#information-provider — Public Fediverse posts

“A haven” and place of knowledge: The key role of libraries and librarians in “Gay the Pray Away”

“Valerie Danners is in a cult. She just doesn’t know it yet. But when she stumbles upon a queer romance novel at the library, everything about her life—centered around a fundamentalist Christian homeschooling group —is thrown into question.”- Book’s official description on Penguin Random House, to give an example of what got me into this book.

Last year, I noted that I purchased a book during a sale of Pride-themed books on Bookshop and came across a book by Natalie Naudus entitled Gay the Pray Away. One of the key protagonists of this novel, Valerie Danners comes across a queer romance novel at the local library and begins, plus her coming across a new girl in town named Riley, that turns her world upside down. In my post the, I noted that libraries and knowledge are key to the book, with librarians supportive of her learning more about queer people, likely even letting her take the aforementioned queer romance book with her, and pointing out, how at one point, her restrictive parents do not allow her to go to the library. Their reasoning is simple: they know that the information there goes against the teachings of the Christian fundamentalist cult she is a part of. In this post I’ll expand on that and talk about more of the themes in this queer young adult romance novel and connect it to my previous posts.

Libraries and knowledge are key to this book even from the first chapter. Valerie, who is half-Asian/multiracial/biracial is performing and acting like she is a reactionary bible-thumper like her parents, who have been pulled into a misogynistic cult (she doesn’t realize the extent of this at the time) led by a White man. She goes to the library, despite her “friend” Hannah telling her that she can use the approved Bible encyclopedia (which only allows people to see certain information) but she resists the words of her “friend.” She later convinces her parents, with her mom from Taiwan and her dad a White man from the U.S., to bring her to the library, which she calls a quiet “haven” (see page 16) so she can do “some research” for her school paper, claiming she wants to read a Sean Hannity book (a lie). She acts like she is going there to do research but she actually wants to go to the young adult section, so she can lose herself in fantasy. She explains how she was once at a protest against a book deemed “sinful” with her mother, and how she lives to read, with what she says on page 17 making clear what’s she going through:

Every change I get, I’m tucked in my closet, devouring anything [to read] I can get my hands on. My life and world feel so small and strict and cold. I see the same people all the time who believe the same things, dress the same, talk the same, look the same. But books? Books are my escape.

She soon comes across a book by queer non-binary romance novelist Casey McQuiston, named One Last Stop, flips/zooms through it when her mom isn’t looking, calling it a “forbidden” book (since it is gay), but says it looks “pretty and joyful,” and steals the book, tucking it into her skirt. A librarian, a White man with glasses, accidentally crashes his book cart into a shelf, and while she thinks she will get caught as the alarm goes off, the librarian says it isn’t an issue, adding that their system is buggy and tells her to have a nice day. She places the book she had into the bottom of her backpack while in the bathroom, and lies to her mom about what happened. Going forward, it is an open question as to whether the librarian knew she had the book or not, which is something open to interpretation.

Going into the second chapter, she hides the book so she can hide this “contraband,” while putting on a good face, and kept in this sort of prison, even thinking that her brother David is a sort of ally (I’ll get to that later too). It is interesting that she sees her closet as a place where she is safe (likely inferring to the closet that queer people find themselves in before coming out) and it is where she rips off the cover of the book, throws it in the toilet, and adds a post-it note to it, if it is found. This paranoia is part of her daily life, where she is being watched and controlled, with her parents limiting information (there’s no Wi-Fi and the her brother’s bedroom was removed), she hides this book behind others, so it can’t be found, and her brother watches pirated anime, as she knows full well.

With all of this, it is no surprise that she hates the “approved” books about motherhood and being a “godly woman,” because who would like those books? She sees fantasy as a way of escape and reads One Last Stop all night learning about words like queer and bisexual (one reviewer noted that she is implied as bisexual) and sees the world of gay and queer people as joyful, warm, and fun. This contrasts with the controlling attitude of her mother and father which is abusive in more ways than one. While it is a while before she returns to the library or talks about the “secret stolen book” (One Last Stop) as she briefly calls it in Chapter 4, she does come across one more person who changes her life: a girl her age named Riley. She instantly falls for her, with Riley helping break the mindset which is holding her in this terrible situation. The same goes for her talking to Mira (formerly Miriam) who shakes her mindset.

In fact, it isn’t until chapter 7 that the aforementioned book appears again, with Valerie noting she has been “reading, rereading, and re-rereading” the book, while smiling, and begging to ride her bike to the library herself, where she, goes in, as she puts on page 59, and continues on page 60, saying specifically:

“…the farthest corner, in the cubicle with the computer facing the wall and my seat facing the entrance, I get on the internet. With one eye on the entrance in case someone comes in, I start with L and read my way through articles on the GBTQIA and the +. I read articles by the Episcopalians…about homosexuality and the Bible, and how the conservative ideology I’ve been taught is not universally accepted…[later] I’m back at the library. I google every “dangerous liberal doctrine” I can remember being trashed in sermons and lectures…I read about feminism, intersectional feminism, Kimberle Crenshaw, and critical race theory.”

She goes onto note how her parents censor the home internet, review the search history she and her brother go through, and question them about sites they visit. She says she feels “drunk with the sheer power of knowledge” from the library, which she calls the “unregulated wilds.” As the chapter goes on, she comes across the same librarian as before, who wears a sweater, who encourages her to take a queer book, noting it has a “super discreet cover.” As the book goes on, Riley and Valerie “Val” get closer, with Riley helping puncture Val’s impression of the restrictive situation she is in, as she slowly realizes she is in a cult after all.

Sometime later, Val notes, on page 87, she gets lost in books in the library and even smells them, kisses Riley (they both kiss one another various times), and admits she “stole a book from the library” (page 112). The latter surprises Riley, who likely sees her as rebellious. Beyond more chapters showing the insidious of this cult and the forced male-female courting pushed onto boys and girls, she goes to the library over and over, saying she read “every gay book” she could find, whether about critical race theory, her rights, abortion, and more, while appearing submissive to her parents (page 126). She even gets a hidden message, through email, that Riley sent her, hidden within a chemistry paper, sending messages back and forth in the document (pages 140-141), while on the library computer. She continues doing this, while she claims she is studying (page 157), delivers books to Mrs. Miller from her mom.

