On January 18th in the year 2000, Anime Dream published its first article as the anime offshoot of RPGFan.com. To start our 11th year, we've opted for a quiet celebration — a series of personal messages from staff and former staff (those we could get ahold of) to you, about their experiences at the site, and whatever else they wanted to say, really. We're both lucky and appreciative to have been around this long. From the bottom of my heart, and in my capacity as Editor in Chief of Anime Dream, I want to thank those who contributed to the site in the past, those who continue to do so, and above all, our readers. It's been a wild ride, and I can't wait to see what the next ten years will bring!

A Gamer's Transformation

In early 2000, I was into everything and anything [video] RPGs. I still have plenty of games from that time period in my unconquerable backlog, and that was even before I got a Real Job (TM). I can't say exactly how I stumbled upon RPGFan at the time, but there weren't a whole lot of sites with similar coverage. A friend of mine played episodes of Dragon Ball Z at the college lounge I hung out at, but I didn't have any clue what it was. Why should I be interested in something like that, anyway? It wasn't even in English.

The same friend approached me and a few others about helping run videos for a convention that UCF's anime club was starting, called Jacon. Despite having a Jacon 2000 staff shirt, when I walked into the anime classics video room that Friday, I still had zero interest in what I would be responsible for showing. The first show was called City Hunter, under the ADV Fansubs label. It was mildly interesting! Anyone who's seen City Hunter knows that the first five episodes are a cut above the rest — not a bad way to start one's anime experience.

I caught a few more screenings at Jacon, one of which was the X/1999 movie, which isn't very good. Around that time I also viewed Ninja Scroll and my friend's subbed VHS copy of Vision of Escaflowne. If any one work is responsible for hooking me on anime in general, it's Escaflowne. Some time in 2000, I also befriended RPGFan's public face and founder of Anime Dream, Nicole. She brought me on in mid to late 2001 to take care of AD's technical needs — a job I've been doing ever since. Eventually, I took on some writing responsibilities and later, responsibility for the site itself. Eight years isn't a very long time, but then I think: Jacon officially ceased to be in 2009, but Anime Dream is still here, and I'm a part of it. It's a big deal.

Super Robots and their Exploding Dentures

When I got into anime, most everything available was from the nineties or earlier. It was actually possible to keep up with every interesting release, before the market went hog wild. I kind of miss that, but on balance, the fact that so many anime are, or have been, made available in the States is a Good Thing.

Even now, my tastes in anime are pretty simple. If a show has great music, I'll probably like it. (See: Brain Powerd, as a notable exception.) Failing that, it better have acceptable music and decent storytelling. Failing that, it better be chock-filled with B-movie quality cult awesomeness. In virtually every review I've ever written, my opinion boils down to some expression of these rules.

I write about Eastern works, but for Western audiences — and I think it's important to maintain this perspective, because for one thing, I'll never be Japanese, no matter how interested I am in their culture. Even our methods of showing that we love anime differ from our Eastern counterparts, as well as our reasons for liking the shows, the associations we make while watching, and so on.

12 Frames per Second

Why keep something like this going for ten years? Any measure of popularity or half-competent PR work puts an unbelievable strain on a site, both in terms of staff time and costs. On the later score we've been fortunate. Several times during my tenure, I've wondered why I'm still doing this. Life does intrude, at at times it has to take priority. At times, writing about anime seemed to be the least important and least meaningful use of my free time. More than once I've come close to hanging it all up, but in the end, it didn't happen.

Looking back, I think that part of the reason why is the friends and acquaintances I've made over the years. Just like any other job, the people you meet and work with help to keep it fresh and expand your horizons, and the longer you're at it, the stronger the attachment. Some of the people I talk to every day are anime fans who write about anime. With all its frustrations, this is an active community full of interesting people. I'm proud to be a part of it, and to contribute to it via Anime Dream.

At this point, I've gone on about myself long enough. Several of the other valuable contributors to the site have words to share, and I'll be posting those as they come in, until the end of the month. I'd just like to say again, thank you for reading us, and here's to another ten years!

I can't believe Anime Dream has been around for ten years. On a personal level, what that means most poignantly is that I'm an old man.

