Fant-Asia AnImagination St. Louis Mills

The Fant-Asia branch at AnImagination in the St. Louis Mills will meet on Friday, January 5th 2007 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Fant-Asia AnImagination South County

The third chapter for the South County branch of Fant-Asia St. Louis will meet Saturday, January 6th 2007 at the new AnImagination South County, 6055 Telegraph Rd. Events will run from 3:00 p.m. - ?

The schedule for Saturday:

• Kaleidostar 1-2
• Tenchi Muyo OVA 1-2
• Sol Bianca: The Legacy 1-2
• Hellsing Ultimate
• Police Story (starring Jackie Chan)

If you don’t get enough anime on Saturday, AnImagination South County will also be showing anime on Sunday, January 7 from 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. For more information on both AnImagination locations, check their new website.

FANT-ASIA I-FRAG

According to Brian Lan, founder of Fant-Asia St. Louis, Fant-Asia’s FINAL event for the I-Frag branch will be Saturday, December 2, 2006 at the I-Frag Gaming Center, 3555 Ritz Center from 5:00pm to midnight. “This time I really mean it.” Brian says.

The I-Frag Gaming Center will be closing on December 30, 2006. Brian would like to give a special thanks to I-Frag owner Kent Bergeland for being a great host location. Starting in January 2007, Fant-Asia St. Louis will be moving to the new AnImagination South County (their second location).

FANT-ASIA ANIMAGINATION

Fant-Asia at AnImagination in the St. Louis Mills will be on Friday, December 1, 2006 from 6:00pm to 9:30pm.

AnImagination will be providing free sushi on December 1, 2006.

FANT-ASIA ST. CHARLES

The next event in St. Charles will be Saturday, December 16, 2006 at The Fantasy Shop St. Charles, 2426 West Clay from 5:00-10:00p.m.

This will be Fant-Asia’s Annual Viewer’s Choice Night. If anyone has any requests, please let Brian know. He’s already received requests for The Bride With White Hair and Crying Freeman live-action movie.

FANT-ASIA ANIMAGINATION

The AnImagination branch of Fant-Asia will meet at the St. Louis Mills on Friday, November 17, 2006 from 6:00pm - 9:30pm They will be having a special salute to the works of Jim Henson.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no event on November 24, 2006.

FANT-ASIA ST. CHARLES

Fant-Asia in St. Charles will be on Saturday, November 18, 2006 from 5:00pm to 10:00pm at The Fantasy Shop in St. Charles, MO (2426 West Clay).

The first show is TBA (to be announced). Second show is Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, episodes 22-24.

ST. LOUIS ANIME MEETUP

Don’t forget about the St. Louis Anime Meetup folks! Their events will be Friday, November 17, 2006 from 6:00pm - 10:30pm. Shows include:

• Samurai 7 episodes 17-18
• Ah! My Goddess episodes 3-4
• Trigun episodes 3-4

I received some news about Fant-Asia St. Louis today. Brian Lan founder of the area’s largest anime club, Fant-Asia, sent me an e-mail informing me that Fant-Asia will be holding their final meeting of the I-Frag branch at the I-Frag Gaming Center. I-Frag, which is located at 3555 Ritz Center in Mehlville, will be closing their doors for good on November 30th.

The last meeting to be held at I-Frag will be this Saturday, November 4th, from 5:00pm to Midnight.

The schedule at I-Frag is:

• Sol Bianca: The Original
• Macross Plus Part 4
• Samurai 7 24-26
• The Professional: Golgo 13

The I-Frag Fant-Asia branch will be moving to AnImagination South County, located at 6055 Telegraph Road, starting in either December or January. This is AnImagination’s second location in the area.

Fantasia will still hold meetings at the other branches. The next event after I-Frag will be on Saturday, November 18th at their St. Charles location.

I’ll post info on Fant-Asia’s happenings as I receive it and will try to keep everyone up to date on their move.

Good Luck Brian!!

Fant-Asia in St. Charles will be Saturday, August 19 @:

• The Fantasy Shop St. Charles
• 2426 West Clay
• From 5:00pm - 10:00pm

Showing:

• Dangaio: Part One
• Area 88: Episodes 7-9
• Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo: Episodes 15-16
• THE MYTH: Starring Jackie Chan

Finally! The St. Louis Anime Meetup is starting Saturday meetups to accommodate fans who can’t come to the Friday meetings. I can finally go back to the meetups and get reacquainted with local fans!

Here’s a link to the page with the times and dates of the meetups…Hope to see you all there!

Fant-Asia St. Louis held its 9th annual anniversary bash this past Saturday at the St. Charles branch Fantasy Shop. Starting in the morning and ending late at night, fans from all across the metro area came together to celebrate their love for anime in the air conditioned comfort of the Fantasy Shop’s gaming area.

Brian Lan, head organizer for Fant-Asia, said that the club’s annual anniversary celebration tends to draw a fairly large crowd. He estimated that at least 70-80 people showed up to enjoy the free DDR, refreshments, and anime. Some of the anime features the club was showing hadn’t even hit stateside yet.

