Next Club Meeting:November 21, 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.
When 18-year-old art student Natsumi moves in with her carefree older cousin Hiroto Ikuta, together they find that slowing down is sometimes the best way to move forward in life.
Amazon has released the first official image of Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, ahead of the release of its Tomb Raider TV series. In a recent interview, Turner said that she's been playing the video games and reading the comics in preparation for the role. Oh, and training eight hours a day, five days a week, since February 2025.
At The Game Awards 2025, Crystal Dynamics and Amazon announcedtwo newTomb Raider games: Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a 2026 reimagining of the 1996 original, and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a new 2027 adventure set in Northern India, with both featuring Alix Wilton Regan as Lara Croft. Legacy of Atlantis celebrates the series' 30th anniversary with updated visuals and gameplay, while Catalyst offers the franchise's most expansive entry yet, exploring themes of trust and power.
This is the teaser trailer for The Boys Season 5. It’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people.
One man’s conversion ignites a civilization’s rebirth. A bard and a princess defy gods and destiny - igniting a legend from the ashes of Atlantis. The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is a 7-part epic cinematic series premiering exclusively on DailyWire+ January 22, 2026. The legend begins.
All Access members watch Episodes 1 & 2 first, December 25th, 2025
Season 2 consists of eight episodes and will feature John Cena reprising his role as the DC Comics antihero he previously portrayed in The Suicide Squad and Season 1 of Peacemaker. The new season follows Christopher 'Chris' Smith, aka Peacemaker, the vigilante super hero, as he struggles to reconcile his past with his newfound sense of purpose while continuing to kick righteous evil-doer butt in his misguided quest for peace at any cost.
Beginning five years before the events of Rogue One (2016) and A New Hope (1977), the series employs an ensemble cast of characters to show how a Rebel Alliance is forming in opposition to the Galactic Empire. One of these characters is Cassian Andor, a thief who becomes a revolutionary and eventually joins the Rebellion.
ANDOR: The Final Season streams April 22, only on Disney+
THE GORGE Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy star in The Gorge Premiering February 14 on Apple TV+
Two highly-trained operatives (Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy) are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late. An Apple Original Film, “The Gorge” is directed by Scott Derrikson and written by Zach Dean. Hailing from Skydance Media, “The Gorge” is produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger for Skydance, alongside Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill and Sherryl Clark through Crooked Highway as well as Adam Kolbrenner, Zach Dean and Gregory Goodman. Miles Teller executive produces.
As her 16th birthday approaches, a not-so-average teen rediscovers the fiery powers she's long suppressed and is forced to face her demons — literally.
Covering Netflix One Piece Season 2 Trailer and Easter Eggs. One Piece Season 2 will adapt the Alabasta Saga. Baroque Works, Crocodile, Nico Robin, Vivi and a bunch of other new characters beginning with Captain Smoker and Loguetown. The season will start with Loguetown and end with Drum Island. And One Piece Season 3 will start with the Alabasta Arc pushing into Sky Islands. ONE PIECE is a legendary high-seas quest unlike any other. Luffy is a young adventurer who has longed for a life of freedom ever since he can remember. He sets off from his small village on a perilous journey to find the legendary fabled treasure, ONE PIECE, to become King of the Pirates. Major Characters in One Piece Season 1, Nami, Zoro, Usopp, Buggy The Clown, Red Shanks, Gol D. Roger and the One Piece Treasure. The Going Merry Ship and becoming the Straw Hat Pirates by the end of the season. Luffy and Red Shanks, the Devil Fruit Gum Gum Powers, the next Pirate King. Other major villains. The World Government, The Marines, The Four Emperors and the Seven Warlords.
SKELETON CREW On December 3, a new Star Wars adventure awaits.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is an upcoming American science fiction television series created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, taking place in the same time frame as the series The Mandalorian and its interconnected spin-offs after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). Skeleton Crew tells a coming-of-age story about four children who make a discovery on their home planet, get lost in the galaxy, and go on an adventure to get back home.
Jude Law stars in the series with Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, and Nick Frost. Watts approached Lucasfilm about telling an Amblin Entertainment-style coming-of-age story set in the Star Wars universe, and he was developing the series with Ford by early 2022. It was officially announced that May at Star Wars Celebration,
with Law revealed to be starring. Filming began by September 2022 in
Los Angeles, and wrapped by late January 2023. The child actors in the
series were revealed in April 2023. Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni returned from The Mandalorian as additional executive producers.
Skeleton Crew is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on December 3, 2024, and will consist of eight episodes.
