#femalelibrarians — Public Fediverse posts

A Nazi-supporting librarian, Allison Davis, Elizabeth Stubbs Davis, and mass book burning in “Origin” film

Allison Davis (on left) and Elizabeth Stubbs Davis (on right) search for certain books, in a flashback scene (of sorts) narrated by Isabel Wilkerson. This is the beginning of the scene, but it goes further than this, as I’ll explain in this post. Allison says the library is “beautiful” even though it doesn’t have the book they are looking for.

A pivotal scene of Origin, a 2023 biographical drama film by Ava DuVernay, a Black woman and director known for the historical drama Selma (2014), the documentary entitled 13th (2016), other films. Origin is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and her journey to write this book, takes place in a library in Germany, in 1933. In this post, I’ll talk about that scene, and another, which take place in a library, in this film.

The film shows Allison Davis and Elizabeth Stubbs Davis, a married Black couple, in Berlin, Germany, in 1933, who are studying there. They are looking for books by Erich Maria Remarque, at Germany’s premier library, and find nothing. Elizabeth says she could get lost in these books (and ideas) “forever” and Allison says the library is “beautiful.” They walk through the reading room, past four German patrons, with White skin, and are having a fun time. The librarian asks for their library cards, as they are checking out two books, which seems normal, and they comply. And then she asks for their passports! Again, they comply, and a patron watches them.

The librarian pages through their passports, he asks when Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front will be back in the library. She looks at him, does not answer, and stamps the books. The same patron, as before, looks at them, clearly concerned.She is serving as the enforcer of rules and social norms here.

She does not answer. Instead, she asks for their passports, stamps their books, and they go on their way, as everyone watches them. He looks at her, worryingly, as does his wife, Elizabeth. She slides the books over to them, holds their passports, almost with concern, putting them down on the table. What was to come is that they would witness events that would change the world.

The librarian’s demands of her patrons. The first one (shown in the image in the upper left) is reasonable, but the other one (in the upper right), their passports, is NOT reasonable! In the third image (in the lower left), she looks at Allison when he asks about All Quiet in the Western Front. In the fourth image (in the lower right), she stamps their books, ending their interaction.

Later in the film, Wilkerson herself goes to a library. A helpful librarian, a White German man, shows her the book she requested, with a list from October 1935, noting a part of the text showing that all of Remarque’s books would be destroyed. Later, she looks on the library stacks. Right after this, it flashes back to the past. As Elizabeth and Allison are on the steps outside the library, a friendly White German man named Erich Kästner overhears they are asking about Remarque but says he couldn’t catch the librarian’s answer. He asks them if they know what is happening in Germany. They don’t.He tells them that “everything is being torn apart.”

Later that night, he brings them to the infamous book burning, likely when the Berlin chapter of the German Student Union made an organized attack on Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sex Research on May 6, 1933. As the Nazis march around and chant, a stack of burning books is shown, and some holding torches. One person shouts about ending the period of “exaggerated Jewish intellectualism,” and people agree wholeheartedly, raising their hands in Nazi salutes, claiming that the German soul can now “breathe again,” and to end “moral corruption.” A truck approaches the stack of burning books, with people taking books out of the back and throwing them onto the fire, all to protect “decency” and “morality.”

In the present, Wilkerson walks into the square where the burning happened and a German woman says there are memorials to nearly everyone victimized by the Nazis, no gate or entry sign, open day and night, standing “to bear witness.” The film flashes back again, showing Germans throwing tens of thousands of books into a fire, burning them to a crisp, as they shout. A German woman in the present says “20,000 books were lost that night,” while Elizabeth and Allison are growing more concerned and horrified. Kästner suggests they leave Germany and go somewhere safe (their home) instead, which they agree with. The film comes back to the present, with audio of someone saying to burn the books of Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Mann, Ernest Glaser, Remarque, Karl Renner, and Kästner. Also, empty bookshelves, where books would be, is displayed, symbolic of all the books that were lost that night.

The German woman also shares a quote by a German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine: “when you burn books, you end up burning men.” All of this makes one thing clear: the strict librarian depicted is aligned with this book burning. Elianna Bernstein, the main protagonist of Bibliophile Princess, would be horrified by all of this, as a person who detested book burning and directly called those who did it monsters. She is right! More than that, the librarian is even more aligned with oppression than Francis Clara Censordoll in Moral Orel, or Cletus Bookbinder in Rocky & Bullwinkle, to give two examples I can think of at this point.

One of the scenes in the film shows the horrifying book burning in Berlin in 1933. I had another screenshot from this film in mind as well, but this is the more poignant one.

The film also notes that Elizabeth and Allison cut short their advanced studies at the University of Berlin (obviously!) and they began their research for a book which would be entitled Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class in a Southern City. The book, which came out in 1941, would also involve research in collaboration with their White colleagues, Burleigh and Mary R. Gardner, who were Harvard researchers. The book would serve as a major influence on Wilkerson (and others) and her work.

The two librarians noted in the cast list at the end of the film: Nazi Librarian and Berlin Librarian, played by Cristin König and Matthias Miller respectfully. I have highlighted both with yellow boxes for emphasis. The librarian in this film could, possibly, be described as a bit of a spinster, but is more of an anti-social librarian, which Jennifer Snoek-Brown defines as hoarding knowledge, wearing conservative clothing, having poor social skills, is very unfriendly, and “rates the library and its rules above the public.” This librarian is more than that, however: she is an enforcer of Nazi agenda, a footsoldier of oppression, and doesn’t seem to care about that!

I did deeper dive and found the screenplay, which notes even more library scenes, including Wilkerson at the New York Public Library, noting her tenderly pulling a book from the grand shelf. It also shows that the aforementioned library scene was at the Berlin University Library, noting that Allison and Elizabeth were “extremely light-skinned African-Americans who could pass for white on first glance,” and it also depicts them as even more romantic than the film. Interestingly, this screenplay has the librarian as a White man rather than a White woman. I wonder why it was changed. It noes he views them with suspicion, with the screenplay saying he “reviews the passport and card as if it’s a matter of national security”! The librarian almost interrogates Allison, and Elizabeth notes that she, and her husband, work with Dr. Diedrich Westermann. [1]

The screenplay also notes that the librarian places the books on the counter, and waves the next person over. Right after this is their conversation with Kästner, includes more dialogue from Elizabeth than in the film. then the book burning scene happens at the Bebelplatz, with open-bed trucks (unlike covered ones on the film) filled with books, with a crowd of 40,000 people. The screenplay shows more dialogue from a Nazi student organizer, specifically calling out Sigmund Freud, Erich Remarque, Georg Bernhard, Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeser, and Kästner. The scene plays out pretty similarly from there as in the film, except that Joseph Goebbels is introduced (in the film he is shown but not named directly), who calls out “intellectual garbage.” The same scene depicting Wilkerson meeting with the White British woman, Nigella, is shown as well. In those ways the film is similar. [2]

The screenplay, like in the film, continues the story of Allison and Elizabeth, noting they fled Germany when Hitler took power, as they had seen “the Nazis burn books and jail teachers,” which gave Allison new insights into the “nature of hate” and inspiring “him to study the process of injustice.” There are other mentions of libraries as well, like Wilkerson researching in a library, a gala at the New York Public Library which Wilkerson attends with her husband, Brett, and another one where she doesn’t. There’s also a “cozy library room” where Bhimrao Ambedkar reads with intensity in 1918. [3]

As it turns out, Kästner did, in real-life, actually attend the book burning. One biography says that he was “among the few authors, perhaps the only, who was present, when the Nazis burned books in Berlin on May 10, 1933, his own included,” but that he was “arrested by the Gestapo in 1934 and 1937 because he used to cross the border regularly to consult his Swiss publisher.”

In terms of the actors, Cristin König and Matthias Miller, they are both very talented. König is known for her roles in many German-language films and TV series since the late 1980s, while this appears to be Miller’s first role in the film, if IMDB is right. While König posted about this role on social media here and here, she never did so with much depth in her posts, even though other posts show her as very anti-Nazi, which is funny considering her character in the film! But, perhaps that was a reason she took the role? I haven’t seen any critical commentary of her role in the film when I searched for this, which is unfortunate, considering her key role!

Apparently a librarian named Kashif Andrew Graham introduced the film in one location and another, Mary Anne, shared her thoughts on the film. The latter did not mention either librarian character. Why?. I don’t understand that at all. How could they miss this? I hope Jennifer Snoek-Brown writes a post on Reel Librarians about these scenes as well, considering it was added to her master list of English-language films back in April 2024. I’d love to see her analysis.

© 2024-2025 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] DuVernay, Ava. “Origin” screenplay, Jun. 25, 2024, accessed on Sept. 9, 2024, pp. 36-38.

[2] Ibid, 38-41.

[3] Ibid, 87. On the previous page, it also describes them as “the couple we followed in Berlin during the Nazi book burning.” For the other mentions, see pages 16, 25, 32-33, and 102.

#AllQuietOnTheWesternFront #BibliophilePrincess #bookBurning #books #CletusBookbinder #femaleLibrarians #JenniferSnoekBrown #maleLibrarians #MoralOrel #Nazis #NYPL #oppression #OriginFilm_ #passports #RockyBullwinkle #teachers #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhiteWomen

The “sanctity” of library property in fiction and the reality of library theft

Desiree (then under a different name) tells Sarah to think about the “sanctity of library property” in an episode of Too Loud

Since today is Labor Day in the U.S. (elsewhere in the world it is celebrated on May 1), it seems the perfect opportunity to write about library property, theft, and more in fiction. [1] There will be spoilers for the webcomic Glass Case, as well as the animated series Totally Spies!, Too Loud, Kim Possible, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Carl Squared, and the anime series Library War. I will connect this to the realities that libraries face.

One of the most pertinent examples of library property and theft is in the webcomic, Glass Case. In this relatively recently-ended webcomic, a girl names Katherine Ashdown welcomes another patron, named Elaine, into the library, but this is all a ploy. Elaine uses her magic to smash a glass case surrounding a book and steals The memoirs of Ashdown. In order to camouflage her escape, she uses a spell to cause Katherine to fall asleep, and she hopes, forget what happened. Later, after waking up, Katherine worries about what her dad would day, she thinks about what Elaine (whose name she doesn’t know yet) would do, and she laments at the exhaustion from being a librarian. Somehow she finds where Elaine is staying, gets the book back, and Elaine makes fun of her, saying that librarians are “so efficient nowadays”. In response, she criticizes Elaine for taking the book and destroying the glass case, but doesn’t report her. The story is later continued with Katherine following Elaine to her destination, using the library in the Clatworthy Mansion (to find specific books), they tease one another, Katherine stops Elaine from burning books so they can stay warm, they hear the backstory of Cedric, the talking umbrella, and find a secret library. [2]

This is not the only media which features library theft. One of the first examples I noted on here were the protagonists of Totally Spies!, who steal the datebook of the now-buff wrestler librarian. On a rewatch of the episode, I noted that it is only implied that one of them (Sam) opens the locked drawer to look at the date book, not to steal it, meaning it it is likely that “the book was returned to the drawer and locked up again”, considering how important learning is to Sam. More predominantly, in the Too Loud episode “Checked Out”, Desiree talks about the iron fist of the librarian and tells Sarah to think about the “sanctity of library property,” with Sarah agreeing to help them. However, the episode shows how libraries can be punitive with wanting to protect their property and implying the interconnection of this with the criminal legal system, embodied by the book jail.

