MAC hijacks Polaris!

In it's first 2 years, MAC has reached out of hundreds, even thousands of people and brought them closer. The common denominator amongst all these people has been anime. That is how we came to know each other, came to know MAC. But MAC's larger goal is not only to unite all otakus, it is also to take anime and Japanese culture to a larger audience and introduce them to our awesome world. That opportunity came soon after MAC's second Anniversary meet, and in a way, that is where this story began.

 Holding the fort together

An assortment of props

Polaris is the annual fest organised by the BMM department of Wilson College, Mumbai. One of MAC's newest members Darren was involved with the event, and right after the Anniversary meet (which was incidentally his first MAC meet), approached us with a possibility of involving MAC in the event. And we couldn't be more thrilled! For this was also our dream, to take anime and MAC to the masses.
The process, I daresay, was not the smoothest ride ever. As with events of this magnitude, we had no idea for the next few weeks whether Darren would be able to get us this opportunity. But two weeks before the event, he confirmed that MAC would most certainly be participating in Polaris!

The Making of the 2nd Anniversary Meet!

      

Mumbai Anime Club is two years old now!! Being a new member I can neither comment on its progress so far nor can I give an accurate description of the Meet itself as there are people much better suited to the job than I. But what I CAN write about is the amazing experience all of us volunteers had in our attempt to make the Meet successful. This is just my rendition of it.

My involvement started with a simple idea for the play. Nothing more than that. I never thought anyone would have taken it seriously, but the big-hearted MAC members did, and voila! soon enough a rough draft of the play was formed! And that, folks, is how it ALL began...

Being a certified jobless person, I decided to volunteer for pretty much everything. It at times felt like a bad idea (read 'several times'), but in the end I was kind of glad, considering the number of awesome people i have met and the number of incredible memories I have had - from simultaneously jamming and cooking Maggi, to eating chocolate sandwiches under the torrents of the first Mumbai rains; from devouring extra pavs for pav bhaji after an exhausting shopping day at Crawford's, to playing antaakshari with loud, hoarse voices. These past couple of months have gone by in such a blur!

maestro at work

our aspiring Maggi cooks - Cassius and Mizu

But life has a strange tendency to complicate itself. We have had a more than enough share of drama on our hands as well. These were the moments when I felt so hopeless, so lost and so defeated. Chances were slim, hopes were bleak and our excitement was overshadowed by the growing tension. But then suddenly we got news of an alternate location being available for the Meet! And that was what fueled all of our enthusiasm all over again...this time, double-fold!

It was at around this time that Ritu, Kamya and Eisha and I decided to make the art stall for the Meet. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, we decided this only when there were 5 days left for the Meet. We all tried our best, along with Rajasi being considerate enough to contribute, and we finally managed to to put something up! And well, I must admit, all 5 of us did put up a good show, especially the mind-bogglingly beautiful bookmarks made by the twins Eisha and Kamya!

pretty, ne?

soooo many!! *_*

The other segment of the Meet that urged several impromptu changes was the cake. The Cake! I am sure all of the members at the Meet must have had a slice of it. Its ingredients included, but were not restricted to, 2 kilos of chocolate, 500g of flour, 6 eggs, a bucketful of hard work, two tons of panic and stress, with one final sprinking of satisfaction and delicious relief in the end. In spite of all the last moment changes, Adrian and his colleague (whose name I still do not know...oops.) were patient enough to see it through. Special mention goes to Gauri, Brinda and Yogesh for helping out.

the final product!!

