The Anime Club is a new club that meets every Tuesday to watch anime, make arts and crafts, eat ramen, cosplay (short for costume play) and dress up as their favorite characters. Students in the club watch shows like “Haiku” and “Demon Slayer”. 

The two individuals who started and run the club Chi Stafford and Tziedle Cirasunda, hope that the club signifies a place where everyone can come together and enjoy anime. 

“Anime is just a passion for both of us. We love anime and we both love cosplaying and we would like to share that passion with others and find people who like that passion as well,” Cirasunda said. 

Anime Club is an accepting place where people feel free to express themselves. People come every week to be with their friends, and put themselves out there. 

“There are really introverted people that I’ve seen so far who have actually come to me and have been really open and stuff. I have never seen that happen to me,” Stafford said. 

“It’s like a happy stress free place for me to just escape,” Cirasunda said. 

On the cosplay days participants of the club dress up as their favorite characters, from anime shows, movies, or any movies in general. 

“You can really cosplay who you want, it doesn’t have to be anime. We have teachers who are gonna be wearing Marvel character cosplaying suits on Halloween,” Stafford 9 says. 

On food days the Anime Club will vote on what to do. They have three options. They can  order food or make their own or have some kind of cooking class teaching the students how to make the food. 

“There would be a debate between the people in the club, but they were coming up with ideas where we could get Ramen Chops or some other store if we wanted it where people can enjoy ramen, and just have fun,” Stafford says. 

The students in Anime Club feel like anime is a way to escape and it should not be used otherwise. People use anime in different ways, and the student body should not be using it in ways other than for entertainment.

“My least favorite part of the anime community is when people downgrade it or like, put a character in a like picture that they really shouldn’t be in. If that makes sense. Like when they’re pretty toxic about it. I like anime, it’s really good and people turn it into something totally different to degrade it more than to compare it to what they want. It’s not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to respect my opinion,” Stafford said.