Articles
Musings direct from our members
Anime Central 2025 – Across the Board
We’re a few days from Anime Central, Chicago’s biggest anime convention fondly known as ACen. So we asked AnimeChicago teammates what they were most excited to see and attend. Plan your weekend along with us so you don’t miss out on your favorite panels, events, and industry talks! Download Guidebook to draft your schedule. What’s…
2024 Annual Report: A Year of Connection
18 years later, and AnimeChicago not only keeps the lights on – we’re strengthening our social ties daily. Tough times call for resilient communities. Our focus is uniting Chicagoans through all things Japanese pop culture but we can aim higher than that. That’s why we stepped up against social isolation, connected people with kindness, and…
What Kind of Anime Personality Are You?
If there is a greater window into the Japanese psyche than anime, I have yet to find it. Anime has always been about people and worlds. It includes vastly different kinds of people, all of them distinctly Japanese. Throughout my journey of watching anime, I’ve seen different kinds of characters emerge, and their patterns of…
Try This: The Land of the Lustrous
While going through a back catalog of shows I overlooked in 2017, I still feel like kicking myself for ever passing up on Houseki no Kuni, otherwise known as The Land of the Lustrous. The first official animated series by Studio Orange, The Land of the Lustrous is not only an impressive step towards three-dimensional computer…
Announcing – AnimeChicago Art Anthology
There’s no question that art is the cornerstone of everything we know and love about anime, it evokes emotions that otherwise are difficult for just words alone. Art sets the mood, the tone and the style. It’s evocative, memorable and, when done right, just plain gorgeous. AnimeChicago is devoted to the art of anime, of…
Announcing – Close Knit from Asian Pop-up Cinema
One of the best things about living in Chicago is access to culture from across the globe. As Chicago anime fans, this fact gives us unique opportunities to learn more about Japan and the people who create the anime we love. One avenue of this cultural exchange is film, and this spring, there’s great a…
Let’s Get Trashy!
Listen, you can’t always be on top of your game. Sometimes you just need to unwind, and while finding a high-quality beer to pair with a high-quality anime is definitely a worthy cause (and kinda the point of this article series), some days you don’t want to take it easy, and that’s fine. Some anime…
Hey You! Stream that Anime! A Guide to Legal Streaming Services
How we used to watch anime There’s never been a better time to watch anime than right now. Fans of the 70s and 80s had to “know a guy” with VHS copies and fan scripts to get their fix. Imagine if you had to glance offscreen for your subtitle. Yes, it’s that bad. DVD volumes…
AnimeChicago’s Gaming Table: A 2017 Retrospective
Happy New Year! 2017 saw the launch of Gaming Table, a sub-group of AnimeChicago (formerly known as “Asobimasho” – Japanese for “let’s play together”). This is a really unique offering from AnimeChicago because I invest a lot of my personal time and effort into learning, crafting, and running the games at each meeting. It’s a…
Announcing – Paprika Screening and Anime Party
If one of your new year’s resolutions was watch more anime with fellow fans, well here’s your chance! On Friday, January 26th, AnimeChicago is teaming up with C2E2, Revolution Brewing, and The Logan Theatre to bring you a screening of the highly-acclaimed Satoshi Kon film Paprika. This will be an anime movie screening like no…
Across the Board: New Year’s 2018 Edition
The AnimeChicago team has found their way out from under the heaps of delicious food, piles of wrapping paper, and stacks of discarded “2018” plastic glasses to look towards the new year, for both the entire anime industry and for fans right here in Chicago. (As usual, names have been removed to protect the innocent.)…
Announcing – Fright Parade: Creatures of Ukiyo-e that Lurk in Anime and Manga
AnimeChicago has always been focused on providing its members, and the community at whole, opportunities to discuss anime and Japanese pop culture on an academic level. It was the reason we’ve run two successful symposia in the past few years. Now, we’ve partnered with The Japanese Culture Center and Floating World Gallery Ltd. to bring…
Across the Board: The Murakami Exhibit Edition
Recently, members of the AnimeChicago attended the Murakami exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of an Art Circle Meetup. We’ve gathered together some of our thoughts on the exhibit. (Once again, names have been removed to protect the innocent.) 1) Overall, what was your impression of the exhibit? One board member went…
Try This: Hyouka
Hi, I’m Marvin. I work as a developer for an online media company. I was about 5 years old when I started watching anime (Ranma 1/2 is my earliest memory). Nothing gives me any authority to write about Japanese animation. Actively watching shows for all these years is not a qualifier – it just labels…
Breweries x Anime Studios
If you’ve ever been to a brewpub or a taproom, you might have noticed a sense of community that permeates the space. There is this feeling of participation in one’s neighborhood, of locality and growth, development and relationship. They’re quickly overtaking other public spaces, like event halls and lodges, as a focal point for local…
A Brief Introduction to Macross
Because Mari Ijima made a concert appearance at the Japan Festival in Arlington Heights this year, it seems like a good time to look at the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series. Although slightly less popular in Japan than other mainstays such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Macross attained a cult following in the U.S. due…