I hope you all enjoyed the performance that we, that is, Ritu, Kamya, Eisha, Padmanabhan and I put together. What you all might not have known is the fact that we almost shelved the singing because we didn't have more than 2 serious practice sessions. But then Ritu and Reetam saved us all with their awesome guitar skills and the performance was salvaged. They are the absolute heroes of the performance!

singing for the love of anime

The play, Wasabi Vibes and the Okonomiyaki were the three main contexts under which quite a number of unofficial meets happened, with our generous host being Yogi Bear. The time we spent making it all happen greatly overpowers the mistakes we did at the Meet itself. Making the play with Ghag, Bhan, Kanse, Melon, Reetam, Zohra, Mizu, Cassius, Elsie, Ankur, Nikhil, Leon, Pushkar and Rajasi has been the primary reason for all the 'majja' i have had these vacations. In spite of all that you guys have been put through, you never lost faith and I can never ever thank you guys enough - for every single moment, and for every single memory!

and kanse is too short!

our tobi darling!

definitely not a maestro -_-

And that leaves the only other event which i volunteered for, and that was palmistry. There is nothing much to say here, except that I hope I did not offend anyone, or hurt anybody's feelings. I am so sorry if I rushed any of you customers... I tried my best to give each and everyone of you as much of a detailed reading as i could in the limited amount of time.

palmist taking a photo break

The other events of the Meet, like the screening, origami, tarot and face-painting and tattoo-making, were the ones which i did not meddle myself in unfortunately (or maybe fortunately! ). Their credit goes to Yasser, Elsie, Reetam and Ritu and Kamya respectively. If it hadn't been for them, the Meet wouldn't have been as amazing as it was!!

And didn't we all just ADORE daily lives of high school boys??

Fairytail FTW!! \m/

tarot

origami glasses!

Saying that the Meet was successful is an understatement. It. Was. BEYOND EPIC! Beyond epic Okonomiyaki, courtesy of Gauri, Brinda, Yogesh and Nikhil. Beyond epic cosplays by Leon, Ankur, Reetam, Cassius, Elsie and Kanse. Beyond epic Wasabi Vibes performance by Reetam, Ankur and Cassius....EVERYTHING can be rightfully and scientifically classified under the genome of Beyondisetae epicus!! (okay i am kinda running out of adjectives now...)

and THAT, my friends, is how an okonomiyaki looks like!

watashi wa L desu

The Joker vs. Byakuya

lets put a smile on that face!

After all the hard work, it made us volunteers so very happy to see such great views on Facebook. The only regret which I hold is that that I didn't get the chance to interact with all the other members present there, new and old due to my crazy schedule. I wish I get the chance to talk to you all in the next meet when hopefully, i wouldn't be so preoccupied in running here and there!

best 30 bucks spent on a prop!

best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [2]

best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [3]

best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [4]

best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [5]

best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [6]

MAC has been so gracious to me. So warm, so friendly and so welcoming. If I start thanking each and everyone, then this blog would run for several more pages (and wouldn't everyone just lurvvee that?! ). i genuinely hope MAC progresses much much further, at a much faster rate, with more and more members joining in. With the colossal roller coaster ride that MAC has to offer, I'd like to quote Bilbo Baggins by saying, 'I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!'

and this is just the half of the total turnout!

On this note, I'd like to mention:
1. Photo courtesy, Gopish.
2. Sorry if i have forgotten anyone's name...my memory isn't very reliable.
3. For the Love of Anime FTW!!
4. and last but not the least, one...two....three....YASUUUUUUUU!!!!!

so what if I can't be seen in the group pic? yassu baba gets his own! XD

Feel Japan - level: over 9000

The Feel Japan Festival was held at Phoenix Mills, Mumbai, from 16-18 March 2012. The Mumbai Anime Club was involved with the event at a grassroots level, as participants, volunteers as well as part-organisers. However, members from other anime clubs were involved too. People came down from Kolkata, Chennai and Pune to participate in the event. This compilation post is by 3 people who participated in the event in slightly different ways:

Prateek, who is a Kolkatan currently studying in Pune. Lover of Japan and anime for over a decade now. He participated in the sketching competition (and was one of the winners), served as make up man and prop maker for the cosplayers, and went around taking pictures all through.

