Draft:Justin Sevakis
American anime journalist and home video producer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Justin Sevakis is an American anime journalist, home video producer, documentary filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Anime News Network (ANN), one of the leading English-language sources of anime and manga news, and as the founder and CEO of MediaOCD, a Los Angeles-based video post-production company. In 2024, MediaOCD acquired the home video distribution business of AnimEigo, one of the oldest anime distributors in North America. In 2025, Sevakis launched The Anime Business, an ongoing documentary interview series produced and hosted by Sevakis that profiles pioneers of the Western anime and manga industries.
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Early life and education
As a teenager, Sevakis became active in the North American anime fan community during the late 1990s, a period when the medium was beginning its mainstream expansion in the West but had little dedicated English-language press coverage. Print magazines such as Animerica, Protoculture Addicts, and NewType USA existed, but news traveled slowly, and there was no centralized online hub providing timely, comprehensive coverage of anime and manga industry developments.
Founding of Anime News Network
In July 1998, Sevakis founded Anime News Network (ANN). [1] The site was conceived as a dedicated news source for the anime and manga industries, aimed at both new fans and long-time enthusiasts.[2] The original site even featured a blond-haired mascot named Jadress, designed by Robin Sevakis.[2]
At the time of ANN's founding, the Internet was still in a relatively early stage of development as a media platform, and anime fandom in North America was primarily organized around Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, and fan conventions. The creation of a professionally oriented, regularly updated news site represented a significant shift in how the fan community could access and share information about industry developments, licensing announcements, and upcoming releases. ANN quickly established itself as the primary English-language clearinghouse for breaking anime news, a role it has maintained for over two decades.
Sevakis served as Editor-in-Chief from the site's founding until late 1999, at which point he passed editorial control to Isaac Alexander and moved to New York City to attend film school at the School of Visual Arts.[3] In May 2000, Christopher Macdonald joined the editorial staff as CEO, replacing Alexander.[4] Under Macdonald's leadership, ANN continued to grow substantially. On June 30, 2002, the site launched its Encyclopedia, a user-contributed collaborative database documenting thousands of anime and manga titles along with detailed information on their staff, cast, and production and localization companies — a resource that became widely used as the de facto reference tool for anime, analogous to IMDb for film.[5] In September 2004, the Sci Fi Channel online newsletter Sci Fi Weekly recognized ANN as its Web Site of the Week.[4]
By 2023, ANN had grown to attract over ten million unique monthly visitors worldwide,[6] and in November 2022, Kadokawa Corporation announced its acquisition of the site, making it a subsidiary of Kadokawa World Entertainment.[7] Despite the change in ownership, Sevakis has maintained a continuing association with the site as Editor at Large and Editor Emeritus.[8]
Career
Central Park Media
While still studying at the School of Visual Arts, Sevakis was hired by Central Park Media (CPM) as their first in-house video and subtitle editor.[9] Founded in 1990 by John O'Donnell, CPM was one of the major early distributors of anime in North America, releasing titles across a spectrum that ranged from acclaimed theatrical features to popular shōnen action series and adult content.[10]
CPM operated several distinct imprints under its corporate umbrella: U.S. Manga Corps handled mainstream anime releases, while Anime 18 (A18 Corporation) served as CPM's dedicated adult content division, distributing hentai anime to the North American market.[10] Among Anime 18's most significant releases was Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend, which in 1992 became the first and, to date, only animated film to receive an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association, and which introduced much of the Western public to the hentai genre.[11] As CPM's first in-house editor, Sevakis's work encompassed the full breadth of the company's catalog across both its mainstream and adult imprints.
Among the mainstream titles Sevakis worked on at CPM were the acclaimed Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies and Project A-Ko, as well as many other bestselling releases.[12] His ANN encyclopedia production credits also document his work on several other titles during this period, including Iczer Reborn, Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings, both entries in the Spirit Warrior OAV series, and They Were Eleven.[13] On the adult side of CPM's catalog, he received an in-house production and subtitling credit on Tales of Seduction, an anthology OAV series released through CPM's U.S. Manga Corps label.[13]
Sevakis has spoken positively about the formative experience of working at CPM, describing the environment as an immersive introduction to nearly every aspect of anime home video production at a time when the industry's technical and commercial standards were still being established in North America.[14]
Big Apple Anime Fest
While employed at Central Park Media, Sevakis was recruited — largely against his wishes, by his own account — to help organize Big Apple Anime Fest (BAAF), an ambitious anime convention and film festival conceived by CPM's founder and managing director John O'Donnell.[15] O'Donnell envisioned BAAF as the "Cannes Film Festival for anime," and established it as a separate for-profit company from Central Park Media, drawing heavily on CPM staff to bring his vision to life.[15]
Sevakis served as Manager of Fan Relations for BAAF, a role in which he was responsible for public-facing communications and fan outreach.[16] In a 2015 retrospective column published on Anime News Network, he described the experience of building the event from scratch with a small team of young, inexperienced staff as an intensive and often chaotic crash course in events management and the anime business more broadly.[15]
