review 002

Layout
The main layout image is very uncommon...especially in the Sailormoon web world. I really enjoy the contrasting colors of bold blue and red. This layout has without doubt achieved the term of simplicity with style. The shadow box technique seems to be in at the moment; it gives a sense of depth to a layout. Nice usage of texture/pattern on the blue background...it's subtle and light.

I was surprised to find a 2nd layout after the index. The blue overlay effect on the image is an attractive effect, but it now feels as though the site is drenched in blue...it lacks a contrast in color. Although, when you look at the images now, you concentrate more on them instead of the layout.

Main
Great usage of different font sizes. It makes the site so much livelier with just that little change. The navigation was easy to find and included helpful captions to indicate what link led to what. I'm somewhat confused with why there is an extra update section, when the Updates is already linked. It feels repetitive. You might try indicating what day you updated on the index and leave off the updates section from your navigation...combining the two. I really like the way you list your listed and affiliates. The affiliate buttons are very cute. All were very organized. The link Swoonable! is broken.

Image Galleries
Since a wider population now knows the difference between the anime and the manga, it would be more viewer friendly to separate the anime from the manga images and further separating the manga images from the black & white to the color art books (as well as some of those prism cards/stickers). A few of the pages had spacing issues as well, but I'm not sure if you intended to have those there. Overall, great job on maintaining all your image links...none of the pages contained broken links, superb feat.

The Original Galleries - they all have fascinating subtitles such as the Hall of Flame (I understand the parallel) but what about the other ones? It would be nice to explain your analogy behind each of the interesting names behind each gallery. This is an awesome compilation of Usagi and Mamoru images; I personally loved the royalty section =). You already separated the manga from the anime in the Cerulean Chapel, I'd like to see it in every gallery, it makes everything much more organized. I thought the Royal Carousel was an interesting idea, although I wasn't sure when it would ever end. Maybe you can add a mini/sub menu to the smaller galleries so one doesn't have to scroll through the entire carousel to find a specific gallery.

The Crystal Spire of Dawn Galleries - 19 pages worth of Usagi...need I say more on the dedication of your image compilation? On page 14 of Dawn (Tsukino Usagi), there's an empty space on row 3, column 10 is it suppose to be there? There's another empty space on Neo Queen Serenity page 2, column 10. There is also a duplicate image of Princess Serenity (ps_101.jpg) in the Neo Queen Serenity page (nsp_024.jpg and nsq_025.jpg) << images are of Princess Serenity not Neo Queen Serenity. In the Materials Collection, Naoko's notes indicate that the outfit and crown are the Princess'.

The Rose Garden of Twilight Galleries, The Palace Theater Guild Galleries, The Moonlight Choral Group Galleries - Great job on all three of these sections. I hope you don't mind that I put these three together, but there were no errors in any of these galleries, thus my comments are limited to the usual great job. I've never seen the Live-Action Sailormoon, so it was a very interesting section for me to look; I enjoyed all the screen caps.

Updates
A simple updates page. It tells what was updated without any extra nonsense. I like the idea of an update list group.

Site-related
Your Site History is very fascinating. Amazing how a site can morph. There are a couple broken links in the Links Out section: Eternally Sailor Moon and Liquid Diamonds. I had to laugh at your disclaimer, "I do not know how to become a Sailor Scout." Surprising the questions one gets when running a site.

Overall
I've been schooled in the love of Usagi and Mamoru through images. You show extreme dedication to your site, especially since it's been up since 1997 and taking the time to compile the variety of images. Lovely job.

Serenitatis.com's Reply to this Review
Again, thank you for such a helpful review. The suggestions you made were quite right, and I do intend with the next version to completely separate anime from manga -- my plans for renovation will require a few months of work, but this is indeed one of the side benefits of my upgrade. Thank you also for pointing out the misclassification of those Serenity images. There is a gap on one Serenity page because I hadn't had time to fill it with a picture, having reclassified something recently. The Usagi gap on page 14 is there on purpose, but it will be rectified in future versions. (Usagi being such a pure-hearted individual, I just couldn't bear to name any of her images #666. That may be silly, but it's the truth, hehe.)

As a side note, my contact form disclaimer is quite accurate, and not only have I been asked how to become a Sailor Scout, I was once asked for Sailor Mercury's PHONE NUMBER, if you can believe it. ^^;;

© 2005-2007 Icera. A flavor of Icescape.net. This is only a site expressing fandom. Origins of information/images are owned by their respected authors/artists. †