An anime club is an organization that meets to discuss, show, and promote

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

in a local community setting and can also focus on broadening Japanese cultural understanding. Anime clubs are increasingly found at universities and high schools. Organizers may also use public meeting spaces such as a library or a government center. Many anime club attendees identify themselves as otaku. Although the core of anime club attendees are in their twenties, there are generally no age requirements. Adults in their fifties and sixties and teenagers also attend.

Activities

Anime club meetings can occur on a weekly or monthly basis. In addition to viewing anime, clubs engage in other activities such as viewing anime music videos, reading

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, karaoke and

cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

ing. Many clubs host online forums to further foster community interaction, and feature a library to lend books and manga to members. Participants of an anime club often are also involved in volunteering and organization of local

anime convention An anime and manga convention (often called just anime convention) is a fan convention with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Anime conventions are commonly multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college cam ...

s. Dependent on the scope of the club, activities can also have a broader range, to include playing of table top games such as shogi, go, and mahjong. Outside activities include saké tasting and visits to cultural events such as National Cherry Blossom Festival or a

kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). It began as samurai warriors' customary swordsmanship ex ...

demonstration.

Anime showings

Typically anime clubs exhibit shows in their original

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

track with English

subtitles Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...

. Dependent upon policy of the club, anime fansubs, official subtitling, or localized dubs can be shown. Larger clubs can have multiple viewing rooms. Usually one room features localized anime and the other fansubs. The fansub room can also be known as the ' divx' room, named after the popular

video codec A video codec is software or Computer hardware, hardware that data compression, compresses and Uncompressed video, decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, ''codec'' is a portmanteau of ''encoder'' and ''decoder'', while ...

. Due to the long running and episodic nature of some anime, exhibition is scheduled in blocks with breaks. Often, a twenty six episode series will be screened over the period of several months. There are also informal policies in some club circles regarding the total length of a viewed show. For example, Bleach and InuYasha run for 366 and 167 (or 191 with the Inuyasha: The Final Act) episodes respectively. At this length, a club may be perpetually showing episodes, effectively depriving another show of that spot. Additionally, it may be difficult for new members of the club to follow or become interested in a storyline that has already progressed far.

Public exhibition

When gathering in a public place to show licensed media, written permission from the domestic rights holder is required. This is known as Public Performance Rights or exhibition rights. North American anime licensors, such as

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

and Bandai Entertainment have established programs to help facilitate public screenings of their licensed content at anime clubs.Bandai announces anime club support program
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References

{{reflist, 30em Anime and manga fandom Otaku

Activities

Anime showings

Public exhibition

See also

References