OP Sequence
OP: 「 あたしの街, 明日の街」 (
Atashi no Machi, Ashita no Machi) by 高橋瞳 (Takahashi Hitomi)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1,
Mirror 2
Summary:
In the near future, the Media Improvement Act is passed to crack down on items that violate civil liberties and disturb public order, and censorship is enforced by a special committee. It is in this environment that a girl named Kasahara Iku tries to purchase a fairy tale book, but agents of the committee come to inspect the shop before she can do so, and they try to take the book. During the struggle, a member of the Kantou Book Corps arrives and stands up for Iku. A few years later, Iku is training at a Kantou Book base under watch of instructor Doujou Atsushi who she thinks treats her unfairly. She complains to her friend Shibasaki Asako during lunchtime and badmouths Doujou, but she panics when she realizes that he’s sitting behind her. Doujou is already well aware of how she calls him short and ill natured, and he claims that he can’t promise that this won’t affect his guidance. As Iku gets up to leave, Doujou notices that a letter dropped out of her pocket, but when he picks it up, Iku tells him to throw it away. It’s actually a letter to her parents, but Iku can’t send it because she knows that if she did, her parents would force her to go home.
Though the Media Improvement Act is in existence, there also exists a law that opposes it: the Library Freedom Act. Libraries are attached to local governments and oppose the central government on the grounds of this law, so they organized self-defense forces. The struggle intensified, and in the 30 years since the laws were enacted, this has developed into a full-scale armed conflict.
Summary in progress. Check back later.
ED Sequence
ED: 「changes 」 by Base Ball Bear
Watch the ED!:
Mirror 1,
Mirror 2
It’s been so long since I listened to a Takahashi Hitomi song (pretty much not since Blood+) that I didn’t really recognize her voice here. It’s actually a pretty good song though - slower paced and much better than I was expecting. I liked the ED song even more though (I really should go listen to more
Base Ball Bear), and the animation that went with the ED was just beautiful. Production I.G really outdid themselves with that.
-I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this other than to look forward to the fact that Inoue Marina is in this. The story is kind of convoluted and hard-to-take-serious with the whole library war thing, but it’s done well enough that it didn’t bother me too much.
-The real standout here though is the animation quality which, while it includes a ton of humorous SD-character shots and an almost excessive use of bold lines (see screenshots above), is very, very good. It’s hard to say if it’ll stay this way, but, regardless, there’s more than enough potential in this show for me to watch a few more episodes.
つづく