The St. Thomas Anime Society plans to make its presence known this year with a fresh and creative advertising campaign.

The anime society has been around for several years, but manages to get lost among the other clubs at St. Thomas. Junior Luis Castellanos, club vice president, said the anime club will work on improving ways to get the word out to more students this year.

“Some seniors that we just recruited right now, they didn’t even know that we had an anime club,” Castellanos said. “That was because of poor advertising choices in the past; however, this semester, with the help of my president Nicole, we already have a banner in ASC.”

Castellanos said that in addition to banners, the club is holding giveaways with products such as bookmarks that have been customized by himself and senior Nicole Mellin, who is the club president. Mellin said the club is focusing on creating a new brand this year.

“We’re really pushing … trying to get a consistent image for it too,” Mellin said. “Nice, clean graphic design, fresh logo.”

While the club’s image is changing this year, the activities are not. Members will continue to watch anime shows and discuss them during their weekly meetings. In addition, the club recently signed up with Crunchy Roll, an online streaming website specializing in anime. The subscription lets the club watch newer shows within the genre. The website also comes with free licensing, so the club can play the shows at public events.

“It (Crunchy Roll) introduces people to their current generation of anime.” Castellanos said.

Although the club is improving in many ways, Mellin said anime lovers still face the trouble of being stereotyped as “dorks and dweebs that sit in their rooms all day and just watch Netflix.”

“It’s actually been getting better,” Mellin said. “It’s not quite as closeted and weird as it used to be.”

Although stereotypes may still make their way into the society, the club members are more than happy to break them.

“This is a group of people that you will develop some good friendships with,” Castellanos said. “Just like video gaming, just like movie watching, it’s (anime) become so accessible, so open, that anyone can join in.”

Noura Elmanssy can be reached at elma7206@stthomas.edu.