S O T M  W I N N E R S

June 2006 Winner: Blades of Eternity http://boe.ahplace.com/ Description: Originally created for an original fiction story, the site also features graphics for avatars, banners, signs, buttons...etc. Rating: **** Layout: Love the design. Wonderful imagery and colors. The little separation graphic used for the navigation sections are quite lovely and unique! I really like the navigation for this site. Clean and easy to use. Content: Originally created for an original fiction story, the site features graphics for avatars, banners, signs, buttons...etc. Special Qualities: I think the fanfiction and the graphics are both equally special in their own way. Ending thoughts: Overall I think this site is certainly worth a visit. I'd like the see the Blades of Eternity section completed and more additions in the wallpaper section. I'm not sure how I feel about the combination of it being a personal fanfiction/graphic site, it might need to be one or the other but whatever works for the webmaster/mistress. That's just my own feeling.





May 2006 Winner: Akemi Akina Graphics http://akemi.cold-sun.org/ Description: Largely an anime graphics based site with a hint of multimedia. Rating: *** Layout: Very lovely blend of purple. So...sparkly...and..s-s-shiny. *eyes glimmer* Oh how I love center tables. ^_^ Content: This site features the usual norm of what graphic design sites have. Layouts, avatars, signs, tutorials. Special Qualities: From what I could see there are some nice graphics here. Nice colors and blends. AMVS and Videos aren't too common among graphic sites. ^_^ The image gallery isn't viewable in Firefox, but looks nice in IE. Not too many images so far. Ending thoughts: Last time I swung by here the awards section was a mess. Now it's not! Yay. Now it matches the standard of the rest of the site. Some problems I found: None of the links for view or download are workable in the DIV section, IFrame section, tables section, PNG section, some of the AMVs, (I'm thinking pretty much all links that are associated with ccount). Which is a shame since I wanted to review the layouts more closely. The forum doesn't seem to be up...unless I missed something. x_x I can tell that the people who work at this site has worked hard on what they have so far. What they do have is pretty nice with a good quality of graphics. There's a few things that are down that need to be fixed, but other than that this is a pretty strong site so far. Just need to make sure everything is working. ^_^





April 2006 Winner: Inuyasha Dreams http://dreams.lost-time.net/ Description: A general/graphics based Inuyasha site. Rating: **** Layout: Very pretty header blend. It gives off an interesting rustic type feel. Nice little arrangement of colors. Luscious tans. The content area seems a little too small (cramped). Content: The content ranges overall in a wide rage. From your general information, to graphics and layouts. Mostly this is more so a graphics based site. There's quite a few nice avatars, signs, and layouts here. Special Qualities: As of course, the graphic section is certainly one aspect. Very interesting designs. Forum sets is something I haven't seen before as a section. A shame there isn't too many graphics available for that particular section ^_^. Certainly some unique current contests as well. =P Ending thoughts: I issued the site an award back when I had my GeoCities url. I very much like what I see so far. I see quite a few InuYasha sites these days that feature layouts from this site. Only things that are lacking for gaining a higher rating from me is just a few minor nit-picks. Spread out within the site I found a few broken images and links. The 'Awards Won' section is the only part of the site which completely doesn't match the rest of the content (showcase gallery). Like I always say in every other SOTM review, thumbnail images should be pre-cut. Helps for faster loading and prevents unnecessary loading on the users part. This site has done a good job in thumbnails for the majority of their sections (even wallpapers!). But signature, enter signs are just some of the few sections lacks pre-cut thumbnails. Overall, a very nice site and worth a visit.





March 2006 Winner: Anime Cosmo http://www.tsukiyo.org/Anime Description: A general anime site. Rating: **** Layout: This site features four layout skins you can choose from. I admire the work that was put into all of them. Also trying to use of user specifications which one layout might better for one person, then different for another. My general opinion of each layout: Songstress: Pretty, purple, simple. This is one of my favorites out of the four. Sunshine: Top favorite out of the four. The navigation menu doesn't feel as squished to me in this format as compared to the Songstress one. Vampire: Eh, simple. Gets the job done. Fast: I think it could be done a bit better. There are many ways to make a sufficient site for people with slow Internet. This one comes off to be as a little too bland. Content: Certainly a lot of dazzle in content. There's quite a few things to do, but there are still quite a few sections that really need some additions to. Such as layouts, pngs, AMVs, articles, and things of that nature. It's sad to me when there's only around four things included in a section. Now in other sections you're doing a great job in. Such as gallery.They are all in pre-cut thumbnails! That simply makes me giddy! ^_^ Hooray for quick loading! Special Qualities: The Anime Zoo is certainly an intriguing idea. I think it would be great if you can incorporate a little more into the um...site map? I suppose you would call it. White squares are a little dull. Overall I think it's neat though. Ending thoughts: Certainly a massive site. A lot of work. There's a lot of ideas worked into it. I hope that they will continue to work on filling out the more empty sections. Overall, quite impressive so far.





February 2006 Winner: The Inuyasha Shrine http://www.chibiexplosion.com/inuyasha/ Description: A general InuYasha site. Rating: ***** Layout: It's very nice and simple. This current layout is a nice little blend of dark greens. The layout template has always been something that I identify with this site (It's been around for quite awhile). I love the link effect for the sections of the site. Does a pretty highlight. Content: Excellent content. Period. From information to images, this is a very well done site. It would be totally complete if the episode summaries were done. ::looks at own summary section:: Heh, ::twiddles thumbs:: What they have though is wonderful, very extensive. Special Qualities: Certainly the most in depth information I've seen minor character wise. I can only begin to imagine how long that took to put it together. <_< Ending thoughts: This is quite an old site (as documented being of the my first InuYasha bookmarks--So you KNOW it's old, lol) and is one of my favorites I aspire to. The site doesn't update as much anymore, but it's still here for others to see. Which is great. I hate sites where the administrators who run them take off the site completely, just because they can't "update" every month. So I hope I'll continue to see this running in the future.





January 2006 Winner: Cursed http://miroku.aoi-ashita.org/ Description: A Miroku shrine. Rating: **** Layout: Blue with a header image which features a very ghostly Miroku. I like the effect. It reminds me of one of those flashback memories. When you remember the worst of times and the best of times. The layout is very tiny I would call it. Dainty is another word that comes to mind. I think I remember in the past the font was a little hard to read, but seems alright as of now. Over they are not very bright colors, but it does work. Content: Well rounded, nicely covers the aspects that is, Miroku. Special Qualities: There's a few interesting sections. Such as Twins, which compared Miroku to some look-a-likes and 'act-a-likes'. There's a nice sized screencap gallery. Also some information on Buddhism. Ending thoughts: Only one wallpaper? How that makes me ever so depressed! Fill up that media section! And I have to comment about thumbnail views for gallery's, like I do with every other site. A large page with about a hundred screen caps takes a really long time to load. That's why thumbnails are a good idea, but depends how you use it. I will always say this to everything, that thumbnails should be pre-cut, so that it loads fast, instead of loading pictures that I may have not wanted to have seen. This is a great site with a wonderful webmistress. I can only hope they shall continue the work in the site to make it the best it can be.

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