The Royal Quackster is here, days before he and Pandalicious go off on their final semester at The College That Must Not Be Named. Today's Anime Calamity takes a look at the series "Library War" (Toshokan Sensō).
In 1989, the Japanese government passed the Media Betterment Act to protect the youth from being influenced by negative materials in the media. To counter this, the country established the "Library Defense Forces" to prevent the Media Betterment Act agents from infringing on people's right to access media deemed as banned material. One day Iku Kasahara had been accosted by an MBA agent after finding out that she had a banned book in her possession in a local bookstore. After being saved by an LDF agent, Kasahara decides to join in the Library Defense Force. Gradually, her passion and exceeding athletic capability leads her to become a member of the elite unit, the Library Task Force. Through her battles against the MBA and her own teammates Iku does her best to be the best in the Library Task Force.
After sitting through this series, I came to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing special about "Library War." Granted there are some good action sequences and humorous moments, but there seems to be nothing attention-grabbing in this show. The animation is pretty good, but sometimes it looks kind of shoddy. The characters are okay, but they seem too run-of-the-mill. The show gets repetitious, even when Iku’s parents show up almost unexpectedly. That would’ve given the writers a chance to spice things up on the show, but instead they took the easy way out and made the parents one-shot characters. The only thing that deserves praise for “Library War” is its plotline. It’s reminiscent of the old book burning incidents, and the series could be a seemingly wake-up call to those wishing to keep their favorite novels still in print and uncensored. However, a show too mediocre like this will not be an easy eye-catcher for the average viewer, anime fan or not; and it is possible that it’ll fall through the cracks of obscurity by the end of the year.
"Library War" gets a C-average. The idea of the series is good. Everything else is just lacking the magic needed to make a stand-out series.
This is King Baby Duck: Ain't born to lose, baby, I'm born to win! I'm so Goddamn slick, baby, it's a sin!
Labels: Anime, Anime Calamity, King Baby Duck, Library War, Toshokan Sensou
