To the average student’s eye, a club dedicated to anime might seem like just a group of students that watch and discuss anime. One might have seen the anime-styled posters around school of the club’s mascot, a girl named Alice, holding a body pillow of the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. However, the club itself is much more than that: the officers intend for members not only to appreciate anime at its face value, but also to explore the animation itself, make posters, and hold some events along the way.

“We want to come up with some events [that] correlate with these animations, so we all can enjoy them,” vice president and senior Charlie Qin said. “Because the school life is really [stressful], we want to have some relaxing time.”

In addition to the usual anime-watching and discussion, the officers are also planning to give members of Anime Club the opportunity to create designs, a few examples being for posters and the club t-shirts.

“We want to have more events and come up with more designs which can benefit all of us,” Qin said. “Watching anime is kind of like our [interest], so everybody who joins our club enjoys watching anime.”

So far, the club has had three meetings. According to senior and president Kitty Ma, the first meeting was an introduction to the club, while the second one was comprised of watching anime.

Down the line, however, the officers wish to attract more students to their club. To accomplish this goal, they are planning not only to design club t-shirts, but also to create and hang posters around school. Qi is also hoping to regularly update the club’s website with club news and events.

Ultimately, according to Qin, the anime club is meant to make students happy through sharing their ideas about anime. He and Ma hope to help students destress, whether it’s through creating designs or talking about a common interest in Japanese animation.

“That is benefitting the [students] both on their feeling[s] or anything that they could watch and they can get from the anime,” Qi said.