Neptune

Wow, this site is really pink. It's so happy and pretty and dreamy and girly and... and... -- aggghhh! I need something dark and evil and depressing to balance it out! *turns on some old-school Marilyn Manson* whew, better.

The header image is really well done and the whole layout incorporates nicely around it. The shift from the header image to the smudged dark pink-beige gradient on the upper right hand side could be coded more smoothly to hide the transition. I really like the falling petal effect in the upper left hand corner, it draws the eyes to the navigation menu on the left. The only think that strikes me as odd is the superfluous Princess Serenity looking over her shoulder in the upper-left of the content area. The design is busy enough, it really doesn't need her, and her blue/purple colourization actually interrupts the existing, oh-so-pink-you-could-die thing that the site has going on.

The left-hand sidebar is a little wide for the content it contains, and could be narrowed to take up less room or the stuff in that area could be re-ordered to make better use of the width. The affiliate buttons, for example, could easily be doubled up so you don't have to scroll down that far to see them all. Otherwise, the navigation menu is the worst aspect of the design. The font used for the menu is really hard to read; it's too small and the grey border on white font makes the already illegible font even more obnoxious. *squints* Does that fourth one say 'Live Action' or 'Love Potion'?

The main page describes this site as "my dedication to the undying love between Usagi and Mamoru" but the site actually doesn't have much content devoted to the Usagi/Mamoru relationship at all. The first three sections in the navigation menu are part of what the site calls the "Moon Princess Trilogy". It's a chronological summary of the events of BSSM and is surprisingly well-done, although there are a few inconsistencies (such as why Princess Kaguya is repeatedly called 'the ice princess'?). Also, in the 'Tokyo' link, the summary inexplicably takes a brief detour into the DiC translation, citing the Silver Imperium Crystal and Prince Darien. However, it's nice that the webmaster uses footnotes whenever they make an assumption which indicates a dedicated attempt at accurate content, even if some mistakes are made.

The fourth link -- which I've now decided must read "Live Action" -- is a completely useless cocktease. Clicking on it takes you to a page asking you to go to a different site for all your PGSM needs. It would be better to just remove the link from the navigation menu and keep the site focused entirely on BSSM and the manga.

The updates page says that the galleries were recently updated with nearly 1500 images. Gleefully, I click on Galleries, only to find that it's another one of those annoying picture management software thingies. The colour scheme and layout is completely different from the yamhead-remniscent-oh-so-pink-you-could-die design, it might as well be part of a different site. Anyways, those content manager systems are a cop-out -- you don't have to do any real work to maintain them and you don't even have to work to keep the system updated with new images; your viewers can submit new images for you, so really you can't even claim the credit for the size of your gallery. Also, personally, I find those systems really annoying to navigate and everyone's gallery pages end up looking the same. If you're going to post a gallery, actually put the work into properly maintaining a gallery by hand, or actually do some work to modify your image management software to work for the rest of your site design.

But, I digress.

The Resources link is a bizarre conglomerate of extra information, miscellaneous site goodies, and links. Why couldn't the links have its own page? Why is adopting a Sailor Senshi a resource? Why does the Sailor Stars Manga Summary show me nothing but an ad for buying SM merchandise? Why do Skittles melt in your mouth but not in your hand? Ah, so many unanswered questions...

I'm not interested in adopting a Sailor Senshi, so I check out the Geocities-hosted multimedia content. While I get why the webmaster wants to limit bandwidth traffic from their own domain, I don't think they pull off the switch-to-Geocities-hosting trick well. The layout switches from the ecstasy-high pink to something decidedly more gaudy-looking. There are several broken layout images here, as well. The cursors and icons look nice enough, but the wallpapers leave something to be desired -- they're just blown-up crops of common images, not a brush or pretty font anywhere to be seen. The Sound Collection contains .wavs which would be useful for customizing your computer theme, but that's about it. The site does host all the SNES emulator games which is a little less common.

Overall, MoonPrincess.com desperately needs to be re-organized for more intuitive navigation -- if you say you'll be offering Usagi/Mamoru content, than do it. If you have no PGSM content, don't include a link suggesting you do. The rest of the navigation menu options could be a little more descriptive so the viewer will know where to look for something without having to guess, or a site map should be made available. The site is very easy on the eyes, but has little content to keep a seasoned BSSM fan interested.

Pluto

MoonPrincess.com. Well, I like what im seeing so far. I dunno if its my laptop of not, but some of the colors seem a bit blurry to me. Updates are in the center, and naviagation is on the right. There are also a few buttons to other sites as well.

This site focuses on Usagi/Mamoru romance. In "Moon Kingdom," it shows the events that were responsible for the destruction of the Earth and Moon in the past. The creator's information is pretty accurate as I am a personal fan of the past life of Serenity and Endymion.

As im reading through the present day Tokyo section, i dare say that one should not try to summarize the season as detailed as possible. You should give enough hints to get the viewer interested in purchasing the DVDs and seeing it themselves. The past life and the crystal tokyo section was done better, in my opinion of course. Some people may like it the other, but as a viewer, Im voicing my opinion. There isnt much to the Live Action section at all....just says go to "Sailor Dream." lol

The gallery section is a bunch of picture of the characters. Both from the anime and the live action series. I dunno why, but there is a lag on the loading. Movin on...

