Next Club Meeting: April 20, 2024, 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.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Next Club Meeting is Saturday, January 8, 2011

Our First Club Meeting of the New Year!
Here's what we will be showing  this weekend:

Noon - 12:50   Asobi ni Iku yo! 4-5
[Source: Wikipedia] The story revolves around Kakazu Kio, an ordinary high school freshman living in Okinawa. A girl with cat ears appears before him during a memorial service for one of his family ancestors. The girl calls herself Elis and claims she is an alien. Before long, fanatical alien worshipers and a mysterious government agency are in hot pursuit of Elis, but Kio's childhood friend Manami — who wants to follow in her father's footsteps in the CIA — captures Elis. Kio finds himself having to protect Elis from everyone. The episode starts with three members of different factions listening to a special newscast about an alien message, the first part of which has been translated to mean "coming to play". One of the members is then called to battle aboard an enemy ship. She successfully infiltrates the ship and disarms the Captain. The situation is disrupted by a UFO passing too close to both ships. When the same member comes to, the enemy captain detonates the ship. Later, during a memorial service for one of his ancestors, Kio Kakuzu finds a cat-like alien sitting at the buffet table. The alien introduces herself as Elis, and the two have a short conversation before Kio accidentally drinks beer and passes out. The next morning, Kio wakes up with a hangover and finds Elis sleeping half naked next to him in bed. Kio's startled cry wakes her up, and she heals his hangover with a handheld device. Manami Kinjō and Maki Itokazu then visit Kio, and upon seeing Elis half naked and with cat ears and a tail, they misinterpret the situation, thinking that Kio brought a girl home and forced her to cosplay all night. After discovering that Elis is an alien, they both abruptly leave without saying why. Kio goes on a walk to gather his thoughts and runs into Aoi Futaba, who asks Kio on a date. Aoi is interupted by a man in a car who she names as her Uncle. He offers her a ride home. It is later revealed that Manami is in recruiting to become part of the CIA, Aoi is a Momiji for the Immigration Bureau of Japan, and Itokazu is the leader of an organization of SF fans called "Beautiful Contact", and they are all given orders to eliminate Elis.


12:50 - 1:15  Shiki 5
[Source: Wikipedia] Seishin works on a novel called "Shiki", which describes the undead. Natsuno goes to school and meets his best friend, Mutou Tohru, along with Ritsuko. He hitches a ride with them to Mizobe, where they later meet up with a fellow classmate, Masao Murasako, who intensely dislikes Natsuno. Masao has an estranged relationship with his family. Natsuno remembers how he did not want anything to do with the villagers since he moved here, until he met Tohru. Meanwhile, Toshio still cannot find a source to the anemia-afflicted victims. His childhood friend, Mikiyasu Yasumori, brings his wife Nao, who is worsening from anemia. Toshio questions Mikiyasu if his workers or clients have been behaving strangely, and Mikiyasu tells him that his family met the Kirishiki couple a few nights ago. Seishin meets Kirishiki Sunako, who claims to be a fan of his essays. She hints at knowing his attempted suicide in the past. Nao passes away the next day from her illness. Masao arrives at Tohru's house to announce her death and discovers Natsuno staying over. He almost gets into a fight with Natsuno before Tohru breaks them up. Tohru goes outside to get a soft drink and meets Tatsumi, who is the Kirishiki's steward. He ominously tells Tohru that he will be meeting him again very soon.


1:15 - 2:00    Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari 10
Kenshi Masaki is a 15 year old boy that unwillingly traveled from his homeland on Earth to the alternate world of Geminar. In Geminar, the countries usually wage wars against each other by using the Seikijin, humanoid weapons that were originally discovered within ancient ruins. After being deceived by a mysterious organization to participate in an attempt to assassinate Lashara Aasu XXVIII, the young princess of the Streya Empire, he ends up captured after he relucts to kill her when he had the chance. After Lashara and her servants figure about his situation, they decide to give him aid. Disguised as Lashara's servant, Kenshi moves with her to the Holy Land, a virtually impregnable fortress that serves as an academy to train Seikijin pilots selected from around the world. With his kindness, tenacity, and being gifted in a wide range of skills that vary from cooking and cleaning to advanced techniques of survival and combat, Kenshi eventually becomes a celebrity in the academy, becoming the object of affection of many female students and making some of the male students envious of him. However, the same organization who deceived Kenshi is secretly working behind the shadows inside the academy, and a widescale conflict which will engulf the entire world of Geminar is about to begin.

