Anime Club activities

shellyshellz · Post by **shellyshellz** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:59 pm

Sure, hanging around in a group and watching anime is all well and good, but what else can we do in our anime clubs to spice them up?

The anime club at my high school has been around for three years (I helped to start it my freshman year) and for the first year all we really did was watch anime. Our second year we had some scattered activities, and this year we're trying to do some new things to get some of the freshman interested in joining and to try to keep our current members active.

Some things we've done:
- debates (shounen vs shoujo, anime vs manga)
- jeoprady
- trivia games
- a manga about our club
- karaoke contests

Feel free to take these ideas and use them in your own anime clubs, and post some of your own here! It'll be a great way for all of us to improve our hometown clubs.

Seizetsu · Post by **Seizetsu** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:20 pm

Our anime club this year is under a new reign of terror-- I mean management(me and a friend) so we're trying as well to get away from the sit around, talk, and watch anime. So far its working out very well! Only, we're attracting so many people, we may soon outgrow our room!!!!

Anyway, we've done two workshops on drawing and character developement which worked out great. They are preperation to do our own club manga! How did yours turn out? Did you make copies for everyone? And how many people were working on it? This is the first time we're doing this and I don't know what to expect as a result from a group this large!

shellyshellz · Post by **shellyshellz** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:33 am

We haven't published our first issue yet, but it's going pretty well. Anyone in the club can submit little stories for the manga, and my friend and I are drawing/inking it. We're probably going to do a color cover and then give them to all the members, but we'll likely charge maybe 50 cents an issue to get a little money off them--our treasury is pretty empty!!

Nqac · Post by **Nqac** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:29 pm

Your anime clubs seeming to be going smoothly :thumbup:
Ours is like you come and go.

Seizetsu · Post by **Seizetsu** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:44 am

come and go? Like you can't get the same members to show up everytime?

Emi · Post by **Emi** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:41 pm

this topic is pretty helpful.
^_^
I'm starting up an anime club this year at my school, so this gives me ideas on different things to think of.

Right now we have 30 people signed up to be in it, but a lot of them are involved with other activities like drama and sports.
So I guess the club will be a come and go type as well, since not everyone can come to every meeting.

We are required to have set activities, at the meetings, of some sort at my school, but these can range from organized discussions, to watching anime, to having mini videogame tournaments.

The club won't officially start meeting till after the new year due to the teacher who has agreed to be the advisor's scheduale. But we have been talking about various things we could do in the club.

Nqac · Post by **Nqac** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:32 pm

If they don't like the anime they leave. We want to do more activities but the the activites are limited. Say we want to do a cosplay show but there just isn't that much people who knows how to cosplay(including myself). Also our school is really limited to use of their equipment like their projector and rooms. It's hard but I'm not ready to give up.

Seizetsu · Post by **Seizetsu** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 9:39 am

Hmm...yeah the level of know-how for cosplay varies in our club as well. We wanted to maybe get in some type of LARPing this year, but only 30% of the club cosplays. So what we did was, we had a "cosplay questions and answer workshop" where we helped people get ideas, and talked about how to make certain things, to try and help all the new cosplayers. It wasn't as effective as our "character creation workshops," but I think it was at least informative.

Kyakins · Post by **Kyakins** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:46 am

I'm planning Photoshoots for my highschool's Anime Club.

Starwind Amada · Post by **Starwind Amada** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:03 pm

My club is pretty much dead. We only get about five people who attend, and most of them play Warcraft on the laptops or leave halfway through the meeting. All we do is sit around and watch that everyone's seen. Two weeks ago we watched Cowboy Bebop and Dragonball Z. Yeah. Next semester, I'm turning this thing around with the ideas being suggested in this thread.

soul reaper17 · Post by **soul reaper17** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:46 pm

my club is on its last legs as well, it's depressing because people actually counted on me to keep it going. the DnD kids think that they are too cool for anime now, pssshh.

RainDancer · Post by **RainDancer** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:01 am

This is a very helpful topic... A friend and I are thinking of starting an anime club either this year or next year. The only problem is, there are only a few kids at my school that we know like anime.

