Staff List

, Editor-In-Chief

Chris is a 30 year old network engineer living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His first real exposure to anime (or japanimation as he knew it then) was Bubblegum Crisis which he saw in the summer of 1989. He became seriously interested in anime a few years later when his favourite comic shop started selling anime. Over the years his interest in anime grew to the point that a casual interest in an anime website turned into a second job and then a full time job. Aside from anime, other interests, for which he has little time include motorsport, online gaming, skiing, cycling and a variety of other things. He complains often that he is interested in too many different things and doesn't have enough time to enjoy them all.

Chris lives with his wife and their four cats, Dim Sum, Sushi, Kimchi and Kyo in downtown Montreal.

[ 34 reviews by Christopher Macdonald ]

(a.k.a. Dan42), Encyclopedist & Tokyo Correspondent

Dan42's love for animation started at an early age with old classics like Astroboy, Captain Harlock and the Mysterious Cities of Gold. Years later he was (re)introduced to anime with nothing less than Perfect Blue. This started an inescapable process of otakufication, accelerated by masterpieces like Jin-Roh and Millennium Actress. In 2001 he agreed to give ANN a hand by making a CMS for the reviews and one thing led to another, culminating in the monster that is the Encyclopedia. After a 2-year stint in the wireless internet industry more-or-less away from ANN, Daniel came back in 2006. He is currently living in Tokyo.

[ 2 reviews by Daniel DeLorme ]

, Executive Editor

Zac Bertschy has been a professional anime journalist for seven years. He started writing in 1998, and came on with Anime News Network in 1999 writing reviews and the Answerman column, which lead to a freelance career writing for anime magazines. In 2004 he became the Associate Editor of Wizard’s Anime Insider magazine, and returned to ANN in the summer of 2005. His other hobbies include being a modern art snob, a film connoisseur and an HBO addict. Zac lives with his girlfriend in Orange County, California.

[ 112 reviews by Zac Bertschy ]

(a.k.a. SakechanBD), Associate Editor

Bamboo (yes, it's her real name) recently graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and is currently attending UC Irvine in pursuit of a PhD in cancer biology. This displaced Coloradoan was first drawn to anime from the fluffy world of shoujo, but now also enjoys shows that are laced in blood and violence. Her guilty pleasure is listening to shonen harem music, embracing everything from Kotoko to Lia to Under_17. Her other hobbies include playing the piano and the violin and rooting for the Colorado Avalanche. In between schoolwork and writing Shelf Life, Bamboo enjoys playing ice hockey, ultimate frisbee, and squash. She adores the idea of TV on DVD, and is not ashamed to admit that she cosplays.

[ 101 reviews by Bamboo Dong ]

Jonathan Mays, Associate Editor, News Editor

Jonathan yearns to leave Missouri, his home of seven years, for a land of higher population and lower humidity. Since there's nothing else to do in Columbia, he writes a lot of stuff, namely the weekly music column. When he's not writing, running, playing viola, or watching the Padres, Jonathan keeps tabs on Saikano, Kare Kano, and Yoko Kanno.

[ 8 reviews by Jonathan Mays ]

Carlo Santo (a.k.a. Patachu), reviewer

Carlo just got his master's degree in Engineering Sciences at UC San Diego, which of course is the perfect program of study for someone into comics and animation. When Powerpuff Girls first came out, it sparked an interest in Japanese-influenced character designs that soon led to straight-out anime. He's into Eva, Bebop and FLCL just like everyone else, but he also likes cutesy stuff like Kimagure Orange Road, Marmalade Boy, Mahou Tsukai Tai, and Bottle Fairy. This is why you should never take his reviews too seriously. When not occupied by anime and manga, he also enjoys other non-superhero comics, drawing, mahjong, and classical music. He is currently teaching himself the mandolin.

[ 159 reviews by Carlo Santos ]

(a.k.a. Cookie), Translator, Advisor

George is now a 23-year old computer-guru, animation otaku, and catgirl-addict currently residing in State College, PA. He graduated Penn State University with a double-major in Japanese and East Asian Studies, and a minor in Linguistics to boot. He first found anime on television in the form of Voltron and Robotech, but didn't make the connection until Akira's arrival in the States in '89. In 1996, George began collecting anything associated with anime, and his hunger for the "perfect collection" hasn't diminished since.

George's hobbies include reading fantasy novels, playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, grooving along to Dance Dance Revolution, and translating Japanese novels into English. George stepped down as co-Editor-in-Chief on March 1^st, 2004, but is staying around to assist the site.

[ 5 reviews by George Phillips ]

Mikhail Koulikov, Events Correspondent.

