As the defense of their Musashino library comes to a close, Kasahara finally understands that she is still lacking in her ability to be a member of the Library Task Force. Even though she has done a good job to protect the books, it is apparent to Dojo that she is still not experienced enough to be completely independent.
In this episode, it is time for the defence of Odawara, a privately owned data bank that will soon be abandoned. How will Kasahara handle the pressure this time. Will a scenario like Hino’s nightmare happen again?
p/s: I will be involved in a sub of Library War. I have already translated Episode 2. For those who want actual word by word translation quality, I might not be able to do it since I am translating from Chinese to English (while hearing Japanese to make sure). However, I am confident to state that it will be mostly correct. So, look out for the episode 2 subs. I am also starting on the translation for Episode 3. You should see them soon somewhere. Do give me feedback when you do, all right? In fact, it will be released by Orange subs. Wait for our High quality Episode 1, 2 and 3.
Episode summary
Ayako asks for Kasahara’s response, and Kasahara says she told Tezuka that she will think about it. Kasahara states this is the first anyone has confessed to her. Ayako tells her that Tezuka is smart, good looking, serious, taller and is the son of the Library Association’s director. Kasahara feels queer to accept on those terms, but cannot find a reason against it either. The police is looking for help on a suspect from the Library, but is rejected by Inamine Kazuichi, the Leader of the Kanto District Headquarters.
One of the police is annoyed, but the other explained that it is the incompetence of the police that results in the Hino’s nightmare twenty years ago. Inamine was one of the survivors and lost trust in the police. It also results in the militarization of the Library. It is also reported that a famous businessman died in Odawara’s hospital. In the meeting room, they discuss about the closing down of Odawara’s Archival Center due to the death of the businessman. The Kanto Library is taking over the books, with murmurs from the lecture.
This is because the Archival Center contains material from the Media Purification Brigade Militia. It is likely that they will attack during the transfer. They have not done so as it is privately run, and all members are told to defend the Center while the materials are shipped using a helicopter. Kasahara is left off from the mission to protect Inamine. Kashara asks why she is left out, and Dojo bluntly says that she has not done anything to prove his trust on her.
It turns out that Genda actually wants Kasahara to go, but Dojo does not allow it. Ayako also reminds her that Kasahara cannot even take care of herself, much less responsibility. Tezuka confronts Dojo and tries to fight for Kasahara’s entrance. Tezuka also understands from Dojo’s explanation. Komaki says that Dojo should not work on his selfish impulse to protect Kasahara. Ayako also reminds Kasahara about the reason why Dojo does not trust her. Kasahara decides to learn security lessons from Ayako.
The next day, a reporter came to interview Kasahara, the first female in the Task force. Dojo says Kasahara will not be in the coming mission. At night, Tezuka leaves for Odawara and he asks for Kasahara’s response. Kasahara says she will give him a response next time. The next day, the Library Task force is fortified within the Archive Center. Kasahara is escorting Inamine to the closing ceremony of the Archive Center. They defend well, and despite the various casualties, are able to transport the two huge containers of books back to the Kanto Library after a ferocious gun fight.
Eventually, Genda reports that they have left some books (novels and magazines) for the Militia to confiscate, as it is part of a gentleman’s gift. They cannot allow the Media Purification Militia to return empty-handed. However, they also receive news that there are suspicious people appearing at the closing ceremony, and warns Kasahara. Dojo knows that this means trouble for Kasahara.
I was informed by Jen that novelist is a female. It is hardly surprising because there are feminist themes in this episode. Yes, it is a stereotype by me that females who writes about military themes often inject girl power. Yet, I like it. The clear revealing evidence is that Kasahara is actually the first female in history to be in the Task force, the elite forces of the Library. I believe with the harsh physical training, her role is definitely not customary purposes.
It proves something about the pursuit of areas that are mostly male-dominated. It also exhibits that no matter how clueless and normal Kasahara is (she’s not super human despite being the Bear Killer), she is a person you can relate to that will break the boundaries of a mainly patriarchal occupation. Other than high idealogical information, this episode shows a gun fight.
I feel that the gun fight feels somewhat interesting. It seems that the gun fight is not really to kill anyone (even though there are 13 known personnel injured). In a real fight, most of the gunfire is like cover fire. They cannot use artillery because it will result in carnage and destroy the information. That will give him extremely bad media coverage, particularly when the alternative media controlled by the Library is ready to screw them up. Open fire is legal, open warfare is just bad PR. You can dispute with me on this view, since it is filed with some loopholes.