The library serves as a place Val can be free without parental permission, where she can be herself (see pages 168-170 for instance). She even creates a secret Instagram account where she sees a picture of another girl kissing her cousin, Mira, on the side of the face, and begins a correspondence with her, asking for her help. As noted in the rest of the chapter, she makes clear she is so paranoid that she wants to log into Instagram, delete her messages, even her account, noting wanting the wrong people to find it. However, she doesn’t do that and meets with Mira, telling her what she is going through, allowing them to connect. The library serves as a place of acceptance in contrast to the strict, domineering nature of “home.”

While Riley and Val bond more and their romance deepens, with Riley even coming over for a sleepover at Val’s house, everything goes downhill after David accidentally witnesses (see page 199) Riley and Val kiss and snitches on them, betraying Val, and causing her a world of hurt. He did not have to expose her like that, but it shows that no one in the family can be trusted, how the propaganda can get to anyone, even her brother, who watches pirated anime. It is later revealed, on pages 201 to 202 that her parents found her “queer books” and sketches Riley did of her, even though she had been so careful, believing she was right to be paranoid. Her email password is changed, she is banned from using the computer and the kicker: she is “not allowed to go to the library anymore” and they return her library books, while her secret stolen book (The One Stop) is literally burned on a grill, and set on fire.

Of course, this sends Val into a spiral and depression, with her parents prohibiting her from speaking to Riley. She lashes out at Hannah, understandably, who claims she has to repent and repeats the same cultish viewpoint, even willing to cut ties with Val, showing she has lost to the propaganda. She later gets money from Mrs. Batra, and goes to a bookshelf, where she hides the money in an old encyclopedia (pages 207-209), and she later lashes out at David, who claims he is questioning things, even though he turned her in. She also notes that when she snuck books from the library and googled the conservative canon, she realized how problematic the books she had were, how racist they were (pages 213-214). In a heartbreaking scene, after she turns down the arranged date between her and Andrew Patterson, she says, on page 216:

…Screaming in frustration, I throw myself into my closet and pull the accordion door shut. And there, in the dark, without a single friendly book to comfort me, I cry.

Chapter 28 is when the library gets to chine once more, with Val taking money from Mrs. Batra, and running to the library, going through the woods, and refusing to marry Andrew, no matter what, and is determined to contact Riley. She logs into the computer, but her parents changed her password, then creates another account, and desperately writes a message to Riley, but not Mira, as she doesn’t want her parents to find out (see page 219). She gets back just in time and no one is the wiser. Chapter 29 is the key chapter not because Val works for Mrs. Batra again, but because she goes to the library, or because she is nervous to talk to the librarian who helped her before (she thinks he has “more recommendations for queer books with discreet covers”), and she gets what she was hoping for (see page 225). There’s a message from Val, saying she will pick her up on February 1st, and Val responds she will be ready.

For the next two weeks she plays “by the rules,” takes her Bible study seriously, and everything else, to allay any suspicion. She is able to leave, despite her dad being furious at her, but her mother, unexpectedly is a bit of an ally of sorts, and she gets away. She gets her sort-of happily-ever-after with Riley, as they live together, even if money is tight, away from the cult-like atmosphere. Toward the end of the book, Val notes that she bikes to the local library, reads, and begins to write a bit (see pages 241-242), and her mom helps her get the documents she needs, while in her own way she is supportive.

In the final part of this book includes resources, a reading guide, and an interview with the author. In the second of these is a question noting that Val’s turning point is when she picks up One Last Stop from the library, and another asks what role the library played in Val’s “journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance” (pages 247-248). In the third of these parts of what constitutes the book’s appendix, Naudus notes that during her childhood, books and reading were a “huge escape” with her getting in trouble for reading when she was supposed to be praying, adding that seeing yourself in a story is “like looking into a mirror,” and notes her inspirations, what queer joy means to her, and more (see pages 249 to 253).

I’ve written about theft, acceptance, and library as a place of refuge time and again on this blog, even linking some of the above here. I like how the library is shown as not a neutral place, but instead a place of knowledge. It provides Val with the information she needs to learn more about her surroundings, about her world, away from restrictions imposed on her. This is why Kendra Winchester of Book Riot called, in a review back in June 2024, this book a “love letter to libraries and the freedom they represent for their patrons,” adding that “without the books she reads at the library, she might never have been able to imagine a different future for herself.”

The role of the library in spreading knowledge, even that which challenges orthodoxies, is why some have began book bans and even some have burned books they have hated, not wanting anyone else to have that knowledge. They find that knowledge is dangerous because it challenges their worldview. This is why it is so important to protect libraries, whether academic, special, public, or otherwise, from attack by governments, individuals, and groups.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

#abusiveRelationships #arson #AsianAmerican #bookBurning #books #Bookshop #censorship #Christianity #cults #family #GayThePrayAway #informationProvider #lateBooks #lesbians #LGBTQ #librariesAreContested #librariesAreNotNeutral #libraryAsRefuge #libraryProperty #maleLibrarians #misogyny #OneLastStop #propaganda #quiet #reading #religion #restrictions #socialMedia #TaiwanesePatrons #theft #WhiteMen #WiFi

“A haven” and place of knowledge: The key role of libraries and librarians in “Gay the Pray Away”

“Valerie Danners is in a cult. She just doesn’t know it yet. But when she stumbles upon a queer romance novel at the library, everything about her life—centered around a fundamentalist Christian homeschooling group —is thrown into question.”- Book’s official description on Penguin Random House, to give an example of what got me into this book.

