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.
Monday, September 21, 2020
STAR WARS - The Musical
Sunday, September 20, 2020
New RPG in the Harry Potter Universe

Saturday, September 19, 2020
Take a Long, Long Vacation in France During WWII
In 2016 the show won Best Children's TV Program by the Paris Radio and Television Club.
Friday, September 18, 2020
Kyoto Animation Studio - One Year later
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Trailer for 'THE MANDALORIAN' Season 2
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
NETFLIX presents Dragon's Dogma
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Anime Viewing Schedule for September 19, 2020
Saturday, September 19, 2020
12:05 - 12:55 Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! 3-4
12:55 - 1:30 Club Meeting / Announcements
1:30 - 1:55 Re:ZERO - Starting Life in
1:55 - 2:45 Vinland Saga 2-3
Fountaindale Public Library
300 W. Briarcliff Road
Bolingbrook, IL 60440

Monday, September 14, 2020
Honkai Impact 3rd - The Anime
Honkai Impact 3rd is set in an alternate version of Earth, plagued by catastrophes resulting from "Honkai" (in Chinese translates as "Chaos", while in Japanese, it is said "Houkai".). Honkai is largely viewed as a malevolent force with a will of its own, able to corrupt humans into undead creatures, manifest itself in the form of various monsters, and select various individuals known as "Herrschers" to imbue with god-like powers able to trigger apocalyptic events. The Honkai is a cyclic phenomenon, returning to end civilization on Earth each time it gets too advanced - the Previous Era ended 50,000 years prior to the game's start, after the 14th Herrscher defeated humanity.
In the present day, various global factions exist to combat or take advantage of the power of Honkai. These include "Schicksal", a European-based peace keeping organization that deploys human warriors known as Valkyries to combat the Honkai; "Anti-Entropy", formerly the North American branch of Schicksal that objected to the use of human soldiers in favor of mechanized robots; and "World Serpent", a shadow organization manipulating events since the end of the Previous Era.
Prior to the story's start, three Herrscher awakenings (or
"Impacts") have occurred in the Current Era: the Herrscher of Reason who
became the leader of Anti-Entropy instead of fighting humanity, the
Herrscher of the Void who was sealed away by Schicksal under mysterious
circumstances, and the Herrscher of Lightning who was prevented from
fully awakening and sent to train her powers as a Valkyrie at
Schicksal's St.Freya school.
The game's story starts with three Valkyries-in-training (Kiana Kaslana, Mei Raiden, and Bronya Zaychik) boarding the Selene, a hostile flying battleship. The three take control of the battleship, then subdue Bronya when she is abruptly controlled malevolently. Following the successful mission, the girls take a graduation exam, during which a mysterious voice contacts Kiana and informs her of her lost parents, Siegfried Kaslana and Cecilia Schariac.
The Valkyries then dispatch to Schicksal's Oceania Branch to recover the Gem of Desire following a local Honkai Eruption that decimated the area. The trio discovers Wendy, who was implanted with the Gem of Desire, and learn that Wendy triggered the Honkai Eruption due to a hatred of Schicksal, which had crippled Wendy. Bronya is controlled again and attacks, causing Wendy to transform into a Herrscher. Although Mei and Kiana are able to subdue both girls, Anti-Entropy forces appear and Bronya kidnaps Wendy and Mei. The Valkyries subsequently track Anti-Entropy to the hijacked ME Corp with Bronya's assistance. There, Bronya destroys the biochip in her brain to free herself from Cocolia's control and enable the Valkyries to escape, but leaving Wendy behind.
Searching for a way to revive Bronya, Theresa Apocalypse creates a
virtual datascape to find data on the biochip. Kiana is transported to a
recreation of Siberia during the year 2000 in the midst of the 2nd
Honkai War. Kiana meets virtual recreations of her parents, Siegfried
and Cecilia, and while Siegfried is badly injured, Kiana and Cecilia
team up and successfully defeat a recreation of 2nd Herrscher, Sirin.
Upon Sirin's defeat, it is revealed that the events that Kiana
experienced were a hallucination created from Kiana's desires by Sirin.
Fu Hua captures Kiana and takes her to Schicksal HQ.
Four months after Sirin's attack, Mei, Theresa, and Bronya
attempt to meet with an intel dealer named Gray Serpent in Arc City who
claims to have seen the Herrscher of the Void, unaware that Otto
Apocalypse had dispatched Rita to obtain his information as well. Rita
seems to kill Gray Serpent and steals his cybernetic implants, leading
the Valkyries to capture a cyborg girl called the Ningyo. Before they
can extract the Ningyo's information, Rita intercepts the Valkyries,
steals the data, and formats the Ningyo's memory. While Einstein and
Tesla attempt to retrieve the Ningyo's lost memories, the team is
contacted by Cocolia, who convinces them to help find the Gem of Desire.
Gray Serpent, seeking payment for the Valkyrie's theft of the Ningyo,
hacks into the Selene. When Bronya follows Gray Serpent into
virtual space, he traps Bronya in a data labyrinth formed from her
memories to deter her. Bronya is able to escape, though she witnesses a
record of the 1st Herrscher, Welt Young, and Einstein battling the World
Serpent, who is sealed within the Sea of Quanta.
After clearing some honkai beasts and being separated, Seele and Bronya reunite and try to escape the labyrinth. The two girls reach the edge of the Quanta but are caught by tentacles. Bronya makes a sacrifice and cuts the tentacles binding Seele, succumbing to the tentacles herself. However, Seele dislikes her powerlessness and the Dark Seele (Velonia) finally agrees to lend her power to Seele, and they use their combined power to rescue Bronya.
