Just over four years after the anime inspired by Hiro Arikawa‘s light novels ended, a movie was released. A little while after that the Blu-ray followed as did the subs and finally my review. All I can say is: it’s good to see Library War back.
For those of you unfamiliar with the original Library War (Toshokan Sensou), it’s a coming of age police drama set in a Japan where freedom of speech is not a right, and censorship is at an all-time high. Two groups exist; the Librarians and the Media Cleansing Bureau, each of which serve to either protect freedom of enforce censorship of media. The heroine is a clumsy girl by the name of Iku Kasahara, on the side of Librarians, as she fights against the injustice with her comrades and a certain, irritable instructor by the name of Atsushi Dojo.
Library War ended up flying under the radar in a decent but not extraordinary 2008. As far as stories go, it’s something that may seem irrelevant to those of us in the West but has great significance. Especially in Japan, where in recent years laws have been passed to censor print media – laws restricting content in manga amongst other things – it has a political voice you don’t usually see in anime nowadays.
Well enough about the original. If you haven’t seen it, I’d say it’s worth a watch but as far as recommending it goes, it’s a little more difficult. Anyhow, back to the movie.
After the TV series wrapped up pretty nicely and conclusively, there wasn’t anything to complain about. No sad feelings about having it end because the series had run its course quite well and left almost nothing unresolved. What the movie does for the fans of the original series is resolve the ‘almost nothing’ left at the end of the series. More specifically, it gives us closure in the romance department which we didn’t actually get with the TV series.
You can think of Wings of Revolution as 1h 30min episode of Library War. The story used for the movie is right in line with what you get in the TV series and what’s more, it feels appropriate for a movie of this length. It doesn’t come off as something we could have seen in the TV series, making it all the more worthwhile to watch.
Same political commentary, same streamlined plot and a lot action to drama to keep things moving along nicely. As I said, right in line with what you get in the TV series and a little more since it’s just one story we’re focusing on and not a number of instances. At times, the movies is preferable to the original series because of its singular story and as I’ve already mentioned, it gives us closure for the romance. How it does the latter is by easing us back into the story at the beginning and then developing the romance even further in the movie before giving it the ending we’ve been waiting for.
I’d like to say more on the movie on its own, but I don’t think I can without looking back at the series. Wings of Revolution is intended to be a supplement to the Library War series. A nice conclusion to watch after 12 episodes, and a pretty decent conclusion at that. Unlike other movies of its kind, it doesn’t get better animation and that’s fine since the animation was never a selling point.
Cutting things short; it’s good. It’s a fine addition to the continually popular Library War franchise – some live actions are under way – and I’d recommend it to those who’ve seen the original. If for no other reason than to watch the romantic couplings come to fruition.