Some don’t even know this school has an anime club

“The what club?” senior Marwah Banihani said, who has been here just as long as the anime club has. This is the attitude the anime club is faced with, sometimes even worse. Many of the Anime Club members know that they are probably called geeks for doing what they like the most but don’t care what people say about them, not even if they’re called otakus( a Japanese word meaning an anime freak).

“Geeks are cool anyway,”the anime club’s advisor and English teacher, Verity Coron said. “We’ve got a cool atmosphere,”

Still confused? Anime is short for animation which is the form used by Japanese cartoons .They aren’t really for a young audience, though. The Anime club was established only four years ago by a group of students under the supervision of Coron. She had been a member in her college’s Anime Club and was glad when the HHS Anime Club started meeting.

“You get to learn about the [Japanese] pop culture,” Coron said.

In fact, the club only watches the anime in Japanese with the help of English subtitles.

“It’s kind of my rule,” Coron said.

This year’s club president is junior Neal Hammond who is also good artist. The club meets on the second activity period and on every Friday from three to five p.m. During study hall, club members either read Shonen Jump, a manga magazine, do homework, eat snacks, draw or socialize. When Coron enters the room at three, all look at her while she gets the equipment ready for the club to watch the anime they’ve been waiting for.

Every meeting, the club watches four episodes of four different anime series, each is about twenty four minutes. This year the four are “Arakawa under the Bridge”, “Hayate the Combat Butler”, “Soul Eater” and Shounen Onmyouji . Vice presidents senior Kait Arthur and senior Chris Pyle provide two of the anime DVDs this year. Arthur provides “Hayate the Combat Butler” as it is one of her favorite animes.

“I also like the ‘Full Metal Alchemist ‘and ‘Ouran High School Host Club,” Arthur said.

She also said  how she and Chris Pyle are trying to make a club manga( the book form of of the cartoons)/anime library so that members can borrow what they want.

“We’re working on a collection,” Arthur said, but is concerned the anime and manga might get ‘lost’.

Although the anime club members are all different they all agree that anime club is the best.

“It’s a community where I can meet people with the same interests. People misconceive this [anime] as something for kids. It’s T.V, only it’s something drawn,”  Pyle said.

“They all have plots. They’re actual stories!” Coron added.
Freshman Tabatha Lafreniere likes the club but is a little disappointed.

“I was a little sad that there weren’t as many kids as I thought there would be. More kids should try it out and appreciate the art. They shouldn’t think it’s geeky. If I’m labeled a geek for this, it’s fine with that. It’s just something I like. Get your inner geek out,” Lafreniere said.

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