IT'S LUNCH PERIOD on Wednesday. You walk through the crowded halls and see the door to Room 206 ajar, yet there is hardly any noise coming from inside. You poke your head in to see what’s going on.

Inside you find students preoccupied with fantasy battles, card games, tennis matches, samurai duels, and just about anything else, all of it written and illustrated in several small books that you read from right to left.

What else can it be? It’s Manga Club.

But one person in particular catches your eye. He’s wearing a red shirt saying “Certified Manga Lord,” with red hair to match.

Meet Aaron Kelter, president of Manga Club and self-declared “Manga Lord.”

With more than 270 books in his collection, Kelter’s self-designation may very well be justified. But manga — the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons — is just the tip of the iceberg as far as his interests go.

In the beginning

Kelter’s first true passion was video games, ever since he first picked up a Super Nintendo controller at age 3. His taste in video games is very broad. Kelter will play just about anything, but he will always have a slight preference for Nintendo games, his first introduction to the world of gaming.

He mainly enjoys playing older games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo.

“I get this really good feeling,” says Kelter, “because playing them now brings back memories of my childhood.”

Even though he is grounded in older video games, Kelter has kept up with their ever-changing world.

His collection of consoles includes a Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advanced SP, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and a Wii.

Obviously, his collection of games is also enormous; in fact, it is even larger than his manga collection.

“I honestly think my video game collection means more to me at this point than my manga collection,” he says.

Football is another interest of Kelter’s, and he was introduced to it when he was 7 or 8 years old.

“My dad got me into it really,” Kelter says. “He used to watch it every time we played board games. Eventually I started watching the game more and more.”

Both manga and football have found a way into his life through “Eyeshield 21,” a manga about a misfit who uses skills developed by running from bullies to become a running back for his football team.

Although Kelter doesn’t play football — because Uni doesn’t have a football program — he says he “would if he could.” He does, however, play Madden NFL football video games.

Developing the passion

If Kelter's interest in football was spurred by his father, his passion for manga is purely the result of his own curiosity.

Like most kids, he enjoyed Saturday morning cartoons, particularly anime shows like “Yu-Gi-Oh!” and “Pokémon.” After he arrived at Uni, Kelter discovered that anime had a written counterpart in manga. He started buying the translated Japanese comics as early as subbie year, and now, anime has taken a backseat to manga in Kelter’s life.

So what's the attraction?

“With manga, you can read it at whatever pace you want, but with anime you just have to watch it,” he says. “I’ll remember bits and pieces of manga partially because I reread them over and over again, and partially because if I need to look something up I don’t have to throw a DVD in the machine and watch the entire episode; I can just start flipping through the book and see what I like. There also isn’t the problem of bad voice actors in manga. There’s only bad writing, which isn’t that much of a problem.”

Kelter prefers Japanese manga over American comics because American comics are, in his opinion, lacking in quality. Japanese manga has to be a big hit in order to be imported to America, while just about anybody can publish an American comic. Following true to his Japanese preference, Kelter studied Japanese at Uni for four years, from his subfreshman through junior years.

Though Manga Club wasn’t officially started until Kelter’s sophomore year, the idea of lending manga to people started during his subbie year. At first, he only lent out books to a few people and kept a list of who had what.

Eventually, as word got out about his collection, the list got harder and harder to maintain, so he decided that he had to make the borrowing process more organized and formed Manga Club. Meeting on Wednesdays, the group — which usually consists of five to seven people every week — has earned a reputation as the “quietest club in school.”

Every Wednesday when the club meets, Kelter will wear the red T-shirt saying “Certified Manga Lord.”

“I guess you could say I become a different person on Wednesdays, when I’m the Manga Lord,” he says, “because once I’m in Manga Club I loosen up. When most people see me walking around school they think I’m really mad and all that. But once I get into a comfort zone, I’m really relaxed. Other than that, I felt like it was silly and I wanted some way to distinguish myself as the leader of the club.”

A two-way relationship

Kelter has made his presence felt in the Uni community in other ways as well. During second and fifth hours, his free periods, you can find him working in the Uni High library, shelving books and running other errands.

He isn’t just working there for pocket change, though; Kelter genuinely loves what he does in the library. Being paid wasn’t even his idea. He volunteered there for a while before he was finally asked if he wanted to be on the payroll.

Runelle Shriver, library technical specialist, holds Kelter in high esteem.

“He’s always willing to help people,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s big things or small errands, he will always help. It’s sad to see him go. But at least a university will be getting a fine young man.”

Uni librarian and Manga Club sponsor Frances Harris describes Kelter as “great, passionate, exacting, and having high standards” — and don't forget “quirky and wacky.”

“He appreciates the small stuff that a lot of people don’t notice,” Harris says. “He takes ordinary things and does unusual things with them. For example, he takes the backings from the stickers you label books with and curls them into spirals. He calls them unicorns.”

The Uni community has also impacted Kelter as much as he has impacted Uni.

Kelter was born in Neenah, Wis. His family was constantly moving and, as a result, he was frequently changing schools. In fact, Kelter attended different schools every year from second grade onward before coming here. Consequently he had not really gotten to know anyone for a long time.

Uni has changed that.

“Since the school is really tiny, you’re always seeing people,” says Kelter, “so you get to know everyone a lot. It’s cool because I really feel included.”

However, there is life after high school. Kelter plans on attending Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, the area where his family will eventually be moving to. While he is still undecided on an undergraduate major, he intends to earn a master's degree in library science — a fitting plan for Uni's own Manga Lord.