Anime Assessment: Dantalian no Shoka

Howdy all, Xort here once again for another review on Anime Assessment! Last time, we talked about Ben-To, an anime that I loved at first sight. This time, we're gonna be looking at one I wasn't too keen on until I re-watched it, and even now I do have a few problems with. Let's talk about Dantalian no Shoka.

Dantalian no Shoka is an anime adapted from a series of light novels written by Gatsuo Mikumo, with 8 volumes released from February of 2008 to February of 2011. The anime adaptation was produced by Studio Gainax and aired from July to October of 2011. There are also three manga: Dantalian no Shoka, Dantalian no Shoka Dalian Days, and Dalian-chan no Shoka, which are all complete. However, as you may have guessed, we're just gonna talk about the anime.

What is Dantalian no Shoka? In a nutshell, it's a story about two characters: Hugh Anthony Disward, once an ace pilot in the British army and now heir to his deceased grandfather's estate and massive collection of books, and Dalian, the small girl who had been living with him before he died and who has what can almost be described as a fetish for eating sweets. Hugh - who prefers to be called 'Huey,' and thus who I will be referring to as Huey from now on - becomes Dalian's Keykeeper, and learns that she's actually a "Biblioprincess," a living gateway to the eponymous Dantalian no Shoka, or the Mystic Archives of Dantalian. The Archives are a massive library containing what are called Phantom Books; books that have for various reasons gained magical powers, and can be read to unleash those powers - though only a select few can reliably control the Books, Huey being one of them. The majority of the episodes serve as a way to develop the relationship between the two as they get to know each other and work to retrieve and contain Phantom Books out in the world.

So, let's get down to business.

Now, I said I wasn't too keen on it my first time through, but that's not to say I didn't like it. Rather - and most likely, this is just because I'm really stupid - I was just pretty confused by it once the last episode ended and all the dust had settled. The majority of the series is just an episodic set of mini-adventures with our two main characters. There's not too much in the way of continuity between the episodes, and most of them can be watched in any order as a small, standalone experience. However, the last two episodes bring all of what little connectivity there was throughout the series and attempts to resolve a conflict that, my first time through, I just wasn't able to follow. This time, though, I had foreknowledge and was able to look for certain things, and I was doing some serious note-taking so I wouldn't miss a thing, so I wasn't nearly as befuddled as I was originally. Instead, I find myself more than a little bit disappointed. The premise and setting for the show are both greatly interesting to me, and as much as I loved seeing Huey and Dalian's relationship grow as they went about their business I would have loved even more to have seen those aspects expanded on. That only really happens in the last two episodes, which just leaves me wanting so much more.

As I said, the story follows Huey and Dalian as they attempt to chase down and retrieve Phantom Books from the world. The Books are capable of doing all sorts of things. Some can summon lightning, or create golems. They can impart all the knowledge in the world, heal wounds, and sometimes even bring the dead back to life. Naturally, this can cause some problems, so getting them rounded up pronto is definitely a good idea. During the course of their adventures, they come across all sorts of fantastic horrors, and have to deal with them appropriately. Luckily, though, since Huey is Dalian's Keykeeper he is able to open the gate - a lock located on the upper part of Dalian's chest - and retrieve Phantom Books of his own to counter whatever it is they're dealing with. However, he can only do so if she gives him permission. The adventures deal with a wide variety of problems, but each one seems to primarily serve as a way to further develop Huey and Dalian as characters and strengthen their relationship, so there's not much of an overarching plot to talk about.

In general, I greatly enjoy seeing the two develop and grow closer. Huey and Dalian both manage to have distinct strengths and weaknesses - Huey is a former soldier, and thus can handle himself in a fight and carries a revolver, but there's not much he can do against Phantom Books without Dalian's help, who in turn relies on Huey to protect her from physical threats - and they both have little ways they can get at each other and get their way. Huey can abuse Dalian's love of sweets with bribes, and Dalian can easily get her way with Huey by asserting her loli-noble authority or by spoiling books that he's interested in reading. It's a sort of relationship I rarely see in anime, where both sides stand on relatively equal ground but still manage to be distinct and able to stand on their own. However, as much as I enjoy a good character-focused drama, this is unfortunately a time when I wish there was more than just that.

Out of twelve episodes and an OVA, only two of them focus on building up the setting and important characters beyond Huey and Dalian. Episode 6 introduces Hal Kamhout and Flamberge, another Biblioprincess and her Keykeeper who burns Phantom Books as ammunition in a magic staff rather than reading them, and episode 11 takes place before the main series and introduces a third Biblioprincess: Raziel, and her Keykeeper who calls himself the Professor. This pair are basically the opposite of Huey and Dalian, deciding that Phantom Books should be distributed throughout the world and actively nurturing Phantom Books as they're being written. Then, episode 12 has them all make an appearance in what was, essentially, just another Phantom Book adventure like the rest. The only thing that sets this one apart - aside from the gathering of all three known Biblioprincesses - was the culmination of the only real long-term setup in the series: Huey's attempt to free a girl he met as a child inside the Archives, and the one who actually sends the Phantom Books out through the gate. We don't know much about her other than the fact that, somehow, Huey managed to get inside the Archives as a child and befriend her and that she calls Dalian the “other me.”

He fails to rescue her, getting stopped by a minotaur who guards the gate, though they imply he'll try again one day. More importantly though, she gives him what seems to be Dalian's own Phantom Book to use. As he reads, we get an absolutely fascinating look at Dalian's history, showing both her own past and the past of the girl in the Archives, which implies that the reason she's trapped is because she opened Pandora's Box. Yeah, looks like Dalian's actually pretty damn old for a loli. However, we don't get any further elaboration on that point, and the OVA that came out later was just another Phantom Book adventure with no attempt to expand on it. This particularly saddens me because it marks the second time that Greek mythology has been highlighted where Dalian was involved, so I would love to see just what led to her existence as a Biblioprincess, but we get nothing for her or the other girls.

All that said, Dantalian is still a great watch if you want a bunch of bite-sized, easy to digest adventures that are extremely pretty to look at, which is a perfectly valid reason to watch something. It is an absolute treat to both the eyes and ears, with gorgeous environments, lots of pretty lights during the magic scenes and a wonderful, melancholic soundtrack that suits the ethereal atmosphere of the show perfectly. I recommend it if you enjoy watching some adorable character moments, lots of pretty lights, and if you enjoy a bit of mystery in your story having bits of information fed to you without the big picture ever getting fully explored. Ignore it if you want a plot that goes from Point A to Point B with a definite, constant conflict instead of episodic adventures, if you're looking for something grand, exciting, and upbeat, or if - like me - not getting all of the information you're teased with just frustrates you.

That'll be all for today. If you disagreed with something I said, feel free to argue with me in the comments, and I'll try my best to argue back. See you next time, on Anime Assessment!

-Xort