BAAF was held annually between 2001 and 2003, sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors and supported by a consortium of anime and manga companies. It took place at the Directors Guild of America Theater in its inaugural 2001 run, before moving to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square for subsequent years.[17] The 2003 edition drew thousands of fans to Times Square over four days and featured notable anime premieres including Tokyo Godfathers. Sevakis's presence at the American premiere of Tokyo Godfathers at BAAF is documented in the film's bonus featurette.[18]
The convention did not return after 2003, citing a scheduling conflict with the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, and ultimately never resumed.[19]
ImaginAsian Entertainment
Following his graduation, Sevakis joined the startup ImaginAsian Entertainment and its fledgling television network ImaginAsianTV (later rebranded as MNet). In this role he took on a wide range of responsibilities, including video engineer, DVD author, acquisitions and programming, business development, and theatrical release manager.[9]
Return to Anime News Network
Sevakis returned to Anime News Network in the fall of 2007, where he ran the site's short-lived video section.[13] Over the following years, he became a prominent editorial contributor, writing several recurring columns including "Buried Treasure," which focused on obscure or overlooked anime titles and ran from approximately 2006 to 2009,[20]and "Hey, Answerman," a long-running reader question-and-answer column covering anime trivia, production details, and industry topics.[21] He also co-hosted the official ANN podcast ANNCast and served as editor of the Anime Spotlight section.[9] Following Kadokawa Corporation's 2022 acquisition of Anime News Network, Sevakis has continued his association with ANN in the capacity of Editor at Large.[8]
MediaOCD
In 2012, Sevakis founded MediaOCD, a Los Angeles-based video post-production company specializing in film and video restoration, Digital Cinema production, and Blu-ray disc authoring and compression.[22] The company became widely known within the anime industry for producing releases for Discotek Media, for whom it has produced every Blu-ray the label has published.[23] MediaOCD has also produced disc releases for NIS America, Anime Limited, CJ Entertainment, IFC Films, Variance Films, and Eleven Arts, among others.[24] By the time of the AnimEigo acquisition, the company had produced over 1,300 retail Blu-ray titles for various publishers.[22] MediaOCD also operates its own indie film home video label, Whole Grain Pictures, launched in January 2024.[25]
Acquisition of AnimEigo
On February 15, 2024, MediaOCD and AnimEigo jointly announced that MediaOCD would acquire AnimEigo's mass-market home video distribution business.[24] Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, AnimEigo is widely regarded as the oldest existing anime distributor in the English-speaking world, known for releases such as Bubblegum Crisis, Megazone 23, and Urusei Yatsura.[26] AnimEigo's home video releases continue to be available through distributor MVD Entertainment Group, and the AnimEigo brand has been preserved for current and future limited-edition crowdfunded releases, which continue to be managed by Woodhead and his wife Natsumi Ueki as they transition into retirement.[26]
Commenting on the acquisition, Sevakis stated that he grew up with AnimEigo releases and that preserving the brand and its philosophy was of the utmost importance to him.[26]
The Anime Business documentary series
In February 2025, AnimEigo and MediaOCD launched The Anime Business, an ongoing documentary series produced and hosted by Sevakis.[27] Described as a first-of-its-kind project, the series features in-depth interviews with a wide range of entrepreneurs and industry veterans who helped build the Western anime and manga industries from the ground up.[28] Episodes are released monthly and are available to stream for free on the official AnimEigo YouTube channel, with English and Japanese subtitles made possible through a grant from the Kleckner Foundation.[28] Future episodes are partly crowdfunded through MediaOCD's supporter program.[29]
Sevakis has stated the series had been in development for several years before its debut.[30] As producer and host, he conducts all interviews himself, drawing on his decades of experience as a journalist, distributor, and post-production professional within the anime industry.[27]
As of early 2026, thirteen episodes had been released, with additional episodes in production.[31] The following guests had appeared in the series:
| Episode | Guest | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John O'Donnell (Part 1) | Former Managing Director of Central Park Media |
| 2 | Robert Napton | Former Director of Marketing and Producer of US Renditions at Bandai Entertainment |
| 3 | Peter Tatara | Entrepreneur and founder of Anime NYC |
| 4 | John O'Donnell (Part 2) | Former Managing Director of Central Park Media |
| 5 | Andy Frain | Founder of Manga Video/Manga Entertainment |
| 6 | Tim Eldred | Writer and founder of ourstarblazers.com |
| 7 | Stu Levy | Founder of TOKYOPOP |
| 8 | Kurt Hassler | Publisher and Managing Director of Yen Press; CEO and President of Kadokawa World Entertainment |
| 9 | Jerry Beck | Co-founder of Streamline Pictures |
| 10 | John Sirabella | Co-founder of Media Blasters |
| 11 | Helen McCarthy | Anime author and co-founder of Anime UK magazine |
| 12 | Jonathan Clements | Translator, writer, and co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia |
| 13 | John O'Donnell (Part 3) | Former Managing Director of Central Park Media |
Filmography and production credits
Through MediaOCD, Sevakis has served as producer, video engineer, or authoring supervisor on a large number of anime home video releases. Notable titles include:
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (Blu-ray, Anime Limited/GKids)
- Bubblegum Crisis (AnimEigo Blu-ray)
- Megazone 23 (AnimEigo Blu-ray, 2022 and 2024)
- Project A-Ko (Discotek Blu-ray)
- Otaku no Video (2024 Blu-ray)
- Riding Bean (2024 Blu-ray)
- Berserk (Discotek Blu-ray)
- Penguindrum (Anime Limited UK Blu-ray)