Review Avenue (an anime and manga web page reviewer)

review 008

reviewee Book of Otaku Senshi
date reviewed January 28, 2006

Layout
As always fan fiction/art sites have a difficult task of making layouts for their otaku characters because of the lack of available images. The top banner image is interesting and ambiguous, it doesn't really tell me anything about your site, but I understand the version note of Transformation Sequence. There are no requirements listed on your site i.e. screen resolution or browser; this is an issue because your layout does not fit on a 800x600 or 1024x786 screen resolutions (the most common used browsers). You also decide to use an iframe as your main page, which creates more of an issue since now your site requires a visitor to double scroll. Overall this layout is rather bland. Clean is nice, but the color sequence doesn't do much justice. I would suggest you find another site that provides much better templates.

Main
An interesting opening. Although, it looks like you're asking to be flamed by the way you present yourself as a first impression to the visitor. If you wish to include a note that your otaku senshi might be offensive to anyone, create a separate warning page. This will not detour visitors from your site at first glance. Good sitemap.

Updates
First glance = color clashing. The bright yellow and blue for your title colors aren't the most flattering together. Try changing it to a hex that matches your banner heading. i.e. softer blues/yellows/purples. I enjoyed how all your updates were organized. The avatar is also a nice touch.

About
I really enjoyed this section. Great job! Tells me everything I need to know about your site from the site name and concept to past layouts. Well done.

Questions Only
Good FAQ section. FAQ script does wonders, doesn't it?

Line Up
You give a warning here about your otaku senshi...so no need to give one in the main page, especially about visitors wanting to flame you. Spelled "necessary", "preferred", and “criticism" wrong. In Attack #1 Description spelled "cleansed" wrong in the last sentence. It's rare to find an otaku senshi have such an in-depth profile. I commend you on the great work you've done with your senshi. It's obvious to see that you spent time and thoughtfulness to create your senshi.

Photo Op
A nicely done gallery of your senshi. It's nice to see each image open up in a new window as well as your added otaku advisory/tags on nudity images. Since your gallery isn't huge at the moment, you can also add the descriptions next to the image itself instead of in the new window.

Fairy Tales
Did not read/review. As always I leave it to the creativity of the author.

Articles
Haha, this was definitely the most entertaining section. It was a plus how you included your own experiences and suggestions with each of the "commandments." The 10 General Commandments - Spelled "canon" wrong in #3. Although, I have to say you forgot a 3rd reason why people stop writing fan fiction...we just don't have the extra time =)

Miscellaneous
When You Believe, my favorite song ever =P kudos. The soundtrack list is a bit misleading since they lead to lyrics not the songs, might want to note that on your soundtrack page. Otherwise all the other pages were well done; I'm not sure how Seldom Known Facts, Reviews Received, Relationships, Contests, Spoilers go under the category Multimedia. Perhaps you should just put them under Miscellaneous.

Linkables
Great job on organization. Great work on finding all these other otaku senshi sites.

Link to BOOS
Nice selection of different buttons and banners.

Overall
Great work on your otaku senshi site. It's rare to find a fan fiction/art site so clean and in-depth. The only issue I saw with your site was the layout. The layout does not justify your well done content at all. I hope that your otaku senshi continues to grow in your stories and your site.

Book of Otaku Senshi's Reply to this Review
Layout As for the layout, it had started as mostly in shades of grey and I had edited the graphics to match Sailor Savior's colors (white for the most part, yellow/gold as a secondary and purple as minor). I decided to forgo the splash page/requirements since I had done so with so many other sites/layouts that it was irking me beyond all reason. I wanted something that was not like all other fansites out there, after all, why have something that everybody and their brother is doing? It gets boring and dull when everything's repetitive of everything else. It's odd that the layout does not fit on your 800x600 and/or 1024x786 screen resolutions. I've checked it out on Netscape 7.2, Netscape 8.1, Mozilla Firefox (forgot the version) and Internet Explorer 6 on a 800x600 screen resolution and there is plenty of space with no sideways scrolling whatsoever. I'd go with a different site with different templates but the ones I liked from those sites had a 'no editing the graphics/coding' rule where as the one I got that layout from was more leniant, and I preffer most of my sites to have some connection/relation to the subject at hand. I can code my own layouts, it's just for that site, I liked the layout so edited and used it.

Unforunately "gold" isn't really an option on the web, unless you can make it sparkly. What you achieved on your layout was a bright yellow. Again I said an option was to find another site that lets you alter their layout, or if you liked their layout so much, then code your own without being restricted by theirs.

Main Actually, I was trying to get some reaction from visitors...flames, comments, complaints, suggestions, et cetera. Unfortunately, if I took it down from the main page, there'd be no opening message/note whatsoever... And I do so hate leaving that area blank with no explanations as to what to expect on the site.

There are many ways to create an introduction for your site without visitors flaming you (i.e. stating what youre site is about, who your otake senshi is, etc.). If you enjoy getting flamed then I have no comments.

Updates I'd be more than glad to change it, however I don't know the script (Magic News Lite) well enough to do so without crashing the whole thing and loosing my updates...or at least I don't at the moment. I'm thinking of changing over to CuteNews with the next batch of updates...might not be able to backdate (at the moment I don't see that option) but I can make it work better with formating and such.

Line Up I'll see what I can do about the spelling errors. As for the 'double-posting' of the warning, I think I prefer to have it in two places (main page and just before the profile). I kind of fall under the general rule of "It's better to be safe than sorry."

Photo Op Unfortunately, if I did that, then I'd just have to go back to the way I'm using right now since I do have new images lined up to put up in there when possible (Temperary technical difficulties prevent me from adding them currently). Not only that, I'd forget which image goes where when looking through my list of images...and I wouldn't have space for the comments/ect on the main gallery page... In the long run, it'd make the gallery page more cluttered/messy.

Articles I'm glad you liked the commandments. I wanted something up in there that was deffinitely different from all others. Besides, there's only so many ways to skewer the "You Know You Like Sailor Moon Too Much When..." lists (of which I know I made on a previous site attempt located elsewhere and no longer updated). I knew I was forgetting something to add for the third article...thanks for the reminder... I should have remembered that, because that's what happened with Shinzui/Sailor Orion's story... the author just didn't have the extra time/energy to continue the story.

Miscellaneous Since Multimedia and Clinqueables are miscellaneous sections that don't belong in the other sections, they fall under Miscellaneous. It just didn't seem right to have a Miscellaneous subsection under the Miscellaneous section...it just seems... redundant. I'll see what I can do though. As for the soundtrack list...I might have the space, but not the permission of the artists who sing the songs, nor the actual MP3/Wav/whatever files to be able to have the actual songs on there. But I'll see what I can do about posting a note that it's lyrics...

You misunderstood me on what I meant by putting it under Miscellanous...you had all your links under Multimedia, which was under Miscellaneous. Why didn't you just put the links under the first Miscellanous title? As for the songs, again you misunderstood me. What you have up is Lyrics not actual songs, which makes the link misleading since you put Songs. Most visitors understand that "songs" = mp3/actual song not Lyrics.

"I'll see what I can do" < that sounds rather reluctant. My review is what it is. Please don't feel that you need to drag yourself to fix anything I have said. This review was requested by you.