Walking through Stillwater Area High school, the hallways are lined with posters for various sports, clubs and events. Among these are promotions for anime club.

Meeting in room C218 this year is the anime club. Anime is a Japanese art style used in cartoon shows. These shows have become increasingly popular in America, some of the more popular shows are Naruto and Pokémon.

“It’s pretty broad really, it’s basically a group of people with common interests that gather based around the idea of watching anime, but like I said, it’s a broad range of things so we find ourselves doing all sorts of stuff,” explained junior Ben Reeves.

Anime club has had a bumpy start to its second year. Along with figuring out general quirks in how a club runs, President of the club, senior Preston Potthast, has had to relocate the club.

“Our normal advisor Mrs. Logan Allen took maternity leave so it has been very hectic because we had to find a new room, and there was a bunch of new stuff that got donated to the library over the summer so we had to catalog all that but we’re hanging in, we’re not going under,” explained Potthast.

This year the club will be holding a variety of special events, including a Halloween party, Dance Dance Revolution game days, anime Jeopardy and an anime Olympics. The anime Olympics will include a ninja tournament, a Vic Mignogna voice acting contest, and a cosplay best dressed contest.

“For some of the events we are going to do an anime Olympics, which is going to be fun,” explained junior Stephanie Swarthout, “There will be a bunch of different events so that will be a day. We are thinking of doing that in March or April. We are also planning a Halloween party.”

Along with these events, next summer the anime club has been given the chance to take a trip to Japan. It’s a 9 day trip in July where students will be able to explore major cities all across japan. Students will be stopping at the one of the Pokémon stores, the Hokusai Museum, and countless other anime hot spots while exploring the culture and food of Japan.

“Visiting Japan is something I want to do at some point in my life, and it would be amazing if I could go this early on in my life,” added Reeves.

“I think it will be super fun and probably one of the biggest high school experiences people will get,” said Swarthout.

Whether it’s debating the latest season of their favorite show or playing an intense match of Dance Dance Revolution, the members of anime club are always open and inviting to newcomers and look forward to another terrific year.