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.