Hi. Welcome to the first interview and hopefully more if this becomes sucessful. My first guest is Jen Wong of Altered Reality Club... Lets all welcome her!

Q1: How are you today?

A1: Pretty good although a little busy as usual.

Q2: As any anime fan would like to know, how did you get into anime? What made you a fan?

A2: Hmmmm.....well I'm not sure exactly how I got into anime, it seems like I was watching it since I was a little kid. I guess since I had asian parents, grandparents who lived in both Hong Kong and Tokyo, I had a little more exposure to anime than most people my age; no Sailormoon or any anime for that matter on t.v. when I was a kid. I guess what really made me a fan was when I started to watch north american cartoons again. I mean when you're a little kid it doesn't really matter what kind of cartoon you watch as long as you love the hero or heroine; plot isn't exactly the most important thing when you're five or six. When I was about nine I really got into anime since I had just gotten home from a three month trip to Hong Kong where I watched anime almomst every day and was surrounded by anime parafanilia. The quality of storytelling and the depth of the characters for the most part better not to mention the animation - for some reason it seems anime series actually can have huge budgets whereas it's north american counterpart seems less inclined to do so.

Q3: What are your favorite anime series/movies?

A3: You really want the whole list? Well ok, you're sure now? Just making sure :D This isn't in any order really except how quickly I can remember the titles :) and I'm sure I've forgotten at least half a dozen :) Visions of Escaflowne, Urusei Yatsura, Tenchi Muyo, Battle Angel, El Hazard, City Hunter, Ranma 1/2, Yu Yu Hakushyo, Ah! My Goddess, Yotoden Fushigi Yuugi, Please Save My Earth, Blue Seed, Magic Knights Rayearth, Neon Genesis Evangellion, Nausicaa Card Captor Sakura, Grave of the Fireflies, Mononoke Hime, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, KiKi's Delivery Service, Ushio & Tora, Video Girl Ai, DNA^2, Record of Lodoss War, Touch, Cooking Papa (this one is here just for cute value) lots and lots more that I really can't remember off the top of my head.....

Q4: Any favorite websites?

A4: Well I have my own, but I guess that doesn't count :) I use the anime turnpike (www.anipike.com) often for more general searches, animeshrine is ok (www.animeshrine.com) but the one I liked best I think was Anime Lair but I don't usually spend a lot of time on a regular basis looking at a particular website. I usually just take a peek at various random ones to see what's there.

Q5: How did you get involved with the SFU anime club (AR)?

A5: Well to tell you the truth my friend dragged me along my first semester at SFU to the clubs tables on clubs day and I passed by and saw the pictures of anime plastered on the board behind the table and signed up there and then :)

Visit the Altered Reality Club

Q6: Why did you join?

A6: Because I love anime, I didn't start doing the other stuff the club offered (like role playing) until later. Also they offered to show anime once a week so I was sold the moment I heard that.

Q7: As a member, how do you contribute to the club? What do you do as a club? Planning any fan conventions, showings...?

A7: Well I started out just volunteering at club events but now I'm the Anime Co-chair for the club, so I get to choose what the club sees every semester, plan the schedual for showings, plan the extra anime showings as well as most of the anime events the club holds. Most recently the large event at the Downtown Harbour Centre campus I organized (with help of course) the Altered Reality's big summer showcase, Anime Fest `98. Next semester sometime we'll be holding another big anime showing probably up at the main SFU campus. As a club we mainly offer anime showings once a week or sometimes twice a week, the semesterly showcase, Babylon 5 showings twice a semester, video game nights, access to the club's anime library and role playing library, social events like karaoke nights or bowling, and anything else the executive can think of that's fun and within reason to do :D

Q8: What do you think about the anime community here in Vancouver, or Canada in general?

A8: Well I think that Vancouver is one of the best places in North America to get anime if you're not connected to the net, or don't have connections to get anime. I think it might be all that asian influence here :) Most of the anime community here in Vancouver are usually helpful and interesting to talk to at the very least. I'm not sure how good the anime community is in the rest of Canada but the few I've talked to seem nice enough.

Q9: How about in the internet?

A9: Well I don't interact much with the anime internet community. I tend to feel a little out of place since most of the people in the chats and what not tend to exclude newer quieter people, but if you manage to get your questions out you get very thourough and accurate answers, and usually interesting tid bits of other info at the same time.

Q10: What advice would you give if someone wanted to be involved in the anime community?

A10: First of all if you want to get involved find out what clubs are around, chose one and start helping out. Don't be shy because most of the time any club execs or oldie members are more than willing to talk to you. Ummm....just get to know the people who run the clubs, or event organizers, and learn what they do how they do it. If you don't want to go through that route, try finding out if you can help at your local anime store I suppose, or try asking questions and what not at online chats or message boards. People online almost always want to show off what they know so are usually more than willing to help out or answer questions :)

Q11: Any last words?

A11: Hmm....I guess the most important thing is to make sure you're having fun :) otherwise it's not really worth doing. Also....I'm always willing to go out for ice cream....especially when it's 30+ degrees outside :P

Thank you, Jen. I agree with the ice cream. ;o)