Knowledge, research, zoologists, and beyond in fictional libraries of yore

When I originally wrote about Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror on this blog, I believed there was only episode focusing on libraries in this idolish anime fantasy series, a Love Live! Sunshine!! spinoff. I could not be more wrong, as I learned in the sixth episode. I’ll talk about the role of libraries in this series and connect it to other posts on this blog. This may also require some plot summary.

At the end of the second episode, “My Job”, there is a short library scene. During that scene, a scholar realizes that the animals are in danger, after looking at a book showing the effects of an evil virus, with the protagonist in danger. This is followed up in the sixth episode, “The Harmony of the Shy”. In that episode, the scholar is revealed to be a zoologist named Riko. She has a huge library and is researching the strange behavior of animals in Numazu. As such, she is drawn to unique/rare animals and life forms. She even travels to the Administrative Bureau, which has all the information on the town, and talks to Dia about the strange incidents affecting the animals (and the town by extension). After this, Riko declares she is leaving the town the next day, surprising them all. Late at night, Riko reads more books about the calamity which is affecting the town and the animals.

It is later revealed that she moved around a lot when she was little, and stopped trying to make friends. As such, after a bog she bonded with was returned to its owner, she didn’t want to deal with the sadness caused by separation, causing her to begin loving to read books about animals, then researching animals. All the while, she didn’t want to get involved with anyone or make any memories. Yohane (the anime’s protagonist and namesake) and Mari comfort her. Ultimately, Riko tells them she is going to stay in town for a “little longer”, saying she will help out, if her skills as a researcher can benefit those in the town.

I liked this aspect of the episode as is showed that the books and research she is doing is being put to a good use. More than that, considering that Riko likely organized the books herself, she is a bit of a defacto librarian. However, considering that librarianship itself involves those who work professional within a librarian, providing either instruction on information literacy or access to information, Riko is not that at all. Furthermore, not everyone who works in a library is a librarian, as there are pages, library associates, library assistances, branch managers, cataloging staff, and so on, all while librarians receive low wages, are not quiet places, and have an organizational system for the books. While you can argue that Riko is helping Yohane, Lailaps (Yohane’s wolf companion), and Mari find information, she is the researcher. She is not facilitating them to conduct “research for personal and professional use.” [1]

This series is not unique in showing characters research in the library. Characters in the series Adventure Time, Cleopatra in Space, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Stretch Armstrong, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Bravest Warriors, LoliRock, Trollhunters, and Hilda, and films like Solaris, to name a few, do the same, conducting research within libraries. In a few cases, like Adventure Time, the new She-Ra, Trollhunters, and Hilda, there are librarians, specifically Turtle Princess, George and Lance, Blinky, and Kaisa. This differs from Yohane the Parhelion, as that series has a librarian. There isn’t much more to say at this point, unless libraries have more of a role in episodes beyond the aforementioned ones.

The library reappears throughout the series, including in the episode “What’s a Girls’ Night?” when Riko is shown briefly in her library and isn’t sure about going to a girls’ night. It is even a place or refuge as made clear in the 12th episode, “Farewell, Lailaps”. In that episode, Yohane shelters in the library while her wolf gets better, with Riko, and a little girl comes in worrying about Sakura (a pig) who ran way. It finally appears in the series finale, “Once Again Today.” In that episode, the library becomes a shelter of sorts for people and their animals, with Riko worried about Yohane. Mari is there too and is trying to listen for Yohane. The associated game may have scenes in the library as well, but I can’t say for certain.

That’s all for now. Next week’s post will be on a witch, a vampire (cat), and a magical library in Morgana and Oz!

© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Hargreaves, Abby. “Being a Librarian: Expectations vs. Reality,” Book Riot, Nov. 3, 2021; “What Librarians and Library Media Specialists Do,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, accessed Jul. 31, 2023. Yohane, Riko, and Mari are known as “Guilty Kiss” when singing in Love Live! Sunshine!!, and sing an insert song in the sixth episode.