One of the features, Wonderful Days actually did hit stateside in limited release a year ago under the name ‘Sky Blue’. It was shown briefly at the Tivoli Theatre in the U-City Loop. Wonderful Days hasn’t been released yet on DVD in the US but Brian managed to get a hold of a copy via his online connections.

Along with all day anime programming, Dance Dance Revolution was another attraction at Fant-Asia. Club members had an interesting DDR set-up I hadn’t seen before. They were playing DDR from a computer and not through a Playstation 2 like I do.

I was told by club member Mike Votaw that they were using a computer program called Step Mania. Anyone with a computer can download this free dance program along with songs and turn your PC into your own DDR juke box. There had to be hundreds upon hundreds of songs stored on that particular machine.

I didn’t dare dance for fear some young thing would step up and school my ass. I’ve only been playing DDR for three months, and I don’t get to practice that much due to an old knee injury and the fact that we piss off off our downstairs neighbors whenever we play. I asked Mike Votaw, who’s been playing DDR for some seven years if he could demonstrate his mad skillz. All I have to say about that is “Duuuudde, how can anyone possibly move that fast?” I was impressed and so was Dave.

Mike says he practices DDR maybe six or seven hours a week to get to the level he’s at now. Most people wished they exercised that much a week.

Fant-Asia also featured a make shift “art alley” to show case local talent. There were some anime inspired works, but the majority of the drawings were American comic book based.

Cosplayers mingled in the crowd and there were enough cat girls, fox girls, and what-the-hell girls, thrown in the mix to make the affair feel like a micro con.

All in all, Fant-Asia St. Louis’ 9th annual anniversary shin-dig was a blast and really catered to a variety of fans. Anybody interested in attending future meetings or wants more info on the club, visit the Fant-Asia St. Louis homepage.

With so much anime coming out and so much to catch up on, I have a hard time deciding what anime to buy, what to rent and what to avoid at all costs. I find it helpful at these times to turn to local anime clubs for help by getting the latest on what’s coming out from people in the know, by having the chance to watch anime with fellow fans and to have all around good discussions about anime in general.

There are currently two anime clubs in the St. Louis Metro area that actively schedule meetings and viewings throughout the year and two clubs that are college affiliated and therefore mainly meet during the spring and fall semesters respectively.

The two year-round anime clubs are Fant-Asia and The St. Louis Anime Meetup.

One of the largest anime viewing clubs in the area, Fant-Asia boasts three branches in the Metro area and draws a very diverse crowd.

Fant-Asia

Fant-Asia St. Louis holds weekly meetings at AnImagination in the St. Louis Mills and attracts a predominantly high school aged crowd with some college aged fans. There is no set programming schedule for the AnImagination branch; whatever the attendees bring to watch is usually what’s shown, and the anime according to Fant-Asia founder Brian Lan is considerably lighter than most anime.

The branch that meets at I-Frag has a slightly older demographic with more college-aged anime fans and draws about 15-20 fans per meeting. The I-Frag branch is the only branch of Fant-Asia to have a separate viewing area and has the longest event time with viewings starting at 5:00pm and ending at midnight.

Programming at the third and last branch of Fant-Asia St. Louis is edgier and more mature than the other two due to the large amount of fans aged 25 and up, but this group is still considered diverse age-wise with some of the attendees being in their teens. The branch meets in St. Charles and draws members from the largest radius in the area. Says Brian Lan aka Count Lohengramm, “One of the biggest reasons for the success of Fant-Asia St. Louis is that our group is as much about an environment as it is about anime.”

St. Louis Anime Meetup

The St. Louis Anime Meetup has its meetings twice a month at Star Clipper Comics in the U-City Loop. Members can vote on series online at the Meetup website and the organizer, Jonny, also picks out some really good series for the club to watch.

Meetings are held every other Friday in the back room at SC and the demography is mostly 21 on up with the occasional high schooler, at least when I attended meetings two months ago it was. The viewing schedule alternates between a movie and episodes from series, so once a month there’s a larger crowd than normal due to the draw of an anime movie.

There are supposed to be meetings on Saturdays so that people that can’t attend on Friday’s can go to the Saturday meetings, but there has yet to be a posted schedule to that effect.

The other two anime clubs in the area are Anime Stack and the Maryville Anime Club, aka MAC.

Maryville Anime Club (MAC)

MAC is a university (Maryville University) affiliated club otherwise known as an RSO or registered student organization. Although it’s a student group, MAC is open to everybody of all ages, students and non-students alike. The Maryville Anime Club only meets while school is in session since they’re an RSO. MAC earned “Student Organization of the Year” according to Alisha B., one of the club’s members.

Anime Stack

Anime Stack is another club that holds its meetings on campus grounds (University of Missouri St. Louis). They have meetings twice a month and are also only active during school terms.

When you’re not sure what anime to watch or if you want to meet fellow fans face to face, make sure to check out these clubs. Going out and getting some interaction with people who are as thrilled about anime as you are is always a good thing.