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The fantasy-adventure The Book of Bantorra (2009) begins with an intriguing premise: the memories of the dead are eternally preserved in stone "Books," which anyone may read. The Books are guarded by the Fighting Librarians, who are also engaged in a deadly struggle with the sadistic Church of Drowning in God's Grace. Elite Church members somehow reduce humans to utter serfdom: providing some of the wretched "Meats" with special training in magical combat to attack Hamyuts Meseta, the Acting Director of the Librarians. Once the premise is established in a series of Morris the Explainer scenes, The Book of Bantorra quickly dissolves into a tangled morass of plots, counterplots, flashbacks, attacks, special effects, and fan service jiggle scenes. Librarians and Church agents fight with swords, lightning bolts, fists, and oceans of red ants. Characters appear and disappear, subplots start and stop, and some individuals inexplicably return from the dead to take part in the action. None of the characters are particularly endearing: most of them either agonize over past deeds or dither about how to react to dire situations. Meseta often seems eager to be killed and remains unmoved when her staff members are threatened or destroyed. The story may make more sense in the light novels of Ishio Yamagata, on which it's based. But the filmmakers fail to deliver anything approaching a coherent narrative: watching The Book of Bantorra is like foundering in a vat of mucilage. (Rated TV MA VSD: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery, nudity; alcohol, tobacco, and drug use) --Charles Solomon (1. A Bomb, a Book, and a Sinking Ship. 2. Bombs, a Princess, and a Gray Town, 3. A Bomb, a Human, and the Sickness of a God of Death, 4. An Evening, Shiron, and Korio, 5. A Betrayal, a Cup, and a Meandering Path, 6. Thunder, a Monster, and a Girl's Punch, 7. A Smile, a Mask, and a Man with a Death Wish, 8. A Pond, Comrades, and a Seashell, 9. A True Man, a Battlefield, and My World, 10. A Weird Guy, a Mother, and the Nest of Black Ants, 11. A Weakling, the Labyrinth, and the Moving Queen, 12. The Part, Irrationality, and a Pipe's Smoke, 13. A Day Off, a Picture Book, and Rusty Hair)
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