Anime Blu-Rays You May Have Missed: “Library War: The Wings of Revolution”

Japanese Title: Toshokan Senso: Kakumei no Tsubasa (Library War: The Wings of Revolution)
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten (Japan)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 105 mins
Production Date: 2012
English Version Release Date: 25 January 2013
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Debuting in the same season as the much hyped second series of “Code Geass”, as well as “Macross Frontier”, “Kaiba” and a whole slew of ongoing anime series based on very popular shonen manga titles, its little wonder that the original 2008 TV series of “Library War” was lost and forgotten by many anime fans (despite finally getting an English language DVD release from Discotek in August 2015). Naturally this follow up movie had even less chance of being noticed by English speaking fans, despite the fact the Japanese blu-ray came with optional English subtitles. Based upon an extremely popular series of light novels aimed at young women by Hiro Arikawa, the series was turned into a 13 part anime TV series by Production I.G and broadcast on Fuji TV's noitaminA programming block.

The franchise takes place in an alternate Japan where the current era, the Heisei era, never happened. Instead in 1989 the Seika era began. This new era ushered in a wave of heavy handed censorship with the government issuing the Media Betterment Act (MBA) as law which allows the censorship of any media deemed to be potentially harmful to Japanese society. In order to police the media, the Media Betterment Committee (MBC) was created to enforce the law and target individuals, organisations and companies that flouted the MBA. However opposing this new Act and the MBC were local governments. They formed units to defend libraries and a new law was created; the Freedom of the Libraries Law. As both sides eventually resorted to violence, things came to a head in a major conflict between the two factions that occurred at the public library in Hino, Tokyo in February 1999, where a group siding with the Media Betterment Act raided the library. Several people died including Kazuichi Inamine’s wife. As a result Kazuichi created the Library Defence Force (LDF), a paramilitary organisation which serves to defend libraries against the Media Betterment Committee’s troops and their factions.

The anime adaptation however begins in 2019, where we are introduced to new recruit Iku Kasahara. She decided to join the LDF after encountering one of its members who saved her after being harassed by a MBC troop in a bookshop who wanted to confiscate the book she wanted to buy. Kasahara considers the man who saved her to be her prince. While she is quite proficient at the military side of her job, her librarian skills aren’t so great. She is always being chewed out by her commanding officer Atsushi Dojo. Neither of them gets along too well with the other (yes, of course they develop romantic feelings for each other!). Kasahara is roommates at her dorm with Asako Shibasaki. Shibasaki is a Library Clerk First Class, but also an intelligence specialist who is exceptional at gathering information. She also is very caring of Kasahara and is always helping her out. The series veers from “slice of life” light-hearted comedy and drama mixed with romantic undertones from our two leads (Kasahara and Dojo) to full on battles with the MBC wrapped in the politics of censorship and issues to do with freedom of speech.

The series ends with a major offensive from the MBC on an art exhibition. The LDF’s captain, Ryusuke Genda, is severely wounded along with Dojo, who luckily soon recovers. The brother of LDF member Hikaru Tezuka, (Satoshi Tezuka, leader of the Library Future Planning Committee, who opposes censorship, but also wants to shut down the LDF), manages to manipulate media stories in order to have them more favourable to the LDF. Even so, due to the casualties on the side of the MBC, Kazuichi Inamine takes responsibility and steps down as head of the LDF. This movie begins sometime after the end of the TV series, in the first or second month of 2022. While Kasahara prepares to go out to a café with Dojo (though she denies that it’s a date), Shibasaski watches a news report on TV about a military helicopter crashing into the side of a nuclear reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui prefecture. She decides to say in the dorm room as it may be a developing story which could affect the LDF.

Kasahara and Dojo meet up, go to the café and later decide to head out to see a film. But before they can even reach the cinema they are both recalled back to work as an emergency has been declared. Upon arriving back at barracks, they spot several MBC agents in suits outside. Determined to get inside they barge past them, however it seems they aren’t there to stop LDF officers from getting in. Inside Kasahara and Dojo are given new orders; they are to be security detail to author Kurato Touma. Dojo is huge fan of his work and almost overeager to comply. It is explained that Kurato is being sought by the MBC as his novel “Nuclear Peril” has a plot similar to the crisis developing at the nuclear reactor in Tsuruga. The government believe that terrorists have copied the plot from the book and have put a warrant out for Kurato’s arrest. However the LDF want to defend Kurato and are horrified that the MBC is now going after authors. They attempt to have an injunction put in place for Kurato’s arrest.

Later that night, Library Future Planning Committee agents break into the dorms, attempt to abduct Kurato and turn him in. Hikaru Tezuka is livid at the actions of his brother. Shibasaki and Hikaru discuss what has happened so far and start to suspect the attack on the nuclear reactor in Tsuruga is a false flag in order to further expand the scope of the MBC to target and silence authors. Via Hikaru’s connections to his brother, Shibasaki manages to influence Satoshi Tezuka in order for him to speak favourably of the LDF and publicly question the role of censorship in society. This later causes someone sympathetic to the MBC to attempt an assassination on him. Meanwhile the LDF covertly transfer Kurato to the residence of Kazuichi Inamine into order to shield him from any attacks from the MBC. As they wait for the upcoming court decision, the housekeeper tips them off that she was questioned by MBC agents to Kurato’s whereabouts.

