Eudial

.... Yes...*insert generic name here* Thats what I'm getting from this site. So, my job this time around is layout. Lets see what this site has to show.

*looks ar title page* Apparently, not much. I fail to see an actual...well, layout to this site. The naviagation section is actually this scroll thing on the top of the site. There is also this forest green background color and some incredibly small text that makes my eyes hurt whenever I try to read it.

The links here are text links, which shows to me a lack of understanding in the HTML department. It also seems to me that alot of this site seems...pressed together. Its like the person didn't know how to seperate the site so they just kind of threw everything together whenever they found space. >.>

Well, it also seems that this site is not exclusive to Sailor Moon. More that, it wants to touch on lots of animes.

Blah, I do believe that if u wanna make a website...know enough to make a GOOD website. Bunching stuff up and having only text links makes it look like ur still taking Intro to HTML. So, thats my analysis for this site. BLAH!

Cyprine

So, aparently, AnimeArchive is a site dedicated to anime of all kinds, and this is only the Sailor Moon subsection that I and lil' Cyprine will be reviewing tonight.

Reading the first paragraph of the page, I'm already groaning. Not that the information is inaccurate; it's true that BSSM basically consists of a "klutzy, crybaby, 14 year old underachiever named Tsukino Usagi who was given some transformation items and super powers". Rather, I groan because this site has managed to complely encapsulate exactly what every BSSM-hater thinks about the series in three sentences. Where's the drama? The intrigue? The romanticism? The good grammar? So far, I'm sure this site will be able to convey none of that.

I also disagree with the assessment that Sailor Moon is a story aimed at young girls aged 4 through 12. Quickly scanning the Witches roster, none of us remotely fit that description.

As far as the actual description of the series is concerned, it seems like whoever wrote it has seen exactly one episode: the pilot. Sailor Moon's origin is once again reiterated for us (as if we didn't know enough about how Usagi got her locket from the first two paragraphs from the page) and 199 episodes afterwards are summarized in the sentence: "Later, the appearance of the other Sailor Senshi (warriors) will help..." Again, this description doesn't do BSSM the least bit of justice.

The tidbits section are basic trivia bits that any seasoned BSSM fan will yawn at. I've always hated how sites describe the Senshi as 14 years old when we know that a) not all of them are 14 and b) such descriptions make it seem as if the girls never age throughout the season but are stuck, perpetually, in this prepubescent state.

The site also is either horribly out of date or points out the problem with these general anime sites: BSSM doesn't seem to exist past the first half of Sailor Moon R, according to this site.

Clicking on the character descriptions, I'm greeted with about two sentences per character describing the character's names in English, French and Japanese. I am sent into fits of laughing followed by uncontrollable coughing at mention of "Sailor Chibi-Moo". I love how this site, preoccupied with giving us the dryest, bare bones description of the Senshi still feel the need to include this little gem for Neptune: "She's engaged in a homosexual, monogamous, relationship with Haruka." A similar sentence is written for Uranus -- as if the only important things about these two characters are their sexual orientations.

The page contains some inaccurate information. One that jumped to my eye was the translation of Hotaru's name as the Firefly of Hell. Uhm no. Just no. Overall, anyone who actually goes to AnimeArchive for real BSSM information out to be ashamed. Just Google an actually decent site.

Viluy

There are literally thousands of pictures on here, from both the manga and the anime series. This is an archive of anime and manga pictures from various series, amongst them being the Sailor Moon series. I was pointed here some time ago by a friend, and somewhat selfishly kept it to myself *chuckles* I like to have images that others don't....but now me secret's out of the bag, as it were *grins*

Anyway, there are both good and bad points on this site, as far as media goes. There are a lot of images, grouped together without much thought as to theme, series (S, R, etc.), or version (ie, whether it's anime or manga). It can make for a rather long search, with 28 pages of SM pictures to look at. There's also no accounting for grainy vs good images. They're all just jumbled in here.

The plus point of that is that there are so many images, you're bound to find at least a few of whatever you're looking for. On the whole, the majority of them ARE good quality, it's just no way of telling until you actually look at the picture. There's also a plus in that there's a batch download available on each page, so you don't necessarily have to be on the net to view each and every image, you can just download them all. There's also a helpful image index on each page, that shows you just what images each page has, meaning you don't have to click each image to see it. If you just want the one picture, rather than them all, you can click, but it's best to do the batch download, in this reviewer's opinion. That way you get them all and have a selection at your fingertips. Just FYI, the index page comes with the batch download, so if you want to search through each folder, you can start with the index and go from there.

Each image has the image size in pixels as well as in kb. This makes it easy for those who are still on dialup to know if a picture is going to be a large file or not, and also helps so that you get an idea of if the picture is going to be large or small enough for your needs without having to do too much to it.

All in all, it's a good site, just needs a bit more organisation put into it. Maybe having some helpers would be a good idea, in order to organise a bit better. The layout sucks, but that's for the other reviewer to elaborate on. *smiles*

Tellu

Layout(?):
Someone should inform the owner of this website that lime green links and white text over a black background is NOT a good a thing. And neither is super-tiny text that is impossible to read. Font size=-1 ?!? Who in his right mind would do something like that? And why is it only on one section? This site owner has also chosen to use only ONE picture on the whole page... a little side picture with the inner senshi. It's not even good quality. You call this a layout? I don't think so. It hurts my eyes to look at, and makes the site look cheap and sleezy like a dirty motel on the edge of town.

Rant!:
I hate it when sites link to external sites for information. If you don't look at the URL or the fact that the layout (if it qualifies as such) is totally different, you might think that the external site (Hitoshi Doi's, in this case) is part of the site you're looking at. Come up with your own pages, or don't link to anything at all. Linking to someone else's page just shows how lazy you are, in my opinion. Besides, what if that other page goes down sometime in the future? Then you're screwed. So, the links to Hitoshi Doi's site obviously work, but the only other link on this page, the one to a German Sailor Moon site (apparently), gives me a big fat 404.

Info:
First of all, why the heck are the seiyuu listed on the first page? Seems like that should go on its own page. Or at least below the description of the series. Why would someone be more interested in the seiyuu than in the description of the series? Silly. The seiyuu list itself is definitely lacking... why is the seiyuu for Zoisite listed, but none of the other Shitennou? And why does this only go up to the first part of the R season? There are a few wording errors... such as the fact that this site says episode 46 was "replaced" with episode 47 at the beginning of the R season. That makes absolutely no sense. There are COUNTLESS mistakes with the name translations. Overall, I'd say the info on this site is severely lacking. There's NOTHING of interest here that can't be found on a thousand other Sailor Moon sites.

Media:
Well, at least there are a lot of good quality images here, although the thumbnails are very poorly done. Also, why are all the images spliced up? That's kinda silly.