Toshokan Sens? (Library Wars)
Original Concept by Hiro Arikawa
Directed by: Takayuki Hamana
Recommended for fans of: Romance, Action, Military, or Library themes


*Toshokan Sens? (Library Wars) is follows slightly futuristic Japanese society where organizations literally fight over the freedom to read. The Media Betterment Committee (MBC) is an association that wishes to censor any media that is deemed to be potentially harmful to Japanese society; causing actions such as taking away books seemed “unsuitable” for the public to be taken away from bookstores. Fortunately, the Library Defense Force (LDF) is an organization that fights against censorship in media. The story follows a young woman, Iku Kasahara, a exceptionally stubborn and physically fit woman. Kasahara becomes the first woman ever to be assigned to the elite division of the LDF, learning the tasks of both a soldier and a librarian. Although Kasahara has an extreme passion for justice and love of reading, her main reason for joining the LDF was to search for a mysterious man she met five years ago. While in a bookstore to purchase a long-awaited fairy-tale, MBC agents entered the shop to confiscate the books deemed inappropriate. A male LDF agent swoops in and saves the day, inspiring Kasahara to become a literary soldier herself.


As an anime, Toshokan Sens? is subpar. While I commend the anime for it’s unique plotline and main character (a tall, Japanese twenty-something year-old woman with incredible physical abilities, as opposed to shows with young teenage girls in short skirts), the overall effect is hardly noteworthy. The art style is adequate, if only for expressing the basic personalities and descriptions of the characters mentioned in Hiro Arikawa’s original series, but not impressive. The flow of the story seems very awkward and there are far too many over-exaggerated features or effects in the show, especially considering the serious plotline of the series. The characters of the show don’t have the same exceptionality or likeability as the ones featured in Hiro Arikawa’s or Kiiro Yumi’s books. The voice-actors are sufficient for the characters’ personalities, but lacked a certain originality or vivacity about them. There are too many filler episodes and lines in the series that could’ve been more satisfactorily occupied by more dynamic action scenes or better dialogue among the characters. Also, there was too much focus on the romantic situations between the characters and not on the political or military aspects (the show is centered around a controversial political era in which censorship is a major concern).


I would personally recommend that a person should initially read the original light novel written by Hiro Arikawa or the manga adaption Library Wars: Love and War illustrated and written by Kiiro Yumi.