Last year, I noted that I purchased a book during a sale of Pride-themed books on Bookshop and came across a book by Natalie Naudus entitled Gay the Pray Away. One of the key protagonists of this novel, Valerie Danners comes across a queer romance novel at the local library and begins, plus her coming across a new girl in town named Riley, that turns her world upside down. In my post the, I noted that libraries and knowledge are key to the book, with librarians supportive of her learning more about queer people, likely even letting her take the aforementioned queer romance book with her, and pointing out, how at one point, her restrictive parents do not allow her to go to the library. Their reasoning is simple: they know that the information there goes against the teachings of the Christian fundamentalist cult she is a part of. In this post I’ll expand on that and talk about more of the themes in this queer young adult romance novel and connect it to my previous posts.

Libraries and knowledge are key to this book even from the first chapter. Valerie, who is half-Asian/multiracial/biracial is performing and acting like she is a reactionary bible-thumper like her parents, who have been pulled into a misogynistic cult (she doesn’t realize the extent of this at the time) led by a White man. She goes to the library, despite her “friend” Hannah telling her that she can use the approved Bible encyclopedia (which only allows people to see certain information) but she resists the words of her “friend.” She later convinces her parents, with her mom from Taiwan and her dad a White man from the U.S., to bring her to the library, which she calls a quiet “haven” (see page 16) so she can do “some research” for her school paper, claiming she wants to read a Sean Hannity book (a lie). She acts like she is going there to do research but she actually wants to go to the young adult section, so she can lose herself in fantasy. She explains how she was once at a protest against a book deemed “sinful” with her mother, and how she lives to read, with what she says on page 17 making clear what’s she going through:

Every change I get, I’m tucked in my closet, devouring anything [to read] I can get my hands on. My life and world feel so small and strict and cold. I see the same people all the time who believe the same things, dress the same, talk the same, look the same. But books? Books are my escape.

She soon comes across a book by queer non-binary romance novelist Casey McQuiston, named One Last Stop, flips/zooms through it when her mom isn’t looking, calling it a “forbidden” book (since it is gay), but says it looks “pretty and joyful,” and steals the book, tucking it into her skirt. A librarian, a White man with glasses, accidentally crashes his book cart into a shelf, and while she thinks she will get caught as the alarm goes off, the librarian says it isn’t an issue, adding that their system is buggy and tells her to have a nice day. She places the book she had into the bottom of her backpack while in the bathroom, and lies to her mom about what happened. Going forward, it is an open question as to whether the librarian knew she had the book or not, which is something open to interpretation.

Going into the second chapter, she hides the book so she can hide this “contraband,” while putting on a good face, and kept in this sort of prison, even thinking that her brother David is a sort of ally (I’ll get to that later too). It is interesting that she sees her closet as a place where she is safe (likely inferring to the closet that queer people find themselves in before coming out) and it is where she rips off the cover of the book, throws it in the toilet, and adds a post-it note to it, if it is found. This paranoia is part of her daily life, where she is being watched and controlled, with her parents limiting information (there’s no Wi-Fi and the her brother’s bedroom was removed), she hides this book behind others, so it can’t be found, and her brother watches pirated anime, as she knows full well.

With all of this, it is no surprise that she hates the “approved” books about motherhood and being a “godly woman,” because who would like those books? She sees fantasy as a way of escape and reads One Last Stop all night learning about words like queer and bisexual (one reviewer noted that she is implied as bisexual) and sees the world of gay and queer people as joyful, warm, and fun. This contrasts with the controlling attitude of her mother and father which is abusive in more ways than one. While it is a while before she returns to the library or talks about the “secret stolen book” (One Last Stop) as she briefly calls it in Chapter 4, she does come across one more person who changes her life: a girl her age named Riley. She instantly falls for her, with Riley helping break the mindset which is holding her in this terrible situation. The same goes for her talking to Mira (formerly Miriam) who shakes her mindset.

In fact, it isn’t until chapter 7 that the aforementioned book appears again, with Valerie noting she has been “reading, rereading, and re-rereading” the book, while smiling, and begging to ride her bike to the library herself, where she, goes in, as she puts on page 59, and continues on page 60, saying specifically:

“…the farthest corner, in the cubicle with the computer facing the wall and my seat facing the entrance, I get on the internet. With one eye on the entrance in case someone comes in, I start with L and read my way through articles on the GBTQIA and the +. I read articles by the Episcopalians…about homosexuality and the Bible, and how the conservative ideology I’ve been taught is not universally accepted…[later] I’m back at the library. I google every “dangerous liberal doctrine” I can remember being trashed in sermons and lectures…I read about feminism, intersectional feminism, Kimberle Crenshaw, and critical race theory.”

She goes onto note how her parents censor the home internet, review the search history she and her brother go through, and question them about sites they visit. She says she feels “drunk with the sheer power of knowledge” from the library, which she calls the “unregulated wilds.” As the chapter goes on, she comes across the same librarian as before, who wears a sweater, who encourages her to take a queer book, noting it has a “super discreet cover.” As the book goes on, Riley and Valerie “Val” get closer, with Riley helping puncture Val’s impression of the restrictive situation she is in, as she slowly realizes she is in a cult after all.

Sometime later, Val notes, on page 87, she gets lost in books in the library and even smells them, kisses Riley (they both kiss one another various times), and admits she “stole a book from the library” (page 112). The latter surprises Riley, who likely sees her as rebellious. Beyond more chapters showing the insidious of this cult and the forced male-female courting pushed onto boys and girls, she goes to the library over and over, saying she read “every gay book” she could find, whether about critical race theory, her rights, abortion, and more, while appearing submissive to her parents (page 126). She even gets a hidden message, through email, that Riley sent her, hidden within a chemistry paper, sending messages back and forth in the document (pages 140-141), while on the library computer. She continues doing this, while she claims she is studying (page 157), delivers books to Mrs. Miller from her mom.

