Manga Review: Library Wars: Love & War, Volume 3, by Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 11+

Spoilers?: Yes.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf!

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the near future, the federal government creates a committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. The libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves--the Library Forces!

Iku is witness to a disturbance during a Board of Education speech on protecting children from the danger of books. The perpetrators are two young boys protesting the banning of their favorite books. But while Iku wants to reach out to the next generation of book lovers, Dojo insists that they can't play favorites. Will Dojo's prickly insistence on sticking to the rules ruin their budding friendship?

Review:

I am really liking this series. I mean, why didn’t I pick this up sooner? And why didn’t I get more of them, when I had the chance? Still, I hope to get more very soon, because this is the last volume that I have at the moment. And the cliffhanger was not very nice.

This volume has two big plot lines. The first involves two kids who set off firecrackers during a PTA protest, an ongoing debate between the Library Force and a group supposedly working for the children who want to censor books in schools. The kids are against censorship, and it all turns out well in the end. This was a rather fun plot, I liked seeing Iku and everyone else work with the kids, and I generally just find the whole censorship issue interesting. It’s the main theme in this series, and I am not a fan of censorship, so I find it all very interesting. It’s very obviously biased here, but still.

The second plot has to do with the Library Force getting a huge collection of books that the MBC doesn’t want to exist. So there’s a fight while they collect the books, possible raids will be happening, and it’s all a very big deal. And Dojo makes Iku stay back and guard the head of the Library, Inamine, instead of going with them for the raid, which is very hurtful to her. He does it for an understandable reason, but still. And it turns out worse in the end anyway, because Inamine and Iku get taken hostage by their enemy, and that’s the horrible cliffhanger. I’m sure it’s going to have some good ending, but I’m still looking forward to seeing what happens.

We’ve known from the beginning that Iku’s parents have no idea that she’s on the Library Force, and think only that she’s a librarian, like Shibazaki. In this volume, though, they’ve decided to stop by, which I suppose will happen in the next volume or something, and should be very interesting. Hopefully she’ll tell them the truth, and that should be good.

In this volume, we also got Inamine’s memory of what happened during the big raid before he started up the Library Force, and that was some nice insight. Iku and Dojo are also still getting slowly closer. They had a spat over her “prince” (which, duh, is obviously Dojo, when is this plot going to get revealed?), and then over his downgrading her to stay with Inamine, and her finding out his reasons for it (which were the fact that he didn’t want the chance of her getting hurt while her parents didn’t even know she was in the Force). And then, of course, he’s upset when he finds out that she’s been taken with Inamine. Also, there’s a cute bonus story about them at the end that was nice.

There was another bonus with Komaki, who I am just growing more and more fond of. He finds it very fun to tease Dojo, and he’s always so calm and calculating. I like him, in much the same way that I like Shibazaki.

Now, I hope to get the next volume very soon, because this is just so good, and I really want more of it.