The Sailor Moon Pocky Box : Reviews

SailorAndromeda.com

Date Reviewed: August 3, 2005

Category: The Bad

Layout & Design

Is the layout intuitive and easy to navigate? Is it compatible across all browsers and resolution? Is it aesthetically pleasing?

Tellu

Main Page and Subpages:
The "layout" on the main page is just a picture with some links beside it... hardly what I'd call a layout. The background matches nicely with the picture, and so do the links. It's also well organized into categories which are easy to find. That's good! But none of the sections follow any sort of pattern, layout-wise. They should at least be similar! Also, the text is very difficult to read on the other pages, and on the Coloring Book page, the background goes over.

The images of the fansenshi are very beautiful, and they're a great touch to the pages! However, the text is still difficult to read. I think they could be applied in a better way.

Cosplay Page: The layout on this page looks nice, but a bit plain. I think that the iframe here should be much bigger, to take up more space on the page. It would also be best to allow the different links to open within the iframe, instead of on different pages. For the finished costumes (which are beautiful, by the way!), it would be best to put them in an iframe, and allow the pictures of each costume to open in a new window, maybe a popup window. For the title, it could stand to be a bit more elaborate, perhaps using some brushes or other text techniques like a shadow, or a border. I think that the pink is nice here, but could probably be a lighter pink, to better match the picture; more pastel color would work nicely. Simply put, I think that this layout needs something to make it catch the eye. It seems a little bland.

Written Content

Is there lots of written information? Are all profiles, back story, and other textual content accurate? Does the site offer fanfiction or other miscellaneous written content?

Cyprine

Sailor Andromeda is another one of those fan-Senshi sites that can range from really awesome to really mediocre and boring. Since this is hardly a unique genre of site, it's very difficult to make a fan-Senshi site that captivates a new viewer. Unfortunately, this is one of those sites.

The site features profiles for four new Senshi: basic dollbox stats and attack descriptions. While it's obvious that the webmaster put a little time into these descriptions, they're not very interesting. Reading the profiles alone (and looking at the accompanying fanart) gives me very little sense of what these characters are supposed to be like, giving me very little inclination of sticking around and reading more. Sailor Europa's profile is the only one with any origin story or background information, and even that description is thought-out, and rather bland.

The fanfiction section contains submitted fanfics from various authors. I'm not going to bother reading, but one gripe about the presentation of the stories is that they are displayed with a background that only fits 800x600 resolutions. On my 1024x768, the background clashes with the text colour, making it very difficult to read.

The Original Senshi corner is an interesting idea where others can submit unique senshi characters to the site for inclusion in the corner (although submissions are not currently being accepted). The nice aspect of it this area is that all the profiles are set up with the same common template with basic dollbox stats followed by background and power information. This makes skimming the list really quick and easy but has the same downside as the previous profiles section -- the dollbox stats are simply uninteresting. At no point do I get the flavour or flare of these original characters.

Y'know what's really bizarre? I found the cosplay site more interesting than the original senshi site. It's telling that I spent more time looking at the webmaster's old costumes than I did reading about these unique Senshi.

Last and certainly least is the about page, which is a pointless waste of space. Why bring us to a separate page just to tell us that there's nothing else on the site? Why not just remove the page altogether so that new visitors won't know that thing slike images were once hosted by the site?

Overall, the site could be seriously improved simply by offering more content for these original Senshi. Even some fanfics would be better than nothing at all.

Visual Content

What kind of visual content is offered? Is it efficiently organized and intuitively accessible? Are all visual media offered legally?

Eudial

Lets see what we got here....

Alrightty, this is clearly an independent site that goes out of the reach of most normal Sailor Moon sites. It shows off drawn pictures of the creator's sailor senshi which I assume are in their fanfictions or something. Otherwise, I would see no point to this site. Well, this person isn't a horrible drawer, plus no images are broken so that makes Eudial pleased.

The Fanart section is exactly what I'd expect to see; a few submissions from fans of their artwork. Everything is in order here so good.

The Original Senshi section, this is a section that consists of well... original senshi. Senshi that people made up and submitted to this person's site. Some have pictures to go with their senshi, whether they be drawn, CGed, or errr something else. Others don't have pictures at all. Its a shame that some don't have pictures because I feel its easier for a person to grasp what the character actually looks like.

The Coloring Pages idea is pretty nice. Post a few pictures and you can print them out and color them. I will say, this is an original idea and I love it. (it can also help parents keep their child occupied lol)

AAAAAH Cosplay!!! I LOVE cosplay, as I am a cosplayer myself. Well, in regards to the pictures, they all work just fine. What I like is the comparison pictures of the anime/video game costume and this person's cosplay. That what I was looking for and you got it. Good. (Btw, i <3 the Dark Link)

Ok, in regards to Multimedia, good job. Not a single dead image. I'm thrilled. ^_^

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