The library serves as a place Val can be free without parental permission, where she can be herself (see pages 168-170 for instance). She even creates a secret Instagram account where she sees a picture of another girl kissing her cousin, Mira, on the side of the face, and begins a correspondence with her, asking for her help. As noted in the rest of the chapter, she makes clear she is so paranoid that she wants to log into Instagram, delete her messages, even her account, noting wanting the wrong people to find it. However, she doesn’t do that and meets with Mira, telling her what she is going through, allowing them to connect. The library serves as a place of acceptance in contrast to the strict, domineering nature of “home.”

While Riley and Val bond more and their romance deepens, with Riley even coming over for a sleepover at Val’s house, everything goes downhill after David accidentally witnesses (see page 199) Riley and Val kiss and snitches on them, betraying Val, and causing her a world of hurt. He did not have to expose her like that, but it shows that no one in the family can be trusted, how the propaganda can get to anyone, even her brother, who watches pirated anime. It is later revealed, on pages 201 to 202 that her parents found her “queer books” and sketches Riley did of her, even though she had been so careful, believing she was right to be paranoid. Her email password is changed, she is banned from using the computer and the kicker: she is “not allowed to go to the library anymore” and they return her library books, while her secret stolen book (The One Stop) is literally burned on a grill, and set on fire.

Of course, this sends Val into a spiral and depression, with her parents prohibiting her from speaking to Riley. She lashes out at Hannah, understandably, who claims she has to repent and repeats the same cultish viewpoint, even willing to cut ties with Val, showing she has lost to the propaganda. She later gets money from Mrs. Batra, and goes to a bookshelf, where she hides the money in an old encyclopedia (pages 207-209), and she later lashes out at David, who claims he is questioning things, even though he turned her in. She also notes that when she snuck books from the library and googled the conservative canon, she realized how problematic the books she had were, how racist they were (pages 213-214). In a heartbreaking scene, after she turns down the arranged date between her and Andrew Patterson, she says, on page 216:

…Screaming in frustration, I throw myself into my closet and pull the accordion door shut. And there, in the dark, without a single friendly book to comfort me, I cry.

Chapter 28 is when the library gets to chine once more, with Val taking money from Mrs. Batra, and running to the library, going through the woods, and refusing to marry Andrew, no matter what, and is determined to contact Riley. She logs into the computer, but her parents changed her password, then creates another account, and desperately writes a message to Riley, but not Mira, as she doesn’t want her parents to find out (see page 219). She gets back just in time and no one is the wiser. Chapter 29 is the key chapter not because Val works for Mrs. Batra again, but because she goes to the library, or because she is nervous to talk to the librarian who helped her before (she thinks he has “more recommendations for queer books with discreet covers”), and she gets what she was hoping for (see page 225). There’s a message from Val, saying she will pick her up on February 1st, and Val responds she will be ready.

For the next two weeks she plays “by the rules,” takes her Bible study seriously, and everything else, to allay any suspicion. She is able to leave, despite her dad being furious at her, but her mother, unexpectedly is a bit of an ally of sorts, and she gets away. She gets her sort-of happily-ever-after with Riley, as they live together, even if money is tight, away from the cult-like atmosphere. Toward the end of the book, Val notes that she bikes to the local library, reads, and begins to write a bit (see pages 241-242), and her mom helps her get the documents she needs, while in her own way she is supportive.

In the final part of this book includes resources, a reading guide, and an interview with the author. In the second of these is a question noting that Val’s turning point is when she picks up One Last Stop from the library, and another asks what role the library played in Val’s “journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance” (pages 247-248). In the third of these parts of what constitutes the book’s appendix, Naudus notes that during her childhood, books and reading were a “huge escape” with her getting in trouble for reading when she was supposed to be praying, adding that seeing yourself in a story is “like looking into a mirror,” and notes her inspirations, what queer joy means to her, and more (see pages 249 to 253).

I’ve written about theft, acceptance, and library as a place of refuge time and again on this blog, even linking some of the above here. I like how the library is shown as not a neutral place, but instead a place of knowledge. It provides Val with the information she needs to learn more about her surroundings, about her world, away from restrictions imposed on her. This is why Kendra Winchester of Book Riot called, in a review back in June 2024, this book a “love letter to libraries and the freedom they represent for their patrons,” adding that “without the books she reads at the library, she might never have been able to imagine a different future for herself.”

The role of the library in spreading knowledge, even that which challenges orthodoxies, is why some have began book bans and even some have burned books they have hated, not wanting anyone else to have that knowledge. They find that knowledge is dangerous because it challenges their worldview. This is why it is so important to protect libraries, whether academic, special, public, or otherwise, from attack by governments, individuals, and groups.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

#abusiveRelationships #arson #AsianAmerican #bookBurning #books #Bookshop #censorship #Christianity #cults #family #GayThePrayAway #informationProvider #lateBooks #lesbians #LGBTQ #librariesAreContested #librariesAreNotNeutral #libraryAsRefuge #libraryProperty #maleLibrarians #misogyny #OneLastStop #propaganda #quiet #reading #religion #restrictions #socialMedia #TaiwanesePatrons #theft #WhiteMen #WiFi

Recently added titles (March 2025)

Marshall in the library, in a prison, in the Common Side Effects episode “Blowfish”, which came out this month.

Building upon the titles listed for July/August, September, October,  November, and December 2021, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2022, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2023, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September,  October, November, and December of 2024, and January and February of this year, this post notes recent titles with libraries or librarians in popular culture which I’ve come across in the past month. Each of these has been watched or read during the past month. No other entries with libraries (or librarians) to add for this past month, but I did come across some in anime, animation, films, and others in webcomics and manga. There may be spoilers for these episodes, so be aware.

Animated series recently added to this page

• Common Side Effects, “Blowfish” (s1 ep 7)

I’ve been watching this series since it came out, but I never expected there to be a library scene. In this scene, Marshall Cuso is in the library, in prison, drawing a diagram of the foot of fellow prisoner Hector, and writing down how he will try to heal it. He meets a fellow mycologist there, who volunteers at the library, and is praises the power of his magic mushrooms. She asks where the fiber is coming from and she becomes his drug dealer in a sense. Later, she gives him a book, in the library, and tells him he will be getting the drug that night, in a move that seems very cloak-and-dagger. Some time later, he thinks of how the blue-angel magic mushrooms are formed by the poop of his tortoise, Socrates, and he takes a drug given to him by the fellow mycologist so he can fake his own death.

