By Peter Gill
Daily Staff Writer
Characters with big eyes, bigger spiked hair and the ability to glow when angry are usually what people think of when they think of Japanese animation. Japanese animation, or anime, has penetrated American culture via "Pokemon" and "Dragonball Z".
At OU, animation has its own club. The OU Animation Society is a club for students who enjoy animation as an art form.
"We really just love cartoons," Katie Wilks, a classical cultures and anthropology senior, said. Wilks has been a club member for five years and is currently the treasurer.
The club is the animation society because the do not exclusively show anime, but because most available animation comes from Japan and because of the genre's growing popularity, they show anime most of the time Wilks said.
"We do try to bring in stuff from other countries," Wilks Said.
Every Wednesday night the club sets up its projector and DVD player or VCR and screens a film or a part of a TV series. Showings usually last for two hours. An hour before the main show starts, a pre-show is screened. The pre-show is usually a series that is selected by the members and two episodes are shown from the series each week.
Brandon Carr, English senior, wasn't always into animation. Now he's the club librarian.
"I didn't like anime at the beginning because anime meant "Dragonball Z to me." Carr said.
He explained that after seeing parts from series like "Kareshi Kanjo no Jijo," the genre grew on him.
Many members expressed their distaste with the animation shown on Cartoon Network because of its editing and bad translations. The club tries to show unedited subtitled works whenever possible to keep the originality intact.
Watching anime isn't the only thing the club does. It's also a social group. Almost every other weekend the club has a series marathon in the Cate Center social lounge.
"It's a huge network of friends," Nathan Kerswill, political science junior and club president, said.
The members share tapes and DVDs of their favorite shows with one another.
"If you want something, someone will find it for you," Carr said.
"We're the hook-up," Kerswill added.
The club meets every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in 211 Dale Hall. Pre-show starts at 8 followed by the showing. Attendance is free and open to anyone.