DAC Back in Session

This week featured the first meetings of DAC for the 2006-07 school year. Instead of continuing One Piece or Naruto, we decided to start fresh so anyone starting out this year won’t be frustrated by coming in the middle. I apparently got elected as vice-president last year and I’m trying to work with another officer to make posters and member cards. We’re trying to get many T-shirt design submissions earlier this year so that people wear them earlier. This should be an interesting year and I can’t wait until the trip to Japantown sometime in November, especially J-Town is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

The schedule for Wednesdays is Sukisho, Ouran Host Club, xxxHOLiC, and Operation Anime. The first episode of Sukisho got an alright but slightly confused reaction although there was some cheering from a number of yaoi fangirls in the audience. Ouran was clearly the crowd favorite and xxxHOLiC got a generally solid reception. Instead of showing the DVD we requested from Funimation (Negima Vol. 1) which we haven’t received yet, we showed the first episode of Mushishi. At the end there were kidding questions of “Is anyone asleep?” amid comments of the landscape looking very nice.

On Thursdays we are showing KIBA, Hunter x Hunter, Mahoraba, and Honey & Clover. People were laughing at KIBA because some action cliches in it and they seemed to enjoy HxH especially those girls who were uttering “awww” every time the fox-bear cub was on screen. Mahoraba, my pick which I have found difficult to pronounce in conversation, was slow to start but started to speed up near the end. Finally, Honey and Clover was a laugh riot at the beginning with the strange opening sequence (dancing food IS weird!) and continuing with Morita’s erratics. But the spinning bicycle wheel and the whole motif attached to it did seem annoying the second time around.

It was interesting to watch most of these series’ first episodes again with twenty or so others; sitting in an audience definitely enhances the experience over sitting at a desk with headphones over your ears. You have people pointing out stuff, stadium seating, conversation during breaks, and an overall friendly atmosphere. I found out about the club two years ago (was it really that long ago?) through the community wiki and there were also people in my dorm building, whom I still friends with today, who went with me to meetings. I continue to go because it’s nice to relax for a couple hours after a long day of classes and just have fun with people who share an interest in anime. And because I now have some responsibility.

The past couple nights also reminded me that first episodes are slow and that most series usually don’t hit their stride until the second or third one. Case in point: the characters in Mahoraba were gradually introduced and there were more shots of Kozue than I remember there being the first time I watched it. I’m probably going to be nervous all quarter whenever I watch that show in club until I feel the audience actually likes it. I suppose I could just laugh it off and try not to spoil it for everyone else. (The same self-spoiler warning goes for Honey and Clover.)