Ranked #1145

Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra

Armed Librarians: The Book of Bantorra has had a very strong divide among opinions this past season. I have seen many people praise this show in the anime blogosphere, while forum activists on big sites such as ANN criticize it to death. I’m sure there are many people in the middle who just don’t know what to think or are uncertain to try it. I hope that my review will clear some of that uncertainty away.

Story

Now here is something original. After a person dies, their memories turn into a stone tablet called a "book" that leaves their body to be collected. When someone comes along and touches that person’s book, they can see vivid imagery of their past as if they were really there to witness it. These are very special books and must be kept safe at all costs, and that is what the Bantorra Library serves to do. A group of people known as the Armed Librarians guard these books with their lives using psychic powers.

This story is NOT linear with a one-track mind. Instead, it branches off into many intricate subplots. You will see the Armed Librarians tracking down stolen books, recruiting new members, having personal quarrels and drama, going on adventurous missions, and each character pursuing their own personal and hidden agenda. They also fight their common enemy known as the Sindeki Kyoudan, an enigmatic religious group that manipulates people against the library for its own reasons. There is much discussion about heaven and what it means to be a “true man” to enter such a place.

After a while, the story does not seem to have a clear focus. It hops around to many different issues, never staying on a single one for too long. Criticism has been heavily placed on this area because the story can get confusing fast. Often times you might be mislead to believe that main story will be about this or that particular thing. I actually like that, but it is required of you to pay close attention to the events to appreciate how they all come together near the end.

The last thing I will say about the story is that I love its unpredictability. This anime makes you think. Nothing is straightforward, and there seems to be a plot-twist within every subplot..and that’s a LOT of plot-twists. The story, so full of secrets, character betrayals, and philosophical questions, will take you for an entertaining ride.

Characters

There are 30+ characters listed under this anime, and you’re introduced to a whole lot at once. The characters shine just as magnificently as the story does; they each have very detailed backgrounds and different motives. It is not really clear on which people are the bad guys and the good guys. It is also not clear on which character is the main one that we should be focusing on. Everyone gets the same amount of attention.

I give much praise to the characters because a handful of them are refreshing and have strong personality. I had my doubts about how well they would turn out to be, but they took me by surprise. The characters are very dynamic, meaning that they change and develop internally. As the show steadily progresses, you’re constantly being introduced to someone new and exciting.

The character section on this page does a good job in describing each character and their psychic ability, so I recommend reading those if you want to know the specifics.

Animation

One of the first things I hear people say when they start watching this is that the characters look unappealing, and the CGI looks very out of place.

Either you love the character designs or you don’t. They appear more on the dark-outlined, shadowy side without much shine, but it's best if you take a look for yourself. Some of the female characters look a bit masculine also. Despite all this, I thought that the designs were okay.

If you are patient enough to get to the best fighting scenes in this anime, you won’t be disappointed. High production values were saved for these moments, and the CGI gets put to good use.

Sound

This is where your personal taste really comes in. I found the OST to be fantastic. As a fan of Ali Project, I liked the first OP theme called “Datengoku Sensen.” The background music is also enjoyable and consists of many low-key orchestral sounds that suit the suspenseful atmosphere.

Overall

Armed Librarians is an entertaining, action-packed anime that uses its large, developed cast to its advantage. The story may seem rather confusing and directionless at times, but it all pays off towards the end. I recommend this anime. read more

Everybody wants to kill Hamyuts Meseta.

Or at least, an overwhelming number of people in Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra want her dead and out of the picture.

Tatakau Shisho proves itself to be quite an unusual anime despite everything else-- if there is one thing for which it could be credited as far as its story goes, is that its basis is quite original. In the world and universe of this series, human beings die and leave an imprint of their souls in "books". These are not dusty, paper-paged volumes; the books are stone tablets which with a single touch, can reveal the entire history of a person. It serves more than just as an autobiography. It exists as their life preserved in stone. And who is in charge of keeping these books? The librarians of the Bantorra Library, headed by the acting director Hamyuts Meseta, a woman who willingly rubs everyone (from her own subordinates to her multitudes of enemies) the wrong way.

Unfortunately, as interesting as the concept for this anime is, it becomes so lofty that it just is unable to support itself. Behind it are several conspiracies each overlapping with the other till one is left wondering who is betraying who. Perhaps this is an interesting and deliberate act; certainly the viewer is left at their wits' ends pondering whose story they should trust, just as the characters themselves feel at a loss. But while this makes for an interesting set up, the series hardly taps into its mass of potential. Rather than deliberately use these elements to deliver a suspenseful thriller of conspired mind games, lies and disguises, it chooses to present an action fantasy instead. The result is not an entirely bad one, but it disappoints when all the elements are considered and a much better story could have been crafted with the very same bits and pieces.

