It’s been a long time since I last wrote on this blog, but I felt like it was appropriate to dust it off for Zac Bertschy, the executive editor for Anime News Network and a person who changed my life forever.
Zac Bertschy passed away on May 21. There’s a memorial dedicated to him on Anime News Network, the site that he helped shape and guide for over 20 years. I suggest you read it to get a sense of the kind of person he was like and the absolute force of nature he was in the American anime community.
For the past three years, Zac was my directly supervising editor. We worked together on editorials and interviews.
I didn’t know Zac that well when he asked me to join Anime News Network. At the time, I had written about two or three articles as a freelancer for ANN. But right then and there, he told me that I was just what he was looking for in a Tokyo correspondent.
At the time, I was still in university and living with my parents in Australia. He had never met me in person. I had no career, and my only credentials were this blog and a handful of fan translations. Even so, he had faith in me even when I didn’t have faith in myself.
I can honestly say that I would not be the person I am now if it weren’t for Zac.
A common element I noticed when looking through the tributes by those who worked with or were friends with Zac: he never ended a conversation without telling you how much he appreciated you.
To this day, I’ve never met a person as earnest and as sincere as he was. We all know that the time we have with others is limited and precious, but no one acted on that the way he did.
My biggest regret is that I never told Zac how much I appreciated him and loved his writing. Right to the very end, I was always causing trouble for him. In our very last conversation, around two weeks ago, all I could do was apologise for the trouble I was causing. I never told him what I should have said: “Thank You.”
Nobody writing anime criticism in English put as much of their soul into their writing as Zac Bertschy did. Even when you disagreed with him, nobody could ever deny that he cared intensely about art and the people who create it. When reading his reviews and reflections, I never felt like I could ever hope to pour as much raw honesty and truth into my own writing.
Zac told me that the kind of editorial he wants to foster and produce at ANN is “emotionally intelligent media analysis.” The kind of writing where you can truly understand the human who wrote it. At the time, I said that I didn’t understand. I told him that other people can do that sort of thing better than I can. I should have told him that I was thinking of him when I said that.
I’m going to take the lessons he taught me and carve them into it my heart. Nobody will ever be able to replicate that unique voice Zac was for so many years, and nobody should. But maybe we can learn to be more honest with ourselves and with others like he was.
Thank you, Zac Bertschy.
Frog-kun's Blog 
I never agreed with Zac Bertschy about much of anything. I always thought he was too quick to jump to spouting inflammatory hot takes on ANN and on Twitter, and I thought the discourse around shows suffered and polarized when his absolutism entered the fray.
With that said, however abrasive he may have been towards people and shows that didn’t align with his political stances, I understand that he was certainly a steadfast rock, a source of inspiration, and a good friend to the people he considered “his”. For that my condolences are with those who knew him personally and counted him as a friend.
The good journalism in this niche field that some of the ANN writers do will always be a positive legacy of his.
re: “Emotionally intelligent media analysis”
I think Zac knew perfectly well why he choose people like you over himself. All of the memorandums so far have mentioned his appreciation of art and media criticism, but I have yet to see someone mention that he appreciated anime/manga specifically. I first came across ANN in mid 2000-and-00’s during the times of moe and piracy wars. At a certain point it became transparent to me that Zac couldn’t write about anime with a positive and honest attitude. It’s not like he was hiding it or w/e, but I always thought such a person did not deserve the job of an influential anime website. I was envious sure, but at the same time I thought there were more qualified to be in that position.
From reading his colleagues, like yourself, I understand now that he was given that role because he was much better at handling people and being an editor than expressing himself through writing. It took time for ANN to start picking up passionate writers who on top of knowing their shit also loved what they were writing about. Zac was just never that person and I’m glad he started offering collaborations to people like you.
The last reviews he ever wrote were for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!. I think his passion for anime and animation comes through there.
Can I ask where do you read light novels? Or which sites? I really want to read but it’s hard for me to locate a site to read. It would be better if I can also download its chapters with less hassle, other sites are hard to use.
Also, I really love what you do. I just recently read your reviews and it’s really fun reading them. Keep up the good work and I really hope you’ll read this.
I live in Japan and I buy my light novels, either from a local bookstore or Kinokuniya. I buy digital books from Bookwalker, which also has a global site for English ebooks. I can’t help you with locating fan translations, you’re on your own there.
Hey missed you man :(
I have a question, do you have instagram, twitter or any social media accounts where you post more stuff about anime or etc?
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