Next Club Meeting: September 20, 2025, at the Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Animatrix Network is an anime & manga fan club located in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We usually meet on the third Saturday of each month (except when holidays or conventions coincide). The meetings are free and open to the public. Join us for a day filled with anime.

This site provides news, reviews, commentaries, and previews of the world of anime and everything it inspires, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.

Viewing Schedule


 A N I M A T R I X   N E T W O R K
Saturday, September 20, 2025
Fountaindale Public Library
VIEWING SCHEDULE
          11:15 - 12:05   Apothecary Diaries - Season 2 eps 9-10
          12:05 - 12:55   M.S. Gundam GQuuuuuuX eps 11-12 [end]
          12:55 - 1:30     Club Meeting
          1:30 - 2:45       Lazarus eps 11-13 [end]
          2:45 - 3:35       The Super Cube eps 11-12 [end]
          3:354:00       To Be Hero X eps 8-9
          4:00 - 4:50       The Summer Hikaru Died 3-4
 
Time to Explore New Anime!
 
Fountaindale Public Library
300 W. Briarcliff Road
Bolingbrook, IL 60440 
Peggy J. Danhof Board Room
(Second Floor)
 
From 11:15 AM to 5:00 PM

All anime presented are fan-subtitled unless otherwise noted.
Don't miss these exciting anime series: Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura
* ANIME DESCRIPTIONS ARE BELOW *
11:15 - 12:05   The Apothecary Diaries - Season 2 eps. 9-10
The Apothecary Diaries
Plot Summary:  
Jinshi dreams of his childhood, recalling an old man being taken away by an angry old woman—later explained to him to be his father and grandmother, respectively. He also told that the man he believed to be his father was actually his brother. Jinshi knows that Maomao will eventually discover the truth. Meanwhile, while Maomao observes the penmanship school, she hears the teacher telling about the nation's founding myth, focusing on the Mother Royal, a foreigner who birthed the country's first emperor. The capital was built around a shrine—the Shrine of Choosing—where emperors were once selected through a test. The shrine has been abandoned since an epidemic wiped out nearly all of the previous candidates. She also learns that her adoptive father, Luomen, sometimes visited the shrine when he had free time, and became acquainted with the eunuch who maintains it, who is also the penmanship teacher. The emperor takes Jinshi and Maomao to the shrine to attempt the test once more. Following a series of colored doors according to specific instructions, they reach the final stage, only to fail again. The failure note implies the emperor doesn't descend from the Mother Royal. After the eunuch expresses belief Luomen would have uncovered the shrine's secret, Maomao asks the emperor about the previous emperors' eyesight, learning that only the previous emperor had good eyesight; and about the parentage of the previous emperor, whose elder brothers died in an epidemic. The emperor has Jinshi take the test, guided by Maomao, who takes them to the end, a balcony on an upper floor. The shrine's caretaker explains that if none of the candidates succeeded, they were allowed to try again, aided by a concubine of the right lineage. The emperor asks for an explanation, which the eunuch has Maomao give. She deduced that the shrine was built to select for red-green color blindness, a rare trait in the country but more common in the western lands where the Mother Royal was said to have hailed from, which Luomen would know, having studied medicine abroad. However, she withholds that allowing concubines with the trait is a method to ensure that the bloodline of the Mother Royal remains in power despite the prevalent patriarchal succession of rule. The emperor jokes about taking Maomao as a concubine, but is unwilling to anger Lakan, and finds Maomao's breasts as too small. The eunuch, though, warns about suddenly introducing new blood into the imperial family. Maomao continues to wonder about Jinshi, this time no longer seeing him as "just the emperor's favorite eunuch".
 
 
12:05 - 12:55   Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX 11-12 [end]
Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX
Plot Summary:  
Challia interrogates Amate on the whereabouts of the Rose of Sharon based on Shuji's description. Amate receives help from an unknown benefactor and uses it to escape the Sodon in the GQuuuuuuX, which Challia notices and orders his crew to monitor and follow her to the Rose of Sharon. She crashes near Mangaluru and is taken to a brothel to recover. Amate learns from the brothel's maids that a woman is expecting her arrival. The woman introduces herself as Lalah Sune, and she shares her visions of falling in love with a Zeon officer wearing a red uniform who freed her and seeing him die at the hands of a Federation soldier piloting a white mobile suit, whom she also loved. Amate asks Lalah to escape the brothel with her, but Lalah refuses as she continues to wait for the Zeon officer. Amate flies to the ocean to retrieve the GQuuuuuuX and finds a mobile armor and an unconscious woman resembling Lalah in its cockpit, which Amate realizes is the Rose of Sharon. Challia and the Sodon then fly in to recapture her and collect the mobile armor for Kycilia, as Challia remarks it did not come from their world.
 

