Ok, it’s not some new 3D movie thing. They are your classmates. Anime Club members are using bake sales as an opportunity to dress like Japanese animated movie characters while raising funds to attend an upcoming convention in Maryland.  Anime — action-packed cartoons, often explicitly drawn, has grown in popularity in the U.S. but is especially well-received in the country of its birth, Japan, where audiences go gaga over human-like beasties and blond, blue-eyed cartoon females. Really.

Anime friends Chelsea Assing & Anna Yamoto

“Since fourth grade I was watching a show on how to draw anime and I was hooked,” says illustration major Chelsea Assing. “I took out a pad of paper and couldn’t stop drawing.”

“I originally was very into reading manga, the comic book version of anime. So naturally I would be interested in anime as well,” says communication design major Anna Yamoto.

Those interested in  the Anime Club are encouraged to check out their Facebook page. “It’s a pretty open group from what I’ve seen so far,” said Yamoto. “FIT students can get info about us and our events from the flyers we post up around school and at our bake sales and flea markets.”

 photos: Rachel Ellner