Also, the plot of the anime follows various characters at random points. It may confuse some viewers or frustrate them, as they may wonder why exactly the story is meandering around seemingly insignificant side stories, however, Tatakau Shisho knows exactly what it wants from each arc. It takes just a piece from every single one of them and pulls it out to form the grander story. Perhaps not executed in the best way, but at least there is evidence that it tries to accomplish something more with its material.

The artwork looks great, however, the animation suffers at points. Characters have designs that are rather intricate and detailed. The men and women are full bodied, muscled and toned. Their designs are not the typically "moe" kinds, but the art is more adult-like, suiting with the content of the series. It is almost rare these days to see an anime depicting female characters especially as women who actually look their age. The backgrounds are also appealing; the time period for Tatakau Shisho is not particular to our chronology; while sometimes it appears medieval, there are elements of modern day Europe, Victorian era England and times even older than that. The weakest aspect of the anime's look is the CGI which they thankfully abandoned great usage for after the first episode. The fight scenes are fluid, though nothing entirely spectacular. Some isolated moments, such as whenever Hamyuts uses her slingshot or when Noloty does hand-to-hand combat look great, however, the fights look quite lacklustre in comparison, especially when one sees Mokkania and his CGI ants and basically anybody who uses a gun as a weapon.

Tatakau Shisho has a great score. Casting aside the hit or miss OP and ED theme songs (really, how the Ali Project still gets contracts is beyond me), the music is spectacular. Tracks deliver a pounding death march, epic choirs chanting mournfully and melancholic but without losing momentum. The excellent voice acting also adds a lot to the sound; Paku Romi is ever-sexy, seductive and sarcastic as Hamyuts, Tomatsu Haruka who is still green to the voice acting world, gives an honest and appropriately naive performance as Noloty, and Sawashiro Miyuki commands attention with the subtlety of her portrayal of Mirepoch.

Mirepoch, the series' deuteragonist, comes across as a character both conflicted by her loyalty to her work and her personal feelings; she ends up being extremely pivotal to the story despite her secondary nature. The true star of the show after all isn't her. It is Hamyuts Meseta.

What makes Hamyuts so interesting is that despite being the protagonist of the series, she rarely adopts the role as main character of arcs and episodes. In fact, the screen time she largely receives is that which characterises side characters, however, her presence is far too grand, and she never comes across as such. She exists like a god who descends towards the earth to intervene, destroy or make merry with people she undoubtedly regards as far beneath her. Hamyuts is so fascinatingly psychotic; she possesses a blood-thirstiness and viciousness despite her playful demeanour, often offset with her strange liking of cute things like bunnies. Her wickedness, snideness and confidence are intoxicating and almost darkly charming. Her powers too are fascinating, but Hamuyts is no David with her slingshot. She is more fearsome than any Goliath. She is a saviour, but simultaneously, she is a cruel beast. She is easily the best character of this entire anime.

But the most likeable is definitely Noloty, a sweet girl with a fearsome fighting spirit and a tragic love for all things in the world, good or bad. Some of the cooler characters include Mattalast, a man dressed like a gentleman perhaps ironically, since his roughness, crassness and ideals are far from genteel, and Enlike, a man who has to learn what it means to be human with his inhuman-like powers and initially inhumane attitude. Perhaps the biggest downside of the characters' presentation is that some of the more interesting ones eventually disappear for whatever reason after their arc.

While Tatakau Shisho is far from perfect, and even far from excellent, it still manages to be quite entertaining and interesting. Perhaps not for the overarching plot and its largely two dimensional cast of characters. Admittedly, the last arc is almost damn near incomprehensible since it gets so convoluted when everything starts piecing together; it doesn't all fit together neatly. Instead, imagine someone trying to pound a puzzle piece into a section it's not supposed to be in. Same puzzle, yes, but not exactly right. Still, Tatakau Shisho manages to capture its audience with its presentation of a world quite unlike our own. After all, they say that all life is like a long story, right? How appropriate then that lives can be summed up in actual books. If anything, this series should not be regarded too much as high art as it could have been, but as dramatic, lofty entertainment as it is presented.

Besides, "Kill Hamuyts Meseta" is just darn fun to say anyway. read more