Christchurch Anime Tribe

As of New Year 2011 operation of the Christchurch Anime Tribe has been taken over by Michael Willis a.k.a. Monogreen.

Thanks heaps to all the people who have supported us over the years and thanks to the people who have kept the dream alive and taken on the responsibility of running things and hosting get-togethers.

As yet there are no firm plans for a meeting venue but that will be worked out in the new year so expect updates.

I am in the throes of making sure that the people who need access to the website get it so there is likely to be new work on the website soon.

I have yet to contact the people with whom we have customer loyalty agreements (discounts etc.) but I will be doing so.

There may be new membership cards but nothing has been decided on yet as numbers and design options have yet to be nutted out.

On a personal note, I'm about to move with my husband and kids, up to Awahuri near Feilding (just out of Palmy). It's been awesome meeting so many cool people over the years in Chch, and I look forward to being able to keep up with many of you by email, LJ and FaceBook :)

Ki wo tsukete!

Hey there folks. I finally gave in and joined Facebook. I figured it might be a good tool to get everyone back in contact should we want to do anything.

The Christchurch Anime Tribe Facebook group can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119145368111291

If you are on Facebook feel free to add me. There are some people I am still having trouble tracking down, but this may be due to the fact that they don't use the site (astounding logic Kath - *pats self on back*).

I'll be uploading some more photos once I hook them off the pther computer, and wlfie has put a couple up too.

Heh. I found a linky today that I didn't realise existeded.

Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)

But more importantly... check this out!

Or maybe this art page. Scary!! LOL

Now I remember what I was doing for pretty much all of 2002....

Sounds like we are still on for a BBQ on Christmas day. If you are free, feel free to pop along for a bit.

I doubt there will be anything formal organised but we should have doors open between 4pm and midnight. BYO drinks and nibbles. Give us a call on 3321138 if you have any questions.

I've been recently thinking about the future of the Anime Tribe and my part in it and a few things came to mind.

One obvious thing is that I really don't have time to be running a club when I am being a Mum. I think it's it's a bit inconsiderate of me to call myself the "leader" of a group I am not actively participating in.

Our club has educated and entertained and been a social network for a lot of people over the years. Many have come together because they "love anime" and have had their tastes broaden, change, or mature. When I first started this club there were only a few places you could get anime in NZ, and most of it was only available on VHS. Times have changed, markets have grown, fan bases have blossomed, withered and been reborn.

Over the years I have heard a lot of things said about anime, by fans, critics, the well-informed, the misinformed or painfully ignorant, the passionate, and the dispassionate alike, and I thought I would share some of them with you so I sat and brainstormed a bit this afternoon.
(Feel free to comment or add to this list ^_^)

Anime is;
animations made in Japan, a medium - not a genre, for kids, post-apocalyptic, imaginative,
childish, characters who can fly, panties, the demise of many once promising artists,
big eyes - small mouth, a reason to cosplay, cats, big guns, blue hair, gritty, romantic,
action, fine if you don't have to put up with the fans, derivative, tentacles and demons,
hot bois, repetitive, moody, deep, R18 cartoons, self-reflection, cool, stereotypical,
what I want to make for a living, pretty, fast paced, sci-fi, violent, robots, unrealistic,
martial arts, exploitation, Japanese, drama, demeaning, magical girls, political,
cheaply made, spaceships, intense, silly, porn, artsy, gay, gore, subs vs dubs,
guys who all look like chicks, character driven, foreign, artsy, slow, difficult to follow,
simplistic, well crafted, great because it makes no sense, beautiful, immoral, charming,
better than Americanimation, fantasy, more fun to watch than to make, liberating,
Pokemon and animal sidekicks, chicks with big boobs, not as good as fan fiction....

I think that one of the things made really obvious by this list is that the first couple of comments are true. Anime is a medium, and as such people will have wide and varied experiences of it and fans may find completely different things enticing about the material. Since 2001 we have had members who have had passionate interests in such various genres as R18 titles, mecha scifi, shoujo romance and shounen martial arts, zany comedy, and cute family movies (just some of a selection that come to mind). Some fans have been interested in their own manga creations, others, in making or enjoying other people's cosplay outfits, anime music videos, fan fiction, and even short animations.

The feedback that I have received from most of our older members is that an anime club holds very little interest for them any more because of a couple of things. One major reason is because of this variety of styles in anime. Most people who have been interested in anime for some time know what they like and a less likely to find a series that is not in a style that they enjoy to be at least a novel change. Basically it's difficult to keep everyone happy all of the time.

Another major factor is that times have changed. Anime is nolonger a fringe interest with very little industry support. We have done our part at the bleeding edge in this country, paying insane prices so that companies like MangaNZ (now Madman NZ) can get a foot in the door. Widespread English language releases, DVDs with alternate language options, and the internet as a distribution network have completely changed the availability of this, once fringe, medium. We no longer need to huddle together in darkened rooms watching something our friend got from Japan when she was on holiday, or hope in vain for 5 years that some American company might eventually release a subtitled version of the latest popular TV series in Japan.

While the Anime Tribe has been a valuable social network for a lot of people over the years (just thinking of the flats that have formed, couple who have met and close friendships that still endure), very few people have been attending meetings or posting on our forums lately. As a result I don't think we are losing much by calling it a day. I hear that there is a new anime interest group on campus at Canterbury University, but I don't know how well they are doing. I wish them all the best.

I will get around to cleaning up the website and posting an official "WE ARE CLOSED" type post there once I have time and a new FTP client installed on this machine :P This will be after Captain's exams so don't try to hurry me along.

I'm happy to keep a few remnants of the club going so if you want to discuss stuff I'll keep the forum live and this LJ Community would be a good place for folks to post messages about things like Film Festival movies and cons and  the like.

I hope this doesn't leave anyone feeling left out of the loop or disregarded. If you want to start your own interest group or club the option is always that and I wish you all the best :)

We have a new trial venue at 47 Centennial Ave Our next meeting we will be on May 24th. We will be watching Shuffle (1-4) and El Hazard (1-4)

The new meeting schedule is up. We're also taking any requests/suggestions for viewing material for June onward ^_^

To give new people a chance to get involved in viewings, I make a point of getting our viewing schedule up online at least a week before a meeting happens.
We've had a couple of hiccups getting the website updated in time to give people notice about our new viewing schedule, so there will be no meeting on May 17th, and if all runs to plan, meetings will resume the week after.
I hope this isn't of any major inconvenience to any one, and thanks again to those people who have recently offered to share their anime with us, especially Monogreen, Denni and Piezo.
If you wish to discuss any anime that we have viewed or any that you want to see at future meetings, please visit our forums.
Thanks again!

Yo folks.

Had a gracious offer of a lounge for viewings, starting 5th of April.
Venue is HERE.

Our full viewing schedule is available on our Club Info page.

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We have a new trial venue at 47 Centennial Ave At our next meeting we will be watching: Infinite Ryvius (1-5) and Mai-Otome (1-4)

November 8th

1pm onward
BYO Drinks and nibbles (chips, fizzies, meat, bread sauce?)
Feel free to bring games (board, card, software)
If you want to bring a games system (Xbox, Playstation etc.) please ring ahead (3321138).

Alcohol OK but please don't get drunk.

Any questions, then phone or email, or post on our forum.

Love and PEACE!

Because, I may have forgotten about setting a new one up for a year or two, there... Erebus did so;

http://n2.nabble.com/Christchurch-Anime-Tribe-BBS-f1124958.html

Also, various people may be interested in the NZ Cosplay Forums, which are kinda cool;

http://cosplaynewzealand.forumotion.com/index.htm