Japon, novembre 2019. La censure gagne du terrain. Les abords de la bibliothèque N° 1 de Musashino sont occupés quotidiennement par des manifestants favorables à la loi d’Amélioration des médias – qui étend toujours davantage son pouvoir de censure. C’est dans ce contexte agité que la jeune Iku Kasahara s’apprête à recevoir la visite de ses parents. Mais ces derniers ignorent que leur fille, loin d’être une simple bibliothécaire, appartient au prestigieux Groupe d’Intervention, l’unité d’élite dont la mission est de protéger les livres contre les raids de l’Agence d’amélioration. Iku réussira-t-elle à donner le change ?
Hiro Arikawa won the tenth annual Dengeki Novel Prize for new writers for Shio no Machi: Wish on My Precious in 2003, and the book was published the following year. It was praised for its love story between a heroine and hero divided by age and social status, and for its depiction of military structures. Although she is a light novelist, her books from her second work onwards have been published as hardbacks alongside more literary works with Arikawa receiving special treatment in this respect from her publisher, MediaWorks. Shio no Machi was also later published in hardback. Her 2006 light novel Toshokan Sensō (The Library War) was named as Hon no Zasshi's number one for entertainment for the first half of 2006, and came fifth in the Honya Taishō for that year, competing against ordinary novels.
She often writes about the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and her first three novels concerning its three branches are known as the Jieitai Sanbusaku (The SDF Trilogy); she also wrote about the fictional Library Forces in the Toshokan Sensō series. Raintree no Kuni, which first appeared as a book within a book in Toshokan Nairan was later published by Arikawa as a spin-off with another publisher. It was adapted into a film titled World of Delight released on November 21, 2015.[2][3]Her novel Shokubutsu Zukan (ja) will be adapted into a film titled Shokubutsu Zukan: Unmei no Koi, Hiroimashita and scheduled for release on June 4, 2016.
Well this one was much more political than the first volume, so much, that it was a times hard to follow, but that might be because I didn't read it in my mother tongue. Of course it was really interesting and only now do you see how grand the picture of that society and their policitcs really is. Then of course we have Iku finally realizing that Dojo is her prince. I can't wait to read the next one!!
Toshokan Nairan, second novel that the manga Library Wars: Love and War is based on. This has the scene where Iku finds out who her prince is. Hilarious!
This time, I was not that annoyed by Iku's attitude, maybe because she seems to evolve, and to be less and less naive. She may not be super reactive intellectually speaking, and a little absent-minded, but I really loved her in this volume! My favorite character stays Shibasaki; we discover more about her, her feelings, her life philosophy, her mindset. I also loved Dojo, Komaki and Tezuka. Really I'm now attached to all of these characters, and just want to keep reading the series to know more!
The plot gets more complex, with new characters, and new political threats. I really love this aspect, the fact that there is a whole universe behind the story of the characters we follow. It's interesting to discover this kind of alternative version of nowadays, as the action takes place in 2019, which is not this far! I also loved that every plot joined in the end to form a coherent book, full of surprises!
This series might be the only one in which I want romance! I want them to be happy, and to form a group of friends/couples in which I feel safe.
Did I mention how much I love this series so far? And I can only see it getting better with the next volumes. (Again, review in English below.)
[Ma review du tome 1 de cette série (Conflits)] Dans laquelle j'explique vite fait (ou pas si vite fait) pourquoi cette série de livres est top et mériterait d'être mieux connue. Du coup, je ne vais pas m'attarder sur les points déjà évoqués précédemment et me concentrer sur ce qui est spécifique à ce second tome.
Pour résumer très grossièrement ma review qui suit : j'ai tout autant adoré que le premier volume. ❤️
Dans le précédent volume, l'histoire se focalisait plutôt sur le euh... comment ils l'appellent déjà ? le décret des bibliothèques ? bref, les commandements des bibliothécaires, en mettant en scène des événements permettant de montrer toute leur portée. Au contraire, dans ce volume, on se concentre plus sur les personnages qui font vivre cette histoire. Par exemple, le premier chapitre est consacré aux relations entre Iku et ses parents, le second nous montre une autre facette de Komaki, puis dans le troisième on s'intéresse à Shibasaki, pour enchaîner avec un quatrième chapitre sur Tezuka... et son frère qui va d'ailleurs jouer un rôle majeur dans la suite des événements.
