(Then he got in a fight with EVA 02 over who wears pylon shoulder pads better.)
The tentacle is made out of an old USB cable, shrink plastic, hot glue, enamel paint, foil insulation tape, blue marker, and a spray-on clear coating.
After viewing a probably unhealthy amount of anime over the years, I am convinced there is a sub-genre of action anime about magical librarians. Here are reviews of five examples of anime featuring magical librarians followed by two examples of anime concerning less fantastical librarians.
Read or Die [“R.O.D.” or “R.O.D. -THE TV-”]
This is probably the most well known magical librarian series out there. There are at least three versions to deal with here: the manga, the OVA (Read or Die), and the TV series (R.O.D. the TV). For the sake of this review, I’m focusing on the latter two. Both of them are enjoyable action anime. The OVA focuses on Yomiko Readman, a bibliomaniac who has the power to manipulate paper and works for the British Library’s secret Special Operations Unit. Her meek personality contrasts with her femme fatale partner Nancy who has the ability to phase through solid objects. Together they battle evil superpowered clones of historical “Great Men” after they attack the Library of Congress to gather old books containing secrets to a great weapon. The TV series takes place five years after the OVA and instead focuses on three unrelated paper-manipulating sisters from Hong Kong. They become bodyguards of Japanese author Nenene Sumiregawa, but on the side they do odd jobs as agents of Dokusensha, which on the surface is a Chinese publisher. While at first it starts out as an action comedy series, it gets deeper into the dark mysteries and conflicts surrounding Dokusensha and the British Library.
Armed Librarians: The Book of Bantorra [Tatakau Shisho or “Fighting Librarians” or just “Book of Bantorra”]
In a world where people turn into stone slabs containing their memories when they die, librarians with magical powers are entrusted with protecting them from a cult that would use the books for selfish ends… or so they think. Cons: There’s a ton of characters that have confusing and often weird-sounding fantasy names. Many of them are killed off for the sake of forced-feeling drama in most arcs. Pros: I’m a sucker for this fantasy world building that just so happens to have 1930’s aesthetics. Overall it’s an enjoyable action series with some memorable arcs and characters. Hamyuts Meseta is the scariest bad-ass pragmatist library director you’ll ever see.
Darkness, Hat and the Book Traveler [Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito or Yamibou for short]
While I was intrigued by this series’ plot pitched to me as “inter-dimensional magical book-jumping lesbians searching for their lost crushes”, I have strong mixed feelings about this series. While I do like the premise, it is based on a hentai/ecchi game so there are quite a bit of adult themes that are, er… detracting from the plot to say the least. Also, the story is really jumpy, offers little to no explanation as to what’s going on, and is clearly made for people who have played the original game. I can’t strongly recommend this one.
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian [Dantalian no Shoka or Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian]
This series follows the adventures of Huey (a young and armed gentlemanly WWI RAF veteran polyglot) who inherits his grandfather’s library and Dalian (a bossy tsundere magical book personification with a soft spot for pastries) as they travel around the British countryside during the inter-war years. They track down magical books that should not exist in our world before they cause too much damage in the wrong hands. Cons: Bad pacing. It didn’t sell well so they crammed everything into one season so it had a rushed ending and secondary characters you see in the opening barely get one episode of screen time. Pros: Liked use of archival photographs in certain parts and photo-realistic backgrounds. I found the main characters endearing, even the tsundere. See the above note from Bantorra about being a sucker for fantastical 1920’s/30’s aesthetics. It also has well animated action scenes.
Non-Magical Librarian Anime
These two anime will strike a chord with anyone who’s worked in libraries or has studied towards their LIS degree since they are related to real librarian work.
Kokoro Library [Kokoro Toshokan or “Heart Library”]
It’s about the daily lives of three sisters as they run the library they inherited from their parents. The problem is it is in such a remote location that there will be weeks on end where they have no patrons, yet they keep trying for the library to continue existing no matter what. Cons: A bit too sickeningly sweet with the cute girl show tropes and visual style (i.e. bug-eyed little girls running around in maid outfits) for my tastes. Pros: Deals with real world library problems like trying to get public grant money, tracking down missing books, and attracting more users to their small remote library. Overall it does appear to be a cute slice-of-life series about running libraries.
Library War [Toshokan Sensou]
Imagine Fahrenheit 451 but where librarians were authorized to fight back with force. In an alternate timeline where the 1989 “Media Betterment Act” was passed in Japan, militant radicals soon used it to ruthlessly censor the press. Local governments responded by pushing to amend library freedom laws and allowed libraries to defend their books and information with military force from those that would destroy or misuse it. This story takes place in 2019 when a girl is inspired to become a militant librarian after her “Prince Charming” (a high-ranking librarian) saves the new fantasy book she desperately wanted to read from armed censors. I found this series cute with episode titles like “Reference Query of Love”. The romance stuff is balanced by action and intrigue plus it promotes the role of librarians as defenders of books, freedom of information, citizens’ rights and privacy.