Wow, wow and wow. I didn’t expect Dojo to be so blunt but it is just so amazing how he did it. I feel that he is right to do so though. Despite Kasahara’s physical ability, her mental skills have left much to be desired. If anything, she never truly thinks but works on her gut feeling. It might have proved her good to have trust in the right people, but it is also showing how she is unable to assume responsibility and safety. What good is a soldier if she can solve something but does not know what to do after that? Planning is paramount to success.
Oh, and Tezuka is not playing a prank on her. I wish she accepts his proposal…NOT. I am a firm Dojo x Kasahara supporter because they are just so cute together. I mean, when they quarrel, it’s so cute. When Dojo goes so stern on her, it is so cute. Everything about them has a cute vibe. What do you think? Is there any scene in this episode that strikes you deeply?
21 Comments
I don’t mind feminist themes. One of the greatest shames in Japan at the moment is how they sideline 50% of their population by refusing to let their women enter the workforce. One of my favourite writers, Neil Gaiman, is well-known for creating realistic female characters in his comics and novels. I’m a male chauvinist as much as any other guy, but that said, I’m all for having more female representation in fiction and real life.
Oh, so Odawara was a private library eh? And I thought the memorial service was for the victims of the Hino massacre. I don’t know how events transpired in the novel, but I think it makes very good sense that the militarisation of the Library Corps occurred after the Hino incident. Once lives are lost, the conflict becomes personal – neither side can back down anymore, because they are fighting in memory of the departed. That’s a pretty good explanation for why the two factions are at open war against each other, I feel.
Dojo drinks “Prince” beer. I take that as a big hint about his eventual status in the story.
Why do you think Tezuka was playing a prank by confessing to Kasahara? I can make a pretty good guess why he “thinks” she is attractive. He’s your typical egoistic, lone wolf kind of character who is used to looking after himself and doing everything on his own. Along comes Kasahara who selflessly puts herself in danger for the sake of teamwork, someone who by right should be harbouring a grudge against him. I think Tezuka was caught off-guard. He didn’t realise that such a person could exist, hence his proposal.
It does appear that the Library Task Force tries not to kill its adversaries, even though the MIB doesn’t seem to return the courtesy. I’m not sure if anyone would be so chivalric in real life, but hey, this is only a story. We’re supposed to support the good guys and hate the bad guys, so I can accept the slightly idealistic story-writing in this case.
Thanks for the speedsubs. If need be, I suppose I can help with the proofreading, but I probably won’t be able to work fast enough to keep up.
@TinyRedLeaf: I was told by someone that other fansub groups are already picking it up and hence was told to stop doing translation. That is perhaps a good thing since no one has to suffer from my attempt to do a translation. Heh heh. It’s amazing how people suddenly went in to do the subbing. So, I was told to keep out. Heh, just when I want to fool around.
Back to this, Odawara is supposedly a private library owned by a commercial. Oh, I need to go back to checking what the ceremony was for. I didn’t really bother too much with it since I was like “quick, i don’t care about you old man, I want my nice battle”.
Well, it is not only with Japan that 50% of the population is given a much lower social status. It is apparent in the media with the amount of female exploitation compared to males. Yes, it’s larger than life. However, it always has an element of truth.
One of the commands to Tezuka is that he is supposed to fire in order to deter the militia and not kill them at the start of the fortification. That clearly shows how they want us to like LTF compared to the other side. It will be more fun if there is a human side to the other party. Sigh.
By the way, here’s food for thought – at what point does information control become censorship? An interesting incident occured during this episode – a journalist happened to take pictures of Kasahara screwing up. Dojo politely requests that she gives Kasahara a break and not use those pictures and the journalist kindly agrees. It seems like the courteous thing to do, doesn’t it?
Question: Is this censorship, or not? If you were a newspaper editor, what would you do? What orders would you give your journalist?
You know, that is in fact a key phrase in communication studies: gatekeeping. Gate keeping is the process through which ideas and information are filtered for publication proposed by a famous communication scholar named Kurt Levin in 1947. Wow, you are like opening me up to my field of studies now.
