Staff List

Christopher Macdonald, CEO & Publisher

A former network engineer and administrator by trade, Christopher Macdonald lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with his wife and four cats. His first real exposure to anime (or japanimation as he knew it then) was Bubblegum Crisis which he saw in the summer of 1989. In 2000 he submitted a guest editorial to Anime News Network, and soon became co-editor-in-chief, along with George Phillips. Originally the site was a hobby for both of them, however in 2003 Macdonald left his networking job in order to focus exclusively on ANN and in 2004 Phillips stepped down from his position as co-editor-in-chief. For several years, Macdonald wrote all of ANN's news and personally edited every article on ANN, however as the site and its staff grew he had to focus on "managing" the site and now leaves most of the editorial work in the capable hands of ANN's editors and contributors. Reflecting his shifting responsibilities, Macdonald stepped down from the editor-in-chief position in late 2010. As publisher, his editorial involvement is mostly limited to planing the editorial "direction" of the website.

Aside from anime, he has many other interests, for which he has little time. Those that he does make some time for include motorsport, traveling, skiing and cycling.

(a.k.a. Dan42), Webmaster & Chief Encyclopedist

Dan's first exposure to anime was through Saturday morning cartoons at an early age. Years later he was reintroduced to the medium when his mind was blown to smithereens by Perfect Blue. His gradual otakufication was accelerated by other masterpieces such as Jin-Roh and Millennium Actress. In 2001 he started helping ANN by making a content management system for the reviews. One thing led to another, culminating in the creation of the Encyclopedia. After moving to Tokyo for a 2-year stint in the Japanese mobile internet industry, Daniel came back to ANN in 2006.

Egan Loo, Senior News Editor

Egan Loo has been a veteran of the industry for over a decade, with contributions to Anime Insider, Anime UK, EX, Otaku USA and Newtype USA magazines. In addition to contributing feature articles, he served as the news editor of Animerica magazine. He also translated or assisted in the English adaptation of the Escaflowne television series and film, the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, the Ghost Hunt manga, the Macross television series, and the Wolf's Rain manga.

, New Media Director

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 spent nearly four years at ImaginAsianTV, developing the fledgling network's technical infrastructure, anime programming and home video divisions. He was overjoyed to return to ANN in fall 2007.

, Executive Editor

Zac Bertschy has been a professional anime journalist for nine 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 Anime Insider magazine, and returned to ANN a couple of years later. His hobbies include banning people in the forums, watching way too much awful TV, and playing with his beloved pet bunny.

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

Chih-Chieh (known by most of his Westerner friends who can't pronounce his first name properly 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.

, Associate Editor

, Assistant Editor

Bamboo (yes, it's her real name) graduated from Brown University in '06 with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and is currently attending UC Irvine in pursuit of a PhD in molecular 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, violin, and guitar, and rooting for the Colorado Avalanche. In between schoolwork and writing Shelf Life, Bamboo enjoys snowboarding and playing ice hockey, ultimate frisbee, and squash. She adores the idea of TV on DVD, and is not ashamed to admit that she cosplays.

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

Carlo is an engineer in real life, which has little to do with anime and manga except for the part where you memorize useless facts and nitpick ridiculous details. He is the happy owner of a completed Clamp No Kiseki chess set, although his ability to play the game isn't quite at the level of his ability to collect figurines. He still likes Bleach better than Naruto, generally finds favor with the works of Studio Gainax, and will insist to the death that Shugo Chara! is the apotheosis of the magical girl genre.

Theron Martin (a.k.a. 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.

Brian Hanson, Columnist

After writing The Click for nearly 3 years, Brian took over as ANN's resident Answerman.

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.

Erin Finnegan, Columnist

Erin writes the weekly Shelf Life column.

Hope Chapman (a.k.a. JesuOtaku), Reviewer

Hope is a scatterbrained college student with a deep love for anime and animation on the whole, as well as live-action film. She is currently studying Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University with a focus in Production. She manages an informal, silly video review show on her website with several other video reviewers, along with reviewing new releases in text on ANN. She has a big mouth and for better or worse, it never really stops moving. She's at her happiest when she can make people laugh.

Lissa Patillo, Reviewer

Lissa is a chronic multi-tasker who spends the majority of her free time wondering how long it'll be until there's no room left in her apartment for food as the books continue to take over. A reader and collector of manga for over ten years, she took up the task of trying to review a portion of the piles for her own manga news and review website, Kuriousity and enjoys the opportunity to explore her interests with a different audience at ANN. When not buried nose-deep in manga, Lissa is a freelance graphic designer and print-centre consultant who's also spent much of 2010 wearing the con-chair hat for two local anime conventions in Eastern Canada. She can usually be found lurking on Twitter trying to speak her mind in 140 characters and failing.

