NASHI - USC of Columbia Anime Club
Indeed there has been an anime club in the Columbia area since the year 2000. It’s called NASHI, or the Nippon Anime Society of Heavenly Imagery. Long name you say? Yeah I get that some times. My name is Wataru, the Shodai Nashikage of NASHI and this is my story. A long time ago, in a land not so far from Columbia I went to college in a quaint place called East Carolina University. There I joined SAGA, the School of Anything Goes Anime, the college anime club. I had been into anime for sometime, tapes from an older sibling, Sci-Fi Channel, Block Buster rentals, and retail Dubs, but SAGA complete the picture. There I learned the deeper aspects of the wondrous medium that is anime and meet people whom I would make lasting friendships with. Soon came the time however when I was forced to leave my new found home and travel south to Columbia, making my way to the University of South Carolina. To my shock and horror they did not have an anime club. I could not let this stand! I tutored under my friend Andre, one of the founders of SAGA, diligently learning everything he had to offer about how to found and run a club. His advice could be summed up as thus, "Don't be a Dick." The following summer I researched USC's student organization policy, made flyers, wrote the constitution, worked as a bagger to buy an initial fifty tape library of excellent anime titles, and lastly quality checked each and every tape as it came in the mail. Yeah that's how we rolled with fansubs back in the day for you younger folk, you and your fancy torrents *Shakes his cane menacingly.* When I arrived at USC I hit the ground running. Thanks to the Faculty Adviser I selected at the time, Sakakibara-sensei, I was introduced to my future fifteen year old college junior lesbian Vice President Hope. Where I was at the time film-noir, Hope was Crayola crayon, classic pairing. Consequently, thanks to Hope, we found tobes our future Librarian who would become my most trusted friend. NASHI's first meeting hosted a meager group of ten people; Hope came in cosplay (as she would every meeting in the future), we held elections, officially declaring me NASHI's first President, Asshole-in-Chief, or Head Bitch, and general mayhem ensued as I lead everyone like a ringmaster in charge of the greatest show on Earth. I was frantic inside; nervous as I had learned that three anime clubs had tired to form in USC's past, all needless to say failed horribly and four is not a lucky number in Japan. Thankfully we weren't in Japan and just as Hope optimistically predicted the club was a smashing success. I lead the club as President for almost three complete years before leaving the post for good. My main goal for the club was to make a place for like minding individuals to come and form friendships they might not have had otherwise. I succeeded. Every year at the first meeting the officers and I cheerful wondered how many new faces would grace our club and who among them would become some of our most endearing friends. Ryan, Monika, Carmen, Misha, Duane, Perry, Travis, Eric, 5th Demon, Erika, Marci, Maggie, Sawicki, Brian, Val, Michael, Whitney, Mike, Robbie, Ben, Chris, Nathan, Jeff, Greg, Geoff, Brandon, KT, Shari, Jimmy, Reid, Shawn, Danny, Jordan, Patrick, Michelle, Leysha, Shoko, Satoshi, Laura, Robert, George, Frank, Jen, Jaron, and dozens more! Nashi was family, dysfunctional, but family. This year NASHI starts its eighth year at USC, it is my hope it will reach a decade. I myself haven't been back there in three years, but I'm in contact with those that still go. Our first female President, about time, Miss Grant shall pave the way for NASHI's future this year. My wishes and blessing go to her and the other officers. If you live in or near Columbia go to NASHI, you might enjoy yourself, despite it being a college club it is open to the public and we have always welcomed new blood. If you do it is my hope you find a fun and friendly environment where one can enjoy being a part of anime fandom and maybe, if your lucky, something more. My tale is done, but the story continues.

You mean someone else other than me owns VHS tapes? lol Thank you for posting about this club in Columbia! We do have a few people from Columbia who lurk on the board, so hopefully they will see this and decide to check out the club. I certainly would if I lived in the area.

