FAQ

About ANN

What is Anime News Network (ANN)?
Anime News Network was created as a news source that focuses on the medium of Japanese Animation(anime) and Japanese Comics (manga). ANN was founded by Justin Sevakis in July of 1998, and has since lead the online anime news medium with a tradition of strong unbiased coverage of major breaking news. With in-depth coverage, analysis and commentary to provide insight into the world of anime and manga, ANN has been and continues to be the #1 English language source for anime and manga news on the Internet. ANN's goal is to make the latest, most comprehensive Anime news available to new fans and veteran Otaku alike.
What ANN is not:
- A television network or station;
- A subsidiary of another company;
- A dubbing / voice recording studio;
- An animation company;
- A licensing or distribution company;
- A manufacturer or distributor of merchandise;
- For sale.
What is anime?
For a full definition, including controversy regarding the definition of anime, please see our lexicon. For all purposes related to Anime News Network, anime is animation that is primarily produced and conceived in Japan. This includes animation conceived in Japan that has portions outsourced to other countries, but does not include animation primarily produced outside Japan and with the animation outsourced to Japan. It does however include animation that is co-conceived inside and outside of Japan and at least partially produced inside Japan.
What is manga?
For a full definition, including controversy regarding the definition of manga, please see our lexicon. For all purposes related to Anime News Network, manga are comic books or strips that are produced and conceived in Japan. This includes include comics that are co-conceived inside and outside of Japan but produced in Japan.
Who operates ANN?
ANN is operated by a team of people, under the guidance of Christopher Macdonald, Daniel DeLorme, Zac Bertschy, Egan Loo and Justin Sevakis. A full list of the staff can be found on the staff page.
Who owns ANN?
The website, and the corporation that maintains it (Anime News Network Inc.) are privately owned and independent. ANN is not owned in any way by any larger media organization, advertiser, advertising agency, publisher or anime company. Christopher Macdonald (ANN CEO) represents the owners in all issues.
Who is the blond haired mascot?
Her name is Jadress. She was created by Robin “Ra-chan” Sevakis. Jadress was an integral part of the site when it was first launched in 1998 and remained an integral part of the site until 2007 at which time she was replaced by "Nina," also created by Robin Sevakis.
How often do you update?
The site is run on a daily content format, as opposed to a monthly or bi-monthly magazine format. We update the news and reviews daily, and other content, such as features, columns, and editorials are also added throughout the week. Our encyclopedia is updated daily as well.
Under what settings is ANN best viewed?
Originally we tried to make the site viewable at any resolution from 640x480 and up. Unfortunately keeping the site inside a 640 pixels width eventually became impossible. The site is now designed to work at 1024x768 or higher.
How do I find older articles on ANN?
Older news can be found in the archives. Old Features, columns, reviews and editorials can be found in their respective sections. You can also use our search engine.
What was used to make the site, as well as maintain it?
Simple editors such as Notepad and Homesite4 are our development tools of choice--if you need a WYSIWYG editor, you shouldn't be making professional websites. We use custom Ruby scripts (our older scripts are in PHP) combined with a MySQL database to manage the content. Apart from the phpBB forum, we haven't used any pre-made packages; all the content is managed and presented with custom scripts.
How do I get permission to reprint an ANN Story, or obtain an ANN graphic or photo?
ANN now has a newsfeed program where you can get the latest anime news on your very own website. If you wish to entirely reprint anything on your site please contact the editors. For more details about what you can and can not re-print with or without our permission, see our copyright statement.
How many people hear or read an ANN story?
We get a bit over 190 000 visits every day. It's hard to estimate how many people visit regularly (at least once per week), but if we had to venture a guess, it would be about 400 000 people. According to our stats, over 2.7 million “hosts” visit ANN every month. If you know what that means, you know that it's a very untrustworthy number, if you don't know what it means, ignore it. In addition to regular visitors, ANN's news is often sourced in print and occasionally on the airwaves.
How can I get in touch with the staff?
Visit our contact page or visit our staff page for further contact and personal information. If a member's e-mail address is not there you can send your comments to the editors and we'll forward them.
Do you attend any public events?
Yes. ANN tries to provide coverage to as many anime conventions/festivals/symposiums as our staff can manage. For more details on this see our events section and our events forum.

Do you have a newsfeed? You really should have an RSS newsfeed!
We have an RSS Newsfeed and a custom newsfeed for other sites. Look at the tab on top that says "my ANN," and click on "newsfeed."