Rebecca Silverman, Reviewer

Todd Ciolek, Columnist

Todd writes the weekly column The X Button.

Nader, Encyclopedia Editor

Brandon Graves (a.k.a. EmperorBrandon), Encyclopedia Editor

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

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. Aside from anime, A7 collects DVD movies and diecast model cars.

John C. Watson (a.k.a. doc-watson42), Encyclopedia Editor

A longtime fan of SF/F, Mr. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.

Paul Schmidt (a.k.a. DokoMadeMo), Encyclopedia Editor

Simon Browning (a.k.a. Shiroi Hane), Encyclopedia Editor

A Welsh physics dropout and telephone technical support engineer. Grew up on anime without really realizing it (Battle of the Planets, Ulysses 31 and The Mysterious Cities of Gold), fell in love with Laputa when it was shown on UK television in the 80s, but was too young to watch Akira when it aired there. Got seriously into anime as an adult, ironically, through catching odd episodes of Digimon, Cardcaptors and Sailor Moon on children's TV and never looked back. As well as being a Sci-Fi fan and alpha geek, has a background in music having learnt to play piano, trumpet and guitar; while no longer studying music still plays piano regularly in church.

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

Michi is a part-time gamer, part-time anime fan. She recently returned from studying abroad in Japan at Tokyo International University. She is from 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. She also has a pipe dream to become an actress, either for voice recording or the stage.

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

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 understand 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 desk job and hobbies, cycling keeps him a bit healthy.

Tony Brightman (a.k.a. darkhunger), Encyclopedia Editor

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

Jonathan's fascination with anime started around 2000 with Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and Gundam Wing on Toonami. He quickly found interest in manga starting with Love Hina. Since then he has grown to love just about everything Japan has to offer. He usually obsesses over Japanese dramas, TV shows, and commercials. In addition, he loves most Asian films and most East Asian things in general. He also likes to spend his time surfing through various Japanese language websites, reading obscure and controversial literature, and studying foreign languages.

Jonathan is currently majoring in International Studies and minoring in Japanese at UNC Charlotte. In addition to all this, he tries to stay active and loves playing tennis, cycling and going out driving around town and spending time with his friends.

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

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.

Scott Riley (a.k.a. PantsGoblin), Encyclopedia Editor

A seiyuu-obsessed moé enthusiast and bishoujo fanboy. Scott was first exposed to the anime world via the Pokemon craze of the late 1990s. He later went on to watch Excel Saga, which he thought was hilarious, thus becoming hooked on anime. Although he enjoys watching a wide variety of anime, his favorites would include Galaxy Angel, Nurse Witch Komugi, When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koroni), Welcome to the NHK!, Genshiken, and Rumbling Hearts (Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien). He enjoys observing various internet cultures, playing video games (mainly RPGs), listening to J-pop and anime music with extremely high pitched voices (denpa music), and helping out with as much as he can in the Encyclopedia in between his (other) job.

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

Paul is a 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.

Peter Rasmussen (a.k.a. abunai), Forum Moderator

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

Tony Khamvongsouk (a.k.a. Tony K.), Forum Moderator

Born in 1983 in Tifton, Georgia and of Lao descent, Tony grew up in Irving, Texas (since the age of 3 months) and became an anime fan around the age of 10 watching the likes of Akira and Vampire Hunter D.

Eventually, he became a big follower of the shounen genre in the mid 90s with the North American introduction of Dragonball Z. He is a particularly avid fan of the Rurouni Kenshin franchise, and enjoys shounen series for their seemingly simplistic and straightforward characters/plotlines.

As a kid, he often watched classic American cartoons and is still a fan of titles such as Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and the occassional Disney movie.

In addition, Tony is also a fan of the Star Trek franchise (post-Shatner) and reveres Star Trek: First Contact as his favorite, all-time movie. He also enjoys various live-action movies from both Hollywood and Asia.

On days he doesn't immerse himself in anime, Tony also likes to watch pro sports (Football, Basketball, and Baseball, in that order) or anything on ESPN. He also likes to play the occassional video game and likes to think he is particularly adept at Capcom vs. SNK 2 on PS2...

Tony enjoys manga as well, but usually prefers anime with the exception of filler-plagued titles.

Currently, Tony is attending the University of North Texas and majoring in Marketing (with a minor in Psychology).