Dantalian no Shoka – 12 [END]
Screw High School, this is Library of the Dead.
I am SO SORRY about this late post. Mondays and Tuesdays are just not good times for me at the moment. Anyways, yeah Dantalian no Shoka. I was confused since the previews are numbered differently, but this is indeed the last episode.
Within the Dantalian, Albino Dalian sits alone thinking about Little Huey, how he’ll forget about her when he grows up and how she gave him her key. However, as she thinks this, Huey approaches from behind. When Dalian turns to tell him to leave, it turns out that it’s actually the older Huey and he’s bleeding.
However, forget all of that for now because London is being ATTACKED BY ZOMBIES. Huey reads about it in a credible news paper and Dalian says that the only Phantom Book that could have done something like this is the Book of Atonement, which turns people into zombies. Suddenly Dalian asks to see the newspaper. … And then she goes and buys bread because she saw it advertised in the paper.
Suddenly, zombies attack and Huey shoots at one saving a paperboy while everyone flees. However, the cops arrive there are corpses around, so of course Huey and Dalian leave the scene. After they get back to Huey’s car, Dalian notes that the Book of Atonement is printed right in the newspaper. Apparently the form of a Phantom Book doesn’t matter as long as the words are in the right order. Huey also notices that his paper lacks that bit of text and that it was only that one boy he saved that was carrying the words of the Book. The two wonder about the real intentions behind the zombies are.
So what kind of evil and ungodly things are the zombies up to? PRINTING NEWSPAPERS. Man, the guy behind this IS evil. Huey and Dalian only seem mildly inconvenienced though and a man appears behind them saying that he knows exactly who Huey is. Turns out that it’s the Professor in his trademark braid and fashionable purple scarf/pink vest combo.
*Insert stereotypical villain phrase here*
The Professor has the both of them over for tea and Raziel shows up. Dalian and her get into an amusing catfight until the Professor reveals that his real target is the (post war) rebuilding conference in London (even though he admits that crashing one of these conferences probably won’t make a difference).
He then asks why Huey exists. Not philosophically, but why he decided to become a key keeper. Huey thinks briefly about Albino Dalian and says that it was to save ‘her’ (and here I thought it was to save his ass from the dragon all the way back in episode one. Silly me). The Professor finds that unexpected and then he shoots Huey with a Book-gun for no reason. While Huey convulses on the floor, the Professor says that the Book he just used was a politician’s note and that new Phantom Books are being created all the time. He turns the Book-gun on Dalian because he thinks it’s a waste for Phantom Books to be kept in a library, but Huey shoots the Book-gun out of his hand.
Cornered, Huey then BREAKS THROUGH THE WINDOW and runs away. However, Huey leaves a trail of blood, so the Professor sends his evil army of newspaper printing zombies after them.
Huey and Dalian finally rest after barricading the door and Huey asks Dalian to open the library because the way things are going, they’ll all die. Including ‘her’. Dalian agrees and then we jump to the scene at the beginning of the episode with Albino Dalian. Huey says that he’s been looking for her ever since that day they first met. He grabs her hand and the both start running for the exit of the Library.
Around this time in reality, the zombies break through the door as well, so Huey and that Dalian start running too. In the Library, Huey and Albino Dalian reach the exit, but the gates are locked. A big purple flaming monster thing appears and Albino Dalian says that it’s the Library’s warden. He doesn’t want her to leave.
Back to reality- MORE RUNNING. However, Huey has that horrible wound, so extreme physical activity probably isn’t the best thing for him right now and he slows down. Inside the Library, the warden shoots blue lighting at the road, causing Huey to fall into a black pit. In reality, Huey collapses.
Huey wakes up in the Abyss in some green watery place and Dalian (black) cries telling him to wake up or he’ll wander there forever. She starts crying. Suddenly, Albino Dalian asks her ‘other self’ if she wants to save the person dearest to them. Dalian agrees of course and the two of them do …something. It involves glowing and slowly opening their eyes in unison. You know shit is going down when people open their eyes in unison.
Huey sees his younger self, who hands him a book. Huey (older) accepts it and the book starts glowing. Finally, Huey remembers who he is and he’s perfectly fine again in reality. Dalian turns tsun again and both of them face the zombies, who have been conveniently waiting this entire time instead of attacking them.
Huey starts reading the Book and there are flashes of scenes of Dalian’s life like meeting Wes, standing with some guy under the French flag, and opening what I assume to be Pandora’s Box (this was Albino Dalian though). Also, Albino Dalian and Huey have to part ways again because apparently it’s not Albino Dalian’s time to leave the library yet. There’s also a flash of Albino Dalian in some futuristic city that looks a hell of a lot like Midgar. Back to the present, Huey causes a huge golden explosion that destroys all of the zombies.
