Andrew Harris
Andrew Franklin Harris (Born October 25, 1996) was the President of Minna no Anime from 2017-2018, who had a significant influence on club culture and structural philosophy. He has received praise for his strong commitment to club organization, solidarity, socialization of incoming members, and contribution to connoisseur show selection yet has received criticism for his vocal opinions and over analysis.
Andrew Harris was born in San Diego California; entered Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a Political Science Major; and joined Minna no Anime as a first year in the Fall of 2015-2016. Originally a part-time member by Spring of 2016 Harris was a biweekly regular and active participant in conversation. In Winter of 2017 during a snap election Harris was elected as Vice President under Brian Kroger. Harris won a landslide election in Spring of 2016-2017 becoming the leader of the post-schism new officership. His Presidency was characterized by a focus on decisions through consensus and creating a collaborative and positive internal organization and inclusive attendance. He lead the year marked by successful implementation a collaborative leadership structure, continued traditional club advertisement campaign, recruitment of new members and future officers, the establishment of the Public Discord and other successes, however he failed to address long term challenges including the aging email distribution and website. Harris chose not to run for reelection in 2018 due to an early graduation and was succeeded by Brandon Dela Cruz. During the following years Harris continued to provide advice and best-practices to officers and club members which earned him the partially memetic moniker 'Shadow President'. Harris continued to be active in socializing prospective members and advocating for a commitment to the unwritten club goals of providing a bonding community contextualized by inclusive and diverse anime showings.
Contents
Officer Positions
| 2016-2017 | Vice-President (Winter-Spring) |
|---|---|
| 2017-2018 | President |
Early Life & Personality
Andrew Harris was born and raised in San Diego California. He grew up and attended primary school in the Tierrasanta neighborhood in the eastern suburbs (South of Mira Mesa and The 52, East of The 15, West Mission Trails Regional Park, 5 minutes North of Qualcomm Stadium where the San Diego Chargers formerly played). Harris' was heavily involved in the Boy Scouts of America - earning the rank of Eagle Scout, this would go on to define his interest in hiking, backpacking and other outdoor activity. With the addition of PC games at home, console gaming at friends houses, traditional television (particularly Avatar The Last Airbender), and an early introduction to films from his father, his childhood was fairly ordinary.
Physically Harris was easily identifiable by his short height; 5 foot, 2 inches. His round facial structure was marked by glasses, generally short brown hair and moderate length trimmed beard (other than during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic). His blood type is unconfirmed which does not rule out a synthetic origin.
According to his parents his early childhood was generally characterized by introversion which inverted in mid-adolescence. Harris is often most remembered for his outgoing, chatty, inquisitive, suppositional and sometimes grating characteristics. Harris would frequently tell stories and provide the maximum possible context for conversation often through tangential conversation. In conversation Harris would spend time rigorously defining terms, exploring concepts from different perspectives and angles, often using metaphors and similes to create visual representations; however it was often said that he would 'take a very long time to say something quite simple'.
Despite his general openness to conversation there are aspects of Harris' personal life which he does not actively bring up but has been known to discuss in private, namely his childhood/continued medical challenges, storied former romantic relationship, and personal political views.
Anime
Introduction to Anime
Harris was introduced to Japanese animation late into high school. He would frequently tell this story to describe his introduction:
"I was introduced to anime in of all places Zion National Park (most beautiful place in the world btw). We were there for a week during the summer as part of a BSA Venture Crew outing, the key characters were my friends James and Seamus (who were both into anime). As you can imagine southern Utah during the summertime is extremely hot so we would often be unable to go to bed until close to midnight when the temperature dropped to the mid 80s, during those times, wandering the South Campground they convinced me to watch Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood in english dub on James' Play Station Portable. They convinced me that it was 'a lot like Avatar the Last Airbender', I gave the show a try and of course totally loved it. After that I very slowly got into anime, when school started I watched Tokyo Ghoul based on a friends recommendation but only realized when watching the third episode of Kill la Kill that 'oh dang, anime is pretty good, I should get into it more'".