I have written about prison libraries before, noting in March 2023, the unnamed prison librarian (voiced by Tress MacNeille) in The Simpsons episode “Dial “N” for Nerder”, when Lisa imagines herself as an older prisoner, with this librarian passing her jail cell with a trolley of books, asking whether she had Joyce Carol Oates. The librarian said she only had Danielle Steel, causing Lisa to scream in terror. At the time I said that that librarian was “perhaps the only prison librarian that I’ve ever seen in animation. Hopefully I see more in the future.” In another post in May 2023, I gave examples of prison libraries and/or prison librarians in various films, noting that such prison librarians, whether in film or TV, are “a mix of exaggeration and accuracy,” that real-life prisons are unlikely to “provide more than what is legally required” in their services, giving access to inmates, while librarians are torn between duties to the latter and their role as “information gatekeepers.” Since then, I’ve noted that libraries are said to be “key tools” for getting people out of prison, especially when it comes to prison libraries (which are little known of in countries such as Portugal), and the partnership between libraries and police departments.

I further stated, in a post in September 2024, that libraries are:

while…libraries can help those who were released from prison “re-enter” society, they serve an “instrumental role” in the criminal system, which…undoubtedly interlocks with oppressive systems…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)….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”…arguably, libraries are within structurally racist systems,

Anime series recently added to this page

• From Bureaucrat to Villainess, “Dad Cross-dresses” (s1 ep 10)
  
• From Bureaucrat to Villainess, “Dad Gets into an Elegant Pickle” (s1 ep 11)
• K-On!, “Planning Discussion” (s2 ep 26 [extra])
• Love Live! Sunshine!!, “The Time Left” (s2 ep 7) [Updated]
• Love Live! Sunshine!!, “Sea of Light” (s2 ep 12) [New!]
• The 100 Girlfriends, “Peekaboy-Meets-Girl” (s2 ep 10)

I updated the entry for “The Time Left” when writing my review for this series and added the other at the same time. In the latter episode, Hanamaru reads a book in the library briefly, a small book, and later tells Chika she wants to win, no matter what.

In the above noted episode of From Bureaucrat to Villainess, Grace tells Anna about the rule for the student council: it requires cross-gender casting in plays, meaning that men have to play women, and women have to play men, meaning that both genders have to crossdress, hence the title of the episode. Grace says they can’t ignore the mother because her mother made the rule, as they both talk in the Royal Academy Library, and the children of Grace/Kenzaburo, see the scene play out on their TV, and theorize that they are seeing an actual world which happens to resemble the game, not a game world. Grace worries about some of the boys crossdressing as women, while noting that there is appeal. They later talk to one of the princes, Lucas Vierge, who is on the student council, and Virgile’s younger brother, and also found out about the rule. It is decided that Grace/Kenzaburo will crossdress too, as will Anna, who wants to see Grace/Kenzaburo crossdress as a man.

Library scene from the tenth episode of From Bureaucrat to Villainess, with Anna and Grace pictured.

In another episode of the above series, episode 11, Grace finds Anna in the school library where she was compiling information on plays from library books, so they she can put together the script for the play they are putting on, and she has been there all day. She ends up being hungry and falls over, making Anna worry like no one’s business. She is later brought to the nurse’s room to rest.

Then in The 100 Girlfriends episode “Peekaboy-Meets-Girl,” Rentaro, Hakare, Karane, Kusuri, and Iku go looking in the a well-maintained, by dark, library storage room for Shizuka, as they continue their hide-and-seek game in the school. They find Nano and Shizuka inside a cardboard box and are overcome by the cuteness.

Then there’s an episode of K-On!, which I’m adding as I recently finished watching this series. In one scene of the episode, “Planning Discussion,” specifically in part of a promo video put together for the light music club, a female student blushes, saying she thinks the members of the light music club are “funny people” while she stands in the school library. The library is briefly shown, in this very short scene. However, the library comes up again in the film. Here’s a screenshot of that scene that I took:

Unnamed schoolgirl with glasses shown in the school library in the above mentioned episode of K-On!

Previously, I mentioned K-On! in my posting about the fictional libraries and value of studying, which examines many other animated series, noting the only other episode in the series which features a library scene, specifically in the episode “Finals.” In that episode, Yui studies with her friends in the school library for finals. Later, her friend, Azu-nyan, brings her there so she can further focus on studying. A librarian, presumably a student librarian, is shown sitting at the information desk, during the episode.

Comics recently added to this page

• Demon ‘n’ Luv, “We Eat Fish” (ep. 43)
• Vixen: NYC Vol. 2, p. 34-38

The first comic listed here is from a boy’s love webcomic I recently started reading. In this issue, a demon sits in the great library warehouse, is asked about Norway (where he claimed he is from) from Sam, a skeptical friend of Luv, and he clearly shows he has no idea what he is talking about… not one bit. Luc tries to give him some hints to help him talk to Sam. She later asks Luv if he is okay, and he is about to say that demon is a demon, but he is cut off.

As I noted in my post noting the recently added titles last month, only a select number of issues from Vixen: NYC are available on Webtoon. So, I purchased some of the volumes as a result. Volume 2 of this comic contains issues 10-19, and I previously noted how Episode 11 (can no longer be read on Webtoon), has a library scene. I also updated what I originally wrote about the library scene, from:

Vixen talks to a guy she thinks is stalking her, the same one from episode 4, in the library but its actually Beast Boy, who is a member of the Teen Titans.

This entry has now been updated to:

Vixen, stressed from hearing about the release of Kwesi, and insisting she is fine to her parents, studies in the library. She comes across the same person who was seemingly stalking her in the library. He clarifies that he was asking “weird questions” about animals because he is Beast Boy, a member of the Teen Titans. She doesn’t believe him so he transforms into a cat. Their talk, involving Beast Boy suggesting she talk to Batman, is interrupted when he is called off to deal with “hero business.”

