Categories

Synopsis

In 1989, Japan enacts the Media Betterment Act, empowering a government committee to suppress media deemed harmful to public morals. In reaction, local authorities create armed library defense units dedicated to preserving freedom of expression. The Kanto branch’s Library Task Force is an elite group composed of top combatants charged with protecting controversial works and those who cherish them. As a teenager, Iku Kasahara confronted censorship directly when she refused to surrender a newly released volume to agents; she survived only because a lone library defender intervened. Years later, still haunted by that rescuer, Kasahara enlists in the Library Defense Force aiming to emulate him. Training proves far tougher than anticipated, and her instructor, Atsushi Doujou of the Task Force, repeatedly subjects her to severe discipline. Despite setbacks, Doujou unexpectedly endorses Kasahara, and she becomes one of two new recruits into the elite Task Force. Determined to prove herself and to understand her stern superior, Kasahara struggles through rigorous missions and personal trials as she fights to uphold the right to read and to find her place among those who guard it.