organise that much but I have folders for initial romance pairings (Otome, Gender fluid or BL) then inside I arrange them into Fantasy,Historical or Realistic settings. Then it's basically all shoved into those haha.

 

[AmnesiaArya]

I usually start by splitting everything—drama CDs, games, and shoujo manga—into two main categories: All-Ages and 18+ (R18).
For drama CDs, I dive even deeper into the subfolders:
By Seiyuu: If it's a solo performance, it gets its own folder named after the VA.
Multi-VA: Works with multiple voice actors go into a shared folder.
Series: Anything with more than 2 entries gets its own folder named after the series, all tucked away inside a master "Series" folder.
Miscellaneous: For rare VAs or those with only one or two works, I put them in a "Single/Misc" folder.
I make sure there are no duplicates and label every single file with the release date and title. Since I use huge external hard drives, I keep a full backup there, while keeping my favorites on my PC or phone for easy access (plus some stuff on cloud drives).
Honestly, I don't have any fancy technical skills—it's all powered by pure love for the hobby, even though it consumes an ungodly amount of my time!
（My English is not very good, so I used AI to assist with the translation. Please let me know if there are any inappropriate expressions.）

 

[oandcksfb]

私も同じ気持ちです。私もよく物事を途中で投げ出してしまうんです。ファイルは容量をかなり消費するので、バックアップを取るようにしています。
ASMRに関しては、私は通常、好きな声優ごとに整理して、その声優の名前を覚えています。
・・・

私は通常、ドラマCD、ゲーム、少女漫画などすべてを「全年齢対象」と「18歳以上対象（R18）」の2つの主要なカテゴリに分けることから始めます。
ドラマCDの場合は、さらにサブフォルダを深く掘り下げていきます。
声優による解説：ソロパフォーマンスの場合は、声優の名前を冠した専用フォルダが作成されます。
マルチVA：複数の声優が参加する作業は、共有フォルダで行います。
シリーズ：2つ以上の項目があるものは、シリーズ名と同じ名前の専用フォルダが作成され、それらはすべてマスターフォルダ「シリーズ」の中に格納されます。
その他：珍しい声優や、作品が1つか2つしかない声優は、「単発/その他」フォルダに入れています。
・・・

実は私も最初は声優ごとにフォルダを整理しようと考えていました。
しかし結局、例外が必ず発生するという点が気に入らなかったので、そのやり方は諦めました。
とはいえ、私はよく声優で検索するので、今からでも変更するのは遅くないと思います。
もしそのシステムを使っている方がいらっしゃいましたら、気づいたメリットやデメリットをぜひ教えてください！

 

[Tenya]

What an ideal archive—it's amazing!
Thank you so much!
I can't build an app myself, so I organize everything manually in a Google Spreadsheet. And honestly, that process is what makes organizing feel like such a chore… it's a vicious cycle. But I can't live without that list, haha.
I think it would be so much easier if this part could be automated.

Thank you! Honestly, it's helped me out a LOT. But I have an issue where I'll always just find faults/more features to add and it never ends. (//▽//) I considered releasing it, but it's, like, I'm scared of providing support and then my executive function isn't always there to be super responsive all the time, and I don't want to let people down. (｡•́︿•̀｡)

For ASMR, I usually organize them by voice actors I like and remember their names. Some of what I listen to I bought myself, and some are shared here by others.

That's actually a very good point! I have some CDs I purchased myself I am yet to upload because, honestly, I'm really mostly a hermit so interaction is still a bit scary. o(TヘTo) But everyone seems super nice so far, and that definitely helps LOL.

[...]
Since I use huge external hard drives, I keep a full backup there, while keeping my favorites on my PC or phone for easy access (plus some stuff on cloud drives).
Honestly, I don't have any fancy technical skills—it's all powered by pure love for the hobby, even though it consumes an ungodly amount of my time!
（My English is not very good, so I used AI to assist with the translation. Please let me know if there are any inappropriate expressions.）

Your English is perfectly fine! (Though I am not a native English speaker myself, I'm bilingual at this point (⌒_⌒;))
And I'm in the same situation as you, I think, but I just have one external hard drive I invested in and I really need to police myself otherwise I will fill it all up. It's too easy when you have so much content... (╯_╰)
And your point about mobile access is so important, honestly. For me, it's most comfortable to listen to CDs on my phone so I don't have to sit all shrimped up at my PC, so having that is so good. And I think it's admirable to do it manually! Especially since, as you say, having the skills to actually make something automated can be a very high barrier to entry, I get that. (╥‸╥) But having done it manually for a long time, it takes up so many hours of time you could use to actually read/listen to the content.

