By Laney Figueroa, staff writer
In addition to being an English teacher, Mr.Schimmel is also the sponsor of the anime club as he has a great love for watching it. Mr. Scimmel discovered anime when he was about 5 years old, and has been hooked on it ever since. Mr. Schimmel’s passion for anime stems from the fact that it’s such a diverse type of media that can connect with many different groups of people.
Mr. Schimmel believes that there are so many types of anime that anyone can find something they’ll enjoy; whether it’s action, romance, or sports. He says, “I earnestly believe that anyone can find an anime they like, no matter what their age or interests. One thing I like about a lot of anime more than a lot of Western media is that the plot and characters tend to be a lot more complex and engaging.”
Mr. Schimmel continued, “Anime is a really broad category of media. There are stereotypes about how anime is either childish cartoons just for kids, or nerdy crap for guys, but in actuality it’s such a diverse type of media that it includes those things, but so much more.”
Another appeal of anime for Mr. Schimmel is that it has a large representation of gay and gender nonconforming characters. Mr. Schimmel said, “I ran LGBTQ club at my last school and it was almost an anime club. Everyone was an anime fan! We watched and discussed a lot of anime and the representation of LGBTQ characters. As a transgender, bisexual person, I enjoy the fact that it’s pretty common to find gay relationships in anime, and gender nonconforming characters.”
Mr. Schimmel is working to grow the community at the anime club at Galileo as it is still very new. Since the club only started a few weeks ago and are still figuring things out as well as focusing on community building, but future goals for the club are to do a halloween cosplay dress up, be involved in the next food fest, and go on field trips to Japan Town and to a Fanime event at the end of the year.
