Bibliotecas em tempos de exceção : a pessoa bibliotecária como símbolo da liberdade em Library War

Abstract

This capstone project focuses on the representation of the librarian's role in the anime Library War as an agent of freedom. The guiding research question is: How does the representation of the librarian in the anime Library War contribute to the problematization of contemporary and real-world challenges of the profession regarding censorship and the right to access information? The general objective of this research is to analyze the representation of the librarian's role in Library War as an agent of freedom and access to information. The specific objectives are: i) to investigate the narratological elements of the anime Library War, ii) to present how the anime Library War represents the relevance of freedom and the right to access information, and iii) to discuss the social and cultural role of librarians within the fictional universe of Library War, relating it to the real characteristics of the profession. This study is justified by the exemplary social character of the anime, where the librarians depicted serve as active examples of the defense of access to information and agents of resistance against informational censorship; by the scarcity of studies connecting Library Science to audiovisual productions, especially regarding discussions on censorship and the right to information; and finally, by the researcher's personal interest in manga, comic books, and anime. This is an exploratory, qualitative study grounded in documentary research and narratological analysis as proposed by Gancho (2002). The research corpus comprises the twelve episodes of the anime's first season, analyzed through the narratological elements of plot, characters, time, space, and narrator. The results demonstrate that the narrative presents librarians as protagonists in the defense of informational freedom, portraying libraries as places for preserving memory, diversity of ideas, and democratic access to knowledge. The analysis revealed that the clashes between the Library Defense Force and the Media Betterment Committee symbolize struggles over the control of information, while the characters illustrate professional competencies linked to ethics, information mediation, leadership, information literacy, and social responsibility. It is concluded that, despite being set in a fictional environment, Library War promotes significant reflections on the social and cultural function of librarians and libraries, aligning the narrative with fundamental principles of Library Science, such as intellectual freedom, the preservation of documentary heritage, and the protection of the right to access information.