Afterword

Another month (or two), another Backstage! Hopefully from now on I can get one out every couple of months, instead of almost a year like last time -_-;

Since animeOnline is one of those Web 2.0 sites (or was on its way to be, depending on how you look at it), I tried to use a more Web 2.0-ish template, namely rounded corners, gradients, some big text, and shiny AJAX...so, instead of spending a few hours re-inventing my own unique brand of Backstage Rounded Corners, I simply went to a Web 2.0-oriented template site and took/modified a design. Okay, so I cheated, but due to many issues, including time constraint, I figured this was probably the best way, kekeke. Anyhoo, I promise the next one will be designed from scratch.

The design came from a site called Free Css Templates. I've always wanted to do a dark site, hence the dark backgrounds you see here. What surprised me was how much time it took to decide on what other colors to use (links, titles, etc.). Because the background wasn't pure black (#000), many colors don't stand out. On an unrelated note, I heard black backgrounds help save energy.

As for aO itself, the general consensus seems to be that the site had some great news, but was a bit lacking in many other areas due to bugs and various other issues. I was originally thinking of doing a Backstage feature on aO at least a year after it launched -- after it matures into a non-Beta site. Naturally, its sudden closure threw everyone off, and I, after finishing the Rumic World feature, immediately started on aO.

Great thanks to Gia, who was the first person I contacted, and helped out with getting in touch with a few others. Big thanks to Rob, Dale and Bryan for doing the interview despite their busy schedules ^^; Last but not least, big, big thanks to Gen Fukunaga for replying to my interview request. It took a while to locate his contact, after sending the initial email, I had little hope of getting a reply. I mean, why would the "most powerful person in anime industry" reply to a small fry like me? So imagine my surprise a few days later when I checked my mail!

Also a big thanks to the proofreaders, namely Lorena Nava, Anthony A. and Matthew J. Brady. To all our new slav...I mean proofreaders, glad to have you all join the ship, hope you'll enjoy your time here!

I think this is starting to turn into my personal blog...maybe I should start one for ComiPress, I mean, everyone else is doing it!