Next Club Meeting: September 5, 2026, 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 in today's pop culture, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.

Saturday, September 5, 2026

Gintoki is Cool (Debatable)...

Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames
When the Hyakka go after Seita, Gintoki steps in to protect him at the last moment... with interesting consequences.

Friday, September 4, 2026

"They told us we were Travelers..."

Cosmic Travelers
An animated dark sci-fi series about a crew surviving a deadly cosmic
arena, discovering "travelers" isn't just meant for humans.
Cosmic Travelers is an indie dark sci-fi animation series. The story follows three teammates: a human boy, an android girl, and a robot that looks like a cross between a red panda and a rabbit. They get pulled into a strange game set inside a local zoo. But they soon realize the zoo is actually an arena run by higher civilizations, and Earth itself is just one small section in a massive cosmic theme park.

Forced into dark, bloody, and bizarre competitions alongside alien rivals, they must fight to stay alive while uncovering the cold truth behind Earth’s civilization.
▼Our Kickstarter pre-launch page is officially live▼

Thursday, September 3, 2026

He Was Sent to Kill Chop...

He Became Something Else Instead.
Neo Tokyo 85
A quiet stranger finds Chop at a roadside noodle stall — calm, watchful, and clearly hiding something. What starts as a lie about "just passing through" turns into the most personal fight in the series: two souls who both refused to dissolve in Yomi, but who ended up as very different things. Chainsaws, sledgehammers, rockets, and a blade that cuts through everything in its path — but the real reveal isn't in the fight. It's in what comes after.
Part of the Neo Tokyo 85 anthology: a connected universe of AI-generated cyberpunk anime shorts set in a decaying 1980s Neo-Tokyo.

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Anime Viewing Schedule for September 5, 2026


 A N I M A T R I X   N E T W O R K
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Fountaindale Public Library
VIEWING SCHEDULE
          11:15 - 12:05   Smoking Behind the Supermarket
                                        With You 5-6
          12:05 - 12:55   Black Torch 5-6
          12:55 - 1:10     Club Meeting
          1:10 - 2:00       Sparks of Tomorrow 5-6
          2:00 - 2:50       Goodbye, Lara 5-6
          2:50 - 3:40       Ghost in the Shell (2026) 5-6
          3:40 4:40       Coccon: one Summer of Girlhood
"Nothing stands between me and my 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 *

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

When the girl boss thinks she knows everything...

Mary Sue Thinks the Villain Is Misunderstood
Mary Sue doesn't think anyone is truly evil. She's about to be very wrong.

Monday, August 31, 2026

Going from Weakest to the Strongest...

OVERGEARED
Shin Youngwoo (a.k.a. Grid), an unlucky man in life and a low-level player in the popular VR game “Satisfy,” finds a powerful item that earns him a rare legendary class title: “Pagma’s Successor.” He’s now a skilled blacksmith who can forge unique weapons and equip the game’s most powerful gear. Grid resolves to use his new abilities to achieve fame and fortune, but as his very existence begins to stir up trouble in Satisfy, he realizes that life as a legend may be more than he bargained for….
Coming in October

Sunday, August 30, 2026

The war between rival Chefs is now in the streets...

G E T   J I R O
Set in a post-apocalyptic, near-future Los Angeles where culinary culture reigns supreme and the world's most powerful figures are chefs, the series follows a mysterious sushi chef named Jiro, who sets out on a quest for vengeance in a society where food is both currency and a marker of class.
Get Jiro double premieres on October 3 at midnight
during Toonami on Adult Swim, next day on HBO Max.

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Next Club meeting is September 5, 2026

A N I M A T R I X   N E T W O R K
Oh yeah! We're the Greatest! Oh yeah!...

M O N T H L Y   M E E T I N G
 
Fountaindale Public Library
300 W. Briarcliff Road
Bolingbrook, IL  60440
Peggy J. Danhof Board Room
 (2nd Floor)
Saturday, September 5, 2026
11:15 AM - 5:00 PM
 
We will be in the BOARD ROOM on the Second Floor.
 
Hope to see everyone there!

 
A Viewing Schedule will be posted soon.
 
(Click below for maps)

Friday, August 28, 2026

Lines between Redemption & Revenge will blur...

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2
A washed up edgerunner & a killer netrunner in Night City... what could go wrong? A new standalone 10-episode story from the world of Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 arrives October 20th, only on Netflix.

Thursday, August 27, 2026

This has been a sad week indeed...

RIP Optimus Prime, Dolly Parton and Tim Curry
What an awful week. We've lost Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and now Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, all within days of each other. They say that celebrity deaths often come in threes, but these three were all legends.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

"No matter what, I'll always remember you..."

False Memory
While hunting for rare Pyrolite fuel, Guan Chao accidentally enters the Memory Bureau and joins forces with Fangtang and Bai Zhong to fight mysterious BUG creatures corrupting different memory realms, uncovering secrets beyond imagination.

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Ghibli Short Gets Praise From a Living Legend...

Studio Ghibli’s new A Night in the Valley of Witches gets
praise from legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki
On July 8, 2026, Studio Ghibli premiered the 14-minute short film A Night in the Valley of Witches at Ghibli Park in Japan. Set in the park’s “Valley of Witches,” the fantasy anime explores mysterious magical events that happen after dark from the perspective of a confused night-shift worker. Director Goro Miyazaki said his father’s reaction was “insane in a good way.”

Co-directed by Goro Miyazaki and Ghibli veteran Akihiko Yamashita, the short takes fans into Ghibli Park’s magical Valley of Witches, featuring locations inspired by Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Yamashita previously worked on Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Mary and the Witch’s Flower, making his involvement a special connection to Ghibli’s history.

The short also features the park’s 65-foot-tall replica of Howl’s Castle. Goro once joked about the stationary structure:
“Howl’s castle is a ‘moving castle,’ but the castle in the park stays seated the whole time.”

“It’s not good for the [visitor’s] health if it doesn’t move.”
For Goro, the project marks another step in his long journey at Studio Ghibli. His early work, including Tales From Earthsea, faced criticism from his father, but he continued refining his own creative voice. Hayao later described Earwig and the Witch as “rather interesting,” despite its mixed reception.

With Goro now involved in discussions about Ghibli’s future alongside new president Kenichi Yoda, while Hayao Miyazaki remains deeply involved in selecting projects, the short feels like a meeting of Ghibli’s past and future.

A Night in the Valley of Witches is currently screening exclusively at Ghibli Park in Aichi, Japan.