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Anime Club video fundraiser a huge success

Rooms in the student center were filled to overflowing on March 31, the night of the video game tournament. The event was a fundraiser for the university’s Anime Club. The crowd was so intense that outer doors were opened for air circulation and when a third room was available, it was taken over to start the Halo: Reach tournament on the big screen. While waiting for the space, many people huddled around TVs, taking turns practicing the game.

Club President Chris Bryce said, “It was insanity – sheer insanity!”

Bryce was in nearly constant motion solving one glitch or other the entire night, and the Anime Club all worked together to make the event such a success. Three times more money was raised than the last tournament fundraiser.

Caleb Summerhays, club secretary, said, “The fundraiser was a success among all the chaos that was going on.”

The money raised is used to keep the anime club going with new shows to watch, food and promotional materials.

The main draw this semester was the StarCraft II tournament, getting over fifty participants and causing Super Smash Bros. Brawl to take a back seat. The projection TV and commentary made it almost a movie-watching experience for those waiting to compete.

Rock Band 3, Marvel Vs. Capcom, Dance Dance Revolution and a variety of Mario games were also popular.

Utah Community Credit Union, a regular sponsor of the event, provided prizes such as a $25 Visa gift card, Starving Student cards and T-shirts. There were also donated prizes such as figurines and a large Hellgast helmet from Killzone 3.

Anime is Japanese animation which, unlike much of American animation, encompasses a much wider variety of shows and is not just geared towards family viewing, although the club viewings are kept PG-13.

Many club members, especially Bryce, are also fans of Japanese music and share links and songs with each other on the club forums. Summerhays is one of the members currently taking Japanese language courses. Sometimes the anime is watched dubbed into English and sometimes in Japanese with subtitles, often depending on the quality of the dubbing.

The club watches a variety of anime at their weekly meetings and votes on the next series to add. The current showings include Lucky Star, My Bride Is A Mermaid, D. Gray-Man, Black Butler and whatever other anime is brought from the rather extensive collections of members.

Lucky Star is a rather humorous and silly interaction between high school girls. My Bride Is A Mermaid is what would happen if the movie SPLASH happened to a teenage boy and is full of romance and humor. D. Gray-Man is an action/adventure series about a young exorcist who hunts the souls of the undead. Black is about a demon who serves his human master while the master is living and then owns his soul. After doing miraculous feats and still getting everything ready by dinnertime, the main character states, “I am simply one hell of a butler.”

Blu-Ray anime movie showings are also popular anime club events. The next movie is The Girl Who Lept Through Time, which is about a teenage girl who discovers the usefulness, as well as the pitfalls, of time travel. It will be shown April 22 in LI 120 from 5-8 p.m.

The anime club meets Fridays in SC 206 or 213 from 5-9 p.m. and also often has smaller gatherings throughout the week. Everyone is welcome.

For more information about upcoming events, visit www.UVUAnimeClub.com