The Book of Bantorra

I just finished the first episode of Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra and I am happy to say I like what I see so far. With an opening by the famous ALI Project, clean cut animation, and a intriguing storyline, I look forward to seeing where this series goes. With so many new series coming out, the fun part is finding something that feels fresh and different. My hope from what I have seen off this first episode will lead to a interesting series.
The first episode seems a little rough and confusing but I feel that this will become clearer down the road. About my only Oo moment out of this is the thing with Director and her cleavage (where talking Matsumoto or Tsunade sized girls here)...the guys might like this fan service of boobies at least, though the ladies might be a little more ...meh.

All in all though, I would recommend it the series to others to at least try it out.

I thought the first episode, which at this time is the only one out, tried to pack too much in. It introduced too many characters at the same time while never focusing on anyone. As a result it ended up feeling haphazard and I did not feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters. None of them seemed particularly memorable. I think they should have focused more on one character to develop some viewer interest in him/her. If you think about the really successful animes, they all have a main character who is introduced in the first episode and developed to the point you want to know what happens to them. That is completely missing here.

The idea of entire lives being stored in books and the idea of it being replayable was interesting. The idea of a "church" that is seems to have evil intentions and the opposing entity armed librarians ... the keeper of the books, has potential for an interesting storyline. The animation is of high quality.

In summary the first episode did not particularly grab my attention and make me feel like watching more, like many other good animes do. However, it does have the potential to be a good anime series if the next episodes are better.

First episodes are always a little tricky to get right. How much of the plot should you reveal? How many characters? 'The Book of Bantorra' episode 1 almost errs on the side of cramming too much in. We get to see all the major players - the Church of Shendeki and the Armed Librarians, as well as the nameless victims of the church, the disturbingly-named 'Meat'. We also get to see a bewildering number of characters.

There's not a great deal of subtlety about this. We know right from the start who we should be rooting for, although a certain level of mystery is present in the actions of the enigmatic (and unfeasibly large-chested) Director, who everyone seems to want to kill. Some characters fall into standard anime stereotypes, but there are encouraging signs that characters like Volken and Mirepoc might develop into something more memorable. What definitely works for me, though, is the overall design of the show, with its mix of sorcerous acolytes, 19th century costume and early 20th century industrialisation. It seems to me to be clever and well thought out, adding a layer of richness to the show.

And I like the central conceit of people's souls becoming 'books' (slates, really), some of whom are powerful enough for others to want to find and exploit. It's an intriguing concept and, with the numerous mysteries already hinted at and some interesting character design, one I'd definitely like to see some more of. Good and, for the moment at any rate, worth sticking with.

Incidentally, for those of you who are interested, there'll be reviews of subsequent episodes posted on the 'Book of Bentorra' forum. There's one for episode 2 up now.

This series really captures my attention! The animation is crisp and beautiful and it the plot development is really fascinating. I like how the lines between good and evil are blurred for the characters. There's one or two clear protagonists but whether or not you will lose faith in them is still up in the air. It also has beautiful music with striking cello solos and orchestral backup that very few shows put the effort into like this one. This is my favorite of the new Fall 09' Line up!

How cool does the premise of dying, and becoming a book for others to read your story sound? It's something I haven't seen before, as such, this show was exciting to me. Although, the story on the ever-laughing witch seems somewhat pointless. I'm confused between which is the main story, and which is the side. Is shutting down the Church the main story, or is gathering the shards of the Ever-Laughing Witch's book? The shards are obvious motivational objects to certain characters, and I'm hoping a certain Meat can be redeemed by the Armed Librarians, although the series does not seem the type capable of doing such a thing, I can only hope, because that would be very interesting.

I deal with frequent and long bouts of depression, and I can't help but relate to the main Meat character.

I will admit i was skechey at first when i first saw it advertised on crunchyroll, but decided too try it. After the first episode all those thoughts were dismissed completley.

The idea of youre soul being turned into a book(tablet) after death is totaly original and leaves you asking "Where did the creator think of this idea?" And the fact that some books are so strong and have so many secrets that makes them so valuabule and needing even more protection.

I also found that even though there are many characters, you cant but help being amazed at them. Each has his/her own imput to the plot and its importance.

Initially, after about 5 episodes I thought this anime was too weird and a waste of my time. But I stuck with it, and it surpassed my expectations.

