Review of Toshokan Sensou (Library Wars)

My first contact with Toshokan Sensou was its anime. Prior to that, I had only known that the original novel was a big hit but there was never a motivation pushing me to check this out. By chance, I happened to watch the anime and was quickly hooked by the story and its characters. As such, when news about the Toshokan Sensou movie was released, I was eagerly awaiting for its screening in Singapore. And for bringing in this film, thanks are due to Filmgarde which has been screening quite a number of Japanese films recently and usually on an exclusive basis. The good thing, it's great for their business since they only have two cinema multiplexes. The bad thing, I have to travel a bit to watch their movies and when I'm busy, I find that I miss films I want to watch because I just don't have the time or mood to do the travelling on a weekend.

That aside, let me describe briefly what the story is all about. In 1988, there was a new law passed in Japan which was meant to eradicate any reading materials perceived to be harmful for the young or those seen to be infringing on human rights or disrupting public order. As a result of the new law being passed, an organisation named Media Improvement Committee was set up which confiscated and destroyed any books they perceived to have infringed the law. However, the committee could not actually lay hands on public libraries at will because the latter was protected under the library freedom laws which allowed them to stock so-called problematic books and let the public access them. This led to some activists viewing public libraries as a source of evil and an unannounced shooting attack and arson at the Hino Public Library in 1999 (referred to as the Nightmare of Hino) caused the Libary Forces to become a full-fledged defence force with their weapons so as to guard against the Media Improvement Committee which sometimes resorted to force in order to raid the libraries.

The heroine of this story, Kasahara Iku (Eikura Nana) joins the Library Forces after being "saved" by a "Prince Charming" when she was in the final year of senior high school. At that time, Kasahara happened to be in a bookstore to buy the final volume of a book series she loved but the Media Improvement Committee came by and wanted to confiscate her book. Despite being threatened that she will be hauled to the police station for theft when Kasahara refuses to let the Committee confiscate her book, she still fights hard. Just then, someone from the Library Forces come by and exercises his authority to acquire the books in that store for the public libraries so that the Committee cannot take away them. Kasahara is so thankful for this gesture and resolves to join the Library Forces so that she can meet her Prince Charming again.

However, things are not so smooth-sailing for Kasahara although she is one of the few female members in the Library Forces and is known for her athleticism. She has a hard time picking up professional knowledge about libraries e.g. categorising and locating books for users and is rather careless (not handcuffing an armed thief at the library after throwing the guy onto the floor). As such, she keeps getting scolded by her instructor Doujou Atsushi (Okada Junichi) for her poor performance. In return, she mocks Doujou for being a chibi because he is shorter than Kasahara which unfortunately gets overheard by Doujou again. Looking on at their constant bantering with amusement is Doujou's friend Komaki Mikihisa (Tanaka Kei) and Kasahara's roommate and buddy Shibasaki Asako (Kuriyama Chiaki) who is in the operations department. To make things worse, she is also belittled by her fellow teammate Tezuka Hikaru (Fukushi Souta) who doesn't think that Kasahara deserves to be in the combat section of the Library Forces.

After going through her first defence operation at the library against the Media Improvement Committee, Kasahara is stunned by how dangerous it can be and it's a life-threatening situation each time because the Library Forces only aim to defend but the Committee would not hesitate to kill in order to achieve their aim of breaking into the libraries. At the same time, Tezuka starts to see Kasahara in a different light and even asks her to be his girlfriend but she is too smitten with her Prince Charming and vows to find him. However, when it's revealed that this Prince Charming is actually her arch enemy Doujou, he keeps the truth from Kasahara and makes Komaki do the same because he thinks that it won't do her any good to know.

The climax finally arrives in the form of a transportation operation where a rich man's collection of banned materials that will threaten the survival of the Media Improvement Committee are to be sent to the public library. However, to intercept the deliveries, the Committee is going all out to stop the Library Forces. Kasahara is dropped from this mission which she fails to understand why and gets angry at Doujou for belittling her again. Kasahara is then sent to protect Nishina, the Commander of the Library Forces, to attend the funeral of the rich man but they get abducted by an unknown group which threatens the Library Forces to give up the materials or else Kasahara and Nishina will be killed.

Despite being the movie being relatively long (about 2 hours or so), I thought this was pretty well-paced. There's a fair bit of attention on the relationships between the characters and enough explanation given on how the situation with the Media Improvement Committee has developed over the years so in terms of the structure, I think it's rather sound. However, if you compare this with the anime or perhaps the novel, I think there's a bit more room to show the developing romance between Doujou and Kasahara but in the movie, the romance factor is somewhat toned down. Maybe it's just me, I do think that Okada Junichi and Eikura Nana fit the images of Doujou and Kasahara but when you place them together, they feel like an awkward couple and sparks are somewhat missing so in a way, I'm thankful that the film doesn't force them to act lovey-dovey or confess their feelings for each other in a mushy manner. Sometimes, the best things should be left unsaid since they already know what's going on.

Kuriyama is exactly how I imagined Shibasaki to be so her casting was a good choice. I understand that the author had actually modeled Shibasaki based on Kuriyama's image so it's no wonder that the character is a perfect match with her. Tanaka Kei as Komaki was also quite interesting because he did bring out the cheeky side of Komaki. Fukushi Souta looks a bit too skinny to match the brawny and rougher image of Tezuka but other than that, I don't have a lot to pick on his acting.

One particular thing I would to highlight is the amount of detail paid to the fighting scenes. In most situations, the moves don't usually pack a lot of punch but Okada really showed that his martial arts training since "SP" is really put into good use here. As such, the combat scenes he was in really helped to kick up the excitement factor a lot.

Overall, I think this is a pretty entertaining film to watch. For those who are looking forward to the romance between Doujou and Kasahara, you may be very disappointed though because things remain rather ambiguous between them throughout the film. Nonetheless, for its smart casting choices and ability to keep most of the key factors balanced within 2 hours, I have to give it credit.

And my ratings for this movie...

Story: 7 out of 10 (Given the limited time, the story structure was largely intact although some portions which I saw in the anime were not featured here)

Acting: 7.5 out of 10 (On the whole, credible performances from the cast)

Theme song: NA (Don't remember hearing any theme song so I'm not giving any marks for this)

Visual effects / Scenery: 7 out 10 (Most of the scenes were indoors but I didn't really feel bored. Visual effects-wise, I like how the action scenes were filmed, packs a lot of punch without a lot of fake moves.)

Teamwork / Chemistry: 8.5 out of 10 (Not so much for Doujou and Kasahara but rather them with their respective buddies)

Total: 30 out of 40