2:00 - 2:50   Fortune Arterial 1-2
[Source: Wikipedia] Fortune Arterial's story revolves around the male protagonist Kohei Hasekura, who transfers into a prestigious public school in the style of an English six-year school encompassing junior-high and high school students. The school, named Shuchikan Academy (修智館学院 Shuchikan Gakuin?), is on an island named Tamatsu Island (珠津島 Tamatsushima?) off-shore from mainland Japan, and the only way to get there is by boat. Soon after transferring, he discovers that one of the student in the class next door to his, Erika Sendo, is in fact a type of vampire. Kohei is the protagonist of the story, and is a fifth-year student. After always transferring to other schools, he makes his way to Shuchikan Academy where he plans to stay for a while. Erika is also a fifth-year student, as well as the student council vice-president. She is a vampire. She is strong in literature classes and martial arts, and is very attractive, making her popular in her school. She has an inquisitive personality, and likes to do things directly. Once she has her mind set on something, she becomes very pushy, and will take her time making plans to make sure she gets her way. Her older brother Iori is the student council president.
 
2:50 - 3:15    The World God Only Knows 3
[Source: Wikipedia] Keima Katsuragi, a second-year high school student, is an avid bishōjo game player. He is known on the Internet as "The Capturing God (落とし神 Otoshi-gami?)" for his legendary skills to be able to "capture" any 2D girl in games. However, in his actual school life, Keima is known as otamegane (オタメガネ), a derogatory portmanteau of the two words otaku (オタク) and megane (メガネ-"glasses") and is considered nothing but an intelligent yet gloomy geek with glasses. At the start of the series, Keima receives an e-mail offering him a contract to "capture" girls. When he accepts it, thinking it is an invitation to a game, a demon from Hell named Elsie appears. She asks for his cooperation to help her in catching runaway spirits. These spirits hide themselves inside the hearts of girls', and Elsie suggests that the only method to force the spirits out is by "capturing" the girls hearts—making them fall in love with him and filling up the gaps which the runaway spirits hide in. Interested only in 2D girls, however, Keima is appalled by the idea and refuses the assignment as he has no romantic real life experiences whatsoever. Nevertheless, with the contract already agreed, Keima has no choice but to help Elsie no matter what as they will be beheaded if they fail. While the series focuses on Keima and Elsie adventures on capturing spirits, the series also makes fun and parodying common and popular cliches about dating sims, anime character stereotypes and pop culture.


3:15 - 4:15    Club Meeting and Announcements
-  Anime News
-  Cosplayers

-  Convention Coverage

-  New Anime Releases

-  And other interesting stuff...

  
4:15 - 5:05    Katanagatari 8
[Source: Wikipedia] Shichika Yasuri, the main character of the story.After living on a certain island in the country of Tamba for the past twenty years, he is sought out by Togame with a mission to find twelve unique swords. As a practitioner of the Kyotōryuu school of swordplay, he does not use a single sword when fighting, instead using his hands and legs as his primary weapons. In a sense, he is actually a physical fighter, but since he uses hand-chops, he considers it to be an art of the sword. The reason why he practices Kyotōryuu is because the Yasuri family has no talent in handling swords, which dates back to as far as the first head of the school, Kazune Yasuri. He is in love with Togame and will do anything she tells him to do; however, he sometimes considers her orders a hassle. After defeating Hakuhei Sabi and retrieving his sword, Shichika also inherits Hakuhei's title and becomes known as the strongest swordsman in Japan. His catchphrase is "but before then you'll be torn to pieces". Togame is a self-titled strategian. She arrives on the island where Shichika resides in order to seek his help with finding the final twelve swords forged by Shikizaki Kiki. Her father was Takahito Hida, the leader of the last rebellion and also one of the people Mutsue Yasuri had killed back then; this makes Shichika the son of Togame's father's killer. The reason behind her seeking help from Shichika is that he has no reason to keep the swords for himself and she believes that people who work for love can be trusted the most; that is why she tells Shichika to fall for her. She has a habit of saying "cheerio" while punching Shichika.


