The information on this site is primarily aimed at scholars and students interested in anime and manga from an academic standpoint. Brian Ruh, the site's creator, includes essays of his own as well as bibliographies and links to other online academic essays on anime and manga. He also links to popular press feature stories and reviews about anime and manga. He also reviews books on anime as well as some anime programs.
Ruh comes by his expertise by obtaining a MA in Asian Cultures and Languages where he studied under Susan Napier, who is probably the leading American academic studying anime. Ruh recently published the book Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii, a study of the director of such films as the Ghost in the Shell movies, the Patlabor movies, and Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer.
While this site isn't updated as often as Anime on DVD or Anime News Network, it does update regularly, and the information it communicates isn't a time-intensive as the information on the other two sites. It also doesn't contain as much information as those two sites, but the information it does contain is extremely useful for students and scholars researching anime and manga.
Ruh uses a hierarchical structure for the site, dividing the information between those resources available online and those available offline. His online resources not only include academic articles and popular press articles, but also multimedia coverage of anime and manga, including links to stories which have aired on National Public Radio.
A menu bar down the left side of the page directs the reader to specific pages of the site, while a set of links located at both the top and bottom of each pages allows the reader to jump to particular sections of the site.
One of my biggest web design pet peeves is when the there is so little contrast between the text color and the background color or image that I can barely make out the letters. Fortunately, that's not a problem on this website. Ruh's menu consists of white letters on a dark blue background, while the textual sections consist of black or blue text on a white background.
The site isn't a graphics intensive site. The pictures consisting primarily of a drawing in the logo on the home page and small pictures of the covers of books and DVDs Ruh has reviewed.
The design is pleasing but not overwhelming.
Only a few external links did not work, indicating sites that have died since the link pages were created. Keeping up with sites that no longer work is one of the banes of a web designer's existence.
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