Welcome to Japanator

It's late at night, you're poking around the Internet, and after having finished the latest episode of Bleach or Naruto or whatever else is popular these days, you stumbled across Japanator. What is it? Why should I read it? How do I pronounce it's name?

Ja-pan-a-tor, by the way.

Simply put, we are the otaku's companion. We're here to keep you updated on all things Japan: Not only anime and manga, but also Japanese music, television dramas, cosplay, gaming, and even current events/politics from time to time. Besides the hard journalism that is inherent to the Japan blogging community, we've got plenty of original features and columns to keep you entertained.

Once you're done reading the front page, you can hop into our forums or our community blogs section to share your ideas. The community blogs section is a place for you to expound upon your own ideas, share news, and in general produce a cohesive long-form post. We're always on the prowl looking for good entries: if we really like your piece, we'll promote it to the front page.

Meanwhile, over in the forums, go ahead and kick up a discussion. Want to talk about the latest episode of this one show? Do it in the forums so that other people can join in on the conversation. While you're there, you can find recommendations for new things to watch or meet a few new people from the community.

How'd we get here?

Back when Modern Method, our little company, was simply Destructoid.com, we decided to launch a site dedicated to covering those funny Japanese cartoons and comic books, and Japanator was born on November 3rd, 2006. Since then, we've been carving our own path in the community.

We found that just writing about anime and manga was limiting, so we opened ourselves up to covering a fuller Japan beat, and haven't looked back since. It's been a major part of our development and appeal, offering a greater scope of Japan, its media and its culture than any other site out there on the 'net.

If you're interested in hearing our Editor-in-Chief talk about himself and running the site, check out his appearances on  Anime3000's podcast, Anime News Network's show and even our G4 spot up above.

ps. Got news?  Send press releases, stories, and inquiries to tips@japanator.com

The staff

Brad Rice

Editor-in-Chief

Brad is a writer, through and through. Normally he's chained to his desk updating the site at all hours, but on occasion he manages to slip out to work on writing screenplays and papers, even though he's already graduated from Syracuse University.

Likes: Gurren Lagann, Toradora, Tsundere

Dislikes: Moeblobs, Key shows, Dale North

Contact: brad@japanator.com

Twitter: DickMcVengeance

Josh Tolentino

News Editor

Josh currently lives the dream as Japanator's News Editor and resident recap czar, wrangling the herd of cats that is the site's staff into submitting their entries for the weekly Annotated Anime and Shonen Showdown column, as well as occassionally kicking in Idolm@ster DLC news at Destructoid. Besides that he inhabits a cubicle at his day job, secretly drafting contributions to print publications like Esquire.

Likes: Videogames, Gyudon with the raw egg on top, mecha musume, moe anthropomorphism, digital distribution, MegaTen, footless android women, Chie, moe, harems, Miki, weekly recaps

Dislikes: Region restrictions, bandwidth caps, lazy PC ports, irrational hatred of Japanese gaming, fan outrage, deadlines

Contact: josh@japanator.com

Twitter: unangbangkay

Hiroko Yamamura

Reviews Editor

Hiroko Yamamura is the Review's Editor and what nightmares are made of for her co-workers. A mecha and sci-fi nut, Hiroko is pretty much our resident anime snob. Hiroko calls both Tokyo and Sasebo her hometowns, while living out her gangster life in Chicago. When she's not writing for various websites, she can be found teaching art or making bad electronic music.

Likes: picking on Elliot, money, drugs, prostitutes, precision driving machines, cigarettes, judo, shochu, drum and bass, her shiba inu, mochi-cheese, you naked, reading, david lynch, binging.

Dislikes: carrots, spinach, broccoli, tsp reports, the tsp, coach class seats, your face, children, late reviews, macross plus.

Contact: hiroko@japanator.com

Twitter: biobooster

Dale North

Associate Editor

Dale is a writer/journalist/blogger that mostly covers games, tech, music, and, of course, Japanese culture. He rarely ever stops writing. When he's not writing for the fine ModernMethod network of websites, he's usually recording music, traveling, cooking, or eating.

Likes: Love anime, Funny anime, Moe anime, KyoAni

Dislikes: Anime Snobs, Brad Rice

Pedro Cortes

Associate Editor

Having survived the university education system, Pedro is just trying to make a living. To keep himself from going insane, Pedro indulges himself by recording and editing several podcasts and any video content that he can film. His dream job is anything that can put him in an editors chair and/or behind a camera, though he currently enjoys being the features editor at Tomopop. He still wouldn't mind becoming Hunter S. Thompson, although he would prefer not to go out in the same manner.

