Bethel Anime Club

Hey all—

Tomorrow evening at 7:00, the Anime Club returns triumphantly from Spring Break, hopefully with a spring (and not a break) in its heel. ANNOUNCEMENTS: our annual expedition to the Anime Detour anime convention was carefully documented at extremely high resolution by our diligent Vice-President, and the pictures have been placed on the web site for all to see and comment on. For all to see and comment on. Also, we will be deciding tomorrow evening whether we will be holding a special showing on Holy Saturday. I have obtained a FABULOUS PRIZE! for our next contest, which I hope to integrate into the very warp and weave of the regular Anime Club itself. I shall say no more at the moment, except that Ramune shall be involved…

Previews!

Kokoro Library will feature the event we’ve all been waiting for: while Kokoro’s away (for Librarian Training, remember?), Iina will finally have to confront and quash her bizarre obsession with her younger sister. You read that right! The creepiness will be battled head-on!

Elf Princess Rane will continue to amuse us with its second and final episode, featuring the second-coolest bath-house I’ve ever seen! This episode has the distinction of containing the funniest five frames in all of anime. You’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em, folks, because I’ll be dissolving into hysterics and probably choking to death on my own mirthful spittle.

AIR will finish its first plot arc and complete its realignment from mostly comedy to mostly drama. Misuzu’s collapse and drastic turn for the worse triggers a crisis of conscience in those close to her, and as her dreams become ever more vivid reality begins to give way under the weight of human emotions. Do those around her have the strength to remain near Misuzu?

And Gankutsuou will continue blowing your minds. As the Villefort family completes its self-destruction and Gérard tries desperately to discern the Count’s weakness, Franz will attempt to discover the meaning of “Gankutsuou” while Haydée, the mysterious alien princess, finally finds her voice. Tragically, there will be lots of that [removed by the Bethel Anime Club filter] Cavalcanti… soon you will understand exactly why I hate him so.

Don’t miss it—I’ll see you all there!

—Matthew

PS: I’ll also announce the series that will be replacing “Elf Princess Rane.”

PPS: OK, a Spring Haiku:

Snow melts
And the village floods
With children.

Pic from the Great Debate, a lot better then waiting in like forever for the cosplay competition! Yes, they are stuffing their faces with marshmallows as they try to debate.

Another pic from the Great Debate

Con Suite, full of free food!

Really creepy cross dressing man from Anime Improve

And another pic from Anime Improve

Line for WTF Japan, and this was a small line compared to the line for the cosplay competition!

WTF Japan Panel

Once again, I have no idea what characters they are from

Sara, as Sailor Pluto, our long lost Bethe Anime Club member

Cosplay from FLCL

Not sure what character she is from

Main area at the thunderbird, crowded as always

Two characters I also don’t know

Characters from Super Milk Chan

Shot from the opening ceremony

More from the opening ceremony

This is from the Horrors of Anime Panel, one of my more satisfying and disturbing experiences

The picture below was taken from the Living in Japan panel, first panel we went to

I can’t remember where this was from, I think from one of the AMV things we wen’t to, theres Matt with his Ramune

Two cosplays from Prince of Tennis (I think)

Ok, I am having a pain trying to send all these photos via email. I’ll try again later to see if I can get these all sent!

Hello to all that are going to Anime Detour this weekend!

I apologize for sending this e-mail so late (shame on me), but this is just to inform everyone who registered with the group some last minute details. Detour decided to be really nice and organized and change their rules right before registration (I’m being sarcastic). The group leader of the group must accompany everyone in the group to pick up their badges. This is what Detour says, however, I can not be entirely sure because sometimes Detour gets a little strange with their rules and enforces them only part of the time.

When you go to pick up your badge (if you registered with the group) call Leah at 763-807-9649 and tell her that you are from the Bethel Anime Club and you need to pick up your badge. I have already given her a heads up, so she knows that you will be calling.

If you have any questions, call me at my cell at 715-441-3295. I may not pick up right away on Friday, but I will call you as soon as I can. I hope you have fun, and see you there!

Sara Deick

Hey all—

Our revels now are ended.
These our actors,
(As I foretold you) were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air…

…Which is probably as good a description as we’ll ever get of the end of Macross Zero. But do not weep for the loss! “Be cheerful, sir,” for Elf Princess Rane descends upon us like… well, like a huge rock. Actually, you might want to get out of the way, or under the doorframe, or something, because the Great Comedy Earthquake approaches! Are your subtitle-reading skills up to the task?

…And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself…

…At last, Kokoro will be getting out of the library and exploring some of these ephemeral wonders. She must go to the Big City for Library training, and besides all the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that homesick flesh is heir to, she discovers that her roommate and fellow trainee is a robot! Can Kokoro pass her exam and show that humans have a place in the Age of the Comparoid?

…Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind.

At last the world truly has begun to dissolve: although Maximilien successfully escapes with Valentine, the despicable Cavalcanti gives us a new reason to hate him by breaking apart Albert and Eugénie’s engagement. As Eugénie tries to lose herself in her music, the Villefort family completes its self-destruction. To what lengths will the kainotophobic judge go to get back at the Count for destroying his world?

                           We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

At the intersection of dreams, death, and this brief moment called life, lies AIR. But the dreaming is almost over. Minagi must force her mother to wake up or face her own annihilation, but what will happen to the being called Michiru? Does she even exist? Meanwhile, Misuzu’s dreams grow more and more vivid, and her pain grows worse and worse. At the episode’s end, everything will change, and a single question will assume paramount importance: can Misuzu regain her wings?

Every week I point out that all of our shows have gotten better than the week before, and every week it’s true. I feel that I need say nothing more: please don’t miss this week (particularly since we’ll be going on Spring Break hiatus after it). Please?

—Matthew

Hey all—

No poem for the moment, just letting you know that you can download everything we’ve seen up to now (except for the all-important Gankutsuou, of course) and the identity of the replacement OVA for Macross Zero. Let’s have a drumroll and a big round of applause for… Elf Princess Rane! We’ll start this hysterical 2-episode OVA this week; after it will come Macross Plus.

—Matthew

PS: Warning! Elf Princess Rane contains: Comedic Nudity, Strong Comedic Violence, Comedic Innuendo, Comedic Drug Use, Mild Comedic Profanity, Comedic Depictions of Persons with Obvious Mental Illnesses, Comedic Irrationality, and many other forms of comedic assault on various social mores. But I promise you’ll be laughing too hard to be offended.