Films recently added to this page

• K-On! the Movie

I was actually expecting to have zero entries for this month, but this film proved me wrong. This film branches from the Japanese animated series, K-On!, which focuses on four young high school girls, Yui Hirasawa, Mio Akiyama, Ritsu Tainaka, and Tsumugi Kotobuki who are members of a light music club at their all-girls school, and are later joined by a younger member Azusa Nakano, with all of them hanging out in the club room, either having sweets and tea, or playing music, which they later perform. In the film, the four girls, Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi, who are soon to graduate from their school, go on a graduation trip to London, England, hoping to do sightseeing, including visiting musical sights along the way, like Abbey Road, or the homes of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, and play two live gigs, while they think of a special song they want to perform for Azusa as a going away present. Early in the film, the school library of their all-girls school, is briefly shown in passing, but later in the film they visit the King’s Library (now called the Enlightenment Gallery) where they see a replica of the Rosetta Stone (the real stone is at the another part of the British Museum under glass), remembering back to when a replica was used when their school put on a performance of Romeo & Juliet, after the gravestone of Juliet went missing.

One of the library scenes in which the girl wants to see then movie (promoting their band) shows, and this is shown early in the film. The other library scene is in Britain.

Correction to the above: The Rosetta Stone is at the British Museum, not the British library. However, in the movie it is shown in a library setting, i.e. a library room. As I read more, it was clear that a replica is at the King’s Library of the British Museum, which is exactly what is depicted in the film! The latter is confirmed by the British Museum entry which says a replica is in that library, and without a cast, so people can touch it. The King’s Library is now called Enlightenment Gallery, according to the British Museum.

Other entries recently added to this page

• The Art of Amphibia

I received this in the mail this month. On one page (page 65), about the episode “Trip to the Archives,” which was part 2 of a season one episode (#13), it quotes Amphibia background designer Philip Vose, background designer, saying:

“Growing up, I knew I was never going to be a big-brained intellectual or scholar. But, as it turns out, you can just draw and paint things that make it seem like you are, like this decorative library and classy portrait. Fooled myself even. It’s one of the most satisfying episodes I had the privilege to work on, detailing all the bits that make it feel academically smart and historically interesting.”

While they say all this, the episode still confuses archives for libraries, and this quote doesn’t help matters! I have mentioned Amphibia a bunch of times on this blog, like here and here in 2020, and noted the library scene in “All In,” along with another in the episode “Lost in Newtopia,” with Marcy and King Andreas visiting a library in that episode, and they are in biggest and most comprehensive library in the kingdom, as they go through books, trying to find out more about the music box which brought Marcy, Sasha, and Anne to Amphibia, with this library likely having some form of organization and classification of individuals. As for the scene in “All In,” Marcy, while controlled by the Core and as a part of Darcy (Dark Marcy), she is in a memoryscape of sorts, and is guided to this library. There are at least 11 assistants there. She meets Aldrich, who welcomes her to the Core’s inner sanctum. Marcy wonders where she is, and it all disappears, leading her into a fantasy world which supposedly has everything she ever wanted.

However, I’ve never written about the episode “Trip to the Archives” on here. Rather, I have written about it on my sister blog, where I criticized the depiction of archives in the episode in a post I wrote in 2020, which I stand by. Since then, I mentioned it briefly in posts, like those here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, especially noting the confusion of libraries and archives, and that it could be called a repository, with no archivists shown, even though “someone has to go in there and organize the books, the scrolls, and other artifacts inside,” with it implied that this town archives is abandoned. In fact, an archivist character would have helped the protagonists find what they were looking for and would have saved them a lot of time instead of them searching for it themselves. Furthermore, the archives itself is mired in stereotypes, as it is underground and is described by one character as “dustier than Dusty’s dustbin.”

As Arlene Schmuland notes, many fictional archives are located in basements, accounting for the perception that archives are “dirty and ill-lit,” with the basement locations used “to represent a lack of status on the part of the office or activity located there” and dust is the “most pervasive motif associated with archives, even outside of fiction,” as I noted in a post back in November of last year. In fact, in the episode itself, there’s a sunlight timer which almost traps the protagonists inside, even as it filled with books and some artifacts. At the same time, the archives is unmanaged. As I noted in my interview with Susan Tucker, “writers for pop culture media I’ve come across seem to have little knowledge about how archives function in reality, leading some to falsely think they are the same as libraries.” That is surely the case for this town archives.

The book also shows background art for the episode “True Colors” on page 138, with black-and-white coloring by Joseph McCormick, and color by Amy Huang. However, the art shown for the episode “Lost in Newtopia” does not include anything about the library scene on the pages the art is displayed (pages 111-112). Even so, the library shown in the next-to-last episode of the entire series, “All In” is shown on page 197, with black-and-white coloring by Joe Sparrow, and color by Andy Gardner-Flexner.

© 2024-2025 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

#Amphibia #BlackPatrons #BlackWomen #BritishLibrary #CommonSideEffects #DemonNLuv #drugDealers #drugs #FromBureaucratToVillainess #illicitDrugs #informationProvider #KOn #KOnTheMovie #lists #mushrooms #oppression #prison #protests #RecentlyAddedTitles #RosettaStone #segregation #shortBlogs #TheSimpsons #VixenNYC

Recently added titles (March 2025)

Marshall in the library, in a prison, in the Common Side Effects episode “Blowfish”, which came out this month.

Building upon the titles listed for July/August, September, October,  November, and December 2021, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2022, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2023, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September,  October, November, and December of 2024, and January and February of this year, this post notes recent titles with libraries or librarians in popular culture which I’ve come across in the past month. Each of these has been watched or read during the past month. No other entries with libraries (or librarians) to add for this past month, but I did come across some in anime, animation, films, and others in webcomics and manga. There may be spoilers for these episodes, so be aware.

