It was by chance that I found out about Library War (Toshokan Sensou) and I’m glad that I did ‘cos I was quite bored watching the usual shoujo clichéd animes but yet, I’m a sucker to shoujo animes for all the obvious reasons – bishounens, a little romance here and there and of course, the guy gets the girl / girl gets the guy kind of thing. Toshokan Sensou has all these but add a few action and militaristic elements, you get Library War and oh, don’t forget to throw in all the books too.
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The era was Seika 31 (fictional) and people are not allowed to read materials which have not gone through the screening process. In short, even books and various other reading materials are censored. If a shop is selling books which have fail the screening process, the books will be seized in accordance with Media Betterment Act.
In the opposing site, we have the Library Defense Force (LDF). The LDF officers are not mere librarians; they provide the military power whenever there’s a raid in libraries, bookshops that are suspected to be carrying questionable reading materials.
That aside, Kasahara Iku is a rookie LDF officer who joined LDF following the footsteps of her oujisama (literally means prince, in English), her knight in the shining armour. While still in training, she’s always at odds with her drill officer, Dojo Atsushi whom she thinks held a grudge on her. The interaction between those two never fails to amuse Komaki Mikihisa, Dojo’s colleague and fellow officer who’s also dubbed as the “smiling logician” (smiling logician?).
Other equally interesting characters include:
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Tezuka Hikaru – the mister-know-it-all who is proficient from basic librarian task to combat skills. He was skeptical at Kasahara’s ability at first but slowly warm up to her as she strives her best. He confessed to her and asked her out for a date which she rejected calmly, that is until she found the real reason behind his confession.
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Shibasaki Asako – Kasahara’s best friend and roommate. An informant in the military intelligence and naturally, she knows everything…I mean EVERYTHING.
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My thoughts:
I like the fact that it’s not a typical shoujo. Like every bit of it. Wish that I discover it sooner 😀
What I like best is the funny interactions between Kasahara and her direct superior Dojo…watching them argue for all the funny reasons never fail to make me smile.
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Other Notes:
Toshokan Sensou is actually a Japanese light novel series by Hiro Arikawa. There are two manga adaptations based on the light novel:
The former is targeted to shounen audience while the later is a shoujo manga (I think the anime is based on the shoujo version).
There are all together 12 episodes + 1 DVD special. The DVD special focuses on Komaki and his love.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshokan_Sensō