The library’s role as an institution which maintains its property is reinforced by Ms. Hatchet in Kim Possible episode “Overdue”, who takes away Kim’s communicator and makes her put adhesive labels on every book saying “property of MHS library,” labels she can only adhere to the books with her own spit, I believe. Clearly, this is unsanitary, but it is meant as a watch for Ms. Hatchet to maintain control in one way or another. Otherwise, the unnamed librarian in Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, who first appears in the episode “If Books Could Kill,” declares that “everything in the library belongs to me, including YOU”. Later, in the episode “Shh!,” the librarian declares that the next time he tries to get his book back, she will kill him.

The sadistic librarians portrayed in animation are not only some of the most stereotypical characters, but they are the ones who uphold the role of the library as a place which clings onto its property, no matter the costs. Others that would fall into this category would be the unnamed librarian in the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode “Wrath of the Librarian”, and Miss Dickens in Carl Squared  in “Carl’s Techno-Jinx”. Last but not least, in  Library War, a patron is tackled while stealing a book. There will be a mention of how books are sold by bookstores and how that is different from how libraries deal with books, in my post in early November entitled “A dusty bookstore in ‘Himawari-San’ and why libraries are different from bookstores”.

Sadistic librarian in Kick Buttowski:Suburban Daredevil tells Kick that everything in the library is hers, with an evil laugh, while holding his book

While the aforementioned examples in Kim Possible, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Carl Squared are librarian stereotypes, libraries are serious about property. There are stories of some patrons who have been charged with failing to return library property, while there is policing as to how said property is used,  what patron behavior should be. [3] On a basic level, this is understandable, but it can be discriminatory if such library rules are used unfairly and unevenly.  The ALA has defined assets as what a library “has or owns and considers valuable, including human life, collections, structures, properties, even the good name and operations of the library”, a broad definition. The same document noted the importance of documenting all losses and reporting stolen property. [4] This is interconnected to the idea that patrons should respect library property, as one WikiHow guide states.

Libraries undoubtedly work to ensure library spaces are “free and unrestricted” for people to use and enjoy, but nothing can be stolen, vandalized, or damaged. These library rules are meant to ensure patrons engage in the proscribed behaviors and not those deemed “unacceptable”. Some even threaten prosecution for those who damage library furniture, equipment, property, or materials. [5] Section 99A Code of Massachusetts notes that those who conceal library materials or property and remove these library materials or property,and if this value exceeds $250 dollars, a said person “shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than five years, or by a fine of not less than one thousand nor more than twenty-five thousand dollars”. But, if the value is less than $250 dollars, then there is punishment “by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars”. There would be an order to “pay the replacement value of such library materials or property.”

These policies/rules have the goal of having a library for everyone, but some have questioned this, stating they are innocent in charges against them, and ties libraries into the criminal system. There are even those who offer expunging charges for library theft. On the other hand, is the ever-common issue of people stealing books from libraries and selling them to make a profit for themselves. Some scholars argue that theft is a threat for all institutions and something “libraries open to the public experience frequently.” [6] There is even a Wikipedia page entitled “Library theft”, calling it is a “significant” problem.

The amount of stolen material has led some libraries to go to the extreme, even saying that those who steal materials should be jailed. Such a statement is not unusual, as there are often threats to prosecute offenders. In fact, stealing books has even been described as “most selfish of all forms of theft”, with a history that goes back to the Middle Ages when books were rare. A 1982 study even stated that the most common type of vandalism in libraries is “intentional book damage” and book theft was the “most common and consistent problem”, while only “10 percent of the libraries had book detection systems” of those surveyed. While it is clear that libraries can help those who were released from prison “re-enter” society, they serve an “instrumental role” in the criminal system, which is framed as a positive, but undoubtedly interlocks with oppressive systems. [7]

In fact, some libraries have expressed concern against using money from penal fines, which can account for “3% to 70% of annual budgets for public libraries” in Michigan, as excessive fines and the transparency of processes can unfairly burden “those that commit crimes.” Libraries are posed as something to disrupt pipelines to prison, but what if, sometimes, they support those pathways, and push people into prison? After all, libraries, especially in the U.S. South, upheld racial segregation, and denied opportunities for Black people to become librarians, leading to various protests (including sit-ins). Furthermore, on the state-level, where funding is determined by population, libraries in predominantly White, rural areas where prisons are located increase “their share of political representation and federal funding, while impoverished urban communities” where those prisoners live “lose funds and representation.” In terms of libraries themselves, as Erin Feeley stated, when books are seen as “longer fit for use at public libraries”, they are often sent to prisons or jails as “an act of charity”, something which can be deeply problematic. [8]

Arguably, libraries are within structurally racist systems, as implied by some scholars. In response to negative interactions with police, some libraries have even removed their surveillance cameras. On the other hand, there has been a “problem of violence” in public libraries, whether those in the UK from drunken people, youth who are “unruly” and irate patrons, to the direct killing of librarians in the U.S., making security a bigger push from librarians, understandably. Additional scholars have said that offenses like “library theft” becomes to a referendum on whether “legislators care about public libraries”. [9]

In the end, there will likely be more examples of library theft in fiction which I haven’t focused on, seen, and read before, then connect those to the reality of libraries. Until next time.

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] I could have posted this on World Intellectual Property Day (April 26), World Book Day (on April 23), or World Radio Day (on Feb. 13),  I already had posts scheduled near those days, so I decided to schedule it for today instead.

[2] Glass Case, Episode 2, “Aries“; Glass Case, Episode 3,  “Circinus“; Glass Case, Episode 4, “Sagitta“; Glass Case,  Episode 5, “Fornax“; Glass Case, Episode 7, “Caelum“; Glass Case, Episode 10, “Mensa“; Glass Case, Episode 15, “Apus“; Glass Case, Episode 16, “Lynx“; Glass Case,  Episode 17, “Lepus“; Glass Case, Episode 19, “Pisces“; Glass Case, Episode 26, “Virgo“; Glass Case, Episode 28, “Capricornus“; Glass Case, Episode 29, “Cancer“; Glass Case, Episode 30, “Aquila“; Glass Case, Episode 31, “Cetus“; Glass Case, Episode 37, “Chamaeleon“; Glass Case,  Episode 38, “Aquarius“; Glass Case, Episode 39, “Corvus“; Glass Case,  Episode 40, “Equuleus“; Glass Case, Episode 41, “Triangulum“; Glass Case, Episode 42, “Microscopium“; Glass Case, Episode 43, “Canes Venatici“; Glass Case, Episode 44, “Grus“.

[3] Stockburger, George. “Lebanon Police charge four with failing to return library property,” ABC27, Mar. 8, 2023; Zulkey, Claire. “Give Them Shelter?,” American Libraries, Jun. 3, 2019; “Policy – Patron Behavior on Library Property,” LillyLibrary, Jun. 22, 2009; “Borrower responsibilities,” Stanford Libraries, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Rules of Conduct,” The Seattle Public Library, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Services and Policies,” Sarasota County, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “San Francisco Public Library Commission Policy Manual,” San Francisco Public Library, Sept. 2014; “Guidelines governing the use of Montgomery County Public Libraries,” Montgomery County Public Libraries, May 8, 2020; “Appropriate Library Use Policy,” Boston Public Library, Oct. 3, 2019; “Library,” Sutter County, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Conduct on Library Premises,” Library of Congress, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Library Policies,” University of the District of Colombia, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Staff Use of Library Property Policy,” Arapahoe Libraries, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Title 18,” Philadelphia General Assembly, 2023; “§ 42.1-74.1. “Book or other library property” defined,” Code of Virginia, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Library Policies,” Woodward Memorial Library, accessed Apr. 9, 2023.

[4] “Library Security Guidelines Document,” LLAMA BES Safety & Security of Library Buildings Committee, Jun. 27, 2010, p. 3, 6, 8, 13, 15; “ACRL/RBMS Guidelines Regarding Security and Theft in Special Collections,” ACRL Board of Directors, American Library Association, Jan. 2019.

[5] “Patron Use of Library Spaces Policy,” Anoka County Library, Apr. 9, 2023; “Library Use & Behavior Guidelines,” Davidson County North Carolina, Apr. 9, 2023; “Patron Behavior on Library Property Policy,” Tinley Park Public Library, Jan. 22, 2020; “Code of Conduct,” NYU Libraries, October 2015; “User Rights and Responsibilities,” UCLA Library, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Behavioral Rules,” Franklin County Public Libraries, 2014; “Part 1 – Library Law”. When I say “Some even threaten prosecution” I am referring to UCLA Library. Some scholars have noted that destruction of libraries and archives in wartime does not “receive adequate attention” during prosecutions for war crimes.

[6] “Policies,” Iowa Law Library, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “A Library for Everyone,” Oak Park Public Library, Oct. 26, 2021; “Behavior Policy,” The Indianapolis Public Library, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; Pelham, Dennis. “‘We’re innocent,’ says woman in library book prosecution,” Daily Telegram, Apr. 4, 2016; “Policies,” DeKalb County Public Library, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; “Library Book Theft Expungement,” Lento Law Firm, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; Seppi, Gregory and Dainan Skeem, “Picking Up the Pieces: Library Processes and the Theft of Rare Materials,” RBM, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2020); Epstein, Kayla. “Archivist and bookseller plead guilty to pilfering $8M in rare texts from Carnegie Library,” Washington Post, Jan. 14, 2020; Pace, Aaron. “Are People Stealing Library Books to Sell Online?,” Medium, Sept. 30, 2020; Zeidberg, David S. “Guidelines regarding thefts in libraries: A draft,” College & Research Libraries, 47, no. 10 (1986).

[7] Weinreb, Arthur. “Alabama library wants borrowers with overdue books jailed,” Digital Journal, Sept. 4, 2016; “Library User Responsibilities,” University of Nebraska-Lincoln, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; Abbott, E.C. “People who steal books,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 165, No. 12 (2001); Ringrose, Katelyn. “Libraries & Reentry: The Importance of Public Spaces, Technologies, and Community to Formerly Incarcerated Patrons,”ALA Policy Perspectives, no. 7 (Sept. 2020): 2-14; Sweendy, P.C. “Libraries and the Justice System,” EveryLibrary, Medium, Jan. 20, 2021; de la Peña McCook, Kathleen. “Public Libraries and People in Jail,” Digital Commons @ The University of South Florida, 2004.

[8] “Penal Fines – MLA Advocacy Priority Area,” Michigan Library Association, accessed Apr. 9, 2023; Vercelletto, Christina. “Libraries Can Help Disrupt School-to-Prison Pipeline,” School Library Journal, Jan. 9, 2018; Steele, Chris. “Art Exhibit on Black Panther Challenges Library Patrons to Face Violence of Mass Incarceration Violence of Mass Incarceration,” Collaborative Librarianship, 7 no. 4 (2015): 170-171; Thorpe, Rebecca. “Urban Divestment, Rural Decline and the Politics of Mass Incarceration,” The Good Society, 23 No. 1 (2014): 25;

[9] Gibson, Amelia N., Renate L Chancellor, Nicole A Cooke, Sarah Park Dahlen, Shari A Lee, and Yasmeen L Shorish, “Libraries on the frontlines: Neutrality and social justice,” 2017, 1-4; Robinson, Paul H. “Democratizing Criminal Law: Feasibility, Utility, and the Challenge of Social Change,” Northwestern University Law Review , 111, no. 6 (2017): 1578. Also see books such as Libraries in Prisons: A Blending of Institutions by William Coyle, Security and Crime Prevention in Libraries (first published in 1992).

