You will find many websites about anime and manga on the WWW, from those owned by anime distributors to those made by fans. Fan-made anime sites vary in type and quality.  You may find shrines to particular characters, or sites that simply list fans of a character. These sites, often made by teenagers learning to create websites, vary in quality. Some sites are very informative, while others have long since been abandoned.  Some of the best fan sites grew up, however, and are now self-supporting guides to anime, manga and the accompanying fandom. I strongly recommend these sites as the entry point for a better understanding of Japanese animation and comics.

Anime on DVD                Review

Anime News Network      Review

Anime Turnpike                Review

Anime Research                Review

Anime Research is a useful website for academics and students who wish to study anime and manga as forms of Japanese, and now, global popular culture.

Criteria

My criteria for evaluating a website consist of the following:

• Depth, currency and accuracy of the information
• Organization and navigation
• Design
• Functionality

In the first category, I'm looking for highly informative sites that are updated regularly and contain information I know to be accurate. When it comes to anime, I like reviews and essays alongside news about upcoming releases. I also like to be able to find out which voice actors played particular characters.

In the second category, I'm looking for sites that are well-organized so that a reader can quickly move to a page that contains the desired information. I hate having to dig three or four pages into a website to find what I want. I really like having some sort of site map or search engine.

In the third category, I'm looking for sites with a balanced use of graphics and text and which uses colors that work well together. In particular, I want the contrast between text color and background color to ensure readability.

In the fourth category, I'm looking at whether or not the site works on a basic level -- links are up-to-date, image files load properly, pages load quickly, and so on.