It's somewhat of a shame that (to give its full name) Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra uses ALI Project for the opening song; it raises the question of whether the group have any range beyond fast-paced anime openings. Regardless, Bantorra is a refreshingly dark show set in a fictional world where upon peoples' deaths, they are transformed into "books" which are stored and tended by the combat-orientated Librarians. This setup is made more palatable than the recent Toshokan Senso (Library War) with these Librarians all wielding magical powers and fighting against a group which makes mindless suicide bombers out of ordinary civilians.
The first episode is a riot of new terms, explosions, magic and cryptic dialogue; starting with an assault on a freighter that is subsequently scuttled, the following episodes get stuck in to the plot which concerns a long dead villain who once brought death to the lands and the resurrection of a vicious plague. The story switches between one of the emotionally numb body-bombs ("Meats") who finds a fragment of the malefactor's book, the arrogant and overpowered acting director of the Librarians - Hamutz Meseta - and a brutal member of the opposing faction, a "True Man". It's pure fantasy padding and marvellously imaginative.
With early 20th century machinery and pistols, the series first episodes are set in a town which is a cross between smog-filled Victorian era London and American pioneer towns of old; it obviously feeds off glorified stories of cowboy frontiersmen and bears similarities to Baccano in both style and tone. It would be difficult not be dark with people wandering the streets with grenades surgically inserted into their chests, but this is taken further with a leader who impassively kills from afar with a slingshot and an antagonist who has no qualms of spreading disease through the local prostitutes. To have such original, quality subject matter handled in an adult manner is a rare treat and with a full season planned there are tantalising opportunities for exploration of this world.
As with most first episodes, pomp and flash is favoured over function and it is left to subsequent episodes to add flesh to the characters as we are treated to a pleasing amount of exposition. No one trick or hook defines Bantorra and thankfully the remainder of the series is completely open. The title implies that one of the books (actually large slabs of reactive stone) of the old god Bantorra will play a central role; what is certain is that this will involve the currently motiveless enemy: the Church of Drowning in God's Grace, quite the mouthful. The story so far has demonstrated it is unafraid of removing characters from both sides of the fray and with a cast that is as eclectic as they come, the future of the series looks enticing.
The series so far is by no means without flaw, what is important however is that the overall quality and imagination more than overcomes hiccups in animation or particularly poor computer graphics; even the opening song is forgiven with style as bold as this. Wonderfully produced and incredibly promising, Tatakau Shisho has certainly proven it is worth sticking with.