Submitting Content

How should I submit news ?
Send an e-mail to newsroom@animenewsnetwork.com , this e-mail address is regularly monitored by several staff (someone is always "on duty"). Other methods (e-mail directly to staff, PM, Forum, Twitter, etc...) are less reliable, and may lead to delays and/or a complete failure to notice your submission.

I have something to say about an online petition.
Stop. This petition is a joke, get it? Haha. Virtually every other e-petition is a waste of time. Read this article about e-petitions.

I submitted a news item, why wasn't it posted?
We could still be in the process of verifying the details, we may not have been able to verify the items, or perhaps we didn't find it newsworthy enough to post. On a "slow" news day we're more likely to post less significant items.

I submitted a news item, why was it credited to someone else?
They either submitted it first--or more importantly--submitted more information.

Can I submit news about a non-Japanese animation?
No. We're Anime News Network, not "Animation News Network", not "Asian Animation Network." There's plenty of good animation from around the world, including Korea and China, but we only cover Japanese animation, not French, Mexican, Chinese, African, Korean or Afghanistanimation.

Can I submit a review? / How do I become a reviewer?
Anime News Network does not accept unsolicited reviews. Take a quick look at the Staff Openings page, if there is an opening, it will be mentioned there. More often than not, we hire experienced writers who are known to us. Best piece of advice we can give is to make a name for yourself then we'll come to you when the time is right.

Can I submit an article?
If you are an experienced writer/journalist with a portfolio you can point to, please E-mail the editors and ask about the topic, we'd be glad to consider your article idea.

Can I have a column?
No. Only previous, regular contributors who have shown an ability to consistently write timely, quality articles (or reviews) are permitted to write columns. Try submitting some articles or reviews first.

Information X is missing from the Encyclopedia, can you add it?
We can't add it, but YOU can. The Encyclopedia is a user-contributed database; it's made specially so that you can add missing information by yourself. You just need a user account. So please do take the time to register and submit the information you found was missing. Each page contains pointers about how to add information, and if that's not enough you can check the Encyclopedia FAQ or the memoranda.

How can I contribute to the encyclopedia?
Any registered user can contribute standard data to the Encyclopedia for Anime, Manga and People. But if that's not enough for you and you're near the top of the contributors list and you'd like to help out with the releases, lexicon, or editing and verifying data submitted by other people, please contact the Encyclopedist.

What if I want to contribute in some other way?
We always appreciate whatever help and support that readers can give. If you'd like to help out at ANN in a way other than the ones described above, please contact the editors. There's so much to do at ANN that we're very appreciative of any help offered.

My company is making Anime, can you post a news article about it?
Sorry, too many companies are trying to cash in on the popularity of Anime by making cartoons with big eyes and purple hair. We're sure you aren't like that, but... well actually, we aren't sure.

Why doesn't Anime News Network review world manga?
Please see our definition of manga. It is Anime News Network's official position, and the personal belief of many of our staff, than there is nothing inheritently superior about Japanese manga when compared to world manga. However Anime News Network's purpose is to cover Japanese animation and comic books. Currently we do not have the resources to review all the Japanese anime and manga that are released in North America. If and when we are able to review 100% of the Japanese anime and manga that are released in North America, we will then consider expanding our area of review coverage to include manga-style comics (world manga) that originate outside of Japan.

Why didn't you post a news article about my (company's) new Anime or Manga?
If your item is picked up in a distribution deal by a company that isn't being run out of someone's garage, then maybe its newsworthy. So when that happens, give us a shout, and we'll consider it, but if you can't tell us what makes your creation manga or anime (other than big eyes, purple hair and the like) you can pretty much forget it.

May I send you my company's product to review?
If it's anime or manga-related, then yes. Contact editors[at]animenewsnetwork.com for shipping information.

I'm starting a new webmanga, is it news?
No, there are a billion and one "webmangas", and most only last a couple of months. Now, if your webmanga gets licensed by a publisher... that might be news.

Can you mention my site?
Only if you do something newsworthy, sorry.

Why have we been blacklisted?
ANN has a 2-strikes rule regarding inappropriate PR. After 2 strikes for the following reasons we will blacklist your company or PR firm (when we blacklist a PR firm, we notify their relevant clients).
i) Completely irrelevant PR that has nothing to do with anime, manga, Japanese pop-culture or any other related content;
ii) Unauthorized stealth marketing on our forums;
iii) Harassing our staff;
iv) Continued PR submissions to inappropriate e-mail address.
v) Any attempt to illicitly influence editorial
We'll send you a link to this post after your first offense. After your second offense you'll never hear from us again (and our readers will never hear from you or your clients).

