Patrick is the editor of the Ani-Gamers Podcast and the host of The Cockpit Podcast. He’s on Twitter @PatzPrime.
Jared discovered anime in the early 1990s through stacks of third-hand fandubs and Streamline Pictures tapes. By the tender age of 16, he was humming Macross 7 songs in art class, dreaming of Asuka Langley and hanging Rurouni Kenshin posters on his wall. A few years later he moved to Japan where he worked as an ALT (assistant language teacher) in Ibaraki and Fukuoka Prefectures. While he returned home with a deep appreciation for Japan, its culture, and its public transit system, Jared fell out of anime fandom and only returned in 2010. A self-proclaimed 3rd-level bard, Jared enjoys tabletop gaming and game design, video gaming, giant robots, history, comics, and most recently manga. He is also eternally late to the party.
The only John Smith in the world … that writes for Ani-Gamers. He also writes about Japanese things for Yatta-Tachi and occasionally tweets about manga and podcasts on Twitter.
Karl "Uncle Yo" Custer is a geek-comedian/playwright working out of NYC, podcast host of We are the Geek, and one of Ani-Gamers' founding reviewers. His travels to anime conventions help us celebrate this age: The Day the Geek Inherited the Earth.
Charles is graduate of Hunter College, CUNY, where he received a BA in Religion and Anthropology and an MA in Cultural Anthropology. His thesis, Pilgrimage, Pageantry and Fan Communities was published in 2011 and focused on anime convention participation, including spending habits, cosplay, demographics, communal behavior and convention culture. He blogs about his continuing anthropological work at Study of Anime.
Anthony Askew lives in the UK and podcasts from the nerve centre that is Dynamite in the Brain.
Fascinated by practices and beliefs of Shinto, folk religion, and folklore in Japan, Katriel Paige tries to better understand the intersection of history, politics, media, and sacred cultures. They write for studyofanime.com as well as their personal site, kitsune.moe.
Evan Krell, a.k.a. "The Other Evan," plays retro and indie video games while balancing a love of '80s/'90s mecha anime and those scary moé shows. You should totally follow him on Twitter.
A videogame, anime and manga enthusiast since he was a little'un, Elliot Page plays, watches and reads far too many things for his limited time and budget. Now, in an attempt to try and help others find the diamonds lying among so much mud (and also just to sound off) Elliot has turned to broadcasting his views on his beloved media to anyone who will listen. Elliot also co-hosts a weekly madcap videogame, technology and bear defense podcast at www.lukeandelliot.com, and is also trying to get his hands into the UK anime convention circuit!
Hayley Myer, a.k.a "Mehket," has played video games since she was three years old, starting out on the Sega Genesis with games like Crystal Ponies and the original Sonic. She began her writing career by posting Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfictions on various websites, working on her style and technique for several years. She then started a few of her own sites, trying her hand at both webpage design and writing reviews/short stories. She now spends her time playing mostly JRPGs and learning both Japanese and Chinese.
Kyle LaCroix has a love of all things bad. His favorite movies include The Room and Troll 2, and he watched seasons 2-4 of Heroes just to make fun of them. One day, he made the mistake of attempting to merge this love with his other favorite hobby by playing Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). This left him bitter, jaded and immune to game quitting frustration — essentially a super hero, but less interesting. To test his powers, he played E.T. for the Atari 2600 and didn’t even break a sweat. This super power does not stop him from complaining about problems in other games, though, and he will do so at length if prompted. Still, he does enjoy many good video games, such as Shin Megami Tensei, Planescape: Torment, Yoshi’s Island, Hamtaro: Ham Hams Unite!, and many more. He is not fond of FPSs or the entire action-RPG subgenre, although some titles do surprise him every once in a while.
Never ask him about Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
Sean Kim has had a video game controller in his hands for as long as he can remember, and his passion for video games is only rivaled by his fascination with anime. His interests lie anywhere between Super Metriod and Team Fortress 2. When he’s not slaving away at an MMO or deteriorating his mind with some random anime, Sean learns to program and make video games, surfs the Internet, and listens to a varied selection of music.
Chris Colalella (aka "Kit" or, in the case of Con Staff, "Goggles") is an Otaku of the Highest Caliber, in that he'll watch, read, or play anything that comes his way. He's watched everything from Gundam to Lucky Star and his watched series list is always growing. When he's not reviewing anime or video games, you can either finding him surfing the web, watching his favorite hometown sport teams, hosting his own UStream radio show, attending local anime cons, or playing some old school tabletop RPGs or CCGs.
When he's not writing videogame reviews for Official Xbox Magazine, GamePro and othe outlets, Mitch Dyer co-hosts the Ani-Gamers Podcast with Evan. Oh, he also manages to watch cartoons and read weird Japanese comics every now and again, usually against his better judgement.
Maxwell has been a gaming enthusiast since the days of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Genesis. While currently an advertising major, he has high hopes of writing professionally about this digital time waster we love so much. He considers himself an easy going guy and will try just about anything with an open mind. Most of his gaming time is split between the PC and 360, though he does enjoy all of the major consoles. His favorite genre would be either fighters or turn-based strategy titles, while conversely harboring a dislike for most MMORPGs.
Kevin, or Naitsu mostly contributes to the news section. He is most notable for his broad (and often strange) tastes and interests. For instance, he may be playing a game like Wario Ware: Smooth Moves as a morning game, and Gears of War as an afternoon game whilst listening to Justin Timberlake one minute, and Dying Fetus the next. He enjoys reading e-mails and talking to the community, so if you want to speak to him, he's all ears.
Jessa has been an anime fan for 11 years, a cosplayer for 9 years, and a writer her entire life. Though her ambitions are more aimed at the Broadway stage, Anime is not just a hobby to her, it's like her second universe. She is an avid fan of shojo, but only if it meets her standards (which, let's face it, aren't very high when it comes to anime). Not only does she watch anime and write, she loves reading manga and gaming, her favorite games being Siren, Rule of Rose, and Silent Hill 2. She's always happy to listen to other people's suggestions and ideas, so don't let her crazy randomness scare you away from her. ^.^
Kevin Alvarez (TMPX) met Evan while working as the Media Manager for the latter's local anime club. Pretty soon, he was writing news articles and reviews for Ani-Gamers, providing a perspective on the more modern, moe-centered fanbase.
The Oracle who has helped organize and write Ani-Gamers since the old days when it was still called "Anime Paradise." His blogging career was mostly limited to the Dojo Day column, but he also made massive contributions to character bios, episode summaries, and the like in the old version of the site.
A former contributor to the blog, Kahuna mostly focused on offbeat gaming stories.
Due to being torn between the love of games and anime Phreak spends a lot of his time playing catch up with anime. (His love for kicking others in the face usually beats out sitting down to watch a good anime.) An avid Hip-Hop listener who can't stand the word "bling," Phreak finds himself an outcast among his peers. His distaste for everything not him spills over quite frequently into rants of walking contradictions and paint-like splatters of random curse words that he may frequently have just made up. God save you if you read the words that come out of his brain.