Gilles Poitras has produced three books on anime: Anime Companion (vols 1 & 2) and Anime Essentials. He has written for magazines including NewType USA and Otaku USA and served as a member of the senior board of Mechademia. He has made presentations at various Japan-US friendship groups, public libraries, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, conventions, and workshops for librarians, has introduced films at the Smithsonian, and has taught a course on anime for Pixar staff. He resides in Oakland, California.

Jake Adelstein (Foreword) has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993. He is considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan and works as a writer and consultant in Japan, the United States and France. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: A Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintage, now a hit HBO series) and has written two other books published by Marchialy in France.