Toshokan Sensou
Library War: Satirical Allusion to Cynics?
Weeks after Toshokan Sensou aired, I couldn’t help but facepalm at the people who were taking it really seriously, especially those who even gave their lengthy oh-so-intelligent logical / analytical / political explanations just to point out the loopholes of the series, vis-à-vis Real World Standards. thank you guys for your smart-ass explanations, you’ve just proven how SERIOUS you are over Toshokan Sensou. While most people agree that the premise of Toshokan Sensou is silly, there are those who get to enjoy the show despite that.
Instead of acting like a curmudgeon (which I initially intended to do), I sat down and thought about the sentiments of the Toshokan Sensou cynics. Pondering upon the roots of this hate, I noticed an odd similarity between the reactions of these people against Toshokan Sensou and that of Tezuka’s misgivings against Iku, as far as the first two episodes are concerned.
“What random nonsense!” some of you might be exclaiming right now, so here’s a bit of explaining, which I hope will make my point clear.
Iku can be said to represent the lack of “logic” in the show. She’s rash, she’s dense, she’s a tomboyish GAR-girl. Apart from that, she’s also an immature crybaby who has an undying love for books, and would readily put her life on the line to protect them, just like her prince. She’s silly and annoying, in a way, and liking her might not be the most “logical” thing, but hey, we still like her for being the kickass girl she is! Despite her flaws, we, the Toshokan Sensou lovers, managed to see her strengths, and love her for it.
The similarity becomes more apparent as we take a close look at these words of wisdom from our beloved Toshokan Sensou characters (I’m using the novel as a point of reference for this), which could be interpreted as a message to the cynics:
Doujou: “Being logical is right, but using it for your leverage (or using it as a ‘weapon’) is not.”
Komaki: “You can still work with someone you hate”
“You can’t expect to work with people you like all the time”
“Even if you don’t like the person, you can still acknowledge his/her abilities”
Message to the cynics: “Logic is not absolute. You can’t expect all animes to adhere to the ’standards’ you have. Just because something is illogical doesn’t mean you can’t see its good points, and actually enjoy it.”
I’m not sure if the similarity I’m seeing is just a pure coincidence, but if the author Hiro Arikawa had all this [JUST AS] PLANNED, and crafted the novel with the varying reactions of people in mind, that’d be just… wow.
Reiterating what I said earlier: most, if not all, of us agree that the premise of Toshokan Sensou is ridiculous (though finding out about the JLA stuff, real-life Library events mirrored in the series, and tidbits from the novel, changed my mind about this). It’s illogical, “unrealistic”, over-the-top; it doesn’t give us enough “background” to justify the conflict, blah blah blah. People babble on with their smart-ass comments, justifying their dislike for the show.
What can be said about the ones who get to enjoy Toshokan Sensou despite all this ridiculousness then? Are we less intelligible when we don’t get to notice these loopholes? Does easily forgiving these “serious flaws” of the show indicate that we have poor taste? Absolutely not. We just happen to retain that sense of wonder we still had way back when we were kids (or during those “anime wonder” days), that part of us which saw animes with rose-colored lens, allowing us to look past the flaws of a series, and just enjoy it for what it is.
In the same way we lose our sense of wonder about the world as we grow older and grow weary of it, we also become jaded in our anime watching. The moment we let prejudices and certain standards of good and bad animes affect our enjoyment, we start seeing animes with tinted lens clouded with cynicism, and we grow out of a certain genre, “stereotype”, etc (or worst, grow out of anime!)
It could be said that this “growing out of [certain] animes” is one stage most of us go through, as I also remember growing out of certain romance animes myself *cough* Marmalade Boy *cough* Fushigi Yuugi *cough*. But for Toshokan Sensou, I think the ones who can’t get to enjoy it are experiencing the poison of either: “too smart for anime”, “growing weary of anime”, or “too serious for [an] anime”, among others.
No matter what happens, there’s one thing that will remain constant: animes are pure fiction, a form of escapism, meant to depict a world that’s different (and far more exciting?) from what we normally see. It provides an alternate universe which answers some of the “what ifs” questions we have, and/or allow us to see the endless possibilities in and out of our “real world”.
But oh well, we can’t expect everyone to like what we like right? So in the end, so long as we enjoy it, and love it for what it is, who cares a damn about what other people think of it. <3
Cheers~!
EDIT: Gonna place the deep frying sneak preview in a separate post now… it strays from this post anyways ^^;
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- You Want an Objective Toshokan Sensou Review? Look No Further!
- A Quickie Announcement Post on the Toshokan Sensou Novel Translation Project
- Toshokan Sensou DVDs: To Buy or Not to Buy? That is the Question.
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13 comments for “Library War: Satirical Allusion to Cynics?”
