Out of all of Timber Creek’s student organizations and clubs, one stands out for its welcoming attitude and enthusiastic members. This would be the Anime Club.
What is Anime?
Anime is a hand-drawn computer-animated style of animation originating from Japan. The film and television-style has been known for many years, starting in roughly 1917. It saw a massive surge in popularity in both the 1980s and early 2000s. Anime television shows and films are commonly adaptations of manga, which can be defined as Japanese graphic novels. With its huge surge in popularity, Anime has reached both broad and niche audiences around the globe.
Vibrant colors are often paired with smooth animation and specific animator’s trademark style to illustrate stories in a very appealing manner. The anime industry is composed of over 430 production companies, including dominating major studios like Studio Ghibli and Toei Animation.
Due to the massive spread of Anime, it has gathered many enthusiasts around the world. A few of these enthusiasts at our school have organized a club specifically to facilitate an environment for like-minded fans to gather together.
The Anime Club
I spoke to club founder, Senior Adrian Medford in order to find out some more about the club.
In 2019, our school actually had an anime club, but it was extremely different from what we have this year. Since it wasn’t at our school last year, Adrian took it into their own hands to make sure it came back better than ever. Medford explained that they wanted to create, ” …a safe space for education, for social interaction, possibly a break from the stressful world with those you can connect to.”
According to Medford, Anime Club is more than just a club to celebrate anime. They said, “This is a welcoming place for those who enjoy all kinds of Japanese culture. It’s about being yourself and having fun, where you can share knowledge about Japanese culture in a friendly environment.” To Adrian and other members of the club, the Anime club is more of a family than a club. They support each other, help one another, share laughs, and they always have each other’s backs. “Although our ages vary and we come from all walks of life, we support one another through and through”, Medford says.
Club Meetings
At club meetings, they begin by watching the anime that they select for the day. The selected anime will always correlate to what they’ll be learning after. It always ties in with the engaging presentations they create. After watching the anime, they learn the related lesson and present other instances of anime, video games, movies, or other forms of media that relate to the said lesson.
Club meetings are every Thursday from 4:00 – 5:00 after school, and they meet in room M112. If the club room is unavailable, the club will be streamed over Discord, which will start at 4:40 instead.
Anime Club is a welcoming environment with dedicated and friendly members that are always ready to help someone out. If you are interested in joining, please attend a club meeting or contact Mr. Grunewald at daniel.grunewald@kellerisd.net