Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 12



Just when you’d think that this show couldn’t get any better: Hamy’s background. Holy crap, the first time we see her she’s totally not what you’d expect of her.

This really was an episode well spent, as it shows how Hamyuts met Barori, joined the Armed Librarians and quickly grew to become one of their top members. You can really see her gradually become that homicidal maniac that we’ve all come to know in the rest of the series. I think the most interesting part is where the young Hamy says to Barori that if he’s able to kill her, the world will be saved. Also how the current Hamy is constantly looking to be killed, as if she wants to be stopped, it really seems like she is this series’ mega-bomb that can destroy the world. Now the question remains: if she knows this, if she knows this, then why doesn’t she just commit suicide? Does she simply see her destiny as a game or something?

It’s also interesting to see Volken back again, but this time as a little kid. His shadow really lurks over this series ever since he left. And if Hamy is really this series’ antagonist, you could actually consider him to be the protagonist. Just a protagonist who has very, very, very little airtime when compared to other protagonists.

I’m also glad that the romance in this show is for once mature, instead of those silly teenaged romances that never really seem to get anywhere.Yet another thing about this series that’s refreshing.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

8 thoughts on “Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 12

  1. I think Hamy’s reason for not killing herself is similar to Shiron, in that perhaps she wants a fitting death that would appease “justice”. What she may be looking for is a person with a good sense of justice who can stop her, in the same way Shiron instead opted to turn herself in after confessing to her crime (its not entirely suicide as she did that to uphold proper justice that she would be judged precisely on her sin of omission.) I see this self-destructive similarity between Hamy and Shiron.

  2. The reason she doesn’t kill herself is probably due to some ”magic” explanation. There was a character earlier who tried to kill himself, because he feared the body’s original evil personality would return. I do hope it is something else, but this is the easiest explanation. This anime did avoid a lot of usual lazy plotting of the genre so far.

    I think there was some clue to that effect, scribbled in the ship from the first episode. And Volken left after deciphering its meaning.

    I like how Volken looked up to the previous acting director, who it turns out tried to kill Hamaya. Volken’s sense of justice seems to be coming from admiration for that man, yet we see him send Hamayas on a mission with high body count and order assasination.

  3. Such greatness! We finally get to see Hamyuts early years! What a blast! She seems to wish for someone who’d be able to kill her, like a “challenge” she fixed for herselh,you know, the aim of her life, her wish seems to be to find someone even stronger than her, which at the same time seems to be unreachable, she doesn’t believe in it herself, I guess. Her whole life looks a lot like a game where she keeps on winning and enjoying every single moment of it. I also loved the line she gave Barori: that ” you’re the only one by whom I don’t want to be killed”, usually we have ” it’s a bless to be killed by the person we love”, I refer to Clamp’s works…This series shines with originality anyway, it’s so good to see something that’s not a standart type of shows which end up boring or dull. A great work indeed!

  4. This series is tight. There doesn’t seem to be any unnecessary scenes or frames on every episode.

    It interesting to me that while the director and Barori were discussing Hamy’s enrollment, she was more interested in the Bantorra fresco in the ceiling.

  5. Hamy’s choice of not killin herself is logical, and expected of a well reasoned and rational person. Though Hamy is fatalistic, she is human, and it is very human of her to live her life through, we humans die, and are living lives, we live our lives even if we know we are fated to die, and Hamy is just doing that. It is funny that she embodies the truest spirit of the church of divine, she is a human who lives life irregardless of her bent, she does not lament it, nor does she shy away from it like most protagonists with an evil leaning, in certain animes, she just accepts it, and hopes one day she might die.

  6. Hm I always assumed Hamy was in someway a member or a part of the Church, considering her interaction with one of the head members after I think it was episode 9. My guess with Hamy and the Church is its a mutual gain for both, members strive to try and defeat Hamy adding color to their books while Hamy in that sense gets her excitement and a chance of death. As an accident to it her book becomes even more exciting to read for the head members of the Church who seem to only be interested in exciting books.

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