Likes: Gurren Lagann, One Piece, Bioware, Atlus, fantasy/sci-fi, PVC, beer, nice legs and a bit ol' booty

Dislikes: most first person shooters, bad fanservice, his crappy metabolism

Contact: pedro@tomopop.com

Twitter: PedroCortesGET

Jeff Chuang

Associate Editor

Jeff is striving to be the model herbivorous otaku salaryman. When he's not, he's partying at cons, cooking, or having a social life. When he's not even doing those things, he's making run-on sentences and mincemeat of English syntax. Despite being a transplant, he is a true-blood East Coast-type whose heart beats as fast as a New York minute.

Likes: Biz & industry, Nadesico, Masami Okui, 2.5D, Rinko Kobayakawa, matome 2ch blogs

Dislikes: US Copyright, mushrooms, haters

Contact: rotinoma@gmail.com

Twitter: omonomono

Chris Walden

Associate Editor

Chris is some guy from the UK that Japanator keeps about the place, just in case the Brittanian forces decide to show up again. While not writing terrible fanfiction in Annotated Anime for the rubbish shows he doesn't drop, he chips away at his Masters degree in Video Game Design. He seems like a friendly chap, but no one can quite tell if he isn't just being incredibly sarcastic, all of the time.

Likes: Shaft, Clannad, Godzilla, Taiko no Tatsujin, sarcasm

Dislikes: K-On!, spoilers, recap episodes

Twitter: EuricaeriS

Elliot Gay

Associate Editor

Elliot lives in Japan, where he can occasionally be found poisoning the minds of Japanese children. When he's not damaging the infrastructure of Japan, he can be found being made fun of on Japanator. He graduated college with a major in Japanese language and a minor in Film. While he likes to pretend he can speak Japanese, it's actually just some random sounds he makes up in the hopes of tricking people into believing he's smart. Trust absolutely nothing he says. Nothing. Elliot can also be found managing the Jtor Twitter account during times when you really should be asleep.

Likes: Japan, Falcom, Shaft, Baccano!, living, air, coffee.

Dislikes: moe, running, small dogs, natto, not living.

Contact: elliotryo@gmail.com

Twitter: RyougaSaotome

Salvador G-Rodiles

Associate Editor

Salvador is not what you would consider a normal person. Having taken a huge risk when he pursued his first bachelors degree, he encountered a few dead ends around his last quarters. Regardless of his failures, he has obtained a great amount of knowledge and experience that will guide him towards his next path. He is currently building up his strength, so that he can begin his new journey in life. When he is not carving texts into random articles for Japanator, he is watching all sorts of animations, plowing through older tokusatsu shows, or catching up on his huge backlog of video games that will continue to build up over time.

Likes: hanging out with friends, hot bloodedness, good henshin sequences, archery, target practice, gun tridents or any sort of weapon that has multiple functions, spicy foods, 2D animations, Atlus, JRPGs, small dogs

Dislikes: Fiction that wastes people's time, stubbornness, bad henshin sequences, mint mixed with chocolate (Unless if it is ice cream.)

Contact: zeriosgavilan@gmail.com

Twitter: thecrimsonblade

Kristina Pino

Associate Editor

Kristina Pino is a Cuban weirdo with mood swings and too many hobbies. She sometimes watches anime whenever she isn't reading, playing video games, doing various arts and crafts, photographing, doing stuff for Tomopop or trying to get out of town. She holds two degrees that haven't done her much good so far (Anthropology and Asian Studies, if you must know), speaks five languages and has a goal of being a travel journalist. Some day. Maybe she'll just be an editor for some snazzy publishing company instead. Both sound great. For now, she's pretty sure she's moving to Japan for a while to do the kind of stuff Mr Elliot Gay is doing.

Likes: Caramel, Disney, martial arts, rum, MMORPGs, Sunflowers, Japan, the Kagamine twins, learning, editing other peoples' work, and you

Dislikes: Chocolate, little jerk kids with internet access in video games, hearing people chewing, misunderstandings, trading card games, green tea, jellyfish, and especially Evangelion.

