..."Library Wars" might have been the result. In the future, the central government of Japan has passed the "Media Decency Act." This act allows the government to confiscate books with "inappropriate material" from bookstores and keep them from the public. The only way people can read these books is through local libraries, who are allowed to collect the banned books and lend them to the public. Still, there is a lot of tension between the two groups, and war has broken out over it. When Iku Kusahara was in high school, government officials raided the local bookstore and almost took the book she'd been waiting for for so long. But the Library Defense Force came to the rescue, and one man in particular saved Iku's book for her. Since that day, she has dreamt of becoming a member of the Library Defense Force and becoming like her prince.
Now, she's making that dream come true. Being on the Defense Force is a very dangerous job, and Iku has to lie to her parents, saying that she's only a librarian. Iku's doing very well, however, her physical strength surpassing most of the men's. The only problem is her drill instructer, Atsushi Dojo. He seems to have it in for her, doing things like making her do push ups for stopping after finishing a race. Iku hates him and argues back with him, but she seems to be stuck with him. But after he supervises her first mission, she begins to see that maybe he's not so bad, after all.
While the plot here seems pretty original, it doesn't make the most of its unique features. The conflict between the government forces and the libraries takes a backseat to Iku's personal woes. And the conflict doesn't seem to have any of the subtlety of "Farenheit 491," where the censorship of books occurred as a result of the will of special interest groups, not the oppression of the central government. Still, at this point in the story, Iku is in training and hasn't yet become part of the conflict. Maybe we'll get more information on it in future volumes. There is focus on Iku's training, and we do get to see her deal with the government a little. We also get a little information on how the library works. Iku's training is a little generic, but the other things are more interesting. I hope there's more detail later.
So far, though, this is standard shojo fare. Iku can beat most of the guys, and can even hold her own against Dojo, but he usually bests her in the end. He's a thorn in her side during training, but he helps and encourages her when she really needs it. You know the drill. The characters themselves are likable, but not really distinctive. Iku is cheerful, feisty, and perseverent, while Dojo is quieter, sarcastic, and tries to be stoic. The relationship between them is cute, though, albeit similar to dozens of other love/hate pairings. And I find it hard to believe that Iku could get away with being so disrespectful to a senior officer... But I do like the height difference between the two, with Iku being the taller (is it just a coincidence that Dojo's first name is "Atsushi," like the hero of the oh so wonderful
Love Com?).
Iku is supposed to be a tough heroine, and she is, but Dojo still ends up having to rescue her. At one point, she tackles a suspect, only to turn around too quickly so Dojo has to protect her when the suspect retaliates. It's her naivety that gets her in trouble, not her lack of strength, but this kind of thing still bugs me a bit. Especially when the hero shows up conveniently to help, like in a later scene. And it's not exactly a secret who Iku's prince is, unless the creators are pulling a fast one on us.
I like the art here. It's casual shojo style, with simply designed eyes and clean lines. This is the style I prefer, and I thought everything was well drawn, though not particularly exceptional.
I feel like I've been harder on "Library Wars" than I intended to be. It is a pretty well written manga, and it has a more interesting backdrop than most. I think my main problem with it is that while it's good, it could have been better. The backdrop is different, but it's a setting for the usual trappings of shojo. These are pretty well exectued, but I'm getting bored of them. Still, it looks like this manga will set itself apart more in the future and develop its background. As of now, I'd say it's above average, but still not great.