My association with Anime Dream begins and ends with RPGFan. At one time, Anime Dream was a sister site / offspring of RPGFan. It was put together by the same staff, and operated by the same staff, in its formative years. Eventually, the two sites split ways.

During my most active AD years, as a teen, I wrote primarily about anime soundtracks that had some relation to a video game. I reviewed the Final Fantasy anime soundtracks (not Unlimited, but the one that is a sequel to FFV). I reviewed the Wild Arms Twilight Venom soundtrack. I also took on some soundtracks for anime I was really into, including Evangelion, Key: The Metal Idol, Sailor Moon, and Princess Mononoke.

It's amazing just how much anime has proliferated in American culture in the last decade. I first discovered anime by watching Sci-Fi's Saturday morning anime. The first one I ever saw was Vampire Hunter D. Not long after, I discovered the big anime of the 90s: Eva, DBZ, Gundam, Lodoss, etc.

Anime has changed a lot over the years. Most TV anime I simply cannot keep up with. My anime diet mostly consists of Miyazaki films and some other artsy stuff (Tekkon Kinkreet was weird...but at least it was on Blu-Ray). I also wrote a review of Interstella 5555 for Anime Dream a while ago. Somehow that one slipped by me, even with its promotion on Toonami. Galaxy Express 999-style art with Daft Punk music? That's an instant winner.

I hope that Anime Dream continues to exist as a site that caters to an audience of thoughtful readers. Too many sites have ravenous fans who don't really care for critique or analysis. That's something that we've all had to develop as we grow up, and I've seen it in spades at AD.

- Patrick Gann

Wow. Has it been ten years already? Time really flies!

I still remember my interview with Nicole almost eight years ago, and the excitement of being chosen to join this team of creative, yet somewhat off-kilter folks. Things have changed over the years — people came, people left, and our focus has shifted several times. However, we've never abandoned our dedication to bringing you guys, our readers, the best quality content that we can with the resources we have.

Currently, I fill Anime Dream's role of Communications Director and News Editor. Basically, I keep in contact with our partners in the industry, and keep you guys up to date with the latest rumblings. I also serve as part-time dictator whenever Matt is unavailable.

Today, I still see Anime Dream as a sort of idea factory. We're a rag-tag group of opinionated folks that love talking about what we enjoy. We still keep our opinions pure, and refuse to cater to anybody but our readers. Our staff has changed, and our priorities have shifted, but we'll never abandon our philosophy.

I look forward to our next ten years, and the challenges the decade brings. I hope that every one of you will join us going forward, as we look toward new experiences and greater challenges.

Thanks for your support, your friendly e-mails, and even your hate mail. It means a lot to know that you guys feel so deeply about what we're saying, and we like hearing what you have to say (Well, I do. I don't know if the others like being threatened about things said about Sailor Moon!). Anime Dream is family to me, and you readers are all my friends. I could work for this site day in and day out for the rest of my days, but it wouldn't mean a damn thing without you, or the awesome people who make Anime Dream what it is today. You aren't just a number, a statistic, or some random username on a server. You're all people — people who share a collective love of anime, manga, and anime music. So, thank you guys. Thank you for giving me the incredible opportunity to write about anime and manga, and make a second career out of it for the past several years. And thank you, staff, for just being so damn awesome. You all mean the world to me.

Going forward, let's make our next decade the best decade for Anime Dream. I look forward to joining you there, and making a whole bunch of new friends at the same time!

It’s always tough for me to figure out how to begin with this sort of feature. Giving details about a series and even providing a bit of opinion for a review is one thing, but sharing personal information in this sort of medium goes against my nature. The reason is not to be enigmatic, but rather because I do not believe there is anything all that interesting to tell. People, especially on the Internet, are largely subject to what we choose to make of them, so depending on if you agree with the assessments I make in my reviews, whether or not you like my writing style, and any number of intangible factors likely influence what, if anything, you think about me.

That being said, the staff has all been asked to contribute a little something for a feature to mark Anime Dream’s 10th anniversary. Being the newest to the group makes the task a little harder, because unlike some of the others, I have not been around all that long and do not know a lot about the anime industry. What I may lack in insider information and hours logged at the various conventions, I hope I make up for with the amount of anime I watch throughout the year.

