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|  | BEHIND THE SCENES: ANIME 101 IN UP ARKI by Sheila "Minamic" Benedicto, with photos by Michiru Cugami Ever wondered what goes on every one Saturday of the month, when people you’ve never seen before suddenly disappear in the fifth floor of the UP Architecture building? Panting and exhausted, they pass you in the stairs, talking about gibberish that sounded like “Esukafurowne” and “Nadeshiko” and screaming “Wai!” and “Sugoi!”. Then they start speaking in a strange language you notice to be Japanese! Are they foreign students? Are they trying-hards who have a Japanese language course in the top floor? Gasp, have you been turned into a Japanese colony without you knowing it?! Gosh, you people. We’re just anime fans on our way to watch anime! *** The people of AnimeArki talk… 1. When did anime@arki begin? Who thought up the idea of anime@arki? What was your purpose/goal in creating it? Hitman: Anime@Arki began in August 1998. This was done during the Architecture Week in UP. Fox was responsible for thinking this up. Our main purpose in creating this was to promote anime. Not just any anime but anime we feel that are good in content and not just flashy, new anime. Our first qualification is that the anime has to be good. If it's good it passes, if it's new, it's an added bonus. If it's popular, good, but if it's not good in content, then we won't even think twice about showing it nor collecting it. JJC: A@A began as an Arki student council event on August 1998. It was to fill the time with fun and excitement; and to raise cash for the student council. Fox: I did it for fun. No other reason. I wanted to experience what it would be like to have an anime showing. Would people come? Is there an underground culture for the art form? Y'know, things like that... doing it for the college of Arki week in august 98 just happened to be a hand-in-glove opportunity where the idea worked. The idea, I’m sure, had been floating around for some time. It had been in my mind for over a year before it really happened. During that "gestation" time, it always seemed to me that anime had more to offer than mere American cartoons. The different titles I have seen by that time showed me how nice and varied it was. It was not "cartoony", it was not intellectually insulting, it had its biases as well, the spoken language was so alive, the clues to culture quite interesting. I kept thinking: why are these great aspects of anime never given focus? Why is TV always after the good guy-bad guy beat-em-up stories? Or the sob sob sob drama overkill plots? After enough months thinking why why why, the core group developed and we NIKE-d it (just do it). Never stopped since. Sailor: Anime@Arki began only as a part of the celebration for the College of Architecture's, Arki week '98, of which the organizers for the college event was the student council. After a considerably successful turn out, the group got to thinking of trying to make this a regular event. There were questions IF it could actually work out, what with only just four members in the group. But, with a battle cry of "Let's Just Do It!" we made it through. Personally speaking, it was a fun thing to do, and it would be great to expose anime to other people, hopefully clear up misconceptions about it and make them fans as well. 2. What were the first titles you showed? and Why? Hitman: There was Bubblegum Crisis OAVs, Kimagure Orange Road OAVs, Armitage III, Macross Plus OAVs plus more (kindly check the film link in our webpage for the actual lineup since August 1998). We felt that this were stuff that people don't see on TV and it's sort of ground breaking since practically everyone was exposed only to DBZ and YYH on TV. Definitely, KOR can kick YYH's @$s and leave it in the dust. Pardon my French. JJC: Mostly OAVs and movies were shown, we didn't start any series because we didn't foresee staying as long as we have now. Fox: Lotsa different stuff. I remember starting Esca and Eva… had a KOR episode, YUA OAV, Armitage III, Macross Plus OAVs. Check out our site's link to our past shows, we have made posters for each show (yet another cool thing that developed). The name of the game at the inaugural show was fun and variety and good titles to show how good it was compared to cartoon biases. Sailor: During Arki week, we had two screenings each with different titles. We started out the Esca, Eva, BGC, YUA and KOR series, a Ranma 1/2 OAV (Like Water for Ranma) and the Armitage III and Macross Plus Movie. We wanted (and make it a point in every screening) to show titles that had fun, variety and most of all, quality. continued... [ prev article ] [ top ] [ next page ] |
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