This show just continues to blow my mind with every episode. This episode again did such a wonderful job of tying the whole arc together in one heck of a climax. This show doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, does it?
Okay, so the big secret? The white-haired guy can absorb books. Therefore he can absorb souls and gain their powers. Absorbing powers isn’t totally new, but within the context of this series it gets a totally new dimension. The kid (Enlike Bishile) whose story we kept seeing is basically just a Meat with his bomb removed (I assume this, at least), who was trained in a magic power, just so that his book could be absorbed by this guy.
What caused the breakdown of this guy was that Enlike somehow managed to take control over the guy’s original body. I can see this happen: nobody said that those powers are 100% accurate. His powers are very rare and unknown, and therefore he might indeed not have known what would happen if one would absorb too many books. Really, the magic system in this series is just so imaginative and well-detailed.
And the animation! While the fight scene with Noloty wasn’t quite of Birdy the Mighty, it actually came damn close; I totally take back when I said that the animation in this show would be simple. These animators here rock.
There was one part that I might have missed though: what did the old guy mean with that Enlike rejected Hamyuts Meseta’s smile? Or is this something that still needs to be revealed. After all, what was up with that blond guy? I suspect that he also has an entire backstory left to tell. And the old, bearded guy also is still a complete mystery: In the last episode, you could see that he was against the church, but here you can see him talk with other people from the church like it’s nothing. What is up with him?
Seriously though, this series is exactly why I like anime. Those series that show up completely at random and blow you away.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
About rejecting Meseta’s smile: he rejected to smile when he sadistically kills someone (as Meseta does). Thats my theory at least.
And I agree with you: this show is awesome.
His initial goal was to smile before he dies. The old guy told him he will be smile if he were to kill. He was then shown a vision of Hamyuts Meseta’s “smile” after killing. But he claimed that it is not a real smile. So he’s basically rejecting the idea that smile can be derived from killing.
I don’t know if ‘series that show up completely random’ fits 戦う司書… After all it’s a novel adaption so it doesn’t really show up, it’s just that there’s an anime version now. And I’d presume that there are more interesting novel series out there than interesting anime series… or I’d even dare saying that out of the current series I’m enjoying the novel adaptions the most… (umineko, bungaku and bantorra)
Don’t get me wrong, there are fantastic anime series out there and my favorites are mostly series that aren’t based on any other original work like a manga or a novel… I just want to know where series like these are nowadays. For me the only ‘recently’ produced series I really liked were titles like Ergo Proxy, Noein, Dennou Coil and well yeah Arjuna, even if it’s quite old already. All my other top series are either adaptions (e.g. MONSTER, Higurashi if you disregard the horrible production values of the 1st season and all the cutting) or from the 90s (e.g. Serial Experiments Lain, KEY the metal idol, Utena if you disregard the manga and yeah… NGE as well, somehow)…
It’s entirely possible though that I’m just a very picky person since I also don’t find that many manga series that totally catch my interest. At the moment I’m reading like… 4 series. Games aren’t considered in this evalution since I’m only looking for RPGs and visual novels anyway.
This whole post isn’t supposed to sound like I’m becoming desperate concerning japanese popculture, it’s just that my interest is more and more shifting into the novel corner, which can be quite frustrating since reading those books can be quite exhausting. For example I’d love to read 戦う司書 right now but I have to finish so many others before I can do that…
I hope there’ll be more than the announced 13 episodes for Bantorra. Otherwise we’ll only get to the end of the 3rd novel. 9 have been released so far…
I was half right about that guy absorbing power , I just aren’t able to figure out their both different individual. that happen since I still new to this fantasy world, glad they explain it pretty well
I like the first “arc” a little better though. personally I expect Noloty “arc” to be the weakest. However since Noloty “arc” pretty good. I surely expect better from the rest of the cast
I thought of Birdy when I saw that scene too.
The ability was mostly predictable, although I never thought that the personalities existed in a muddy space inside of the host. I just figured that a side-effect of absorbing powers from the books was that he also absorbed their personalities as well, and gave him a little MPD. For some reason that guy was a special case. The ability, besides being predictable, was cheesy. They go through the process of claiming everyone can have only one magic ability, solely for the purpose of breaking it with the ability to wish for more wishes.
I’m also curious about whether the original books return when he dies.
I think the best aspect of the story for me is how much the dead influence the living through their books. How the perspectives and motives of seemingly hopeless people are radically altered when they finally understand others, which they can do rather easily when death strips people of their defenses and leaves them as open books. I have no idea if it will be a consistent idea in the rest of the show, but seeing the ramifications of preserving experiences is more interesting than the routine magic battle stuff. It reminds me a little of The Final Cut, but without the Luddite moralizing.
I keep falling behind this show by a couple episodes, but here I am caught up again. And I always end up being very very entertained. xD I mean, I really love Aoi Bungaku and Umineko, but I’m just completely immersed in each Armed Librarians episode. I hope the show keeps it up! And it feels like it’s been forever since we’ve seen Volken.. xD