Isn't this a bit harsh?
Perhaps, but we're tired of getting PRs for toilets, accounting firm management changes and World War 2 museums.

But we offer an opt-out!
Clicking that link might opt us out of all your press releases, including your relevant ones. It would be the same as blacklisting you, without giving you the warning.

Forum / Account

I didn't receive my forum registration.
If you are using a spam filter, please check your spam folder, some mail servers catch the registration code as spam.

Search your spamfolder & inbox for e-mail from do-not-reply@animenewsnetwork.com or editors@animenewsnetwork.com.

If you are using any sort of white list, please make sure that your e-mail account is set up to accept e-mails from do-not-reply@animenewsnetwork.com, editors@animenewsnetwork.com and support@animenewsnetwork.com.

If you are using a mail service that bounces the e-mail back to the sender and asks them to confirm that it is not spam, we will not do that. These services usually allow you to add the e-mail address to a white-list before hand.

Once you have checked all of the above, you can have the server re-send you your activation code by going here.

It should be instant, but sometimes e-mail is slow, give it a couple hours (the slowness is usually not because of our server).

If you still don't get your activation code, then and ONLY then, e-mail us at support@animenewsnetwork.com make sure that:
1) Your e-mail is sent from the e-mail address you submitted to ANN;
2) You include your user name;
3) Do not send us your password;
4) the subject of your e-mail must be "activation code".

How do I become a moderator?
You're invited. When we feel there is a need for a new moderator, we look at our best forum users (the ones that contribute intelligently to conversation and act maturely) and ask them if they'd be willing to help us moderate the forum.

Will there ever be an off topic / general conversation forum among the forums?
Not in the public areas, no. We do however maintain a community section for subscribers, and off-topic discussion is permitted there.

Why aren't my posts showing up?
Posts from new users sometimes take a while to show up. Please be patient, they should appear within a few hours. Believe it or not, this is a "feature" not a "bug."

Is there a set of forum rules?
Right here - read them if you haven't already.

Help, I've been banned!
Read this.

How do I attach a picture (avatar) to my account?
Read this.

Can I change my user name?
No. In the future we will allow this, however right now it is not possible.

Can I delete my account?
No. Deleting accounts could screw up some of our features that weren't built with account deletion in mind. For now, we'd prefer you just left you account inactive and forgot about it. However if you absolutely must have your account deleted, e-mail help@animenewsnetwork.com. Your account will be disabled and stripped of all information pertaining to you. Your posts and contributions will not be deleted. Make certain to e-mail us from the e-mail address registered to the account and to include your user name. Requests can take up to 15 days to process and we will e-mail you back to confirm your identity and request. Your e-mail address will be removed from your account, but it will be added to a permanent list denying you the ability to register a new account to the same e-mail address.

Contests

Can I enter give-aways more than once?
Unless stated otherwise on the contest page, No.

Can I enter creative contests more than once?
Unless stated otherwise on the contest page, Yes.

Does ANN "own" my entry?
Unless stated otherwise on the contest page, No. But as a condition of your entry we generaly require you to give us the unrevocable right to display your entry on Anime News Network for all eternity.

Can display my entry elsewhere?
Yes, anywhere you please, unless otherwise stated in the contest rules.

Why do I have to put your logo and/or the sponsor's logo on my submission
There are two reasons for this. First, it adds some extra benefit to the contest sponsors and second, it helps us insure that you made the entry for the contest, instead of just grabing some existing art and submiting it.

Explain those rules about where I live and whether or not I can enter and if you will ship me a prize.
Most of our contest are open to anyone, regardless of where you live, because we don't believe in geographic discrimination. However sometimes our sponsors want a contest to only be open to their potential clients, so in those cases we have no choice to abide by their request to limit contest entry to a certain geographic area.

While we don't believe in geographic discrimination, we also don't believe in spending a fortune on shipping and trying to figure out custom laws in order to get you your prize so that's why we only ship to the USA and Canada.

