Apparently, Aggime (or at least anime) has been here at Texas A&M since the dark ages. I was recently speaking to an old Ag who was the founder of the Aggime before Aggime. He had been part of the unofficial TAMU Anime Club way back in the early 80s. Strange, ne?

In 1992,a new graduate student with a lifelong passion for Japanese animation (or "anime") named Chuck Blend came to Texas A&M University. Desiring to share his passion, he wanted to begin a club that would attract anime fans among the 43,000 A&M students and that would open the doors for other people who might not have ever been exposed to this incredible art form. Chuck came up with the idea of showing free presentations of his anime collection to anyone who wanted to watch it.

Beginning at 7 pm on Monday nights that semester (Fall 1992), "Aggimers" could be seen filing into the big, video projection room in the Learning Resources Center on the 6th floor of A&M's Evans Library. This video projection room was unique in that images from videotapes/laserdiscs could be projected onto a large movie screen so that many could watch in the atmosphere of a movie house. In addition, much of the material presented was fan subtitled so that the "Japanese-impaired" could understand and gain an appreciation for the superb writing that is to be found in anime.

The name/title "Aggime" was chosen for this club as it is the combination of the words "anime" and, of course, the "Aggies" of Texas A&M. Thus, Aggime, Texas A&M Japanese Animation Fans, began on the principal that anyone with an interest in watching Japanese animation would get the opportunity to do so, regardless of income (no admission or club fees ever needed), student status (freshman to faculty or staff), experience or knowledge of anime (veteran anime fan since childhood to novice). In other words, if you were a living, breathing human with an interest in learning more about Japan and their culture or fiction through their incredible art form known as anime, you were welcome.

The club also was founded on the belief that there was to be no politics or hierarchical command structure whatsoever, as it was known that this usually created unneeded problems in clubs; problems that would get in the way of Aggime's function - watch and enjoy Japanese animation! Hence, the origination of the first of the great Aggime sayisms: "I don't make decisions, I just press buttons."

Aggime made a point (and still does) that everyone has a say in what they want to watch (through the filling out of request forms handed out every semester)and that if someone wanted to see a particular anime, all attempts were made to acquire it and broadcast it to anxiously awaiting fans. In other words, everyone's anime request was treated fairly and evenly. With this philosophy, it became very popular and operates on the same principles (and same day of the week - Monday) today. So, as long as there is an interest in Japanese animation, Aggime will continue to provide evenings of excitement, fascination, and fun years into the future.

By the Fall of 1997, it's became clear that Aggime could no longer follow the precedents Chuck had laid out and continue to exist. Our old viewing place, the LRD, had requested that we find an alternate showing venue for the Spring of 1998, since in their view, the noise level had gotten intolerable (well, it wasn't completely our fault; blame the idiots who decided to give the show rooms paper-thin walls).

However, there was a problem in acquiring an alternate venue. Since we were still an unofficial organization, we could not use any campus facilities. But to become an official organization, Aggime needed to find an academic sponsor, i.e. a faculty member who was willing to sponsor us. Texas A&M being what it is, it was difficult to find faculty who knew what anime is. But regardless, by the second week of the spring semester, we had our first showing in the BICH building as an official organization.

Then, at the end of the fall semester, 1998, we were informed that BICH classrooms would only be available to actual classes and bio-bio related organizations. Thus we moved to the Wehner Building, which also offered free room reservations, allowing us to keep our showings free.