Starting Your Own High School Anime Club

It's no secret that anime has begun to cross over into the mainstream. A number of series-such as Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and Full Metal Alchemist-have begun airing on national television stations, anime DVDs can be purchased or rented from nearly all major video retail outlets, and anime t-shirts, trading card games, and other merchandise can be found in prominence in plenty of high schools and colleges. But while anime is growing in popularity, it is still very much a niche market, and so it's understandable for fans to want a club, an actual community, where they can meet new fans and discover new series.

This can be achieved in a number of different ways. There are a number of fan communities on the Internet that cater to anime fans, either on individually maintained forums and message boards or on the plethora of social networking sites like LiveJournal and MySpace. But despite their wide accessibility, fans may hope for something outside the World Wide Web, a meeting place in or near their town. In that case, one might consider an independent meet-up group, which would allow for a wide variety of members and the blessed freedom of making one's own rules. Of course, this would mean that the officers would be responsible for everything, including finding a meeting space, finding the budget, and, most importantly, getting the word out in the community to attract your members. For those still of school age, however, who don't mind dealing with a little bureaucracy in exchange for a little more structure, one may consider starting up an on-campus anime club at their local high school.