What does a complete mailing address look like?
Short answer: "It's what we need to put on a package to mail it to you." It looks something like this:

416 William St. #402
Moralton, SS 70707
USA

24 Sussex Dr
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A3
Canada

1000 J.P. Laurel St.
San Miguel 1005, Manila
Philippines

You'd be amazed at how many people enter our contests and leave out critical mailing information like their city, province/state and or postal/zip code. You'd also be amazed at how many people ask us "What do you mean by complete mailing address?" In fact, if you're reading this, it's quite possible that we referred you here because you asked that very question. Since we usually only ship to the USA and Canada, we won't disqualify you for leaving out the country, but if anything else is missing, we'll just pick another winner to replace you. We will not contact you to verify your mailing address. BTW, your name is not part of your mailing address, but we won't disqualify you for putting it in there...

Why do some contests not ship to PO Boxes?
ANN usually doesn't handle shipping for our contest prizes. Shipping is done by the contest sponsor. If the contest states "no PO boxes" this is because our sponsor requested it. Most likely it is because they are shipping via a courier like UPS, which will not ship to PO boxes.

I'd really prefer it if you didn't post my name & city if I win
This is done for legal reasons, sorry. That said, if you want to enter with an alias, that's fine as long as you are certain the package will reach you (we can't guarantee it will).

Miscellaneous

Can I link to you?
Yes, please feel free. Currently we don't have any banners to offer you for this, we'll be making some new ones shortly.

Can you link to me?
Unfortunately so many people ask us this question that if we said yes to only the good sites we'd be the Anime Web Turnpike, not ANN.
Wait, I can link to you, but you won't link to me??
Yes, we know it sounds a little conceited of us, but that's how it is. To be fair, we don't expect you to link to us, but we're honored if you do decide that you'd like to link to our site despite the fact that we won't be returning the favor. Please don't link to us if you're only doing it because you hope to get something in return; link to us because you feel that you want more people to know about Anime News Network.

Can we trade banners?
Sorry, ANN relies on its banners to survive. We very seldom trade banners with another website or publication. If your publication is in print (10 000+ circulation) or a website with 10 million+ impressions per month, we may consider it. Please understand, ANN receives this question at least once a week, it isn't possible for us to even consider swapping / affiliating with so many sites, so we generally don't swap / affiliate with any.

Can you affiliate with us?
Anime News Network would be happy to setup an affiliate program with any online store that pays referral fees provided that store meets certain pre-requisites. Anime News Network is unfortunately unable to affiliate itself with fan-sites much for the same reason that we can not link to you or trade banners with you (see above two entries).

Why'd you give this show a rating of ... in your review? Clearly it deserved a ... !
Obviously our reviewer disagrees.

When is title X coming out, how many episodes is it, and/or who is releasing it?
Look it up in the encyclopedia, ask Answerman, or ask in the forum.

Why'd you make X change to the programming on [Cartoon Network, YTV, etc]?
Uhh, try contacting the broadcaster, network or station. We're a news site and we have no more control over the schedule at [TV Station] than any other media source. Yes, believe it or not we get this question every so often.

I'd like to license, work on, be involved with, etc... one of your titles
Just like we aren't involved in TV broadcasting, are not licensors. Even for shows that we stream on ANN, we are not authorized to sub-license them to other companies. Contact the producers or the licensors, not us.

Why'd you take my video show off YouTube?
We get this question a lot. We didn't take your video down. See the above answer as well as the first one. ANN has no involvement in the process of taking pirated materials off of websites like YouTube. For your information, the material was probably taken down because it was uploaded without permission (therefore illegally) and the licensors want you to watch it somewhere they will make money (on DVD, on TV, or on an authorized website). Go here for a list of places where you can legally watch anime and support the creators at the same time.

On a related note, allow us to point out that your video was probably automatically removed by a technology called video-fingerprinting. By this semi-automated process, YouTube removes videos that it believes infringe on copyrights without waiting for complaints from copyright holders. So it's quite possible that no anime company was involved in the removal of your video.

Sadly, this process can affect videos that are legitimate "fair-use." Even more sadly, the employees at the anime companies are too busy to bother reading all the e-mails they get about videos (the vast majority of are from morons that don't understand that "I wasn't making money" doesn't make it okay) so you can e-mail them to your hearts content, but they probably won't answer (not because they're fan-hating assholes, but because they don't have the time).

If you believe your video is legitimate fair-use (full episodes are never fair use, significant episode clips are rarely fair use, AMVs are almost never fair use of the music) try posting it again and include in the description why you feel it is fair use. If you're lucky, YouTube will take this into consideration (some videos are deleted automatically, others are looked at by a human employee at YouTube after the fingerprinting process identifies them) and not delete your video. You really should read up on "fair use" before you make any claims that your video is fair use though. And by "read-up," we mean read professional, expert explanations, not your friend's blog.

