Site History and Current Status:
The main site: I first began work on AnimeYume.com during the summer of 2002, and made it public on June 30th, 2002. Like most new sites, it was very small and it barely got any hits during its first few months. All it had back then was a couple of general information pages, a few links, and only about seven individual anime sections. But as I continued to work on it and add new things, its hits and page views began to greatly increase. Currently, AnimeYume.com has over 5.5GB worth of anime information, pictures, media files, and other goods. It gets about 100 hits a day and about 3,000 page views a day. And in addition to its many anime information, special features, and resource pages, it now has a total of 44 anime sections. Unfortunately, since fall 2006, I haven't had time to work on the main site as much. But I did start a blog extension of AnimeYume called Mainichi Anime Yume, which is described below.
The blog site: In fall 2006, I found that my life had become much busier than it used to be and I no longer had the time to do big updates on the main AnimeYume.com site. So in October 2006, I decided to make a blog site as part of an extension of AnimeYume.com. Currently, I mostly do posts on the blog, called Mainichi Anime Yume, and updates here on the main site only once in a while. You can find more info about the blog site here.
Site Layout and Design: When I first decided that I wanted to make an anime web site in 2002, I had absolutely no idea how. I had no knowledge of html or any sort of web page design whatsoever. But luckily one of my friends who has a web site helped me learn some fundamental html web site building skills. After learning some basic html codes, I was finally able to create my own web pages and host them on the domain name I bought from Yahoo!, and thus AnimeYume.com was born. But unfortunately I've never had the time, money, or skill to use any sort of fancy or extensive web site designing programs. Also, for many years I had an old, broken down computer that couldn't use most web site-building programs anyway, and I also had a slow dial-up Internet connection that would've made working on a complicated web site very difficult. So, as you can probably tell, AnimeYume.com has a very simple layout and it's made with the most basic html coding. I make all the pages on Anime Yume from scratch, using only the little html editor that Yahoo! provides and nothing else (however, the blog site is made with Wordpress' more advanced layout). As a result, the main AnimeYume.com site may look kind of dull and its layout is definitely not as "cool" as most other new anime sites out there. But just because it doesn't look like much does not mean it doesn't have much! Now that I have a better computer and a faster Internet connection, maybe someday in the future I'll find the time to change its layout. But for now, I'm trying to keep it simple =)
Site Staff and Updating: There's only one staff member on AnimeYume.com, and that's me! It was my goal from the beginning to create and maintain an anime web site all by myself, and so far I've been able to keep it up ^_^ Of course I've used things from a few other anime sites to help me out, but pretty much everything on AnimeYume.com, especially all the written information, was made by me. As far as updating goes, I'm not one of those people who can update every day or even every other day. But I do my best and I try to go for quality over quantity with my updates.
Main Site Content: Anime Yume's main site content, which are the pages in the 'Site Main' section, are just that; general stuff, like this page and other pages that specifically relate to the site, like the Affiliation and Site Policy pages.
Anime Sections: The individual anime sections on AnimeYume.com, which are organized alphabetically by title in the 'Anime Sections' page, are sections that have information, images, and media that focus on one anime series in particular. Since I like to make everything on this site myself (as much as I can at least), I only make sections for anime that I've seen and am familiar with. That way I'll be able to write the pages myself rather than copy from another site, and I'll be able to add my own thoughts and opinions when necessary. Anyway, here's a rundown of what each anime section has:
Information: The Information pages for each anime section lists basic information about that anime, such as how many episodes it has, its air dates, it's opening and ending songs, etc.
Story Synopsis: The Story Synopsis pages for each anime section describes, usually in lengthy detail, the storyline and plot for that anime (sometimes focusing on the first few episodes of the series). Some of the Story Synopsis pages may be spoiler-filled.
Character Bios: The Character Bios pages describe the main characters of each anime series. And, like the Story Synopsis pages, the Character Bios are very detailed and well-written. In addition to a description, the Bios also list the characters' English and Japanese voice actors, their original Japanese name if it was changed in the dub, and sometimes a few other choice bits of info. And except for the Evangelion and Tenchi Muyo! Bios, all of the Character Bios are written by me. However, you'll notice that not all the anime sections have Character Bios. Since most anime series' have a lot of characters, it would make writing Character Bios for all of them very time consuming. So I've only written Bios for some of my favorites characters, or characters that I think are the most interesting.
Episode & Movie Listing: The Episode & Movie Listing pages list the titles of all the TV and OVA episodes, as well as the movie titles if any, of each anime series. For a few anime that are ongoing and have hundreds of episodes, like One Piece and Pokemon, I decided not to make Episode Listings because it would take a long time and be difficult to keep up. But most of the anime sections have an Episode & Movie Listing page.
Picture Galleries: The Picture Galleries for each anime section are where I post my favorite (mostly high quality) images for that particular anime (you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of group pictures ^^,,,) I only post "official" pictures in the Picture Galleries...that is, artwork made by the official creators of the anime for things such as art books, calendars, promotional posters, etc (not screencaps). I don't steal and post other people's fan art, specially designed wallpaper, or anything like that, and I upload all images to my own server.
Media: Rules and information about the media files on AnimeYume.com are explained on the media guidelines page.
Other Pages: Some of the anime sections have other pages, besides the ones listed above. These are usually fun bonus pages that I felt like making for that particular series, such as the Manga Scans in the Tenchi Muyo! section, The Chinese Zodiac in the Fruits Basket section, and the Clow Cards in the Cardcaptor Sakura section. Some of these bonus pages are small, but most, like the City With No People in the Chobits section and the Timeline in the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya section, I worked especially hard on and they took me a long time to make, so no stealing please! XP
Special Features: The pages in the 'Special Features' section are a lot like the bonus pages in the anime sections; they're just fun or "special" pages that I felt like making and adding to the site.
Resources: The pages in the 'Resources' section are pages of basic anime information, like the Anime Dictionary or general and helpful resources for fans, like the Links.
Random Stuff: The pages in the 'Random Stuff' section are exactly that...random sections that don't fit into any other category.
Well, I guess that's all about the site. If you still have more questions regarding site content, or using things from AnimeYume.com on your own site, please read the Site Policy. If you have questions regarding site linkage or affiliation, check out the Link to Me page or the Affiliation page. And if you have any more questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me =) I hope you enjoy AnimeYume.com!