Toshokan Sensou. Library wars? Yeah just by looking at the title gave me the impression of people throwing books at each other in the libraries…

But this isn’t any story about your typical libraries. Brief introduction has already been done by edo in previous posts.

Shall we start with some main characters introduction then?

Kasahara Iku 笠原　郁

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A 22-year-old librarian ranked First-Class Private at the Kantou Library Base, also known as a hot-blooded idiot (熱血バカ). Her (cute) idiocy is evident all over the anime, from being a klutz to doing things rashly without giving them proper thoughts.

Oh, one thing you should also know: her height. Standing at 170cm, she’s not THAT short for a girl… Hmm… taller than edo that’s for sure =P

Doujou Atsushi　堂上　篤

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A 27-year-old Lieutenant and also Kasahara’s superior. He treats Kasahara somewhat stricter as compared to other librarians, which of course, annoys the hell out of Kasahara. Standing at 165cm, it’s nowonder that Kasahara calls him a Chibi.

Behind that strict face, he seems to care a lot about Kasahara. He does not hesitate to give out compliments if he thinks she deserves it. Not only that, he has defended Kasahara quite a number of times from Tezuka’s scolding…

Komaki Mikihisa　小牧幹久

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Doujou’s colleague. Naturally both of them have the same age and rank. However, his personality is quite the opposite of Doujou’s. He likes to laugh (more like giggle I think) and he seems like a carefree, happy-go-lucky person.

Tezuka Hikaru　手塚 光

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Kasahara’s colleague. However, he’s much more disciplined and deligent as compared to her. According to Shibasaki (the scary Intelligence Agent), he’s always the top in his class, and most probably the most outstanding recruit in Kasahara’s year.

Shibasaki Asako　柴崎麻子

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Kasahara’s roommate, same age as Kasahara but a lot shorter than her (157cm - around my height =P). Unlike Kasahara, she’s not involved in the Defense Division. Instead, she’s with the Intelligence. That is why she knows a lot of “insider’s information” as compared to her roommate. There’s probably no secret that Kasahara can hide from her, not when it comes to Library matters.

Quite the opposite of Kasahara, she’s calm and collected, and seems to like Doujou unlike her roommate who hates Doujou to the core.

Everyone above, with the exception of Shibasaki, is in the Kantou Special Library Task Force.

Background Information

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Now, let’s move on to some background information on Toshokan Sensou.

The anime is based on the manga by Hiro Arikawa, whose works are often based on the theme of Japanese Self-Defense Forces, which is quite evident in the anime where the main characters are in the Defense Division.

According to Arikawa, she noted that the largest libraries in most countries are mostly regulated/established under the federal authority (eg the British Library which was created by the British Library Act of 1972, Japan’s National Diet Library, US’s Library of Congress), whereas smaller libraries are mainly established in the neighbourhood or smaller areas to serve the surrounding communities, in which they are not directly affected by the federal authority.

Her inspiration comes from “small libraries going against the authority for unfair treatment under the Library Act”. And thus… her inspiration for creating Toshokan Sensou.

The story in the anime took place in 2019 (Seika 31). Both the Media Enhancement Act and Library Freedom Act were enacted 30 years ago (1989), presumably Seika 1. One interesting thing to note is that the transition is from the Shouwa period to Seika, instead of Heisei in reality.

Impressions

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Fluid animation by Production IG, interesting theme and storyline (where else can you find fully armed military personnel attacking and protecting LIBRARIES?),

characters with amusing personality (the hot-blooded baka),

occasionaly comedic scenes,

there’s no reason for not liking this anime.

Plus, seeing Kasahara arguing with Doujou provides a hell lot of entertainment.

Who knows if romance will blossom between these two?

But… it seems that Tezuka is interested in her too. I smell love triangle …

Can’t wait to watch the next episode!

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