12:55 - 1:30     Club Announcements
Anime Magic 2025
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle
The Conjuring: Last Rites
The Long Walk
Weapons 
Trailers
Video Games


1:30 - 2:45    Lazarus (11-13)[end]
LAZARUS
Plot Summary:  
As Chris recovers from her injuries, Doug privately converses with Axel about the possibility of Lazarus being erased as a loose end if they complete their mission. Meanwhile, Abel and Hersch attend a committee hearing at the Pentagon where their superiors criticize Lazarus's lack of progress in finding Skinner, as well as the public incidents that their missions caused. One of Abel's rivals, Schneider from INSCOM, brings in Leland as a witness to testify against Lazarus, but he instead ends up defending the group. During the hearing, Skinner releases a second video, lamenting that humanity does not appear to be interested in finding him. As the first human test subject, he will be the first to die from Hapna in ten days. Because of the video, Abel earns a ten-day extension to resume Lazarus' activities. Abel and Hersch suspect foul play from INSCOM, while Chris recalls a pill she recovered from Skinner's home and asks Doug to analyze it. Schneider suspects that Abel is covering up Axel's past and hires assassin Soryu to eliminate him. As a test, Schneider sends a U.S. Army Special Forces unit after Soryu, who kills them all.

 
2:45 - 3:35    The Super Cube 11-12 [end]
THE SUPER CUBE
Plot Summary:  
In an accident, an ordinary boy, Wang Xiaoxiu, obtains a space system called "Superpower Cube" from a high-latitude cosmic civilization and gains extraordinary powers. When the school belle, Shen Yao, Wang Xiaoxiu’s longtime crush, confesses her love to him, the delinquent Sun Jun, who also has a crush on her, is provoked. Wang Xiaoxiu resolves the crisis with his wit and extraordinary powers, but it also brings more disasters as a result. Shen Yao is taken to the world of extraordinary beings by a mysterious person, and Wang Xiaoxiu embarks on a journey to rescue her. Fighting in the bizarre universe, he finds the meaning of fairness and justice on the path to becoming a peerless powerhouse.

 
3:35 - 4:00    To Be Hero X ep. 8-9
TO BE HERO X
Plot Summary:  
Yang Cheng is an orphan working as an E-Soul actor at a children's theater under the employ of an ice-ko shop owner, Rock. He gets hired by his school crush, Xia Qing, who cannot tell it is him under his costume, to be a personal entertainer for her little brother, Pomelo. Cheng and Pomelo bond as the latter helps him prepare for a competition to be a part of E-Soul's hero anniversary presentation. However, his zero Trust Value results in him losing. Still too afraid to confess his feelings towards Qing and sad over his loss, he leaves. Pomelo finds him but gets kidnapped by two of Cheng's former co-workers. Cheng gives chase and causes the kidnapper's vehicle to crash. Though no match against the kidnappers, Cheng refuses to give up, and Pomelo places faith in him upon seeing his determination. This gives Cheng his first trust value, unlocking electric power similar to E-Soul's, allowing him to defeat the kidnappers. Afterward, Cheng brings Pomelo home to Qing when he is confronted by one of the competition's judges, Shang Chao.


4:00 4:50   The Summer Hikaru Died 3-4
THE SUMMER HIKARU DIED
Plot Summary:  
Yoshiki Tsujinaka and Hikaru Indo are two teenage boys and childhood friends living in a small town in rural Japan. Despite having opposite personalities and different hobbies, the two maintain a close friendship. However, on a winter day, Hikaru is fatally injured while hiking in the mountains alone. Before he dies, a mysterious eldritch being comes across him and consumes him, becoming him physically in the process. This "Hikaru" has all the feelings and memories of the original, yet remains a separate being, something Yoshiki realizes rather quickly. Yoshiki still wants to stay with "Hikaru"; however, his alien nature, along with other eldritch beings and hunters of said beings, may make that impossible.