Resources section is stuff like manga summaries, lyrics, links, name guides, etc. There also appears to be a place where you can buy some stuff, and there's also a domain section which have some link me siggys and such.

Ok, this site is good. I definitely think you should fill the live action section though. Keep at it and this site can do good.

Saturn

After opening this page, I was greeted with lots of pink. I love pink, however I almost feel that there is TOO much going on in this layout. There is the main image, with the blending and bubbles and brushes and such, but on the right side, the background doesn't blend with the layout but is rather cut off all of a sudden and goes into a color scheme that is similar but doesn't blend. There is also an image underneath the navigation. It is lbended and such, but it still just doesn't seem to belong. Also there are some brushes on the upper left hand side of the page of petals. You see, I know this brush as I downloaded the same one from Truly Sarah. However it is credited NOWHERE on the site. You see, Sarah states on her site to credit her brushes when used. Way to go there webmaster. You can't even give credit, but as I know who runs this site, it doesn't really surprise me. (I will keep those feelings subdued in this review. I can shoot my venom off later in a drama article.) There is also ANOTHER image in the actual frame of the page. I understand if you are just learning photoshop, but this layout is WAY too busy. Also the navigation is really hard to read because of the font used and it being stroked to death. Considering this is a premade layout, and the number of premades out there for download, why did you choose this abomination? Onto content.

I gotta admit from what I read of the "Moon Kingdom" link, everything seems to be in order. However I skimmed it, so that might not say much. Alright I went through the links and this is the biggest copout I have seen yet.... I went to "Live Action" and there is a button to go to "Sailor Dream". I am familiar with Sailor Dream and it is a great site, but I expected some material here, not a link to another site.

Uhm, what the hell is this? I clicked on "Galleries" that I was only able to decipher what it said by the alt tag that was installed (thank god for those), and I was taken to a seperate off site link. To some sort of picture service it looks like, except the address says that it is hosted on the site. Why bother doing this? Oh, I get it now. You don't know how to code you own page, so you relied on services and presets and premades to do EVERYTHING. Get a clue, if you aren't going to bother to learn, then don't bother building a site. Course I could say some other things, but I will refrain. (However if you want to know why the site owner gets on my nerves, feel free to email me about it and I will give you a rundown.)

The shopping section is just a whore for Amazon and frankly I am not wasting my time on the rest of this site as it is just worthless. Tips and advice. If you are going to build a site, learn how to do it instead of relying on everybody else to do everything for you. Assembling content means nothing if you can't do it yourself from top to bottom. I am not knocking those that make premades, but I feel that you should have SOME idea of what you are doing before bothering to build a fansite. It becomes nothing more than wasted space if you aren't going to put some work into it. You can assemble all you want, but I would rather visit better made sites to get things than to come to this any day. Scrap this layout that is poorly done, overdone, and hard to work with. If you are going to have a frame setup, make it as such instead of the entire page reloading every link you click. Have a concept to your site. If it is going to be about information, make it information, if it is going to be images, mkae it images. Have something and run with it instead of trying to throw everything in one site and it looking like a big mess.

Uranus

Generally, with the advent of PGSM web pages, anime-based layouts have become louder by comparison, in some cases garish. But with moonprincess.com, the blending into the background of the main image helps start us off with a good impression. The content part of the site in all in white with somewhat light text, but it's still readable.

The first major piece of content on this site is the gallery. It had formerly the option to upload pictures of your own. Right now that is turned off because that sort of thing invites abuse. However, with a lot of bandwidth and a fair amount of monitoring this could be a much-needed asset, as it could gather all the popular pictures in one place and spare us the need to go searching on forty different sites for a good image for a Sailor Jupiter wallpaper. Good fanart, mostly by a single artist.

But the highlight of the page is the text part, which has separate sections for Crystal Tokyo, contemporary Tokyo, and the Silver Millennium. See, the site attempts to do something rare: put the story in chronological order. Futile, you say? Pointless, you say? Perhaps, but for the intense fan, to have it all laid out like this in order can help give a new point of view. More to the point it gives equal weight to the past and the future, which in the series itself were shown only in ancillary roles. Part of the mystique of Sailor Moon is the time element, and here it's treated with less mystery.

There are a few good download bits as well. Some game roms, wallpapers that kick it old school (as in, no text or borders, just a big picture), and even the Windows startup/shut down screen that only work on the versions no one uses any more.

The major flaw for this site comes with a few personal links at the bottom of the menu. See, after setting the whole Moon legend out like a piece of scripture, we get a link to one of those preachy Christian sites. This is mild irony. Then there's a link to the author's home page, on the same domain as the preachy site, and it has pop up adds for adult websites. This is delicious irony. Any questions? On that home page we find that the author is a member of a somewhat, ahem, [b]suspect[/b] cosplay group. But judging the page and not the author (yet), this is a very good site.