The MCU just introduced the Marvel villain who will absolutely help Daredevil: Born Again earn its TV-MA rating. Continuing after the events of the original Netflix series as well as Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Kingpin's subsequent MCU appearances, Born Again is set to bring Matt Murdock's story back to the forefront, operating as a lawyer by day and a New York vigilante by night. However, the show has also been confirmed to include none other than the incredibly dangerous Daredevil villain from the comics known as Muse. Daredevil: Born Again is expected to largely be focused on the mayoral campaign of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'onofrio), one that would no doubt give him an impressive level of control of the city of New York. As such, it will be interesting to see how Daredevil responds, both as Matt Murdock and as a vigilante. However, the debut of Muse may be a threat that may temporarily unite both Murdock and Fisk, while also guaranteeing the need for Daredevil: Born Again's more mature rating than most MCU projects.
Witness the Fifth and Final Season of the Hit Series...
Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for the United States Department of Energy but also secretly experiments with the paranormal and supernatural, sometimes with human test subjects. They have inadvertently created a portal to an alternate dimension they refer to as the Upside Down, whose presence begins to affect the residents of Hawkins in unusual ways.
The first season begins in November 1983. Will Byers is abducted by a creature from the Upside Down. His mother Joyce; the town's police chief, Jim Hopper; and a group of volunteers search for him. A young psychokinetic girl named Eleven escapes from the laboratory and is found by friends of Will. Eleven befriends and assists them in their efforts to find Will.
The second season is set eleven months later, in October 1984. Will has been rescued, but he begins having premonitions of the fall of Hawkins caused by a creature in the Upside Down. When it is discovered that Will is still being possessed by an entity from the Upside Down, his friends and family learn that there is a larger threat to their world.
The third season is set nine months later, in the days leading up to the Fourth of July celebration in 1985. The new Starcourt Mall has become the center of attention for Hawkins residents, putting the majority of other local stores out of business due to the mall's popularity. Hopper becomes increasingly concerned about Eleven and Mike's relationship and becomes very protective of his daughter. Unbeknownst to the town, a secret Soviet laboratory underneath Starcourt seeks to open the gateway to the Upside Down. Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer uses mind control to make Billy do his bidding.
The fourth season is set eight months later, in March 1986. Joyce, Will, Eleven, and Jonathan have moved to Lenora, California for a fresh start. In California, Eleven struggles with the loss of her powers and being bullied in school. Meanwhile, in Hawkins, a being from the Upside Down—an entity later dubbed Vecna—begins killing the residents of Hawkins, opening new gates between the two worlds in the process. Planning to stop Vecna, Dr. Sam Owens takes Eleven to a facility to help her regain her powers. Simultaneously, Joyce and Murray fly to Russia to rescue Hopper from the Gulag in Kamchatka.
What Does This Mean for Star Trek? Rumor CONFIRMED?
Yesterday the news broke that Paramount is closing their TV Studio and laying off a large number of employees... how will this impact Star Trek? And is this confirmation of the rumored emergency Star Trek meeting?
In Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy, these six young outcasts who make up the Prodigy crew are assigned a new mission aboard the U.S.S. Voyager-A to rescue Captain Chakotay and bring peace to Gwyn’s home world. However, when their plan goes astray, it creates a time paradox that jeopardizes both their future and past.
The series portrays a fictional past, present and future wherein Earth encounters an alien civilization from a nearby system of three sun-like stars orbiting one another, in an example of the three-body problem in orbital mechanics.
During the Cultural Revolution, Ye Wenjie, an astrophysics graduate from Tsinghua University, witnesses her father get beaten to death during a struggle session by Red Guards from Tsinghua High School. Ye is officially branded a traitor and is forced to join a labor brigade in Inner Mongolia, and is later sentenced to prison. In prison, Ye is recruited by Yang Weining and Lei Zhicheng, two military physicists working under Red Coast, a secret Chinese initiative to use high-powered radio waves to damage spy satellites.
After working with them for some time, she learns that the stated purpose is a front for Red Coast's true intention: the search for extraterrestrial life. Ye discovers the possibility of amplifying outgoing radio waves by using microwave cavities within the Sun and sends an interstellar message to test her theory, but tells no one else. Eight years later, now in a loveless marriage with Yang, Ye receives a message from a concerned alien pacifist from the planet Trisolaris, warning her not to respond or else the inhabitants of Trisolaris will be able to deduce the Solar System's location and invade Earth. Disillusioned by the political chaos and having come to despise humankind, Ye responds anyway, inviting the Trisolarans to come to Earth to settle its problems. She murders Yang and Lei to keep the alien message secret.
Some time later, with the end of the Cultural Revolution and Ye's return to Tsinghua as a professor, Ye encounters Mike Evans, a hermit and the son of the CEO of the world's largest oil company. Evans is also a radical environmentalist and anti-speciesist. Seeing that Evans is direly angry at humanity as well, Ye confides in him and tells him about the events at Red Coast. Evans uses his inherited financial power to hire men and purchases the Judgement Day, a giant ship which he converts into a mobile colony and listening post. Upon receiving messages from Trisolaris, validating Ye's story, Evans announces the creation of the militant and semi-secret Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO) as a fifth column for Trisolaris and appoints Ye its leader. According to the messages, the Trisolaran invasion fleet has already departed, but will not reach Earth for 450 years.
