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.
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.
Colette runs Tomopop.com because of a burning passion for toys, but also moonlights over on Japanator as she can't seem to cast off a love of all things Japanese. She also does freelance work for Colourlovers.com,
Likes: J-dramas, ikemen, authentic Japanese food, 90s anime, shoujo and horror manga Dislikes: slice of life shows, moeblobs, anime elitists
Zac is a musician, writer, graphic designer, husband, pet owner, dishwasher, chauffeur, book reader, chair sitter, head scratcher, thinker, movie watcher, Polysics fan, blogger, coffee drinker, driveway shoveler, video game player, sleeper, curmudgeon, pushover, jerk, skeptic, atheist, pacifist and just this guy, but really just a speck, living on a speck, floating in space.
Jake leads a couple different lives, one of which as a photographer, cinematographer, and all around camera otaku. He is currently working his way towards a degree in Japanese language, and aspires to bring a Japanese way of film stateside. At least, that's what his personal statement essay said...
Contact: Just yell "Hey, look over there! It's a giant lens!" and I should show up to wherever you are fairly soon.
Pedro Cortes Associate Editor/Community Manager
Considering his love for cute and moe girls, it is a surprise that the Pedrobear hasn't received a visit from a certain television personality. Currently studying Journalism at Florida International University, Pedro wants to be the next Hunter S Thompson, illicit substances, apes and all. He is also quite fond of Guinness.
Likes: Gurren Lagann and Nia in particular, cute girls, big asses, great legs, PVC, One Piece
Dislikes: Key shows, trolls, bad fanservice, losing in Street Figher 4...repeatedly
Tim Sheehy
Associate Editor
Tim is one of those rare otaku who actually follows every aspect of the Japanese entertainment industry. If he's not writing, he's busy playing video games, reading manga and books, watching anime or dramas, listening to J-pop, or composing and arranging music of his own.
Likes: Shunya Yamashita, Macross, Sangokushi Dislikes: Gurren Lagann, L cosplay, One Piece
Josh writes for a living, and is glad beyond belief that writing for Japanator is part of that. He knows, though, that true happiness can only come when one can direct a meaningful stare worthy of a Mamoru Oshii film as well as display a self-satisfied smirk worthy of Konata Izumi.
Likes: The Absolute Territory, playing video games, Konata Dislikes: Yandere, folks who diss JRPGs because of the "J," and his inability to give a properly photogenic smile. Seriously, it ruins all of his family photos.
Edward Baylon has an unhealthy love for the anime/manga Honey and Clover. Edward tries his hardest to cover a lot of Texas anime cons, but just the drive to the con wears him out. A lover of Japanese television dramas and movies, Edward prefers his women to be in fictional 3D rather than the overrated fictional 2D, which makes him less sad compared to all the others out there.
Likes: J-Drama, amzingly pretty anime, vidja games, tea, shing shang anchovies Dislikes: Harem anime, overly perky people, poorly drawn fanart, stinky con goers, overrated Japanese foodstuff, generic and boring anime/manga, coffee, High Fructose Corn Syrup
Japanator's resident expert on magical girls and all things cute and moe who sometimes finds time to write after answering stupid computer questions at work as technical support. Majored in Japanese but has never been to Japan (you're welcome to donate).
Likes: Cardcaptor Sakura, Shugo Chara!, Idolmaster, Jun'ichi Satou Dislikes: Gundam or any other robotish animes, shounen stuff that goes on much too long
Jeff is an anime fan, who spends much of his time trying to make money so he can buy more anime and related goods. Sometimes he writes about it. The rest of his time he giggles with the other random internet anime guys about the latest panty shots. Part-time kimo-ota.
Likes: Biz & Industry, Nadesico, memes, Masami Okui Dislikes: US Copyright, boring anime
Topher Cantler Associate Editor
Topher is a writer, artist and podcaster, who got an early start on otakuism in the mid '80s, when an innocent childhood search for more "cartoons that look like Tatsunoko" started him down a path that would eventually lead to an import gaming habit and the discovery of Japanese rock music. When not at Japanator, he can be found writing and podcasting for Destructoid, making cartoons about dogs with mustaches, or lost in some vertical danmaku shmup while rocking out to old Judy and Mary albums.
Likes: Mecha musume, Go!Go!7188, kuudere, Japanese candy, fine tea, nonsense, Range Murata Dislikes: Filler-heavy Shonen Jump franchises, ganguro, pop culture
Karen is a writer, who likes to work on comics in her free time. This is all part of her master plan to never leave the house. Also, she is working on an obscene amount of projects due to her complete inability to make a decision.
Likes: Gurren Laggen, Ghost in the Shell, Haruhi season ONE Dislikes: People who don't understand sarcasm, and that chick with the braids in Code Geass
Danica is a writer of different mediums who likes to shamelessly self-promote herself (ahem). Along with writing for about twenty-five different publications, she's written English adaptations of manga and, along with her agent, is looking to publish her YA novel. Sometimes she sleeps.
Likes: Japanese food, bishonen, reading books Dislikes: Japanese food when she learns what's in it, bishojo (because they're competition), Kindle
Ben is a fledgling graphic designer, artist, and writer. Almost complete with his degree in Graphic Design, he plans to lead a life of dealing with stupid clients and then unwinding with video games, manga, and anime. He's particularly enthusiastic about the art of package design and character design, and looks forward to the (unlikely) epic return of traditionally animated films to American cinema, forever banishing non-Pixar CGI.
Likes: Anything by Studio Ghibli, anime that breaks the moeblob mold, Japanese music, gadgets, Valve games, coffee Dislikes: brown video games, moeblob, red beets, bad movies that everyone else love
Jon Snyder Intern
Jon is a college student currently majoring in Japanese. He's also a huge science fiction fan, and was watching Star Trek before he was out of diapers. Jon is not much of a gamer, although you might catch him on Starcraft from time to time. He sucks at it, though.
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!)
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.
3 comments
Everything makes sense now.