 

[dfasf3w343]

i ended up using dlsite rj/bj codes and make an excel sheet of the files that i have.. i used to store wav/ flac files, too, but the size got too out of hand so now, i'm using mp3 converter to convert them and store them. (vlc media player)

 

[satory]

Now I'm kinda ashamed of one huge pile of stuff that is on my drive. It's time to at least divide it into Otome and BL...

 

[jokerblackjack]

Thank you! Honestly, it's helped me out a LOT. But I have an issue where I'll always just find faults/more features to add and it never ends. (//▽//) I considered releasing it, but it's, like, I'm scared of providing support and then my executive function isn't always there to be super responsive all the time, and I don't want to let people down. (｡•́︿•̀｡)


That's actually a very good point! I have some CDs I purchased myself I am yet to upload because, honestly, I'm really mostly a hermit so interaction is still a bit scary. o(TヘTo) But everyone seems super nice so far, and that definitely helps LOL.


Your English is perfectly fine! (Though I am not a native English speaker myself, I'm bilingual at this point (⌒_⌒;))
And I'm in the same situation as you, I think, but I just have one external hard drive I invested in and I really need to police myself otherwise I will fill it all up. It's too easy when you have so much content... (╯_╰)
And your point about mobile access is so important, honestly. For me, it's most comfortable to listen to CDs on my phone so I don't have to sit all shrimped up at my PC, so having that is so good. And I think it's admirable to do it manually! Especially since, as you say, having the skills to actually make something automated can be a very high barrier to entry, I get that. (╥‸╥) But having done it manually for a long time, it takes up so many hours of time you could use to actually read/listen to the content.

I understand how you feel—I was nervous too. Today was actually my first time starting a discussion thread. Usually, I just upload, share, and thank others who share things as well.
But after trying to make a post, I found that the otome community who replied to me are all really kind and friendly.
You can talk to me anytime :)

 

[fr4pp3cinn]

I'm kinda lazy so I just mark stuff as obtained on my vndb. However I don't collect CDs so it's a bit easier (even though I'm mostly familiar with home library solutions for audio haha)

I have my games in external drives, usually just in folders for BL/Otoge/R18 Otoge/the other VNs I play. I just keep artbooks and stuff on Calibre, as I'm used to it already

I thought about using a launcher like Playnite for my games since it supports C# plugins and themes but I'm not huge on launchers tbh... I organize them as soon as I get the game so it's pretty quick though!

 

[oandcksfb]

Thank you! Honestly, it's helped me out a LOT. But I have an issue where I'll always just find faults/more features to add and it never ends. (//▽//) I considered releasing it, but it's, like, I'm scared of providing support and then my executive function isn't always there to be super responsive all the time, and I don't want to let people down. (｡•́︿•̀｡)

It's great that you're so motivated to improve things—you'll probably make it even more comfortable and polished over time.
Oh yeah, releasing it publicly can be a lot of work, so don't push yourself too hard.

 

[Beannie]

Since I basically have every otome/BL console game and a ton of PC games, I keep a track using excel spreadsheet and vndb. For books I have recently sorted them out using Calibre and tags. My audio drama cds are in serious dissarray, so I like to forget about them T-T

 

[Sacchie]

some of my physical copy I organized them on me bookshelf, they belong on the most top part, since it's not as many as the books haha
for the digital copy, I think I never thought to back up it before but I did used to fill me external HDD with games because my laptop/pc just doesn't have enough storage anymore ..

 

[Kyouri]

I was doing everything manually with sheets/airtable... and taking me hours to where I couldn't actually find time to consume the content... but today I just discovered this: https://neokikoeru.voicehub.top/ ..... I should have known to check the Chinese fandom side..!!! Well, now I'm going to have to rename/reorganize my current folder structures and files but this actually pulls more information than I was inputting so it will save me soooo much time!!! I actually came here to talk to about it when I found this thread lmao!of course this is specific to the audio doujin stuff but tbh, I feel like that was giving me the most trouble due to all the details I wanted to track like CV, circles, work codes, links, etc... So I can go back to focusing my digital manga organizing... >_>