Amjam · Post by **Amjam** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:45 pm

I've had one meeting so far of a club that I started recently... but I didn't prepare much for it and as a result we did end up just sitting around, talking, playing charades most of the time.

But our next meeting's coming up, and I've put a lot of thought into it. ^^ I still need to talk to the library or bookstore about borrowing a TV/projector to watch anime, unless I can talk to the local highschool.
Here's some of the things I have laid out for our next meeting, as well as a couple of ideas I scrawled across my notebook in planning... Some were a huge hit at an earlier meeting or at other clubs I've been to, some are things I haven't tried yet.

Charades (This was a LOT of fun, just having people go up and squat like L or shout "DATTEBAYO!" at the top of their lungs, it was a blast.)

Trivia/Bingo/Jeopardy <-- fun games if you have a crowd that's really into anime.

Share a title! (We had a couple of people get up and talk about an anime/manga that they enjoyed, and it was very interesting... I went and bought Wolf's Rain because of this. XD)

"Learn some Japanese!" - Short expressions/phrases, katakana/hiragana name writing, or a few kanji like "Neko" or "Anime". (It's kind of fun, especially if you have japanese students around.)

Costume Day/In-Character Day - Just have a come in cosplay or act like your favorite character.

Watching anime (no really?!)

Take a trip to a bookstore/Tokyokid/movie theater during an anime showing/ etc. If you can manage rides.

Club Anime Boston trip!! XD

Club manga - or, as mentioned above, workshops and things (if your group is very into the art scene)

Fanfiction/Fanart/AMV contests or just share.

Fandub something as a group! (Fandubbing with friends is a lot of fun)

That's it for now! Um, my ideas aren't wonderful but they fill time and space. I'll be popping back here soon.

Thanks for making this board! It's really helpful. (:

caltrops · Post by **caltrops** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 9:36 pm

One thing my club does that's a lot of fun is play "A Great Wind Blows." (We also have, like, a million people, since we're also the sci-fi club.)

Everyone gets in a circle with someone in the middle. The middle person shouts "a great wind blows for anyone who [insert some fandom-related activity here]!!"

Then anyone who has that interest or knows what they're talking about has to run into the circle and try to switch places with someone else with the same interest.
Someone will be left standing in the middle, and it's their turn to shout "a great wind blows for anyone who watches FMA/plays DDR/hearts Katamari/whatever"

Bonuses: makes people stand next to people they don't know
find people who like the same things you do
makes fans get outside to do something in club other than go to Boston or watch anime

It's particularly funny when only one person shares the interest in something obscure, like ... um... obscure things. One person will step out and they have to go into the middle. Lots of fun.

troublemaiker · Post by **troublemaiker** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:31 pm

yours guys club sounds cool.
we dont really do anything in mine. there are like 6 people. and we just kinda chat for a half hour, usually about things non anime related, or yaoi related. then we watch some random anime, and occasionaly one girl brings in amvs.

Post by **Zilark** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:22 pm

I just started an amine club at my school this year and so far its been good we watch anime, and some people help others with their drawings. I might take some of the ideas that have been said on this form like workshops and games.

Most of the people in my club are nubeies and they know nothing about the Japanese version of anime or cosplaying or even about conventions!

Some kids who like anime don't even bother coming to the meetings and its sad really because they will never know anything!

Post by **Ficus** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:55 am

Ha, my club sounds similiar to Ravers...
It worse than Genshiken, we're actually more of an underground club that isnt recognized by the student council, only we dont have aliens, timetravelers, or espers.
I'm not the president so I cant really plan anything, but these are good suggestions for her. Some of these sound like fun, and might even bring in a few more members.

Seizetsu · Post by **Seizetsu** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:05 pm

Wow, it sounds like a lot of your school's clubs aren't doing so well. If you guys need more members, you should advertise, and always try to get incoming freshman!

I was super surprised to find out just how many kids at my school like anime!! Some of them were definitely afraid to join the club, for fear of being labeled, but once they saw how many others like them there were, and all the fun things we do, most of them got over it.

