The Provinces of Fandom: DAI
Jun. 29th, 2003 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakI visited with the members of the Denver anime group on Saturday June 28 and this is a short report on my impressions and who they are.
Denver Anime International, like DASFA, is in some ways an anachronism. Anime clubs formed because fans needed a way to get anime. Now with Japanese imports much more readily available fans don't have to trade tapes recorded on video machines at clubs.
The club was originally just a group of fen who meet up to watch anime after the 1981 Worldcon in Denver. Michael Burgess (hey there's a name that's familiar to DASFA as well) was sort of the first leader of the group back when it was called the Denver Animation Society.
They and their predecessor group have met monthly for over twenty years now and it doesn't look like they'll be stopping anytime soon. For one thing they have a convention to help out with, Nan Desu Kan. As with DASFA and MileHiCon they don't run the convention by themselves. However they do a lot to help out and they run the video room at a number of other local conventions.
So they still have a purpose. If they and the other clubs and volunteers didn't still get together it would be much harder to learn about anime. And I think fandom would be much poorer if we didn't have social groups like them ready to provide answers to the newbies/neofen interested in anime.
I also like the group because they are delightfully informal. Even more so than DASFA, though I wouldn't want to change the way DASFA works (because it does). They have no dues or fees and they work hard to find places to meet for free so they can keep it that way. Currently they are meeting at a pretty nice miniatures & gaming shop in south Englewood called Ed Wolf's Game Pit. The light salutation is a bit hard on being able to see the screenings, but I suspect if they are in that location long enough they will figure out a solution.
If you want to know more about their history check out their page on the subject.
Denver Anime International, like DASFA, is in some ways an anachronism. Anime clubs formed because fans needed a way to get anime. Now with Japanese imports much more readily available fans don't have to trade tapes recorded on video machines at clubs.
The club was originally just a group of fen who meet up to watch anime after the 1981 Worldcon in Denver. Michael Burgess (hey there's a name that's familiar to DASFA as well) was sort of the first leader of the group back when it was called the Denver Animation Society.
They and their predecessor group have met monthly for over twenty years now and it doesn't look like they'll be stopping anytime soon. For one thing they have a convention to help out with, Nan Desu Kan. As with DASFA and MileHiCon they don't run the convention by themselves. However they do a lot to help out and they run the video room at a number of other local conventions.
So they still have a purpose. If they and the other clubs and volunteers didn't still get together it would be much harder to learn about anime. And I think fandom would be much poorer if we didn't have social groups like them ready to provide answers to the newbies/neofen interested in anime.
I also like the group because they are delightfully informal. Even more so than DASFA, though I wouldn't want to change the way DASFA works (because it does). They have no dues or fees and they work hard to find places to meet for free so they can keep it that way. Currently they are meeting at a pretty nice miniatures & gaming shop in south Englewood called Ed Wolf's Game Pit. The light salutation is a bit hard on being able to see the screenings, but I suspect if they are in that location long enough they will figure out a solution.
If you want to know more about their history check out their page on the subject.