In 2026, Toji's World turned 25 years old. How I managed to keep this site going for so long, God only knows. The About the Site page gives a general overview of this site's history, but given the milestone achieved, it's a chance to take a closer look behind each of the layouts I've made along the way. I'll generally try to cover the story behind each layout, including inspirations, maybe some extra trivia, and finally how long each layout lasted before rolling out the next one.

Without further ado, let's take a trip through internet memory lane, shall we?

Version 1.0, 1.1 - Starting Version

May 13, 2001

The very first layout I started with. I was inspired by a friend's site to use this table layout. It was also the first time to really tinker with a website outside of Geocities' WYSIWYG Website builder interface. I ended up using Front Page to update the site, still not understanding HTML properly which led to some weird formatting. I used FlamingText to create the banner for the site, satisfied with my previous experiences using it.

As mentioned in the About the Site page, Toji's World was originally meant to be a big anime information fansite that incorporated information from various anime series. As I was still into Evangelion at the time, I moved all my content from my previous site, Enter the MAGI, to the new site. I also wanted to cover Dragonball, as I was in to that at the time, scouring the net for information that went beyond the Cell Games.

I moved from Geocities to Tripod when I launched Toji's World, because Tripod offered 50 mb of space over Geocities' 15 mb at that time - something laughable by today's standards. Shortly after the launch, I also used the cjb.net URL masking service - which no longer exists sadly.

Version 1.1 was a small cosmetic change and very minor tweak - where I included a cloudy background, and revised the navigation. I then shifted to envy.nu, because there were no ads - something rare even back then - and a slightly shorter URL.

As was the style at the time, I also had a message board. Anyone around back then would surely remember Ezboard - either as a member of one/several message boards, or as a moderator or admin. Message boards, along with ICQ, IRC, AIM were the social media of our time, long before the term was ever coined.

Keep in mind that during this period, free website hosting had taken off - Geocities, Tripod, Angelfire being the big names associated with free hosting - sadly all three have shutdown now. What used to be the realm of professional developers had become easily accessible to the masses, leading to sea of amateur websites. With this, it allowed people to connect and share in mutual interests online.

Between versions 1.0 and 1.1, it lasted about 8 months before I changed layouts, a sign of things to come for the early years of Toji's World.

Version 2.0 - Eva Unit 02 Edition

January 2, 2002

I admit, Versions 1.0 and 1.1 were a little too gloomy, even for a teenager. I wanted to make a change, but not that much of a change, and so Eva Unit 02 edition was created. Again, I was inspired by that same friend who had created a new website and had gone through a few layout changes at that point. Once more, I used FlamingText for a new banner.

The idea behind it was a makeover of the navigation, but also turn the anime series sections in to their own separate sites. The latter was certainly ambitious... too ambitious, as that plan never came to fruition.

During this time I shifted hosts again - Brinkster, because there were issues with envy.nu's stablility. It was a longer host name, but it came with the plus of more space compared to envy's 20 mb of file storage.

There isn't much to say about Eva Unit 02 edition, as I only kept it for a mere 2 months before rolling out Version 3.0!

Version 3.0 - Pieces of Winter

March 22, 2002

This was the first layout that departed from the tabled layout of versions 1.0 and 2.0. Some folks' feedback mentioned that it may have been a bit too simple, but I wanted to make something that was significantly different.

This was were I started to shift focus on to my personal stuff - specifically fan fiction and art, even though I was(am) far from good on either of those fronts, but I wanted to try something different. On the fan-fiction front, it was a case of a lot of ideas, but only enough time and energy to focus on one - which I never saw through to completion in the end. Can't say I'll be getting back to finish Evangelion Genesis Two or Girl of the Iron Fist anytime soon.
In addition, I was slowly reworking my Evangelion site, and put together a dedicated shrine to both Akuma and Rose, with the latter not lasting all that long.

Around this time, I received hosting from The Dewdrop-Garden (which would later become Anime-Theatre). Besides the 50mb of file storage space, the hostess was kind enough to throw in a new message board to boot.
Even with the new message board, it never did reach the same level of popularity as my original Ezboard did.

Surprisingly, out of all my layouts in the first three years of Toji's World, version 3.0 lasted the longest at 10 months before I changed it again.

Version 4.0 - Shades of Revolution

January 2, 2003

Feeling that Version 3.0 was lacking, I went back to a typical (at the time) columned layout. The one new thing I did was experiement with hiding the URL when hovering over the links for the ??? section on the main page's updates. I wanted to share a funny or interesting link, without giving away where it went.

