Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai

"The Shepherd," an urban legend of Shiomi Academy, is said to appear before hardworking students to grant them a wish.

While engrossed in a book inside the school's renowned Great Library, Kyoutarou Kakei, a second year student and the Library Club's de facto president, receives an email from the Shepherd foretelling an event that will change his fate. Worried by the message, Kyoutarou rushes over to a nearby train station and encounters fellow student Tsugumi Shirasaki, whom he saves from being hit by a derailing train. Grateful for his heroic actions, Tsugumi joins the Library Club and invites Kyoutarou to participate in her mysterious "Shiomi Happy Project." Together with other new members of the club, they strive to make the academy a better place and uncover the identity of the enigmatic Shepherd.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kodachi, Nagi Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Shirasaki, Tsugumi Main

Yonezawa, Madoka Japanese

Suzuki, Kana Main

Sendai, Eri Japanese

Kakei, Kyoutarou Main

Majima, Junji Japanese

Misono, Senri Main

Yamamoto, Nozomi Japanese

Sakuraba, Tamamo Main

Saitou, Yuka Japanese

Gizaemon Supporting

Tsuruoka, Satoshi Japanese

Ureshino, Sayumi Supporting

Kashiwagi, Miyuu Japanese

Mochizuki, Maho Supporting

Nakajima, Saki Japanese

Takamine, Ikkei Supporting

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Nagai, Masaru Producer, Planning

Ueda, Shinya Producer

Naka, Tomohito Producer

Konishi, Kenichi Director, Character Design, Chief Animation Director

Reviews

Apr 20, 2020

lolibolt

Recommended

Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai was a good story that showed different types of characters and was more or less a stereotypical harem anime. The difference in this was one was that it gave a little something more on the harem plot and it was an interesting story.

Story: The story about all of the characters wanting to find themselves and become someone they want to be proud of is nice. Adding the romance on top of it helps it all go together quite nicely and gives something that was enjoyable.

Art: The art for this anime was good, I liked the designs of the characters a ... good amount and thought everything was visually appealing.

Sound: If anything this was the worst part about this anime, the sound quality was not the best, especially at the parts where Misono is singing, the audio seemed to dip more especially then. Most of the quality of it in the anime just seemed a bit patchy to begin with.

Character: Some of the characters were interesting and some seemed a bit bland and stereotypical harem. Kakei was the nobody harem protagonist that suddenly ran into a girl which started his popularity, but of course he's oblivious of romance. The female characters seemed to be well developed characters, especially Kodachi, which got seemingly the most character development despite technically not being the main female role, while on the other hand it seems like Shirasaki didn't really get enough development or background other than the parts with her sister.

Overall, I enjoyed watching this anime and I enjoyed the more romance based harem more than the ecchi harem. While it seems like it still had some parts, I definitely enjoy the stories of pure romance quite a bit. Watching the characters overcome their problems and have fun with each other is something that is enjoyable. I would recommend this anime especially for those who enjoy a decent romance story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 29, 2024

AngeVNs

Mixed Feelings

As someone who read (most) of the original visual novel it was based on and wasn't a huge fan... this anime adaptation of Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai was... mildly better, but barely?

Anime adaptations of visual novels (and well adaptations of anything) tend to mostly be used for advertising the original visual novel, and at least for me this anime was mostly better for one thing: actual good pacing. (if a bit fast at times)

The main problems I had with the visual novel were that it too slow paced, even for a slice of life heavy visual novel, AND most of the characters were boring. I could ... take maybe one of these issues if a VN eventually gets good but having both made the original VN a struggle.

Thankfully the anime had the decency to skim past a lot of the cringe stuff of the original visual novel like forcing the MC to crossdress multiple times, Nagis obnoxious humor, and Ureshino's dumb "femdom loli" tendencies.

The anime also competently gets the main characters' personalities down well and adapts SOME of their backstory melodrama into the plot. They at least introduce the library clubs goals, introduces the Shepard magic, and has a clear beginning, middle, and end and ties up things well for a 12 episode anime. One of the big flaws I had with the original visual novel was how long it took to even introduce the Shepard "magic", especially since you had to finish a side route to see more.

However, despite the improvements the anime made, they can't fix a lot of issues I just have with Daitoshokan as a story no matter the medium. As said earlier, I think the characters are mostly forgettable archetypes. Most are at least not bad (outside Nagi who I find more annoying more often than not), and at least have kinda interesting backstories, but I just don't care much due to their incredibly basic personalities. The only character I legit like was Kanasuke (which thankfully seems to be the majority opinion). She is very goofy and has by far the most interesting backstory. The anime may make it seem like the characters' backstories were rushed but honestly... they were also THAT short in the original.

I think the story in general would just be better if it focused much on these character focused backstories instead of a mediocre mix of those plus this Shepard magic plot that had a really boring pay off, both in the VN AND Anime. Instead we got a half-assed mix of both along with mostly mediocre characters. If it weren't for the anime's fast pacing, I would likely have dropped the anime.

However, one big flaw with the anime specifically... is the weird way they implemented the harem romance. In the original visual novel, there were proper buildup about how the main girls have feelings for the main characters but only get their dramatic romantic payoff in their respective routes. In the anime? It implements A LOT of these romantic payoff scenes including multiple kissing scenes but the main character Kakei never really 100% chooses a girl by the end. The anime mildly prefers Tsugumi, but there's so many scenes where I'd be like "wait but she kissed him but now there's romantic tension with this other girl now?". Sadly this flaw is partially due to the visual novel's structure and the animations clearly trying to keep the spirit of it, but imo they should have just went all in on the Tsugumi romance ending since the animator's clearly preferred her.

Overall, the anime adaptation of this story is watchable, but it can't really fix many of the flaws I had with the original outside pacing. It's still a mediocre mix of slice of life melodrama with a mediocre execution of magic related to memories and seeing the future.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 5, 2018

TheRealNormie

Not Recommended

Story- Had potential but, the characters never get developed. The romance is terrible. All the girls like the MC but, are to pansy to say it. They try to give them compelling stories that i didn't care for. You feel like it's going to turn into a harem but, we don't even get that. The real story is barely explained and can be completely ignored. The ending is very cheap and unsatisfying. 4/10

Art: Meh, slightly below average not amazing, but nothing to cry over. 4/10

Sound: Don't remember a single track (Just finished it 7 minutes ago) Sound effects were average. Great voice acting. 4/10

Characters: The ... only character's I found interesting were Nagi Kodachi,(Really funny and with a interesting past and Kyoutarou Kakei (Same) Every one else is to cookie cutter. Same boring tropes x10! MC's really irrelevant, comedic relief friend? Check! Super serious girl? Check! Underclassmen who are always coming onto the MC? Check! 5/10

Enjoyment: I enjoyed it at the beginning expecting it to get good later on because they kept hyping up these shepherds. Was super let down. At episode 11 was just rushing to finish this. 5/10

TLDR: Don't waste your time on this anime. Instead I recommend Trinity seven, fruit of grisaia, haganai, my teen romantic comedy or even high school dxd, if you're into this type of anime. Just STAY AWAY FROM THIS ONE 4..2/10 IGN would not watch again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 24, 2014	100 replies	by ViSpace »» Jun 19, 1:54 AM
	Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 17, 2014	52 replies	by ViSpace »» Jun 19, 1:34 AM
	Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 10, 2014	55 replies	by ViSpace »» Jun 18, 8:06 PM
	Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 3, 2014	67 replies	by ViSpace »» Jun 18, 7:36 PM
	Poll: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 26, 2014	38 replies	by ViSpace »» Jun 18, 8:58 AM