#books #CarlSquared #CourageTheCowardlyDog #femaleLibrarians #GlassCaseWebcomic #HimawariSan #KickButtowski #KimPossible #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #libraryProperty #libraryRules #LibraryWar #MissDickens #MissHatchet #oppression #prison #racism #segregation #theft #TooLoud #TotallySpies #WhitePatrons

Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”

Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.

One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]

At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”

Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.

I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:

…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point

Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality.  As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]

Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital records

Moving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]

This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.

As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library:  the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]

There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”

Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.

There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”

All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.

When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.

Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.

As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.

When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.

Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.

It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:

…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.

And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.

Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.

Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.

[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.

[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.

[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.

[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.

[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.

#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen

Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”

Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.

One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]

At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”

Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.

I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:

…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point

Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality.  As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]

Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital records

Moving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]

This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.

As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library:  the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]

There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”

Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.

There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”

All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.

When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.

Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.

As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.

When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.

Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.

It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:

…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.

And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.

Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.

Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.

[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.

[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.

[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.

[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.

[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.

#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen

Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”

Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.

One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]

At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”

Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.

I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:

…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point

Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality.  As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]

Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital records

Moving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]

This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.

As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library:  the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]

There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”

Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.

There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”

All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.

When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.

Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.

As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.

When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.

Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.

It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:

…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.

And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.

Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.

Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.

[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.

[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.

[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.

[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.

[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.

#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen

Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”

Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.

One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]

At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”

Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.

I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:

…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point

Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality.  As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]

Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital records

Moving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]

This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.

As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library:  the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]

There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”

Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.

There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”

All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.

When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.

Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.

As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.

When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.

Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.

It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:

…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.

And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.

Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.

Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.

[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.

[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.

[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.

[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.

[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.

#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen

Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”

Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.

One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]

At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”

Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.

I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:

…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point

Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality.  As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]

Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital records

Moving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]

This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.

As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library:  the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]

There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”

Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.

There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”

All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.

When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.

Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.

As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.

When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.

Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.

It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:

…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.

And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.

Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.

When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.

Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.

[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.

[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.

[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.

[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.

[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.

#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen

Josee, a sea of books, and reading to library patrons

Josee (in the wheelchair) tells her caretaker that he doesn’t know the brilliance of Sagan and implies that he is missing out

When I began watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, a 98-minute romantic comedy film, I had no idea how central libraries, and librarians, would be to the story. I knew already that there was a librarian in the film, but I wasn’t sure how vital her role would be the story. In this post, I’ll relate scenes in the film to other fictional examples and other topics.

More than 30 minutes into the film, Josee (voiced by Kaya Kiyohara), a physically disabled girl who uses a wheelchair, goes to the public library with her caretaker, Tsuneo Suzukawa (voiced by Taishi Nakagawa). She is amazed by the sea of books. She finds some books by Françoise Sagan, an author she likes, and the librarian, Kana Kishimoto (voiced by Lynn), happily asks if she is a fan, with Josee quietly admitting what book she likes. Not long after, Kana also asks if Tsuneo is her boyfriend, causing her to blush, as she is embarrassed, as the librarian sees the romantic sparks between Tsuneo and Josee. They check out the books. Interestingly, the librarian, Kana, is 24, just like Jose’s, and they quickly become friends, waving to one another.

Before moving onto the rest of the film, one aspect that struck me was how personable Kana’s character was. Compared to many of the other librarians I have profiled on here, either those of Asian descent, or those with the common hair bun, she is a good representation of a library worker in Osaka. In some ways, I see a parallel to Isomura, a library curator in Let’s Make a Mug Too!, who is just as helpful to the protagonists. The difference is that she is much more than an information provider, but is atypical, in her character type, because she becomes friends with the protagonist and ventures outside the library, making her an important part of the film.

Even positive depictions of librarians are often stuck inside the library and are never shown outside the walls of the institution. Some exceptions include Kaisa in Hilda, many of the student librarians in anime. Whether you see the film as having “little fresh” when it comes to disability, criticize it for being primarily through the perspective of her caretaker, praise it for its perspective on disability, Kana remains a key part of the film, something which reviewers appear to miss, for the most part, except to note that she doesn’t exist in the manga. [1] However, the review in Anime Feminist, by Zeldaru notes that when Josee goes to the library she has the “opportunity to become part of a fully public community” and she is able to see, for the first time, people coming together “with a similar purpose”, resulting in her befriending Kana, allowing her to “pursue her burgeoning interest in art”!

The fact that Kana is welcoming of Josee indicates the openness of the library to all patrons, including those which are physically disabled. Kana also helps Josee realize her feelings for Tsuneo after Josee said that she didn’t need him. She even encourages Josee to read The Little Mermaid to children in the library, but she is nervous, and kids leave. Although the reading doesn’t go well, Kana encourages her to display her art online and she is nervous and embarrassed by that. She later tells Tsuneo about her reading to the children and how she did it badly. She says she wants to try harder and be an illustrator.

There are so many scenes I could have shown here, either one at minutes 40-41, and the key scene beginning at 1 hr 15 minutes, but this seemed like one of the best ones, as in this scene, more than 1 hr and 15 minutes into the film, Kana is helping Josee write a story. Right before this, she brings library books to her, presumably about writing.

This isn’t all that Kana does in the film. She helps Josee work with Kana to write a love story so as to convince Tsuneo to stay with his dream. Not long after, Josee is reading a story to those in the library, which she wrote to cheer up Tseuno. The story is her personal adaptation of a Little Mermaid, which had references to what happened in her relationship with her caretaker. It is something that gets him out of his funk and he claps at the end,after crying during the story. After everyone claps, and blushes at the praise, and smiles. This gives the caretaker the motivation to begin physical therapy so he can walk again. She watches him day after day as he gets better.

Although some have said that this story is “uncomfortably close” to the story where a disabled person teaches an able-bodied person an “important lesson”, I tend to side with what Anime Feminist says about it, that she is trying to inspire Tsuneo “and those around her,” assembling the community she built, even organizing a picture book reading time for her book with help of Kana. This reveals her “devotion to art and to community” and it is a difference between her first reading at the library as Josee is more “confident in her work and herself and everyone is enraptured, highlighting her growth.” [2]

Later on, Tsuneo asks Kana about Josee but she isn’t at the library and hasn’t seen her. They later reunite in the end and kiss. In a scene during the credits, the librarian tearfully embraces Josee. She appears to help her by teaching her computer skills. It is also shown that the book Josee made is used by the librarian to read to children. As a result, Kana has a more fully rounded characterization than is the case for other characters. As the film’s director, Kotaro Tamura, stated, Kana was added to the film to give character development for Josee:

…I figured out the themes that would be appropriate for a feature-length film…I thought that Josee’s only way to connect with society is through Tsuneo. That’s where Josee in this film starts off at as well. But because she starts to go out more because of Tsuneo, she makes a friend named Kana. Though it’s not a huge leap, she’s able to become a bit more sociable.

However, I would argue that Kana is much more of a character than that, through facilitating reading like the librarians in the Witches Crest Library in Somali and the Forest Spirit but not as directly as Amity Blight in The Owl House, to give two examples. As an aside, Kana’s voice actress, Lynn, is very talented, known for leading roles in Keijo!!!!!!!!, Fuuka, Engage Kiss, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, along with other roles in Märchen Mädchen, Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Manaria Friends, The Aquatope on White Sand, and Oshi no Ko, to name a few.

In the future, I would like to compare this film to the original short story by Tanabe or 2003 Japanese live-action film of the same name, noting how libraries are portrayed. With that, this post comes to a close. Until next time. As always, comments are welcome.

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Osmond, Andrew. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish fails to make a splash with a rote teen romance,” BFI, Aug. 11, 2021; Clarke, Cath. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish review – beautiful-looking anime takes a trip to the zoo,” The Guardian, Aug. 12, 2021; Cassidy, Tom. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” Common Sense Media, Jul. 29, 2022; joyousmenma93, “Firechick’s Manga Reviews: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish,” Livejournal, Sept. 22, 2022.

[2] Zeldaru. “Overcoming Barriers: Mobility limitation; ‘inspirational’ disability; and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish,” Anime Feminist, Aug. 26, 2022.

#AmityBlight #AnimeFeminist #atypicalLibrarians #disabledPatrons #femaleLibrarians #Hilda #informationProvider #Isomura #JapaneseLibrarians #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #Kaisa #LetSMakeAMugToo #LibrariansOfColor #libraryPatrons #MärchenMädchen #MsVampire #reading #SomaliAndTheForestSpirit #students #TheOwlHouse #voiceActors #wheelchairs

Josee, a sea of books, and reading to library patrons

Josee (in the wheelchair) tells her caretaker that he doesn’t know the brilliance of Sagan and implies that he is missing out

When I began watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, a 98-minute romantic comedy film, I had no idea how central libraries, and librarians, would be to the story. I knew already that there was a librarian in the film, but I wasn’t sure how vital her role would be the story. In this post, I’ll relate scenes in the film to other fictional examples and other topics.

More than 30 minutes into the film, Josee (voiced by Kaya Kiyohara), a physically disabled girl who uses a wheelchair, goes to the public library with her caretaker, Tsuneo Suzukawa (voiced by Taishi Nakagawa). She is amazed by the sea of books. She finds some books by Françoise Sagan, an author she likes, and the librarian, Kana Kishimoto (voiced by Lynn), happily asks if she is a fan, with Josee quietly admitting what book she likes. Not long after, Kana also asks if Tsuneo is her boyfriend, causing her to blush, as she is embarrassed, as the librarian sees the romantic sparks between Tsuneo and Josee. They check out the books. Interestingly, the librarian, Kana, is 24, just like Jose’s, and they quickly become friends, waving to one another.

Before moving onto the rest of the film, one aspect that struck me was how personable Kana’s character was. Compared to many of the other librarians I have profiled on here, either those of Asian descent, or those with the common hair bun, she is a good representation of a library worker in Osaka. In some ways, I see a parallel to Isomura, a library curator in Let’s Make a Mug Too!, who is just as helpful to the protagonists. The difference is that she is much more than an information provider, but is atypical, in her character type, because she becomes friends with the protagonist and ventures outside the library, making her an important part of the film.

Even positive depictions of librarians are often stuck inside the library and are never shown outside the walls of the institution. Some exceptions include Kaisa in Hilda, many of the student librarians in anime. Whether you see the film as having “little fresh” when it comes to disability, criticize it for being primarily through the perspective of her caretaker, praise it for its perspective on disability, Kana remains a key part of the film, something which reviewers appear to miss, for the most part, except to note that she doesn’t exist in the manga. [1] However, the review in Anime Feminist, by Zeldaru notes that when Josee goes to the library she has the “opportunity to become part of a fully public community” and she is able to see, for the first time, people coming together “with a similar purpose”, resulting in her befriending Kana, allowing her to “pursue her burgeoning interest in art”!