The Professor and Raziel notice this and say that it’s too late because they’ve already printed truckloads of newspapers. Thought that we actually made it through an episode of Dantalian without destroying a building? THINK AGAIN! Hal and Flam show up and burn the trucks using his mahou shoujo staff. However, like any credible pair of villains, the Professor and Raziel get away. As Raziel and her key keeper casually walk out of the burning building, Dalian can be heard yelling Huey’s name in desperation.
Villains are flame proof
When Huey wakes up, Armand and Camilla are at his bedside, obviously concerned for him. Dalian is obviously glad that he finally woke up as well (though she’ll never admit it). The Professor and Raziel head off on a blimp because their plans ahave been foiled, and Hal and Flam ride off on their motorcycle while Flam teases Hal for saving a key keeper. HAPPY NONCONCLUSIVE END FOR ALL!
End Thoughts:
I AM DISAPPOINT. I finally figure out that Hanazawa is in this and I don’t even get a chance to use the Hanazawa Virus tag. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW DISAPPOINT I AM. …But other than that, I give up on trying to figure out when the hell all of this happened. So Albino Dalian opened Pandora’s box, somehow got trapped in a library, spawned a black version of herself (who then conquered with the French), ended up in a future run by Shinra and somewhere in all of this became a Biblioprincess? Does not compute. And don’t even get me started about little Huey in the library. I haven’t a clue when that happened either (I thought it was whenever Huey got a book, but I don’t even know anymore). If someone has a better explanation, please share. The events in this episode were barely explained as it was.
Despite all of this, YAY everyone appeared in the same episode for once! While there was minimal character interaction and the people I wanted to see meet (Hal & Flam and Huey & Dalian) weren’t even shown on screen together, seeing Raziel and Dalian at each other’s throats was hilarious. Though if you ask me, Hal and the Professor seem like more natural enemies while Huey is the in between guy who’s not really involved.. Having Huey ‘die’ or whatever he did here seemed pretty pointless if you ask me since Albino Dalian didn’t even get to leave. Oh well. Last episode drama, what can you do. There’s totally potential for a season two here as well since they didn’t resolve anything. AT LEAST THE VISUALS WERE PRETTY.
So overall, Dantalian had a lot of things going for it. The opening and ending songs were both extremely unique and both had their own charm to them. The backgrounds were odd at first, but then after a while, they just became part of the story. Storyline wise, this show did a lot of unexpected, yet interesting things like completely ignore the main characters for an entire episode or change up the animation style completely. Also, there was a lot of extremely pretty animation. So yeah, this anime had GREAT atmosphere. However, even with all of this going for it, it’s nothing to obsess over. It’s hard for me to find words for this, but I don’t think I’m going to spend sleepless nights contemplating the storyline or anything. I do recommend watching it at least once, though.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 339 comments
I actually really liked Dantalian no Shoka. It was a series that never did the same thing more than once. It was quiet, and calm, rather mature in how it handled itself for a series FULL of normally overly moe-moe characters (I found myself oddly fond of Dalian’s ‘yes’).
where most anime that explore themes of humanity do it in a very direct life form meets life form manner (i.e humans meet aliens), Dantalian used literature. What IS literature? What types of feelings create these odd, life like, phantom books? Media was used very well to create the different effects of the books as well.
Of course the show failed a bit where characters were involved. It’s unsure as to WHO are main characters. Dalian and Huey obviously, but I would’ve loved to see what the other characters meant to the show, even though I cared very little for the personalities. More episodes could have been good.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Despite my complaining, I really liked it as well. I liked how they changed everything up every episode, yet managed to keep a pretty consistent theme of books.
More episodes would have been excellent. I really wish that they had spent more time on the side characters as well…
POWUH: iLurker with 18 comments
One possibility (out of many)
Dalian opened Pandora’s box and was punished by the gods (or she punished herself) to stay in the library. As the same punishment, she was spilt into 2 with black Dalian tasked to collect the evils (which as the previous episodes pointed out were the source of the books) that were released.
Since Pandora opened the box extremely early in mankind’s history, Dalian is immeasurably old. The french girl was probably Joan of Arc while the glimpse of the future showed that Dalian would one day be free from the library
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…. well that’s certainly better than my interpretation of it. LOL. And it makes sense why Dalian would have the “some things aren’t meant to be known” mentality.
This is where more episodes or a better explanation would have been handy, but oh well.
