Inspired by the morals that anime teaches, Senior Alpin Brown founded the Anime Club first semester last year. Anime is a Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sexuality.
“Watching anime as I grew up taught me to be kind to my friends and take care of everyone I love,” Brown said. “I started Anime Club because I like those ideals and wanted to share them with everyone else.”
Starting the club was relatively simple, according to Brown. He asked permission from assistant principal Mr. Travis Fast, asked science teacher Ms. Becky Orth to be the teacher supervisor and planned the first meeting from there.
“The first meeting we only had about eight people,” Brown said. “Nowadays we have 20 people on average; it usually varies, but we’ve had up to 50 people.”
Since its start last year, Anime Club has grown in number and purpose.
“People came to me and said that anime was like a sanctuary for them,” Brown said. “The members really enjoy the club.”
The club meets every Monday in Orth’s room after school for about one hour.
“Usually at meetings we watch the first episode of any particular anime,” sophomore Ian Leyman said. “After we watch the episode, we discuss whether we liked it or not and whether or not we would continue the series at home.”
Watching anime is not the only activity in which the club takes part. The club had a Special Olympics booth this year and plans to continue this event. Club members have also made some greater long-term goals.
“We are raising money in order to get club t-shirts,” junior Rodney Walton said. “But our ultimate goal, if we can save enough money, is to go to an anime convention.”
Of his many experiences with the club, Brown said that his favorite memory was when the club had a birthday celebration for him last year.
“So many people came and they made me a huge Happy Birthday card,” Brown said. “It made my entire life. That was one of the best things I could have ever hoped for.”
Brown has little time left to make new memories with the club. He is graduating early at semester and is making plans for who will take over the leadership duties.
“When I graduate, Rodney Walton is going to take over for me,” Brown said. “He is going to do a fantastic job ,and I’m really proud of him. I can’t wait for him to take over and show that he is a leader.”
Leadership responsibilities include making sure everyone knows when meetings are, choosing which anime to watch and screening them for appropriateness, organizing the meetings and collecting money, finding new members, and much more.
Anime Club is always looking for new members and invites students to join whether they are habitual viewers or are just looking for a new interest.
Some members were already committed anime viewers, while others had little prior experience before joining the club. Leyman, for example, came to his first meeting to be with his friends, not expecting to enjoy it as much as he did.
“I didn’t really have a huge interest in anime before joining the club,” Leyman said. “I mean I had watched shows that everybody watched like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z, but it wasn’t until I joined Anime Club that I got into the less-known stuff.”
Leyman encourages all students to try it out, regardless of experience.
“Really you can just come to one of our meetings and just say, ‘Hey, I want to watch some anime today’ and they’ll just be like ‘alright! come on in’,” Leyman said.