The fact that Kana is welcoming of Josee indicates the openness of the library to all patrons, including those which are physically disabled. Kana also helps Josee realize her feelings for Tsuneo after Josee said that she didn’t need him. She even encourages Josee to read The Little Mermaid to children in the library, but she is nervous, and kids leave. Although the reading doesn’t go well, Kana encourages her to display her art online and she is nervous and embarrassed by that. She later tells Tsuneo about her reading to the children and how she did it badly. She says she wants to try harder and be an illustrator.

There are so many scenes I could have shown here, either one at minutes 40-41, and the key scene beginning at 1 hr 15 minutes, but this seemed like one of the best ones, as in this scene, more than 1 hr and 15 minutes into the film, Kana is helping Josee write a story. Right before this, she brings library books to her, presumably about writing.

This isn’t all that Kana does in the film. She helps Josee work with Kana to write a love story so as to convince Tsuneo to stay with his dream. Not long after, Josee is reading a story to those in the library, which she wrote to cheer up Tseuno. The story is her personal adaptation of a Little Mermaid, which had references to what happened in her relationship with her caretaker. It is something that gets him out of his funk and he claps at the end,after crying during the story. After everyone claps, and blushes at the praise, and smiles. This gives the caretaker the motivation to begin physical therapy so he can walk again. She watches him day after day as he gets better.

Although some have said that this story is “uncomfortably close” to the story where a disabled person teaches an able-bodied person an “important lesson”, I tend to side with what Anime Feminist says about it, that she is trying to inspire Tsuneo “and those around her,” assembling the community she built, even organizing a picture book reading time for her book with help of Kana. This reveals her “devotion to art and to community” and it is a difference between her first reading at the library as Josee is more “confident in her work and herself and everyone is enraptured, highlighting her growth.” [2]

Later on, Tsuneo asks Kana about Josee but she isn’t at the library and hasn’t seen her. They later reunite in the end and kiss. In a scene during the credits, the librarian tearfully embraces Josee. She appears to help her by teaching her computer skills. It is also shown that the book Josee made is used by the librarian to read to children. As a result, Kana has a more fully rounded characterization than is the case for other characters. As the film’s director, Kotaro Tamura, stated, Kana was added to the film to give character development for Josee:

…I figured out the themes that would be appropriate for a feature-length film…I thought that Josee’s only way to connect with society is through Tsuneo. That’s where Josee in this film starts off at as well. But because she starts to go out more because of Tsuneo, she makes a friend named Kana. Though it’s not a huge leap, she’s able to become a bit more sociable.

However, I would argue that Kana is much more of a character than that, through facilitating reading like the librarians in the Witches Crest Library in Somali and the Forest Spirit but not as directly as Amity Blight in The Owl House, to give two examples. As an aside, Kana’s voice actress, Lynn, is very talented, known for leading roles in Keijo!!!!!!!!, Fuuka, Engage Kiss, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, along with other roles in Märchen Mädchen, Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Manaria Friends, The Aquatope on White Sand, and Oshi no Ko, to name a few.

In the future, I would like to compare this film to the original short story by Tanabe or 2003 Japanese live-action film of the same name, noting how libraries are portrayed. With that, this post comes to a close. Until next time. As always, comments are welcome.

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Osmond, Andrew. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish fails to make a splash with a rote teen romance,” BFI, Aug. 11, 2021; Clarke, Cath. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish review – beautiful-looking anime takes a trip to the zoo,” The Guardian, Aug. 12, 2021; Cassidy, Tom. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” Common Sense Media, Jul. 29, 2022; joyousmenma93, “Firechick’s Manga Reviews: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish,” Livejournal, Sept. 22, 2022.

[2] Zeldaru. “Overcoming Barriers: Mobility limitation; ‘inspirational’ disability; and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish,” Anime Feminist, Aug. 26, 2022.

#AmityBlight #AnimeFeminist #atypicalLibrarians #disabledPatrons #femaleLibrarians #Hilda #informationProvider #Isomura #JapaneseLibrarians #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #Kaisa #LetSMakeAMugToo #LibrariansOfColor #libraryPatrons #MärchenMädchen #MsVampire #reading #SomaliAndTheForestSpirit #students #TheOwlHouse #voiceActors #wheelchairs

Josee, a sea of books, and reading to library patrons

Josee (in the wheelchair) tells her caretaker that he doesn’t know the brilliance of Sagan and implies that he is missing out

When I began watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, a 98-minute romantic comedy film, I had no idea how central libraries, and librarians, would be to the story. I knew already that there was a librarian in the film, but I wasn’t sure how vital her role would be the story. In this post, I’ll relate scenes in the film to other fictional examples and other topics.

More than 30 minutes into the film, Josee (voiced by Kaya Kiyohara), a physically disabled girl who uses a wheelchair, goes to the public library with her caretaker, Tsuneo Suzukawa (voiced by Taishi Nakagawa). She is amazed by the sea of books. She finds some books by Françoise Sagan, an author she likes, and the librarian, Kana Kishimoto (voiced by Lynn), happily asks if she is a fan, with Josee quietly admitting what book she likes. Not long after, Kana also asks if Tsuneo is her boyfriend, causing her to blush, as she is embarrassed, as the librarian sees the romantic sparks between Tsuneo and Josee. They check out the books. Interestingly, the librarian, Kana, is 24, just like Jose’s, and they quickly become friends, waving to one another.

Before moving onto the rest of the film, one aspect that struck me was how personable Kana’s character was. Compared to many of the other librarians I have profiled on here, either those of Asian descent, or those with the common hair bun, she is a good representation of a library worker in Osaka. In some ways, I see a parallel to Isomura, a library curator in Let’s Make a Mug Too!, who is just as helpful to the protagonists. The difference is that she is much more than an information provider, but is atypical, in her character type, because she becomes friends with the protagonist and ventures outside the library, making her an important part of the film.

Even positive depictions of librarians are often stuck inside the library and are never shown outside the walls of the institution. Some exceptions include Kaisa in Hilda, many of the student librarians in anime. Whether you see the film as having “little fresh” when it comes to disability, criticize it for being primarily through the perspective of her caretaker, praise it for its perspective on disability, Kana remains a key part of the film, something which reviewers appear to miss, for the most part, except to note that she doesn’t exist in the manga. [1] However, the review in Anime Feminist, by Zeldaru notes that when Josee goes to the library she has the “opportunity to become part of a fully public community” and she is able to see, for the first time, people coming together “with a similar purpose”, resulting in her befriending Kana, allowing her to “pursue her burgeoning interest in art”!

The fact that Kana is welcoming of Josee indicates the openness of the library to all patrons, including those which are physically disabled. Kana also helps Josee realize her feelings for Tsuneo after Josee said that she didn’t need him. She even encourages Josee to read The Little Mermaid to children in the library, but she is nervous, and kids leave. Although the reading doesn’t go well, Kana encourages her to display her art online and she is nervous and embarrassed by that. She later tells Tsuneo about her reading to the children and how she did it badly. She says she wants to try harder and be an illustrator.

There are so many scenes I could have shown here, either one at minutes 40-41, and the key scene beginning at 1 hr 15 minutes, but this seemed like one of the best ones, as in this scene, more than 1 hr and 15 minutes into the film, Kana is helping Josee write a story. Right before this, she brings library books to her, presumably about writing.

This isn’t all that Kana does in the film. She helps Josee work with Kana to write a love story so as to convince Tsuneo to stay with his dream. Not long after, Josee is reading a story to those in the library, which she wrote to cheer up Tseuno. The story is her personal adaptation of a Little Mermaid, which had references to what happened in her relationship with her caretaker. It is something that gets him out of his funk and he claps at the end,after crying during the story. After everyone claps, and blushes at the praise, and smiles. This gives the caretaker the motivation to begin physical therapy so he can walk again. She watches him day after day as he gets better.

Although some have said that this story is “uncomfortably close” to the story where a disabled person teaches an able-bodied person an “important lesson”, I tend to side with what Anime Feminist says about it, that she is trying to inspire Tsuneo “and those around her,” assembling the community she built, even organizing a picture book reading time for her book with help of Kana. This reveals her “devotion to art and to community” and it is a difference between her first reading at the library as Josee is more “confident in her work and herself and everyone is enraptured, highlighting her growth.” [2]

Later on, Tsuneo asks Kana about Josee but she isn’t at the library and hasn’t seen her. They later reunite in the end and kiss. In a scene during the credits, the librarian tearfully embraces Josee. She appears to help her by teaching her computer skills. It is also shown that the book Josee made is used by the librarian to read to children. As a result, Kana has a more fully rounded characterization than is the case for other characters. As the film’s director, Kotaro Tamura, stated, Kana was added to the film to give character development for Josee:

…I figured out the themes that would be appropriate for a feature-length film…I thought that Josee’s only way to connect with society is through Tsuneo. That’s where Josee in this film starts off at as well. But because she starts to go out more because of Tsuneo, she makes a friend named Kana. Though it’s not a huge leap, she’s able to become a bit more sociable.

However, I would argue that Kana is much more of a character than that, through facilitating reading like the librarians in the Witches Crest Library in Somali and the Forest Spirit but not as directly as Amity Blight in The Owl House, to give two examples. As an aside, Kana’s voice actress, Lynn, is very talented, known for leading roles in Keijo!!!!!!!!, Fuuka, Engage Kiss, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, along with other roles in Märchen Mädchen, Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Manaria Friends, The Aquatope on White Sand, and Oshi no Ko, to name a few.

In the future, I would like to compare this film to the original short story by Tanabe or 2003 Japanese live-action film of the same name, noting how libraries are portrayed. With that, this post comes to a close. Until next time. As always, comments are welcome.

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Osmond, Andrew. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish fails to make a splash with a rote teen romance,” BFI, Aug. 11, 2021; Clarke, Cath. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish review – beautiful-looking anime takes a trip to the zoo,” The Guardian, Aug. 12, 2021; Cassidy, Tom. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” Common Sense Media, Jul. 29, 2022; joyousmenma93, “Firechick’s Manga Reviews: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish,” Livejournal, Sept. 22, 2022.

[2] Zeldaru. “Overcoming Barriers: Mobility limitation; ‘inspirational’ disability; and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish,” Anime Feminist, Aug. 26, 2022.

#AmityBlight #AnimeFeminist #atypicalLibrarians #disabledPatrons #femaleLibrarians #Hilda #informationProvider #Isomura #JapaneseLibrarians #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #Kaisa #LetSMakeAMugToo #LibrariansOfColor #libraryPatrons #MärchenMädchen #MsVampire #reading #SomaliAndTheForestSpirit #students #TheOwlHouse #voiceActors #wheelchairs

Josee, a sea of books, and reading to library patrons

Josee (in the wheelchair) tells her caretaker that he doesn’t know the brilliance of Sagan and implies that he is missing out

When I began watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, a 98-minute romantic comedy film, I had no idea how central libraries, and librarians, would be to the story. I knew already that there was a librarian in the film, but I wasn’t sure how vital her role would be the story. In this post, I’ll relate scenes in the film to other fictional examples and other topics.