MAC Meetup XII - 1st Year Anniversary

Its been more than a year since Mumbai Anime Club (MAC) began functioning, and what a journey we've had! All of us got to know that there are so many Anime fans that DO exist in our city. We met up periodically, had great fun and got the privilege to attend some great events like Washoku Street Festival and Japan-India Creative Contents Forum. MAC has put a mark as "the" destination for Anime fans in India. We as the managing staff can only look back to the moments that started it all, and are filled with so much joy and pride to see how the Club has grown. ^_^

So when we decided to have our Anniversary meetup, we tried our best to make it filled with a lot of stuff to get everyone excited. Plans had been made and were under motion since last month, and we are happy to see that most of what we planned was executed nicely. And so the day of the Meet (29th May, 2010) finally arrived. We even had a projector in place (courtesy Mohita-san) for the special occasion ;)

This meetup saw the attendance of more than 45 members which included 6 first timers which was great to see. :) They made their introductions as the rest of the crowd listened and welcomed them to the group. As all of us finally settled down, we played the video that I (Abhishek) spent the entire night making X_X It was a slideshow of all MAC meets from Meet I till XI:




Members loved the video and I'm sure it gave a nostalgic experience to everyone who was part of the few initial meets. The video encompassed MAC's history, the moments we spent during our glorious year. After the video we aired a bunch of AMV's from Naruto. Later Rachi started with the Fishpond, where a random member was chosen and asked a fairly simple question. The first person we picked up was Karanveer and the question was "Name any two of Miyazaki's Movies". He couldn't answer. Still, we were lenient and asked him another very easy question (basically we wanted to give away the prize). And the 2nd question was: "Who's the Mangaka of Naruto?" I think all of us present in that room knew the answer. But when we saw that he didn't even know that everyone just threw him out xD Then we chose another member Roy, who answered the Miyazaki question correctly and got a free A4 poster :D

Rachita then announced what kind of events we had at the meetup. Inside the we had a Fortune Telling session by our very own Mohita-san, who totally dressed up for the occasional in a gypsy outfit. We also had Harini-san reading Tarot Cards and telling us about ourselves and the future (more accurate than *ahem* our fortune telling xD).

Mohita reading Akshay's fortune (which has nothing but bad luck xD)

We also had a beyblade session courtesy Jayesh Ko who got the beyblades and the Bey-Stadium too. It was fun to "Let it Rip" after so many years. Members seem pretty engrossed in playing that. We even had a Duel Masters Card game session. Me and Shashwat started off with proceedings and others joined up to watch.

Beyblade xD

There was a message board on the wall where members could write any message, sign their names or just give a hand-stamp using the paint. Along with the message board we also had some awesome sketches made by Daanish, Ajitesh and Mrinal Roy that were put up on the same wall.

The Handprints done by Members on the Message Board :)

We got food orders from McDonalds as well as from Sushi And More - a new Japanese store that has opened up recently. The Bento Boxes that were ordered looked pretty good and tasted just as well. ^__^

Niha-san came too, dressed up as the awesome Ai Enma (Jigoku Shoujo), was greatly cosplayed. The eyes in particular were kinda scary if you looked at them for too long. *_* Members were just having a chilled out session the entire time as the screening kept on happening. We aired Culture Japan - A documentary video by Danny Choo which showed the Japanese lifestyle and its Pop Culture.

Niha with her cosplay of Ai Enma and Eva Schimmer :)

Sean had brought along a CPU of the Predator series. It was a gorgeous looking CPU which he showed us inside out. If anyone is interested in buying the CPU (or the entire Predator series) at a pretty affordable price, do contact him. :)

Mrinal Roy was there drawing temporary tattoos to any member who wanted them. He made some fantastic creations, including one of the Kyuubi from Naruto :)

Nine-Tailed fox from Naruto. Drawn by Mrinal Roy

The MAC Meet this time was truly random. We didn't stick to schedules and let things flow the way they were. And it did seem to work pretty well, as everyone was somewhere or the other doing something or the other. At around 5ish we started playing Japanese Music and literally had a ballroom session. At first everyone seemed reluctant to start off but Mave-chan and Akshay started off, followed by Bhan and Leon. And soon enough a lot of people joined in and we started dancing. Girls with girls, guys with girls, guys with guys, xD. And later "Satsugai" from Detroit Metal City was also played which saw most of the guys shouting their socks off, headbanging like crazy and faking to play the guitar as they reveled in the insanity of "Satsugai". The meet thus concluded with the rest of us going off for the after party to have another epic time. :D

