Officers of the Anime Club attended the Anime USA convention held Oct. 11-13 at the Sheraton Hotel at Tyson’s Corner.

“I enjoyed watching music videos and meeting anime celebrities and the voices behind Japanese animation movies,” co-president Juli Jones said. “There was an art auction upstairs where some of my drawings were sold for around $7 each.”

The convention consisted of autograph signings, viewing music videos and shows and ongoing auctions.

“People came from all around the metropolitan area,” Jones said. “It was great to see so many people caring about the Japanese culture. We bought lots of art and enjoyed just walking around, viewing the different exhibits.”

The Anime Club meets every other Tuesday to discuss club events and Japanese television shows, trade books and CDs, watch videos and promote events around the area. The members discuss activities to try later in the year.

“At the past meetings, positions have been assigned and samples of anime drawings have been shared among the members,” vice-president Rachel Webber said.

Two meetings have been held, but no definite plans have been made for the upcoming year. Meetings are held in sponsor Hadan Kauffman’s room, Y222. The number of members continues to increase at every meeting. Future meeting dates will be broadcast on the morning announcements.

“We plan on attending other conventions besides Anime USA and hopefully will be able to have the entire club go,” secretary Stephanie Kang said. “We’re going to have so much to talk about at the next meeting.”

The club was started last year so that anime enthusiasts could have a place to meet and trade items. The club is limited to Japanese animation and doesn’t deal with American cartoons. The members feel it takes a greater appreciation to understand cartoons in Japanese than to understand simple American cartoons.

“The difference between anime and regular cartoons is that cartoons are so Americanized that they hardly have a plot. Anime is more like an animated soap opera,” Jones said. “It’s full of information about society and the culture. The only requirement is that you enjoy anime and are interested in the culture [for club membership].”