Back to Kiana; after recapturing control of her body, she has
been living in exile alone in the Arc City in order not to hurt others
with the Herrscher personality. One night, she is fighting with Honkai
beasts when Sirin seeks the opportunity to torment and brainwash Kiana,
attempting to reawake the Herrscher. Fortunately, Fu Hua reaches Kiana's
mind and drive Sirin away. Kiana holds hatred towards Fu Hua at first,
but Fu Hua tells Kiana that their spirits are combined forever due to
the power of Key of Deity, and that Kiana must learn to control the
Herrscher power by herself. Under Fu Hua's training, Kiana finally
succeeds, and returns to fighting against Honkai in Arc City.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Wolfwalkers Trailer
Saturday, September 12, 2020
Genshin Impact Impressions - Overall Thoughts
Friday, September 11, 2020
Next Club Meeting is September 19, 2020
Fountaindale Public Library
There can be only one person per desk (in order to
keep that 6 foot distance from each other).
The maximum number of people allowed
SOCIAL DISTANCING RULES:
In order to help protect patrons and staff, and in adherence with the state of Illinois’ Phase 4 meeting room guidelines, we ask that you please adhere to the following requirements when visiting the library:
- Wear a face covering or mask at all times.
- Maintain social distancing of at least six feet apart.
- Wash your hands and/or use hand sanitizer often.
- No food or drink inside the library (Please note, the water fountains are turned off, and Brooks Cafe is not open at this time.)
- Staff will wipe down furniture and equipment with disinfectant between groups.
- Reduced capacities and availability for meeting spaces. One person per table. There will be limited seating.
- If you feel sick or have a high temperature, please use common sense and stay at home.
Hope to see everyone there!
(Click below for maps)
Thursday, September 10, 2020
The Official DUNE Trailer
-- D U N E --
Beyond fear, destiny awaits. Watch the trailer
for the highly anticipated DUNE movie!
▶ Watch the Official Trailer
Oscar nominee Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”) directs Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ “Dune,” the big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal bestseller of the same name.
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Raised by Wolves | Full Episode | HBO Max
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Today is STAR TREK DAY!
Monday, September 7, 2020
The Inspirational Advice of GEORGE LUCAS
Sunday, September 6, 2020
Unknown 9: Awakening Official Trailer
Introduced as a next-gen adventure game during Opening Night Live in
August 2020, Unknown 9: Awakening tells the story of a young Indian girl
who is able to access hidden dimensions with a supernatural ability.
Little else is known, but developer Reflector Entertainment does get
into specifics:
Saturday, September 5, 2020
Joe Ruby, co-creator of Scooby-Doo, Dies at age 87
(March 30, 1933 - August 26, 2020)
Writer and co-creator of Scooby-Doo
The simple tales of Scooby and four teenagers hunting ghosts in their “mystery machine” van first aired on CBS in America in 1969. It soon became a huge success in the UK, too, and went on to become a global franchise worth billions of dollars.
Scooby and his gang, Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake and Freddie Jones, were dreamed up by Ruby and Ken Spears, Hanna Barbera’s head storymen, after Joseph Barbera had been approached by the CBS executive programme maker Fred Silverman.
The dog was originally going to be called Too Much but, listening to music on a flight from New York to Los Angeles, Silverman misheard Frank Sinatra’s scat sequence at the end of Strangers in the Night: “As we’re going in for the landing, Frank Sinatra comes on and I hear him say ‘Scooby dooby doo’.”
At first the CBS thought the artwork for the Great Dane was “too frightening” for an intended audience of children, but Hanna-Barbera’s art director Iwao Takamoto saved the day by making Scooby comically big and clumsy, with a hump back, bowed legs and big chin.
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The eponymous Great Dane |
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? was an instant hit on CBS, and the early programmes created a formula for several revivals as well as film adaptations, numerous spin-off series and lines of merchandise. Scooby-Doo routinely features in polls of the best cartoon characters of all time.
The series also spawned suggestions of inner meanings. The way that Shaggy was always giggling in the back of the Mystery Machine, and was constantly suffering from “the munchies”, fuelled rumours that the character was a hippy “pothead”, while there were claims that “Scooby Snacks” were not really dog biscuits, but cannabis brownies.
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Scooby and the gang, l-r, Velma, Shaggy, Daphne and Fred - PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy |
Joe Clemens Ruby was born on March 30 1933 in Los Angeles, where he attended Fairfax High School. During the Korean War he served in the US Navy as a sonar operator on a destroyer.
He began his career at Walt Disney Productions as an assistant animator, before moving to Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he met his writing partner Ken Spears in 1959.
As well as Scooby-Doo, the pair were credited with creating cartoon characters including Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Jabberjaw, The Barkleys, and The Houndcats.
In 1977 they founded their own production company, Ruby-Spears, which created Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mr T, Superman and Thundarr the Barbarian.
Ruby also wrote the sci-fi thriller series Planet of the Apes (1974) and the horror film Rumpelstiltskin (1995).
Joe Ruby is survived by his wife Carole, whom he married in 1957, and by two sons and two daughters.
Friday, September 4, 2020
DUNE 2020 - New Images & Details From Empire
Thursday, September 3, 2020
A Look at the Mighty Battleship SDF-1
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
IRON HARVEST - an RTS Video Game
