Snowflake challenge, day 13

[flo_nelja]

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

Right now I want to talk about my school's manga club. It was founded by the school librarian at the time, and I was immediately here. Since then, we had a lot of other school librarians, most of them not interested in manga club, so I was the one to make it work!

It's cool to communicate with high school kids about the new things. They really made me discover a lot of things, and even when I didn't like it in the end, I knew it existed! Actually, I was reading far less manga before the club existed, and it made me discover a lot of new things, be it by rec or by the reading club we organize.

It's also very cool to see them being part of the fandom, how creative they can be. We don't talk about fanfic that much, to be fair. They absolutely can't have my AO3, and I absolutely can't have their wattpad. But some of them make really good art, some of them moderate forums or time fansub subtitles. Every time I see people complain about minors in fandom, I'm like, no! They're actually cool! You can have your own places just for adults, but in fandom at large, they contribute more than you know!

And then the fave idea kids had, that became a tradition: Test of courage! Stay in the high school after sunset (it has to be in December, otherwise the club ends before sunset), going in the dark places, then come back to the school library and tell horror stories about it. :D

Comments

[sarajayechan]

Oh, nice! <3 I wish we'd had a manga club when I was in high school, might've made me a little less anxious about being there lol.

[flo_nelja]

Yes, it was so much rarer when we were young! Many people in fandom told me this. I'm glad I can give the kids at high school this, ha ha!

[greetingsfrommaars]

that's awesome! i love the test of courage; that sounds so fun. we had an anime club when i was in high school, but there wasn't much discussion about manga, which i think i would have enjoyed.

[flo_nelja]

Oh, what did you do? It depends on clubs and on what the kdsi wish. I saw some wlubs where they were creating a manga together, and in uni we sure did illegal projections of anime

[greetingsfrommaars]

mostly watching anime together! we had regular meetings where we would vote on what to watch and then put on a few episodes. i think they would also coordinate going to the nearest conventions together sometimes. (in college i do remember our anime club did one cooking event where we made omurice!)

[soricel]

As a teacher, this resonates with me...thanks for giving me the nudge to keep finding ways to encourage kids' interests and hobbies, especially of the geeky variety. :)

[flo_nelja]

Yeah, I'm glad! <3

[majoukoufu]

It's cool that high schools seem to more regularly have anime/manga clubs now! I was part of one in college, but there were like 3 of us in my school who were openly interested (and the separate issue of the school admin doing its best to get rid of student clubs altogether at the time) vs. that same school now having a bustling anime club. I'm glad you're helping give those kids a good experience.

[flo_nelja]

Ah damn for the school admin, clubs are so cool! You have kids that are ready to do this on their free time, it's awesome!
There are years where we are not that many too ^^ It depends!

[alchemicink]

That sounds like a ton of fun for not only the students, but you as well 😊 I would have loved a manga or anime club when I was in school. It's a nice experience to be able to do fandom things with people offline too

[flo_nelja]

It's totally tons of fun for me, yes :D
I lved the clubs i was doing! But yeah, more choice is better. In my high school, sadly, there aren't that many clubs

[malurette]

Oh, neat!
et l'épreuve de courage en plus ?

btw j'espère que votre club appréciera la sélection Mangawa cette année.

[flo_nelja]

Les élèves adorent ça, parfois ils invitent des potes qui ne lisent pas de mangas :D

Ah mais on n'a pas la même, c'est différent pour les lycéens ! Tu veux la mienne ? En plus je viens de finir le dernier, ça y est, il est revenu au club il y a un peu plus d'une semaine après un emprunt de plusieurs mois.

[malurette]

Ça c'est chouette !

Je veux bien, oui.
(Tu es en collège, pas en lycée ? ou c'est différent entre lycées professionnels et généraux ?)

[flo_nelja]

Non je suis en lycée, il y a de plus en plus de sélections différentes, je crois qu'on a pris celle de 15, pas celle de 5

En tout cas, notre sélection

Shônen
* Abura
* Instinct
* Isekai Samurai
* Kugarabachi
* Le secret de Scarecrow

Shôjo
* Au creux de nos mains
* L'éveil de Hibari
* HER
* Le journal de Hanako
* Les 7 chevaliers du royaume des marronniers

Seinen
* L'anneau de Gyges
* Doom Breaker
* Doomsday war
* Earth Expansion
* Sounds of vinyl

[malurette]

Ah oui ça fait beaucoup plus que notre petite sélection ! et je crois qu'à part le royaume des marronniers je n'en connais aucun.

[nonesensed]

The manga club sounds delightful! And yeah, kids absolutely contribute a ton to fandom (though not swapping fanfic pen names with them sounds super healthy because some things should just be Private 😅)

[flo_nelja]

Ha ha yeah. If once they have left the high school and are passed 18 they still want to know I'll tell them, probably :D
(but even the ones I'm still seeing from time to time haven't asked)

And yes, I love it! Except some nights there are very few people because they're all working, and you want to encourage this, but still, it's statistically sad :D