A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepherd Anime 47

AKA: 大図書館の羊飼い ; Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai

Genre: Harem/Fantasy

Length: Television serial, 12 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently licensed past FUNimation. Also streaming on Crunchyroll.

Content Rating: PG-xiv (Fanservice, nudity, mature themes.)

Related Series: The original game; 3 manga adaptations; half-dozen-episode OVA (2014-2015)

Also Recommended: Kanon (2006)

Notes: Based on adult visual novel (game) adult past Baronial, published past Hazuki.

Rating:

A Good Librarian Is Like A Good Shepherd

Synopsis

Kyotaro Kakei is handsome and polite, merely non very social, an avid reader who prefers the company of books to people. He dreams of finding a book with all life's answers in it. He as well has some precognitive ability, and his vision of danger to some other ultimately leads to a situation where he must choose to either stay with new- generally FEMALE- friends, or instead abandon human friendships in the service of the Shepherds, who have a library of their own- a library whose books are the histories, past and future, of the lives of every individual. The Shepherds dedicate their lives to interventions to save, or improve, the lives of the people whose books they are assigned to (or cull), and they acquire peachy power in this service of helping others, simply they pay a price- the memory, even the knowledge, of their Own existence disappears from the globe of non-Shepherds. How will Kyotaro choose?

Review

This show has a jewel of an idea in the concept of the Shepherds, but the whole thing is laid low by terrible execution- mainly poor grapheme development, including weak or non-existent backstories for some of the principal players, as well every bit a slavish devotion to the clichés of harem shows. (At that place's plenty of fanservice, but I estimate quite a bit of actual sexuality got excised in the move from game to anime, since the original was an eroge. See under Audience, beneath.) As a upshot, other than in the basic issue of Kyotaro'southward "choice", the testify can't conjure much 18-carat drama AT ALL, pretty inexcusable for a series where we take, in the Shepherds, individuals who can do such spectacular stuff as finish time and teleport huge objects.

To illustrate, let's meet our (mostly female of class) cast. The person Kyotaro saves is one Tsugumi Shirasaki. I can't remember united states of america always getting much of her background story- we do get to meet her hospitalized younger sister later, just that'southward most every bit much every bit we'll get nearly her family unit. She says she's introverted, and wants to get over that by forming something that may take been chosen the Happy Smile Guild, or some such matter- to be honest, I didn't even really experience like taking the trouble to go dorsum and verify the proper name- but the gist of the thing is the Service Club idea (a la My Teen Romantic One-act SNAFU et al), i.e., an odd-jobs society. Tsugumi is energetic, sweetness, and easily embarrassed, but otherwise seems to be pretty insubstantial, yet the show seems to pick her as the "principal" daughter for our male hero. ( I judge yous could accept picked ane of the others in the original game, merely the anime has gone with Tsugumi. Sometimes y'all can tell which one of the girls in a harem is the "principal" i by the endeavour our leading man makes on her behalf; the FIRST girl he meets also seems to get points for, well, beingness the first; BONUS points for "childhood friends" merely that, at least, doesn't apply in Tsugumi's case.)

Kyotaro's initial rescue of Tsugumi involves one of the two usual fanservice-friendly "misunderstandings" (no, information technology'due south not the "seeing panties" one, it's the OTHER i), which will naturally arouse the ire of any tsunderes nearby, and sure enough at that place's ane within hitting altitude (so to speak), in the course of one Tamamo Sakuraba. I didn't really remember whatsoever backstory for HER either. She'due south such a stickler for propriety that she eats hamburgers with a pocketknife and fork, which at least gives her the best gag in the show. And that'south near all of note for her.

Kana Suzuki is a blonde waitress with a class-clown personality (though she says she's easily discouraged) and ambitions to be a playwright. She HAS a backstory, which is presented briefly as a diagram. (Yes, as a diagram.) She'll get her want to produce (and star in) one of her original plays, which seems to exist a mishmash of a fairytale romance, The Emperor'due south New Clothes, and a fanservice obsession with chest size, all in one ungainly bundle. Kana, I'1000 afraid, shouldn't give up her solar day job, no matter HOW bad the tips get.

