The Book of Bantorra Episode One: Bombs, Books, and a Sinking Ship

The Book of Bantorra, also known as Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra, takes place in a world where people turn into books when they die. A group known as The Armed Librarians are tasked with protecting them, among other things. In this world also exist a number of people brainwashed by a corrupt church known as "meats". If it sounds a little confusing, that's probably because it is.

Book of Bantorra is a mish-mash of a lot of interesting concepts, and the universe they've set the series in looks very stylish, but in spite of that, this episode didn't really work for me. It felt very unfocused and was disjointed. Between the awkward dumps of information and the unusual jargon used, it was hard to follow the show in spite of the many moments when the episode really was quite good.

I do think there's hope for this anime, however. It reminded me a lot of the first episode of Simoun, which got off to a similarly awkward start, but turned into something really great. I'll definitely watch this for at least a few more episodes in the hopes that once they've had some time to introduce to this universe, the show will be as good as I'd like it to be.

Rating: 78/100

If you'd like to watch this anime online free, head over to crunchyroll.