Mikhail uses his position with ANN to combine two passions: anime and travel. He attended his first anime convention in the summer of 1999 and within a day, became addicted to the scene. In anime, his taste is split oddly between more cerebral titles like Legend of Galactic Heroes, Tehxnolyze, and all things Gainax, and fluffy shoujo and romance series like Gravitation, Fancy Lala, Hana Yori Dango. The remainder of his free time is spent on reading (favorite authors include Douglas Coupland and Cordwainer Smith) and videogames. He holds a bachelor's degree in international affairs from George Washington University and, on his time off from everything else, works in conference management in New York.

[ 10 reviews by Mikhail Koulikov ]

Theron Martin (aka Key), Reviewer

Theron is a mid-30s high school math teacher living in Indianapolis. He first discovered anime as "anime" (Battle of the Planets in the early '80s doesn't really count, does it?) upon seeing Akira at a convention around 1990. After several years of being a casual fan, he graduated to being a serious one in the late '90s when he began his ever-expanding library of anime DVDs, with his own crude anime website eventually to follow. Primary hobbies outside of anime include comic books, fantasy football, board games, and role-playing games. In addition to writing reviews for this site and Protoculture Addicts, he has also authored several Classic and Living campaign scenarios for the Role Playing Gamers Association, most recently scenarios for the RPGA's Living Greyhawk system.

It should also be stated, for the record, that Theron is primarily a "dub" person, though he does watch subs, too.

[ 188 reviews by Theron Martin ]

Brian Hanson, Columnist

Carl Kimlinger, Reviewer

Carl lives in the Willamette Valley, where any socialist tendencies he contracted while in college are promptly crushed underfoot by the stampeding consumerism engendered by an incurable anime habit.

[ 23 reviews by Carl Kimlinger ]

Evan Miller, Translator (Jariten)

Evan is a freelance translator who currently splits his time between Minnesota, Colorado, and California. He was first introduced to Anime in 1995, which helped inspire him to study Japanese. Since then, he’s worked for the government of Akita Prefecture, volunteered for way too many clubs and conventions on both sides of the Pacific, translated more documents than he cares to recall and even got to be in an amateur sentai robot film for the Kwansei Gakuin University Manga Doukoukai (he denies that last one though). His hobbies include cycling, train travel, writing, music, and spending more money on Japanese import CDs than he really should. Evan plans to go back to school this fall to pursue a Ph.D. in Japanese Language and Pedagogy in the hopes of becoming a professor in the future.

Justin Sevakis, Founder, Former Editor in Chief

Highly active in the Anime community for many years, Justin Sevakis founded Anime News Network in 1998 and operated the website until late 1999 when he passed it on to Isaac Alexander. After leaving Anime News Network Justin wrote the the "Digital Otaku" column on DVDfile.com and then went on to work at Central Park Media for several years. He is currently Manager of Strategic Development at ImaginAsianTV.

[ 2 reviews by Justin Sevakis ]

Kyle Pope, Columnist

Kyle Pope's Edit List, originally posted on USENET newsgroups for many years before coming to ANN, is the definitive place to read about the edits made to Anime aired on North American TV. Kyle has been a fan of Anime for many, many years.

Melissa Harper, Reviewer.

Melissa has been a fan of Japanese culture since her ocean-faring uncle brought home a pair of tabi socks. Her love for all things Japanese has been her one consistent hobby through college and a few years of teaching English, both in public high schools and at a university prep course for international students. Her tastes in anime and manga run to shoujo- she's likely to pick up anything that has bishounen on the cover, but it's a good story that makes her pick up subsequent volumes.

[ 12 reviews by Melissa Harper ]

Rebecca Bundy, Columnist

Rebecca Bundy is a full-time freelance writer who, along with her two cats Answercat (Celeborn) and Answercat Jr. (Osiris), answer questions on a weekly basis in the Ms. Answerman column.

[ 3 reviews by Rebecca Bundy ]

Sean Broestl, Reviewer

Sean is a recent graduate of the Journalism department at Colorado State. Looking for some adventure after graduation, he moved to the Boston area. He's been making ends meet working as a web developer, among other things. The rest of his time is spent writing reviews for ANN and coding a few new features for the site.

When not working, Sean enjoys playing video games, traveling, cooking and petting his girlfriend's cat until it bites him. He admits to being a recovering car nut. Sean is never missed in a crowd with his almost unnatural height - 6'6". It's made it so that more than once he's been turned into a guide post or place for friends to gather around in a large crowd.

[ 8 reviews by Sean Broestl ]

Alexandra Macdonald (a.k.a. phoenix), Encyclopedia Staff

Chih-Chieh Chang (a.k.a. dormcat), Encyclopedia Staff

Chih-Chieh (known by most of his Westerner friends as "Albert") was born and raised in Taiwan and started watching anime since 2 and reading manga since 5. However those two forms of entertainment were not yet parts of his life before his sophomore year in college, when a manga rental opened within his campus. He started graduate studies in the US after finishing his undergraduate studies and mandatory military service. To his surprise, the North American anime and manga market has increased multiple times since his last visit four years ago, enabling him to pick up this hobby he once thought having to kiss goodbye. Currently he is trying to strike a balance between ACG and benchwork.