Animated series recently added to this page

• Common Side Effects, “Blowfish” (s1 ep 7)

I’ve been watching this series since it came out, but I never expected there to be a library scene. In this scene, Marshall Cuso is in the library, in prison, drawing a diagram of the foot of fellow prisoner Hector, and writing down how he will try to heal it. He meets a fellow mycologist there, who volunteers at the library, and is praises the power of his magic mushrooms. She asks where the fiber is coming from and she becomes his drug dealer in a sense. Later, she gives him a book, in the library, and tells him he will be getting the drug that night, in a move that seems very cloak-and-dagger. Some time later, he thinks of how the blue-angel magic mushrooms are formed by the poop of his tortoise, Socrates, and he takes a drug given to him by the fellow mycologist so he can fake his own death.

I have written about prison libraries before, noting in March 2023, the unnamed prison librarian (voiced by Tress MacNeille) in The Simpsons episode “Dial “N” for Nerder”, when Lisa imagines herself as an older prisoner, with this librarian passing her jail cell with a trolley of books, asking whether she had Joyce Carol Oates. The librarian said she only had Danielle Steel, causing Lisa to scream in terror. At the time I said that that librarian was “perhaps the only prison librarian that I’ve ever seen in animation. Hopefully I see more in the future.” In another post in May 2023, I gave examples of prison libraries and/or prison librarians in various films, noting that such prison librarians, whether in film or TV, are “a mix of exaggeration and accuracy,” that real-life prisons are unlikely to “provide more than what is legally required” in their services, giving access to inmates, while librarians are torn between duties to the latter and their role as “information gatekeepers.” Since then, I’ve noted that libraries are said to be “key tools” for getting people out of prison, especially when it comes to prison libraries (which are little known of in countries such as Portugal), and the partnership between libraries and police departments.

I further stated, in a post in September 2024, that libraries are:

while…libraries can help those who were released from prison “re-enter” society, they serve an “instrumental role” in the criminal system, which…undoubtedly interlocks with oppressive systems…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)….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”…arguably, libraries are within structurally racist systems,

Anime series recently added to this page

• From Bureaucrat to Villainess, “Dad Cross-dresses” (s1 ep 10)
  
• From Bureaucrat to Villainess, “Dad Gets into an Elegant Pickle” (s1 ep 11)
• K-On!, “Planning Discussion” (s2 ep 26 [extra])
• Love Live! Sunshine!!, “The Time Left” (s2 ep 7) [Updated]
• Love Live! Sunshine!!, “Sea of Light” (s2 ep 12) [New!]
• The 100 Girlfriends, “Peekaboy-Meets-Girl” (s2 ep 10)

I updated the entry for “The Time Left” when writing my review for this series and added the other at the same time. In the latter episode, Hanamaru reads a book in the library briefly, a small book, and later tells Chika she wants to win, no matter what.

In the above noted episode of From Bureaucrat to Villainess, Grace tells Anna about the rule for the student council: it requires cross-gender casting in plays, meaning that men have to play women, and women have to play men, meaning that both genders have to crossdress, hence the title of the episode. Grace says they can’t ignore the mother because her mother made the rule, as they both talk in the Royal Academy Library, and the children of Grace/Kenzaburo, see the scene play out on their TV, and theorize that they are seeing an actual world which happens to resemble the game, not a game world. Grace worries about some of the boys crossdressing as women, while noting that there is appeal. They later talk to one of the princes, Lucas Vierge, who is on the student council, and Virgile’s younger brother, and also found out about the rule. It is decided that Grace/Kenzaburo will crossdress too, as will Anna, who wants to see Grace/Kenzaburo crossdress as a man.

Library scene from the tenth episode of From Bureaucrat to Villainess, with Anna and Grace pictured.

In another episode of the above series, episode 11, Grace finds Anna in the school library where she was compiling information on plays from library books, so they she can put together the script for the play they are putting on, and she has been there all day. She ends up being hungry and falls over, making Anna worry like no one’s business. She is later brought to the nurse’s room to rest.

Then in The 100 Girlfriends episode “Peekaboy-Meets-Girl,” Rentaro, Hakare, Karane, Kusuri, and Iku go looking in the a well-maintained, by dark, library storage room for Shizuka, as they continue their hide-and-seek game in the school. They find Nano and Shizuka inside a cardboard box and are overcome by the cuteness.

Then there’s an episode of K-On!, which I’m adding as I recently finished watching this series. In one scene of the episode, “Planning Discussion,” specifically in part of a promo video put together for the light music club, a female student blushes, saying she thinks the members of the light music club are “funny people” while she stands in the school library. The library is briefly shown, in this very short scene. However, the library comes up again in the film. Here’s a screenshot of that scene that I took:

Unnamed schoolgirl with glasses shown in the school library in the above mentioned episode of K-On!

Previously, I mentioned K-On! in my posting about the fictional libraries and value of studying, which examines many other animated series, noting the only other episode in the series which features a library scene, specifically in the episode “Finals.” In that episode, Yui studies with her friends in the school library for finals. Later, her friend, Azu-nyan, brings her there so she can further focus on studying. A librarian, presumably a student librarian, is shown sitting at the information desk, during the episode.

Comics recently added to this page

• Demon ‘n’ Luv, “We Eat Fish” (ep. 43)
• Vixen: NYC Vol. 2, p. 34-38

The first comic listed here is from a boy’s love webcomic I recently started reading. In this issue, a demon sits in the great library warehouse, is asked about Norway (where he claimed he is from) from Sam, a skeptical friend of Luv, and he clearly shows he has no idea what he is talking about… not one bit. Luc tries to give him some hints to help him talk to Sam. She later asks Luv if he is okay, and he is about to say that demon is a demon, but he is cut off.

