Have you ever had the urge to go back to your roots? Flip on the oldies
station and reminisce about times that at least looked good in the movies?
(I'm not that old!) With that in mind, I'm taking a Second Look at
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.
This is considered by many to be a backbone site for the Sailor Moon
community. Its layout has remained the same, plain, format since it was
founded. The site's lack of flash may put off some visitors, but it does
pave the way for easier navigation. BSSM's reputation was built on
information, so how does it still hold up?
When it comes to CD information, I head to The Complete Sailor Moon CD
List (http://www.lizzard.net/Compleat/index.html), which features CD reviews,
the same disc information as BSSM and MP3's for downloading. I would say that BSSM is
still the source to go to for individual episode synopsis (synopsis that added greatly to the
sites reputation). However, the item guide has been done better on other sites (BSSM
leaves off Saturn completely as a character with items). The individual
character profiles are easily put to shame by the increasing number of
shrines that are popping up.
Despite the increasing competition to serve up the same information in new
forms, BSSM still manages too have some unique sections. The toy
section includes pictures and descriptions for a lot (I doubt anyone could
ever list it all) of Sailor Moon merchandise. The seiyuu pages are kept up
to date as part of a huge seiyuu database. Making them an excellent and current source
for seiyuu information.
My overall thoughts on this site are mixed. Every Sailor Moon fan that is
just starting out should begin here as part of their initiation, but some
aspects of the show are done better on other sites. BSSM is no longer the
one stop shop that it once was back when Sailor Moon pages could still be
counted in triple digits. The episode synopsis continue to be a shining
point and make a visit here more than worth it when researching the show.