How awesome. The thing I was waiting for with this series was to end with a bang, and what a bang it is! You can see that it was cheesy, that’s no surprise at this point. However, I’m much more interested in how well this series concluded, and how much the creators managed to insert in this episode without self-destructing. Fast paced endings and flow paced endings take some completely different skill to work out well. With slow-paced ones, it’s really the point to allow the characters to develop into new heights. If not, then it’ll just turn out boring. With fast-paced endings, and a lot left open, it’s less of a concern to let everything happen naturally, and instead create an as big spectacle as possible, using the plot threads that you built up in the entire series, rather than just writing a boring action-scene and revealing the last number of plot twists like it was some kind of checklist.
I loved this ending, exactly because of that. It was just incredibly entertaining, and at the same time it really made use of its weird premise to actually give dead people a chance to shine, providing an ACTUAL REASON FOR IT. In fact, the story would not have made any sense if Hamyuts able to bring books into Ruruta: the entire circle comes together so wonderfully with that revelation. All along, it was the master plan to have Hamyuts and Chacoly both as individual attempts to penetrate into Ruruta and destroy him from the inside. This is why he tortured Hamyuts so that she became a masochist. Who knows what kind of horrible things he must have done to her in order to give her that power, but that part is left to our imagination.
The only big mystery here is why Hamyuts and Mirepoc were able to wield two powers. But hey, we’ve seen that it’s possible to transfer powers. With that in mind, Hamyuts probably brought Chacoly’s soul back, and tried to keep Mirepoc alive at all costs: her power to communicate to everyone, combined with Chacoly’s soul transference was an actual plausible way of saving the world in an over the top and cheesy manner. No longer is it just a godmode beam, but for once it’s well explained.
And then there was seeing everyone making a final appearance. In a show with such a high body count, this was beyond awesome to see everyone able to shine one more time, with actual reasons behind it, and actually having them end up dead at the end of the series: nobody who died got revived. Only asleep people got woken up. Ireia especially was just awesome.
then there’s Ruruta’s change of heart. Again, perhaps a bit too much. But you know what? This is a guy who has been doing everything for the person he loved, and he went as far as he did because he had the power to do so. Now that he’s lost his raison d’etre, having heard that all of his efforts were pretty much pointless, he actually tries to fix the mess he made. Not because he suddenly leaned the meanings of love and peace. Something tells me that he knew those all along. It’s more like, he just didn’t have any reason left not to save the world. He’s not like the lazy person who’d just give up and do nothing, given his 2000-year long quest to find the perfect book for his lover.
You know, you can really consider me a fan of David Production at this point. Despite how unknown the novels were, they gave it a chance and it worked out wonderfully. I’m really looking forward to whatever they have in sore next. Even if it’s just another trainwreck like Dogs Bullets and Carnage.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Thank you for putting it in words. That’s the important thing, everything was foreshadowed, nothing came from out of nowhere, no deus ex machina, we’ve known where this was going for a long time now, and what I loved was that despite Hamyuts getting a “good” end which she didn’t deserve, Volken is the one that gave it to her and that’s totally in character considering who HE is and has been. Noloty telling Enlike to “take care of my world” was so cool, and finally being able to kill because it wasn’t her world anymore…I dunno, I got chills repeatedly from this one…
Gotta say I agree. I can’t even complain about the cheese and what things I didn’t enjoy. It was very entertaining to watch and made a ride of itself. Have to say this was a fun finale, especially seeing all the old characters we got attached to return~ Holy cow, Ireia!
Ladies and Gentlemen, despite our different opinions on the Armed Librarians, its turely been a pleasure too read/chat about such an amazing show. most likely i’ll rewatch it all over again a few more times to see if they’ve answered a few questions i still have.
The last episode was fun , but it kind of felt like a captain planet ep “By your powers combined-” 😛
This series has been a fun ride for sure and I’m sad that it has ended. I’m actually hopping that there will be OVAs coming out to flesh out some of the character’s backstories more. Especially Ireia! Hell yeah, she must be one hell of an armed librarian back in her days!
I loved it as well, for more or less the same reasons.
Also, did anyone notice Fhotona’s appearance? One of the things I loved so much about this series as I do in others is the presentation of magic/power. Even in the last episode, a sub-sub character with great power is able to reveal it for such a short time (2 or 3 instances in the episode). The spontaneity (spelling?) of power strongly contributes to the outcome of this series as a whole.
IMO, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra was one of the better short-anime-series I’ve seen.
Ireia was epic =D. Volken was epic. Enlike n’ Hamy rocked; pretty much everyone did in spite the little screen-time they had. Loved seeing them all again, specially Feekie and Noloty.
A little bit cheesy, indeed; but still awesome, perhaps the best anime of the season, imho.
Agree with tk, there should definitely be a couple ova’s explaining some more of the characters backgroungs -> Ireia 😉
Marathoned this in a couple of days … since it was your best show of the year … and quite frankly I never heard of it before … was definitely an entertaining ride … enjoyed Brotherhood much more but this show quite wins in unknown orginiality I suppose … Judging from the comment count no one else watched it LOL.
i think the last 3 episodes were definitely lacking a bit, could have been less rushed but oh well. i don’t get why people write such bad comments about the series if they didn’t “enjoy” it. you could have dropped the series half way and go on with your life.
anyways i was really happy to see noloty and volken (my 2 favourite characters). i wasn’t too happy with the ending but at least it made sense. i think the plot was really good, everything tied in and if it wasn’t for your reviews…i might have missed a few links.
Moochi, wtf are you saying? Aren’t people allowed to write comments unless they’re praises? Man, what kind of censorship is that?
The series was great, but I really felt the creators ruined Hamy’s character in the last arc…
I have mixed feelings on this show. The story telling throughout the series was very strong, and it inspired very strong feelings against everyone responsible for manufacturing meaningless conflict and brutality.
I could not change how I felt about those characters despite the final episodes’ attempt at redemption or at least mitigation of their crimes.
It was an intriguing series with very compelling storytelling at times. Following along with the blog and noting how differently we interpreted each episode added to my enjoyment, so I thank you for that as well.