It is in fact self-censorship, something that is carried out by many journalists due to the fear of breaking out of bound markers. In fact, even though it seems like a courteous thing to do, we are in fact subconsciously controlled by societal norms (the fact that taking a picture so meh is impolite) and peer pressure (Genda warning).
I am not sure about the model of other newspapers. In Singapore, there are often unstated things that cannot be reported on the news. Anything that results in the loss of public order is omitted without a trace. It’s pretty amusing. If it is down to me, I will probably follow that trend.
I will like to paste a rant I talked about the lack of gatekeepers in online publishing.
I think that to state that inaccuracy as promoted as a culture is a major hyperbole. Nonetheless, it is downright concerning when bloggers make big mistakes that clearly shows their lack of understanding of an episode. It makes me wonder a lot whether bloggers no longer bother to proofread their sources and understanding before writing.
In the Internet, no one is the gatekeeper. This is unlike traditional media with classical roles known as the editor. Anything can go out without restrictions. That is why errors are aplenty. However, under the tag of a blogger, accuracy is being dropped aside since they are not required to be accurate. They are here for an opinion.
That is fine if bloggers are not influential. However, they are. The Internet blogging community is starting to gain more audience who depends on them for ideas, opinions and the “truth” in things. Be it anime, politics, academia or any form of blogging, this is a trend where more people are reading blogs and influenced.
You can argue that people are educated enough to decipher from fact or lie. The thing is that there are very few people who are educated and discerning enough to see the difference. Moreover, many bloggers are well trained in writing. Those that are popular are popular for a reason. They can write and sway opinions.
In that case, raw watching bloggers now have a bigger task to fulfill. First, they are always the first few who blog a series. Second, they are the ones who are popular in the episode summary genre. Third, they are likely to be seen as authoritative voices on what is good or bad. When one makes a mistake by not fully understanding an entry, it becomes problematic. What if a show is supposed to be good, but is reviewed poorly due to a lack of understanding the native language?
What does anyone here think ^^? Quit lurking, heh.
Damnit, Impz! Episode 1 just got subbed yesterday (which I loved btw) and already episode 3 is out? I wish the subbers would hurry up! *sob sob* *missing out on all the Library War fun*
@Blissmo: We are now working on Episode 1, 2 and blame my lazy ass for not working on translating Episode 3. Support Orange-subs ^^. We will be releasing all 3 episodes by next week, hopefully.
Impz you’re doing the translations? That’s awesome!!
My chinese sub was in old characters, so I couldn’t get some of it. But anyway, what was the real reason Doujou didn’t let Kasahara on the mission? He says it’s because he doesn’t believe in her, but in the last episode he praised her during the helicopter roping thing. If it’s to protect her…maybe he likes her or something.
Also, Tezuka going all the way to convince Doujou to let her on the mission…that was nice of him. Still I’m very much a Kasahara/Doujou fan. ^^
I don’t get why Shibasaki was on a wheelchair though. She can walk, right? And the next ep preview in the ED shows Inamine with a gun pointed at him, with Kasahara by his side. Looks like things are gonna get intense.
It’s good to see so many people picking this up now.
despite the lateness of the subs. my faith in this anime has been justified by its overall greatness. my heart goes out to the subbers who picked this up.
I am sooo having lightbulb moments as I read the novel while watching this episode… and Impz, I think you’ll be happy to know that there are information-related stuff was omitted in this episode, one of which is spreading false information, as media people reported about how the Library is protecting the criminal and all that, by refusing to disclose any information to the police.
@Faye: It is more like he is trying to protect her. She clearly lacks the ability to think critically, depending more on her gut feeling than working like a soldier. She will definitely be a liability. However, as we all know, Dojo is pretty much a dumbass when it comes to informing people of things. However, he might be right in using a harsh method. Kasahara seems to be the type of person that has to be scolded of sorts to understand.
Shibasaki is sitting on a wheelchair to simulate Inamine. Remember that Kasahara ask her to help in security teaching. So, Shibasaki is emulating Inamine. In addition, Tezuka’s attempt to appeal to Dojo is so sweet. I didn’t expect him to go all the way. It’s bloody impressive!
Ya, I am doing the translation. It’s a bit meh @_@ for me. I never knew Translating is so hard work. I pray for the poor editors ^^.
