Library Wars vol 1: Love and War, Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa
The thing that irritates me about this manga is that the concept is exactly what I want out of life. Badass girl joins Library Defense Force to prevent government from censoring and banning books. Heck, even the concept of a Library Defense Force makes me super, super happy. Unfortunately, the actual manga is less right up my alley.
So it's good, I do want to put that out there, but it isn't what I was expecting it to be. The basic story follows Iku Kasahara as she lands her dream job as a member of the Library Defense Force, and then runs face first into the reality of the job and how hard it is. For bonus annoyance, her instructor doesn't seem to like her and gives her a hard time. The trappings of the story are pretty great, but unfortunately the story itself is really, um, generic? Kasahara is the tomboy among masculine men, trying to prove herself and fit in, and also there's a love triangle and I am presently So Over love triangles.
The art is pretty nice, and the translation's good. I found the plot of individual chapters a little difficult to parse, and of course there was the whole love triangle thing, but I quite enjoyed Kasahara, klutzy and ditzy as she was, and her relationship with her one female friend (whose name I sadly don't remember as she was cool). The boys were far more irritating and I didn't really bother remembering their names.
Overall, I think it's just a little too generic for me. I will happily recommend this to anyone starting on manga, or anyone who enjoys that kind of story, but it's not for me.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/391125.html. Please comment over there if possible.
So it's good, I do want to put that out there, but it isn't what I was expecting it to be. The basic story follows Iku Kasahara as she lands her dream job as a member of the Library Defense Force, and then runs face first into the reality of the job and how hard it is. For bonus annoyance, her instructor doesn't seem to like her and gives her a hard time. The trappings of the story are pretty great, but unfortunately the story itself is really, um, generic? Kasahara is the tomboy among masculine men, trying to prove herself and fit in, and also there's a love triangle and I am presently So Over love triangles.
The art is pretty nice, and the translation's good. I found the plot of individual chapters a little difficult to parse, and of course there was the whole love triangle thing, but I quite enjoyed Kasahara, klutzy and ditzy as she was, and her relationship with her one female friend (whose name I sadly don't remember as she was cool). The boys were far more irritating and I didn't really bother remembering their names.
Overall, I think it's just a little too generic for me. I will happily recommend this to anyone starting on manga, or anyone who enjoys that kind of story, but it's not for me.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/391125.html. Please comment over there if possible.