First UVA Anime Club Showing This Semester

After canceling last week’s showing due to football, I have finally done the job I was elected to do; take several hours out of my weekend to show club members anime. This will be my second year doing this job even though this has only been my second year attending college. Actually I sort of created the position myself when I volunteered to administer showings myself since none of the real officers did it last year. It also gave me an excuse to not become a hikikomori. Anyways, enough rambling and on to the real news.

After much debate this semester Citrus and I decided to show Full Metal Panic, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Gurren Lagann. As far as I can tell this is a pretty solid line up that caters to a wide range of audiences which is probably one of the reasons why we had a pretty good turnout today especially in comparison to last year. The general reception for FMP was mixed with mainly the guys being really interested in it but I can’t really tell how perceptions will change later on since I haven’t watched it already. (Yes we actually do have girls in our club and they actually outnumbered us today). As for Gurren Lagann, it was pretty much “this is absurd and makes no sense but man do I want to keep watching.”

Out of everything we watched though, I think Higurashi had the most awesome reactions. A good chunk of the club, especially the newer members, did not know about Higurashi until I introduced it to them so they were completely unprepared for Onikakushi-hen. I stuck in the first four episodes of Higurashi right in the middle of the two mecha series to change the mood to put it lightly.

From the very start everyone was floored by the quick murder shoot at the beginning of the first episode. Then the sudden switch to a seemingly cute and cheerful show about Keiichi and Company playing silly games together yet again confused people as to what was going on. At the end of the episode when Keiichi learns about the dam dismemberment murder as Rena walks back to the trash heap carrying her cleaver, everyone became hooked and wanted to see more.

Watching Higurashi with a fairly large crowd changes the dynamics of it so much especially since I am the only one you has watched it completely and Citrus is the only other one who has had prior experience (which is limited to the first 4 episodes which I insisted he watch last year). As Citrus put it, “This was WAY more creepy than when I watched it by myself.” Witnessing as everyone shat bricks during scenes like “USO DA!” and “Gomen Nasai…Gomen Nasai” was amusing to say the least although I was crying on the inside since I actually know what is REALLY going on; Rena you are the best and I want to take you home too.

Overall, this was a great night and I can’t wait until next week when I get to see 2 series I haven’t gotten around to plus Higurashi, one of my favorite series ever.