“Simplicity is the easiest path to true beauty,” says Seishuu Handa, the male protagonist of the anime Barakamon. It is with this simplicity in mind, that the Chennai Anime Club came to exist back in 2018.
A message on Facebook from Suresh Kasipandy, the founder of Chennai Anime Club (CAC) in 2018, sparked a meeting between six people with a shared interest for anime and art, subsequently leading to the establishment of the club by four core members. .
‘Anime’ can be defined as a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children. A common line that is used to describe anime is that “all anime shows are cartoons, but not all cartoons are anime,” owing to the unique style of animation used for such shows and movies.
The CAC was initially a club that wanted to foster an interest for anime, meet fans and create a community for artists in Chennai. As people with more diverse interests around topics like cosplay, music, and even the game Dungeons and Dragons joined the community, separate groups were created within the club to cater to them. The group attended events like the first Animecon at Phoenix Marketcity in 2018 as well asother anime conventions and fests to spread awareness about themselves.
Today, they now have an active member base of close to 3,500 people. Welcoming people from different walks of life, the CAC was focusses on physical meet-ups, which was what was lacking in the anime community at the time.
There continue to be other anime communities, like the Chennai Anime Federation and Otaku Nadu, but what sets the CAC apart are regular offline events. Back between 2018 and 2019, they hosted events like anime quizzes, karaoke nights, movie screenings and weekend meet-ups. Although there was a dip in activity during COVID-19, the club has revived its events.
Face to face
More recently, the CAC become a platform through which artists of any kind (musical, literary, animation, drawing, etc.) can connect and share their talent, enabling community growth. Existing as a safe place where people can express themselves and meet others, the club has helped numerous artists find their craft.
Hosting events like Inkfest 52, CAC B-Side, LitPunch, and Melody Months, they have been trying to revive the consistency in their events and foster artistic talent.
The journey over the last 15 years for this group has been difficult but exciting. “We have become the ‘unofficially official’ club of Chennai”, remarks Pravey Mano, one of the club’s current administrators.
If they were to embody an anime trope, it would be that of the “power of friendship” (as seen in anime like Fairy Tail and Dragon Ball) and how it held all of them together. .
Nidhi Nallasivam, another administrator of the club, says, “In my opinion, the CAC is a cross between One Piece and Gintama, because of an incredible amount of diversity. People from all ages, all walks of life, all professions are here. On one hand people are will-driven towards their goals like characters in One Piece, and on the other hand they are also hanging out and having crack-headed humour like in Gintama.”
For more details, check out their Instagram page @chennai_anime_club.
