First Impression – Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai
It’s a shame that Tsumugi doesn’t look this good in the actual show
My last scheduled FI of the season is for Daitoshokan no Hitusjikai, or “A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepherd.” This is one that I thought could go either way, so which way did it go?
The Bad Way
Or it could have kept this art style, that would have been fine too
I think this show probably went the worst way it could, ultimately, because it’s just not very memorable. Normally I’m all about the average shows, the ones that don’t really get much acclaim, but have an amusing time getting there. But this show’s most notable feature is that there really isn’t a notable feature. It has Junji Majima as the lead character, Kyoutarou Kakei, who is a good enough student to get into the biggest school in Japan, with 50,000 students in a high school, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot, because as he says, it’s a great place for an unmotivated student because as long as you rack up enough credits, they leave you alone. So in this haystack of a school, Kakei finds a needle, Tsumugi Shirasaki (Madoka Yonezawa, who doesn’t even get to sing – another disappointment), who is trying to put together the “Happy Project” to make the school a happier place, although it’s more of a scheme to try to break her out of her shy personality.
Hey look, just like every other show this season
Too bad he meets her with a boob grope, a move that is de rigueur for this anime season, in the course of saving her from a trolley car crash (looked like the stupidest trolley car crash, too, at about 3 mph). And in a school this big, his misstep right in the front of the school becomes huge news, as he is now “some pervert” who groped a pretty girl. This minor happening becomes the plot, such as you might call it, for more than half of the show, as Kakei has to run from everyone in the school, including Tamamo Sakuraba, Tsumugi’s friend who was asked to ‘find Kakei’, but misunderstands the reason. It’s finally explained away when Tsumugi blurts out, mistakenly, that it “wasn’t against her will.”
The Other Bad Plot
The beginning of the Library Club
The longer plot in the show is about The Shepherd, who is mysteriously emailing Kakei as well as Tamamo, Tsumugi, and even Takamine, Kakei’s other friend (who will be forever Sarugami from Momo Kyun Sword to me, I think, since he’s voiced by Showtaro Morikubo). He’s the mysterious figure who is getting this group together to be the Library Club, with some subplot about how Kyoutarou might be a candidate to become the Shepherd in the future. Why? They don’t bother to explain. How? They don’t bother to explain that either. Just that he’s a candidate. And that they get mysterious emails.
Seitokaichou Maho is probably the best looking character
There’s even another tired subplot to throw in: Maho Mochizuki, the seitokaichou, wants Kyoutarou to join the Student Council. Because he apparently has great qualities for being on the Student Council. What abilities are those? They don’t say. They only thing they say about him is that he would accomplish a lot. But he doesn’t want to lose reading time. It even comes down to a weak showdown between Maho’s Student Council and Tsumugi’s Happy Project as to which Kyoutarou will pick. Of course he picks the Happy Project, but only until Golden Week (to start, of course he’s not going to change later).
Maybe they’re making all these bored people watch this show
All in all, this just feels uninspired. There was very little energy in this premiere, even with a train wreck and a chase and some sexual harassment shenanigans, and it felt like it wasted far too much time on the repercussions of a boob grope. In addition, the art is nothing amazing, with production from Hoods Entertainment, who have really only made a single anime I’ve really liked in Nazo no Kanojo X. The rest of their productions have been middling at best, like Kanojo ga Flag, Fantasista Doll, Seikon no Qwaser, or even Aki Sora, to just awful – BlazBlue and Manyuu Hikenchou, the only show I’ve ever turned off after 4 minutes, never to be watched again. I really don’t expect this story to reach the ecchi heights of some of them (certainly not the Saturday night Skinemax quality Aki Sora or Rescue Me!), and I don’t really know if the normal story will rebound from this fairly uninteresting beginning. I’ll keep watching it, and if it turns into some masterpiece, I’ll let you know, but I don’t really see how I could recommend anyone else watch it.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
I came in here for Yonezawa Madoka but it seems like she won’t get to sing. Too bad. And you know it will be bland if they get the bland voicing of Majima Junji as the MC. He always gets to voice characters like these.
Plotwise, it’s definitely not memorable. I don’t know how many times I facepalmed at some of the developments. The groping, the misunderstanding, the mob mentality of the students. The Shepered business didn’t sprout any interest even with its “mystery”. And while I wasn’t aware what the source material was, from how it went and the girls just kept flocking to him, I guessed that it was an eroge and it seems I was right. Is it good or bad though that I guessed it like that?
I was hoping for the StuCo President to be a main heroine but she’s not listed as one in different sites so it’s a shame. I like the way she looks. Her uniform stands out a lot amongst the huge crowd.
I’ll keep watching it but given this mediocre start, I’m not expecting a lot. The fact that I enjoyed Twintails more than this says a lot.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I really think that everyone enjoyed Twintails more than this show. But that’s understandable because Twintails has a good handle on what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. This show, you get the feeling that it’s just kind of trying to get out of the gate.
Interesting you bring up Maho’s outfit. I thought it was a little bit stuffy, and didn’t really like the way it looked on her. It was like some Victorian-era cloak, which is fine out in the weather, but impractical (and generally uncomfortable) indoors.
