Guests' Web Picks

Hello all!

        Still wondering who I am? Me too! I really have little idea why I'm writing this article. Sure, I have an anime web page, but these days it seems like everyone does. I think that it's probably because of what I do outside of the webpage that draws interest. You see, I'm a 25 year old medical student. No, not premed -- medical. Third year med student, one and a half years until my MD. Remember Carter those first two seasons of ER? That's me right now, working my tuchas off down at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital: the University of Miami School of Medicine (GO ŒCANES!).

        Right now I'm on OB-GYN service, hours are pretty long (4:30am to 6:00 pm plus on average, but I've worked over 30 hours on call) but hey, I get to say that I've delivered babies. Don't plan on going into that field though, I want to do internal medicine on the way to a career in Geriatrics (that's medicine involving the elderly patient). Don't ask why Geriatrics, you'll get an earful of philosophy from me. ;) So I guess Nikkou was interested in how I balance web mastering with schoolwork. Aside from my own webpages, I also do Miami's Poison Control webpage as well.

        Well, I make the time as much as I can because webmastering, and anime, are hobbies and you have to have time for your hobbies in order to keep your sanity. Not to say that watching anime is a great way of keeping sane, but hey it beats watching CNN. But it doesn't matter if you're a medical student or a car salesman, every job has its stresses and the best way to deal with it is by having a hobby. So, I don't think of it so much as "making time for the website" as "making time for myself." While I had been into anime since Star Blazers was on TV, I really started getting into anime in my year off between undergrad and medical school, and that was probably because I had a horrible job at a large computer retailer and had plenty of money to burn. (Neko-note: Do they still have an opening? ^^) I'd come home some days with five or six tapes...ah, those were the days!

        One night me and my sister had a bet to see who could get a website up the quickest (back in the summer of '96) and I beat her by staying up all night pounding a horrible little "Tom's Top 10 of Anime" page out with MS Internet Assistant. And so it stayed, a crappy little page until I started med school. The first year of med school was hectic, but I had enough free time to revise the page and make it a little more interesting. But it was the summer between first and second year that I came up with the design you see only slightly modified today, one which proved to attract a lot of nice email and attention.

        Nowadays, I try to get as much free time as I can (sometimes, it's not possible) to add to the page. A review here, a revamp there. Recently, I managed to find the time to finish a small, 20 page fanfic and post that too. Essentially, it's still one of the smaller anime sites on the web, but I take pride in tweaking it, making sure it loads as fast as it can, and provides reasonably accurate and unbiased information (well, okay there is SOME bias against certain anime which some of you who know me will know about). Oh, I don't use a web authoring program anymore. I code all my pages by hand. And to tell you the truth, I work faster that way.

        So my page is one of those "multiple purpose" ones you see around the web, with its core being a load of reviews (over 100 last count). I do one to two reviews a month, and add some special things every now and then. My golden rules of webmastering are to keep the load times short, keep the pages simple and uncluttered, and keep the interface streamlined and quick. I also keep to a policy of responding to my email, even if it's just a thank you for a kind word. While I'm no expert, I give anime-related questions my best shot. Even have helped people find some obscure items (usually on another website). Hmm... Seem to be hearing some snoring out there. Guess I better shut up and get to the links!!! :D

Like my page, these general info pages are great ways to get started in the world of anime and tend to be the most "newcomer-friendly" of the pages out there. You see, elitism is an unfortunately common finding among anime fans, although it is quickly becoming a minority due to the massive public acceptance of the artform. Here are people that have proven to be "pathfinders in novice orientation," people I am proud to consider colleagues in this strange little community.

Emiko's Genesis
(http://genesis.maison-otaku.net/) -- Webmaster Ian Kim's site features some excellent artwork and design in a very quick-loading format. He also posts his own manga, and is one of the few sites I've seen that don't rely on images scanned from video tape jackets (yep, I'm guilty of that). He's also a pretty nice guy too, and a busy one (an Engineering student if I remember correctly).

Craig Douglas' Anime 101
(http://home.earthlink.net/~craig9/ ) -- Craig's page is simple, quick loading, and centers mostly on Miyazaki films (Mononoke Hime, etc.) so off the bat he's family-oriented. Not surprising that this busy man who has a family to worry about in addition to work and his website. What I really like about his site is the well-researched and written "Anime Examined" article, a thoughtful treatise on Japanese culture and its influence on anime. A good writer, whose site is aimed towards the more mature (and not in the bad way mind you) anime novice, or pro for that matter.

The Anime Manga Internet Directory
(http://JupiterKnight.dragonfire.net/anime/index.htm) -- Jay Archer's site is colorful, fast-loading, well thought out and features a pretty good interface. All things I look for in a multipurpose site. Only problem is that he doesn't have a large quantity of reviews, although the surfer has the option of emailing him to request a review. Another physical sciences major, Jay is one of the "new generation" of anime watchers, getting involved when the Sailor Moon dub began broadcasting on TV, so his site is pretty elitism-free. Great for beginners.

Mr. Jase's Homepage
(http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3433/ ) -- Mr. Jase's page earns mention if only for the fact that it's one of the few Geocities pages out there that load fast, look nice, and is relatively well designed. (Hey, mine's on AOL, so I know what that's all about too!) The graphic design of the site is pretty good, and the author has courage enough to post his own fan art (and it's pretty good art too!) The only complaint is that there are relatively few anime covered on the site, so it's more of a personal page than a multiple purpose page.

Mano Yohko's Mamono Hunter Page
(http://yohko.animeonline.org/) -- Okay, so this isn't a multiple purpose page, but I wanted to list it here because I think it's one of the best single-title focus pages out there. It has practically all the info you could want on the Devil Hunter Yohko anime, but does have two flaws. For starters, I have no idea who the author of the page is! Come on, who is really that shy!?! And second, the page's loading time is hampered by an easily rectified problem -- stating the in-line image dimensions within the IMG element. A lot of pages make this error though, and I think it's more likely to do with the web authoring software people use. Otherwise, consider this one the prototype if any of you are aspiring to dedicate a webpage to a particular series.

So that's about it for my five minutes!

Feel free to drop me a line at tprice@newssun.med.miami.edu, or stop by my website at http://members.aol.com/tprice1995/anime.html.