Toshokan Sensou: Kakumei no Tsubasa

The best reason to watch this movie is for the romantic development and overall feeling of conclusion given to the characters. It's hard for any longtime fan of this series not to feel satisfied with the developments here.

While this movie does explain the major plot points of the anime series and features a standalone story that can be enjoyed by anyone, it is still a direct sequel. You'll get the most out of this movie if you're familiar with the characters and their relationships with each other.

So how does this compare with the original anime series? The feel is more or less the same, though ... it's great to see the story play out with Production I.G.'s top-notch animation. Some scenes, particularly the chase scene and the climax, stand out quite well because of the dynamic sense of movement and detail in the backgrounds, and the romantic moments are portrayed with great use of lighting and atmosphere.

The plot, too, is what you would expect from the Library Wars setting. Our heroes Iku and Dojo are charged with protecting an elderly writer from the heinous clutches of the Media Betterment Committee. The story is well-paced from start to finish and moves along briskly, not even dragging in the middle part where the action is slow.

It's interesting how at one point in the movie Iku admits to being more interested in characters and forgetting the overall plot whenever she reads books - this is precisely how I feel about Library Wars as a whole. The setting is still ridiculous and the villains are never really given an identity or a proper motivation, but the characters are so down-to-earth and charming that it is hard to focus on the flaws. Library Wars treats its unbelievable setting with seriousness and dignity, but it is hard to believe the characters are ever in any real danger even as the bullets fly. Even so, it's so easy to root for the characters and to cheer for Iku when she displays her boundless courage. To be able to pull this off without much serious dramatic tension takes some great writing.

The movie will probably best appeal to romance fans who enjoy a bit of action here and there. Picking up directly where the series left off, Iku and Dojo's newly discovered intimacy lies at the very heart of the story. It inspires Iku in particular to be braver, and the influence is always felt while never feeling overstated. It is not a particularly deep love story but it works in this movie in particular because of how grounded the interactions are in the characters and their idiosyncrasies.

Library Wars is an underappreciated gem of a series and it is a shame the movie has not seemed to have gotten the exposure it deserves. While the setting might not get the closure it deserves by the end, the characters certainly do. It's definitely worth your time to check out, both for newcomers and veterans to the franchise. It's easy to watch and the characters are fun. There's really not that much more we can ask for in a story.

I like how the character development progresses over the period of the movie. The story starts off a bit shallow but then, as the story progresses, becomes more in-depth and more enjoyable. For those who have not watched the original show, you have nothing to worry about. The movie explains the main part of the plot from the original series.

This movie was incredibly fun to watch and there was a lot of emotional moments especially (Without giving too much away) near the end of the film. It's one of those movies that give your soul a bit of "boost" (Sorry if that sounds corny) and ... makes you feel happy after watching it.

I read a manga adaption of this series (Library Wars: Love & War) and from the very first page I loved it, but I didn't know how much it would come to mean to me. The idea is unique to me and the characters are realistic in a way that can jump out at you if you can relate to them.

While certain things are easy to predict in this series, it's done in a way that still leaves you curious about things and this causes one to continue on with the series despite situational irony. While the main focus is events that occur in ... the library and protecting books, the drama and dark aspects of these concepts are lightened by giving you breaks in the story so that you can see the relationships the characters have with each other outside of work and how the things actually affect them- as emotion cannot rule when they are right in the middle.

I found while looking through the books, that the ideas presented in this story are actually highly relevant to today's society- governments and certain citizens are fighting to censor certain things from the general public because they feel that these things are dangerous to society. There are people who fight back against this censorship with the argument that we choose our own actions. Censorship becomes a bigger issue each year and this story proves that when taken too far, the consequences can become dire, requiring drastic measures to try to fix the damage that has been done.

