Caitlin O’Halloran – Reporter
The Anime Society has created a place designed to be an all-inclusive environment meant to link together like-minded individuals with only one required common interest: anime.
Clubs are one of the key elements of college and keeping the student body connected. There are clubs for just about anything that you can think of, including the obvious such as sports, botany, politics, etc., but also for the more eclectic things that you might not think of. One of those such clubs is the Anime Society.
The Anime Society aims to do just what any other club would do – gather people who share a similar interest to network with each other and indulge.
“If anyone at all is interested, they should feel free to join in any capacity. We are an all-inclusive community and won’t turn anyone away,” said Jordan Lubus, secretary of the Anime Society.
The club itself is casual in nature and is built essentially on the premise of hanging out with like-minded individuals, therefore the actual regime of the club is rather relaxed and flexible in nature. Mondays are for general activities and will include things such as fanfiction readings and tier lists, but these do not always have to have a focus on anime necessarily. It is just meant to be fun and keep everyone connected. Wednesdays are the days that are set aside for anime viewing and each Wednesday has a different theme such as romance or comedy, to allow the members to get a general sampling of anime.
One of the major components of this club is based in the ideology of inclusivity and never turning anybody away. The e-board of this club always pushes the point and mission of this club – to allow anyone who is interested in any capacity to have a good time.
This also means that when it comes to any and all events, the floor is always open to suggestions from any member of the club to allow everyone to have a chance to see the things they would like to see.
“Last semester honestly felt a bit iffy, as we had to kind of scrap almost everything we were doing and adjust to the new world but this semester, every feels correct and is going well,” said Isaiah Torres, president of the Anime Society.
One of the biggest shifts for the Anime Society from pre-COVID-19 to during COVID-19 is the absence of their very popular in-person events. In the past, they would have a huge annual event called the cosplay cafe where everyone would dress up together and eat and listen to music and genuinely enjoy each other’s company.
Now, the closest thing they can do is a new annual movie night that employs social distancing and CDC guidelines to ensure everyone can be safe and have a good time.
Technology and social interaction platforms have been a huge key in keeping the Anime Society together and connected. Discord is utilized to allow everyone to have an easy way to keep connected, talk to each other, get announcements and take part in activities like tier lists and what not.
Microsoft Teams is also utilized as the way to have their anime watch parties, which works almost perfectly fine besides the fact that if you talk during a show, the anime volume will be lowered. Therefore forcing you to wait until the end of each episode to share your thoughts, unless you send them in the text chat.
“Go for it if you want to watch anime with like-minded people and have the time for that,” said Shawen Contreras, a member of the Anime Society.