#AdventureTime #animals #BravestWarriors #CleopatraInSpace #definitions #Hilda #Kaisa #LetSMakeAMugToo #LGBTQ #LoliRock #LoveLiveSunshine #MorganaAndOz #pigs #research #SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower #SheRaFranchise #SolarisFilm #StretchArmstrong #Trollhunters #YohaneTheParhelionSunshineInTheMirror #yuri

Back in August 2020, when I had begun to write reviews of libraries in animation, I wrote that in the episode “Clubbing,” after Cleopatra, her friends Brian and Akila, and her teacher/mentor Khensu go to the Ancient Egypt section of the school’s library, equivalent of a special collections, that Cleo, dismayed by the amount of records on Ancient Egypt, offsets a positive depiction of libraries by sucking all the electricity of the school and nearby Mayet City into her body, resulting in a power outage. While that seems like a valid assessment, I’m not sure if what I said next is correct: “The message of this moment is that libraries need adequate resources and support to assist the communities they serve—otherwise there will be information deficits that put patrons at a disadvantage.” I decided to re-examine this scene, especially since I was encouraged to add this by Lindsey Simon of I Love Libraries when I wrote this post for that website. [1]

The scene begins when Cleo goes with her friends Brian and Akila to the special collections room after hours. At first, Cleo is excited to see what they have, but there are only a few dozen artifacts, fragments of scrolls, and books. Khensu shows her how to access all of it and hands her a scroll, the only thing that mentions her by name. Akila tries to cheer her up, but it doesn’t work, as she thought she might find something about herself. She is amazed to see they have a statue of her dad. As she begins feeling emotions for him, she starts glowing pink, giving off a “weird energy signature,” floating, sucking the power out of everything, including the shield protecting the city from asteroids. Following that, they run out of the library to avoid the asteroid attacks, ending the scene in the library, and they never end up returning to that room at any point in the series.

It is clearly a stretch and overreach to say that this scene somehow indicates that “libraries need adequate resources and support to assist the communities they serve” and that if they don’t there “will be information deficits that put patrons at a disadvantage.” This scene, prior to the asteroid strikes, is indicating the importance of preservation and value of information. I also incorrectly termed this the “library’s Ancient Egypt section,” with physical records in a trunk. While they can be accessed as holograms, it is a whole room of information, and it probably is not accessible to the general student body, as they accessed it after-hours. As such, the information inside is restricted, perhaps to only the professors of PYRAMID Academy, not the students who actually attend the academy. It is possible it may be accessible to specific students, like Callie, who heads the Ancient Egypt club at this intergalactic high school, but that can’t be confirmed.

Furthermore, Cleo’s use of the pink power is not as much a dismay at the records that are contained within the room. Rather it is a longing for her father who she will likely never see again, and her home. The imagery and symbolism of this scene makes this interpretation the right one, rather than the one I stated in I Love Libraries at the time. Unfortunately, with the attack in the final episode of the series by Octavian’s forces, this room was likely damaged during the fighting, and it is not known how much of it remains.

On the other hand, there is clearly a lack of information in this room, as Cleo is acutely aware of. There probably isn’t much in terms of weeding that is going on in acquiring materials for this room, i.e. the removal of items from a collection. Rather, there is careful acquisition since the villainous Octavian has destroyed much of the galaxy’s information in what they call The Blight, while likely keeping copies of this information for himself. Obviously it is not mentioned in this episode, but the upkeep of the room itself is undoubtedly incorporated into the budget of the PYRAMID library.

Unlike some other libraries, this library is about knowledge and learning, not some institution that is acting as a “profit center,” as some like to frame libraries and make them synonymous with business that is trying to gain a profit. That is something that libraries, especially those which are public or non-profit, should not be doing, even if they are encouraged to think that way in order to be “competitive” or speak like corporate CEOs. In the end, while Cleopatra in Space is not talking about information deficits in libraries, it connects to other library themes and remains relevant in terms of representation in popular media.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] My original draft of the post that I submitted to I Love Libraries did not include this line, only noting that the scene in “Clubbing” was two-and-half minutes long, ended when Cleo and her friends have to avoid asteroids crashing into the school.

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2022/09/13/is-cleopatra-in-space-really-talking-about-information-deficits-in-libraries/

#AncientEgypt #cats #CleopatraInSpace #corporations #informationLoss #informationNeeds #magic #restrictions #specialCollections

A nice conversation with Doug Langdale, Executie Producer of the Cleapatra in Space series

http://www.animationscoop.com/dreamworks-doug-langdale-talks-peacocks-cleopatra-in-space/

#animation #DreamWorks #CleopatraInSpace