Wow. It's a little hard trying to hold a candle to somebody who grew up on anime the old school way and formed one of the only successful anime clubs anywhere within a county around Sumter. (Just for reference: I'm the Premier of SARM) Well after reading all this, I've got a greater appreciation for the advice you've given me so far. It's even more crucial in the face of the fact I've never been in a anime club or any kind of club for that matter. So does SAGA even still exist? And I've love to go to a NASHI meeting. I just don't know when or where it's happening. I sent them an e-mail right before SARM's first meeting and I haven't gotten a response back. Probably thought it was spam or junk mail. It'd be nice if they had a website, even if it was on one of the cheap services: Yahoo, MySpace, etc. I guess I'll just wait until somebody informs you. And of course, I'm always up and ready for any advice you've got. At this point though, I'm not sure how I feel about an election of officers. I haven't really written up much of a constitution and so far, I get the sense we're following in the path of Karl Marx's theories on how best to proceed in forming a communist state by having a dictatorship control things for quite a while in order to maintain stability in the "country's" early existence. I've corresponded back and forth quite a bit with this guy from E.C.A.S and some other guy in another club that's also from North Carolina about how to set things up in terms of control, but what are your ideas?

Don’t sale yourself short. Ten years from now this will be the old school days and you might be the one leading the shining example for all the little otalings. I have immense respect for people in your position Mockingbird who are not only fans but try to create something of their fandom to share with other people. It’s hard, most of the time thankless, but one of the most rewarding experiences you can have as a fan. SAGA as I was informed at one Neko-con in 2003 had run into turbulent times and might have disbanded. I think however rumors of its demise were premature as a quick search of the ECU Student Organization database reveals it is still in existence under the leadership of a Miss Horn. If the club didn’t disband for a short time this would then mark SAGA’s eleventh year. Congrats to them. I would like to note to those that have heard of the anime RPG Random Anime by Infernal Funhouse that the creator, Brian Perry, was the founding President of SAGA. I had planned on making a trip to the first NASHI meeting this year and once I went to SARM I decided I would invite David, Gary, and you if you were interested. The club is a bit reclusive on the net, though thanks to your inspiration I have passed along a suggestion to use at least a Myspace profile to the officers. NASHI does have a yahoo group/mailing list but its set to private and invite only. Lastly for advice I would say make note of the following. NASHI needed officers and a constitution because it was demanded of all the college student organizations. That and the club is a structured and orderly club, yours however is informal and open for adaptation. In NASHI the officers as stated in the constitution have NO POWER. For all intent and purposes they can not tell you what to do, that’s what the constitution is for. Being a NASHI officer is saying, “Hey! I’ll do all the work required to keep the club running.” SARM is a bit different in you have stated that, for at least for right now, David, Gary, and you have the final word. This is perfectly fine because in an informal setting if you don’t have someone in charge to keep things in control the group losses their focus. Right now, SARM is your baby; you should be in charge until you feel the club is stable enough to have a system for passing leadership. Decide where you want the club to go, how formal/informal you want to make it, what your goals are, and plan accordingly. That said a second room is good for those that like to chit chat, and not watch the current show, and I would veto smoking in the club room. We have already discussed the room issue, the latter issue and anything else though can be discussed at length later. If you have any other questions I am at your service. My AIM is the same as the email I gave you, just chop off the @etcblahblah.com. I'm glad though both of you liked the post and I hope it is useful.

Well it's nice to have the vote of confidence, especially when it comes to our power structure. Hopefully, we'll be able to transition into being more like a representative democracy in the future. And like you say, we'll need to talk about the smoking issue at some point. Thanks for bringing it up. I didn't realize that was an issue.

For the Fall 2007 Semester NASHI is meeting currently in Currell Hall 107 7pm-10pm on Thursdays. (Excluding days the campus is closed, Thanksgiving, X-mas, Spring Break etc.) LINK TO CAMPUS MAP: http://www.sc.edu/cgi-bin/uscmap/uscmap.cgi?type=number&data=66

clubbing
Hey, thanks for all the info. I'm going to go check it outs! Hopefully I won't be too tired and fall asleep. Is it alright if I just show up? Is it open to anyone or should I rsvp first? Anyways I will just show up and see what happens, thanks!

Yup. Just show up. That's pretty much what we did.

Yahoo Perry Desu!! I've been a member of Nashi since the second semester of it's first year. I was a small lad of 16 when I joined up, still a high school student. But I can tell you this, the people I met at Nashi soon became my best friends. Through hard times and through fun times, They always stuck by me. Our club's true mission is to bring like minded people together, and to perhaps bring those who don't know much about the culture together as well. I'm a huge Sentai/Kamen Rider fan, I love games too. Nashi accommodates both. We also have an unofficial side group called Sakura I started a few summers back that hangs out during the off season of school. I suggest coming to check Nashi out or give some of us an Email and we can give you some insight on when we meet and how we do things, heck if you Email and just want to hang out and watch some anime with a bunch of the members on a non club day we'll be willing to do that too.