Aneisha Davis Leads Anime Club Weeaboos and Otakus

Anime. Japanese cartoon. Cartoon. Whatever you want to call it, it is a very noteworthy way of animating things known the world over. With the genre’s growing popularity, there are a wide range of fans, from young to old.

North Atlanta High School has it’s own Anime Club and its club sponsor is Aneisha Davis, a British literature teacher. Becoming the group’s sponsor is a natural fit for the teaching veteran now in her second year at North Atlanta. For many years running she’s been an ardent anime fan. She started on her own anime journey several years ago when a friend turned her on to the characters. “I was looking at “Akira” and my first impression was that it was very strange,” Davis said. “But all of the supernatural elements really made me wonder what I was looking at.”

Beyond that initial foray into anime at age she began to watch other shows and her investment in anime increased. One of her all time favorite shows is “Claymore” which is found on Cruncyroll, an anime streaming site. “It’s so serious and deep that it’s hard not to get caught up in it,” she said.

Davis said she enjoys going beyond American culture and that anime is a perfect conduit for this because of its heavy borrowing from Japanese culture. She’s become such a devotee of anime that she aspires to learn more about the Japanese and their way of life. But please don’t go labeling her as a “weeaboo.” For the uninitiated, a weeaboo is a Westerner who has an abiding almost fanatical love of Japanese culture. “The way people in Japan live is different from the way people in America live and that makes me very interested in its culture and country in general,” said Davis.

Since an anime’s story is usually non-episodic, a viewer has to follow the story from the beginning to understand what is happening. This plot element is another reason Davis loves anime. Anime like “Puella Magi Madoka Magica,” “Samurai Champloo,” “Fruits Basket,” “Hunter x Hunter” and “My Hero Academia” drew her in because of the “deep story, great characterization, and wonderful art” in the anime.

As time passes, she hopes that anime shows “One Punch Man” and “Attack on Titan” receive additional seasons so she and fellow fans can continue enjoying them. To prove her anime bona fides, Davis confidently rattles off shows like “Space Dandy,” “Kamisama Kiss,” “World’s End,” “Eccentric Family,” “Log Horizon” and “Ergo Proxy.”

For discussions on these shows — and many others — Davis wants anyone to join her and fellow anime enthusiasts at Anime Club meeting on Wednesdays after school in her room, Room 10179. And you needn’t be an otaku. And if you don’t know what that means, come to the Anime Club to find out.