The best way to run an Anime Club

[Haladflire65]

So, me and an anime-obsessed friend might be co-heads of our school anime club next year. Now we're already wondering about what would be the best way to run the club. I'm also making this topic so that it can be a reference to other leaders of anime clubs that might be having trouble.

This year's club isn't very well organized. There aren't that many people, and most of the members are 7th graders. Yikes. The head just seems to pick random anime that she or the grade 7's like and plays an episode from a different series every session, which is only about 50 minutes, once a week. So far we've only watched Card Captor Sakura, Tsubasa Chronicle, Ouran High School Host Club, Yakitatte! Japan, Bleach, Katekyo Hitman Reborn! and Fruits Basket.

As you can see we haven't been able to get past the shoujo comedy/romance genre, if you don't count overrated/mainstream Shounen Jump series (and Japan). I think things turn out like this even more because we're at an all-girls' school. My friend and I like shows like FMA: B, TTGL and DTB. Sooo, you can say that it's rather hard for us, especially when the club head completely ignores our pleas for Fullmetal Alchemist.

Apparently we can't watch any of those shows we like because of the violence. But hey, we watched Bleach and Reborn! They can't be any more violent than FMA, say, and everyone watched those, no problem. But since there's a teacher supervising, to get around this next year my friend and I are thinking about setting aside meetings for older grades next year so we can watch some serious stuff. What do you think of this idea?

What would be the best way to run a club like this? We want to take as many requests as possible, and please all the members and their interests, but how can we manage that? What would be a more systematic way of showing animes as opposed to one or two episodes of a different series every week? Would movies be a good option? (the only problem with these is that we need to do after-school meetings because of time problems.)

My friend and I only got as far as planning to make a PowerPoint intro for our club instead of doing a 5-second talk on Anime history like this year's head. Also, we're definately gonna show Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood as well as Gurren-Lagann, because my friend's obsessed with the show.

Sooooo, I'd really appreciate any suggestions of what an ideal anime club would look like for you.

[SeijiSensei]

The Suggestions forum has a number of threads on good series for anime clubs. These go back a few years:

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=90851
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=82878 <== specifically about 12-15 year-old girls
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=81605
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=49568
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=41189
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=37129
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=35544

You raise some broader issues than just the content as well. Given the time limitations I'd suggest sticking to movies. Princess Mononoke and Millennium Actress might be good to start with. They both have strong female characters and tell complex stories. Mononoke Hime is pretty violent in places, but you can dangle the magic name Miyazaki to help justify watching it. My daughter saw it when she was twelve.

I've made other suggestions in some of the threads I listed above.

If you're in the US, I'd consider using streams to avoid the issue of showing illegal materials in a school setting. Crunchyroll has a number of good older series like Angelic Layer and new, even current ones like Kemono no Sou-ja Erin, Natsume Yuujinchou, and Durarara!!. Funimation also streams a wide variety of its shows including FMA: Brotherhood, Fruits Basket, Ghost Hunt, and Bamboo Blade. If you can hook a computer to a large-screen monitor or a video projector, streaming makes a lot of sense.

[orion]

If you want to be legal, you need to get permission even for a stream outside of home. Talk to your club's advisor.

Staying within your age rating for your school would also be a good thing. DtB is a TV-MA title in R1.

If you're in the US, join Operation Anime.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by orion

If you want to be legal, you need to get permission even for a stream outside of home. Talk to your club's advisor.

Technically orion's right that, in the US, showing a stream probably constitutes a "public performance" under 17 USC 101. "Fair use" (see 17 USC 107) might play some role here because the showing takes place in an educational institution, though educational use by itself is not usually sufficient to make a "fair use" claim.* Looking at, for instance, Funimation's copyright notice, it limits the use of the materials on its site to "personal, non-commercial" use. Only the school's attorney can give an opinion on whether streaming an episode of Fruits Basket in a school setting would be considered "personal" (it clearly qualifies as "non-commercial").

In my mind, playing a DVD bought at a video store in a classroom is as likely to constitute an unlicensed use as streaming would. Nearly all DVDs show a notice at the beginning that limits their license to use in homes. My bet is some of the school's teachers and staff have shown DVDs in classes and never considered the copyright issues involved.

In any event, showing DVDs or streams is certainly more defensible than showing fansubs which are clearly illegal.

IANAL, but I know a bit about copyright law.

__________
*If educational use alone provided a "fair use"defense, schools could buy one copy of a textbook, photocopy the contents, and distribute the copies to the students in lieu of buying the books themselves.

[Haladflire65]

I don't think I'll have that much trouble with the method of showing (fansubs? streams? DVD's?) because I'm in Canada and our club advisor seems to be pretty chilled about this kind of stuff. Our current head shows us stuff that's clearly downloaded from torrents and are fansubbed, and no one has any problem with that, so I think we'll be fine.

