Hinsdale Central’s Anime Club has started signups for their yearly trip to ACen, or Anime Central.

ACen is an anime convention held in Rosemont over the weekend of April 27-29. This annual outing is mostly student organized said club sponsor Mrs. MacLeod.

“Anime Club [members] love to go every year; it’s a really big thing for them,” MacLeod said. “They even organize it on their own. Becca Cooper pretty much puts it all together.”

Becca Cooper, senior, is the president of the Anime Club. Cooper says that apart from going to ACen, Anime Club is a pretty casual organization where people can hang out with friends, watch anime, and play the popular card game “Magic: The Gathering.”

“ACen is pretty much our main event. Everyone’s really excited about it because there are so many things to do. There’s a huge shopping mall, a section for playing video games, awesome cos-playing (dressing up in usually homemade anime-inspired costumes,) lots of fan panels, dances at night, and many performances by Japanese rock bands,” Cooper said. “Even though I’m not cos-playing, I really like the costumes. My favorite part is probably the fan panels.”

The club members attending ACen plan to carpool to the convention after school on Friday, April 27 and once again on the Saturday morning. Some students even get hotel rooms at the convention center so that they have the option to go to late-night events.

Alex Dorow, senior, is one of the students that plans on staying in a hotel during the convention. “I’m going to share [the room] with a bunch of people so we can all to go the raves that go until six o’clock in the morning. I’m thinking of cos-playing as a steampunk person, which will be great,” Dorow said.

Dorow is not the only one awaiting the eventful weekend. “Just about everyone is really excited to go. No one can wait,” Cooper said.