Quick Start

A practical walkthrough to get your HiAnime site up and running after installation

Updated February 22, 2026
OtakuThemes Team

Overview

This guide walks you through the essential steps after installing HiAnime and importing demo content. By the end, you'll have a working anime site with your branding, navigation, and first piece of content set up.

If you haven't installed the theme yet, start with the Installation Guide.

Step 1: Set Your Site Identity

  1. Go to Appearance > Customize
  2. Click Site Identity
  3. Upload your Logo and Site Icon (favicon — must be at least 512×512px)
  4. Set your Site Title (e.g. HiAnime)
  5. Click Publish

Step 2: Configure Reading Settings

After importing demo content, you need to tell WordPress which page to use as your homepage:

  1. Go to Settings > Reading
  2. Under Your homepage displays, select A static page
  3. Set Homepage to Front Page
  4. Set Posts page to Home (or leave blank)
  5. Click Save Changes

Step 3: Set Up Your Navigation Menus

HiAnime uses several menu locations. To configure the main menu:

  1. Go to Appearance > Menus
  2. Select or create a menu (e.g. Front Page Menu)
  3. Add pages, custom links, or anime taxonomy links as menu items
  4. Under Menu Settings, check the appropriate Display location (e.g. Front Page Menu, Primary Menu, Footer Menu)
  5. Click Save Menu

Available menu locations include: Front Page Menu, Primary Menu, Footer Menu, and Sidebar Menu.

Step 4: Add Sidebar Widgets

HiAnime includes custom widgets for your sidebar. To add them:

  1. Go to Appearance > Widgets
  2. In the sidebar area, add a Legacy Widget block
  3. From the widget dropdown, select one of the HiAnime widgets:
    • HiAnime – Genres
    • HiAnime – Most Popular
    • HiAnime – Top 10
    • HiAnime – Top Airing
  4. Save

Step 5: Add Anime Taxonomies

Before adding anime content, set up your taxonomy terms. These are shared across all anime entries.

Genres

Go to Anime > Genres and add your genres (e.g. Action, Comedy, Drama).

Types

Go to Anime > Types — you'll already find Movie and TV as defaults. Add others as needed (e.g. OVA, Special).

Studios

Go to Anime > Studio and add production studios (e.g. MAPPA, Bones Film, Madhouse).

Seasons

Go to Anime > Season and add airing seasons (e.g. Winter 2025, Summer 2025).

Producers

Go to Anime > Producer and add producers (e.g. Aniplex, Animax).

Step 6: Add Your First Anime

  1. Go to Anime > Add New Anime
  2. Enter the anime title
  3. Fill in the description in the content editor
  4. Set the featured image (the anime poster)

In the custom meta fields below the editor, fill in:

  • Genres, Types, Studio, Season, Producer
  • Related Series — link related anime entries together
  • Seasons — add season entries (e.g. Season 2 → Hell's Paradise Season 2)
  • Schedule — enable airing schedule with air date and episode number

Auto-Import from MyAnimeList

HiAnime can auto-fill anime metadata from MyAnimeList:

  1. In the Generate Data (from myanimelist.net) metabox, enter the MAL URL or ID
    (e.g. https://myanimelist.net/anime/20/Naruto or just 20)
  2. Check Auto Create Featured Image to download the cover image automatically
  3. Click Generate
  4. Review the filled fields, then click Publish

Step 7: Add Your First Episode

Episodes in HiAnime are WordPress Posts (not the Anime post type). To add one:

  1. From the Anime list, click the Add button next to an anime title, or go to Posts > Add Post
  2. Fill in:
    • Episode Number (e.g. 11) — use Movie for films
    • Is Filler? — Yes or No
    • HiAnime Episode ID — optional unique ID
    • Series — select the parent anime (required)
  3. In the Embed Videos section, add embed URLs for each track type: Sub, Dub, or Raw
    • Enter a Host Name (e.g. HD-1) and the Embed URL
    • Use + Add more for additional hosts
  4. Click Publish

Step 8: Add News

  1. Go to News > Add New News
  2. Enter a title and write the article content
  3. Add Labels (comma-separated, similar to tags)
  4. Set a Featured image
  5. Click Publish

Step 9: Configure the OtakuThemes Dashboard

The OtakuThemes Dashboard (accessible from OtakuThemes in the WordPress sidebar) is where all theme-specific settings live. Key tabs to configure:

  • Appearance — Site colors, theme style
  • Content — Anime and episode display limits
  • Navigation — Page linking settings
  • Features — Enable/disable user features, profile pages, schema markup, and more
  • Socials & Images — Social media links, poster/avatar image settings
  • Cache — Performance and cache options
  • License — View and manage your license status

See the Theme Setup guide for a full walkthrough of every tab.

Step 10: Activate Your License

License Required

The theme must be licensed to work correctly. If you skipped this during installation, do it now.

Method 1 — Via Member Area (Recommended):

  1. Go to otakuthemes.com/member > Licenses
  2. Click + Activate on new domain and enter your domain
  3. Click Activate
  4. In WordPress, go to OtakuThemes > License — it should now show as active

Method 2 — Via Dashboard:

  1. In WordPress, go to OtakuThemes > License
  2. Enter your license key and click Activate

If the status doesn't update immediately, clear all caches and refresh.

Next Steps