Harris only got deeper into anime during his first year of college when he began watching seasonal anime (One Punch Man) as well as being exposed to a more diverse selection of anime through Minna no Anime. Harris from early in his anime watching career watched shows with a particular attention to the objective qualities of anime such as animation, soundtrack, and direction. As time went on Harris solidified this position and was known to prefer watching 'higher quality' anime and was often labeled as part of the anime 'elitist' members of club.
Contemporary Tastes
As of Fall 2020-2021 Harris' favorite anime series include Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the Monogatari Series, the works of Masaaki Yuasa and Shinichiro Wantanabe- particularly The Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong: The Animation, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.
However Harris' particular interest was Japanese animated films which he would describe as preferring as they had "higher production values, practices and fit my preferred package of storytelling - the 2 hour film with a tight narrative as opposed to the serialized television show spanning a dozen episodes". In 2020 Harris' favorite anime films included much of the works of Studio Ghibli - particularly Porco Rosso and The Tale of Princess Kaguya, the works of the late Satoshi Kon - particularly Tokyo Godfathers
Paradigms & Theories
The Lucky Star Rule
To be an officer you need to be able to explain *why* Lucky Star should NOT be shown in club. Lucky Star of course being a stand-in for gooey slice-of-life, 'cute girls doing cute things' shows.
The correct answer is because an 'ordinary person' who has seen little to no anime coming into club and seeing a large group watching and laughing at a bunch of cartoon girls being "cute" is strange and off putting. Showing shows that appeal to a deep niche anime fandom is against the spirit of inclusiveness that club should strive for.
The Dialectical Tendency for Compensation
In club there will inevitably be some imbalance in the schedule and in the following year there is some amount of compensation to include the 'thing' that was missing from the previous year.
For example in 2016-2017 the oldest show in the schedule aired in 2011 so the following year, 2017-2018 the show Angelic Layer (2001) was included to add an 'old show' in club. Another example is following survey results the from 2019-2020 schedule the year's psychological shows were identified as less popular, in 2020-2021 there was a effort to include more mainstream shows in the schedule to compensate for the perceived unpopularity of those niche shows.
The Psycho Pass Problem
In the series Psycho-Pass arguably the most disturbing sequence occurs in the first episode. This front loading of mature content produces a difficult position for show selection since in the first few weeks of club there are the largest number of new members. This particularly explicit moment may turn-off viewers from the show (and therefore club) whereas if the moment (be it blood/gore, sexual content, etc.) occurred in week 18 (as an example) the new member is less likely to drop the show (being deep into the plot with more context) and is more likely to talk about their personal issues or content concerns with officers as opposed to leaving (and potentially reporting 'club = bad' on social media)
Quotes about Andrew
"We're all dying. Depending on what your favorite anime is, Andrew may make it faster." - Isaiah Chavez
"This is too much man [referring to the current wiki page]" - Brenan Balbido
"Andrew BAD!" - Traditional Club Proverb (originating from people who choose to perceive malice in either jokes or thought out arguments)
Quotes
- "Had a great experience. Was walking down the streets of Boston, I knew I was headed in the "right" direction but didn't really know where I was but was fine with that. I walked past a tinny Irish pub and heard live music coming from within. I checked where I was on my phone and the place had crazy high reviews (there is a sign from Guinness inside, they pour more Guinness beer per sq foot than any bar in America) so I walked into the place moderately full of mostly regulars. Over the next 2-3 hours I got a couple of local beer pints and met Terry, the old very very Irish bartender and talked with a guy next to me at the bar, Craig, about all kinds of things, life, music, politics and some pretty heavy stuff about problems he is having. The first band left and a second came in which was just this wild haired guy with an unintelligible accent who absolutely killed it with his guitar and folksy Irish tunes, (also fate ordained that his CD was $5 and I had that exact bill in my wallet). The whole thing was totally spontaneous and just really home-sy, a Billy Joel song or something. I guess it's just you don't that kind of organic experience every day. It's a good thing we have Irish people and cheap good beer."(When in Boston)
- "You were not there. You don't not get to make that joke."