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It’s all a matter of suspense of disbelief: some people are willing to put aside the rather illogical premise, others are turned off by it. I don’t really think that it’s got anything to do with being “Too smart for anime”.
My gripe with the show is that the female lead can be rather annoying at times, and it wasted a number of episodes (in particular, the parents coming to visit) that it could have used to flesh out said premise more. Still, I admit that it’s been getting better with the last episode.
“People babble on with their smart-ass comments, justifying their dislike for the show.”
one question, why are this people still watching the show if they hate it? seriously, if they dont like it, they should stop watching and let the rest of us enjoy it…
…and seriously, they think magical girls/lolies/mecha robots are more belieable, than a world where books are banned and people are killed for it?… their standarts have gone out of the window if you ask me…
I love this show, and I dont care what others think, and the character of Iku is enjoyable for me
I’m cynical but I watch it anyway because
1.) The animation is good
2.) The story is good
3.) Likeable characters
4.) I’m watching anime. Logic doesn’t compute.
Anyway, <3 Toshokan ^^
Following Nagato’s comment ^^:
1.) It’s available in HD. Yay!
2.) I didn’t go to the library since ‘98, damn, I think it’s ‘95 or something
I can’t really understand those ppl bitching about TS.
It’s already a fact that media censorship is a massive problem of our world and what TS is showing us *might* become our everyday life in future.
To me, this series is very special.
I have a faible for realistic plots; realistic, straight and human characters. Second, I’m a glutton for books. I’m bibliophilic. I love reading.
That is exactly what I think.
Maybe *they* should turn off their computers and read a book - it’s good for their BRAINS.
I like Toshokan Sensou, but I still like to point out the loopholes. I just read Aroduc’s article about the Uncanny Valley in Power levels, and I think the Uncanny Valley actually applies in this case too. I.E. it’s easier to accept crazy things like flying lolis and robots throwing fireballs, but once things get pseudo-realistic we get turned off by the flaws. I think this theory is useful for understanding why some people have such a problem with TS.
I quite like TS but I only really watch it for the story and I agree with psgels that some of the characters could really do with fleshing out. TS strikes me as a show that would have benefited from a two season run opposed to the 11-13 episodes it’s getting.
In terms of the politics involved I wish it could have been a bit less black and white because I think it would only add to the show if they presented a more human face to the media enforcement people or the library making some mistakes every now and then.
While the people taking it too seriously and insulting it can descend into useless trollism I think it’s also true that there are people who like the show but see it not as a (fairly) light story but as the anime equivalent of 1984.
@psgels and Marmosette: as Marmosette has said, this series is suffering from a “limited episode constraint” problem… They were forced to remove parts of the novel which could’ve discussed more about the censorship issues, and all that =/
the anime is still enjoyable nonetheless, which is all good.
@EvilDevil: hm, I do think most of the ones complaining before have dropped the show already… or they’re at least repressing their negative sentiments now ^^;;
@Nagato and KYPMbangi: hehe yes, this anime is just <3
@Kabitzin: yeah, suspension of disbelief issues, especially with something portrayed to be realistic as this. Each of us have varying tolerance against these flaws I guess =/
Alrighty, my curiosity has overwhelmed me. Where the heck did you find that picture of Dojo and Kasahara in a field of daisies? I don’t see it on the official website.
@TinyRedLeaf: got that pic from moe.imouto.org, which you can check out here :3
OoooooOooOoo…I see nice wallpapers! :3
Especially the third one, “BeMyself”. Haha, I wished I could read the descriptions about Kasahara. I understand some of the headers though, eg, (1) Strong idiot; (3) Beautifully healthy legs (that sounds…perverted
); (4) A model’s physique? (pffftt…hahaha, Shibasaki would dispute that opinion)
Care to translate the rest?
Oh, btw, thanks for the Kurenai Ep9 reference in your latest blog entry. I’m surprised by the huge response I’ve received for that AnimeSuki post. I knew I was on to something, but I didn’t realise it would be that big. ^^;;
@tinyRedLeaf: you’re too modest hehe, you deserve all the credit really *gives virtual cookies to TRL*
sorry if this reply came too late, I sort of forgot about replying to this post lol.
(2) Full of emotions (she weeps, she laughs, she gets tsuntsun angry, gets deredere, GAR too :lol:) (5) her precious book
okay.. the “cynics” in question need to do their homework before they criticize. the idea of stifling free speech and controlling the media is not only one that is not entirely improbable, but one that has Already Happened. The Russian Revolution for god’s sake. Has noone read George Orwell?! and this isnt just about protecting books, its about not letting the government control society - do you not realize how much like puppets people would all be if the media was filtered from the time you were born?
All of that aside, i love the show
its not often that a military based story can keep my attention for so long!