The Book of Bantorra 戦う司書 Ep 1
October 11, 2009
The first episode is entitled “Bombs, Books and a Sinking Ship”. Humans are called “Meats” and “Bombs”. There are “True Men” and “Mock Men”. Humans beings aspire to become “Books”. If you haven’t watched it, do click on the screencap for the funniest lines ever.
What the hell?! Bantorra’s so funny that I’ll make it a point to follow up. Plus, you can’t go wrong when there’s shiny animation. Worse come to worst, I’ll just do shiny screencaps, then run them down for dumb plot, slow pace or some other imaginary offences. Its easier than writing a story and animating it myself, that’s why I set up an anime critique blog in the first place, right?
Anyway, the first episode lost me somewhat (wow). I was too busy laughing to notice much, but gather that humans turn into book-like fossils and “True Men” probably refers to those who cannot die. There an army of undead-but-alive-humans created by a Shindeki Church/ Shinseki Church which espouses a sort of hedonistic doctrine, where Man=God, thus Man=Enjoy Himself (I like this religion, man), to kill the telepatic woman called Hanyuttsu Meseta. OK.
There’s one special assassin who has a mysterious past with another female serial killer. I didn’t get his name, but otaku complex says that he’s called Koria Tonisu, and he’s supposed to be the male lead, grey face and all.
No, not the boobs but the animation team. Bantorra is essentially animated or designed by Korean animation studios. I don’t usually notice closing credits so I don’t know the number of artists or animation studios in South Korea working with animation studios in Japan, and I don’t think nationality is important (unless its live adaptation), but reading Ha Neul Seom’s blog recently reminded me of the fluidity of art and cultural influences between Japan and Korea (and to a lesser extend, China). Animation studios are increasingly outsourcing production.
