Up in the Pacific north, entrenched in a city with composite design sensibilities ranging from old world Europe to the stark glassy lines of cutting edge architecture, three anime clubs dominate the urbanscape. This Vancouver triad testifies to the popularity of anime on Canada's western coast and embodies the spirit of partnership involved in organizing disparate-minded fans.

The cog in this anime conglomerate is the Altered Reality Club (www.sfu.ca/ar-club/), a nom de guerre for the anime club based out of Simon Fraser University that hosts Anime Showcase, Vancouver's three day anime viewing extravaganza, proceeds for which go to the local food bank. The club fluctuates between 100 and 300 members and engages in activities ranging from art contests to role-playing games to cosmic bowling.

VJAS, Vancouver Japanese Animation Society (www.vjas.org), the grandfather of the unit, came into being in 1986 and formed as an official club in 1988 when then president William Chow set up a bulletin board system that promoted wide-spread communication between anime fans. Since then, the club has grown so large as to necessitate the opening of an anime store, Anime Jyanai (http://jyanai.weyland-yutani.net), which moved into a large 1200 square foot space earlier this year.

The prodigal child of this family, VSWAT (users.uniserve.com/~ryanm6/vswat/menu.htm), is run informally by Ryan Matheuszik and operates a little like a rogue vigilante unit. "We're the only club to have actually kidnapped members," Matheuszik tells Akadot, explaining VSWAT's uniqueness among anime clubs.

"We claim unofficial status as 'most dangerous club in existence.' That and we've managed to hold together for almost four years even with the loss of our meeting space and the inability to take on new recruits for the past year and a half." Their lack of a permanent meeting space precludes expanding the group's ranks.

Formed more like a cumulous cloud than an official assemblage of people, though, the small club of 20 to 25 members purports to be divorced from the issues that laden official organizations.

"V-SWAT was founded to do all the fun things a club should do without any of the club politics and work which plagues some of the other clubs," Matheuszik explains. "We watch anime, go to concerts and just generally have fun. Oh, and our meetings are late. We generally start around 10 p.m. and usually end around 2 a.m. at the earliest." The club's acronym stands for "sleep is for whimps." Of course, a little bit of communal conformity could lock them into a more regular routine. "We may have to change that in order to secure a meeting space," Matheuszik goes on. "I'm hoping the local library will give us meeting space for four or five hours one Saturday a month."

All three clubs are extremely active in Washington State's Sakura Con (http://www.sakuracon.org/), a four-hour border crossing into the United States. Vancouver itself spawned an anime convention in October of last year when Aka Anime Productions' Aka Kon (http://www.akakon.com/main.htm) befell the opulent Sheraton hotel in downtown. Despite a modest turn out and administrative complications that allegedly alienated many Vancouver anime clubs, Aka Kon 2001 is already organized and ready to go for November of this year (read coverage of last year's Aka Kon here).

Meanwhile, the TriClubs, as they are unofficially known (replete with a mailing list called VACU!, Vancouver Anime Clubs Unite!), promote Sakura Con in the British Columbia area with many members even sitting in key staff positions. And with rumors stirring among TriClub members of another convention upstart planned for sometime in 2002/2003, Vancouver promises to be a hotbed for anime fandom.