Library War

Toshokan Sensou seems like the kind of anime you want to watch just because of the premise: the story of the first woman to join a military force specialized in fighting against censorship. Sounds incredible, right? Well, sadly it fails to justify the idiosyncratic politics that frames the whole setting, as well to present any meaningful insight of such complex themes. Does that mean the show sucks? Not exactly. While the simplistic nature of the setting can be underwhelming, it's a completely functional field for the true crop of the story grow: the characters.

Ultimately, Toshokan Sensou is a coming of age. Kasahara Iku must not only overcome her immaturity towards her professional stance, but also with matters of the heart - as well a little plot involving her parents disapproval of her dangerous job. The narrative does an excellent job at progressing her character in a satisfying pace. You can see that she's steadily improving, but not drastically changing.

The cast surrounding her is a lovable bunch, the show doesn't pull any punches in presenting them in a more calculated way. You're pretty much throw at their everyday experience while they're rapidly introduced by a little profile, which it's a good thing because you get the feel that these people are actually accustomed to each other and been living together for a long time, letting you appreciate how their dynamics change and evolves in the course of the story.

Kasahara's interactions with her roommate Shibasaki are specially tasty, their contrasting personalities are not only matched by the dialogue, but by their seiyuu as well. Marina Inoue and Miyuki Sawashiro are such unique voices and deliver such stellar performances that you could watch just for it.

Talking about the ladies, one specific aspect this show nails is their visual presentation, they are treated with utmost respect despite being plenty attractive. Which may not comes as a surprise since it's an early Noitamina show, but still a reinvigorating factor considering the ways thing are nowadays.

Despise romance being quite an important thing in this series, it never overwhelms the plot, Instead, it naturally flows and spontaneously happens at times. Not to say it's great, but it's not a hindrance either. It presents itself quite smoothly when it comes to supporting characters, in contrast the romance between the main characters is awkward and clumsy as it gets. Also, it's pretty stupid how the story constantly reiterate how "they're so alike and do exactly the same things!", it only comes as a very lazy way of bounding, Despise all that, they still make an adorable pair.

Actions scenes compose a great part of the narrative, and while they're not essentially bad, they suffer from the lack of political nuance and actual stakes of danger and weight, people are constantly shot but blood is a rare sight to behold (except in a scene in the last arc, that ironically maintains the absurdity of the show in that regard). Battles and conflicts in general have strange conjectures but are diligent enough to make up engaging scenes.

Toshokan Sensou ended up as a mixed bag, having problems that highly affects the show thematically, but doesn't compromise the moment to moment experience, which I personally find captivating and endearing.

~A note on the movie: Kakumei no Tsubasa~

In the TV series, there was a strange feature where characters sometimes would have bold outlines, making them look very cartoonish, which was not only inconsistent, but questionable considering the overall sober tone of the show. The movie completely get rid of that and looks much better in comparison.

The plot is more interesting as it shows another side yet not explore in the series - the writers themselves. An author who is shamefully unaware of the unfair laws that could potentially wipe out his works - his raison d'être, finally realizing the danger of censorship and fighting against it. Unfortunately, this concept is not expanded as triumphantly as it could, wastefully existing only in a micro perspective of the matter.

The movie also progresses the romance even further with somewhat the merits and demerits as the TV series. Not a letdown, but also not a surprise. Overall, a nice resolution to a kind of a nice show.