Ceci étant dit, autant au début du livre ('fin le premier chapitre), on aurait tendance à s'éloigner un peu de toute cette guerre des livres, autant la suite nous y replonge totalement. Certes c'est un peu paradoxal vu que je viens de dire qu'on se concentre sur les personnages, mais c'est du fait qu'ils sont confrontés à diverses épreuves qu'on en apprend plus sur chacun d'eux.
Par ailleurs, les chapitres 3 à 5 servent clairement à mettre en place le ou les volumes suivant(s). De façon similaire à toutes les bonnes dystopies YA, ce tome 2 sert en fait un peu de filler pour mieux lancer la suite. (Et la révolution, qui se trouve être le titre du tome 4 tiens.) Mais autant habituellement je trouve ça maladroit et ça donne ce que j'appelle la malédiction du tome 2, autant ici, j'ai trouvé ça bien construit.
Même si j'admets que ça nous pousse surtout très très fortement à acheter/lire le volume suivant car ça finit en laissant beaucoup d'éléments en suspens. Ce qui peut être agaçant... mais étant donné que j'ai eu la bonne idée d'acheter la série entière d'un coup, ben c'est pas un problème pour moi. 🙈
Ah et... #spoileralert c'est l'heure de LA révélation du prince pour Iku. 😏
Bref, je vais finir avec une citation de ce passage qui m'a particulièrement marquée parce que la situation m'a parue familière. Peut-être même un peu trop...
Son cœur, las du sentiment de décevoir, s'était endurci prématurément. Et Katsuhiri se joignit à la complainte : « Ta mère se fait tellement de souci pour toi. Tu pourrais la comprendre. » En fin de compte, Iku se voyait bel et bien coller l'étiquette de mauvaise fille. Depuis son entrée à l'université, elle ne rentrait à la maison que pour le nouvel an. En quatrième année, elle avait posé sa candidature à un poste de combattante et, certaine que ses parents seraient opposés à ce choix, elle n'était jamais rentrée chez eux depuis son incorporation.
✩
[My review for volume 1 of this series] In which I shortly (kind of) explain why this series is so good and deserves to be more famous. Maybe you should start there because I won't go over everything again here but will only focus on what's specific to this second volume.
The previous volume was more about the rights and work of the librarians. This time it's focused on the characters development... I guess? I mean, each chapter brings a matter related to the whole censorship thing the librarians are fighting, but that mostly serves to show more of what makes the characters imo. (For example, first chapter is about Iku's relationship with her parents, then in the next chapters, we get some about Komaki, then Shibasaki and Tezuka.)
All in all, as with most YA dystopia, this second book serves mostly as filler to launch the events (read: revolution) to come in the next book(s). Usually I find it pretty annoying, but this time it seemed well constructed to me.
Still, you might want to have the next book close before you finish this one because the bunch of unsolved elements it leaves you hanging with... 👀
English e-book translation by Melithiel. The second novel laid a lot of political groundwork for understanding the way this society operates in their censorship. There was also a lot more character development that was enjoyable. If the next two novels operate with a similar set-up to the manga, there is about to be more action packed battles and cutesy moments ahead.
Un tome deux toujours aussi entraînant malgré le même défaut dans l'écriture que j'ai relevé en lisant le tome un. Sinon, l'univers de Library Wars est toujours aussi intéressant et bien effectué.
Okay the side plot about the GROOMING? She’s a child??? Hated that. Lowkey ruined the book for me unfortunately. Everything else was so great, could we not normalize this please
It is about censoring books at an extreme level by the Federal Government (Japan) and libraries were under the State Government fighting for the freedom of reading any books. The judgement whether a book was a good or bad influence should be left to reader, was one of Japanese Library Association's policy.
Besides, personal stories of the characters, the novel also touched on the rules of library, rules on copyright and terms, book burning events and day-to-day transaction in library.
Just simply fantastic and funny and deep like the first book, hmmm maybe even better than the first book since Kasahara FINALLY knows who her prince is. This book is just absolutely amazing no matter how many times you have read it. A charming book indeed.