In the early part of the last century, there was a young man named Huey, whose grandfather was an avid collector of rare books - what you might call a bibliomaniac. Upon his grandfather's death, Huey inherited his grandfather's antiquated mansion and the collection of books within. On arriving at the mansion to investigate the meaning of his grandfather's last request, and take over responsibility for the 'Bibliotheca', down in the cellar he discovers a beautiful young girl in a black dress... A lot of the talk I'd seen on this one before I got around to it was basically that it was a good show for weaning yourself off a Gosick addiction. It's set in a similar time-period, and lead girl Dalian has the same gothic lolita appearance and bad attitude that Victorique fans will love. Past that, though, it's a different beast - the connection between Huey and Dalian is on a less romantic level (so far, and given Huey's age and Dalian's arguably non-human status I'm hoping it stays that way), and rather than the intrigue of Gosick we have a more simple tale of Phantom Books run amok, with a book-of-the-week featuring each episode. Again, so far. THE GOOD: Those Gosick comparisons are valid, and give the show a feel that's hard not to fall for. I'm a sucker for a tsundere girl, and Dalian certainly meets the definition. THE BAD: They need to get away from book-of-the-week before it gets a bit too samey. I'm cautiously hopeful about this one - I really like the setup and idea, they just need to be careful about getting stuck in a rut of doing the same things every episode, quite easy to fall into with this sort of show. But so far, so good...
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