More than 30 minutes into the film, Josee (voiced by Kaya Kiyohara), a physically disabled girl who uses a wheelchair, goes to the public library with her caretaker, Tsuneo Suzukawa (voiced by Taishi Nakagawa). She is amazed by the sea of books. She finds some books by Françoise Sagan, an author she likes, and the librarian, Kana Kishimoto (voiced by Lynn), happily asks if she is a fan, with Josee quietly admitting what book she likes. Not long after, Kana also asks if Tsuneo is her boyfriend, causing her to blush, as she is embarrassed, as the librarian sees the romantic sparks between Tsuneo and Josee. They check out the books. Interestingly, the librarian, Kana, is 24, just like Jose’s, and they quickly become friends, waving to one another.

Before moving onto the rest of the film, one aspect that struck me was how personable Kana’s character was. Compared to many of the other librarians I have profiled on here, either those of Asian descent, or those with the common hair bun, she is a good representation of a library worker in Osaka. In some ways, I see a parallel to Isomura, a library curator in Let’s Make a Mug Too!, who is just as helpful to the protagonists. The difference is that she is much more than an information provider, but is atypical, in her character type, because she becomes friends with the protagonist and ventures outside the library, making her an important part of the film.

Even positive depictions of librarians are often stuck inside the library and are never shown outside the walls of the institution. Some exceptions include Kaisa in Hilda, many of the student librarians in anime. Whether you see the film as having “little fresh” when it comes to disability, criticize it for being primarily through the perspective of her caretaker, praise it for its perspective on disability, Kana remains a key part of the film, something which reviewers appear to miss, for the most part, except to note that she doesn’t exist in the manga. [1] However, the review in Anime Feminist, by Zeldaru notes that when Josee goes to the library she has the “opportunity to become part of a fully public community” and she is able to see, for the first time, people coming together “with a similar purpose”, resulting in her befriending Kana, allowing her to “pursue her burgeoning interest in art”!

The fact that Kana is welcoming of Josee indicates the openness of the library to all patrons, including those which are physically disabled. Kana also helps Josee realize her feelings for Tsuneo after Josee said that she didn’t need him. She even encourages Josee to read The Little Mermaid to children in the library, but she is nervous, and kids leave. Although the reading doesn’t go well, Kana encourages her to display her art online and she is nervous and embarrassed by that. She later tells Tsuneo about her reading to the children and how she did it badly. She says she wants to try harder and be an illustrator.

There are so many scenes I could have shown here, either one at minutes 40-41, and the key scene beginning at 1 hr 15 minutes, but this seemed like one of the best ones, as in this scene, more than 1 hr and 15 minutes into the film, Kana is helping Josee write a story. Right before this, she brings library books to her, presumably about writing.

This isn’t all that Kana does in the film. She helps Josee work with Kana to write a love story so as to convince Tsuneo to stay with his dream. Not long after, Josee is reading a story to those in the library, which she wrote to cheer up Tseuno. The story is her personal adaptation of a Little Mermaid, which had references to what happened in her relationship with her caretaker. It is something that gets him out of his funk and he claps at the end,after crying during the story. After everyone claps, and blushes at the praise, and smiles. This gives the caretaker the motivation to begin physical therapy so he can walk again. She watches him day after day as he gets better.

Although some have said that this story is “uncomfortably close” to the story where a disabled person teaches an able-bodied person an “important lesson”, I tend to side with what Anime Feminist says about it, that she is trying to inspire Tsuneo “and those around her,” assembling the community she built, even organizing a picture book reading time for her book with help of Kana. This reveals her “devotion to art and to community” and it is a difference between her first reading at the library as Josee is more “confident in her work and herself and everyone is enraptured, highlighting her growth.” [2]

Later on, Tsuneo asks Kana about Josee but she isn’t at the library and hasn’t seen her. They later reunite in the end and kiss. In a scene during the credits, the librarian tearfully embraces Josee. She appears to help her by teaching her computer skills. It is also shown that the book Josee made is used by the librarian to read to children. As a result, Kana has a more fully rounded characterization than is the case for other characters. As the film’s director, Kotaro Tamura, stated, Kana was added to the film to give character development for Josee:

…I figured out the themes that would be appropriate for a feature-length film…I thought that Josee’s only way to connect with society is through Tsuneo. That’s where Josee in this film starts off at as well. But because she starts to go out more because of Tsuneo, she makes a friend named Kana. Though it’s not a huge leap, she’s able to become a bit more sociable.

However, I would argue that Kana is much more of a character than that, through facilitating reading like the librarians in the Witches Crest Library in Somali and the Forest Spirit but not as directly as Amity Blight in The Owl House, to give two examples. As an aside, Kana’s voice actress, Lynn, is very talented, known for leading roles in Keijo!!!!!!!!, Fuuka, Engage Kiss, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, along with other roles in Märchen Mädchen, Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Manaria Friends, The Aquatope on White Sand, and Oshi no Ko, to name a few.

In the future, I would like to compare this film to the original short story by Tanabe or 2003 Japanese live-action film of the same name, noting how libraries are portrayed. With that, this post comes to a close. Until next time. As always, comments are welcome.

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Osmond, Andrew. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish fails to make a splash with a rote teen romance,” BFI, Aug. 11, 2021; Clarke, Cath. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish review – beautiful-looking anime takes a trip to the zoo,” The Guardian, Aug. 12, 2021; Cassidy, Tom. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” Common Sense Media, Jul. 29, 2022; joyousmenma93, “Firechick’s Manga Reviews: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish,” Livejournal, Sept. 22, 2022.

[2] Zeldaru. “Overcoming Barriers: Mobility limitation; ‘inspirational’ disability; and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish,” Anime Feminist, Aug. 26, 2022.

#AmityBlight #AnimeFeminist #atypicalLibrarians #disabledPatrons #femaleLibrarians #Hilda #informationProvider #Isomura #JapaneseLibrarians #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #Kaisa #LetSMakeAMugToo #LibrariansOfColor #libraryPatrons #MärchenMädchen #MsVampire #reading #SomaliAndTheForestSpirit #students #TheOwlHouse #voiceActors #wheelchairs

Josee, a sea of books, and reading to library patrons

Josee (in the wheelchair) tells her caretaker that he doesn’t know the brilliance of Sagan and implies that he is missing out

When I began watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, a 98-minute romantic comedy film, I had no idea how central libraries, and librarians, would be to the story. I knew already that there was a librarian in the film, but I wasn’t sure how vital her role would be the story. In this post, I’ll relate scenes in the film to other fictional examples and other topics.

More than 30 minutes into the film, Josee (voiced by Kaya Kiyohara), a physically disabled girl who uses a wheelchair, goes to the public library with her caretaker, Tsuneo Suzukawa (voiced by Taishi Nakagawa). She is amazed by the sea of books. She finds some books by Françoise Sagan, an author she likes, and the librarian, Kana Kishimoto (voiced by Lynn), happily asks if she is a fan, with Josee quietly admitting what book she likes. Not long after, Kana also asks if Tsuneo is her boyfriend, causing her to blush, as she is embarrassed, as the librarian sees the romantic sparks between Tsuneo and Josee. They check out the books. Interestingly, the librarian, Kana, is 24, just like Jose’s, and they quickly become friends, waving to one another.

Before moving onto the rest of the film, one aspect that struck me was how personable Kana’s character was. Compared to many of the other librarians I have profiled on here, either those of Asian descent, or those with the common hair bun, she is a good representation of a library worker in Osaka. In some ways, I see a parallel to Isomura, a library curator in Let’s Make a Mug Too!, who is just as helpful to the protagonists. The difference is that she is much more than an information provider, but is atypical, in her character type, because she becomes friends with the protagonist and ventures outside the library, making her an important part of the film.

Even positive depictions of librarians are often stuck inside the library and are never shown outside the walls of the institution. Some exceptions include Kaisa in Hilda, many of the student librarians in anime. Whether you see the film as having “little fresh” when it comes to disability, criticize it for being primarily through the perspective of her caretaker, praise it for its perspective on disability, Kana remains a key part of the film, something which reviewers appear to miss, for the most part, except to note that she doesn’t exist in the manga. [1] However, the review in Anime Feminist, by Zeldaru notes that when Josee goes to the library she has the “opportunity to become part of a fully public community” and she is able to see, for the first time, people coming together “with a similar purpose”, resulting in her befriending Kana, allowing her to “pursue her burgeoning interest in art”!

The fact that Kana is welcoming of Josee indicates the openness of the library to all patrons, including those which are physically disabled. Kana also helps Josee realize her feelings for Tsuneo after Josee said that she didn’t need him. She even encourages Josee to read The Little Mermaid to children in the library, but she is nervous, and kids leave. Although the reading doesn’t go well, Kana encourages her to display her art online and she is nervous and embarrassed by that. She later tells Tsuneo about her reading to the children and how she did it badly. She says she wants to try harder and be an illustrator.

There are so many scenes I could have shown here, either one at minutes 40-41, and the key scene beginning at 1 hr 15 minutes, but this seemed like one of the best ones, as in this scene, more than 1 hr and 15 minutes into the film, Kana is helping Josee write a story. Right before this, she brings library books to her, presumably about writing.

This isn’t all that Kana does in the film. She helps Josee work with Kana to write a love story so as to convince Tsuneo to stay with his dream. Not long after, Josee is reading a story to those in the library, which she wrote to cheer up Tseuno. The story is her personal adaptation of a Little Mermaid, which had references to what happened in her relationship with her caretaker. It is something that gets him out of his funk and he claps at the end,after crying during the story. After everyone claps, and blushes at the praise, and smiles. This gives the caretaker the motivation to begin physical therapy so he can walk again. She watches him day after day as he gets better.

Although some have said that this story is “uncomfortably close” to the story where a disabled person teaches an able-bodied person an “important lesson”, I tend to side with what Anime Feminist says about it, that she is trying to inspire Tsuneo “and those around her,” assembling the community she built, even organizing a picture book reading time for her book with help of Kana. This reveals her “devotion to art and to community” and it is a difference between her first reading at the library as Josee is more “confident in her work and herself and everyone is enraptured, highlighting her growth.” [2]

Later on, Tsuneo asks Kana about Josee but she isn’t at the library and hasn’t seen her. They later reunite in the end and kiss. In a scene during the credits, the librarian tearfully embraces Josee. She appears to help her by teaching her computer skills. It is also shown that the book Josee made is used by the librarian to read to children. As a result, Kana has a more fully rounded characterization than is the case for other characters. As the film’s director, Kotaro Tamura, stated, Kana was added to the film to give character development for Josee:

…I figured out the themes that would be appropriate for a feature-length film…I thought that Josee’s only way to connect with society is through Tsuneo. That’s where Josee in this film starts off at as well. But because she starts to go out more because of Tsuneo, she makes a friend named Kana. Though it’s not a huge leap, she’s able to become a bit more sociable.

However, I would argue that Kana is much more of a character than that, through facilitating reading like the librarians in the Witches Crest Library in Somali and the Forest Spirit but not as directly as Amity Blight in The Owl House, to give two examples. As an aside, Kana’s voice actress, Lynn, is very talented, known for leading roles in Keijo!!!!!!!!, Fuuka, Engage Kiss, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, along with other roles in Märchen Mädchen, Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Manaria Friends, The Aquatope on White Sand, and Oshi no Ko, to name a few.

In the future, I would like to compare this film to the original short story by Tanabe or 2003 Japanese live-action film of the same name, noting how libraries are portrayed. With that, this post comes to a close. Until next time. As always, comments are welcome.

