Forum - View topicNEWS: AnimeOnDVD Sold to Mania.com Entertainment Community
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AnimeCornerStore
Accredited Retailer
 Posts: 119 Location: Winchester, VA USA |
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I can’t say I’m surprised. I'm not aware of the terms of the transaction, but I think Chris must have looked at the current environment and thought the timing for the sale to be fortuitous. Even though he’s staying on, I wish him well. He’ll find the creative environment for the site will become much different now that he has someone other than himself and the fans to be responsible to, both creatively and financially.
Bob (aka Robert) The Anime Corner Store |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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So my feelings that something wasn't right over there were accurate, huh. I suppose it's just as well, since the forum change, I haven't been enjoying going there as much.
I guess now they'll become another multi-purpose site. Nice to know that there aren't even enough fans online now to support non-fansub anime sites. |
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wilson_x1999
 Posts: 183 Location: Monterrey, Mexico |
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I've been reading animeondvd for years, so I hope that Chris will do well.
Hopefully, mania they won't trash the place. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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Hope animeondvd keeps on trucking- there's many long running sites that have gone through ownership changes just fine over the years, so I hope AonDVD is one of them. With shitty fansubs sites stealing hits, googleranking and adsupport, I could see why Chris might opt for a more stable way to run his site..... pretty much all of the legit sites out there are small operations run purely by fans for fans [I love http://www.animejump.com and http://theanimereview.com and Akemi's Anime World and Animetric and many other longrunning review sites], while what some people percieve as sites run by hardcore fans are anything but.
Animeondvd is a valuable resource to fans, who really should use it more often- we'd havea lot less "is this licensed?" and "is this available on dvd?" questions if people visited it [and ANN for that matter] instead of other crap sites . |
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Grico
 Posts: 201 Location: Fort Wayne, IN |
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yeah i hope it goes ok. AnimeonDVD is my number 2 anime site (after this one) so I hope it doesn't lose its quality in the merge.
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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I visit the site almost daily for its reviews. I agree with the other posters who state what a valuable resource it is. I wish the "site" the best of luck with the change.
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AstroNerdBoy
 Posts: 413 Location: Denver, CO |
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Bah. Didn't "Mania" used to be "Cinescape?" Yeah, it did. I used to visit the Cinescape.com website daily. After Mania took over, my visits grew less and less until I just stopped going as the site quit being of any use to me. Clearly others must go if they have money to buy out AnimeonDVD, but I expect the informative nature of AoD to slowly get sucked from it in favor of...whatever.
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Gage
Posts: 480 Location: United States |
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Who really knows (including me)? Chris said he and the staff would still be active with the site, so I don't think there will be any loss of anything there. Just my opinion. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15567 |
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April Fool's is a little too late, but anyway, I'm surprised that Mania could afford AOD, since as Astronerdboy pointed out, they're a downgraded Cinescape and a poor man's IGN to boot. I'm also
surprised CB had to get a doctor to tell him he was over-weight. You don't exactly need to check your pulse to know that.  Oh, alright, I'll be nice and ask Chris to get well.
Last edited by GATSU on Mon Apr 07, 2008 10:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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YotaruVegeta
 Posts: 1061 Location: New York |
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Really? I read and visit both sites, and I enjoy them both. I've been a fan of mania since before it was mania. I don't know the interest mania.com has for Animeondvd, and what they might want to buy next.
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Labbes
 Posts: 890 |
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As long as the reviews stay as good and (for my part) fitting, I will continue to frequent AoD.
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ManOfRust
 Posts: 1935 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Wow. I guess this sort of thing happens, but hearing it always makes you a little uneasy about what kind of changes are in store. Even so, no one can remain stagnant and hope to survive -- it's a basic tenant of the business world.
I have been visiting AoD longer than any other anime site. It was the one of the first places I discovered good anime reviews, and though I have never been active in the forums there I have been visiting for years. Most of my early anime purchases were influenced at least in part by the AoD reviews. Now that ANN is my "home" for anime related things on the web I don't visit AoD nearly as often as I used to, but it's still a very valuable resource for anime related information and I hope things over there don't change too much, or that if they do that it's for the better. |
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JohnathanEnder
 Posts: 88 |
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This is good news for Maniac, I guess. I have been going on Anime on DVD for years now but even I have to admit that they're not the "be all, end all" for anime reviews (that distinction belongs to Anime Academy.com). They do have links to good sales though, and occasionally they'll have a good review or interesting news tidbit. I do wish the best for Mr. Beveridge and his team.
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BellosTheMighty
 Posts: 767 |
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I'm not a big fan of animeondvd, I stopped reading it a while back. They were a good site to visit to stay informed, but their reviewers wore their biases on their sleeve. They seemed to be catering to a kind of snobbish otaku- the kind who will support the R1 industry without complaint, but never truly grew out of the 90's dub-hating mindset. They nearly always reviewed the sub version, and said this in every review to the degree that it sounded like boasting. And they raked the discs over the coals for every little thing. They actually levied complaint at a certain hentai disc because a lolicon subplot was cut out, which even the most diehard purist will admit is a sucker-punch at best.
And I have never forgiven them for what they did to the manhwa "Phantasy Degree". Okay, admittedly PhD isn't exactly the best thing since sliced bread. But after seeming to mostly enjoy the first volume, they gave it a D- overall and refused to review volumes 2 and up purely because TokyoPop changed the title (from "Demon School Olympus") and the characters' names. It was especially insulting because they knew about these changes from reading the notes in the back of the volume. Demon School Olympus is obscure enough outside Korea that I seriously doubt they would have taken the time or had the inclination to look this stuff up otherwise, meaning that if TokyoPop hadn't been honest to their readers, they never would have known about it. So the lesson ToykoPop should learn here is "Don't be honest with the fans, you'll just give them an excuse to blast you." At least AoD didn't complain that it read left-to-right. Then it'd be dodgeball time. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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The issue isn't so much the number of anime fans, but rather the number of anime sponsors. The advertising budgets have really shrunk over the last couple of years and it's harder and harder to get money out of anime companies. A few companies do continue to advertise, some even have increased their budget, but for the most part, across the board, there's less money. The result is that anime websites like ANN and AoD need to target non-anime advertisers. Video game advertisers, mainstream entertainment advertisers, lifestyle advertisers and big-brand advertisers. Unfortunately, those advertisers look for websites that have millions of readers, and most anime websites can't make that claim (ANN is one of the largest anime websites, and we can claim a 2+ million unique visitors every month, but most of those are transients, the number of regular visitors is much lower). Joining a bigger conglomerate or network of websites is the best way to go for a lot of smaller websites that have excellent content, but not the traffic necessary to attract advertisers. The added resources also provide more opportunity for growth. Look at Endgadget and Gizmodo, they joined up with bigger networks and that helped them get where they are today. And to be honest, the founders of those websites have a lot more money in their pocket as a result. ANN has (just) enough traffic that we could remain independent as long we wanted to, and with the right effort, reach those big advertisers. But frankly, if the right offer, from the right backers came along, I'd be much happier if I could focus 90% of my time on site content and let someone else deal with the advertisers, finances and all that. And to be honest, while "independent" does carry a certain moral weight to it, the readers would be better served if ANN hooked up with that kind of backing. Do I hear any offers? Yahoo! Microsoft?... Just kidding... sort of. I already said it privately, but my congratulations go out to Chris. I hope the marriage with Mania and its backers works out for Chris, Anime on DVD and the anime community. My congrats to Chip too, he finally got the anime site that he wanted. -t |
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