POWUH: iLurker with 16 comments
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought it was Joan d’Arc there xD
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
Gah, why must Dantalian no Shoka end?!!! I mean, I KNOW I’ve got a lot of new shows to watch now but I want more Dalian! Having said that though, I only have one gripe with the show; the animated characters are completely different from their actual original portrait! Grr, that’s the only gripe I’ve got with Gainax, apart from have they didn’t show Huey and Dalian meeting with Hal and Flamberge (they did but only half of them did, you know?) Speaking of which….MUAHAHAHA, ALL YOU PHANTOM BOOKS ARE BELONG TO
MY FLAMING ROD OF DESTRUCTION!US! The satisfaction of seeing Rasiel and Professor getting owned by blue flames (wait, blue flames? I think I’ve heard this one before…), whilst Flamberge’s pretty much smirking with Hal just burning away, as you do….:) I think this deserves a second season, though maybe with a different ED than the first…still creeps me out at times…POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
That’s one of my problems too. Huey looked so much more BAMF in his original design. Dalian also looked better too. Ahahaha (Satan where?) yes, that was a highlight of the episode. A new season would be nice. Maybe something with more explanations *cough*…I still don’t understand why people think the end is creepy.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Dantalian no Shoka was a great series. I actually thought it was going to boring since I saw similarities to Gosick until I pleasantly proven wrong.
Dalian conquering with the French? There are so many holes in that explaination.
Dolls, planes, zombies and insane characters all around. If all book themes were covered like this, no one would have a dull time at the library despite the risk of being killed by whatever comes your way.
If there’s a possibility for a second season, I’m absolutely on board. There are so many shows I’m hoping would get another season and this would be another one to my list.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I did enjoy it much more than Gosick. Everything just seemed to fit very well.
…I just called it as I saw it. lol, I probably understand it less than you do.
And yet a library like that sounds incredibly fun. Though it would probably be shut down pretty fast. A second season is probably what they had in mind when they finished this, but who knows…
POWUH: iLurker with 12 comments
I wish I enjoyed this as much as the other commenters. Treating it as a tongue-in-cheek show, it sometimes worked. But it rarely felt worth the time, with an almost obsessive focus on being anticlimactic and dull (if you’re going to explain everything with magic anyway, at least try to make it entertaining). That, and focusing so much on Huey and Dalian only underscored how boring and annoying it really was.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I agree that some of the episodes were out there, but overall, I think it worked pretty well… I wouldn’t call it anticlimactic either, but I do think that it was unconventional, so it appealed to some people more than others. Personal opinions, what can you do. I wish they had focused more on the other characters as well since Huey and Dalian seemed like the least interesting characters since they were everywhere.
POWUH: 400-499 with 406 comments
I am not satisfied with this ending. It really seems like this needs another season because there wasn’t really that much conflict between the three libraries…
Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed with series (WHY IS IT OVER!)
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
YES. THIS. I would have been satisfied with this if they had added in a bigger conflict of opinions, but instead the Professor just shot Huey for no reason and the rest of the episode was spent on the Dantalian. AND HAL GOT AN EXTREMELY SMALL ROLE WHY.
I enjoyed it as well.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Unf. Huey even makes bullet wounds sexy.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ono makes bleeding to death sexy.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
One of the best ending episodes ever! For me anyway I laughed when Dalian and that eye patch girl finally met again! Those two together were amazing I think the library girls have some of the best voice work of this season <3
Now I will take back my Index comments, this is so far from Index that I feel kind of bad saying that before the series was out at the time this really changed my view on that.
I feel this was a 24 episode series! But they dropped the ball and went with 12 instead, ah well OVA or Season two please! I need more Huey and Dalian in my life <3 Besides this is one beautiful series! I wish I got more 720s instead of damn 600ish because I was lazy to wait...
Favorite ep that was when Huey and Dalian had to go into the book to kill the "book worms" to save her books. Favorite moments? Whenever Dalian goes all moe towards sweets or cute things! Those faces always made me laugh or smile.
Congrats on another finished series on Metanorn Kara!! Yay!
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
The ending was alright for me. It didn’t feel all that conclusive and I was confused as hell, but the visuals were pretty.
Ahaha first episode regret. This episode totally gave me Pandora Hearts vibes. Or maybe that’s just because I’ve caught up with the manga again (oh well).
They did pretty well with the animation here! The quality dropped for some scenes, but at least it wasn’t consistently bad. Yeah, this would have made a better 24 episode series, but what can you do.
My fav episode will forever be the Hal and Flam one. XD
Yay! Fall looks busy as well~!
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
I really did like this series. it was just too short and the overall plotline was never there. but great character design, and my newfound affection for european set historical animes has got to me (FUUUUUU-GOSICK) even if it has me watching averagey series
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahaha so Gosick made you watch this? Yeah, I enjoyed this as well, but it would have been better with more episodes