@Setsuna: Support Orange subs then. We will release Episode 1 and 2 in the next few days hopefully. We do take some time ^^
@Setsuna-san
Barring spoilers from the novel, my personal guess is that Dojo is not entirely certain what he feels about Kasahara. As in, he’s not sure if he is romantically attracted to her, or if he’s attracted to her romantic idealism. He mentioned from Ep1 that it takes more than physical strength to become a Task Force member. In other words, he was also looking for strength of character, which he felt Kasahara lacked – she was treating her training like a game, which irritated him.
I suspect the clincher came when Kasahara blurted out her desire to follow in her Prince Charming’s footsteps. I think Dojo admired her determination and possibly wanted to help her achieve her goal, even though it seemed like a foolish idea.
Extrapolating from there, it becomes easier to understand why he prevented Kasahara from joining the Odawara defence operation. Dojo may have acknowledged her dream, but Kasahara has yet to prove her strength of character to him. Hence, he felt she was not ready for real combat.
A soldier’s first battle is always traumatic. Even the star rookie, Tezuka, froze during the Odawara battle, and had to be jolted back into action by his combat buddy. Kasahara would probably have crumbled under the pressure.
@Impz
Good points about self-censorship, but you’ve missed what I was getting at. The picture of Kasahara stumbling over Shibasaki puts her in very bad light, and would have been very bad PR for the Task Force, especially since they would prefer to put Kasahara in the spotlight for being the first female member of their special unit.
Yes, it’s self-censorship on the journalist’s part. But is it necessarily a bad thing? The journalist had to make a judgement call on the spot. It’s not so much a fear of stepping over out-of-bound markers here, but more a personal decision over what was the right thing to do.
So you see, I was actually trying to delve a bit deeper into media ethics.
Kitties are cute
Just finished seeing back to back the 3 (not very well done) subbed episodes for this series. I defo know now that I am jumping on the DojoxKasahara ship as well. Let’s hope Tezuka is just a side character to advance the plot or something ^^;;
Am on the lookout for episode 4 now – I am hoping to see Kasahara in live action ^_^ Impz, thanks once again for blogging this series. Will await Thursday’s summary
@Tiny: LOL, I wasn’t thinking about that. Sorry. Well, media ethics. That makes me wonder if I am too quick to judge it. Is it really self-censorship or having media ethics. Does creating media ethics mean that you have already self-censored, or that it is just not newsworthy. Questions. X_X
@Totali: Do you?
@Vsky: Heh, my fansub group is still working on it. Translation for all 3 episodes are done though. ^^ You might want to wait a bit. I mean, my translation really can’t go wrong, and the quality of the other 3 fansub groups are …less than stellar.
Support orange-subs ^^
I do hope the subs will be in Xvid format….the ones out now are all so large and my poor 2004 CPU cannot take it…. T____T
@Impz:
Oh, the photos were definitely newsworthy. The journalist did say they were “good” photos and that she regrets having to delete them. Having ethics doesn’t automatically mean self-censorship. However, it does mean that you recognise a difference between personal discretion and censorship.
Take the papparazi that hounded Princess Diana to death, for example, just for the sake of a few newsworthy pictures. There are a variety of reasons why those photojournalists think their actions were justified. It takes a fair amount of reflection to determine which reasons are “right” and which are “wrong”.
My thanks to all the fansubbers. Regardless of the current quality, the availability of translations has finally generated the attention this show needed. ^^b
You will be releasing Tenshou too, Impz?! That’s absolutely brilliant news!! This has made me one HYPER, happy bunny ^_^
I am definately going to rewatch all the episodes again. I KNOW for a fact that not all dialogues were translated, especially parts of episode 2 *cries*
Looking forward to the subs! Good luck
@Tiny: I won’t give them the name photojournalist. It’s an insult to that joke. They are merely tabloid reporters without any sense of ethics.
@Vsky: Ya, I know that we will be trying our best. The speed that we are getting the sub out is a bit slow. However, i can promise quality will be assured. ^^
I just watched the three episodes. They’re brilliant, and I’m dying for the next episode! Do you know when the episodes are released? And work hard at your subbing! Good luck! We’re all counting on you!
I was waiting for such a long time for someone to give attention to this anime. Everyone was praising and raving about it, and yet there were no resources being put into it. Thank-you for subbing and blogging this anime. Before I hopelessly watched the RAW episodes. I truly appreciate the efforts of those, like you, who give us non-Japanese speakers the opportunity to enjoy anime by expanding the available repertoire.
One of the most enjoyable animes this season.
Thanks for the quality subs!
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