Viz Closes Rumic World Website
This past Friday, Viz Media closed down their official Rumic World website. The URL now forwards visitors to another official Viz site, ShonenSunday.com. Originally launched as a home for Viz's simulcast of Rumiko Takahashi's Rin-ne manga, the Rumic World also served as the official English site for all of Takahashi's works, including InuYasha, Ranma 1/2, & Mermaid Saga. The site's main purpose always remained as a home for new Rin-ne chapters but the blog was also updated frequently, mainly discussing the newest chapter or latest episode of InuYasha the Final Act, but also talking about her other titles. Other features included plot summaries & character profiles from all of Takahashi's various series.
Thing is though, when Viz launched their official Shonen Sunday website a few months later, the Rumic World lost its commodity status. The new Rin-ne chapters were now simultaneously posted on that site as well, & every blog post made on Rumic World was also cross-posted to the Shonen Sunday blog (along with the main Viz Media blog). Soon, information pages for Takahashi's other series were added to Shonen Sunday as well, & before long there was nothing on the Rumic World that couldn't be found on Shonen Sunday as well. Viz even originally talked about putting simulcasts of InuYasha the Final Act on the Rumic World, but ultimately they wound up on Shonen Sunday instead.
So losing Rumic World really isn't too big of a loss. The only thing we really lose is the aesthetic style of the site, which was really true to Takahashi's style & something her diehard fans will probably miss now that they're forced to go to another manga site instead.
Source: http://blog.shonensunday.com/sunday/2010/04/rumic-world-meet-shonen-sunday.html