It has been almost 15 years since I added anime viewing to my list of hobbies. Before college, I had heard of anime, but regarded it as just being Japanese cartoons and had never watched anything. My freshman roommate, along with a lot of free time, changed all of that though, getting me hooked on both anime and video games.

If you have read my profile, you know my anime viewing occurs almost exclusively while I put in my daily hours on a treadmill after work. For a few years, I hardly watched anything because my career kept me so busy. But at the end of 2008, I moved to someplace where running outside during the winter was not feasible, so I bought a treadmill and was inspired to combine two of the things I love to do to unwind from a long day.

Joining Anime Dream was a spontaneous choice after seeing an invitation to contribute on a message board. I was familiar with the website and decided it might be fun to be able to communicate some of my thoughts and potentially help others navigate buying choices in what can potentially be a very expensive hobby. A couple of months and a dozen reviews later, I was asked if I would like to join the staff and gladly accepted.

Much like my decision to start adding content, my selection of what to watch next is usually very haphazard, and thus I tend to contribute reviews for a wide variety of shows. And while my personal preferences may be a little out of synch with the rest of the staff, selling my opinion has never been my goal, and I think getting a different take on things keeps life interesting. My thoughts about I watch are purely my own, and it is my intention to make the reviews I write seem unpretentious and allow the reader to make their own judgment about a show. While I do share some of my opinion from time to time, I also know that a reader might very well despise something I enjoyed, or vice versa, so I try to keep things objective.

In any case, it is my hope that Anime Dream continues to grow and is around for another 10 years, and hopefully all of you feel the same. The website is made up of a staff of volunteers, so while the content may not be the most prolific, hopefully the passion and hard work of the people that keep it up and running (and that is not me), is appreciated. Also, if there is something you would like to see us try, join the forums and let us know. I cannot make any promises, but most of us do check there regularly and would love any feedback you might have.

My interest in Japan goes all the way back to my childhood, having been exposed to Japanese art, books, and cultural elements back then, my mother having grown up in a missionary family over in Japan. I had my first experiences with Japanese animation watching cartoons as a kid, unaware of how many of those '70s and '80s 'toons were animated in Japan and drew on stock anime visual techniques and sound effects of the time. Only when I was first exposed to Speed Racer on Cartoon Network and the classic Carl Macek dubs of the first few TV episodes and "Burning Night" OVA release of Sega's Akai Koudan Zillion did I start to develop a consciousness of that I was watching works of very culturally different origins.

As I moved into my teens, I was exposed to more anime through a few purchases my older brother made — the first of us to venture into the subculture at all — in some Ranma 1/2 OVAs and the first movie. Eventually, we rented the first volume of the Record of Lodoss War OVAs, and I had to see the rest. From there, I began my anime collection with CPM's English-dubbed VHS release of the series, and after concluding that I preferred my anime in Japanese with English subtitles, I began my subbed collection with the "Tenchi Universe" Tenchi Muyo TV series and Ah My Goddess VHS releases. I began dabbling in manga as well, with Del Rey's long forgotten Iron Fist Chinmi, and Viz's releases of the Guyver manga, and eventually Urusei Yatsura. When the local Animazement convention began in spring of 1998, shortly before I finished middle school, I found myself attending every year since. By now, I've attended as a regular attendee for both single days and entire weekends, as press for a good several years, and as of 2009, I've even gone as a VIP, assisting with a Japanese Shibori textile art panel. To say the least, I've made a lot of interesting memories in the process.

When I first applied to Anime Dream in early summer 2002, I was fresh out of high school and didn't expect to get the job. At that point in my life, following a rough adolescence (Oh, to be young and nerdy), I was just beginning to rediscover my love of writing, which I'm now pursuing professionally.

Less an adult at that point and more an otaku using anime, manga, and games as an escape from my anxieties and difficulties, I still remember cobbling together an excessively long review of the out of the Eat-Man OVA series to go with my application, and nervously stumbling my way through my original interview. I wanted the job, just to get the opportunity and motivation to write about a hobby I had much passion for, but given where I was at that point in life, I didn't have much confidence.