The relevance to today is amazing, especially when coupled with how the anime was created. The art is great- it doesn't make the characters look too cartoonish and it also doesn't make them look too adult or real. The art helps lighten up the story with how amazing the expressions have been drawn- you can almost see EXACTLY what the characters are thinking. The anime also stayed true to the story presented by Hiro Arikawa- sensei; it was not embellished or drastically changed from what it is. If you are a person who prefers accuracy to the manga or original form, Library Wars is a GREAT example of that.

Despite knowing what was going to happen, when I watched this I was riveted and intrigued. The way the characters interact is engaging and amusing and if you haven't read the story, you will be surprised because somethings you just CAN'T expect!

No matter what genre you enjoy, if you're looking for a great story with engaging, amusing characters, and plot twists that will make you go back to watch again, I DEFINITELY recommend this one!

Library War : Enhanced!

Boom. Smack some of grands into the series and now it's even better. This movie was the finale of Library War. It concludes everything. The adventure of dramatic censorship ends here.

It was probably the best ending it could've offered. And I was overjoyed and cried at some point when I was watching the movie. It was just that perfect.

There's no flaw at all. I think that this was the perfect movie and the best way to end the astonishing adventure of Library War.

I'm just... Speechless.. There's nothing else to write about this movie now...

Watch this movie after ... watching the series.

After an excellent anime comes a sequel that instead of feeling like something special, something worthy of turning it into a movie and not a second season, feels more like a long episode with a satisfying ending. The movie is fine, I have no major complaints, it just doesn't feel like the movie it should be.

And above all, it is appreciated that they finally focus more on romance, since last season it was very little present, instead in this movie it finally develops, something that the viewer is very grateful for.

The stories close satisfactorily but it takes a long time to feel, however, the ending ... is emotional, definitely satisfying and worth remembering with nostalgia.

Summary: This movie is a continuation of the Toshokan Sensou anime series, and though it is standalone to some extent, watching the series first is recommended for important context. It picks up where the series left off and follows Kasahara and Dojo as they protect an author from government persecution after the plot of his novel inspires a terrorist attack. The movie is an upgrade over the series and improves on some of its biggest faults. Enough to solidly recommend it, especially to those that watched and liked the series.

Positives:

+ Much improved action and plot drama. Giving the Media Betterment Committee ... an actual reason for wanting to censor books in the movie makes for a vast improvement over their non-specific villainy in the series, and the plot feels more dynamic as a result. The action is exciting, well-animated and fun to watch, especially a setpiece early where they fly a helicopter through a gauntlet of machine guns. Unfortunately it does suffers from the same ridiculous issue as the series where thousands of rounds worth of automatic gunfire get fired over the course of the movie and not a single person ever dies.

+ Improved characters. Kasahara is far less irritating here than she was in the series, and the romance subplot between her and Dojo feels more natural. Shibasaki continues to be a high point, and her relationship with Tezuka is more interesting and complex than the main one that the series focuses on. If anything, I would have liked to see more of Shibasaki in the movie.

+ Satisfying ending (no spoilers). The film concludes the main story of Toshokan Sensou, so there is no need to worry about a "To be continued..." that never comes. All of the important loose ends are tied up, and a flash forward epilogue makes for a nice fanservicey look at what the future is like for some of the characters.

Negatives:

- Predictable plot. It never does anything that interesting, and you will know almost exactly how the next scenes will play out as you watch it. That's not to say that the plot is bad, it's fine, but it won't be anything that takes you by surprise. What you see is what you get.

- The contrast between military action thriller and wacky romantic comedy still creates problems with tonal whiplash, and Kasahara and Dojo, god bless them, continue to act like blushing teenagers from a high school rom com anime instead of like the adults in an elite special forces unit that they are. While it can be very sweet at times, especially at the end, I wish they had written things between them in a very different way so they weren't acting like awkward virgins with each other whenever they interacted.

- The whole arc with Tezuka's brother and the Future Library Committee is a bit of a dud, and quite frankly could have been written out entirely with only a few minor changes to the plot. Not even sure why it was in the series.