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2nd Live-Action Library Wars Mini Short Posted
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Angle Pictures began streaming the second Library "mini" Wars live-action short last week that features a side story to the live-action film adaptation of Hiro Arikawa's popular action novel series Library War (Toshokan Sensō). The seven-minute silent short, "Year Shoka 31," is streaming online with English subtitles:
The feature-length film is set in a future version of Japan in 2019, when a law threatens to clamp down on freedom of expression. Iku Kasahara (Mei-chan no Shitsuji and Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru's Nana Eikura) joins the Library Defense Force, a military unit dedicated to protecting books from being confiscated. However, she finds that the job of her childhood dreams is harder than she bargained for, especially with her hard-nosed instructor Atsushi Dōjō (Tales from Earthsea and From Up On Poppy Hill's Junichi Okada).
In Library "mini" Wars, actresses Karan Terata and Ako Masuki reprise their film roles as library staffers. The shorts follow their daily lives away from the main storyline.
Angle Pictures produced the shorts. The production label was founded by Library War film director Shinsuke Satō (Gantz, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, The Princess Blade, Sand Chronicles) back when he was still a student.
The novel series already inspired two manga series (one in the shōjo magazine LaLa, and another in the male-oriented Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh), a television anime series, and an anime film Toshokan Sensō: Kakumei no Tsubasa (Library War: The Wings of Revolution) in 2011.
The new live-action film will open in Japan on April 27.
