In 1998, Animerica Extra was launched as a separate manga anthology magazine which eventually focused specifically on shōjo titles.

Animerica was one of the first top professional anime and manga magazines released in the United States, and one of the most popular in the 1990s.

In 2004, it had a circulation of 45,000 readers, but low sales and high competition from Newtype USA resulted in the essential cancellation of the original magazine and its reformatting as a free digest.

[2] During 2002 the magazine was published in a square-bound, full-colour format without a manga serial that had previously been included.

[6][7] Viz claimed the name in 2005, and by October the site had been relaunched as the official website of the new Animerica magazine.

[13] Each issue of the original Animerica included articles covering anime and manga releases in both the United States and Japan, interviews with industry professionals such as voice actors and directors, reviews of anime and manga series, and articles and reviews on related areas such as games, model kits, and music releases.

Over the course of the magazine's history, chapters from X, Area 88, Galaxy Express 999, One-Pound Gospel, and Urusei Yatsura appeared in it.

[16] This number was a drop from previous years, due to greater competition from other magazines, resulting in Viz's changing its format.

[12] Approximately 100 copies of the first issue of the free version of Animerica were sent to 1,000 Borders and Waldenbooks stores around the United States.