• Announcement: New snapshots from Otakon 2002 in the Events section.
• Announcement: Yesterday was our last official club meeting and we at NJIT Anime would hope you have had a wonderful semester with us. These past few months we watched some or all of: Full Metal Panic, Fruits Basket, Azumanga Daioh and Saishuu Heikii Kanojo. We hope to see you next semester; who knows what we will show! I myself am voting for Great Teacher Onizuka, but we will see...
• Now Showing: We are done! See you next semester!

NJIT Anime is a secret organization who's purpose is to cause college students to fail most of their classes. To achieve this, we meet once a week during the school semester and watch strange and wild cartoons from Japan, which we call Anime. We have about 30 members, so that means 30 students are failing miserably! Strive to add your name to that list!

Actually, NJIT Anime is a student organization at New Jersey Institute of Technology. We invite students from NJIT, members of the AaA, and Anime fans in general to attend our free viewings. We have three main goals:

• To spread awareness and knowledge of Anime and the issues surrounding it. Anime is viewed by most Americans as merely 'cartoons' meant for children. See our Anime FAQ page for more info.
• To provide an insight into the Japanese culture.
• To give the students a good way to take a break from the stress of schoolwork. In short, just have fun!

NJIT Anime is an Affiliate of the Anime Alliance (AA). The AA is an organization founded to help anime clubs and fans. Their duties include helping new clubs form, giving fans access to anime that would be hard to find elsewhere, and fighting anime piracy.

As you may or may not know, many Anime titles are not available in the US commercially. There are only two real ways of getting access to these titles: 1) learn Japanese and purchase the LD from Japan, or 2) acquire 'fansubs'.

Fansubs, or fan subtitled Anime, are Anime titles that are translated by a fan who purchases a copy of the title and the necessary computer hardware (a PC, Mac, Amiga, etc. with a genlock/overlay module) and subtitles it in English for ease of watching. Some fansubbers only do it for themselves, others do it to show friends and are willing to make copies, and others yet who do large scale sale and distribution of their fansubs.

What is wrong with this? Who does it hurt? Beside the obvious moral dilemma about selling another's work without credit or compensation to the creators, it hurts both fans and Anime companies. Because of the massive illegal distribution of some titles (like Fushigi Yuugi and Marmalade Boy), many legitimate US Anime companies have been unwilling to bring those titles to the US. The more titles that cannot come to the US, the less of a chance there is for Anime to become more widespread and reach the masses. Which, in turn, means fewer new Anime companies will start up, and fewer titles will be released in the US.

If you want information about an Anime club in your area, or just info about Anime in general, contact the Anime Alliance.