August 20th, 2001

Ruby Moon
http://www.cair-paravel.nu/sakura/
(7 stars)

Design and Layout:
Finally a change of pace! Okay... the opening page for this site is really attractive and simple. While there is a lot of empty white space, due in part to my screen resolution, it makes the page look like a picture in and of itself. In fact, it kind of went too far with the whole picture thing. And I'm saying this as a criticism of the navigation. But since that isn't counted in this category, continue reading on.
2 out of 2 stars

Organization:
Okay, my main complaint: There really needs to be some kind of message to the visitor that says to use the numbers 123 for navigation! I thought the 123 was just part of the title for the site. After spending a few moments looking blankly at the page, I opted to view source and find the links. 

Maybe I just didn't get enough sleep. But half of it is, the navigation really isn't obvious, and while it is artistic, being able to navigate a site is a really important part of it! 

Once you conquer the main page, the navigation is very straight forward and easy. Each of the pages keeps with the theme and contain more specific menus. As far as I saw, there were no broken links or advertisements, which is always a plus.
1 out of 2 stars


Content:
This is the best part of the site. There may be other sites that have a bit of information here and there about the manga, but this is the first site I've seen that is fully dedicated to the manga version of CCS. And there are so many differences, between the anime and manga, that it would be hard not to learn something new from this site!

But being the picky, well informed brat that I am, I find that this site would still only be good for a beginner to CCS manga. I mean, I looked at the relationships sections all expectantly hoping to read someone else's take on the love between Eriol and Kaho, but there was nothing! If there's anything the manga does that the anime doesn't, is it expand on the relationships between characters!

There are manga summaries available for the first two volumes. And there's a pretty thorough dictionary to help guide you through the items and magic in CCS. There are also many original manga scans done by the webmistress herself. You should also check out the Yamazaki's Advice corner, it's pretty cute. That's another commendable thing about this site though, it's all her own work. And while that's a good thing, I really think that if you're going to have a manga based site, there should be more information. If you're going to take on such a specific subject as manga, you should know it to its fullest, especially since there are so many fan translations on-line. The addition of more opinions and personal insights would be a nice touch, especially in the summary and comparison areas...

Woops! I made a big mistake when going through this site. I made an oversight of say, 10 manga summaries. So sorry. Unfortunately, the navigation to get to the other episode summaries was only on the 2nd volume link, as opposed to the main page where the other volumes were listed. I thought the link on the bottom was a back button link. Anyway... I owe her another star.
3 out of 4 stars

Overall:
Well, I like the site, but there should be more for experienced visitors. Anyhow, from what I read, it appears that the webmistress wants to expand her site and go into more information for her one year anniversary, so I'll guess I'll continue to check it out for that.
1 out of 2 stars

7 stars! Hey, a site that doesn't have a "Top50" button on it...