New Member Questions

What is KentANIMEted?

KentANIMEted (also commonly known as AnimeSoc) is the University of Kent's Anime society. We're one of the University's biggest societies, and we're getting bigger every year!

What is Anime?

Anime refers to Japanese animation. Anime often has certain recognisable stylistic features, such as large eyes, small noses, and unnatural hair colours. However, since “anime” includes any animation from Japan, a very wide variety of visual styles are included.

Animation from Japan is often more varied and wide-ranging than the usual fare aimed at children that makes up most Western Animation. You can find Anime about practically anything you can imagine – sport, magic, love, life, space, robots, even baking – the list could go on for hours.

What does KentANIMEted do?

KentANIMEted offers weekly showings of the best anime has to offer. For the first term, each week we show four episodes of an ongoing series, followed by four episodes of a different show to give you a taste of the wide variety of anime that exists. The rest of the year we show two ongoing series – though we try to maintain a varied mix so we don’t overdose on one genre. Our Thursday Night Showings are completely free for anyone to attend. You don't have to be a member, so you can feel free to come along and see what it's all about.

We will also be running a number of weekend showings throughout the year, so that we can show you the things that would normally be too niche, too long or that we simply don’t have time for in our regular slot. Details will be announced during our Thursday Night Showings, and on this web site, as they become available.

But we don’t just show anime. We also run weekly classes on anime-related topics such as Manga-ka Check and Cosplay Workshop. We also run a coach trip in October and May to the London MCM Expo, a convention for sci-fi, comics, video games, cosplay and anime. Throughout the year we may also decide to run other classes or events, so check back occasionally for new information. We also run a Loaning Library – come along to our meetings or visit our library page to find out more.

The first showing of the year will be our Intro Night, where we show new members what the society is all about. So come along the 30th of September, RLT1, 7pm, to find out whether our society is for you. We’ll also be at Fresher’s Fair, so stop by our stall to put your email address on our mailing list.

Wait, how do I get there? And when?

Our Thursday Night showings are held in RLT1 in the Rutherford building, from 7pm till 11pm. Classes are held next door in RLT2. Manga-ka Check runs before our Thursday Showings™ at 6pm till 7pm, and Cosplay Workshop runs on Fridays at 7pm till 11pm.

To get there, take the first right after entering the building, and follow the signs to the lecture theatre. On Intro Night we’ll have helpers guiding lost anime fans in the right direction, as well as posters and signs around the building.

But what’s Manga? And Cosplay?

Manga refers to Japanese comics – essentially the printed page version of anime.

Cosplay is the term for dressing up as your favourite character or object from anything you can think of, from anime or manga, to sci-fi, or video games, and so on.

Aren't cartoons for children?

A huge segment of the Western animation market is aimed at children, but you just have to look at shows like Futurama or Family Guy to see that animation isn’t just for children. The same range exists in Japanese animation; while there are shows like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh that are targeted at a younger age group, there are also shows aimed at older audiences, and a wide variety of tastes. There’s something for everyone.

I don't know any Japanese, how can I understand anything?

As a general rule we show everything in its original language, which of course is almost always Japanese in our case, except for rare instances where there may only be a dub available. But don’t worry, we’d never throw you in to the deep end by showing anything without subtitles! If you’ve never watched subtitled movies before it may take a short while to get used to it, but you soon will.

How much will it cost me?

Membership costs just £3 per year for students (a little more for non-students). This is given straight to Kent Union, who then use it to fund our budget, which we use to keep our society running smoothly.

All of our weekly showings (including the Intro Night) are free. Paid-up members will get a society keyring, as well as access to our Loans Library.

This sounds awesome, where do I sign up?

We have a complete step-by step guide here