MAC ^__^

All in all, the MAC Anniversary meet was pretty awesome. For all of us, it marks a proud moment for us. MAC has completed one year, and it certainly has no intent of stopping anytime soon. Although things will change, and we know that they will, it will continue to exist as long as the Otakus in Mumbai wish it to be.

Long Live MAC - For the Love of Anime \m/

MAC Meetup No. VII - Cosplay Action!

MAC Meetup VII has certainly been a meetup of novelty! And what a novel time we had. Characterized by superb cosplays, an awesome dance performance by the girls, an appreciative screening, intense anime debates, an AMV Workshop and a whole lot of fun (\m/), Meetup VII has accomplished many firsts in our short little history of MAC. ^__^

The day started off with a lot of work for the staff who had to prepare the meetup hall and the technical stuffs, not to mention the girls were still practicing their dance in the morning. :P The members started coming and our cosplayers made an entry downstairs as the members cheered and screamed as they came. :P Yes indeed we had quite a few members who dared to be different… B-)

The meetup initially began with a wonderful dance performance by the girls group – Rachita, Tanya, Mohita and Aadya on the song “Lonely in Gorgeous” by Paradise Kiss. You can check out the video here:

They were simply superb and everyone loved their performance. The male cosplayers posing towards the end of the Dance performance looked really cool. And we’re definitely hoping to see some more performances like these in upcoming meetups (perhaps us boys can lend a hand too). xD

After the dance the cosplay introductions began where each cosplayer talked about themselves, as the character’s theme was played in the background. First up was Rishabh, who really dressed up pretty well and resembled Kakashi a lot. Although he was feeling suffocated with the mask and had to remove it to talk :P Members were like, “Now we know how Kakashi looks like, ha ha!”

Rishabh – Kakashi (Naruto)

Next up was Rachita aka Ai Enma. Looking kawaii dressed in a blue kimono. Her introduction went like, “Hello, I’m Hell Girl from the Anime…. Hell Girl”. The entire crowd went laughing =)) including me! XD She was trying to act cold like Ai Enma but that soooo didn’t work out.

Rachita – Ai Enma (Hell Girl)

Then it was Gaurav-san’s turn, who was looking incredible as Ryu from Street Fighter. As the arcade style music played in the background, Ryu flashed some of his trademark blows and the crowd went “Oooo”, it was quite entertaining. :)

Gaurav – Ryu (Street Fighter)

Akshay was dressed up in a straw hat as Luffy from One Piece. Everyone LOVED Luffy but were booing Akshay =P But he performed an awesome move of Luffy and looked really cool while doing so. :)

Akshay – Luffy (One Piece, from a particular movie)

Tanya-chan came dressed in a cloak, just as how Nekozawa is like. I couldn’t help overhear Pranay and a few others teasing her clothes as “Burkha” =))  Nekozawa though, was without Beelzenef (his cat) xD Tanya-chan did a nice job acting up as Nekozawa, those who’ve seen Ouran would have found it funny. =D

Then came Mohita-san dressed up as Sunako from Yamato Nadeshiko. Apparently she’s a girl who’s always bullied upon by others and acts scared, and Mohita-san really performed well to her character. =)

Tanya – Nekozawa-sempai (Ouran High School Host Club)
Mohita – Sunako (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge)

Nikhil-san’s turn was up next, dressed as Zero from Vampire Knight, or should we say, “Black Zero” xD With an Air Gun in his hand, Nikhil started talking about who Zero is, in particular his theme song sounded really cool. ^^

Nikhil – Zero (Vampire Knight)

