2002 - Opening Editorial

Hello everybody, and welcome to part one of the Anime News Network 2002 Year in Review! This is a first of a multipart review of the highlights of last year's anime news from both America and Japan. Later in the week we will further discuss the events and ramifications in the world of anime from the last year.

Anime has exploded in popularity over the last year, which has lead to a subsequent increase in our daily readership. Take a gander at these numbers from December:

1.44 million page views per month
75 gigabytes per month transferred
Over 10,000 unique visits every day

Once again, we've effectively doubled in readership since this time last year. We've also grown to encompass no fewer than 15 staff members, most of whom receive no renumeration for their hard work maintaining this website. I'd just like to thank everyone who's worked so hard on Anime News Network this year. Of course, we also had a few staff members leave ANN this year, including Jeremy Barnes and Earl Gertwagen. Earl had the daunting task of keeping the release database up-to-date, while Jeremy assisted on the regular news updates. We wish both Jeremy and Earl luck in their future endeavors.

We were also added to the Google News search engine. While I doubt we'll be found on the front page anytime soon, this will certainly help those who are seeking anime news. Yes, we're aware the reviews are currently being linked, in addition to the news. We're working with Google to fix that.

This year we sent no fewer than five reporters to Anime Expo, and while some technical issues prevented us from posting the news "as it happened" we're looking forward to much smoother Anime Expo coverage this year. Other conventions we covered included Anime Central, SakuraCon, Otakon, Anime Expo New York, Nan Desu Kan 6, and NekoCon V. This year, we're looking forward to more of the same excellent convention coverage.

Running Anime News Network is expensive, and I would like to take the time to thank Anime Castle, Anime Nation, Robert's Anime Corner Store, Bandai, J-List, Newtype USA, Protoculture Addicts, and TechTV for their support by advertising to keep this site running smoothly.

Of course, even with all the support given by these companies, it's been a busy year, and our reviews have (as usual) been slower than we'd like. We're looking for more reviewers to do a few reviews per month; check out the staff openings page for info.

Now that all the business is out of the way, I'd like to personally thank a few people for all their assistance throughout the past year:

Mark Clark, Ken Wiatrik and Andrew Kent from ADV Films
Jerry Chu from Bandai Entertainment
Maki Terashima from Production IG
Luis Reyes and Kristien Brada from Tokyopop
Stephanie Sheh and Ardith Santiago from Synch Point
Kris and Shawne Kleckner of TRSI
Robert from Robert's Anime Corner Store
Peter Payne of J-List
Bill Lai of Anime Castle
Chris Beveridge from Anime On DVD
Rhona Medina of Urban Vision
Claude J. Pelletier of Protoculture Addicts
Miki Terasawa from Stone Bridge

All of our Staff
And finally, to all of our readers

Thank you, everyone, for making 2002 an enjoyable year of anime! Let's work together and make 2003 even better!

-George "Cookie" Phillips
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Anime News Network