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Osmond, Andrew. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish fails to make a splash with a rote teen romance,” BFI, Aug. 11, 2021; Clarke, Cath. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish review – beautiful-looking anime takes a trip to the zoo,” The Guardian, Aug. 12, 2021; Cassidy, Tom. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” Common Sense Media, Jul. 29, 2022; joyousmenma93, “Firechick’s Manga Reviews: Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish,” Livejournal, Sept. 22, 2022.

[2] Zeldaru. “Overcoming Barriers: Mobility limitation; ‘inspirational’ disability; and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish,” Anime Feminist, Aug. 26, 2022.

#AmityBlight #AnimeFeminist #atypicalLibrarians #disabledPatrons #femaleLibrarians #Hilda #informationProvider #Isomura #JapaneseLibrarians #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #Kaisa #LetSMakeAMugToo #LibrariansOfColor #libraryPatrons #MärchenMädchen #MsVampire #reading #SomaliAndTheForestSpirit #students #TheOwlHouse #voiceActors #wheelchairs

Princess Syalis’ sleep quest, spells, and forbidden library knowledge in “Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle”

Princess Syalis reads a Grimoire in the forbidden room off the underground demon library, and is annoyed

I’ve written about sleeping on this blog throughout this past year, whether in regards to Rin Shima in Laid Back-Camp, who sleeps at the information desk when she was in school, one of the few characters who is a librarian which I have seen doing this, while comfortably wearing a hair bun. Another example is the unnamed librarian in We Bare Bears, who lets patrons sleep overnight at the library, perhaps because she saw them working so steadily, so she let them stay there and rest in peace. Otherwise, there’s Shirusu Mochizuki who wakes up a sleeping patron in a weird first-person series, while claiming that naps disturb the other patrons and to not sleep in the library. Rin does the same in another episode, to her friend, Nadeshiko. Even more blatant is Dantalion in As Miss Beelzebub Likes, a part-rabbit librarian of the Pandemonium Library. He remains overly dedicated to his job that he reads but doesn’t eat at times, loving the smell of paper and ink. At the same time, he is very knowledgeable about what is in the library’s stacks, filled with millions of books, and is hundreds of years old, and works alongside over 10 possible library assistants. Others, such as Myne in Ascendance of a Bookworm, may fall asleep during their librarian duties as well, while Yomiko Readman almost sleeps on the huge pile of books she has in her apartment, in R.O.D. the TV.

All of these examples stand against rules in libraries banning sleeping, which can be used against homeless people if they unevenly/unfairly enforced. This all goes out the window when it comes to Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, an anime based on an ongoing manga written by Kagiji Kumanomata, which mixes the slice-of-life, fantasy comedy, and adventure genres, into one. In one episode, the protagonist, Princess Syalis (her full name is Aurora Sya Lis Goodereste) travels to the forbidden library in hopes that it will provide what she needs for a good night sleep, as she remains a hostage-in-name-only in the Demon Castle, where her antics make her the defacto castle ruler, in some ways. It differs from other series where the library is shown to be a place of studying, work, and even fun. [1] There will be some summaries of the show’s third episode.

In the episode, entitled “The Princess and Forbidden Knowledge,” of the aforementioned series, Syalis reads a Grimoire, a book which contains fruits of human wisdom, but can cause people to lose their sanity or gain magic knowledge. She believed that if she reads one of these sealed books, she might be able to fall asleep. As a result, she secretly travels to the Demon Castle Underground Library, hoping to find such a book, and makes her way past the guards (Bigwig Penguin and Jester Soldier). At first, her quest is not successful, as she reads many boring, dull Grimoires, which reduce her hit points/health to almost nothing. After this, something miraculous happens, she begins rolling down the stairs, going through a wild process which unlocks all the parts needed to unlock a forbidden magical book, sitting in its own secluded, secret library room. She finds herself in a pile of books and is able to easily to take off the chains around the aforementioned Grimoire, which releases Alazif, the spirit of the Grimoire.

Although Alazif attempts to convince Syalis to destroy all the demons, she refuses. She remains annoyed until she learns about a sleep spell. She wields the power and it so effective that it envelops the entire castle, with no one able to resist the magic, not even the demon king. This backfires as the spell doesn’t work on the spellcaster (her), causing her to be wide awake while everyone else is asleep. She falls asleep on a book in the library, with the book as a pillow of sorts. shocking Alazif. This library has no active librarians, so there’s no one, like the librarians Sanae Dekomori smears as slacking off for “not shelving books,” in  Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, for Syalis to criticize. [2]

Later, Syalis gets a book from the library, thanks to Alazif, outlining pressure points that humans have. In the sequence that follows, she asks people around the castle to touch her in a specific place (which they interpret as sexual), but she is only asking them to touch her pressure points. She is able to pull the Demon King into her prison room, and he believes that what she wants is sexual, remembering what he once read in a book. Once it is clear that it was just a way to get her to sleep, he, and the rest of the demons, are embarrassed.

Apart from the fact that the underground library and secret annex do not have libraries, the books are unique in more ways than one. For one, the books have built-in restrictions, as reading them would cause you to die. This is almost like the books in the library collection of the University of Southern Denmark which contained “large concentrations of arsenic on their covers.” Other libraries had volumes, but those books have long been destroyed. Additional researchers uncovered rare book collections and libraries which “often carry volumes that feature poisons on their pages.” [3]

In terms of the restrictions on books, I can’t think of any other examples where they are books which have chains on them apart from those in What If…?, as Jennifer Snoek-Brown describes: “…a few books hang from chains along the ceiling,” calling it “visually intriguing but very impractical.” She also pointed to chained-up books from the restricted section as shown in the film Doctor Strange, part of the never-ending cash cow, Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began in 2008. The latter is a series of films which have been criticized as equivalent of theme park rides, corporation products, despicable, ruining the industry, and is said to mainly cater to White adults. [4]

In addition, I’ve previously written on this blog about the so-called “restricted library” in That Awkward Magic!!, although the latter is a magic archives rather than a magic library. Similarly, the librarian in Hilda, named Kaisa, is a witch, can enter magic passageways and go to the Committee of Three, deep within the library. In the same point I pointed to restricted books in Equestria Girls, and the books only accessible to priests in Ascendance of a Bookworm. Then, in Merlin’s Story, the librarian on staff said that the school’s historical documents were not open to the public. It is further implied that the information inside the PYRAMID Academy library’s Ancient Egypt Room (part of the special collections), as shown in Cleopatra in Space, is restricted, perhaps to only academy professors, not students. At the same time, only certain students, like Callie, who heads the Ancient Egypt club at this intergalactic high school, may have access.

Last but not least, there’s the closed stacks in Riddle Story of Devil, authorized books in Soylent Green, and implied restrictions on a book that Somali (and the Golem) wants to read, in an episode of Somali and the Forest Spirit, as it has information about humans. In that case of that series, the librarian, Praline, is aggressive in her questioning of the patrons, going against guidance about reference interviews. Later, they can’t even use the book to get through the library’s catacombs, as witches get called when the alarm goes off, since Somali and Golem are labeled as “intruders.” After their harrowing escape, they reach their destination, but the witches appear and soon surround them, telling them to surrender, declaring this is a “restricted area.” Such limits on the information being shared are not unique.

Syalis asks Alazif for a book on pressure points

This series is unlike any others I’ve seen, in part, because of the arrogance and privilege of Syalis. While this was clear from the subbed version, it came through even more through the dubbed version, with Kira Buckland voicing Syalis. She voiced Umi Sonoda in Love Live! School Idol Project, Beatrice (Hetaro Pearlbaton and Lucas) in Re:Zero, Luculia in Violet Evergarden, Sophia Ascart in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, and Makeru Yadano in Komi Can’t Communicate, to name a few. In terms of Syalis, her name probably is not a reference to the Cialis (also known as Tadalafil) medication.

However, the absurdity of this plot says a lot about libraries. For one, it says that this library is not very accessible. How can her information need (to find a book that makes her sleepy) be fulfilled if there are no librarians present? In some ways, Alazif helps her, but she does not appear to have knowledge of the library collections. A librarian would surely have been helpful. On the other hand, Syalis is capable by herself and can easily solve quests to ensure she gets a good night rest, with or without help. In the case of this episode, the librarian, more likely than not, would have been a demon and would have reported her.

In terms of libraries in real-life, some libraries in Wisconsin (Eau Claire) have taken measures against sleeping in libraries, while others have encouraged sleepy storytimes (Dickinson County, Michigan). Others have considered taking measures to stop sleeping outside libraries, or banned it when the library is closed. Additional libraries have installed sleep pods, like ones at McKeldin Library at University of Maryland, College Park, from what I remember. [5] The latter would definitely be something that Syalis would enjoy, for sure.

Although there are no fan fics for the manga, or anime adaptation, which use the “libraries” tag on AO3, there is one mentioning the aforementioned episode and the Demon Cleric. In this fic, the Demon Cleric thinks of sleeping in the library,which is said to have a quiet ambiance. It was further noted that “thousands of books were shelved on either side of the walls. Also, long tables and chairs were placed there for visitors to read books quietly with no noises disturbing them.” It was added that this library, like others, made it feel like the knowledge was seeping through you, and was vast. However, he wanted to avoid other people seeing him sleep there. Ultimately he and Syalis end up sleeping together and they kiss! It would have been interesting to see the anime, or manga, take this direction.

The manga, which is over 20 volumes, had various chapters set in the library. The first of these is the tenth chapter, which was adapted in the aforementioned “The Princess and Forbidden Knowledge” episode. In the chapter, Syalis, finds a forbidden grimoire, which includes “all the fruits of human wisdom,” after she reads books she deems boring. After she meets Alazif, in a secret room of the demon underground library and gets a sleeping spell, which doesn’t work on her. The second is in the 20th chapter, which Syalis goes to the aforementioned secret room, and asks Alazif for advice on sleeping better, and she gets a flower, known as Mangolasia, which induces a deep sleep. Then, in the 27th chapter, Syalis reads the forbidden grimoire, and learns about a mysterious device known as a kotatsu. Then there’s the 40th chapter, when Syalis learns about Valentine’s Day chocolates from Alazif, while she is in the demon underground library. She is told that people should give her chocolates because she is a girl.

That’s all for this post! Next week I’ll be writing about name changes and romance in the public library of Alter Ego. As a relevant reminder, I will be writing about sleeping in libraries in four other blogposts this year, often as secondary topics in posts about libraries as places of knowledge, refuge, studying, reading, and romance. [6]

Hope you all sleep soundly, as soundly as Princess Syalis!

Syalis falls asleep on a Grimoire, in the library, following her failure to make herself sleep with a sleeping spell

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] I’m referring to the first two episodes of I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness. In the first episode, “Naughty Encounter, the protagonist, Allen Crawford, helps Charlotte Evans (a disgraced noble lady framed for crimes), and tells her that she can do whatever she wants, even spending time reading in the library. He is shown doing his work in the library, which is crossing out huge passages in to-be-published academic literature, which he loves to do. In the second episode, “Naughty Way to Release Stress,” Allen, reviews his progress to make Charlotte do “naughty” things (eat cakes), and tries thinks of ways for her to experience what she hasn’t before. The next morning, Allen wakes up, after doing an all-nighter, and is excited by the list of “naughty” things he has come up with for her.