5:05 - 5:30    Occult Academy 7
[Source: Wikipedia] The story revolves around Maya, the daughter of the former Headmaster of a private Japanese academy dedicated to the study of the occult, and time traveling agent Fumiaki Uchida, a mysterious young man who travels back in time from 2012. In 1999, Maya returns to the Academy, both for her father's funeral and for her goal to destroy the Academy, as she hates everything occult. Occult Academy is apparently situated in Nagano, as the Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters are shown to be nearby. In episode 10 the acedemy was actually Maya's Christmas gift therefore giving her a reason of not destroying the school. Maya successfully assumes her father's place as the academy's headmistress. She later meets Fumiaki Uchida whom makes his appearance from the future. Having no luck in finding the Nostradamus Key, Bunmei meets Mikaze Nakagawa at the diner she works in. Meanwhile, people are mysteriously disappearing around the city.


5:30 - 5:55    Shinryaku! Ika Musume 3
[Source: Wikipedia] Angered by the pollution in the seas, a squid girl named Ika Musume comes from the sea and declares the invasion of Earth at a nearby yakisoba stand, but isn't taken seriously due to her small stature. When she goes to plead her case, she is mistaken for a waitress, which puts the responsibility of invading the world into perspective. When she breaks a hole in the store with her tentacles trying to hit a mosquito, the store manager, Eiko Aizawa, puts her to work in order to pay for the damages. Later, Ika meets Eiko's little brother, Takeru, who goes to great lengths to pretend to be a squidperson so he can be Ika's comrade. During a rainy day where there are few customers, Ika takes the opportunity to try and take over the stand, but is overpowered by the eldest sister, Chizuru. As punishment, Ika is forced to use her own ink to make Squid Ink Spaghetti, which becomes popular.


5:55 - 6:15    Angel Beats Omake and OVA
[Source: Wikipedia] Set between episodes 4 and 5, Yuri comes up with 'Operation High Tension Syndrome', encouraging the other members to behave as wildly as possible, so they would appear to be enjoying school without disappearing. Yuri hopes this will make Angel wonder what's happening and lead them straight to God, threatening the others with no food for a week if they fail. They attempt this by acting excited in class, snacking heavily and culminating with a huge sports meet. However, when Angel comes to inspect them, everyone is too tired, leaving only Shiina who expresses how cute her doll is. They later follow Angel down to an underground base where they assume they'll find God, but instead only find an underground greenhouse belonging to the defunct gardening club, which Angel decided to check after hearing Shiina's cute comment. Annoyed with the results, Yuri forces everyone to starve for a week.

6:15 - 8:00    Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works 
[Source: Wikipedia] The story of Fate/stay night revolves around the main protagonist Shirō Emiya, a young male high school student. When Shirō was a child, his father told him how he had failed at his life ambition to become a "Hero of Justice". Shirō affirms to his foster father that he intends to devote his life to achieving that distant ideal, much to Kiritsugu's chagrin. To do this, Shirō pleads with a begrudging Kiritsugu to teach him sorcery; but being born without the capabilities of a magus, Shirō proves to be talentless in almost all the fundamental sorcerous disciplines. When the story begins, Fuyuki City is the setting for a secret and violent war among competing magi. For the past two centuries, seven sorcerers have gathered and engage in a Battle Royale, each gambling his or her own life to obtain the Holy Grail, a legendary chalice capable of granting wishes. The past four Holy Grail Wars have typically occurred every sixty years, with the most recent concluding a decade ago, but the fifth war has started prematurely. Each of the sorcerers, better known as Masters, is aided by one of the seven summoned spiritual familiars known as Servants, who are the reincarnations of legendary souls from all across time. These resurrected souls possess superhuman characteristics and wield powerful artifacts or abilities called Noble Phantasms. Only one Servant can be summoned in each war from one of seven classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster. After cleaning his school's kyūdō dojo late one night, Shirō stumbles upon two Servants, Archer and Lancer, battling in the school courtyard. To avoid compromising the war's secrecy, Lancer hunts down and pierces Shirō's heart with his Noble Phantasm Spear. Shirō is then discovered near death by Rin Tōsaka and because of his relationship with her sister Sakura Matō, she uses an heirloom filled with concentrated magic, Mana, to restore his damaged heart and leaves before he awakens. Shaken and dazed, Shirō picks up the heirloom and returns home only to be assaulted a second time by Lancer. Shirō weakly defends himself against Lancer using posters he turns to metal with magic reinforcment, but is soon overwhelmed by the powerful Servant's attack, and is sent flying into his shed. Cornered, Shirō prepares for the worst; but before Lancer can inflict another fatal blow, a magical mark on Shirō's hand begins to light up and a summoning circle used previously by his foster father inside the shed begins to glow. A young woman clad in armor with an invisible sword is summoned and blocks Lancer's attack. After driving Lancer away from Shirō, she introduces herself as "Servant Saber".

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