Animeigo Announces Episode 21 Of Documentary Series ‘The Anime Business’

Anime distributor AnimEigo and parent company MediaOCD have released the latest episode of The Anime Business on YouTube featuring an in-depth interview with some of the essential editorial staff of Anime News Network (ANN).

The interview is conducted by MediaOCD/AnimEigo President Justin Sevakis, who founded Anime News Network in 1998, and features the site’s longtime CEO and Publisher Chris Macdonald, Editor Emeritus Bamboo Dong, and the current Executive Editor Lynzee Loveridge.

The trio recalls their early experiences with anime and being enthralled by legendary shows like Evangelion, Fushigi Yugi, Sailor Moon, and Perfect Blue. Anime News Network’s founding sprouted from this passion and paralleled the wider global growth and evolution of Japanese pop culture and the internet. What began as a hobby grew into a professional endeavor that has endured for nearly 30 years and generates more than 36 million page views annually.

Macdonald and Dong also recall controversies that ANN has faced over the years. From fan backlash over occasional unfavorable reviews and editorial to pushback from U.S. and Japanese companies that frowned on news that didn’t always put them in a favorable light, the site always remained true to its convictions and would never be PR puppet for profit driven corporations.

The Anime Business is a first-of-its-kind series featuring a wide range of entrepreneurs and visionaries that helped to pioneer and shape the North American anime and manga industries. It is produced and hosted by industry veteran and MediaOCD founder and AnimEigo CEO Justin Sevakis. Episodes 1-17 of The Anime Business and bonus clips are also now available to stream on the AnimeEigo YouTube channel. They are available in English. Japanese subtitles are also available via a special grant from the Kleckner Foundation.