Most people would think that anime is just for those who are interested in Japanese culture.  Because it is a different culture of entertainment,  that alone turns many away. Still, there are students at LHS who are passionate about the art form. And some of those people banded together, thanks to the help of Thomas French and Ms. Leanne Pupo, to create the Anime Club.

The club is small, but they are looking to grow. French said, “We just talk about recent anime and hang out.”

Anime are Japanese cartoons, with a different form of storytelling and animation style. The different forms of storytelling can be divided into 5 categorizes, shonen, shojo, seinen, josei, and kodomomuke (Click on this link to learn about each type). And the animation style can be categorized into 10 groups, Kawaii, Realistic, Chibi, Moe, Beautiful, Weird, Standard, Ecchi, Cartoon, CGI (Learn about them here). 

Anime is can be also enjoyed through manga. Manga is anime but in comic form. But to be honest, anime is actualy a adaptation of manga. The manga usually comes before the anime.

The club accepts all levels of anime experience and interest. What if you know nothing about anime? Here are a few recommendations:

Shonen is the most popular type of anime. Shonen basically is a young boy around 14 – 16 going on an adventure, it usually includes a lot of action, fighting, and comedy.

Here are three big Shonen shows that started 10 years ago are still popular today.

One recommendation is Naruto. Naruto is divided into two shows, Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, this show starts off with a 12-year-old boy named Naruto. His dream is to become Hokage, a president that is super powerful. The issue is, he’s pretty weak, but that won’t stop him. In a world full of shinobi, war, and hatred. On Naruto’s journey, he will do his best to gain everyone’s respect with his own strength. And in Naruto Shippuden, he will learn and try to end hatred in this world with his fist. This show is been completed

Another recommendation One Piece. This show is not meant for the light-hearted, not because it’s something that will make you cry. Because it has 900 episodes and is still continuing, that is a lot of episodes. Once Piece is about a young pirate named Luffy that has a dream to become the pirate king. To do that he must claim the one piece. That is it, he got his crew, he’s got a lot of screen time. Oh, and Luffy is made of rubber.

My final, recommendation is Bleach. This is about a young man named Ichigo. A normal guy who was brought into a world of soul hunters by a girl who saved his life from some monster. But doing that was breaking the soul hunters law, punishable by death. But Ichigo isn’t about that, so him and his boys head out to save her. But things will turn out bigger than it seems. This show is completed anime wise, but there is another story line if you want to follow the manga.

But I can’t just give you the classics and just expect you to become a fan of anime, here is a more recent Shonen:

Another is My Hero Academia. This show is more modern and is still continuing to this day with 78 episodes when this story was made. It is about a young man named Izuku Midoriya born into a world where 2/3 of everyone has a special ability called a quirk. Because of this, people would use this power for crime, this is where the hero society was born. Midoriya dream was to always to be a hero. But this dream will come short, because he is part of that 1/3 that was born without a quirk. But this will not stop him, because there is a way to go beyond, plus…

The anime shows I have just listed were shows are about fighting, surpassing your limits, and never giving up. But what if your looking for something else, something dark, or gory, or romantic, etc. There are so many different shows out there, but how can you watch them? If your more of a cable guy, go to adult swim, there they will usually play the more current anime. But if you have internet, just take yourself to crunchyroll.com, there you can get all the anime you want at the cost of a few adds. Unless you want to pay for there premium service.

“It is a different culture, there is a different feel to it, to the story and such. That is what I love about it, I’m also a lover of animation, I love seeing different styles and different story you can tell with it. That is what makes anime interesting to me,” said French.