Manga Review: Library Wars: Love & War, Vol 1

Library Wars: Love & War, vol 1 by Kiiro Yume ( Hiro Arikawa (Original concept), Kinami Watabe (Translator), June 1, 2010 (originally published 2008). 186 pages. Published by Viz Media. Source: Borrowed from Library.

In the near future, the federal government creates a committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. The libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves--the Library Forces!

Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the Library Defense Force ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from being confiscated in a bookstore when she was younger. But now that she's finally a recruit, she's finding her dream job to be a bit of a nightmare. Especially since her hard-hearted drill instructor seems to have it in for her!

First Sentence:
A gentle hand that softly touched my head.

I was surprised to see that I never reviewed Library Wars: Love & War, vol 1 before. I've even read this volume at least three times, so let's change that.

Thoughts

• Library Wars, at least volume 1, is perhaps one of the funniest manga I have read. It had me howling with laughter. What makes this such a funny volume is the bantering between Iku and the frill instructor (who's name I forgot). As you read more of volume one, and certain things are revealed, it gets all the more hilarious when you see what she doesn't see. 
• The Library Defense Force- I found it interesting that the central plot of the book was, well, books and the defense of them. When I first started this manga, the very first time, I did not expect there to literally be a war going on over books. I'm serious. Though it was fascinating to see how seriously the LDF took their training.
• The Characters- One of the things I enjoyed most about the characters was their craziness. Take Iku, who joined the Library Defense Force to find her "prince" who saved her book that was about to be taking away by the government. Oh yes, fun times abounded!!
• The artowrk took some time to grow on me, but overall it wasn't bad. Though it tended to remind me of art from manga from the 90's...or something a little on the old side, though in this case I quite liked it. 

Final Verdict: Library Wars: Love and War, vol 1- Just read it!! It's funny and delightful!!

Library Wars: Love and War, vol 1 earns

this book was borrowed from the library. All thoughts are my own.