The MBC infiltrate Kazuichi’s residence, but Kasahara and Dojo have already initiated an audacious plan to get Kurato to safety. The MBC try to stop them by any means including firing live bullets at their car, but ultimately fail. Video of the MBC’s incredibly violent actions in attempting to stop Kurato's escape reach a local TV station who broadcast it. The public are disgusted at the MBC’s actions; however the station is shut down for a day by the MBC for violating the Media Betterment Act. Knowing they practically have no chance in winning the court case and that Kurato will be forced to stop writing or worse, locked up for good, the LDF try to come up with a new plan to protect Kurato. Kasahara suggests the idea of him asking for asylum at one of the embassies. The court case verdict comes down and Kurato is bared from writing for five years until they capture the terrorists. Kasahara and Dojo first attempt to get Kurato to the Dutch embassy then when that fails, to the British one, but are blocked by MBC agents at every turn. Worse is to come with Dojo being hit by a bullet in the leg. However Kasahara refuses to leave him behind or give up on getting asylum for Kurato.

While the bulk of both the TV series and movie is mostly concerned with the relationships of the cast, mainly the “will they or won’t they” romantic feelings between Kasahara and Dojo, the politics and ethics behind censorship also play almost an equal role in the anime. The basis of the Freedom of the Library Law which protects libraries from censorship in the anime is actually derived from a real act in Japan called Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries. In that act it essentially states that libraries should have the freedom in collecting and offering materials, guaranteeing the privacy of users and opposing censorship. While not explicitly referencing it, I suspect the heavily criticised Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths may have been an influence on the franchise. It does sound quite similar to the Media Betterment Act.

While the actions and uniforms of the Media Betterment Committee agents in the TV series scream “fascism”, the movie amps this up even further. The pre-credit sequence shows agents raiding the main branch of the Kinokuniya Book Shop in Shinjuku, loading up several trucks worth of books then depicting them being taken to a large industrial incinerator complex and being dumped into individual incinerators by dump trucks. Unlike the TV series which shied away from showing mass book burning, here it makes no bones about the fact that it is done literally on a large industrial scale. Also not explicitly shown in the TV series was the censorship of mass media in regards to how the actions of the Media Betterment Committee agents are reported. In the movie it is made clear that any criticism of them would be met with sanctions against the offending TV station or paper.

Like the TV series, the film does have a large focus on the interpersonal relationships of the cast. Of course the main relationship is the burgeoning one between Kasahara and Dojo, which after being teased out over the course of the TV series finally comes to full fruition in the film. Several spanners are thrown into the works along the way including a new character, Kojima Kiyoshi, a woman Kasahara’s age who works at Kinokuniya and was saved by Dojo when the MBC agents raided her store, much in the same way Dojo shielded Kasahara from them. She plays a larger role towards the end of the film, but early on she runs into Kasahara and Dojo on the street asking Dojo if he would like to work for her. This new development of course doesn’t play too well with Kasahara. The other major romantic relationship which develops is between Shibasaski and Hikaru Tezuka, which in part leads into the subplot of Shibasaki cosying up to Satoshi Tezuka in order to make the media’s portrayal of the LDF more favourable.

However due to the heavy emphasis on the main characters and their relationships, as well the somewhat dry lead up to the injunction to Kurato’s detainment, the movie doesn’t really kick into gear until almost half way through. Once it does however, the action sequences are pretty spectacular, albeit in limited supply and perhaps a little over the top. However this is also one of the problems with the anime franchise as a whole. The over the top actions between both warning camps who are defending what amounts to a few books seems absurd, especially when there doesn’t seems to be any restrictions on other forms of media such as the internet (which is barely mentioned at all in the series or film). However the actions sequences are to a degree depicted in a more realistic light in the movie. The latter part of the movie shifts the film’s location to Osaka as Kasahara attempts to get Kurato into one of the city’s consulates so he can claim asylum. However this section of the film contains some of the worst Osakaian clichés imaginable, including the abuse of the local accent.

The animation for the film, like the TV series, was produced by Production I.G with Takayuki Hamana (director of “Prince of Tennis” and the recent “Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha” films) returning as director. For the most part it’s decently animated though doesn’t really rise above the quality of the earlier TV series. The cartoonish moments in the TV series, which mostly involve Kasahara reacting to Dojo, are not present and as a whole the tone of the film is far more steeped in realism and the politics surrounding the LDF due to the fact they have taken on Kurato’s case. The movie was released in two blu-ray versions by Kadokawa Shoten; a single disc version and special edition with one blu-ray and two DVDs; one also containing the film (which bizarrely doesn’t include English subtitles unlike the blu-ray) and the second with 94 minutes of extras including two radio shows, behind scenes of the recording of the soundtrack and the staff and cast at the opening day of the film. It also included a small hard cover picture book which is the same children’s book Kurato wants to write in the film. The box set also includes brand new artwork on the digipak and outer box and a flyer for the then upcoming live action film adaption.

Overall I can probably only recommend this movie to those who know and like the TV series. Due to the fact there are several flashbacks in the first part of the film, it’s fairly easy to watch it without any prior knowledge of the TV series or novels, but it would make the experience far more rewarding. The early part of the film is mostly preoccupied with tying up some loose ends from the TV series as well reintroducing some bit players, but also conveying the plot of the movie in regards to Media Betterment Committee wanting to detain Kurato Touma and the LDF filing an injunction to stop this. It really is a lot of elements to keep track of. I think for the most part the screenwriter and director manage to juggle all of those elements fairly well. However some parts are glossed over or just forgotten about. For example several characters claim that the terrorist attack on the nuclear reactor was set up in order to further clamp down on authors. However this is only mentioned twice in the film in passing and never followed up. The second half of the film is far more exciting and action filled, but it can become a little bit silly at times. However I think on balance both the TV series and film are worth your time. It has been over three years since Discotek released the TV series and it seems a little unlikely at this stage they will release the film. Luckily both editions of the blu-ray are still in print in Japan. The single disc version will set you back ¥5,800, the special edition set costs ¥7,800. Both can also be found in the second hard market for less.