Characters!
Great development. I loved the depth of the character development: all of the characters were original and not at all cliché (as it seems like most series nowadays are). The characters changed and struggled and grew! 4/5

Storyline/Plot!
Again-great! Original, thought provoking, deep, and THANK F’ING GOD IT WAS NOT PREDICTALBE!!! This storyline has so many twists you really don’t know which characters to cheer for until the end ^_^
Which may have been it’s downfall, but I found it easy to follow in the end ^_^ 4/5

Music!
Great! I loved how the fight scenes incorporated classical music and not just euro-techo stuff<which has been done way too much……………..
I say great because it was better then standard good, but not exceptional. There are some areas for improvement here

Animation!
EXCEPTIONAL!!!!!!!!
The artist has a distinct original style: the characters look more like people and less 2D without looking completely like people. Anime at it’s finest. Furthermore, the backgrounds are exquisitely detailed ^_^
I find that lately the newer anime’s seem to look either generic (i.e. 11eyes/Omamori Himari /shoujo-love-game look) or too much like real people/north American cartoon characters.

When I first started watching this series, I couldn't figure out what kept me watching it week after week. In the end, I've decided that I wanted to see how all of the seemingly unrelated events intertwined into one story. To be honest, I was expecting to be disappointed, but everything comes together so beautifully that I can't help but fully enjoy this series. Not until the final episode does this complex and enthralling tale come to fully display itself to its audience.

This isn't an in-depth review. I simply wanted the people who, like me, questioned at some point whether to continue watching or not to not give up on it, because I feel the finale is very rewarding, greatly increasing my view on this series as a whole. I hope you all enjoy The Book of Bantorra as much as I have.

I watched Hanamaru Youchien before this. I watched episodes 1-12 in one go, and the rest in another. I watched this without subtitles. I don't know about any other medias concerning this anime.

My summary.
The records of a world in which humans dance in the palm of gods' hands, gods are entangled by destiny, and destiny is created by human will.

Storyline 4
This is one of those animes where human deaths aren't overtly mourned over, an anime that always wields an aura of dreariness around itself. It pokes at the meaning of existence, through the occult of religion, the various characters that die, and those that are left alive. The story gives you a sense of tragic romance, through the expression of bloody histories, and lives of loneliness and despair. I love the fact that death as a natural phenomenon wasn't an infatuation to the meaning of this anime. The plot instead plays around with the ideas of justice and heaven, in a way that inspires much thought.
The story can be divided into several 4-episode-or-so-long stories that are intertwined with each other. This anime tells these stories by starting with the present, leaving behind mysteries to be solved by peeking through the past. As the past is made clear through the perspective of different characters, the story returns to the present to meet the resolution. Certain beginnings and endings may be very confusing to those who have trouble deciphering indirect expression, because the plot tends to jump out of chronological orders. However, I find that to be one of the good qualities of this anime.
This anime has a highly supernatural aspect to the entire story, given that humans are able to learn magic, and that various characters are given iconic symbols of Western style gods. Unfortunately, this anime leaves a lot of the magic to mere coincidence, which I found to be somewhat disappointing. The anime fails to answer "why" each individual has their respective unique power, aside from "they just happen to" for the sake of convenience.
I don't think the recap episode should've been placed at episode 14, considering that an on-going short story was cut off. I do see some significance in that recap, but it could have been placed in between short stories for a smoother plot structure.
I love the title, and the meaning it holds.

Music 3.5
The OPs and EDs were normal, nothing special. The BGM was fine, but nothing stood out for any higher rating.
This is unrelated to the rating, but I found many of these videos to have terrible sound quality.

Characters 4.5
There is no moe in this anime, but remember that this anime is rated R.
The reappearance of various characters was done in a very natural and unforced manner, not as mere memories of active characters, but as active characters themselves. The roles that each character was given was superbly distributed. This anime in terms of characters is much better than those that put all the pressure on the main character.

Animation 2.5
The animation quality started about terrible, but got better towards the end. The first impression of the first episode was that there was way too much CG, which made the bad motion of raw animation stand out. The background layers were decent, but there were certain action scenes with moving backgrounds that were poorly drawn. There was generally structural discomposure in some characters drawn farther than a close up on the face. However, the motions of the battle scenes in the second half of the anime was well done.

Overall 4.5
Some Japanese people consider just reading the book series rather than watching the anime, but I don't think the animation was bad enough to ruin the spectacular story. I personally didn't like the concept of Bantorra as much as I liked the concept of Bokurano, but I believe it's a good anime nevertheless.

Key bullets
-Don't watch if you care about rated R expressions.
-If you know Bokurano, consider this a different answer to the same question.
-Don't watch if you have something against religious entities.
-The chronological disorientation may be confusing.
-The sound quality of these videos is not great.