It's a sad day for fans of many classic anime, as AnimeSols.com has announced that they will be ceasing operation effective May 01, 2015.
Their final message to their supporters was posted on their website today. It reads:
This week we have shipped out the final packages from Creamy Mami 3-4 and Black Jack 2 to supporters. As you may have noticed, Anime Sols has not added any new projects for quite a while, focusing only on completing the goods which had already been funded. It saddens me to say that animesols.com will be shutting down on May 1st, 2015. The videos will remain up until for the next month if you would like to watch them. Thanks to everyone who pledged!
Although the timing is unfortunate, this is unlikely to be an April Fool's Day prank, as the official AnimeSols Twitter feed confirms:
Thanks everyone for all your support! http://t.co/ibYExtBrJp will be closing down on May 1st. All the videos will remain up until then.
— Anime Sols (@AnimeSols) April 1, 2015
Some of you may be wondering: “Who the heck are AnimeSols?” Likely, this lack of exposure was part of the problem.
AnimeSols was a Japanese business venture that combined catalog material from several high-profile animation studios (Tatsunoko Productions, Tezuka Productions, Studio Pierrot) as well as the Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and several of its subsidiaries.
Their goal was to use crowd-funding initiatives to produce English-subtitled DVD home video releases of various anime TV shows that have proved popular in Japan, but had little exposure in North America. The AnimeSols web-site would also stream episodes of these shows, and for a while it was a literal treasure trove of classic animation, including such titles as:
Space Ace.
Yatterman.
Magical Angel Creamy Mami.
Black Jack TV.
And numerous others.
Sadly, it seems that their reach has exceeded their grasp, as several of the more ambitious projects failed to meet their funding goals. That, combined with a dwindling demand for physical media and the inability to carve out a niche in the extremely competitive market of streaming video, seems to have spelled the end for AnimeSols.
Sayonara, AnimeSols. You will be missed.
Source: Official AnimeSols home page
Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.