My main concern is the content. I need to think up a systematic way to show people stuff that will please them as well as me to some extent; I also need to consider that it's gonna be on a biweekly basis and the meetings are quite short. I don't know how I'll take requests or how I'll show series - one or two episodes of a different series every week? Continuously showing one series? As for movies I think it's a great idea; my only problem with that is I'm much more familiar with series and alot of movies are based off of series....

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Haladflire65

I also need to consider that it's gonna be on a biweekly basis and the meetings are quite short. I don't know how I'll take requests or how I'll show series - one or two episodes of a different series every week? Continuously showing one series? As for movies I think it's a great idea; my only problem with that is I'm much more familiar with series and alot of movies are based off of series....

Bi-weekly for like 50 minutes/session? In reality that's only enough time to show an episode from a series, once you factor in milling around, etc. How about this, then?

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2 short items like Chi, Higepiyo, or perhaps Tweeny Witches (much better than the name suggests) as an appetizer.

1 episode of a series; I'd stick to something vaguely episodic with broad appeal like School Rumble or perhaps selected episodes of Lucky*Star. If you want to watch a continuing story, you'd need to find something that's complete in 6-12 episodes, or series that are based on a collection of short arcs like Ghost Hunt or, for a real "head trip," Bakeneko/Mononoke (warning: mature themes). If you want to go high class, you can pick an arc from Aoi Bungaku, a collection of anime based on famous Japanese novels. Of the half-dozen stories included in the collection, "Kokoro" and "Run, Melos," both covering just two episodes, might be viewed as appropriate for teens.

Maybe another short item.

Discussion

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That's really about all you can show. A two-hour movie won't fit this format.

As for movies, there are a number of excellent anime films that are totally unrelated to television series. Besides the obvious choice of Miyazaki films, I'd suggest looking at Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, or Paprika by Kon Satoshi, The Girl Who Leapt through Time, or 5 Centimeters per Second. Go search the Suggestions forums for threads about movies.

One other excellent show that's has fairly short episodes is REC (fansubbed). You'd need to clear the first episode, though, because

Spoiler:

the main couple have sex within just a few hours of meeting, though it's not because they are lascivious

[orion]

Operation Anime works in Canada and is the most inexpensive way for you to get new DVDs once a month which is all you need really to supplement your schedule. Most clubs in your situation take 1-2 titles per semester and watch til completion because they don't have the time.

You can do FUNi streaming also. Bandai also has a Youtube channel.

It's not that hard getting permission from them.

As for title selection, consider having a video selection meeting at the start of the semester and at regular intervals, like every 3 months to maintain a full schedule.

There's also RightStuf's program for anime clubs.

VIZ Media might have screener DVDs if you are lucky.

As an anime club especially school-based, you really don't have much excuse for watching a fansub nowadays.

[musume_no_hoshi]

Run an anime club - check
All girls school - check

I don't even have a club adviser, I just get to chose whatever I want to do in the club. I'm the example of how to not to run a club. I have no idea why the girls still want to come.

My main concern is the content. I need to think up a systematic way to show people stuff that will please them as well as me to some extent; I also need to consider that it's gonna be on a biweekly basis and the meetings are quite short. I don't know how I'll take requests or how I'll show series - one or two episodes of a different series every week? Continuously showing one series? As for movies I think it's a great idea; my only problem with that is I'm much more familiar with series and alot of movies are based off of series....

What would be a more systematic way of showing animes as opposed to one or two episodes of a different series every week?

My so-called club only runs about 30 minutes a week during Friday lunch time. We just watch the first episode of a series, but if more then half request to watch more episodes, we'll watch the 2nd episode too. I say it's better to watch an episode or two per series. Although we tend to watch an episode of Hetalia at the end if we have time, as it's only 5 minutes per episode. Alot of them seems to love drawing, so I make sure I have some plain paper ready.

I just tend to bring 3 different series each time, and let them have a vote. The result can be quite surprising, we ended up watching Princess Tu Tu once, but I had to sit through an episode of Vampire Knight too.

-Semi off-topic- I wanted to show them Katekyo Hitman Reborn too...but my friend said she wouldn't let me corrupt them anymore with my imagination.

[darkchibi07]

Originally Posted by orion

As an anime club especially school-based, you really don't have much excuse for watching a fansub nowadays.

And besides shouldn't the club at the very least teach good judgment on the members on watching anime using legit sources? I know my anime club in RIT totally phased out on doing any showings using anime that hasn't been licensed here in the U.S. The club is still growing strong in spite of that.

[orion]

Originally Posted by darkchibi07

And besides shouldn't the club at the very least teach good judgment on the members on watching anime using legit sources? I know my anime club in RIT totally phased out on doing any showings using anime that hasn't been licensed here in the U.S. The club is still growing strong in spite of that.

You'd think so. School based clubs are a tax write off so they would get screener DVDs out of the distributor easily. Cuts down on the faculty advisor getting in trouble also. A university in my state told its anime club to show stuff with permission so as not to get them into any legal mess.