The Anime Club

by Jacob Varney

At Cape Cod Community College (4C’s), there is an Anime Club that meets at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays via Zoom or in MM Wilkens South 107. It currently hosts 7 members. According to Kathleen Fulginiti, the Anime Club Advisor at 4Cs, it has been around for 12 years and used to be one of the bigger clubs at 4Cs, but due to COVID-19, it has shrunk in size. However, an increasing number of students have expressed interest in the club recently. The Anime Club President is Matthew Brun, the Club Advisor is Kathleen Fulginiti, and the Club Treasurer is Spencer Friend.

The Anime Club brings together students interested in Japanese anime, manga, and foreign-created video games. In the club, students learn about and discuss diverse types of animations, novels, and games. The hope of the Anime Club is to learn more about new and interesting types of shows, books, and games and to broaden their knowledge of other cultures as well as their own. According to members, the club revolves around anime, they get together to discuss, watch, and talk about anime. Members also will sometimes do origami, play dungeons and dragons, and play video games.

Photo by Branden Skeli on Unsplash

Anime is more of a style, not a genre, say club members. That it is based on Japanese culture and may be created in several languages. It also has “filler” or non-manga (Most anime are usually adapted from manga, which are Japanese comic books) content. Anime is comprised of different genres and is a staple of Japanese culture. Growing exponentially in recent years, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, anime is “a style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes.” To further show how anime continues to thrive in North America and the rising interest includes that in the last several decades, Japanese pop culture- particularly anime and manga, has grown, especially in the United States. Anime convention attendance in the United States has increased from 2,000 participants in 2002 at Anime Boston to nearly 100,000 attendees in 2017 at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, according to figures from ShareAmerica. During 2020, the Publishing Science Institute predicted that manga sales will reach an all-time high of 600 billion yen, or around $5.5 billion.

Anime Club contributes to 4Cs and the community in multiple ways, including doing community service and hosting movie viewings on campus. However, one important thing brought up that was the hosting of the annual costume party, “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the club hosted the annual college-wide Halloween Costume Party.” Fulginiti says. Fulginiti and members seemed immensely proud of their contributions to the community, and all seemed genuinely happy to play a part in building up the community at 4Cs.

Categories: Clubs, Student Life