As I noted in my post noting the recently added titles last month, only a select number of issues from Vixen: NYC are available on Webtoon. So, I purchased some of the volumes as a result. Volume 2 of this comic contains issues 10-19, and I previously noted how Episode 11 (can no longer be read on Webtoon), has a library scene. I also updated what I originally wrote about the library scene, from:

Vixen talks to a guy she thinks is stalking her, the same one from episode 4, in the library but its actually Beast Boy, who is a member of the Teen Titans.

This entry has now been updated to:

Vixen, stressed from hearing about the release of Kwesi, and insisting she is fine to her parents, studies in the library. She comes across the same person who was seemingly stalking her in the library. He clarifies that he was asking “weird questions” about animals because he is Beast Boy, a member of the Teen Titans. She doesn’t believe him so he transforms into a cat. Their talk, involving Beast Boy suggesting she talk to Batman, is interrupted when he is called off to deal with “hero business.”

Films recently added to this page

• K-On! the Movie

I was actually expecting to have zero entries for this month, but this film proved me wrong. This film branches from the Japanese animated series, K-On!, which focuses on four young high school girls, Yui Hirasawa, Mio Akiyama, Ritsu Tainaka, and Tsumugi Kotobuki who are members of a light music club at their all-girls school, and are later joined by a younger member Azusa Nakano, with all of them hanging out in the club room, either having sweets and tea, or playing music, which they later perform. In the film, the four girls, Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi, who are soon to graduate from their school, go on a graduation trip to London, England, hoping to do sightseeing, including visiting musical sights along the way, like Abbey Road, or the homes of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, and play two live gigs, while they think of a special song they want to perform for Azusa as a going away present. Early in the film, the school library of their all-girls school, is briefly shown in passing, but later in the film they visit the King’s Library (now called the Enlightenment Gallery) where they see a replica of the Rosetta Stone (the real stone is at the another part of the British Museum under glass), remembering back to when a replica was used when their school put on a performance of Romeo & Juliet, after the gravestone of Juliet went missing.

One of the library scenes in which the girl wants to see then movie (promoting their band) shows, and this is shown early in the film. The other library scene is in Britain.

Correction to the above: The Rosetta Stone is at the British Museum, not the British library. However, in the movie it is shown in a library setting, i.e. a library room. As I read more, it was clear that a replica is at the King’s Library of the British Museum, which is exactly what is depicted in the film! The latter is confirmed by the British Museum entry which says a replica is in that library, and without a cast, so people can touch it. The King’s Library is now called Enlightenment Gallery, according to the British Museum.

Other entries recently added to this page

• The Art of Amphibia

I received this in the mail this month. On one page (page 65), about the episode “Trip to the Archives,” which was part 2 of a season one episode (#13), it quotes Amphibia background designer Philip Vose, background designer, saying:

“Growing up, I knew I was never going to be a big-brained intellectual or scholar. But, as it turns out, you can just draw and paint things that make it seem like you are, like this decorative library and classy portrait. Fooled myself even. It’s one of the most satisfying episodes I had the privilege to work on, detailing all the bits that make it feel academically smart and historically interesting.”

While they say all this, the episode still confuses archives for libraries, and this quote doesn’t help matters! I have mentioned Amphibia a bunch of times on this blog, like here and here in 2020, and noted the library scene in “All In,” along with another in the episode “Lost in Newtopia,” with Marcy and King Andreas visiting a library in that episode, and they are in biggest and most comprehensive library in the kingdom, as they go through books, trying to find out more about the music box which brought Marcy, Sasha, and Anne to Amphibia, with this library likely having some form of organization and classification of individuals. As for the scene in “All In,” Marcy, while controlled by the Core and as a part of Darcy (Dark Marcy), she is in a memoryscape of sorts, and is guided to this library. There are at least 11 assistants there. She meets Aldrich, who welcomes her to the Core’s inner sanctum. Marcy wonders where she is, and it all disappears, leading her into a fantasy world which supposedly has everything she ever wanted.

However, I’ve never written about the episode “Trip to the Archives” on here. Rather, I have written about it on my sister blog, where I criticized the depiction of archives in the episode in a post I wrote in 2020, which I stand by. Since then, I mentioned it briefly in posts, like those here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, especially noting the confusion of libraries and archives, and that it could be called a repository, with no archivists shown, even though “someone has to go in there and organize the books, the scrolls, and other artifacts inside,” with it implied that this town archives is abandoned. In fact, an archivist character would have helped the protagonists find what they were looking for and would have saved them a lot of time instead of them searching for it themselves. Furthermore, the archives itself is mired in stereotypes, as it is underground and is described by one character as “dustier than Dusty’s dustbin.”

As Arlene Schmuland notes, many fictional archives are located in basements, accounting for the perception that archives are “dirty and ill-lit,” with the basement locations used “to represent a lack of status on the part of the office or activity located there” and dust is the “most pervasive motif associated with archives, even outside of fiction,” as I noted in a post back in November of last year. In fact, in the episode itself, there’s a sunlight timer which almost traps the protagonists inside, even as it filled with books and some artifacts. At the same time, the archives is unmanaged. As I noted in my interview with Susan Tucker, “writers for pop culture media I’ve come across seem to have little knowledge about how archives function in reality, leading some to falsely think they are the same as libraries.” That is surely the case for this town archives.

The book also shows background art for the episode “True Colors” on page 138, with black-and-white coloring by Joseph McCormick, and color by Amy Huang. However, the art shown for the episode “Lost in Newtopia” does not include anything about the library scene on the pages the art is displayed (pages 111-112). Even so, the library shown in the next-to-last episode of the entire series, “All In” is shown on page 197, with black-and-white coloring by Joe Sparrow, and color by Andy Gardner-Flexner.

© 2024-2025 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

#Amphibia #BlackPatrons #BlackWomen #BritishLibrary #CommonSideEffects #DemonNLuv #drugDealers #drugs #FromBureaucratToVillainess #illicitDrugs #informationProvider #KOn #KOnTheMovie #lists #mushrooms #oppression #prison #protests #RecentlyAddedTitles #RosettaStone #segregation #shortBlogs #TheSimpsons #VixenNYC

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.

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