Burkely HermannNov 5

My new posting on Pop Culture Library Review--> Shizuka the “silent” student #librarian, “heartless wall of the law,” and #romance

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/shizuka-the-silent-student-librarian-heartless-wall-of-the-law-and-romance/ #libraries #popculture #wordpress #blogposts

Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
Last year, I wrote about Yoshimoto Shizuka in The 100 #Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, otherwise known as The #100Girlfriends or #Hyakkano, who premiered in the episode “First Kiss” and voiced by Maria Naganawa, with her plotline is echoed in the #manga of the same name. (1/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
I described her as a school librarian aide, while the actual #school librarian, voiced by Aguri Ōnishi and only appears in the episode “The Quiet Princess, The Knight, and The Samurai,” Even so, Shizuka is still a librarian, unlike any other #librarian as she speaks thanks to a form of speech synthesis. https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2024/01/24/librarians-of-color-on-pop-culture-library-review-a-2023-assessment/ #popculture #libraries #fiction (2/?)
Librarians of Color on “Pop Culture Library Review”: A 2023 Assessment

Last year, on January 10, 2023, I examined librarians of color I have written about on this blog. I decided to do the same thing again, since I have written about such librarians since the early da…

Pop Culture Library Review
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
In the past, I've noted the #romantic themes in the episodes she appears in, which makes sense since this is a romantic #comedy #harem series https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2025/04/04/the-power-of-fictional-school-libraries-learning-romance-and-knowledge/ #learning #fiction #libraries #romance #knowledge (3/?)
The power of fictional (school) libraries: Learning, romance, and knowledge

In the past, I’ve often written about romance in fictional libraries, including in reference to The 100 Girlfriends, The Dangers in My Heart, Shoujo Manga Protagonist x Rival San, Alter Ego, …

Pop Culture Library Review
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
I also talked exclusively about her character in my post this past December. https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/shyness-soulmates-romance-and-speaking-through-library-books-in-the-100-girlfriends/ #shy #romance #libraries #librarians #100Girlfriends #anime #manga #soulmates #books #speech #synthesis (4/?)
Shyness, soulmates, romance, and speaking through library books in “The 100 Girlfriends”

Often times, fictional libraries can be places of knowledge, where characters try to learn more about the world they are living in. [1] Just as common are the library serving as a place of romance.…

Pop Culture Library Review
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
I noted that Shizuka is Rentarō’s soulmate, who he meets when looking for a book in the school #library, and noting she is "shy, small, and…completely mute because her fellow students #bullied her and her mother abused her prior to meeting Rentarō." #bullying #anime #manga #books (5/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
As such, she can initially only communicate when pointing to passages of her beloved book, is a bookworm, and loves #fantasy #romance #books, while Rentarō can't check out the books she got out for him because it takes a week to get a new #library card. (6/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
Rentarō goes further by creating a text-to-speech app for her, a form of #speech synthesis, which allows her to speak to him face-to-face, using the #book text, meaning she can freely #communicate with him by digitally reciting each line she touches. (7/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
He is so dedicated to this that he manually typed in all the book's words and uses the app to #confess her love to him. By the end of the episode, everything ends well, as she becomes his next #girlfriend, with the consent of his two other #girlfriends. (8/?)
Show threadBurkely Hermann
The #manga follows a similar pathway to this unique #librarian, who speaks through her personal book. It begins a similar way in the third chapter (in the first volume of of the manga), entitled "Yoshimoto-San." In that chapter, Hakari Hanazono and Karane Inda, Rentarō's two #girlfriends at the time, compete over a book to give him. It is then that he searches the shelves and comes across the aforementioned Shizuka, sparks fly, and their #attraction is clear. (9/?)
Nov 6 at 7:44pmWeb
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
She begins speaking with him using her personal book, and he asks her for help before she finds anyone else, as he wants to read #romance novels with happily-ever-after endings. She ends up finding so many, but he can't check them out because of the "heartless wall of the law" (it takes a week to issue a #library card). (10/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
The #librarian thanks him joining the #library, but... sticks to her #bureaucratic rules. She wears glasses, a #stereotypical depiction, and wears a turtleneck and what looks like a staff badge around her neck. #stereotypes #librarians #fiction https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2023/11/28/quiet-in-the-library-analyzing-these-wicked-stereotypical-librarians/, https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2022/11/29/beauty-dress-codes-and-fashion-examining-twenty-fictional-white-female-librarians/ (11/?)
“Quiet in the library!”: Analyzing these wicked stereotypical librarians