Colin Stanhill (a.k.a. Shinigami-sama), Encyclopedia staff

Colin Stanhill is a high school junior in Minnesota. Aside from working as much as possible on as many things as possible for ANN, he is the founder and current president (two years running) of his high school's anime club. He reads as many books and manga as he can without developing astigmatism, he watches all the anime he can afford (and some that he cannot), and he listens to music and plays drums in a band called Rusted Lung. And despite Jonathan Mays' record for having processed 156 error reports in six hours, Colin Stanhill has processed 117 error reports in two and a half hours.

Jeremy Lapus (a.k.a. areaseven), Encyclopedia staff

Originally from the Philippines, Jeremy has grown up with anime during his entire life. However, it wasn't until 1993 that he became a serious otaku when he first watched Akira. His all-time favorites include Macross Plus (where he got his username from), Cowboy Bebop, Gunbuster, RahXephon, Heat Guy J, Azumanga Daioh and Figure 17.

While the resident Californian may not hold as many records as Miagi, A7 is the current record-holder for most Encyclopedia entries - 35,000 and still counting.

Aside from anime, A7 collects DVD movies and diecast model cars. And whenever he gets a chance, he works on his own anime homepage.

Peter Rasmussen (a.k.a. abunai), Encyclopedia Staff

Danish historian and father of three. Living proof that older does not equal wiser.

Samantha Reinert (a.k.a Michi), Encyclopedia Staff

Samantha is a 20 year old part-time gamer, part-time anime fan. She is currently studying at college and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has lived for most of her life. She discovered anime during the summer of 1997 via the internet, and from there the interest eventually spread to include a love for manga, Japanese music, and cosplay. On the gaming side, well, she's been doing that for as long as she can remember. Her current goal is to study abroad in Japan, and is working hard to make it come true. She also has a pipe dream to become an actress, either for voice recording or the stage.

Jonathan Beltz (a.k.a. Akemi_Idaku), Encyclopedia Staff

Lavinia Cham (a.k.a. j1m0ne), Encyclopedia Staff

Lavinia is a Malaysian born third-year Economics and Finance student at the University of Southampton, UK. She grew up watching dubbed anime on TV but didn't get into it seriously until a bout of boredom caused by living in boarding school without an Internet connection was cured by a diet of Card Captor Sakura, Cowboy Bebop and Lain.

She is a music enthusiast, with a penchant for badly named Japanese indie bands; plays as many RPGs as she has time for, and also likes to collect fluffy soft toys.

Robert Berry, Encyclopedia Staff

Robert is a Winthrop University freshman in Rock Hill, South Carolina where he majors in history with a minor in education. He is a regular member and operator of ANN's own IRC channel (as Shin-Sensei), which in fact is how he ended up working on the encyclopedia. While he has no outstanding encyclopedia records, he does complain of "always working with H."

Samuel Wolfs (a.k.a. Woelfie), Encyclopedia Staff

He calls himself a perfectionist, but most people say he's a maniac. His wife calls him a freak but she's obviously biased. He started watching anime in the late seventies with Goldorak (UFO Robot Grendizer), Heidi of the Alps and Remi (Ie Naki Ko). However, at age 5, he didn't understood a word of French, so don't ask him for content. Now French is no problem anymore, but his other hobbies like manga, European comics strips and computer games are taking too much of his time to pick up anime on a regular base. To compensate for his seating job and hobbies, cycling keeps him a bit healthy.

Kumi Kaoru (Family name first), Japanese Correspondent

Kaoru is too busy to actually write up a description for this page :-). Kumi has been providing ANN with important news items originating in the Land of the Rising Sun as well as translating the occasional webpage.

Paul Fargo (a.k.a. Nagisa), Forum Moderator

Paul is a Twenty-year old student of the Art Institute of Atlanta, where he currently majors in Media Arts & Animation. His first exposure to anime came when he was about twelve or thirteen, and happened to catch the first Galaxy Express 999 movie on Sci-Fi Channel in the wee hours of the morning. After a brief dry spell (during which time he reluctantly admits to being a DBZ fan), he branched out to other titles like Evangelion and Gunsmith Cats, and it all snowballed from there. He currently enjoys a wide variety of anime, favorites including Full Metal Panic!, Haibane Renmei, Boogiepop Phantom, Azumanga Daioh, Gundam SEED, and Maria-sama ga Miteru. Other hobbies are gaming, hanging around a few regular online haunts, various musical fancies, South Park (among other American animated programs), and some other lesser hobbies that are too numerous and boring to mention.

[ 10 reviews by Paul Fargo ]