Anime Club loud and proud on what they want to represent

Elizabeth Alexander, Trending Editor

Manhattan High School has wide variety of clubs, all with the aim to better their student body and school, and Anime Club is not excluded from the equation.

MHS Anime Club has taken a gentle start to this year, introducing its new members and getting a good idea on what their first plans are. To start, club representatives take time to look back on their true purpose as a club and why they joined in the first place.

“I was really familiar with anime in general, and I was familiar with the people in [the club],” club president Anna Mackay, junior, said. “For a while I was just a junior officer, like an ‘officer-in-training’ kind of thing. Then I went for the role of president because it was a role I thought could take on with my capabilities.”

Anime Club is a collective group of individuals with interest in anime, manga, cosplay and Japanese animation culture alike. Club members come from several different grades and backgrounds, but together they all aim for a happy and warm environment.

“I think people look at Anime Club thinking we just watch anime shows and sit around,” vice president Evelyn Gul, junior, said. “But the true meaning behind the club is letting you be yourself. A lot of kids are into things like Marvel and DC comics and stuff as opposed to anime. In our club, it doesn’t matter. You like what you like and that’s what we’re about.”

In past years, Anime Club’s goals and ambitions have evolved many times. In recent years however, their main goal has settled on getting their entire club able to experience one of Kansas’ most popular anime conventions: Naka-Kon. Naka-kon is an convention hosted in Kansas City every year, usually in March. Lovers of anime, comics, fandoms and cosplay alike come together in the thousands to socialize, dress up, buy merchandise and meet some famous figures.

“It was a conversation in the officer chat that we might want to volunteer at Naka-Kon this year,” Gul said. “I think it’d be a good idea to see the behind the scenes at the convention.”

This year will mark Anime Club’s third trip to the convention. This trip is a reward in regards for what the club does for the school in order to raise the money.

“We know for sure that we’ll be doing a lot of fundraising this year,” Mackay said. “We will be doing the coffee fundraising we’ve been doing the past two years. We’ll also be doing the K-State concessions, where we volunteer at football games.”

While getting the club to Kansas City is important to the club as a whole, their pride in what they stand for as an organization will always remain a priority, hoping to offer a welcoming and open space for individuals who wish to express their interest in anime.

“To me, [Anime Club is] a place where people can come in and openly speak about what they like,” Mackay said. “The image we want to set is that we respect everyone, that we’re happy and open and welcome.”