At its first meeting on Thursday Sept. 19, Pali’s new Anime club attracted 70 members.

According to junior and Club President David Leitz, a regular club meeting consists of a screening of various anime titles that the club voted on the previous week. “The club will be constantly changing depending on what the members want,” he said.

Explaining his motivations for starting the club, Leitz said he and his friends always spoke about anime last year in Spanish class. This year, they made the decision to bring it to more Pali students as an interest-based club. Anime is animated Japanese film and television.

Leitz founded the club along with junior Vice President Eva Glover, junior Chief of Staff Ryan Johnson and junior Treasurer Kai Wang.

In addition to watching Anime, Leitz said that the club plans to host raffles in which members will have the chance to win merchandise from popular anime shows. The club is also planning to take students to Anime Expo, a global convention which takes place from July 2-5 in Los Angeles, Leitz said. Anime Expo is hosted by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation and attracts around 100,000 anime fans annually. The club will “accept anyone into the club no matter their knowledge about anime.” Leitz said, “it’s really all about exposure.”

During the club’s first meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19, members discussed which anime program they would watch at the following club meeting, finally deciding on Demon Slayer, which has more than two dozen 25-minute-long episodes. They have also watched clips of the three-volume series KILL LA KILL.

History teacher Steven Burr attended the first meeting and is offering students a trip to Japan in June of 2020, which includes sightseeing tours in Kyoto, Hakone and Osaka, according to the tour company Burr is using. At the meeting, many students showed interest in going to Japan, the birthplace of anime.

Anime Club meets weekly in G106 during lunch.