Anime website question
- Thread starter GSquadron
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Red Herring
Paragon
GSquadron said:
Well, much like gaming, anime has quite a massive cultural influence in the east and the west alike. There's certainly a good chance for a community dedicated to it to succeed. However, the same rings true for most every genre of forum. Anything can work if built properly and offers content unique to itself. Sure, anime is widely influential. But what would you plan to do to make your anime community more enticing?
For instance, one of the anime communities I used to visit became somewhat popular because it ran its own pseudo anime TV channel, one which the staff team was truly dedicated to. It followed its own specific schedule and added new anime to the schedule once a show had been completed. It also streamed a different roster of anime dependent on the time. Weekends would often stream a different roster. And holiday months would often stream anime fitting for the holiday. October had them streaming a roster of more horror/mystery based anime. And March (The month in which the Japanese/Korean holiday "White Day" takes place. Basically a form of Valentine's Day.) had the roster filled with romantic oriented anime. Lastly, it always managed to find obscure anime that hardly anyone in the west had heard of and add them to its roster. They even did some of the translations for English subbing.
That was a brilliant for enticement, and it built quite a good community on top of that. Sadly, it's since gone defunct.
Another thing to keep in mind for the idea is: Would anime be the only thing you'd be catering to? There's quite a huge culture built around it, and anime is not its only form of entertainment. There's manga, visual novels (which are fairly popular in the west, but don't have many western communities catering to them), light novels, western animation, etc.
It's also definitely a genre you should really only found a community for if you yourself are quite familiar with the anime culture.
zapmaster14
Up-and-Coming Sensation
Red Herring said:
Great post I agree with you completley 🙂 what do you think are the chances of a anime site/community succeeding?
@red
Ok, the idea is this. I plan on doing something different from other websites, since I don't have money to pay the staff for that, not even talking about copyright issues.
I would want to hear suggestions, what an anime website should definitively have. Here are also mangas and all kind of japanese, american animated films. (or europe, australia if any)
Should it be a dark oriented theme? Japanese theme?
Should it be on the background a big naruto or latest animated film added?
Any anime reviews? How many people should be involved at first?
3 people are enough? What about anime video games?
Most important question would be: Should the website have heavy features, or make it as simple as possible with minimal design (european or american oriented) ?
What is an indispensable feature an anime website should have?
For example comments and ratings, I personally think they are a must.
Ok, the idea is this. I plan on doing something different from other websites, since I don't have money to pay the staff for that, not even talking about copyright issues.
I would want to hear suggestions, what an anime website should definitively have. Here are also mangas and all kind of japanese, american animated films. (or europe, australia if any)
Should it be a dark oriented theme? Japanese theme?
Should it be on the background a big naruto or latest animated film added?
Any anime reviews? How many people should be involved at first?
3 people are enough? What about anime video games?
Most important question would be: Should the website have heavy features, or make it as simple as possible with minimal design (european or american oriented) ?
What is an indispensable feature an anime website should have?
For example comments and ratings, I personally think they are a must.
Red Herring
Paragon
zapmaster14 said:
Well, anime is certainly up there as one of the easier genres to build a community around. As I mentioned, it's had a massive impact on culture worldwide. It's not as influential as gaming, but you certainly have a very wide audience to cater to.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't put in just as much work. Every website needs an enormous amount of effort put in by its webmaster to succeed. But it has the potential to become far more large and expansive than less renowned genres.
GSquadron said:
Looks like this calls for a Q&A structure!
Q: Should it be a dark oriented theme? Japanese theme?
A: Anime is more of a grey area when it comes to aesthetics. Dark or light designs can work equally well. It's more of a personal preference. Just be sure whichever you choose doesn't turn off those that prefer the opposite. I've always found it best to incorporate at least two themes. One dark and one light.
Q: Should it be on the background a big naruto or latest animated film added?
A: I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding this question. Are you referring to designing your aesthetics based on a single anime dependent upon what's popular/etc? I suppose you could do that, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a rather generic thing to do, and most anime websites tend to take preference with incorporating multiple or numerous different anime characters into their aesthetics.
I myself, however, am particularly fond of when an anime website designs their own custom unique anime character(s) to serve as mascots for the website.
Q: since I don't have money to pay the staff for that
A: Why pay them? I could understand if you need to pay an artist or website designers or such to help develop your website, but the vast majority of community staff for any website are volunteers. The individuals that streamed that anime channel I mentioned were all volunteers as well. They did not receive payment for keeping it maintained, they simply enjoyed doing it. And there are plenty of individuals that would volunteer to do similar things merely for the pleasure of doing it.
Q: 3 people are enough?
A: What, for staff? Well, to start with, sure. But a staff list should always shift dependent on the needs of the website.
Q: What about anime video games?
A: Anime video games? 😛 I suppose there are games based on anime out there. If you're referring to JRPG's (like Final Fantasy, Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey, etc) and Visual Novels, then certainly. Go for it. Those game genres aren't given as much attention as they should be.