[2] In the 11th episode of that series, entitled “One-Winged Fallen Angel,” Sanae Dekomori complains that the librarians are slacking off and not shelving books, and says the teacher is being carefree. Yūta Togashi is distracted, as he is thinking about Rikka Takanashi. Later, in talking with Yuta, Sanae admits she was scouted by the drama club, and asks if he regrets what happened to Rikka.

[3] Holck, Jakob Povl and Kaare Lund Rasmussen. “How we discovered three poisonous books in our university library,” The Conversation, Jun. 27, 2018; Zawacki, Alexander J. “How a Library Handles a Rare and Deadly Book of Wallpaper Samples,” Atlas Obscura, Jan. 23, 2018; “These green books are poisonous—and one may be on a shelf near you,” Art Conservation, University of Delaware Art & Sciences, accessed Oct. 19, 2023.

[4] Shevenock, Sarah and Alyssa Meyers, “Is Gen Z Too Cool for Marvel? Just 9% of Marvel Fans Identify as Part of the Generation,” Morning Consult Pro, Dec. 6, 2021; Bell, BreAnna. “Martin Scorsese Compares Marvel Movies to Theme Parks: ‘That’s Not Cinema’,” Variety, Oct. 4, 2019; Scorsese, Marin. “I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain,” New York Times (opinion), Nov. 4, 2019; Dalton, Ben. “Martin Scorsese talks “theme park films”, Netflix trade-off, de-ageing concerns,” Screen Daily, Oct. 13, 2019; Lattanzio, Ryan. “Martin Scorsese Defends Marvel Comments in New York Times Op-Ed: These Films Have No Mystery or Risk,” IndieWire, Nov. 4, 2019; Fleming Jr., Mike. “Turns Out The Most Despicable Thing About Francis Coppola’s Superhero Movie Comments Was The Faulty Translation,” Deadline, Oct. 29, 2019; Lattanzio, Ryan. “Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Cut and Paste’ Marvel Movies Have ‘Turned Us Into Zombies’,” IndieWire, Sept. 16, 2021; Crow, David. “Roland Emmerich: Marvel and Star Wars Are ‘Ruining Our Industry’,” Den of Geek, Feb. 2, 2022; Faughnder, Ryan. “What’s up with the MCU? A new book chronicles Marvel Studios’ reign and stumbles,” LA Times, Oct. 10, 2023.

[5] Loroff, Alex. “Eau Claire library looks to hire full-time security monitor,” WLAX/WEUX, Oct. 19, 2023; “Sleepy Storytimes at the Dickinson County Library,” The Daily News, Oct. 16, 2023; “New Hanover Co. considering changes to stop people from sleeping outside of downtown library,” WCET, Jan. 19, 2023; Cohen, Nancy Eve. “Once a haven for people sleeping outside, after fire, Pittsfield library bans loitering,” New England Public Media, Nov. 28, 2022; Yeung, Lien. “BCIT installs new sleep pods in library,” CBC News, Aug. 2, 2016; O’Connell, Elizabeth. “Sleeping area could come to Main Library,” The Daily Wildcat, Dec. 6, 2016.

[6] They are: “Fictional libraries as places of refuge and knowledge” (May 28, 2024); “The fictional library and the value of studying redux” (Jul. 31, 2024); “The dangers in “my” library?: Box cutters, food consumption, books, and romance, oh my!” (Aug. 21, 2024); and “Are libraries just “for reading”?: Neptune’s declaration and the reality of libraries” (Oct. 29, 2024).

#AlterEgo #arsenic #AsMissBeelzebubLikes #AscendanceOfABookworm #Beatrice #books #booksThatKill #chainedBooks #chocolate #CleopatraInSpace #demons #dubbing #EquestriaGirls #fanFiction #femaleLibrarians #flowers #hitPoints #IMGivingTheDisgracedNobleLadyIRescuedACrashCourseInNaughtiness #JapaneseLibrarians #JapanesePatrons #JapaneseWomen #Kaisa #kissing #LaidBackCamp #libraryPatrons #LoveChunibyoOtherDelusions #LoveLiveSchoolIdolProject #Makuranodanshi #mentalHealth #MerlinSStory #MyNextLifeAsAVillainess #Myne #overwork #pressurePoints #RODTheTV #ReZero #referenceInterviews #restrictions #RiddleStoryOfTheDevil #sexualAttraction #sleeping #SleepyPrincessInTheDemonCastle #SomaliAndTheForestSpirit #SoylentGreen #spirits #studyRoom #studying #subtitles #teachers #ThatAwkwardMagic #VioletEvergarden #vocationalAwe #WeBareBears #WhatIf #YomikoReadman

The library of the Turtle Princess at the beginning of the Adventure Time episode, “Paper Pete.”

Following in the footsteps of my previous analyses on this blog, I decided to look at a few episodes involving libraries in Adventure Time, an animated fantasy series that ended in September 2018. This is a show that has the library as a recurring location, which is probably why Claire Ruhlin chose it as having one of the 12 best fictional libraries for Paste magazine.

In the episode “The Real You” (S2ep15), Finn and Jake want to impress Princess Bubblegum, and Finn accepts the offer to make a speech at her science event. Jake suggests they go to the place where “knowledge lives”: the library. This library has books almost stacked like bricks in a warehouse. After clearly being bored in the library, Jake suggests they leave, while Finn wants to continue and “cram” the information in a book about pigs. Hilariously, Jake is reading a book about figs. They both start performing a jig and a dance, and the Turtle Princess, who runs the library (and is basically serving as the sole librarian) kicks them out, before which Finn says they were “enthusiastic about learning” which is an utter lie. This whole scene is not even a minute long and we don’t really see much of the library, but it doesn’t look like a grand place like that depicted in various Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes. Even though this show portrays libraries as a boring place you “learn stuff,” there is one similarity: the libraries in both animations are almost deserted.

Some episodes later, in “Paper Pete” (s3ep22) they visit the library once more, with the whole episode focused just on the library. The episode begins with they both carrying a huge book to a table, which is shown at the beginning of this article. The book is a history of rainicorns, with Jake much more into the book and learning about his “heritage,” since his girlfriend is a rainicorn, than Finn. Annoyed with Jake being focused on the books, he begins walking in the stacks, goes through the books by hand, then yells out “Oh no! Damaged books. Who did this?” The Turtle Princess, apparently the only librarian of this library, tells him to “shush,” another librarian stereotype, while other beings, who are patrons, sit at desks behind her. After being shushed once again, he stumbled upon beings known as the “pagelings“:

They end up being the “secret guardians” of the library’s books. When he tries to introduce them to Jake, they hide from everyone, not wanting to reveal themselves. They fight off a bunch of leeches (I think) called “moldos,” obviously connecting to the fact that books can mold, I guess. He eventually throws them on Jake, where they begin eating his fur, but first tries to get them off by hitting them off with a book. He gives up his shirt if they don’t attack the library books, to which the leader of the “moldos,” Mildwin agrees. After leaving the library at the end of the episode, where we see the library looks like, part of which is submerged into the ground, Jake is annoyed by the actions of Finn but admits he wasn’t doing much with the book anyway. He had read the same paragraph over and over for 11 minutes, thinking he should give up in trying to learn rainicorn history, saying he will just fake it going forward. Not sure what lesson we are supposed to take away from this episode, but it’s a fun adventure inside a library.

In later episodes, the library is mentioned, with other characters adding books to it (“Gotcha!”), it is included in a flashback Finn has in the “King Worm” episodes, and the bedroom of the Turtle Princess at the top of the library is shown in “Princess Monster Wife”. All in all, this is ultimately a very positive view of a library, although it competes with the public library in Steven Universe and the family library in She-Ra in the Princess of Power at minimum. Oh, and, after watching some episodes, I came across another library, in the episode “Betty” (s5ep48), where the Ice King becomes human again, looking in his books to figure out who he is, what he needs to do.

That’s all for this post!

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Editor note: This post was originally published on my History Hermann blog but has been re-edited and fixed before being posted on this blog. Enjoy!

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/what-time-is-it-library-time/

#AdventureTime #books #eating #femaleLibrarians #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #NonHumanLibrarians #reading #research #reviews #shushing #WhitePatrons

The library of the Turtle Princess at the beginning of the Adventure Time episode, “Paper Pete.”

Following in the footsteps of my previous analyses on this blog, I decided to look at a few episodes involving libraries in Adventure Time, an animated fantasy series that ended in September 2018. This is a show that has the library as a recurring location, which is probably why Claire Ruhlin chose it as having one of the 12 best fictional libraries for Paste magazine.

In the episode “The Real You” (S2ep15), Finn and Jake want to impress Princess Bubblegum, and Finn accepts the offer to make a speech at her science event. Jake suggests they go to the place where “knowledge lives”: the library. This library has books almost stacked like bricks in a warehouse. After clearly being bored in the library, Jake suggests they leave, while Finn wants to continue and “cram” the information in a book about pigs. Hilariously, Jake is reading a book about figs. They both start performing a jig and a dance, and the Turtle Princess, who runs the library (and is basically serving as the sole librarian) kicks them out, before which Finn says they were “enthusiastic about learning” which is an utter lie. This whole scene is not even a minute long and we don’t really see much of the library, but it doesn’t look like a grand place like that depicted in various Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes. Even though this show portrays libraries as a boring place you “learn stuff,” there is one similarity: the libraries in both animations are almost deserted.

Some episodes later, in “Paper Pete” (s3ep22) they visit the library once more, with the whole episode focused just on the library. The episode begins with they both carrying a huge book to a table, which is shown at the beginning of this article. The book is a history of rainicorns, with Jake much more into the book and learning about his “heritage,” since his girlfriend is a rainicorn, than Finn. Annoyed with Jake being focused on the books, he begins walking in the stacks, goes through the books by hand, then yells out “Oh no! Damaged books. Who did this?” The Turtle Princess, apparently the only librarian of this library, tells him to “shush,” another librarian stereotype, while other beings, who are patrons, sit at desks behind her. After being shushed once again, he stumbled upon beings known as the “pagelings“:

They end up being the “secret guardians” of the library’s books. When he tries to introduce them to Jake, they hide from everyone, not wanting to reveal themselves. They fight off a bunch of leeches (I think) called “moldos,” obviously connecting to the fact that books can mold, I guess. He eventually throws them on Jake, where they begin eating his fur, but first tries to get them off by hitting them off with a book. He gives up his shirt if they don’t attack the library books, to which the leader of the “moldos,” Mildwin agrees. After leaving the library at the end of the episode, where we see the library looks like, part of which is submerged into the ground, Jake is annoyed by the actions of Finn but admits he wasn’t doing much with the book anyway. He had read the same paragraph over and over for 11 minutes, thinking he should give up in trying to learn rainicorn history, saying he will just fake it going forward. Not sure what lesson we are supposed to take away from this episode, but it’s a fun adventure inside a library.

In later episodes, the library is mentioned, with other characters adding books to it (“Gotcha!”), it is included in a flashback Finn has in the “King Worm” episodes, and the bedroom of the Turtle Princess at the top of the library is shown in “Princess Monster Wife”. All in all, this is ultimately a very positive view of a library, although it competes with the public library in Steven Universe and the family library in She-Ra in the Princess of Power at minimum. Oh, and, after watching some episodes, I came across another library, in the episode “Betty” (s5ep48), where the Ice King becomes human again, looking in his books to figure out who he is, what he needs to do.

