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What is your ideal anime club?

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Hey guys!

I know there hasn’t been much activity on my blog for a while now, I sincerely apologize! I’m not too sure when I’ll have time to watch anime or even read manga with how my workload is going…so I decided to put this up while we wait 😛

So I was just talking with my brother about this a couple hours ago and I decided to send this question your way!

I imagine everyone has either joined an anime club before or at least checked one out, and I was wondering what those clubs were like and if they ever met your expectations. What were your expectations? What did or didn’t you like?

Basically, what is your ideal anime club like?

Here are some things I came up with my brother:

  • It should be structured and have variety (whatever this is)
  • It would be nice for someone to keep track of new faces. This can be in the form of asking if there are new people at every meeting and then having them be introduced (so that new people don’t feel left out)
  • Have at least two meetings per week. One of the days dedicated for fun (watching anime, playing, etc) and the second for discussion (for the more critical/serious anime fans)

I think those were the major points…

You see, the anime club at my school is pretty…unorganized and loose so I never really went back after my first meeting. The first hour of the meetings are dedicated to games (the one time I went people were chasing each other with different colored mics) and the rest of the time (like 2-3 hours) are for watching anime. It meets once a week and every now and then they have special events (outings, guest speakers, and cosplay stuff).

I don’t think it’s a ‘bad’ anime club but there’s something about their structure I don’t like. Everyone already knows each other so I feel awkward going. Especially now that the few people I did know have graduated and left.

There’s also something really bland about just going to play and watch anime. Honestly, I could just do that at home and at my own pace. I mean, I’m sure our couch and my bed are way more comfortable than school chairs….so yeah, haha

It would also be nice if manga were included somehow (manga lover here :P)

But yes, it’d be great to hear some of your experiences! Maybe you’ve been to a couple throughout the years 🙂

Also, are the anime clubs at your schools called ‘Anime Club’ or is it something fancy sounding? Ours is called the Japanese Media Appreciation Club (or something like that).

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74 thoughts on “What is your ideal anime club?”

  1. “It would be nice for someone to keep track of new faces. This can be in the form of asking if there are new people at every meeting and then having them be introduced (so that new people don’t feel left out)”

    Is this because you can’t remember people’s names and/or faces?

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  2. My anime club on campus is just called an Anime Society, I only ever went to the meet and greet and it was so awkward. Without a chance to introduce ourselves we were thrown into a trivia game which was so specific no one knew the answers to, one question was like ‘What’s the English translation to the first part of the Shingeki no Kyojin opening?’ – I’m sure there are people out there who know it, but none of us did.

    They also have a Facebook group but it’s pretty much just filled with dodgy images and offensive comments.

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    • Wow, that’s…even with how obsessed I got with aot I wouldn’t be able to answer that xD I can only imagine how awkward that’d be >.<

      Did you stay for the whole thing or did you end up leaving? Did you go by yourself?

      Offensive comments? :O doesn't the school supervise things like that?

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      • I know right! I was there with two friends, we ended up leaving after about 20 minutes, it was a mix between terribly awkward and really boring.
        Unfortunately the Facebook page and group are run by the society executive, who are students as well, and they don’t seem to care :/

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        • That is exactly how I felt during my first actual stay at the club xD It’s only because I wanted to watch Haikyuu that I REALLY stayed, haha

          Which is why I now only go to the special events, so when guests are invited (I think they told me they try to do this once a year, their last one was VA Josh Grelle and that was major fun)

          That’s actually not cool :/ For some reason I would have thought schools supervised anything that was associated with them, so nothing bad is going on and whatnot

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          • Haha! Well at least you stuck it out 🙂 It’s so bad when meetings are awkward!
            Oh wow! That’s amazing! Did you get their autographs? I think my one just does screenings of random episodes and some cosplay events ;_;
            Yeah it’s really bad – it’s kinda embarrassing for the university too, since they’re affiliated

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            • yeah! 🙂 it was a workshop type of thing where he had people come up with original characters and how to create a voice for them, it was really cool to see how everyone started thinking differently about their characters and how their personalities came to be

              I’d actually ‘met’ him at ACEN a few months beforehand, but this was really neat, almost like a mini private lesson from him 😀 he was real nice too

              Random episodes?! Dx Don’t you guys decide on an anime and start from the beginning? What if someone isn’t familiar with the show? Like SPOILERS lol

              I think our club does some cosplay stuff…? xP

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  3. I’ve never been in a physical anime club, but I don’t know if I should be disappointed at that fact or somewhat celebratory based on the realities of these replies. I do enjoy talking about anime with new people, however, hence the makeshift cafe. Maybe one of these days I’ll find a club out there *looks intently into the horizon*

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  4. The anime club that I was in in High School, was that I was actually the President of, was pretty organized. We would have meetings every week or so where we would just talk about anime stuff and then we would have days where we would go in during our lunch period and watch an anime. It was neat to watch a show and see how other people reacted to it. We did not really go on any outings except for a trip to a nearby Japanese cultural festival. I really enjoyed it.