I have a great idea for an anime or manga, where do I submit it?
See Question #1 "What is Anime News Network (ANN)?. Anime News Network is not involved with the creation process of any anime or manga and we can not put you in contact with creators (more on that here). Finally, we'd recommend you read this.

How do I get your television channel?
See Question #1 "What is Anime News Network (ANN)?. Anime News Network is not The Anime Network (TAN). For details on TAN, read the transcript of our chat with them, read our TAN news coverage, or visit their website.

Can you put me in contact with [insert actor, company or any person in the Anime industry]?
No. As a policy, ANN never gives out contact information. Don't send us this question unless you've exhausted every other resource available (phone book, 411, Google, their website, etc...), even then, we will only forward your request to them, and we will only do so provided it is a business-to-business request being made by a company we've actually heard of. If you can't find Hayao Miyazaki's e-mail address online, it's probably because he doesn't want to receive a thousand e-mails a day.

The one exception to this rule is that we will give out the Public Relations / Press Relations (PR) contact information for a company provided we have it readily available. Generally you can find this information on your own though, so please don't be lazy.

Can you put me in contact with [insert actor, company or any person in the Anime industry]? I'm an old acquaintance of theirs.
The answer is still no.

Can you put me in contact with [insert actor, company or any person in the Anime industry]? They worked on one of your projects.
Just to be clear, our encyclopedia carries information about a myriad of projects (anime,manga, etc...) most of which (99.9%) Anime News Network is not, and never was, involved with. It is not a list of our projects. So if the person actually worked for ANN, please see this answer, but if they are one of the 67023+ people listed in the encyclopedia, they probably didn't work for us and therefore the previous two answers apply.

Okay, I understand, you can't or won't put me in contact with them, but I really want/need to contact this person. Can you offer any suggestions on how to proceed?
Depending on who you're trying to contact, they might have a fanclub, official webpage, or e-mail address listed in their encyclopedia entry. If not, try looking for the latest production they worked on and contacting the production company, they might be able and willing to forward your e-mail. Just a note, if you're contacting someone in Japan, it's highly recommended that at least your intro be in Japanese. Even if your intended recipient understands English, the person you ask to forward your e-mail might not. For your benefit, here's a quick intro you can prepend to any e-mail you send to Japan (replaces the blanks by the name of the person you are trying to contact):

ご担当者様へ
お世話になっております。

本社は____様にご連絡を取りたがっています。お手数ですが、このメールを____様へ転送して頂けないでしょうか?

宜しくお願いします。

Literally:

To whom it may concern/the person in charge:
Thank you for your time.

We are trying to contact _____. If it isn't too much trouble, could you forward this e-mail to ____?

Thank you very much.

Can you send me your catalog?
We don't have a catalog, we don't sell anything.

Where can I buy Anime ?
You can buy it at retail movie stores like Blockbuster and Suncoast as well as specialty Anime Shops. You can also buy it online at websites like Anime Castle, Anime Nation, J List, Roberts Anime Corner Store and The Right Stuf International.

Where can I download anime or watch it online?
For the most part, you can't legally download anime online. Fansubs are generally illegal (whether or not they're unethical is a completely different topic), and as such, we can't help you obtain them. You might want to check the sites listed below, and read our news, when there's legal anime to download or watched online we generally mention it. Don't ask us where to get bootlegs or fansubs, we won't tell you.

Some sites/services that allow you to download or watch anime online legally(may or may not be free):

* Why isn't YouTube listed? Because a lot of the content on YouTube is illegally uploaded. One day we'll have an index of legal anime on YouTube, but until then we aren't listing it as a site where all content is legal/authorized.

How do I watch anime on ANN?
Go to our video page. Unlike most sites that stream anime, our streams are 100% legal. So if you can't find the series you're looking for it means we don't have the rights, but we're always trying to add more content to our library. And watching legal, authorized anime means that the creators get paid and can produce more anime.

Can you help me with my school assignment
No. We get this question about once a week, and we don't really want to spend 25 hours a year answering school questions. The worst part is that most people who e-mail us are actually asking us to provide information they could find with a little bit of research, in other words, they're asking us to do their work for them. On the other hand, if you're working on a master's project or Phd thesis related to anime, that interests us, so we'd probably be more than happy to help.

Does ANN offer Internships?
Yes, Anime News Network offers internships in our newsroom and our web-development departments. Further details are available here

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