The Sailor Moon Pocky Box : Reviews

Layout & Design

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

Ptilol

The site first opens with a simple splash page stating all the necessary requirements for proporly viewing the site. It's easy to read and easy on the eyes (except for that annoying yahoo banner going down the side).

*clicks the enter button*

Good thing I like purple because there is a lot of it. However, the shades are tastefully used and don't contrast with each other to much. The main image is a manga styled Sailor Saturn holding her Silence Glaive. The text is in white, which provides enough contrast to be easily read.

The navigation, on the other hand, needs work. The font needs to be changed to a slightly less fancy script. I'm sure the webmistress used it because "it looked nice" but did she really stop to think about how easy to read it was. I had to read the URL at the bottom of my screen while hovering over the links to see where they went.Each link opens in iframes, so the layout remains constant.

Overall the layout is pretty to look at but difficult to read in some places. It's a good start.

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?

Tellu

Ok, written content. The first thing I'm picking up here is that this seems like it was written by a ten-year-old. Oh, there aren't too many spelling errors or anything like that... it's just that the style of the writing really turns me off.

Now, let's look at the actual information here. For the "Hotaru's Story" section, there is a brief overview, mostly concerning the events of the Sailor Moon S season. The author of this content writes an entire paragraph and a half on Souichi Tomoe, Hotaru's father, but only two sentences about Hotaru's struggle with Mistress9. Somehow, I thought that part was kinda important.

Moving on to "Hotaru's Role," there's hardly anything here. A tiny little paragraph which actually doesn't even say very much.

Hotaru's profile. Nothing new here! But I do hate it when sites insist on giving the HEIGHTS of the senshi. There is ABSOLUTELY no official source that states their heights. Thus, it is clear that this person just grabbed this profile off of the first website she came across. Way to go. Also, this site seems to focus on the manga, but gives some of Hotaru's ANIME-ONLY stats (not mentioned in the manga), such as her favorite gemstone. Either stick to one continuum, or note the differences. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

Oh boy, attacks. First of all, there is no such attack as "Saturn Silent Wall," especially in the manga (which, once again, seems to be the focus of this site). That attack is "Silence Wall."

I love how GIFs of Saturn's transformation sequences are just posted with no details. You know, important details like how they WERE NEVER SHOWN IN THE ANIME. For some reason, that just feels important to me. I'm also lovin' how no manga transformations are listed. Amusing, considering how heavily this site focuses on the manga.

Hm, well, that's about it for me. I'm definitely unimpressed with the written content of this site. Blah.

Visual Content

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

Viluy

Media, the spice of life! It can make you happy or bum you out! However in this case, the key is first FINDING it! Trying to find anything in the site to begin with can be hard, as the links on the layout are so hard to read. No I am not doing my review on the layout, but I seriously think it needs to be brought up since the links to the media is what we need in the first place!

So, aside from not being able to read the links, there's not much in the way of media. There is a gallery section, hosting several pictures. The layout of the gallery is rather neat and simple as a whole. All the pictures in the gallery are thumbnail sized, so all you need to do is click on a picture to get the full view! Clicking on your choice in the gallery, will open up another window for you to view the picture.

However there is a down side, it's the link just below the pictures. This link will take you to the second section of the gallery. That blue on that purple, is a bad mix. Plus the size is way to small! I almost didn't see it and I had to squint just to read what the link was for! It needs to be bigger and perhaps changing the color will help! (Oh yeah people you can change the color of the links! It's all in the coding! *wink*)

The next thing I saw in the way of media was the few, and I do mean few, video files. The clips are of Hotarus transformations and attacks. (Here is where you need to be able to READ the links! Key word is READ!) You can find the clips under the "Transformations" link, where you get a choice of two clips. The first one is a piece of Hotaru's transformation, a clip from the anime. The second one is a black and white one, kind of neat really. Then there are the attacks, unfortunately there is only one clip. It's listed under "Hotaru's attacks and" link and since it's the only attack clip there, it's also listed with a description of her other attacks. The layout of the media for both isn't really bad. I really don't have a complaint on the choice of where they were placed. However, as with both sections, the only real complaint for them is the color and size of the links to the actual media. Again it would be easier on the eyes and helpful if one could read them to begin with.

So, could the site use a little more media? Sure, but that comes down to the site owners willingness to do the work or even their size of their media library. Though I think it would really be helpful if there was a description of the links, making mention of where the media is located. That on top of the color and size of the links within the pages themselves, would really help to make it better for the viewer. Over all, I would say the media is ok, but could be better.

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