In trying to find more librarians to write about on this blog, I stumbled across those in the Ever After High animated web series, with some episodes later compiled and put on streaming services su…

Pop Culture Library Review
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
In the process, Shizuka loans him her book and he learns her name. He is engrossed with the book and gets the sequel from her the next day. (12/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
While they end up bonding just like in the #manga, Shizuka thinks that he forgot her, and believes she is a "freak" (based on how people have treated her in the past). Rentarō saves her as he shows her a text-to-speech app which has all the words of her favorite book available. (13/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
He wants to make their #communication easier, and he succeeds, she cries, confesses her love, and he reciprocates it. He later asks Hakari and Karane to let him have Shizuka as his next #girlfriend and they accept this. (14/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
In the next chapter, entitled "Chapter 4: Looks Like a Hanky, Panky Episode...," he calls her a #librarian who "love #books" and notes how her feet move differently depending on how she is feeling when she is reading a #book. (15/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
Apart from his observations about the habits of Hakari and Karane, which make them happy, I thought it remained almost comical that she continues to wear a band on her arm saying "librarian" throughout that chapter and into the fifth chapter, entitled "Chapter 5: And It IS a Hanky-Panky Episode," she continues to wear that band. This includes when she asks for a kiss from Rentarō. (16/?) #librarians #fiction #manga
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
In another volume, in chapter 46, Rentaro goes to the school library with his girlfriends and they come across a storeroom behind the #library, in a hide-and-seek, and they find Shizuka and Nano there, hiding. I have no desire to get the chapter with this volume at this present time. (17/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
Other than the romance-in-the-#library theme, there's also the issue of #libraryrules, or limits. While the #librarian could have issued him a temporary card, she did not do so. In a certain sense, this pushed Shizuka and Rentarō closer together. That was likely not the librarian's intentions. (18/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
I've read some some #fanfiction showing her engaged in #library tasks (trying to fulfill #informationneeds of #patrons), escaped to the world of books to get away from her "wicked mother," her attempt to write self-insert fan fiction, being so excited her body started vibrating, embracing Rentarō, and waking up before Rentarō's other #girlfriends. (19/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
However, none of them seem to focus on the same #librarian, which could be a possible area for fan theories, apart from a Japanese-language fan comic. (20/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
Otherwise, the school #library itself is a place of knowledge and for fostering #romance, in line with other series, #films, and #manga. https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2024/02/14/love-in-the-fictional-library-from-mansions-to-public-spaces/, https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/01/love-in-the-library-truman-burbank-and-kumar-patel-think-so/, https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2024/06/26/romance-studying-jealousy-and-invisible-library-labor-in-shoujo-manga-protagonist-x-rival-san/ (21/?) #trumanshow #mansions #publicspace #fiction #jealousy #librarylabor #invisiblelabor
Love in the fictional library: From mansions to public spaces

Since today is February 14th, it is a day to celebrate of Library Lover’s Day and Valentine’s Day. As such, it only makes sense to write a post on this subject. Long-time readers may re…

Pop Culture Library Review
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
In the anime, the unnamed #librarian has a much bigger role, from what I remember, as compared to in the #manga, when she really only appears on one page, to deny Rentarō the ability to check out books because he doesn't have a #library card. (22/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
For this post, I looked back at the #anime, and it shows her looking through the #database and saying it will "Take a while" to issue a new #library card, and to come back the next week. She seems annoyed in the #anime, perhaps by the amount of books, or a hold-up which is preventing her from checking out the books. There is another scene in which the librarian knows something good happened to Shizuka but she denies it as she is reshelving #books. #librarians (23/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
Although Shizuka's character is unique and unlike any other #librarian on my blog, we don't hear much about her background, including why she became a librarian in the first place. Perhaps it was a #sanctuary like Kyotaro in The Dangers in My Heart, or a place to get away from those trying to make fun of her for the way she speaks by using a #book. It's hard to know for sure. While I hoped to see her character more in the second season of the #anime adaptation, she was not present. (24/?)
Show threadBurkely HermannNov 6
That's all for this thread. Until next time! (25/25)