The University of Rhode Island’s Anime Club is a collective of individuals who meet every Monday and Thursday to watch, discuss and share their passion for anime.
Club meetings are from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m, which may include watching anime, or participating in drawing and guessing games related to anime, according to club president Marcus Haase, a third-year student.
“Usually we do two different shows Monday, two different shows Thursday and we do that twice a semester,” Haase said. “So we watch a total of eight shows per semester.”
Jacob Iacobucci (‘24) ran the club last year almost entirely on his own, club treasurer and second-year student Yves Huyler said. With an entirely new executive board this semester, the club has been working to implement new activities and events into the framework of their schedule.
“We’re the first new e-board to come about in a while and actually have designated jobs that we all do,” Huyler said. “A lot of what we’re doing now with the events is trying to find our footing in what we want to do with the club.”
One big change made this semester was switching movie nights from three times a year to monthly, according to vice president Liam DiAdamo, a third-year student.
“Now that we’re introducing these movie nights, it just gives us the opportunity to try something new,” DiAdamo said. “If there’s certain people that want to come to the club all the time but they can’t then they still have the opportunity to be involved in the club and not have to come to every single meeting.”
The e-board is mainly working this semester to try and find ways to build the community and create an environment where people who can’t necessarily attend all the time still feel like a part of that community, according to Huyler.
“Ultimately our goal is to make a nice little community so a lot of the stuff we do outside of watching shows is about community building and getting to know each other,” Huyler said.
On average the club has about 20 people who attend on Mondays, with a bit of a smaller crowd on Thursdays, according to DiAdamo.
“Having a place where I can watch anime with other people and also talk to other people about watching this type of stuff was something that I was interested in,” club member Joseph Sabino said.
Transfer student from the Community College of Rhode Island and frequent clubgoer Rowan Chaves first discovered the club when looking for ways to get involved at one of URI’s club fairs.
“I went up and they seemed really welcoming,” Chaves said.
Outside of the club meetings, the group goes on day trips together to places such as Newbury Comics and Arisu, an anime store in Mystic, Connecticut, according to DiAdamo. Anime Boston is another event the group loves to attend.
“That’s like one of the big standouts of the club, just everyone going to a convention together,” Haase said.
The convention changes months constantly and this year it hit just outside of the school year in early May, according to Huyler.
“Most of our budget goes to getting members cheaper tickets and hotels but since we’re not not doing it this year that funding is going towards monthly movie nights instead,” Huyler said.
To encourage people to join, the group has linked their Discord in their Instagram bio, which is a public server welcome to everyone, according to Haase.
“The Discord is not just about anime, it could be a lot more about talking about different games and certain stuff like that,” Haase said. “We have a specific server on the discord that’s all about homework help.”
The club meets in Pastore Hall in room 208. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join, according to Haase.
You can visit their Instagram page @URIanimeinstagram .