Someone in my program made a macro of what they learned while attaining their MLIS.
This is glorious and should be our school t-shirt next year (even the part about our program not being entirely reputable).
;_;
Some quickly colored sketches of Springer and Impactor because I’m loving the Wreckers being featured in Prime.
Kinda hoping Impactor’s death is part of an elaborate Autobot cover-up and he’s really MIA or secretly in prison for war crimes. To think only a few millennia ago he was drinking buddies with a certain fellow miner turned gladiator with a bad poetry habit.
Springer, are there even triple changers in this universe?
![informationscienceantelope:
[Have a class in the rare books collection, flail wildly with joy]
That feeling when you’re surrounded by centuries of books and history HHHNNNGGGG~♥
This semester I got to cross two things off my bucket list due to classes/projects in my university’s rare books sections:
touch the vellum of a medieval illuminated manuscript (The librarian treated us since he rarely gets students really into this stuff, so he showed us the difference in texture between the flesh and skin side of animal vellum. He’s such a cool dude.)
handle a first-edition double elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of America (I was flailing internally at the sight of this huge multi-million dollar book at my fingertips. The colours of the paintings were still vivid after all these years. I’ve been an Audubon nerd since the 2nd grade so getting the rare chance to see the book in person and dork about Audubon with someone else was a nice opportunity.)
Is it odd that my bucket list mostly comprises touching old books and eating things plus or minus a visit to the Great Barrier Reef and Galapagos Islands?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0llu8kGse1r8rqtqo1_500.jpg)
[Have a class in the rare books collection, flail wildly with joy]
That feeling when you’re surrounded by centuries of books and history HHHNNNGGGG~♥
This semester I got to cross two things off my bucket list due to classes/projects in my university’s rare books sections:
Is it odd that my bucket list mostly comprises touching old books and eating things plus or minus a visit to the Great Barrier Reef and Galapagos Islands?
lather rinse sulk repeat
#so for the record #anyone who thinks they’re watching transformers prime because of chira #is actually watching it because of my roommate #she used me to get to her #and thereby vicariously all of you #it was a long con #how deceptive of her #get it #do you see what I did there #that was a pune or a play on words #odie #best roommate #worst enabler #for real though optimus is pretty moe
Yeah, you should have been there for her villainous monologue explaining the intricacies of her long term master plan to get more people into Transformers Prime. She’s been working on this plan since last summer by customizing viewings to episodes that she knows will pique that person’s interest. For most people it’s Starscream or Knock Out episodes. But for you, dear Peep, she knew she needed to try something different and that’s where she knew it was going to be a certain robot with a penchant for puns and a permanent lesson on his face. One by one they fall neatly into her trap.
See that derpy face? That is the derpy face of a true manipulative mastermind.
This is what I did with my free time over winter break. I haven’t set aside the time to sculpt in years so I made a point of devoting most of that week to some creative pursuits. Glad to see I’m not completely rusty at it, though I can’t say the same about my painting skills.
Phoenix Sculpture
Materials: air dry clay, wire armature, enamel paint
Height: just under 6 in / 15 cm
Wingspan: 9.5 in / 24.5 cm
Hey. Hey Odie. Remember that thing from a month ago you partially requested? I finished it.
(but not after redesigning them five times a piece, never being fully satisfied and then just going “fuck it, that’ll do…” and move on with my life otherwise I’d never finish a piece of art ever. Still a few things wrong with it but I’m too lazy to fix’em. Hope you like it regardless and that Megantron’s eye’s are derpy enough for ya. ♥)
—Because most of the time it’s no big deal, okay cool someone liked the cut of my jib, whatever, and we both get on with our lives. But then sometimes it’s someone who knows me, only the name is different and they aren’t linked to an lj or anything I recognize! So now every time it’s like oh no, I don’t know them do I, no of course not that’s silly they just came here for homestuck they don’t want any of my bullshit
but what if they do
what if we were friends in another world and they’ll be mad if I shun them
what if
I’m shunning people right now
PEEP DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM PEEP DO YOU
BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T I WILL BE QUITE CROSS
SO VERY VERY CROSS
*makes a tumblr under a different username and doesn’t link to their lj*
*follows you*
*makes the guilt and worry eat you from the inside*
≖‿≖