Senri Misono is called the "Song Princess", and I had to admit she did have a terrific voice. (Kudos to her VA.) HER backstory is too brief, but at least information technology DOES have "pictures and conversations", equally Alice (of Wonderland) used to say. Senri's backstory is really her standing story; the person she wronged for the right reason- or perhaps righted for a wrong reason, the ethics are a trivial muddy hither, when yous call back about it- is all the same in her life. Her amalgamation with Kyotaro'south club (yep, information technology was originally Tsugumi's thought, but you know how GUYS are, especially with harems) sets upwardly a conflict with her singing career, just I was a fiddling confused about what boundaries her concluding decision set most that, or if she really made a final decision at all.

There are some female person nonmembers of the gild who show up to complicate things besides. While Kyotaro's yet working with Tsugumi to form the society, we meet Maho Mochizuki, the Student Council President, who we gather has for some time been trying to recruit him for the Council because of his "talent" (yeah, RIIIIIIGHT). I thought her probable to want to wreak some sort of revenge on him for spurning her in favor of Tsugumi. There's also Maho'south right-manus woman, Aoi Takagawa.

And and so there's Nagi Kodachi. She'due south a number of things, among them Kyotaro's next-door neighbor, AND his rival throughout the prove. (No, not for ane (or more) of the girls; information technology's the OTHER thing.) The show also burdens her with a completely gratuitous connection to Kyotaro through another classic anime cliche, abetted by yet Another, the erstwhile hero'southward-memory-lapse-about-his-own-past. Nagi's a twin-tailed redhead, which pretty much guarantees that she'll be an ambitious and/or sarcastic grapheme (the anime genre has this thing almost ruby hair.) The show seems to imply that she'll remain in his life fifty-fifty after the end of the events depicted, though given all the information we HAVE received I only don't see how that'southward possible in any meaningful mode. Yet Nagi is yet the only daughter who gets to demonstrate much personality in the show at all, if a not simply disagreeable one but also a contradictory one. (When all the pieces of the Nagi puzzle are assembled, I STILL didn't understand why she did much of what she did, or for that thing how she notwithstanding stayed qualified for the position she aspired to.)

Oh, I forgot, at that place IS another male person character. His name is Ikkei Takamine, he's Kyotaro's buddy, he joins the Gild, and he'due south pretty much ignored by the girls; at one bespeak, they go on a kind of group appointment with Kyotaro and conspicuously (and unapologetically) don't invite Ikkei. There's simply room for ane Alpha Male in a harem after all, and then if he doesn't want to remain effectively a eunuch, I approximate Ikkei should resign and join a dissimilar club- he's not quite as perverted as male heroes' sidekicks unremarkably are, and so he might actually be appreciated elsewhere. His treatment past the girls is not quite equally rude as the one Takeya received in White Anthology 2, but everyone (or at least everyone even halfway decent) deserves a little attention and respect, subsequently all.

Yes, Kyotaro does finally make ane decision, in case yous were wondering. Unfortunately, the decisions of the rest of the cast (OK, with One exception) remain murky, even when they had a decision to make at all. I NEVER really understood how 1 character was sufficiently motivated to endeavor murder- much less why they got a "mulligan" for that attempt. We don't fifty-fifty see THAT much of the Shepherd'due south magic, and at least one of Kyotaro's assignments was completely airheaded. I couldn't figure Nagi out, but at least with her there was something TO effigy out. The Recommendation is a evidence that besides has supernatural events and multiple girls, but at to the lowest degree has decent backstories and drama surrounding some of them. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Fanservice, including some nudity (bathhouse west/breast comparing, etc.) The elimination of actual sex here probably removed the major depict of the original game. The Blu-Ray/DVD is rated for 14+. I'd actually go with 16 to be on the safe side.

Version(s) Viewed: Streaming on Crunchyroll.
Review Condition: Full (12/12)
A Skillful Librarian Is Like A Good Shepherd © 2014 Hoods Entertainment