Q: Most important question would be: Should the website have heavy features, or make it as simple as possible with minimal design (european or american oriented) ?
A: While I am fond of minimalism, I always say that well-developed complexity beats it out every single time. And while minimalism works for certain genres, I really don't believe it does for anime. Anime is, by its very nature, an incredibly colorful and diverse culture. Your design and aesthetics should definitely reflect as such. As for features, it all depends on what you want to accomplish.
Q: What is an indispensable feature an anime website should have?
A: Again, it really depends on what all you wish to incorporate. What are you going to be catering to specifically? Just anime itself? Or will you be branching out to manga, JRPG's, Visual Novels, Light Novels, Western Animation, etc? No one can really tell you what to do with them. Think outside the box and come up with some ideas to make your community unique.
...
Whew.
zapmaster14
Up-and-Coming Sensation
Red Herring said:zapmaster14 said:
Well, anime is certainly up there as one of the easier genres to build a community around. As I mentioned, it's had a massive impact on culture worldwide. It's not as influential as gaming, but you certainly have a very wide audience to cater to.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't put in just as much work. Every website needs an enormous amount of effort put in by its webmaster to succeed. But it has the potential to become far more large and expansive than less renowned genres.
GSquadron said:
Looks like this calls for a Q&A structure!
Q: Should it be a dark oriented theme? Japanese theme?
A: Anime is more of a grey area when it comes to aesthetics. Dark or light designs can work equally well. It's more of a personal preference. Just be sure whichever you choose doesn't turn off those that prefer the opposite. I've always found it best to incorporate at least two themes. One dark and one light.
Q: Should it be on the background a big naruto or latest animated film added?
A: I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding this question. Are you referring to designing your aesthetics based on a single anime dependent upon what's popular/etc? I suppose you could do that, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a rather generic thing to do, and most anime websites tend to take preference with incorporating multiple or numerous different anime characters into their aesthetics.
I myself, however, am particularly fond of when an anime website designs their own custom unique anime character(s) to serve as mascots for the website.
Q: since I don't have money to pay the staff for that
A: Why pay them? I could understand if you need to pay an artist or website designers or such to help develop your website, but the vast majority of community staff for any website are volunteers. The individuals that streamed that anime channel I mentioned were all volunteers as well. They did not receive payment for keeping it maintained, they simply enjoyed doing it. And there are plenty of individuals that would volunteer to do similar things merely for the pleasure of doing it.
Q: 3 people are enough?
A: What, for staff? Well, to start with, sure. But a staff list should always shift dependent on the needs of the website.
Q: What about anime video games?
A: Anime video games? 😛 I suppose there are games based on anime out there. If you're referring to JRPG's (like Final Fantasy, Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey, etc) and Visual Novels, then certainly. Go for it. Those game genres aren't given as much attention as they should be.
Q: Most important question would be: Should the website have heavy features, or make it as simple as possible with minimal design (european or american oriented) ?
A: While I am fond of minimalism, I always say that well-developed complexity beats it out every single time. And while minimalism works for certain genres, I really don't believe it does for anime. Anime is, by its very nature, an incredibly colorful and diverse culture. Your design and aesthetics should definitely reflect as such. As for features, it all depends on what you want to accomplish.
Q: What is an indispensable feature an anime website should have?
A: Again, it really depends on what all you wish to incorporate. What are you going to be catering to specifically? Just anime itself? Or will you be branching out to manga, JRPG's, Visual Novels, Light Novels, Western Animation, etc? No one can really tell you what to do with them. Think outside the box and come up with some ideas to make your community unique.
...
Whew.
Wow you type fast
Very good answer 🙂Ok I agree with you.
I was thinking of making something very easy to follow, colorful design, very quick sign up, without e-mail authentication, stuff to be as fast as possible for the people. I thought of starting it just with photos, then to see how it works out, so we start adding videos. I didn't think about JRPG's which is one of my preferred video game genres.
For the second question, never mind! LoL
So basically something new with photos, something very simple and as quick as possible.
I was thinking of making something very easy to follow, colorful design, very quick sign up, without e-mail authentication, stuff to be as fast as possible for the people. I thought of starting it just with photos, then to see how it works out, so we start adding videos. I didn't think about JRPG's which is one of my preferred video game genres.
For the second question, never mind! LoL
So basically something new with photos, something very simple and as quick as possible.
I think building an anime website or forum is both easy and hard. Easy, because anime is popular industry and always have something new as new season comes. Hard, because you always have to be updated to keep your website crowded. Translations, articles, news, spoilers, and so on. Not something which can be done by one or two person only. As Red Herring says you can even touch the subject of manga, novels, games, and other Japan-related culture if you want. But without people who have knowledge in those area, it's getting hard. Especially because some only prefer to watch big titles like Naruto and Bleach, blind to a ton of other titles and it keeps on growing each season. You have to know a lot to provide a wide and strong ground of discussion.
That being said, good luck with whatever plan you have in mind! I hope it works out well for you.
That being said, good luck with whatever plan you have in mind! I hope it works out well for you.
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