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Title (English) Heart Library
Title (Japanese) Kokoro Toshokan
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book cover

Fantasy Novel

Notes Also on R2 DVD, from Victor Entertainment, #VIBF-90, 30 mins.
Classification -
Synopsis About Kokoro, the youngest of three sisters who have inherited a rustic library in the mountains. Her name means "heart".
Review Huh? Nan da kore wa? I just watched the first episode of the recent "cute girl" anime series, "Kokoro Toshokan", and I'm still not quite sure what is going on. The R2 DVD, from Victor Entertainment, #VIBF-90, is listed at 30 minutes long, but there are a number of previews and explanations at the end that add a fair amount of time to that.
Okay, what is the story about? Well, it's a reminiscence of Kokoro, the youngest of three sisters who have inherited a rustic library in the mountains. The first story is about Kokoro's first day at work, and the one borrower who comes in and checks out a book. After a week, the borrower doesn't bring back the book, so little Kokoro goes off by herself to the distant town, where she finds out that the borrower has moved away. But as Kokoro sits at a lonely bus stop, her two older sisters drive up and eventually show her the book that was returned by mail because the borrower didn't have time to bring it back.
As I started out above - w.t.f.? Yes, that is what the story is about. This is a "cute girl" show on Quaaludes par excellence. In fact, it appears to be a deliberate attempt at applying "reductio ad absurdum" to the genre. That's not to say that the show is at all "bad". It certainly looks nice, and the character designs are sort of a cross between CCS and the manga version of AMG. The BGM is also quite soothing. But for the life of me I can't figure out who the intended audience is supposed to be.
To a good extent, the show is like a very "upscale" version of a pre-schooler's show - you know - a "Berenstein Bears" sort of story, but with much less action and drama. But I thought that this was originally a late night anime! So I'm really confused.
One definite conclusion I've come to is that this is a series that would be a kick to watch while polishing off a "bottle" or two. In that spirit, and in the spirit of the show, I've opened up a half bottle of St. Jacobs Country Winery and Cidery "Iced Cherry" wine. ( Those of you who live near the Kitchener/Waterloo area in Ontario owe yourselves a visit some day up to that winery - they have very interesting apple and fruit wines. ) As I sip the blend of sweet and tart tastes, it suits "Kokoro Toshokan" very well.
What was particularly interesting about this first DVD is that after the first episode came not only previews for the episodes on the next DVD, but a bunch of explanatory material narrated by Kokoro. My guess is that the producers of the DVD were worried that anyone who only saw the first episode might think that the rest of the series was equally 'luded out. But it appears that there will be something more of a plot and more characters introduced in later episodes.
So I'm not sure what to do - do I spend the money to order the next DVD, or do I wait for the inevitable re-broadcast on "The Kids Station" or some other Japanese repeat channel. Any suggestions?
(Dave Baranyi)
Credits Series dir: Koji Masamura
Episodes
Release Jap:DVD
TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date 2001 Oct 12 -
Production JVC, Studio Deen
Broadcaster TV Tokyo
Animation Studio Deen
References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

 

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