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    • an anime club president! 😀

      I was in the animation club when I was in HS, which is where people who didn’t have anything better to do hung out at xD We never really did anything anime-like or went out for events xP

      Did you guys have your meetings in a classroom? Was that classroom usually open during lunch breaks? (Better yet, were people allowed to eat their stuff while watching anime?! :O)

      How did you spread the word about getting together during lunch? Was it planned in advance or did you guys just do it spontaneously?

      I love going to the theatre to watch anime movies because the reactions people have are just so amusing, then I think ‘am I making those faces too?’ xD

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  6. Anime club at my school was so lame. No one watched the same stuff and it was mainly filled with people who barely knew anything about a anime, they would watch one episode and that’s it. I have been wanting to make one online or something because it would be fun to talk to people about it.

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  7. Well, first of all, I think a good club shouldn’t be just focused on anime. Manga should be included because if you want to have a good discussion going on the one, you can’t avoid talking about the other.

    And instead of just hanging out and watching anime, the meetings should be focused on discussions. Here, I noticed some posters commenting on how they felt when they joined established clubs, so I would like to offer a suggestion.

    New members to the club should be allowed to introduce themselves, via a speaking event. That is to say, they should be given a chance to write an essay on their favourite anime or manga and present it to the club as a “guest speaker”. That way, the older members can tell what the newcomer is about. If newcomers are made to participate in highly specific trivia games, then they lose the chance to contribute.

    This is also a good way to weed out people who might negatively affect your club. I remember once, at a manga discussion meeting, we had about 5-6 newcomers. We were discussing Ranma 1/2 iirc. But soon after the meeting started, it became clear that the 5-6 newcomers never even read Ranma or heard about it. Because they spent the half hour they were there asking questions.

    “Do you like cake? Chocolate or strawberry?”

    “Got time after school? Want to go arcade?”

    “You wear sports bra?”

    Those questions were directed at the sole female member of our club.

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    • oh wow, thats terrible! xO I didn’t know people would go out of their way to join a club just to harass people! [DELETED SCENES, what used to be here idk] And even now I’ve noticed how light novels and visual novels have started to pop up on the scene (or maybe I was just oblivious for so long @_@)

      Edit: Ok, half my comment is gone, let’s see if I can remember what I wrote…LOL

      I’ve actually never read ranma 1/2 either though having been a mega fan of Inuyasha I kind of know a bit about it (I heard they were re-releasing it or something and I considered watching it but it’s kind of old and I’m not sure I want to commit to a long series >.<)

      I really like the introductions idea except for the presenting xD (but that's just me being a hermit), I think having this system would be fun and welcoming, and by doing these introductions people can start making connections and can even help club managers/presidents/whatever you call them (lol) in what direction the club should go in terms of discussion and whatnot

      I think it's sad when I hear about anime clubs and it's just anime and other media (?) like manga, light novels, and visual novels/games aren't included. I think having a discussion on adaptations and original sources would be pretty fun :D!

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      • I think those boys came to the meeting just because they heard we had a girl member. At that age, boys can get really desperate.

        So yeah, I don’t think they were being malicious. Most likely, they were just acting like the desperate boys they were, trying to meet new girls. But they shouldn’t have joined a club just for that purpose.

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  8. Oh, here’s another idea. The discussions should be structured like those happening at serious book clubs.

    I once attended a book club meeting and they were discussing the works of Jane Austen. One thing I noticed was that they never discussed anything about the plot. No one asked if Emma Woodhouse served scones to Mr. Knightley in which chapter. They (the club members) talked about the value and impact that Austen’s works have on modern society and so on.

    I wrote an essay about canonising Japanese manga so I would like to attend a manga club meeting with serious discussions going on. Instead of, you know, trivia games asking questions like Goku’s exact power level in whichever chapter and so on.

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  9. Pingback: What is your current OTP? Discuss with UnimeTV

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