A phenomenon has been sweeping high schools and universities all across the country. Anime fans can finally find refuge at Florida A&M to expose their artistic talent and network among fans with similar interests.
Cyrah Hawkins, Thomas Champ, Reginald Alceius and Kurt Kedore, four friends, founded the club in 2005.
“We’re trying to incorporate game nights and collaborate with the video game club,” Britt Lyle II, 22, president of the anime club said.
“The conventions are our biggest events, because we’re going out of town into another city experiencing screenings, purchasing merchandise and meeting new people,” Lyle said. “Sometimes there are voice actors at the anime convention such as Christopher Sabat, a popular voice actor for the voice of Vegeta on Dragon Ball Z.”
The club hosts bake sales in order to raise funds without financial support to travel to the conventions.
“Sometimes our hotel room would cost around $500 for the whole event…we would have to scrape up money out of our own pockets,” Lyle said.
The club also hopes to raise money to create anime T-shirts to represent their club as well as recruiting new members.
“The day we walk around wearing our T-shirts, I will feel accomplished,” Lyle said.
The club manages to play dodge ball and kickball in their free time.
Vice President and Data Acquisitionist Brian Johnson, 22, a senior computer information system (CIS) student from Tallahassee, plans to continue his involvement with the club since joining last spring. Johnson collects data for the animations that are watched at weekly meetings.
“Of course I plan on continuing being in the anime club, because I found people like myself, and there’s not a lot of people who like animations,” Johnson said. “It is very important because you meet new people who are like yourself from other states.”
Skillful artists in the anime club work to show off their vibrant styles and expand what they can do and create.
Charles Hadden, 20, an electrical engineering student from Miramar, Fla., works as a cartoonist for the club.
“I was vice president of the anime club in high school…I feel right here because I can congregate with other people of the same interest as me who are as crazy as, or probably crazier than me,” Hadden said.
The club’s upcoming plans include attending the EXP Con in St. Augustine on October 8-10. The club holds meetings every Thursday at 8 p.m. at Foster-Tanner Art building in room 205.