DGN’s newest club celebrates one of Japan’s oldest pastimes.
The Anime Club, sponsored by Reading Center Aide Monica Schroeder held its first meeting on Feb. 18 in the College and Career Center. Approximately 40 students attended the first meeting. The club meets on the third Wednesday of every month.
“One of my students approached me and asked if I would be interested in helping her start a new club. She had great ideas, and was passionate about creating a club where students could share their interest in anime,” Schroeder said.
Manga and Anime are Japan’s most popular forms of media. Manga is a form of Japanese comic books with roots back to the 12th Century with Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, a series of scrolls depicting animal-person caricatures. The creation of Anime dates back to 1917. Typically anime refers to an adaptation of a manga series for television. Sales of anime and manga have grossed approximately $5.5 billion in sales as of 2009. The reason that this industry is so highly valued because manga is targeted at and read by all age or social groups, unlike American Comic Books which is traditionally written to a much narrower audience.
Senior Matt Santie is an avid anime fan, his favorite series are One Piece and Naruto. Santie plans on attending the next, meeting and is considering joining the Anime Club.
“People probably look at [manga] sometimes as too explicit, and just wrong, but that’s not right, it’s an art form. It takes a lot of creativity and a lot of drawing skill to do. And some [authors] have different ways of doing it if you don’t like that type you’re looking at go to a different type,” Santie said.
For some Anime and Manga has been a life long interest, as is the case for anime fan Brendan Dingle.
“When I was two years old I walked in the living room [when Dragon Ball Z was on] and Goku transformed into a Super Saiyan, I’ve been obsessed ever since,” senior Brendan Dingle said.
The DGN library already has over 1,000 copies of graphic novels and manga volumes, according to head librarian Rebecca Scott. Some of the more popular series that the library carries include Bleach, Dengeki Daisy, Death Note, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and InuYasha. Amongst manga readers at DGN Bleach is the most circulated series.
The library plans to help grow this section in conjunction with the Anime Club. Scott has reached out to the Anime Club and given the club a $1000 ‘allowance’ for the club to recommend titles or series for the library to buy.
“It’s exciting to be working with the manga/anime club to grow and improve this section of the library, but all suggestions are welcome,” Scott said.
Eric Splavec | A&E Editor
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