MIT Anime Club Showing #539 Friday 9 May 2008 Spring Showing #12 Note: this showing is in room 6-120 at 7:00PM 7:00 Tenjo Tenge 1-2 7:50 Pizza token sales (for the first 5 minutes) 8:05 Tengjo Tenge 3-4 8:55 Intermission 9:25 Ergo Proxy 21-23 (concludes) 10:40 Short intermission 10:45 Barefoot Gen movie (finish around 12:10) *********************************************************************** Contents: Open Officer Positions Geneon going-out-of-business DVD donation drive Membership Pizza Pizza Ordering Procedure Library Silence Programme ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring Showing #12 Our last semester series ends this week. It's always a sad time for me, but if you really love something, you have to let it go. Aside from Ergo Proxy, this week is chock full of classics. So if you've been tired of all those new shows we tend to show, be sure to come this week for a refreshing taste of yesteryear. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Officer Positions Help make the club better! For the next month or so we will be looking to fill the positions which remain after elections. The elected positions which remain are: - Vice President - Secretary To hold these positions, you must be an MIT student (undergraduate or graduate). In addition, there are a number of important appointed offices (librarian, industrial liaison(s), acquisitions, publicity, communications), along with many voluntary positions that help keep the club running, keep the showings happening, and keep the library functioning. Please send a note to anime-inquiry to register your interest in running for office, and talk to the club officers about what it's like to be an officer. We have a page describing the election procedure here: http://web.mit.edu/anime/www/elections.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Geneon going-out-of-business DVD donation drive So if you've been thinking about sponsoring a disc but haven't now's your chance, what better way to prove your love for a series than buying it for us. ^^ In late September, it was announced that Geneon, one of the largest US anime companies, is getting out of the DVD sales business. Unfortunately, there were still a lot of DVDs we wanted to buy from them! To supplement our normal acquisitions budget of money from the UA, memberships, and refreshments, we're also asking for your help in picking up good series that might be going away for good. For more information, see: http://web.mit.edu/anime/www/donations/geneon-oob-2007.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Membership Did your club membership expire in January? Renew now for continued library checkouts and other membership privileges. Or start a new membership for the term, the year, or a longer period. Ask for a form at the showing or print it in advance from our web site at: http://web.mit.edu/anime/register/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Pizza We'll be using the same token-based pizza sales system we have been using for awhile: we'll sell tokens two episodes before intermission that you can exchange for slices during intermission. This week's pizza options are: $1.50 Plain cheese $2.00 Pepperoni $2.00 Grilled Chicken (this week's feature flavor) Future weeks will feature: - Hawaiian (ham + pineapple) - Hamburger - Sausage - Grilled Chicken ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Pizza Ordering Procedure To bring you a more reliable pizza experience, we're going to be taking orders using a new procedure. Instead of taking a poll on the blackboard and then selling slices for cash, we'll sell tokens early in the evening which can be exchanged for slices during intermission. If there are extra slices, we'll sell tokens for them at intermission, but advance orders will get priority. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Library The sampler DVD+RW from last week is still available. Next week will be the last showing of the spring semester, so now would be a good time to finish watching and return any library items you still have checked out. Subject to officer availability and the wishes of the new librarian once he or she is appointed, it is likely that the library will be open over the summer. Watch this space in future announcements for schedule details as they are decided. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Silence I'm not going to say a you'll be thrown into the horrors of a nuclear holocaust if you talk; I'm just going to say don't talk. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Programme 7:00 Tenjo Tenge 1-4 This is a classic fighting anime based on the manga of the same name. Two new students at an average highschool have a plan. They intend on controlling the school through their brute force methods. Little did they know that the highschool they're intending is a school for martial arts, and they have a lot to learn before they run anything. Hijinks ensue. The original manga was known for being very graphic, but the anime has been toned down a lot. To make up for it, there are plenty of panty shots and sexual innuendo, but it's probably not above average. 9:00 Ergo Proxy 21-23 (concludes) In a dystopian future domed city where robots and immigrants do all the hard work, a mysterious humanoid monster is on the loose, and the only one who can stop it is Re-l Mayer, an inspector of the Citizen Intelligence Bureau who also happens to be the granddaughter of the city's regent. This stylish sci-fi thriller has a distinguished pedigree, produced by Manglobe (Samurai Champloo), directed by Shukou Murase (Witch Hunter Robin), and written chiefly by Dai Sato (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, among others). Between the "Cogito" virus that's infecting the city's robots, and the "Ergo" in the title, you shouldn't be surprised to see philosophical themes of self-awareness under the action; a number of characters are also named after French post-structuralists. And, speaking of affectation, Re-l has a heavy touch with her blue eyeshadow. 10:45 Barefoot Gen movie It isn't easy growing up in Japan during World War II; besides problems like food shortages, second-grader Gen is ostracized for his father's pacifist beliefs. But his life changes forever as he is walking to school on the morning of August 6th, 1945. This 1983 movie adapts a semi-autobiographical manga series of the same name by Keiji Nakazawa, which ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1973 and 1974. (The manga was one of the first to be translated and released in English, as a political statement as well as entertainment. The other notable title from the current publisher Last Gasp, currently working through a retranslated release, is the similarly-themed but more gentle Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.) It is clearly an anti-war and an anti-nuclear movie, sometimes stridently so, but it isn't specifically anti-American: the folly of the conflict is shown on the Japanese side as well. And perhaps surprisingly for such a serious topic, it sometimes reveals its Shonen Jump heritage with cartoonish faces moments of broad comedy. (The standard shonen tropes of persisting through adversity by power of will become more prominent than bare tragedy in later volumes of the manga, which were adapted into a second movie after the one we'll show, available on the same Geneon DVD release.) This movie contains some graphic depictions of the aftermath of the bombing which are not inappropriate in context, but which more sensitive viewers may still find disturbing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (This showing is made possible in part with funding from Finboard and the Undergraduate Association of MIT.) You have received this message because you are on the MIT Anime Club's email list for showing announcements. For a change in your subscription, please send mail to anime-inquiry at mit.edu.