History of Animersion/Anime@Arki

Anime@Arki was the closest thing I experienced to an anime club. They'd host anime screenings once a month in U.P., and it was there that I'd meet several influential people in the local anime industry. I once even got to chat with a Filipino artist who used to work for CLAMP, but that's a different story. Anyway, for posterity's sake, here's the history of Anime@Arki. Again, much like every other group I've posted about, the group has gone its separate ways to pursue their personal lives, although there are reunions from time to time. I reprinted this entry sometime in March of 2003.

by the staff of Anime@Arki

Anime@Arki (A@A) started out as one of the events held during the Architecture week in UP Diliman back in August 1998. It was a two-day event featuring some of the more popular shows like Ranma ½ and Neon Genesis Evangelion to underrated yet quality titles like The Vision of Escaflowne.

Since the event was such a success, it was decided to hold this kind of show on a monthly basis right after as there were just a lot of good titles to show and share with fellow anime fans. Incidentally, that is the mission statement of Animersion / A@A: To promote good, quality anime to fellow anime fans, regardless of the age of the title. Just because a particular title is new doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.

As the years went on, our events have grown and so have the following. The biggest show attendance was in January 2000, where we had 200 people come to watch Rurouni Kenshin OAVs, Gasaraki, End of Evangelion and Perfect Blue. The show was so packed, some of the audience had to sit on the floor, stand at the back, and even watch the whole thing from outside the doorway. We even heard of one loyal fan, who was on crutches, that climbed up 5 flights of stairs just to watch the show. Our shows also include some giveaways and raffles to entice more audience.

We have also incorporated contests in our shows that members of the audience could participate in like Bust-a-Move / Dance Dance Revolution dancing contest. We were the first to come up with the anime karaoke contest and the Name that Anime Tune contest. The Anime Karaoke contest is such a big success that our 2nd installment could only accommodate 24 singers; others had to be turned away.

We have also assisted Colegio de San Agustin during their fair this February 2002 as they also held their first anime show. Generally it was successful yet could still be improved in future attempts.

We are now on our 5th year, and a lot has changed; the audience composition, the shows, etc. One thing will not change, A@A will continue to promote anime so long as there are enough loyal anime fans who support our efforts.