AnimeNation was an American business that included RentAnime.com, a discussion forum, anime industry news, and a column called "Ask John." It was previously a

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

products until 2014 and an anime licensing and distribution company under the name AN Entertainment.

AnimeNation

AnimeNation was founded in 1995 by Gene Field in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a popu ...

. After the companies initial success, they opened a retail location. They considered licensing shows in 1998 including '' Berserk'' and ''

Cyber Team in Akihabara is a 1998 Japanese anime television series created by Tsukasa Kotobuki and Satoru Akahori. It aired from April 4, 1998 to September 26, 1998 on Tokyo Broadcasting System, TBS and ran for 26 episodes. It was released in the United States by A ...

'', but did not move forward until the company's stability improved. In 1999, the company built a 15,000 square foot facility in the Lynmar Commerce Park,

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough ...

. As of 2004, AnimeNation was one of the top two online anime specialty retailers in the United States. The site also features a regular column, "Ask John", where AN employee John Oppliger answers reader questions about anime. As of 2005, Oppliger wrote over 1,070 articles. The AnimeNation online store closed in 2014.

AN Entertainment

In 2002, AnimeNation entered the anime market due to increased licensing and retail competition. The name AN Entertainment comes from AnimeNation (AN), and Entertainment was chosen to possibly allow other shows (including live action) to be licensed. They chose to finish one title before licensing another in order to produce the highest quality product. Small staffing numbers also influenced the decision. The first title the company licensed was ''

Risky Safety is a manga series created by Rei Omishi and it follows the journeys of an apprentice shinigami, or death god, named Risky and an apprentice angel named Safety who have been trapped in the same body. Whoever is in charge of the body depends on ...

'' with

Bang Zoom! Entertainment Bang Zoom! Entertainment is an audio post-production studio with its headquarters in Burbank, California, in Greater Los Angeles. It has worked on anime, video games, television series, feature films, and original animation projects. Their work ...

producing the dub and

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt G ...

distributing the release. AN Entertainment used a script created by Fansub group Sachigumi with modifications for its ''Risky Safety'' release and also acquired the TV broadcast rights. AN Entertainment acquired ''

Miami Guns Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...

'', but not TV broadcast rights, and the dub was produced by Phoenix Post Sound ( Coastal Studios). '' Haré+Guu'' was licensed by AN Entertainment (including TV broadcast rights), and co-produced with Bang Zoom! Entertainment. Bang Zoom! produced the dub and

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

distributed ''Haré+Guu''. They also licensed ''Haré+Guu Deluxe'', but did not license ''Haré+Guu FINAL''. The original ending for the ''Haré+Guu'' TV show could not be used due to a licensing problem involving Bandai. ''Haré+Guu'' was the first show aired on the

Funimation Channel Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specialize ...

that was not a property of Funimation. AN Entertainment's license for ''Risky Safety'' expired in Fall 2007.

RentAnime.com

AnimeNation also ran RentAnime.com, a DVD-by-mail service similar to

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

, that specialized in anime. The service suffered from mailing issues with the Tampa

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

, but they were later resolved. RentAnime.com continued to operate despite the closure of AnimeNation's online store, until it closed at the end of 2015.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.animenation.com—Redirects to Forums
AnimeNation Anime News Blog (maintained by John Oppliger)

RentAnime.com
(Archive)
AN Entertainment
(Archive) 1995 establishments in Florida 2015 disestablishments in Florida Anime companies Companies based in Tampa, Florida Companies established in 1995 Defunct companies based in Florida Defunct mass media companies of the United States

AnimeNation

AN Entertainment

RentAnime.com

See also

References

External links