The End of the World

[Categories: Anime Reviews]

Toshokan Sensou halfway thoughts: fight for your right to…read?!

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Toshokan Sensou]

Toshokan Sensou, or to go by its neat translated title of Library Wars, is simultaneously lightweight fun, and thought provoking and serious. As I outlined in my last post regarding the Macross franchise, you don’t have to forgo brightness and humour to make a serious point; get the balance right and you can have it both ways. TS is doing what Macross often does, albeit on a smaller scale: it deals with heavy-going issues but presents enough laughs to make them easier to swallow. Actually, Eureka Seven takes the same approach but more on that later on this week.

When the setting for an armed confrontation is as incongruous as this, it has to be good

So, TS is either Serious Business or simple fun, depending on how you want to take it. I don’t think either aspect gets in the way of the other either - I’ve yet to see any humour that’s misplaced or experience the social commentary bogging down the entertainment value. All in all then it does what it sets out to do very effectively, even if it doesn’t stand out as an A-list title. In many ways it borrows much of its appeal from Full Metal Panic! in terms of military action and educational hijinks, and that ever-present Geek Chic (I’d copyright that term if it weren’t already well-known enough to be listed on Wikipedia) stemming from the library setting, which reminds me very strongly of the R.O.D. OAV and TV series. Good stuff all round then.

With such strong similarities however I doubt we’re seeing anything groundbreaking or genre-defying here but that is probably beside the point: it’s a cool, fun, and that’s it. Kasahara is going through the typical ‘clumsy girl finding out her strengths’ storyline with a ‘hard work and guts’ philosophy that have been passed down the generations since forever; Dojo is so obviously tsundere I don’t even know why I’m bothering to point it out, beyond my inexplicable tsundere fascination. Somehow though it’s still enough to keep me hooked because, apart from the fact that Marina Inoue voices the female lead, it’s still satisfying to see the everygirl get the chance to do well.

I’m in two minds as to how effective episode 5’s ‘meet the parents’ approach was in defining Kasahara’s situation though - it felt a bit fillerish and I’m not tuning into the show for cringeworthy “is her lying going to be found out?” uncertainty. I didn’t want her to get found out, but at the same time wanted her to admit the nature of her work - I suspect her mother would come around to the idea eventually (as long as you are following your heart and have good intentions, good parents ought to understand, I think) and they would be proud of what she’s doing.

I loved the way the Library Force uses the law to its own advantage. 1337 booklearning skillz, you might say

So yeah, I’m watching this for the social commentary and moral questioning thing, with Kasahara-fuelled lulz that fill the holes in the rationale behind the premise. A worldview like this has social and political scenarios that are different from the current state of the world but at the same time wants to convince you that it *could* happen someday. This requires solid planning to be convincing at all…alternatively it can be a blurry sort of background that only needs to just ‘be’ there. I could list my reservations about the legislation and whatnot but in all honesty there’s no point. All you need to know is that, in the TS universe, these laws exist and that the characters’ adventures are concerned with working around them.

Actually, I purposefully avoid thinking about how feasible the laws are in order to concentrate on enjoying the consequences of the said laws. Watching people literally engage in firefights to secure the contents of a library seems daft…and it probably is. It’s still an absolute blast though, and the levity makes it even more chilling in some ways.

I’m enjoying TS as a serious piece of speculative fiction as well, of course. Even though it’s managing fine as a character comedy I appreciated those little details woven in regarding the nature of the conflict and had fun running potential ramifacations through my head. What if books really were subject to censorship? How would that affect your studying and leisure time? What out of YOUR bookshelf would the government want to confiscate off you? Would you be prepared to join some sort of army reserve to fight for your country’s right to it?

I don’t know if the book in question is based on a real-life publication but if that’s the case I really, really want to read it. Any ideas?

I prize the availability of information and opinions that the media offers; I love reading and I love writing. I’m also a pacifist by nature and hate violent confrontation of any sort. Placing myself in a worldview like that of TS and its outrageous and draconian legislation, I think my attachment to the freedom of information and its importance might actually push me over the line; on reflection I’d probably be another clumsy misfit joining the ranks, not because the likes of me are suited to military life but because something as fundamental as freedom of information is so vital that men and women in the street will want to do everything they can to keep it. As such I find Kasahara’s inspiration for joining the Library force to be almost silly but at the same time utterly understandable.

This is the extra appeal of Toshokan Sensou: for 90% of the time it’s about the clumsy girl, her lofty ideas and the tsun-tsun instructor; behind it all though is a reminder that our imperfect democratic societies are worth holding onto. Just because this show can’t keep a straight face that doesn’t mean it’s not telling you something important.

[Filed under Anime Reviews]  [Tags: Toshokan Sensou]

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