Oldtaku: Anime for Grownups

Summary: dumbest premise ever, but I love the execution
Based on: 6 episodes
Series Info: at Anime News Network

This just has me in the grips of despair. Zetsubou! Zetsubou daaaaaa!

It’s very similar to Planetes, which I liked a lot, and I find the clean, heavily edged art style and character designs very appealing. It’s also in the ’short haired tomboy leading character’ genre like Planetes and Patlabor.  So far the plot is thin, but dialogue and characterization are excellent.

However – it has possibly the dumbest premise I’ve ever seen in an anime that’s obviously aimed at adults. A Media Cleansing Act is passed which causes the formation of a bunch of elite book censorship Nazis (they even have the snappy uniforms).  In response, a freedom of information act is passed which causes libraries to become more or less their own country with their own elite military force. They battle it out in bookstores and alternate heavy weapons training with Dewey decimal system filing. I am not making this up. How could I?

Okay, close your eyes, breathe deep, let it wash over you. Ignore the requisite Japanese sexism (’Wow, you guys made it here in only one day even with a woman in the group!’). This is still pretty enjoyable.