This news item seems rather timely. I’ve been catching up on my backlog of Library Wars: Love and War over the last few days. Banned Books Week is next week and I wanted to try to review them for it. I have a love/hate relationship with this title. The story is well written and I love the characters, but I can’t handle the dystopian future it portrays. The censorship, hardball tactics by the Media Betterment Committee, the push to destroy books that some disagree with for the “betterment of society”  just leaves an empty pit in my stomach, and makes it a difficult series for me to enjoy all the time and re-read.

It seems it won’t be a struggle for me for much longer. The November issue of Hakusensha’s LaLa Magazine announced that Library Wars: Love and War would be ending in the next three chapters. This would put the series finale in the February issue due out in December. There are currently 13 volumes out in Japan, and Viz Media, the US licensor of the title, just released volume 12 in print and digital. The series is based on a light novel series that went 4 volumes, and resulted in other spin-off media such as an anime, and a live action movie.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I love the story and characters, but I don’t think I would want a world like Library Wars to go on. The situation is posits is too realistic. It’s too easy a slope for any country to slip down and never find its way back up. This is what makes the series great sci-fi. It makes you think about the possibilities, and by making you care about the characters, it brings it closer to home, and a little harder to dismiss. I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue the series, but with a prospective 5 volumes left, I think I’ll see it to the end, no matter how bitter that path becomes, because the subject matter is important. It makes me uncomfortable, but maybe that’s all the more reason for me to keep reading.