Like most otaku, I had a honeymoon with the hobby. I consumed anything and everything anime and manga that I could get my hands on, and remained open to everything, wanting to understand as much of that world and subculture as I possibly could. As you can easily see when looking back at older reviews I wrote for Anime Dream — Metal Fighter Miku, Kurogane Communication, .hack//SIGN, and Melty Lancer, for instance — I was hesitant to be overly critical of anything. By the time I first joined the site, I had begun to finally develop a bit of a sense of whether a show was good or not when watching it, but I had an inclination to be a little too kind to many shows that didn't deserve it in my reviews. At that point, I didn't have much of a sense yet of what it meant to work as a critic, to seek out objectivity and write with journalistic integrity. Looking at certain anime sites and most video game websites these days, a lot of people working in the "geek press" don't even seem interested in asking themselves these questions.

As I sought a more objective, honest, and precise perspective, I began to find shows I couldn't help but love despite my increasing cynicism — such as Crest/Banner of the Stars, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances), Genshiken, Infinite Ryvius, and Haibane Renmei. And I also began to figure out which shows stood the test of time (Patlabor, Urusei Yatsura, Gunbuster), and which did not (Most of Slayers, the fairly iffy though fun Tenchi Muyo, and most action shows). As we moved forward into a new, more digital age of anime, I found fresh, beautiful new shows (Air, Kanon, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), and had some deeply painful experiences with others (Ikki Tousen, Nabari no Ou, Petite Cossette). The explosion of manga localization through TokyoPop and Del Rey caused me to vastly constrict my manga consumption, limiting myself to keeping up with only three series now. And the advent of online streaming has allowed me to immerse myself in the fun of uncut, subtitled One Piece at the expense of a few short commercial breaks throughout each episode.

Ultimately, my tastes in anime have mostly trended away from the action comedies and excessively "grimdark" focuses — those that seem to dominate the adolescent geek mindset around the anime and video gaming subcultures. I've come to enjoy fresh, witty, intelligent comedy and satire while simultaneously growing weary of lazy, running-gag-driven shows that try to play off visual gags that weren't funny twenty-plus years ago. Most action shows — the aforementioned One Piece being a rare exception — remain low on both intelligence and imagination, and more recent generations' "Dragon Ball Z" type shows layer on the grating teen angst like it is going out of style. This kind of weariness and low tolerance for lazy writing has worked its way into my reviews in more recent days.

For me to love a show, it needs interesting characters — not tired, deflated archetypes. If it's going to go the comedy route, it needs a well developed intelligence or sense of absurdity — like Azumanga Daioh, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, School Rumble, Genshiken, or Haruhi's incessant meta-humor. (And even One Piece refuses to take itself too seriously — a major reason why that series never picked up the kind of following in North America that the likes of Bleach and Naruto did.) If a show goes the drama route, I need developed, three-dimensional characters whom I can come to care for as actual human beings, like in Kare Kano, Haibane, Infinite Ryvius, and Crest/Banner. Despite their giant teary-eyed sentimentality, I've loved Key/Visual Art's works for their evocative character writing and strong sense of atmosphere. I'm hoping to give Kanon and Clannad reviews in time.

For me, the college years were a time of great personal growth, learning to at least somewhat come out of my shell and connect with other human beings better. I majored in International Studies, focused on East Asia, and minored in Japanese, gaining a great deal of cultural perspective most western otaku lack. Likewise, I spent those years feeding myself a steady stream of pop culture, drifting from my clumsy otaku roots into full-on pop culture junkie territory, taking film courses and watching all sorts of great films from every country and in every language I possibly could, developing a sense of taste and understanding of film that has only enriched my experiences and tastes in anime further. I rediscovered my love of literature while sharpening my own writing talents, and found meaningful inspiration in indie music, from the expansive web around Canadian group Broken Social Scene to the exuberant Polyphonic Spree and jazzy dance pop by the likes of The Bird and the Bee.

Having taken the time to indulge deeply in all these things expanded my perspective on geek subculture considerably, and opened my eyes fully to how terrible most anime and video games actually are, the majority of shows and games praised for their "genius" and "artsy" writing being pretentious trash consumed by people who themselves as of yet lack perspective on quality writing. (We are a nation and a culture in love with things like Twilight and Transformers, and more than willing to sing the praises of Dances with Smurfs Avatar for its dazzling visual effects.) For me, all of this has been a positive thing, and as I write this testimonial nearly eight years after joining Anime Dream, I write as a tremendously different person from who I was back then.