With my CD listings page lingering on, I decided to introduce a Reviews page on material that I actually watched, listened, or played in their entirety. Not sure why I was clinging on to that CD listings page.

There wasn't anything I disliked about version 4.0 at the time, but shortly after starting at a technical school to learn about web design, I was really itching to apply what I was learning in to a new layout.

Much like version 2.0, there isn't much to say about version 4.0. For a long time, I actually thought version 4.0 lasted the shortest period of time with just 4 months - until I checked my update logs again when putting this together and confirmed that honour goes to version 2.0.

Version 5.0, 5.1 - The Real Folk Blues

April 20, 2003

Version 5.0 was the chance to showcase what I had learned so far at technical school. Things like making a layout by slicing up images, courtesy of my "legitimate" copies of Macromedia Fireworks MX and Dreameaver MX, along with using CSS and the beginning of my love for using inline frames.

For version 5.0, I introduced the Avatars section which would continue to expand and grow in future revisions to the site. I also started up a blog to talk about pointless things going on in my young life.

There isn't much to say about version 5.0 before the switch to 5.1, because the truth is that 5.1 was literally a mirror swap of 5.0. Learning about the convenience of right-hand navigation, I flipped the layout shortly after launching 5.0, and that was that. Using i-frames made managing my site significantly easier, though admittedly, the presentation of the pages was very minimalist, as there no were images used at all aside from the layout itself. On the other hand, it meant the site loaded very quickly, especially on my dial-up internet connection.

This was also the beginning of my Cowboy Bebop phase, as I just began watching it when developing this layout (I recommend the series by the way). Though it was the first of two layouts I would use for the site, behind the scenes, I was whipping up more Cowboy Bebop designs for future layouts, and even my blog.

There wasn't much going on in my life at the time. The main highlight was that I was studying something I actually enjoyed, which was a nice change of the pressures of high school and the expectation of passing exams and go straight to uni.

Interestingly enough, despite being happy with all the new things I implemented in versions 5.0 and 5.1, it lasted about 7 months before changing layouts.

Version 6.0 - jeetkunedo.exe

November 19, 2003

I put version 6.0 together because I had just learned about image masking, and wanted to use it with whatever wacky shapes I made. You can tell that the masking worked with the Bruce Lee image, but not so much with the Spike Spiegel image. I was too stubborn to find another suitable Spike image, and tried to force it to work around the shape when it would have been easier to do the other way around.

I reorganized my content under Features (but still kept my art and fiction separate for some reason), and introduced some more new things, including the now ever-growing Character Profiles page, and the incredibly short-lived Fact or Fiction section. I was inspired by Dragonball Community: We Don't Care and their Fact and Fiction? section, but unlike them, Toji's World was anything but popular enough to get regular submissions for questions.

Like version 5.0, this was still my Cowboy Bebop phase, but it also included Bruce Lee in to the mix. Given that Spike's fighting style is literally Jeet Kune Do, it made sense to include not just Spike, but the man that was part of the inspiration for Spike.

In the real world, there wasn't anything significant that happened, other than I was about to finish my studies at technical school, and was overall satisfied with my time learning about web design.

Version 6.0 lasted a little longer than versions 5.0 and 5.1 at 8 months. In just three years, Toji's World already went through 6 layouts. Funnily enough, half of those layouts were rolled out in 2003 alone.

Version 7.0 - Jammin'

July 8, 2004

While happy with version 6.0, I still felt like something was missing. With everything I learned in versions 5.0 and 6.0, I put together something that I wanted to truly be satisfied with, and not worry about thinking of a new layout for a long time.

I used image masking again, but I chose a more suitable image and simpler shapes to produce the effect what I wanted. The blue here wasn't the initial colour I wanted to use, but rather a blue/grey/purple sort of colour, though I was concerned that because it was not a website friendly colour, it would not turn up as intended on other people's monitors. The general shapes were the same, but I tinkered with four variations of this layout, trying to find a good balance of the extent of masking, colours and navigation placement, before settling on the version released.

I finally shifted my art and writings in to the features section, which made the menu a little cleaner. I ditched the Fact or Fiction page from version 6.0, and introduced the Wallpapers page later on. For a time, I was really in to making Desktop wallpapers, and was really keen to show off my work.

Leading up to the development of this layout, a friend introduced me to Guilty Gear. Having grown up on Street Fighter, it did feel kind of weird to play a fighting game that had more focus on weapons rather than punching and kicking (I am aware that weapons-based fighting games have existed long before before Guilty Gear). This was the reason I was gravitating towards Jam Kuradoberi for gameplay, plus I liked her cute design. Somehow, her colours, choice of voice actress, and even her bizarre hairstyle worked for me.

