Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepherd)

"The Shepherd," an urban legend of Shiomi Academy, is said to appear before hardworking students to grant them a wish.

While engrossed in a book inside the school's renowned Great Library, Kyoutarou Kakei, a second year student and the Library Club's de facto president, receives an email from the Shepherd foretelling an event that will change his fate. Worried by the message, Kyoutarou rushes over to a nearby train station and encounters fellow student Tsugumi Shirasaki, whom he saves from being hit by a derailing train. Grateful for his heroic actions, Tsugumi joins the Library Club and invites Kyoutarou to participate in her mysterious "Shiomi Happy Project." Together with other new members of the club, they strive to make the academy a better place and uncover the identity of the enigmatic Shepherd.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai
Other:	Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Picture Drama

Morikubo, Shoutarou
Japanese

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Staff

Nagai, Masaru

Producer, Planning

Nobuta, Yuu

Director, Episode Director, Key Animation

Kamiya, Tomomi

Director, Key Animation, Character Design, Chief Animation Director

Morishita, Hiroto

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"On my sheep" by Mitsuki Nakae (中恵光城)

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Ending Theme

"Aozora to Green Belt (青空とグリーンベルト)" by Hagumi Nishizawa (西沢はぐみ)

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Dec 25, 2014

McRib

Recommended

The idea in which equating popularity to greatness is disappointingly common in our modern world. Many people will claim that 50 Shades of Gray is high quality literature and many others will consider Drake to be a great rapper. They are blinded by the delusion that something being popular automatically makes it good. Obviously those people have never looked further into the media that they claim to be an aficionado of and have never read Infinite Jest or listened to Yung Lean before. This leads to Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, an unfortunately overlooked show in the Fall 2014 season. It did not stand out and the ... publicity was nearly nonexistent. However, if you were one of the people who decided to give the show a try, you were in for quite a treat. You would have experienced a coherent plot, enjoyable characters, entertaining drama, and an overall comfy feeling that viewers have not experienced since Non Non Biyori last Fall. The fact that people would rather discuss popular, yet mediocre shows is downright depressing. It brings back bad memories of last Summer when a terrible Adam Sandler movie beat out Pacific Rim in the box office for that weekend. Regardless, those of you who overlooked this show have a chance to redeem yourself if you change your ways and look to the less popular and more obscure things in life. Following that ideal will take lead you closer to the path of enlightenment.

The overall story for Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai was nothing extraordinary or groundbreaking. It compares to other typical club-type shows where you find both drama and comedy as the main ideas. A word that would describe the story would be “unoffensive”. It was rather soothing and made the viewer feel comfortable when watching it. The overall arching plot was a typical slice of life show with a bit of a supernatural twist added in, but that is once again typical for this genre of visual novel from which the show was adapted from. The story itself could have been more fleshed out, but that would not have been easily done with the time constraints of a 1 cour show. The pacing was also quite well done, it did not drag or feel boring at any time and gave the viewer a relaxed or comforting experience. The fact that the show was adapted from a visual and had such a comforting feel to it is rather unique. Many times visual novel adaptions are rather fanservice driven or focus mainly on the exciting action related parts of the game. That being said, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai was not without fanservice (it had plenty), it just came off in a bit more subdued and enjoyable than the typical smut that you would expect to see. It did not feel out of place or forced into the story to sell more Blu Rays, it just had an overall natural feel due to how the story was told and how it was directed.

One aspect of this show that was rather interesting was the studio choice. Many people will remember Hoods Entertainment as a studio that did some of the most obscene fanservice shows that have aired on regular television. However, it seems that they have turned over a new leaf since their latest projects have not been lewd at all. It is a strange change of pace to go from doing Manyuu Hikenchou or Seikon no Qwaser which were over the top in terms of smut to the rather tame and pedestrian shows that they have done in recent history. Regardless, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai was a rather pleasant show to look at. It featured a pastel color theme and the overall quality of the show was relatively high. Once again, the term that describes it best is “unoffensive”. That would also describe the sound for the show. The voice actors used were the same from the game which are commonly heard in visual novels. Experienced viewers will recognize a few voices, especially if they read visual novels. Regardless, the voice acting was well done and felt natural for the show. The OST and sound direction was also perfectly acceptable, it had that typical visual novel flair to it which fit the mood of the show perfectly. It definitely added to the comfortable feel that the show gave off.

In regards to characters, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai did not feature anything special in particular. The cast was composed of rather cut and paste type characters with various back stories to give them some sort of depth. Obviously, the anime viewer would not see their full stories since it is not the original source material in which the reader would go through an entire route dedicated to all of the main characters, but it was easy to pick up on the various drama points and other traits from what was shown. However, what stood out for this show was the character interaction. That was top notch and it really felt like the characters had chemistry with each other. It was incredibly well done for this type of show and it really made it incredibly enjoyable to watch.

When looking at the complete package of Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, it is hard to consider it to be anything but enjoyable. The fact that it was one of the least popular and overlooked shows for the Fall 2014 season is rather disappointing. However, that may be for the better. The discussion and subsequent translation project for the visual novel were in part done due to the smaller and tight knit community that enjoyed watching this show. Regardless, if you are looking for something enjoyable that you can sit back and relax to, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai would be an excellent choice. It goes to show that it does not matter if something is relatively overlooked, it could end up being better than many high profile options. That being said, the moral of this review is look in unlikely places and you will find true hidden gems. Worshiping nothing but mainstream media is a terrible habit and you should try to think outside the box more often. Once you do, you can appreciate more things and even find enjoyable stories in unlikely places. Or in terms more suited to Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, don't judge a book by its cover.

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Dec 27, 2014

gilder1985

Recommended

Initially, I'd written a review halfway through the show, now that I've completed it, here's an updated version.
Firstly, this is very much a slice of life show. If you're not a big fan of those, you may not want to watch this one. I enjoy slice of life, romance, comedy, fantasy, sci-fi, and other light-sided genre, so it appealed to me.
This show also incorporates a fantasy element - a magic library. I won't go into a lot of detail, so as not to ruin the story, but this library (while only briefly and periodically mentioned) is a theme that is important to every ...

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Dec 24, 2014

ironcarrot2

Mixed Feelings

everything about this anime was fine, just fine. the story was fine, the characters were fine, the art was fine. truly mediocre and the genre of this mediocre anime is school/harem/magic/slice of life.

story: kakei(the main character) reads books to not be scared of anything and his goal is to find the magic library. sounds somewhat interesting. nope it is not.

art: average just average.

sound: average.

characters: typical harem.....their looks are average. also the MC is boring.

enjoyment: average. i know i used that word a lot, but it perfectly describes this anime. never really laughed hard or smiled much or thought i cant wait till ...

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who does kakei end up with? Belarabi - Nov 26, 2022	2 replies	by AnosTheGod »» Nov 27, 2022 11:19 AM
Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 24, 2014	94 replies	by iamDragoncat »» Apr 9, 2021 11:05 AM
Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 17, 2014	51 replies	by Amatniki »» Oct 31, 2020 10:02 PM
Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 10, 2014	54 replies	by Amatniki »» Oct 31, 2020 9:13 PM
Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 3, 2014	66 replies	by Amatniki »» Oct 31, 2020 9:12 PM

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