And lastly, our cosplayer queen (or maybe princess o.O) Jane stepped up, dressed beautifully as Yuki from Vampire Knight. The detail to her cosplay was amazing, with the wig and the striped white lines on the dress, it was really nicely made. ^_^

Jane – Yuki (Vampire Knight)

The Karaoke happened later. We started with spot-on Karaoke and got people up to sing random songs from Anime. It was kinda difficult but it made for a humorous experience. Then the normal Karaoke rounds began with Nikhil giving an awesome performance on the song “Go!!” from Naruto. *__* The entire crowd starting singing along with him. :D
Rajasi then came up and sang “Aikoi” from Tsubasa although she wasn’t able to multitask with the mic and the paper she was reading from :P
Then Abhishek and Tanya sung “Sen No Yoru Koete” from the 1st Movie on Bleach, and the crowds started waving their hands as they were singing. It was really a funny scene to watch. xD

Tanya and Abhishek - Karaoke

As the Karaoke ended it was finally time for the screening. For the screening this time we aired 3 AMV’s made by Anirudha, Jane and Abhishek. People really liked the AMV’s. Then Toradora’s First Episode was aired and people really had a fun time watching that. After that an Academy Award Winning Short Anime Film called “Tsumiki No Ie” or “La Maison Petit Cubes” was aired. It was really moving and was quite emotional. ^_^

Members ^_^

As the screening finished, the food arrived and was served in a very efficient manner. This time we ordered Pizza too and people relished it. We then took a break and everyone started eating and formed groups where they exchanged conversations and socialized. After the break was over, the Debate Section and the AMV workshop began simultaneously in the main hall. Abhishek was in-charge of the workshop and he explained the interested members about Movie Maker and AMV Making. It was a half an hour session and many members left with good inputs about AMV making. :)

A Bunch of loving Otakus ^__^

The debate was on Kira vs L and it was on fire. On one side was Vishnu and Mave-chan rooting for L and on the other side was Pranay and Leon supporting Kira and others pitched in as well. The debate got really intense and both the sides put up really valid points. The conclusion for the debate was a draw, much to the discontent of both the sides. :P

As the debates ended, the usual photo-sessions began, inside the HQ and later outside. Although this meetup didn’t have the crowd like the last few times (we had 30 this time), it didn’t make much difference to the experience of a MAC Meetup. As usual, we will continue to have meetups every month. We will continue to grow and get bigger and better.

MAC \m/

Just to take you back through the entire meet (to those who didn't attend), Popo Chibi (Vinay) made a really sweet video. Have a look ^__^:

Mumbai Anime Club - The Otaku revolution in India begins from here…

MAC Meetup No. VI

Sensational! The 6th Official Mumbai Anime Club Meetup has truly been one of the most innovative and organized meetups we’ve had. O_O With over 45 people in attendance yet again, it makes me happy to see that we now have a bunch of awesome otakus who’ll always keep coming. ^__^ Yet another milestone to M.A.C’s growing popularity. \m/

The day started with the staff meeting up early, still with many things to sort out. The were a bit of things to be finalized in S.O.S and the screening had to be checked as well. Around noon though, everything was settled and the members started coming. We announced the time of the meetup at 12pm expecting members to come by at most 1pm. And thankfully so, most of the members were in the hall by that time :P Thus began the processions ^_^

I really don't know what they are doing XD XD

                                   

This meetup exhibited many firsts for M.A.C. We officially had our first cosplayer in Jane Wesker, who looked kawaiiiiii dressed up as Yuna from Final Fantasy X holding a staff. ^___^ She and Pranay also Karaoke’d the song “Again” from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and sung superbly (considering how difficult the song is O_O).

