Carlos/Giancarla Ross

Hometown: Chandler, Arizona, USA
Education: Arizona State University '08 - Asian Languages-Japanese

Howdy. For a long time, I was Meticulous Figurehead (Editor-in-Chief) of this website. As such, I get to actually write things in first person once in a while.

I got involved in THEM originally in 1998 through a chance meeting with several members in the Arizona State University Honors College, though I had actually already been reading the Anime Reviews site for quite some time. Once I put two and two together ("You wrote this?!? Cool!") I basically took on a lot of titles, often watching them in Raph's dorm. After Raph left for medical school in 1999, I took over the site, and it's been under my stewardship ever since.

I've been watching anime for far longer, of course, starting with Mazinger Z and Voltron, and only finally realizing what "anime" was many years later with Sailor Moon and Grave of the Fireflies.

Between 2000 and 2008, I was in charge of this website, all the while slowly working on my degree in (you guessed it) Japanese. I was involved in a few conventions here and there, mostly in Arizona. I was also an officer of THEM ASU for several years and also served as captain of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Academic Bowl team as well as the ASU College and Quiz Bowl teams (had to pay tuition somehow). I graduated in December of '08 and, like so many ASU grads before me, skipped town with all my belongings to a completely different life elsewhere.

As of the present time, I am the longest-serving reviewer on this site; you'd think that so many years reviewing anime would cause burnout, but thankfully that hasn't happened quite yet, though having a raft of other hobbies doesn't hurt.

Aside from my work with THEM Anime, I am also an avid birder (particularly during Christmas Bird Count season) and planespotter, serve as an editor and/or superuser at, among others, Wikipedia (though absolutely NEVER on the page devoted to this website), eBird, and OpenStreetMaps, and maintain a keen interest in genealogy. Between all this, I'm pretty easy to find on the Internet, though I am definitely *not* a sports figure or a member of the clergy.

I also enjoy plenty of Western Animation too, particularly Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars: Rebels. Animation doesn't have to be Japanese to be awesome!

I currently live in the outskirts of Austin, Texas, and after a stint in Orlando working as a Walt Disney World Cast Member, I am now a volunteer coordinator at Meals on Wheels Central Texas, where I do much the same job I used to do at anime conventions, but to provide social services to thousands of older adults.

Yes, I'm the same Carlos Ross who won three games on Jeopardy! in December 2013, and did battle against James Holzhauer on The Chase in July 2022; I remain a competitive quizzer and compete annually in the World Quizzing Championships (with widely varying success).

Everything else you need to know, you'll learn in due time. Ciao!

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Incidentally, the Figurehead Emeritus is possibly the only person on Earth who has had romantic relationships occur as a direct result of Marmalade Boy multiple times and gotten to tell Yoshizumi Wataru about it directly. (Though maybe we shouldn't tell her about the multiple *divorces*, such are the vagaries of life!)

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I've got several social media outlets which shouldn't be too hard to find if you know where to look, but be aware that my personal posts are not in the least bit politically neutral.

Keeping the boy-type avatar here for tradition's sake, but I'm openly non-binary.

Cheers and thanks for reading!

Status: [PERMANENT]
(active 1998-present)