Anime Vegas regulars, the pair fall on the younger end of the age spectrum, yet expound on theme songs, storylines, characters and obscure factoids with the fervent, commanding authority usually associated with Star Wars geeks.
"In anime, certain facial expressions always mean the same thing," Drew notes, riffling for sword-wielding Bleach action figures in his black Hot Topic bag. "When someone's shocked, their face goes black. When they're mad, their eyes turn into slits, and when someone's asleep, they usually have a bubble coming out of their nose, like snot."
After Shelby discusses the merits of Busou Renkin, a series in which fatalities occur on a semi-regular basis, and one character turns into a giant, thong-wearing demon, the two address adult-content warnings with frank seriousness.
"Japan is way strict about bad words," offers Drew before explaining the "brotherly love" between two Ouran Host Club characters. "Yaoi is between male characters, and do you know what hentai is? Um, you don't want to write about that."
Deep into Jigoku Futakomori (the heartwarming tale of a girl and her murderous dolls) older teens gravitate toward glowing laptops, frequent the lobby for DS (a handheld competitive-gaming device) sessions and shout out quips, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style. Drew and Shelby visit the library's manga section and hop on library computers to check out trailers for the live-action version of the popular Death Note series. Seems even with a half-hour "kyuukei" (break), it takes more than pocky sticks to outlast five hours in a plastic auditorium chair.