Fun and games with the Anime club

Want to be a part of something unique on campus? Why not check out the anime club.

"The goal of the club is to bring together people that never knew each other before on campus," President Joe Biega said. The club is free to anyone that has an interest and people are strongly encouraged to just stop by and get a taste for what the club is all about.

The club meets Thursdays and Fridays every week from 7-9 p.m. in HAC 111. The club started two years ago by Joe Biega, Rich Perilli, and Adam Rutt. The executive board consists of Biega as president, Rich Perilli as vice president, Karen Sague as secretary and Shera Howe as treasurer.

According to the executive board, the club members have become a small close family. The meetings are a time to get to know each other, laugh and have a good time. Anyone can bring in anime and they watch them during their meetings

The club also tries to go to an annual conference, which took place in October last year, right before Halloween. The conference was in southern Vermont and is one of many anime conferences that take place all over the world.

There are many that don't think they like anime until they actually get into it. Karen Sague, Secretary of the anime club, once hated this industry and all it was about.

"I'm glad the anime club existed. I hated anime. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. All I knew was Pokemon and then I met Adam and Joe and then became an anime nerd," she said.

According to the club, most people only see the surface of anime and there is so much more. There are many types of anime as there are book genres.

The anime club is a small club on campus that many people don't know about. Members are working on getting well known across campus as well as growing as a club. They currently have 10 regular members.

The club recently purchased 32 anime DVDs for only $100. This is a major savings, as they are normally $40 a piece. This past year the SGA gave them $200 for their budget and the executive board feels that they have used this money very wisely to enhance the club.

They are currently sponsored by ‘Funimation', an anime company that sends the club one DVD a month that they continue to add to the club's library.

The anime club is not just adult cartoons but it is "a powerful story telling device," Howe said.

Anime is very popular in Japan but not very accessible in the United States. One of the purposes of this club is to help make anime better known, as well as more accessible to people in this small area. Anime is produced in Japanese and then it has to get changed to English which is an expensive process which makes anime less accessible, especially difficult for broke college students.

If the club seems interesting, come and find out who they are. It's a chance to meet people that have the same interests as you.