At Anime Dream, we've seen numerous changes over the years. A site redesign. Staff members coming and going — some for the best, and some whose departure was a genuine loss. And we've watched the fansub-heavy otaku subculture fully embrace piracy as broadband internet became mainstream, many of the companies we held press relationships with falling with the times. Many good people have lost their jobs, all because there's so little conception amongst many anime fans of what it means to download fansubs and who it hurts — and where there is understanding, there's often a saddening apathy.

As for myself, there was a noticeable drop off for a while in which I slacked off from my duties and contributed little content, keeping busy with college. Just over two years after graduation now, this has been remedied, and I'm back to producing regular reviews and news articles while pursuing a professional fiction writing career to get that whole "real life" thing going.

This is indeed the overkill rambling you've come to expect from me. So hey, I'll just wrap by saying that it's been an interesting near-eight years. I'm kind of surprised I'm still around, but I'm glad to be. Anime Dream has changed and evolved a lot in this past decade and I'm happy to have been part of that, having made some good friendships in the process. Like any writer, I — and the rest of the staff — owe everything to you guys, the readers. We work hard to bring quality, substantive anime writing to the table, and everyone who stops by to read makes it worthwhile. If I'm still writing here in ten years, it'll be interesting to see what else I have to say then, assuming I'm not some jetsetting celebrated super-genius author spending all his money on coke and hookers by then.

Let's all keep having fun watching anime — I also highly recommend seeking new, outside perspectives through other media as well, as I did.

When I first started paying attention to anime as an adult, there were a number of things about the medium that appealed to me: the quality of the animation (I have always liked animated films, no matter their origin), the prevalence of science-fiction themes, and the fact that anime uses inner monologue (a narrative tool I have always liked) much more than Western films and shows. However, probably the biggest item of appeal for me was the music. For reasons I still don't completely understand, anime shows almost always have good, and often times great, soundtracks. I am a fairly musical person, with a long history of singing and playing instruments, so this aspect of anime was one I find very attractive.

Soon after my first significant experiences with anime, I found a store where I lived that sold soundtrack CDs for anime and video games. I couldn't afford much of it at the time, but this put me on a search to find reviews or guides to soundtracks, in order to identify soundtracks that would appeal to me. At the time I played a lot of computer and video game RPGs, and that led me to discover the RPGfan website. They had a direct link on their page to Anime Dream, and Anime Dream reviewed soundtracks! So, I started reading it regularly, probably around early 2002. In my searches, I never did find many other sites that reviewed soundtracks. EX.org did, but they are long gone. Yushiro's reviews at Anime Dream were always quite in-depth, and they really helped me figure out if I would like an album or not.

In late 2003, Yushiro stepped down as the soundtrack reviews editor for the site, and a notice was put up that Anime Dream was looking for a new soundtrack editor. I had submitted a couple fan reviews by that point, so I threw my hat in the ring. The rest, as the saying goes, is history, and I became the soundtrack editor in early 2004.

After being associated with the site for six years, what does Anime Dream mean to me? Well, it is a place where anime is discussed without bias. Nobody owns the site but us (well, really just Matt!), and we are not beholden to anybody but our consciences and our readers. We even buy the majority of what we review ourselves, so if a show stinks we usually feel the same pain that our readers feel. The fact that Anime Dream also covers the music of anime is also important to me (obviously, as that is the job I took), and I feel that this aspect of the site gives Anime Dream a unique angle in covering anime and its attendant culture.

What does the future hold for Anime Dream? I have no idea what will happen in a macro sense, but we will continue to do our best to provide in-depth opinions, news, and reviews to anime fans everywhere.

If your name or secret identity appears on this page, and you'd like to say something on our 10th Anniversary, fear not. I'll be happy to post your words anytime in February too, and if I'm in a really good mood, maybe even later than that! Just use our contact page to let me know you'd like to contribute, and I'll see that it happens.

Cheers, and thanks for these ten years!