Maybe if you all advertise your clubs, and try to advertise not just meetings but events to the school, more people will be interested. Our club started announcing our first few meetings on the loud speaker in the morning. This always helps kids who would want to join, but dont know who to ask when and where the meetings are.

LunaLily · Post by **LunaLily** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:04 am

[color:purple]Well, after finding out that my college didn't have an anime club anymore, I took it upon myself to start one. ^^

The way I promoted the club was by putting up flyers around campus and posting messages on my college site's announcement boards to be sent through the daily email. It was a lot of work, but it paid off. The club's finally official, and we can be funded (kinda) by our student government.

Technically we have like, 15 members, but there are really 10 of us that are hardcore. XD haha

Our first "kind of event" was the TokyoKid Halloween Party. This semester, I'm trying to plan more things:

- A trip to Boston for TokyKid, Comicopia, and anything else, really.

- Sell candy bars as a fundraiser to earn money for our hotel rooms for Anime Boston.
- Aaand, go to Anime Boston.

So far the club just mainly watches anime and sometimes flashes/amvs. But I have to say, some of the comments that pop up while we're watching stuff is priceless. XD[/color]

Shiroikami · Post by **Shiroikami** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:22 pm

Meh... I have advice, but I don't know how well it can applied to high school anime clubs.

I'm the webmaster of my university's Anime and Manga club, so I know a bit about running things (all five officers could do any of the others' jobs... except for mine... I'm the only one who knows how to update a website... -.-;;). We just got a new president last year, and she's really been kicking us into shape, but our regular meeting structure is very solid... provided that you have 5 hours for your meeting...

Anywho, I think the only general suggestion that I have is: make a website or a mailing list. It's a REALLY good way to tell your members about meetings, events, or schedule changes. Also, colorful fliers are awesome. Make them eye-catching so that people notice them, and put them in places where you know people will look. Pull pictures off the internet for your fliers too. Sometimes people don't know they're watching anime until you show them. Also, if you have a website or mailing list, put that on the fliers so that you can be contacted. If your school has a bulletin board or something that is open to use, use it.

LunaLily · Post by **LunaLily** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:57 pm

[quote=Shiroikami]
Anywho, I think the only general suggestion that I have is: make a website or a mailing list. It's a REALLY good way to tell your members about meetings, events, or schedule changes. [/quote]

[color:purple]Very true. ^_^ Thank GOD my club has a forum. We'd be lost without it. We make sure we put up important announcements, and also discuss anything, whether it's about anime/manga or about future club events.[/color]

korukunuki · Post by **korukunuki** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:40 am

the people in our club had the same issue of not doing much other than watching anime for about 3 hours a week, so me and another girl came up with the idea to hold a cosplay workshop over the month of january. We charged 10 dollars and had enough to purchase materials for everyone to make something in each workshop. We met 3 days a week and we taught:
costume construction
armor
props
accessories (like jewel casting)
wigs/hair and make-up

it was a lot of fun and about 12 people came regularly which was a nice surprise

we also arrange group a cappella songs to different anime/video game songs

it's a lot of fun! But yeah, it can be hard to meet outside of the once a week gathering because so many people have schedule conflicts. I agree with the website and forum ideas in order to promote your club. If your schools have club fairs /activity fairs it can be useful to set up a booth, but I understand that most of the time that not a lot of people sign up. But as others said before flier's are a great idea

Shiroikami · Post by **Shiroikami** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:34 am

Our vice-president is our resident authority on costume making (she has gone and will be going again to AB as Wolfram from Kyou Kara Maoh) and offers to give advice on costume making during her office hours, but recently when we were trying to figure out how to get our members more involved in the club she suggested "Iron Cosplay".

Apparently this involves getting a LOT of cheap, white cloth and duct tape and colored markers, and then having people form teams and make a cosplay with just those materials and other "special" things which are either hidden around the room or that you have to get from an officer by answering a trivia question... speaking of which, I just had a great idea for a special item... *sweatdrops, but emails the other officers anyways* Anywho, basically there is a set time limit in which the costumes must be made before judging. It's currently in the works (we're trying to figure out when we should have it and how much we're willing to spend on it) but our members seemed to like the idea when we ran it by them.