Josh Totman

Associate Editor

Josh is a simple man. Normally either in the kitchen cooking up a tasty meal or watching the latest anime that not too many people like. Being more of the old timer of the group. He has now been watching, collecting, and consuming anime for the past 17 years. He now resides in Washington state, since moving from the cold tundra of Alaska. Where, at one point, started an anime convention up there that ran for three years before shutting down. Before that, he also had an online anime store that he tried starting up on eBay. Other then that, he tries to do whatever he can to help the anime industry by trying to relearn the written English language for reviews and articles. English is his second language, he is still trying to find his first.

Likes: Boobs, cooking, ecchi, slice of life, moe, comedies, kittens, English voice actors, remixes, eating, Sapporo beer, boobs

Dislikes: Anything that's too popular, burnt food, rude people, Dragonball, mech shows that are not Evangelion

Contact: totsu11@hotmail.com

Twitter: thetotsu

Marcus Speer

Associate Editor

Marcus is a dude who really likes to keep things on the DL. His idea of having fun is being that guy you'd buy a beer for first, then wax anime wisdom with later. He (un)ironically listens to gangster rap, loves awkward comedy, digs the cheesy, high school anime rom-coms and can edit a mean video together using computer wizardry. Also, I'm pretty sure he can mop the floor with anybody in an old-fashioned game of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Samus Aran. All day, err' day, baby.

Likes: Production I.G., Madhouse, Corgis, Mega64, Seattle, Kenji Kamiyama, Canada, Detective Conan, Mac Dre, Amp Energy Drinks

Dislikes: North Korea, memes, dingos, itchy shirts, broken legs, Hetalia, Toddlers and Tiaras, Zack Snyder, airline food

Contact: kindaaloser@gmail.com

Twitter: kindaaloser

Mini Privacy Policy:

In short, we do business based on Google's meme: "Don't be evil."

Japanator is a trusted community site so we hold ourselves to the highest privacy standards. Simply put -- We would never sell your email address, nor share it with with anyone, or ever spam you -- ever, end of story. We also have everything in place to keep the bad guys out. We would also never ask you for your passwords, credit card, phone, etc. We don't even care if you don't give us your real name, to be honest.

By becoming a member of the Japanator community, you are only agreeing to become a virtual person in our world and discuss stuff. Seriously, that's all there is to it. Easy, eh? Yes, as it should be. (ahem!)

We also follow all rules set forth by the Online Privacy Alliance

The Long Version:

Japanator is committed to protecting the privacy of Internet users. The following statement details our ongoing support for the responsible collection and management of Internet user information.

Internet User Information

When we display an advertisement on your computer, we do not collect any personal identifiable information about you, such as your name, address, telephone number or email address. Japanator does, like other Internet advertisers, collect certain information which can not personally identify you. (Specifically: Cookies!) This category of information is generally referred to as non-personally-identifiable information includes information like the server or internet service provider you use, type of browser used. There are some cases where you, the Internet user, may voluntarily provide personal information in response to a particular ad (a survey or purchase order form). In such cases the third party advertising with Japanator may collect this information on behalf of an advertiser. The advertiser in turn uses this information to reply to your request.

Furthermore, Japanator.com does not divulge any information regarding the users who use email for correspondence with the webmaster or any representative of Japanator.com.

Online Advertising

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, check out http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp  

In layman's terms: it's just a cookie that says "hey you saw this ad already" or "ok, he clicked on a banner ad for leather rock pants, lets show this guy more of those."  We don't share any information from your personal account with advertisers.

HEY YOU - USE COMMON SENSE IN ALL YOUR ONLINE ACTIVITIES

Even the best policy can't protect your online privacy and security in all circumstances. Unscrupulous advertisers, hackers, and scam artists are constantly searching the Internet looking for new targets. Your best protection is to understand the limits to privacy on the Internet and use common sense in all of your on-line activities.

Be aware that e-mail is an inherently insecure form of communication. Remember that third parties are sometimes able to illegally intercept your unencrypted messages, including online greetings. Anytime you visit a chat room or post a message to an on-line bulletin board, your e-mail address can be accessed by advertisers looking to compile lists for unsolicited commercial e-mail (also known as spam).

Be sure that you only disclose your e-mail address in circumstances in which it is safe to do so. Beware of scams in which persons unknown to you request your screen name, password, or credit card information. Make sure you verify the identity of anyone asking for personal information. Always monitor your children's on-line activities and educate them as to the rules for safe Internet use. For more information, click here for the Internet Education Foundation's Online Safety Guide for Kids.

Contacting the Webmaster

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Website, you can contact the site owner at niero@japanator.com. I will do our best to reply within 48 hours.

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