AnimeNation Ends Its Retail Business...
I stopped by AnimeNation today and found the following note from Gene Field:
I've been an avid supporter of the U.S. anime industry since the early 90's. Early in my development as an anime fan, I turned to a handful of online anime e-tailers for my anime needs and AnimeNation was one of the key sites that I turned to for support.
I used to turn to AnimeNation mainly for anime CDs. They were particularly good at acquiring some really nice CDs. When I needed to have the theme song used for the opening of Black Lagoon, I turned to AnimeNation. When I needed the soundtrack for the second Patlabor movie, I turned to AnimeNation. It took them several months to get it, but, they did eventually get it for me.
As for character goods, AnimeNation wasn't as good at acquiring those items as others (at least in my humble experience), so, when I needed anime-themed bamboo (not fabric) wall scrolls, sadly, I didn't turn to AnimeNation for those.
And, over the years, although the staff at AnimeNation were certainly sincere in their desire to serve their customers' needs, sometimes they missed the mark in terms of actual customer service, at least in my humble experience. So, when it came to actually spending my hard-earned money on anime, more often than not, I tended to visit the aforementioned, much larger anime e-tailer.
Then, a few years ago, when a shrinking U.S. anime distribution industry was looking for new distribution models, AnimeNation got shut out of (or at least decided not to participate in) some of the newly emerging distribution models. There were a handful of obscure anime titles which were offered on archival media via only one online e-tailer which wasn't AnimeNation and there were and still are an increasing number of exclusive offerings for the international market from a relatively new U.S. anime distributor through a limited number of online e-tailers which also happened to not be AnimeNation. So, I suppose the writing has been on the wall for a while.
The end of AnimeNation's retail business marks the end of an era for many anime fans, but, life goes on. Hopefully, the remaining anime e-tailers will continue to offer anime on archival media in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
It's a sad thing to witness the end of an era. My only concern about the end of this era is that I have relied very heavily on John of the Ask John column on the AnimeNation news blog for new and wonderful tidbits in anime. John seems to have a talent for sifting through a lot of the clutter that one might find on some of the larger anime news sites and to pull out a handful of the more interesting items. Although there seems to be a stated commitment to continue the news blog, it remains to be seen if this commitment will continue to be viable in the future.
It's been quite a while (almost seven years) since I last ordered anything from AnimeNation, preferring instead to support another, much larger anime e-tailer. I suppose that might have been one of the issues that plagued the AnimeNation business model.After 20 years, we've decided to get out of the retail game. A heartfelt thanks to all our great customers over the years, and all of the terrific employees that made AnimeNation a fun & dynamic place to work. At times it's been a dream come true. We've been doing this a long time though, and it's just time to move on to new and different challenges.
If you have an existing order with us, you will receive an email with details specific to your order. If not, you can still contact [us] with questions about cancellations, refunds, shipment tracking, etc...
To all in the anime community who have supported us over the years, again, thank you.
I've been an avid supporter of the U.S. anime industry since the early 90's. Early in my development as an anime fan, I turned to a handful of online anime e-tailers for my anime needs and AnimeNation was one of the key sites that I turned to for support.
I used to turn to AnimeNation mainly for anime CDs. They were particularly good at acquiring some really nice CDs. When I needed to have the theme song used for the opening of Black Lagoon, I turned to AnimeNation. When I needed the soundtrack for the second Patlabor movie, I turned to AnimeNation. It took them several months to get it, but, they did eventually get it for me.
As for character goods, AnimeNation wasn't as good at acquiring those items as others (at least in my humble experience), so, when I needed anime-themed bamboo (not fabric) wall scrolls, sadly, I didn't turn to AnimeNation for those.
And, over the years, although the staff at AnimeNation were certainly sincere in their desire to serve their customers' needs, sometimes they missed the mark in terms of actual customer service, at least in my humble experience. So, when it came to actually spending my hard-earned money on anime, more often than not, I tended to visit the aforementioned, much larger anime e-tailer.
Then, a few years ago, when a shrinking U.S. anime distribution industry was looking for new distribution models, AnimeNation got shut out of (or at least decided not to participate in) some of the newly emerging distribution models. There were a handful of obscure anime titles which were offered on archival media via only one online e-tailer which wasn't AnimeNation and there were and still are an increasing number of exclusive offerings for the international market from a relatively new U.S. anime distributor through a limited number of online e-tailers which also happened to not be AnimeNation. So, I suppose the writing has been on the wall for a while.
The end of AnimeNation's retail business marks the end of an era for many anime fans, but, life goes on. Hopefully, the remaining anime e-tailers will continue to offer anime on archival media in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
It's a sad thing to witness the end of an era. My only concern about the end of this era is that I have relied very heavily on John of the Ask John column on the AnimeNation news blog for new and wonderful tidbits in anime. John seems to have a talent for sifting through a lot of the clutter that one might find on some of the larger anime news sites and to pull out a handful of the more interesting items. Although there seems to be a stated commitment to continue the news blog, it remains to be seen if this commitment will continue to be viable in the future.