MAC's very own cosplayer, Jane :)

Rachi-san then took over and asked the new members to introduce themselves. :) This time we also asked them a question as to How they could be useful to MAC. ^_^ It’s always a good feeling to see new people coming in every meet, most of them being big fans of Naruto, Death Note and DBZ. :P

We then began the Spot-On Karaoke round, hu hu. Yes, the members were asked to sing along songs by just hearing a preview of that song. First up was the song “Life is Like a Boat” from Bleach (By Rie Fu). Many seemed reluctant but finally Rachi-san grabbed Rhea and she was made to sing. :P And sung beautifully she did ^__^. The 2nd song was “Boats and Birds” and everybody started shouting “John John” and he had to come up to sing along. When asked if he needed a partner, Karan voluntarily joined in. And when they sang, I was almost on the floor. =)) But it was really a commendable effort to come up and sing, so kudos for that :D The last song was “Lithium Flower” from Ghost in the Shell, and Nishi and Pranay got up to sing that, whilst Rachi-san and Ani too sung long :P It was a nice chorus and the members too went in with the groove of the song. Akshay-san came around that time with Mave-chan, who studies in Pune and came back to Mumbai for her holidays. It was nice meeting her ^__^

Rhea-san singing Life is Like a Boat ^_^)

Rachi-san, Ani, Nishi and Pranay singing Lithium Flower

Quickly the orders for the food were taken and it was time to start S.O.S, which literally means “Save Our Souls” but Rishabh though S.O.A sounded better xD The game and its rules were explained and people were asked to participate. After some reluctation we were able to get Pranay, Sagar, Tanya-chan ^__^ and Aadya (had to drag her >.>) to play along. All of them did a wonderful job acting out their villains. Sagar was asked dwindling questions about Vegeta like, “If Bulma’s hair is blue and yours is Yellow, how come Trunks hair is Purple?” xD Aadya-chan played Aizen and gave some good replies to Akshay :P Tanya-chan was kawaii playing Diva from Blood+ and Judges found her to be the nicest xD However, it was ze astounding Pranay Bahn who impersonated Orochimaru brilliantly and answered well to take the 1st Prize. :D

Pranay acting out as Orochimaru :D

Vishnu-san arrived late but was just in time for S.O.S. After announcing the results, he along with Rachi-san started explaining about some Rules at the Club along with the Membership details. Since M.A.C has been growing exponentially, it cannot just survive on donations from members. Hence a membership system will be effective from next month. More details on that will be made in another post. ^^

Members listened intently as Membership and other talks happened ^^

After S.O.S it was time for the screening ^__^. AMV’s made by Jane and Ani were shown, members seemed fascinated by it and the OVA Voices of a Distant Star was aired. The food arrived at the same time and people started munching on the burgers whilst watching the screening. At the end, another AMV (by my friend) was showed and thus concluded the screening. :)

We also had a bit of a surprise by a few members. Heena-san as always bought sushi for us which was delicious. We really can’t thank her enough for doing this every meet. ^^ Oh oh but also, :P some other kawaii girls too went ahead and surprised us. :D Ann, Chantel and Sanjana baked a really awesome cake for all the members at MAC. They were simply oishee *_* I myself had 3 pieces :P Arigatou Gozaimas ^__^. While we enjoyed the cakes and sushi, we all got down to do something that wasn’t done often here at MAC – discuss anime :P We spent nearly half an hour talking about different anime like Fairy Tail, Hungry Heart, Slam Dunk etc and members voiced their opinions on the same. ^__^

Cakeeeeeeeeeeee *_*

Nishigandha bought along some awesome posters of Bleach characters and others, including one of Byakuya that was just *__* All the members felt like stealing the posters =P They were awesome. Also some sketches by Sanjana and others were simply marvelous. It’s so great to see the talent we possess here at M.A.C :D

After the discussions we just chilled out at the premises of the Joglekar Bungalow, took loads and loads of photos and talked more. ^__^ After around an hour of doing the same, we finally left to our individual places (along with some to the after-party) :P

Otaku-ism \m/ - MAC Members

MAC Meetup No. VI marked new beginnings for the Club. From next meet we plan to initiate the membership process, and also introduce new events (that includes Manga Drawing, AMV Workshops etc). It just keeps getting better and better. ^__^ A big Arigatou to all those who attended and those who will be attending the next meetup. ;) M.A.C ish awesome ^o^