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.
