Library War…confuses me. It’s a series that can’t decide whether it wants to be a military/soldier story, a romantic drama, or a slice of life tale.
Library War takes place in the near future where the Japanese government has enacted a “Media Improvement Act”. This is supposedly to monitor books for content that’s not appropriate for the youth of Japan. Shortly after this happens libraries create their own resistance forces, which are signed into law by the same government, making each library essentially its own sovereign state with a military task force. If this sounds compelling and dystopian in any way, it’s not.
The “Media Improvement Act” and its forces don’t seem terribly concerned with subversive novels, as one would presuppose from every single dystopian story written in the history of man. No, as we see in the very first episode they seem most concerned with swaggering into bookstores, (BOOKSTORES. Commercial bookstores that are somehow still allowed to openly exist while the government has an agressive censor division with its own standing military force.) declaring the store under their control, and then bullying little kids out of manga and children’s books. What’s even more mind boggling is how the Library Task Force is so diehard about jumping in and stopping this from happening, and does so with some harsh language and nary a weapon in sight for such an escalated conflict. This is important to note; we are told in the recap at the beginning of every episode how the conflict has escalated to open violence and warfare between both sides, yet not only do they seem content to fight like bullies and schoolyard heroes over children’s books, but when it actually comes down to a firefight no one is ever shot. NEVER. Every shot you see always grazes a badguy and makes him stop shooting or wounds him non-fatally in the shoulder, and the injured combatants in full scale conflicts are all okay. Yes, it’s the A-Team all over again.
When not engaging in armed, bloodless conflict over the kid’s section of Barnes & Noble, the Library Task Force soldiers are busy worrying about their love lives. Who they like, making love confessions to comrades, and disguising their emotions from fellow soldiers. Our heroine, Iku Kasahara, clashes with her superior officer who clearly has a disguised, supressed love for her, and goofily erupts when an uptight commrade confesses his love to her. These scenes are expressed in high school drama worthy moments of heavy silence and wacky, SD gag cuts. None of them are ever interrupted by the outright war going on in the country; no, the libraries look exactly like your typical high school campus when the time for relationship drama rolls around.
In addition, there are occasional slice of life elements. In the second episode we find out that Library Task Force soldiers must be good librarians as well as soldiers. About half of the episode is devoted to Kasahara failing miserably at this, persevering, and proving herself a good librarian after all.
Even though Production I.G. is the big name attached to Library War, I get the feeling they’re only working the animation on this. It feels like someone wanted an action series but committed none of the gravitas or weight to making it serious, particularly when Production I.G. is so completely associated with works such as Stand Alone Complex that nailed that feeling. They also apparently wanted a high school relationship drama and some lighthearted, wacky slice of life segments and proceeded to shoehorn these elements into a premise and setting that are completely inappropriate. This may be due to the fact it’s based on a light novel series by an author whose only work is this very series, and a director whose previous work was Prince of Tennis and Sisters of Wellber, two very mediocre shows.
All in all, I really don’t understand how this series got made as it’s a jumbled mess of a show that doesn’t really know what it wants to be. I won’t be following Library War any further and I warn you away from it.
Why decide to become one genre alone when you can have a mix of different worlds? Why not look at the show at a broader perspective and see how the quirky mix of action, slice-of-life, and romance blend well? You won’t enjoy this show if you expect it to adhere to your expectations.
Toshokan Sensou might be a little short on the action-packed excitement and the fool-proof plot (if there’s such a thing), but this show certainly provides entertainment and some heartfelt romance comedy and drama. Looking at the plotholes, loopholes, and all those negative aspects of the show will always lead to ruining one’s enjoyment… and that’s a pity I’d say =/
Thanks for the comment! And thanks for pointing out that I need to clarify. Library War’s problem isn’t that it attempts multiple genres, it’s that it doesn’t mix them very well. There is a complete shift in tone between the two halves of the series, action/drama and romance/slice of life/comedy. The action is clearly meant to be serious and dramatic, as we are reminded constantly throughout the show of the open conflict between the two military forces and by the superior officers. Yet there is no real danger, as I’ve discussed above. The romance side of the series is clearly meant to be comedic as plot and dialog points are illustrated by SD animations and gag jokes. However this invalidates the premise of the show, as during these scenes elements such as their military training and the history of the conflict are dealt with in a flippant comedic manner.
To give some further examples, it’s best illustrated to me in the difference between series such as Soul Eater and Naruto. Soul Eater has a lot of action in it, yet maintains a consistent tone of comedy and hijinks; the action itself is comedic as is the rest of the show. On the other hand, Naruto constantly changes tone between action and comedy, as the action elements are serious and dramatic while other scenes are full of playful comedic interaction between the characters. This lack of a consistent tone weakens a show overall.
I did read your reviews of Library War and I see that you’ve read the manga beforehand. Maybe the mix of these different elements was handled better in the manga? In the anime itself these elements are jarring and antagonistic, lessening the quality of the show.
hmmm… perhaps you’re taking Toshokan Sensou too seriously for its own good? XD
I see where you’re getting at when you mentioned about not feeling the supposedly conflict in the show, though I do think episodes 3 and 4 provides us with that. Nonetheless I’d say this show requires the audience to have a book-loving mindset (or know the value of these books and stuff) to be able to empathize with the characters, and sort of envision the conflict as reminiscent of the censorship issues we’ve faced before (especially during the WWII era) as well as the present. The anime doesn’t provide enough background for the conflict, because it somehow assumes that we already know it.
The anime actually made things more comedic, with the presence of the SD stuff which I can never envision as I read the novel and the manga. That, and the fact that the anime sacrificed some details due to time constraints worked to its detriment, I guess… though I do believe that people who enjoy the show got past that point of seriousness and just enjoyed the show despite all that :)