About AAW Site Info
Everything you probably never wanted to know about AAW.
What AAW Does, and Why
Akemi's Anime World is a site dedicated to providing a variety of information about anime; in-depth analytical reviews and Japanese cultural and language information are our main features, because that's what we're good at. We're not about what's hot or the lowest common denominator; our reviews are long and wordy, and our focus is on older and less well-known anime. Though we write for a mature audience, AAW is intended to be suitable for readers of any age--we cover titles ranging from children's fare to adults-only, and we try to include information on objectionable content to help kids, adults, and parents alike make informed viewing and buying decisions.
AAW is not the biggest, best informed, or coolest anime site in the world, and doesn't pretend to be. I initially created the site as a labor of love and a hobby (everybody loves publicly spouting off about their own opinion, so why not). Although that is still fundamentally what AAW is, it has developed into what I hope is a useful and fun resource, and one that will be here for a long time to come (12 years and counting, as of this writing).
Our Short History
We also have an official history page complete with images of the various AAW iterations, if you want a detailed history. As for the short version...
AAW was born as an idea for a for-fun anime review site toward the end of 1997; it began to take on a more finished look toward the end of 1998, and we went online under the animeworld.org domain sometime in November. After getting the AnimeWorld.com domain name through a stroke of luck, the first version of the site as it now exists went live on January 1st, 1999, so that's our official birthday.
Since then AAW has undergone two complete cosmetic overhauls, a number of expansions in the information that accompanies our reviews, and the addition of a blog like all the cool kids these days. 2010 saw the introduction of our new look and new, hopefully even-more-useful ways to find new shows that you'll like.
Who We Are
In case you're wondering, the person writing this is not Akemi. I am Marc Marshall (aka "Makosuke"), and pretty much anything not labeled otherwise around here is done by me. Unlike me, Akemi really is Japanese, and she is also my wife. The site's name was, of course, her idea (though she denies it now). If you're wondering, it's pronounced "Ah-keh-mee" ("mee" as in the English pronoun "me"); say it like the "chemi" in "chemistry," plus a short "ah" at the beginning. The "picture" here is of us (or, if you'd rather see a photo, here's a Japanese wedding picture).
Other contributors include the reviewers Legion, Chainclaw, and M. Othman; Loretta, our esteemed editor who joined the team in late 2005, and Tachihohe, our skilled artist and graphic designer (you can check out his sketchbook here).
Past contributors include Arcane, the other official reviewer from our early days; Kayote, a dedicated linkhunter and occasional reviewer from our early days also deserves a nod.
If you have more questions about the site, try the AAW Site FAQ--chances are we'll cover it there. If we don't, you can always write and ask.
The editorial "we" (meaning "I") hope you see something on these pages that you find useful, fun, or at least amusing!
You can also browse the full list of bios for all AAW contributors.
Privacy Policy
This is legal junk, but AAW's basic privacy policy is very simple: We don't collect much information from you, and anything you do decide to give us we never share with anybody else unless the government tells us we have to or something (getting hacked) totally out of our control happens. The rest is poorly-written legalese.
We require you to submit no information to access any section of this site except for posting in the forums, which also require no personally-identifying information other than an email address. Any information that is collected will never be shared with a third party unless required to by law, and you may delete your information from our records at any time if you wish. The only email addresses we collect are for account verification at the forums, or to receive occasional mailings about updates to the site; both may be removed from our system automatically using the appropriate systems, or manually, if you request such in writing. Users are free to post whatever they want in the forums, and it is not our responsibility if users choose to publicly post personally identifiable information under their own volition, nor do we have any control over how this information might be used by third parties.
As with every website on the internet, AAW does log all page accesses with a time and IP address requesting the information. This information is used for statistical analysis or addressing abuse only, and is never shared with third parties unless required to by law.
We make every effort to secure our information against hacking and abuse, but in the event information is stolen from AAW we cannot be held liable for what is done with it. We are also not responsible for any information collected by third party advertisers on this site; we make an effort to only use advertising that collects no unnecessary information and provides a useful service to our readers, but we cannot control what advertisers might do with their ad space without our knowledge, due to the policies they may put in place to prevent abuse of their ad code.