Hi. Welcome to another interview again with another fellow club member. My guest is Donald Nguyen of New Wesminiser Anime club.

Q1: What's up?

A1: Right now in the summer, I'm still struggling to find a job, even though it's the middle of the summer. I guess cause of my low age (15) and no one will really hire that early. Otherwise just relaxing (I feel like I'm slacking off!) like sleeping all day, going on the internet, go wander around the city, hang with friends, etc. I would goto PSC but unfortunately they're closed so I have no where really to spend nice free time relaxing and drawing and watching anime. I haven't got the chance to draw much, I need some new inspiration. But I've been also thinking up of a new storyline for the 2nd series of the manga, cause I've been working on the 1st series for long I decided to put it on hiatas for awhile.

Q2: How exactly did you get into Japanese anime?

A2: My first experience was Astro Boy when I was 2 but being a little kid I didn't care whether the animation was drawn with low colour stickmen or nicely coloured and detailed and everything. My real start off was Sailor Moon, when my friend told me to just watch it, and I did, I noticed that the animation was different. But that alone was not enough to get me into much until I started going to a BBS which belong to my sister's friend, who was a big anime addict. I started getting into Tenchi Muyo etc. Then I was also taken to my very first anime meet at Douglas College, where the main attraction was City Hunter, and I was let borrow some tapes of Blue Seed too. And then pretty much by that time I was fully into anime. And it grew as I joined the NWSS Anime Club, watching all sorts of shows like NukuNuku and Evangelion. And now the anime fan inside of me is levelling off, but I'm too big of a fan now.

Q3: Tell me a bit about your club; how it got started, what's it role...ect.

A3: My club actually belongs to the founding members who are now graduated from high school, Xyriz Arceo (the person who really got me into anime), Steve, Nile, and Helder. Now 6 or so years later it has pretty much evolved. We have more members joining each year now. Our yearly manga production is big. We are even making those anime meets. And then as of September 1998 I am officially the president of the NWAC. My goals for this year is to make two big manga productions, make anime more widespread throughout the school, and continue with the big anime meet in May.

Go visit NWAC

Q4: How did yourself get involved with the club? How do you contribute to the club?

A4: I got involved just by joining the club, watching anime, and drawing manga, and that's it. The club was pretty basic. Just attend the meet and get at least one of those two done. I felt there was more to accomplish, I help set up the anime meet in May, directed people through which ways, and now they decided to name me president for the next year or two.

Q5: Do you think there is something special about your club since it's based in a highschool?

A5: It's really nothing special. Hmmm how would I explain. We are a young group of people who are just trying to make anime widespread in our high school and even our small city. There might be some advantages to being a high school based anime club. There's more chance of non anime fans getting into anime who are the younger, around grade 8 or 9, high school students because they're still exploring many other interests and possibilities. But otherwise we want to function as any other anime club but incoporating it into the lifestyles of high school students.

Q6: What do you think the role of any general anime club is? What about your club?

A6: Any general anime club's role is to promote the culture of Japanese Animation, and we do the same thing too. Our club is open to the curious public. We invite them to come to our weekly anime showings. We want them to get a copy of our annual manga production. And then for our big anime meet, we want as many people as possible to come into our 1200 seat theatre and enjoy anime at it's finest. We want them to know, animation is not for kids. Japanese use animation because of it's higher quality at lower costs than live action to tell a story about anything whether for kids to teens to adults, and we want everyone to know that.

Q7: Is you club planning any new things?

A7: As we go on, maybe there will be new things to do, but for now we have the three roles. I may have a campaign to further promote Japanese Animation.

Q8: What's you favorite anime series/movies? sites?

A8: Ack hmmm toughie hehe, I'll list them in categories

Comedy - Tenchi Muyo, Golden Boy
Drama - Kimgaure Orange Road, Marmalade Boy
End of Earth type movies- Mononoke Hime, X
Fantasy - El Hazard, Magic Knights Rayearth
Sci-Fi - Macross, Gundam, Evangelion

Q9: What do you think about the anime community here in Vancouver, or in Canada in general? How about the anime internet community?

A9: It's good that some of the population knows about anime in Vancouver. There has been groups of people who are doing a good job in promoting anime. I think within a couple years anime could be very very widespread in Vancouver. The same for the city of Edmonton and Toronto. I can't say much about the rest of Canada... there hasn't been many attempts to promote anime elsewhere, but maybe some people are doing it. The internet is probably where there are more people aware about anime then anywhere else. Although half of it like it because of the hentai.

Q10: What advice would you give if someone wanted contribute in the anime community?

A10: In promoting anime, don't push it. Go one step at a time into getting other people into anime. Contributing in general... support fansubbers by getting the titles they fansub and support companies by renting/buying many of the great anime titles from there if possible. Hmmm what else to say... about it. Help support anime fansubbers and companies, help get other people to anime.

Q11: Got anything else to say. (Don't be shy)

A11: Not really ^^;;

Thanks again! ^_^