Hosting wise, I was still being hosted by The Dewdrop-Garden, which became Anime-Theatre, with my site URL changing accordingly.
In the real world, I was in university, and made it a goal to update the site each month, no matter how small. However, it was to the point that it was either adding new avatars or something that was perhaps too small to consider an update, rather than making more meaningful updates.

In a significant departure from the first 6 layouts, I kept version 7.0 around for almost 3 years. Was this finally a sign of maturity and committing to a layout, and putting more effort into the content of the site? At the time, I theorised that with previous layouts, I created a new layout once I stopped adding content to the site after a period of time. By updating it monthly, it was keeping my attention on the content as opposed to whipping up new layouts.

Version 8.0 - Pirates of the Ivalice Skies

May 31, 2007

After three layouts of using i-frames, I wanted to try something different with the navigation. Seeing some sites using drop down menus, I was curious and wanted to try it myself. Early attempts to make my own drop down menu ended up failing, until I took some time to seriously research it.

In terms of content and features, there wasn't much new here, but there was a focus on compatibility across multiple browsers, as I had switched from Internet Explorer over to Firefox. By not using i-frames this time, I was able to flesh out the content of many pages, such as the site's history, and bigger images for the character profiles and bigger thumbnails for the image gallery.

When developing this layout, I had recently finished a second playthrough of Final Fantasy XII. Regardless of your thoughts on the game, it was a good experience, and no doubt many people saw the parallels between FFXII and Star Wars. I also loved the art of Fran and Balthier, and incorporated the image in to the layout. Heck, I even went to the effort of downloading the Final Fantasy font for the site banner.

On the other hand, it was a rough period for the site, as my hostess was having issues securing the domain. Her site was down for a really long period of time, and my site was in limbo as a result. I switched to another host as a temporary measure until my hostess was able to get the domain back, but it apparently never happened. As a result, I ended up jumping from host to host for a few years.
In the real world, I had secured my first full time job almost a year after I graduated, and found myself with little time and motivation to update Toji's World.

Despite this, version 8.0 took over the record from version 7.0 with a duration with 5 years, but that would be easily taken over by the next layout...

Version 9.0 - The Aqua Groove

July 20, 2012

Continuing from version 8.0, I was able to improve on the drop down menu to come up with something I was satisfied with. The other thing I wanted was to redo the art page, eventually learning about Lightbox. I was after something that would better present my art. I had the thumbnails already from Version 8.0, so part of the work was done. It was a case of trying to get Lightbox to work, and it took several attempts before I succeeded. I even had a folder specifically set up to test plugins and features I wanted to use, starting with Lightbox. Over the years, I made small changes to the presentation of the art page.
In addition, my blog temporarily became Toji in Japan when I did a year of study in Japan, before becoming a permanent thing when I began living and working in Japan.

When developing this layout, I was in to Legend of Korra. I wasn't too big a fan of the later seasons, but I will say that I enjoyed Book 1 - Air. I also really liked the intro which was in the same style as the The Last Airbender, but this time, it featured Avatars Kiyoshi, Roku and Aang each showing off their bending styles, finishing with Korra water bending - the very image I used for this layout.

When version 9.0 first launched, I was still hopping between hosts, and it wouldn't be until 2020 did I join Neocities, bringing years of host hopping to an end... for now.
Meanwhile in the real world, a lot happened - I returned to uni and, as mentioned earlier, I studied in Japan for a year, and then started working in Japan a year later. I initially updated the site every 6 months, but after moving to Japan, I switched to updating the site at least once a year (except when I didn't), with each update usually bringing a respectable amount of new content.

When I first released version 9.0, I said "This will most likely be the last layout for the next few years," though I didn't intend for it be this long. Sticking with this layout, version 9.0 has destroyed the record set by version 8.0, lasting a whopping 14 years (so far!).

The Future

So what's in store for the future of Toji's World? Will there be a version 10.0? I have some ideas for a possible version 10, but I can't say that it's something that will be rolled out any time soon.
Probably the bigger question is how much longer will Toji's World stick around? Since hitting 25 years, the next goal would be hitting 30 years, which doesn't seem too hard. At the very least, I want to at least steal use the Thrilling 30 tag that Transformers used for its 30th Anniversary. But after that, how about 40 years? Is 50 even possible...? When you reach the top of a mountain, climb another one, I guess.
The internet landscape is a lot different compared to when I started this site back in 2001, but it has somehow managed to remain active for this long, even with all the bumps along the way.

For those that have dropped by to visit this site, followed me on Neocities, or even linked back to Toji's World, thank you very much for your continued patronage. You are part of what keeps this site going.

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