The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Anime Club started out, as many clubs do, with a few friends getting together to watch Japanese animation and chat about what they saw. They've come a long way since those days. That little gathering has grown into the official MIT Anime Club, one of the oldest anime clubs on the East Coast, with over ten active years under their belt. The club is well known for its excellent turnouts on showing nights, its huge mailing list of active members, and its expansive library.

The well-attended anime showings run every other week. An average turnout tallies at about 100 people, and the showing of a popular title sees attendance double easily, occasionally maximizing the capacity of a lecture hall. The extensive collection of titles listed on their website is enough to make any anime fan drool with envy, and that's not even the complete library. Along with heaps of commercially available titles, there are some rarer fansubs like "The Laughing Target," "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure," "Darkside Blues" and "Spriggan."

Does such a large library come with some crazy acquisition stories? Not according to David Mankins, the club Acquisitions Officer, he prefers to preserve the mystery of their origins.

"I've only been involved for a year or so," Mankins says. "During that time, the internet has revolutionized accessibility to anime. So I can't tell you any tales of eighth-generation fansubs dead-dropped in an alleyway in Peoria. As to the size of our library, if you accumulate 'anything' for ten years you'll end up with a big collection."

The library is divided into three sections: subbed, unsubbed (or raw) and audio. The audio library consists of anime soundtracks and anime related music. Originally, the idea of the library was to provide members access to subtitled anime, which was hard to find at the time, and often of poor quality. Most of the material was fansubbed, often by club members who had been through the MIT Japan Program.

Now the focus is on replacing the fansubbed titles with commercial English releases, which requires a considerable cash flow. The MIT Japan Program makes modest donations towards purchases; the Institute itself provides some funding and some moneys trickles in through fees charged to members for borrowing tapes. Sales of t-shirts and art also help to increase the jingle in the club's coffers. Many of the club members are talented artists, and the club comes out with a number of original character designs, along with sketches based on existing anime characters. The best of this art is selected for club t-shirts, which are sold at the showings. The MIT Anime Club is currently accepting entries from members and other sources for their new line of t-shirts, and hopes to have them available at the end of this semester.

However, while the club raises money various ways, showings always remain open, free events. These are held in two large lecture halls, both with Barco projectors, SVHS and DVD/LD players. Yin Chen, both the club publicity officer and a talented artist, posts flyers around campus every Friday, which advertise showings.

The current MIT Anime Club president, Jennifer Chang, is a very busy girl. She also belongs to the Pistol Team, the Association of Taiwanese Students, LSC, the Sloan Undergraduate Management Association and does Traditional Chinese Dance and Stick Fighting. Anime, however, plays a very important part in her life, and acts as a creative outlet.

"To me, personally, anime is a wonderfully stimulating hobby," Chang says. "I've never enjoyed my academics as much as my 'extra-curricular' pursuits. I'd say that the largest obstacle I've faced would be to introduce more women to our club. MIT is still predominantly male. Since becoming president, however, women are starting to have more of a presence in the club. We also have more female officers, so it is clear that the interest in anime is spreading."