Given that almost everything is sourced from either a manga, LN, or VN, and this was far too uninteresting to have been reading material, I think VN is the default choice.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Just go with it? =P
Maho’s character looked a little out of place vs. the rest of the cast (she’d fit right in with the rest of Walkure Romanze’s cast ^^ ). While it did feel like it was going all over the map without explaining certain things (like his abilities in the first 1/4, or what this Shepherd is supposed to be), it felt like a decent first base hit.
Although I have no idea where this is going, it has me interested enough to commit to another few episodes at least.
But I agree with the trolley crash, you’d think it would be near impossible to get killed by something going that slow. However I’ve seen on local TV people getting killed by streetcars before (which go so slow you could probably run alongside one for a bit), so maybe they’re somewhat dangerous?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Heh, I know that’s my usual advice on things, but usually that applies to things that are wacky or out of the ordinary. This show’s problem is that it’s *too* ordinary. I feel like a base hit is a little too charitable. Maybe a base on balls or reached on an error. I’m likely going to watch the whole series, because it really is the kind of show I like to watch, but this just didn’t have that spark that shows there might be something more there, like a show like Rail Wars! or even WalRoma (Kakei is slightly more interesting than Takahiro was, but so is an off-white wall).
I know that people can get hurt or killed from trolley crashes, even at low speed, but it still kind of felt like Austin Powers.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
lol at the off-white wall comment. I actually forgot that there was a male character in the show until you mentioned Takahiro… I must have unconsciously erased him.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
I’d imagine this one is not going to be very popular and I expected it is going to be so pedestrian when I watched the preview. Even so, I like this. I suppose it’s a good review but the one I’ll disagree with. While the characters are not so memorable now but I like the design and the casts. I guess I’m one of the few who will probably keep following this.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, I sincerely hope you like it! I also hope that I like it, because I’m going to keep watching it. It just didn’t have a great premiere from where I sit.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I’ll join you Soliloquy! There doesn’t seem to be any hints of something that would make me insta-drop, so short of sailing off a cliff, I’ll be around for this one ^^
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
Just like any anime, we should apply the 3 episodes rule. In my case, even if it fails to impress within that limit, I’m going to stick with this. And good to have you join me, akagami. I was starting to feel I was alone in enjoying this anime fully.
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
I agree with Highway in everything he said ,I expected a bit more…
Maybe the VN is better
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
http://visualnovel.deviantart.com/journal/VN-Review-Daitoshokan-no-Hitsujkai-384078861
https://7nightstranslations.wordpress.com/tag/daitoshokan-no-hitsujikai/
Two review for the VN that contains spoilers.
Which is basically what you get in the anime as well if I am reading them right since I skim through it. Just that it a bit better than your average VN.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
There are a ton of spoilers around on anime reference sites (like MAL). Unfortunately, the spoilers I’ve read don’t really make it seem like this will get a lot better.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Seeing their history, I’m actually surprised that they could pull this off. I actually thought that this was way more enjoyable than anything I’ve watched from them before. The plot is kind of dubious just like Kanojo ga Flag which makes me worry about what will happen towards the ending but I liked the first episode.
Just found it weird that the guy wouldn’t accept the cute student council president’s invite to join her but would accept the invite from a random (though cute) girl to participate in a weird happy project. Oh well.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Kanojo ga Flag took half the run to get really kooky with the plot (and then it went to never-never land). We’ll see where this one goes.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Just like Itsuten. The LN starts to get interesting where the anime stopped. AND THEN the lazy buggers stopped translating and disappeared. My poor Himea.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I am old, so I may need more naps. But this is one of two shows I feel asleep while watching this season..
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
I must be the only one who enjoys this >_>
Despite all the VN readers b*tching abt the art style and “butchering” I find the anime quality to be acceptable considering their past track record. It has this sort of retro feel to it though I can’t exactly pinpoint why. (Or I am just weird)
Its also feel more enjoyable to watch than Ushinawaretta and looks better even though it pains me to admit it. Ofc I don’t expect anything mind-blowing like Grisaia but for what it is (light hearted romcom), Daitoshikan doing a pretty good job and it handles some of those romcom cliches pretty well IMO.
Plus, main girl isn’t another abusive tsundere which is always plus and the fantasy element had me interested. And I disagree with the VN readers saying that the anime made the MC pathetic/generic since I feel that he isn’t a pushover.
Like most of the time, the best friend character is such a likable bro and I can’t help but like him. But I can’t help but wonder why does he have lotuses when he introduced?
Hidden yaoi route?For the eroge adaptations of the season, here my ranking based on the first few episodes:
Grisaia > Daitoshokan > Ushinawaretta (T_T)
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think that Ushinawareta might be harder to watch due to style, but I’ve found the story in Ushinawareta much more interesting than what we’ve gotten in Daitoshokan. We’ll see if it can pick it up, but I’m not particularly hopeful, considering that it spent more than half the first episode dealing with Kakei’s single indiscretion. And there wasn’t really any connection between Kakei and Tsumugi for me. It was like he was only picking her to not pick Maho.
I do really hope it gets better, or at least doesn’t get worse. And I really do watch some poor shows (like Blade Dance) so it’s not like I *won’t* watch it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
I see now the reason the fans are in uproar.
The VN is by August. August has a typical artstyle. The anime has ditched this. If I recall properly, August adaptations don’t usually do well and part of the attractiveness of August eroge is the artstyle. The storytelling is a bit lacking in August works.