The society attracts numerous scientists, minor government officials, and other educated people who are disappointed with world affairs. They assemble a private army and build small nuclear weapons. However, Evans retains control of most resources and starts to alter and withhold alien messages from Ye and others. Furthermore, the society splits into factions, with the Adventists, led by Evans, seeking complete destruction of humanity by the Trisolarans, and the Redemptionists, led by Shen Yufei, seeking to help the Trisolarans to find a computational solution to the three-body problem, which plagues their planet. A third, smaller faction, the Survivors, intend to help the Trisolarans in exchange for their own descendants' lives while the rest of humanity dies.
In the present day, Wang Miao, a nanotechnology professor, is asked to work with Shi Qiang, a cunning detective, to investigate the mysterious suicides of several scientists, including Ye Wenjie's daughter Yang Dong. The two of them notice that the world's governments are communicating closely with each other and have put aside their traditional rivalries to prepare for war. Over the next few days, Wang experiences strange hallucinations and meets with Ye. Wang sees people playing a sophisticated virtual reality video game called Three-Body (which is later revealed to have been created by the ETO as a recruitment tool) and begins to play himself. The game portrays a planet whose climate randomly flips between Stable and Chaotic Eras. During Chaotic Eras, the weather oscillates unpredictably between extreme cold and extreme heat, sometimes within minutes.
The inhabitants (who are portrayed as having human bodies) seek a way to predict Chaotic Eras so they can better survive. Unlike humans, they have evolved the special ability to 'dehydrate', turning themselves into a roll of canvas. They do this in order to lie dormant when the Chaotic Eras occur, saving valuable resources that otherwise would have been wasted. A second individual is required to rehydrate their body, as self-rehydration is not possible. Characters resembling historical figures, including Aristotle, Mozi, and Isaac Newton, fail to produce a model for the planet's climate, as multiple civilizations grow and are wiped out by large-scale disasters. It is Wang who ultimately happens upon the insight that explains the climate of Three-Body, and wins the acclaim of the others. The planet is part of a system with three suns, whose distances from the planet and thus their appearance and disappearance in the sky are stochastic and hard to predict. When two suns are far away and Trisolaris orbits the third, the climate enters a Stable Era. When the planet is too close to two suns, the climate is disrupted, causing a Chaotic Era. If it is close to all three suns, a planet-wide firestorm occurs. If all three suns are distant, the planet enters an ice age. Eventually, at a future time impossible to predict, Trisolaris will collide with one of the suns and be consumed. The game shows the Trisolarans building and launching colony ships to invade Earth, believing that the stable orbit will allow unprecedented prosperity and let them escape the destruction of their planet.
Wang is inducted into the ETO, and informs Shi of one of their meetings. This leads to a battle between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the society's soldiers, as well as Ye's arrest. The PLA works with the Americans, led by Colonel Stanton, to ambush Judgement Day as it passes through the Panama Canal. To prevent the crew from destroying records of their communications with the Trisolarans, the team follows Shi's suggestion to use Wang's nano-material filament in a fence, which will quickly cut the ship apart and kill everyone aboard but will not damage the computer systems beyond repair. From the Trisolaran communications, several revelations are discovered. The Trisolarans possess extremely advanced picotechnology that allows them to create 11-dimensional supercomputers called "sophons" which, when viewed in three dimensions, occupy the volume of a proton. Two of these sophons have already been laboriously manufactured and sent to Earth, where they have the power to cause hallucinations, spy on any location, transmit the information gathered to Trisolaris using quantum entanglement, and disrupt the operation of particle accelerators. The Trisolarans fear humanity will develop technology advanced enough to fight off the invasion by the time the fleet arrives, and have decided that disrupting the accelerators to give random results will paralyze Earth's technological advancement.
Once several sophons have arrived, they plan to fabricate visual miracles and other hallucinations on a massive scale to make humanity distrust its own scientists. The Trisolarans detect that humanity has made these discoveries via sophons and beam to the eyes of the PLA one final message, "You're bugs!", then cease all communications. Now in custody, Ye is allowed to visit the old Red Coast base, and reflects upon her past choices, noting that humanity from now on will never be the same. Shi Qiang finds Wang Miao and his colleagues in a depressed drinking binge, and sobers them up by driving them to his hometown village in Northeastern China. Shi reflects on how despite all the advances humanity has made with pesticides, the simple-minded locust still manages to survive and thrive. With renewed hope, Wang and Shi return to Beijing to help plan the war against the Trisolarans. Now old and weak, Ye Wenjie returns to the top of Radar Peak, once the location of the Red Coast SETI base of operations. As she watches the blood red sun set in the west, she remarks the sight as a "sunset for humanity".
