At 8 p.m., Cal State Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) campus is all but deserted. Classrooms are empty, buildings closed and dorms quiet. Except for a few stragglers catching the last Wave shuttle of the evening, it’s almost uninhabited compared to its daytime bustle. But inside Heron Hall, one room buzzes with activity: Lecture Hall 118, where twice a week the Anime Club holds its meetings.
“It provides a space to come together to watch anime and get that movie theater experience,” says Club President Sunny De La Pena, “where you watch with other people and hear their reactions.”
On Wednesday and Thursday nights, they do just that, gathering to watch anime in the shared darkness of a lecture hall. But this simplicity of purpose belies something about Anime Club. It’s somewhat of a sleeping giant.
It may be surprising that Anime Club is the longest-running student organization on campus. Founded in 2002, the club has met once or twice a week since the Bush Administration, even meeting over Zoom during COVID – long before the library or Otter Student Union were built. “We’ve been here since 2002 and consistently here since then,” said longtime staff advisor David Bennett.
The club’s history runs so deep that its origins are somewhat hazy; Bennett’s records only go back to 2002, but he says the original founder told him they were meeting even before that.
With age comes polish, and Anime Club proves that by being one of the largest and most consistent communities on campus. Two nights a week, rain or shine, test season or holidays, they fill their lecture hall to watch the semester’s selection of shows. Club officer Chris Tam proudly boasts a “20 heads a meeting,” average–a notable turnout for any student organization.
The atmosphere at each meeting is warm, steeped in 22 years of tradition. The club follows a comfortable rhythm, hour by hour and night by night. When something absurd happens on screen, a joke is sure to follow, with comfortable laughter in response.
When the next show is about to begin, Bennett warns the room: “Lights going off in 3… 2… 1…” and the room quiets.
Wednesdays are always packed; this is where their 20-person average comes from. On a recent Wednesday, they started with “Dungeon Meshi,” one of the season’s most popular shows. Some sit in the back eating dinner or working on a laptop and others sit closer to the front, reacting aloud or whispering to their friends.
The club aims to attract a wide variety of members. “A nice diverse mix of people, not just the [superfans],” as Bennett describes. They program accordingly, with officers choosing the shows each semester to appeal to a broader audience. They always choose recent releases, spanning action-packed fantasy series, sweet romances and intimate tragedies.
Between episodes, officers make announcements about upcoming activities, like a trip to Round One in Salinas, a movie night in Marina or a reminder about where to submit viewing suggestions.
Thursdays are quieter, with a smaller group of regulars. This is when they test “bleeding edge” material–shows that are a little more risque or experimental and less likely to appeal to Wednesday’s larger crowd. Fewer laptops are open and most people give their full attention.
By 10:30 p.m., the last episode is over and the meeting ends as quietly as it began. By 11 p.m., Heron Hall is silent again.
But next week, they’ll be back. After 22 years, if there’s anything to count on, it’s that.