Ohio University offers a variety of student organizations and clubs, appealing to the interests of its student population and offering opportunities to get involved and learn outside the classroom. One of these Anime Club, which has weekly showings of popular anime shows and movies.
Anime is a popular Japanese animation style that appeals to both children and adults. According to the Nashville Film Institute, “anime denotes animation movies that come exclusively from Japan, distinguished by blazing graphics, energetic characters and attractive themes such as sci-fi, romance and supernatural forces.”
The club meets every Friday at 6 p.m. in Scripps room 111, where students come to socialize, watch shows and hang out with like-minded people who share a passion for anime.
The club uses a discord server with around 200 members, including current students and alumni. Here, members nominate their favorite animes and vote for what will be shown at the Friday meeting each week.
Kaden Papadatos, a senior studying computer science and the president of the Anime Club. Papadatos joined the club his sophomore year after a friend recommended it and has since climbed the ranks of the club.
Along with weekly meetings, the club also hosts interactive events most Saturdays like game nights or an occasional sushi dinner. These events are not limited to anime but rather as a place for members to connect and hang out.
“The primary purpose isn’t to watch anime, it isn’t to learn about anime,” Papadatos said. “That’s a fun side benefit of it, but I think the main thing is to build community.”
Due to its increasing popularity on campus, Joanna Azami, a second-year Ph.D. student in interdisciplinary arts, proposed a new film class titled “Film Topics Seminar I - Anime.”
“This year, I wanted to do something different, something that I’m both interested in and I felt like would be fun,” Azami said. “That’s why I proposed the idea of teaching an anime class because we’ve never done it at all, and I felt like there would be lots of people interested in it. And I was right because it’s a full class.”
Even though anime is growing in popularity, due to cultural differences, watching anime has historically been stigmatized in the US despite its impact on Western culture, according to Azami.
“You can definitely trace comic books in Western media (to) Japanese anime as well,” Azami said. “I think it’s a give-and-take relationship … For instance, I think the biggest one would be ‘The Matrix,’ which was inspired by anime.”
Dillon McNerlin, a junior studying information and technology systems, is a club officer and discussed some misconceptions about anime.
“Anime in Japan is really just how you view ‘SpongeBob’ as an American,” McNerlin said. “Animes like ‘Demon Slayer' and 'My Hero Academia’ definitely shoved anime, at least as a concept, into the spotlight for all kinds of people.”
Anime fans tend to be portrayed as socially awkward or nerdy in the media, which can enforce stereotypes about the people who watch it, McNerlin said.
“There are definitely the stigmas of living in your mother’s basement, which I think is really funny,” McNerlin said. “Stigmas in general go away as time moves on and peoples’ perception broadens. I think that’s true with anime too.”
Despite these stigmas, the anime club continues to grow in popularity and deconstructs these stereotypes. Ultimately, the club aims to be an open, accepting place for anyone to appreciate the art of anime.
“We’re hitting really good numbers this year,” Papadatos said. “I really appreciate that we’ve made a serious effort to help create an environment that welcomes new people, and I think we’ve (done that) so far.”
