Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kiiro Yumi
Translation: Kinami Watabe
What They Say
Fighting censorship at her hometown art museum, Iku Kasahara and her fellow Library Forces team members are involved in a fierce skirmish in which several ranking officers are severely injured. The damage is far reaching, causing a rift in the Library Forces management that makes Iku question her place in the organization. In the midst of this controversy, Iku’s relationship with her direct supervisor, Dojo, grows more intimate when a long-discussed tea-date begins to sound more like a romantic liaison!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The combat promised last volume finally breaks out, with a bloody battle resulting over the controversial art. It’s a bit weird seeing serious action after so much love and politics, and thanks to the fierce determination of the Media Betterment Committee forces, a lot of blood is shed. Iku even ends up opening fire on the enemy at one point, and though she doesn’t kill anyone this causes her to absolutely break down. Though our heroes are victorious in repelling the enemy and preventing censorship, Iku is left in shambles.
After the battle, the anti-violence group appears to stir up a frenzy, but some harsh words from the governor show that at least someone understands the plight of the Library Forces. However, before things can start to improve, armed terrorists appear to destroy the art. Chief Genda stands firm, protecting the work with his own body, though he takes quite a few bullets in the process. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Yokota is also injured while preventing Director Suguhara from committing arson in a mad attempt to keep away the censors.
The rest of the volume is spent on the clean-up from the incident. With Chief Genda hospitalized and Commander Inamine taking responsibility, emotions are at a high. Will Iku be able to keep it together, or will the pressure get to her once more?
In the bonus story we see our heroes affected by a strange phenomenon in the vast underground stacks.
In Summary
This volume is a bit of an odd one, yanking things from the realm of the political and back into the military. It’s definitely a bit odd seeing weapons being used to solve problems after so much non-violence in the past. At the very least the contrast isn’t lost on Iku, who is definitely effected by the bloody battle, which is nice to see. The back half of the volume is back to business as usual, though, wrapping things up in a more normal manner. With its differing tone and lack of large character development this book feels a tad weak, but at the very least it makes for a bit of a change of pace. Hopefully such direct confrontation will meld a little more smoothly in the future, but for now this remains an interesting if flawed entry into the series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: April 1st, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
