I'm (currently) a member of the University of Michigan Japanese Animation Society, or Animania. Basically, what we do is hold an anime screening once a month (on Saturdays), with a special Extra-Large screening near the end of the year, usually in early November or late October, called Con Ja Nai (lit: "not a con"). We show fansubs, specifically shows that haven't been licenced in the US yet (or if their licencing announcement occurs less than a week before the screening).

Directions to get to the screening are in the website, even if I can't begin to help decipher them, since I know absolutely nothing about the roads of USA. Admission is free, and the club supports itself by selling raffle tickets at one dollar each.

So what does this have to do with this anime blog (apart from the obvious membership thing)? Well, I figured that I may as well give a quick run-through of the anime we'll be showing at our next screening. The views espoused here are entirely mine; I do not, in any way, officially represent the club. In fact, my opinions are usually in the tiny minority of the club's.

Our next screening is on the 10th of February, 2007, from 1600h to 2359h. (Further screenings are on the 10th of March and 7th of April.)

The format for screening will be two (or three, depending on how the club votes) running series, which will be shown for the whole semester. The rest of the timeslot will be taken up by one-shots, which are series we will show the first three (or so) episodes of, and not revisit again in the near future (which is defined as until someone says "I don't remember, have we shown this before?" and nobody can answer).

Our running series this semester are Busou Renkin and Ouran High School Host Club (which we're continuing from last semester). We're technically also running Death Note, but there's some uncertainty with Viz and their online download thing. So we'll be running Death Note for now, and we'll see what develops and whether we'll be replacing it next month.

1600h – Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru episodes 1-3 (ANN entry)

Mizuho Miyanokouji's grandfather's last will has him attend an all-girl's school, for a reason that will not be revealed until episode 5, so for now we have various scenes of Mizuho trying as hard as possible not to accidentally reveal his secret of being a guy. I'd have thought that leaving the toilet seat up would be the least of his worries, considering what Mariya puts him through.

Generally for our first screening, we'll try to choose something from our one-shots that is relatively kid-friendly. This time, however, we didn't really have anything that qualified specifically as "kid-friendly", so we chose "least potentially offensive" instead. There's a few breast gropes (of Mizuho) and a few panty shots, but overall it's really a lot cleaner than you'd expect a series about traps and crossdressing to be.

1715h – Busou Renkin episodes 4-6

Kazuki Mutou, newbie Arms Alchemist (as the fansubs translate it), has managed to beat up most of the lowbie Homunculi that every shounen hero has to defeat in the beginning of the anime to show off his Guts and Power that have Never Been Seen Before. But that's all over and done with for now, and he's looking for the next step up, the Mid-Boss. In this set of three episodes, he does get to meet the Mid-Boss, who would probably be more happy to be known as Papillon Mask, but we'll call Mid-Boss anyway. I know I'm beating the joke to death, but I can't help it, d00d.

1830 – Code Geass episodes 1-3 (ANN entry)

Lelouch Lamperouge gains the ability to haxx0r brains, and decides to RULE ZE VORLD with the help of the rebel group he's manipulating. He manages to succeed somewhat, and there's a bit of thinly-disguised nationalism before the minor cliffhanger in episode three. Pizza Hut has not made a significant contribution the the cause yet.

1945h – Break: Anime Music Videos

Everyone can go have dinner. For those who decide to stay for whatever nefarious reason, one of our staff members takes over the screen to show various Anime Music Videos. Feel free to ask him about any videos you're interested in, because I doubt that he'll ever post that list of AMVs Shown This Screening I keep bugging him about.

2045 – Ouran High School Host Club episodes 17-19

In the rather episodic, er, episodes of Ouran, we have further misadventures of the Host Club. From shopping malls to family dojos to the rival Lobelia Girl's Academy, the Host Club will be there, although what they are there for is anyone's guess. Renge is entertaining as ever, but I pretty much kept watching the series only because of Renge. Yes, I'm heavily biased.

2200h – Raffle

Those raffle tickets are actually coming into use. We tend to present at least the following for raffle prizes: one manga (random volume number), one DVD (random volume number), one wall scroll/poster, one plushie, and one figurine. Which series depends on what catches our eye at the time, which may lead to interesting results of certain members of the staff are on the prize-buying trip. (For example, trips with me in tow tend to yield saccharinely cute plushies, with a heavy bent towards loli.)

2210h – Death Note episodes 4-6

I don't actually have any pictures from Death Note. So here's a picture of a cat.

As mentioned many times before on this blog, I've decided not to follow Death Note, since it's way too dark. Besides, I've already read through most of the spoilers for the manga, and I know pretty much what's going to happen, but in terms of the anime, whatever happens in the three episodes we're showing I have no clue. In any case, if anyone's still alive after that tortured atrocity of grammar, I've been told that writing a Shinigami's name inside a Death Note has no effect. This strikes me as being singularly unfair.

Once again, admission is free, raffle tickets are one dollar each. I'm the tall(ish) Asian guy with the SOS Brigade logo on his staff badge, attempting to convert as many alien cave crickets as possible before someone stops me or the cave crickets take over and rule over humanity with an iron mandible, whichever comes first.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 12:25 am and is filed under animania, busou renkin, code geass, death note, otome wa boku ni koishiteru, ouran high school host club. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.