Anime Expo 2005

Anime Expo - Anime News Network

Anime News Network (ANN) has become the premier source of anime news on the net. But not only does it offer the latest news about your favorite series, it also has weekly columns, an extremely extensive encyclopedia of TV series, companies, and industry professionals, lexicon, a variety forums, and the always popular chat rooms.

At AnimeExpo 2005, the staff of ANN setup a discussion panel to allow a more direct connection with the public. Christopher Macdonald introduced himself as the Editor in Chief of ANN and then each person on the panel introduced him/herself.

ANN gave the impression that they were not prepared for this panel since they did not have a list of issues that they wanted to present; Chris was constantly asking left and right what the next topic was to present.

After 15 minutes of announcements, Chris opened the floor to any questions from the attendees. With the exception of Chris and Bamboo Dong, the staff of ANN was rather shy, hesitant to step forward, take the microphone and answer the questions presented by the attendees.

The stream of questions was constant and wide-ranging. There was a real interest in knowing how ANN works behind the scenes; how they review movies, manga, and music; what the criteria is to recommend or not recommend titles; what steps are followed before breaking any news to the public; what hardware and software the site runs on, etc...

Overall, it was very interesting to see, listen and interact with the people behind the web site that has become a beacon of light in the ever-growing jungle of anime, manga, music, people, and Japanese culture.