Bethel Anime Club

OK, here’s the final rundown:

Over the summer we will be meeting at 7:00 on Thursday nights in AC337 (“Plato’s Cave”); I have 13 regular nights scheduled and one special event night (dinner and a movie at my house), the date of which will migrate depending on the will of the masses.

Here’s the schedule–yes, it really does exist! And I even have a viewing schedule for each night! It looks like this: Dogtato-kun (2 eps; don’t worry, they’re only two and a half minutes each. This show acts as the pre-feature entertainment for those lucky enough to be early), Mushishi, Yugo the Negotiator, NieA_7, Tide-Line Blue, Mushishi (2nd ep). For those of you who just crave numbers, we’ll be meeting June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27, August 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31.

A word about the shows: I’ll be posting full descriptions this weekend, but I think it’s a lot more fun if you come in tomorrow not knowing quite what to expect. I designed the schedule based on three factors, ordered thusly:
1. Quality
2. Variety
3. Smallest possible “gah-I-have-to-watch-THAT-again” potentiality.
All of our series are 13 episodes except for Mushishi, which is 26 and of which I think people will have no problem watching two episodes per night (because it’s a superlative-inducing show, and because each episode is different). This said I should note that I had to make some hard decisions; if the people desire to unmake them for me, these are the shows I had to drop from the schedule that I really wanted in there:
1. Future Boy Conan (I just couldn’t make room for another 26-episode series, particularly one with full half-hour episodes. However, it’d be great to do this over the school year considering the very positive response the show got.)
2. Haré+Guu (The last DVD won’t be released until next year, and even though the show doesn’t really appear to have a “plot” my goal-oriented nature cries out against leaving it unfinished. Also it seems to have created more bemusement than amusement in several people. I ended up replacing it in the schedule at the last minute with NieA_7, which rises from its already-very-high position in my estimation every day despite our Faculty Liaison’s disappointment in the budget cuts late in the series. Just because it gets a little bit sketchier doesn’t really affect the quality of the show itself… and besides, it’s Haibane Renmei‘s own ABe Yoshitoshi, which automatically makes it good.)
3. Fushigi Yuugi (Because it’s 52 episodes and would take up most of the summer [10.5 weeks at five episodes a week] on its own–which might be a fun experiment, but only if everyone wanted to do it.)
4. Rose of Versailles (Ditto: 40 half-hour episodes is just too much, although it’s a really, REALLY good series.)
5. Sazae-San (Another ditto; I don’t think ANY Anime Club can handle 1800+ [yes, that number is right] episodes spanning more than 35 years of broadcasting, even if it IS the most popular anime in Japan, and even if it DOES influence the Japanese stock market. Also, no one’s ever subbed it, which could be a minor problem.)

Furthermore, I hereby take an oath that after each night of Summer Anime Club, I will go to the website and post descriptions of every anime episode that we watched (in addition to the general summaries I’ll post after the first meeting)! Remember, folks, that the still-in-heavy-development website, generously provided by our fine Vice President, is located at http://bethelanime.ath.cx/ and that you can post submissions to it directly by e-mailing bethelanime@ncmdc.ath.cx. Pictures / webcomics are particularly welcome, since the more new images we get, the more quickly the scary test graphics I’ve posted will fall off the bottom of the page. Just attach jpegs or gifs to an e-mail and they’ll automatically show up. There’ll be polls and other cool goodies on the site later, so be sure to check it every once in a while…

OK, that should be enough information for everyone. To those of you on this list living in far-away places and unable to be with us: enjoy your summer, we’ll miss you! And to those of you joining us every Thursday at 7:00pm in AC337: come as much as you can, have fun, this’ll be great, and bring friends!

See you tomorrow evening!
–Matthew

PS: Remember, if there’s anything in here you don’t like, just let me know! Also, it’d be nice if you joined me in a prayer vigil for Mushishi and Tide-Line Blue: if they get licensed halfway through the summer, we shall be very put out.

OK, this is mostly a test of our image-posting capabilities. But here are a couple pictures of Rakka with weapons. Because they’re funny, and kind of mentally damaging.

I have tentatively scheduled AC337 (same as last summer). For Thursday nights from 7 – 9:30.
I have not received official confirmation, but you can assume that tomorrow night will be in that location.

No fear, it’d be pretty hard to offend me… and I definitely do need your input. Remember, we’re set up as a representative democracy, with me as the representative. I “make decisions,” but I can’t really do it unless people let me know what they want–so thank you all for participating in your political process!
And yes, we have a great group. And a really fun bunch of anime coming up… –Matthew

Matt,
don’t worry, we’re not saying you made a mistake. we just wanted to give you input because you can’t know what we want if we don’t tell you. In the end, i just want to watch some decent anime with some fun, like-minded people.
Alex Caucutt Instructor in Modern World Languages Bethel University

To be honest I would be fine with just about anything this summer, and like I was telling Matt the last Samurai 7 DVD does not come out until late July so it probably would be a good idea to watch something else.
-Matthew W.

I’m happy to change those series if there’s enough demand–it’s just that I had been told that we should finish them off before graduating/transferring people leave at the end of the summer. This is the first I’ve heard of any objections; I will draw up two schedules, one with “Banner of the Stars II” (I should point out that we started this saga over the last run of summer meetings) and “Samurai 7″ and one without, then wait for more input.
Remember to make yourself heard if you have any suggestions for series to fill those holes!

I have to agree with Rachel (although in not quite so strong terms). I plan on coming this summer but i know that my attendance will (continue to) be sporadic. It would be nice to do OAVs or new series or repeats of old series people liked (i wouldn’t mind watching Last Exile again for example — i wasn’t there when you watched it so i’m just guessing that people liked it; I saw it at home).
Alex Caucutt Instructor in Modern World Languages Bethel University

Hey Matt, I hate to be a bother, but I am kind of upset with your summer schedule. I live in Alaska, so obviously I can’t be there for the summer Anime club, but I want to get to see the end of Samurai 7 and I would also like to see Banner of the Stars 2. It seems like it would be a lot more logical for you guys to find new series to watch over the summer instead of using optional meetings to finish up series that we are part way through, especially with Samurai 7 where we have only watched half of the series. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I find this to be most uncool. Why don’t you guys watch Hare+Guu or some other series that we haven’t really started as a club already?
Rachel

Hail all! Forgive your President for having a somewhat hectic weekend, and an absolutely indescribable day at work. (Note that this is hyperbole. It’s totally describable. In astounding length and detail. Which is why I will shut up now…) He has a schedule! And we will begin meeting on Thursday, in (I believe) AC325 (the same room we met in last summer; the cool cave-like one with several tiers). I will e-mail out a real SCHEDULE–can it be so?–tomorrow. “Banner of the Stars II,” “Samurai 7,” and “Mushishi” will definitely be on the schedule, “TIDE-LINE Blue” might well sneak in, and there might be one or two surprises… this is your very last chance to e-mail me with suggestions!