Only in the world of video games and anime can a single hero defeat the likes of vampires, assassins and Santa kidnappers to bring joy to hospitalized children around the world.
In the real world, Penn’s Anime Club won’t run into villains like these. Instead, this past Saturday, the group presented a musical recital of songs from its members’ favorite shows or video games. The recital also accepted donations for Child’s Play, a charity that collects games and distributes them to children at hospitals.
According to recital coordinators and College seniors Amy Li and Angel Fang, the event was a chance to bring people together and explore the musical component of anime and video games.
Fang’s musical background helped to inspire the recital.
“I love to play these kinds of songs from these shows I watch,” she said.
“Angel is really interested in this kind of music, as opposed to the popular music that comes out or classical music,” Li added. “It’s a chance to express that interest.”
Li herself performed in the recital, singing “One Winged Bird” from Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, an anime television series.
That Li and some other members sang in Japanese particularly impressed College sophomore Kristin Johnson, who came to watch the recital and enjoy the good food and music.
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Some members of the club not featured in the recital came out to support their friends. The club, which meets on Fridays starting at 8 p.m, and lasting until midnight or later, gives members the opportunity to watch anime, eat pizza, participate in discussions and play games with one another.
“People have a lot of different interests. There are people who come here who just like the atmosphere and the people,” Fan said. “It’s meant to be a casual scene for people to get together and get to know one another.”
About the recital, club member and College freshmen Brent Taylor said, “I liked how they pegged a lot of acts together with a core story no matter how silly the story was.”
Wharton junior Serge Saint-Preux served as the recital’s MC. Saint-Preux connected all the different anime shows and video games highlighted in the recital by creating a fanfiction piece based off of Kingdom Hearts, an anime-inspired video game.
In his narration, Saint-Preux discussed how the main character, Riku, must find a cure for his friend’s disease “continuity-itis,” which parodies the often absurd and complex plotlines of video games. Riku finds the cure by jumping from world to world, facing various villains along the way.
Each song in the recital, Saint-Preux added, corresponds to a different world.
Saint-Preux’s stories ends with Riku finding a cure for his friend’s disease. He goes to a hospital and shares this cure with all the children residing there. Saint-Preux ties this back to one of the recital’s main goal — to raise funds for Child’s Play.
Fang said the club wanted to “share the spirit of giving,” while supporting a cause related to the club’s interests.
“There’s a lot of local effort, and [the charity] involved video game fans,” Li added. “It’s pulling fans together, and tries to draw on something people are passionate about.”
The Anime Club has grown exponentially the past few years, and hopes to continue this growth in the future by making the recital an annual event for members to share their passion for music and anime and take a break from the stress of reading days.
Li added a final note that bringing people together with this common interest “increases the diversity of Penn. We also have this kind of culture.”