That’s all for this post!

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Editor note: This post was originally published on my History Hermann blog but has been re-edited and fixed before being posted on this blog. Enjoy!

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/what-time-is-it-library-time/

#AdventureTime #books #eating #femaleLibrarians #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #NonHumanLibrarians #reading #research #reviews #shushing #WhitePatrons

The library of the Turtle Princess at the beginning of the Adventure Time episode, “Paper Pete.”

Following in the footsteps of my previous analyses on this blog, I decided to look at a few episodes involving libraries in Adventure Time, an animated fantasy series that ended in September 2018. This is a show that has the library as a recurring location, which is probably why Claire Ruhlin chose it as having one of the 12 best fictional libraries for Paste magazine.

In the episode “The Real You” (S2ep15), Finn and Jake want to impress Princess Bubblegum, and Finn accepts the offer to make a speech at her science event. Jake suggests they go to the place where “knowledge lives”: the library. This library has books almost stacked like bricks in a warehouse. After clearly being bored in the library, Jake suggests they leave, while Finn wants to continue and “cram” the information in a book about pigs. Hilariously, Jake is reading a book about figs. They both start performing a jig and a dance, and the Turtle Princess, who runs the library (and is basically serving as the sole librarian) kicks them out, before which Finn says they were “enthusiastic about learning” which is an utter lie. This whole scene is not even a minute long and we don’t really see much of the library, but it doesn’t look like a grand place like that depicted in various Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes. Even though this show portrays libraries as a boring place you “learn stuff,” there is one similarity: the libraries in both animations are almost deserted.

Some episodes later, in “Paper Pete” (s3ep22) they visit the library once more, with the whole episode focused just on the library. The episode begins with they both carrying a huge book to a table, which is shown at the beginning of this article. The book is a history of rainicorns, with Jake much more into the book and learning about his “heritage,” since his girlfriend is a rainicorn, than Finn. Annoyed with Jake being focused on the books, he begins walking in the stacks, goes through the books by hand, then yells out “Oh no! Damaged books. Who did this?” The Turtle Princess, apparently the only librarian of this library, tells him to “shush,” another librarian stereotype, while other beings, who are patrons, sit at desks behind her. After being shushed once again, he stumbled upon beings known as the “pagelings“:

They end up being the “secret guardians” of the library’s books. When he tries to introduce them to Jake, they hide from everyone, not wanting to reveal themselves. They fight off a bunch of leeches (I think) called “moldos,” obviously connecting to the fact that books can mold, I guess. He eventually throws them on Jake, where they begin eating his fur, but first tries to get them off by hitting them off with a book. He gives up his shirt if they don’t attack the library books, to which the leader of the “moldos,” Mildwin agrees. After leaving the library at the end of the episode, where we see the library looks like, part of which is submerged into the ground, Jake is annoyed by the actions of Finn but admits he wasn’t doing much with the book anyway. He had read the same paragraph over and over for 11 minutes, thinking he should give up in trying to learn rainicorn history, saying he will just fake it going forward. Not sure what lesson we are supposed to take away from this episode, but it’s a fun adventure inside a library.

In later episodes, the library is mentioned, with other characters adding books to it (“Gotcha!”), it is included in a flashback Finn has in the “King Worm” episodes, and the bedroom of the Turtle Princess at the top of the library is shown in “Princess Monster Wife”. All in all, this is ultimately a very positive view of a library, although it competes with the public library in Steven Universe and the family library in She-Ra in the Princess of Power at minimum. Oh, and, after watching some episodes, I came across another library, in the episode “Betty” (s5ep48), where the Ice King becomes human again, looking in his books to figure out who he is, what he needs to do.

That’s all for this post!

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Editor note: This post was originally published on my History Hermann blog but has been re-edited and fixed before being posted on this blog. Enjoy!

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/what-time-is-it-library-time/

#AdventureTime #books #eating #femaleLibrarians #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #NonHumanLibrarians #reading #research #reviews #shushing #WhitePatrons

The library of the Turtle Princess at the beginning of the Adventure Time episode, “Paper Pete.”

Following in the footsteps of my previous analyses on this blog, I decided to look at a few episodes involving libraries in Adventure Time, an animated fantasy series that ended in September 2018. This is a show that has the library as a recurring location, which is probably why Claire Ruhlin chose it as having one of the 12 best fictional libraries for Paste magazine.

In the episode “The Real You” (S2ep15), Finn and Jake want to impress Princess Bubblegum, and Finn accepts the offer to make a speech at her science event. Jake suggests they go to the place where “knowledge lives”: the library. This library has books almost stacked like bricks in a warehouse. After clearly being bored in the library, Jake suggests they leave, while Finn wants to continue and “cram” the information in a book about pigs. Hilariously, Jake is reading a book about figs. They both start performing a jig and a dance, and the Turtle Princess, who runs the library (and is basically serving as the sole librarian) kicks them out, before which Finn says they were “enthusiastic about learning” which is an utter lie. This whole scene is not even a minute long and we don’t really see much of the library, but it doesn’t look like a grand place like that depicted in various Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes. Even though this show portrays libraries as a boring place you “learn stuff,” there is one similarity: the libraries in both animations are almost deserted.

Some episodes later, in “Paper Pete” (s3ep22) they visit the library once more, with the whole episode focused just on the library. The episode begins with they both carrying a huge book to a table, which is shown at the beginning of this article. The book is a history of rainicorns, with Jake much more into the book and learning about his “heritage,” since his girlfriend is a rainicorn, than Finn. Annoyed with Jake being focused on the books, he begins walking in the stacks, goes through the books by hand, then yells out “Oh no! Damaged books. Who did this?” The Turtle Princess, apparently the only librarian of this library, tells him to “shush,” another librarian stereotype, while other beings, who are patrons, sit at desks behind her. After being shushed once again, he stumbled upon beings known as the “pagelings“:

They end up being the “secret guardians” of the library’s books. When he tries to introduce them to Jake, they hide from everyone, not wanting to reveal themselves. They fight off a bunch of leeches (I think) called “moldos,” obviously connecting to the fact that books can mold, I guess. He eventually throws them on Jake, where they begin eating his fur, but first tries to get them off by hitting them off with a book. He gives up his shirt if they don’t attack the library books, to which the leader of the “moldos,” Mildwin agrees. After leaving the library at the end of the episode, where we see the library looks like, part of which is submerged into the ground, Jake is annoyed by the actions of Finn but admits he wasn’t doing much with the book anyway. He had read the same paragraph over and over for 11 minutes, thinking he should give up in trying to learn rainicorn history, saying he will just fake it going forward. Not sure what lesson we are supposed to take away from this episode, but it’s a fun adventure inside a library.

In later episodes, the library is mentioned, with other characters adding books to it (“Gotcha!”), it is included in a flashback Finn has in the “King Worm” episodes, and the bedroom of the Turtle Princess at the top of the library is shown in “Princess Monster Wife”. All in all, this is ultimately a very positive view of a library, although it competes with the public library in Steven Universe and the family library in She-Ra in the Princess of Power at minimum. Oh, and, after watching some episodes, I came across another library, in the episode “Betty” (s5ep48), where the Ice King becomes human again, looking in his books to figure out who he is, what he needs to do.

That’s all for this post!

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Editor note: This post was originally published on my History Hermann blog but has been re-edited and fixed before being posted on this blog. Enjoy!

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/what-time-is-it-library-time/

#AdventureTime #books #eating #femaleLibrarians #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #NonHumanLibrarians #reading #research #reviews #shushing #WhitePatrons

The library of the Turtle Princess at the beginning of the Adventure Time episode, “Paper Pete.”

Following in the footsteps of my previous analyses on this blog, I decided to look at a few episodes involving libraries in Adventure Time, an animated fantasy series that ended in September 2018. This is a show that has the library as a recurring location, which is probably why Claire Ruhlin chose it as having one of the 12 best fictional libraries for Paste magazine.

In the episode “The Real You” (S2ep15), Finn and Jake want to impress Princess Bubblegum, and Finn accepts the offer to make a speech at her science event. Jake suggests they go to the place where “knowledge lives”: the library. This library has books almost stacked like bricks in a warehouse. After clearly being bored in the library, Jake suggests they leave, while Finn wants to continue and “cram” the information in a book about pigs. Hilariously, Jake is reading a book about figs. They both start performing a jig and a dance, and the Turtle Princess, who runs the library (and is basically serving as the sole librarian) kicks them out, before which Finn says they were “enthusiastic about learning” which is an utter lie. This whole scene is not even a minute long and we don’t really see much of the library, but it doesn’t look like a grand place like that depicted in various Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes. Even though this show portrays libraries as a boring place you “learn stuff,” there is one similarity: the libraries in both animations are almost deserted.

Some episodes later, in “Paper Pete” (s3ep22) they visit the library once more, with the whole episode focused just on the library. The episode begins with they both carrying a huge book to a table, which is shown at the beginning of this article. The book is a history of rainicorns, with Jake much more into the book and learning about his “heritage,” since his girlfriend is a rainicorn, than Finn. Annoyed with Jake being focused on the books, he begins walking in the stacks, goes through the books by hand, then yells out “Oh no! Damaged books. Who did this?” The Turtle Princess, apparently the only librarian of this library, tells him to “shush,” another librarian stereotype, while other beings, who are patrons, sit at desks behind her. After being shushed once again, he stumbled upon beings known as the “pagelings“:

They end up being the “secret guardians” of the library’s books. When he tries to introduce them to Jake, they hide from everyone, not wanting to reveal themselves. They fight off a bunch of leeches (I think) called “moldos,” obviously connecting to the fact that books can mold, I guess. He eventually throws them on Jake, where they begin eating his fur, but first tries to get them off by hitting them off with a book. He gives up his shirt if they don’t attack the library books, to which the leader of the “moldos,” Mildwin agrees. After leaving the library at the end of the episode, where we see the library looks like, part of which is submerged into the ground, Jake is annoyed by the actions of Finn but admits he wasn’t doing much with the book anyway. He had read the same paragraph over and over for 11 minutes, thinking he should give up in trying to learn rainicorn history, saying he will just fake it going forward. Not sure what lesson we are supposed to take away from this episode, but it’s a fun adventure inside a library.

In later episodes, the library is mentioned, with other characters adding books to it (“Gotcha!”), it is included in a flashback Finn has in the “King Worm” episodes, and the bedroom of the Turtle Princess at the top of the library is shown in “Princess Monster Wife”. All in all, this is ultimately a very positive view of a library, although it competes with the public library in Steven Universe and the family library in She-Ra in the Princess of Power at minimum. Oh, and, after watching some episodes, I came across another library, in the episode “Betty” (s5ep48), where the Ice King becomes human again, looking in his books to figure out who he is, what he needs to do.

That’s all for this post!

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Editor note: This post was originally published on my History Hermann blog but has been re-edited and fixed before being posted on this blog. Enjoy!

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/what-time-is-it-library-time/

#AdventureTime #books #eating #femaleLibrarians #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #NonHumanLibrarians #reading #research #reviews #shushing #WhitePatrons