One thing I can say for sure about Dantalian: it never does what I expect it to. This episode came as another big surprise. The creators completely ditched Dalian and Huey to instead focus on a new pair of Phantom Book collectors— Flamberge, the bearer of the long-lost library, and her keykeeper Hal, a Libricide. The two have some feisty banter similar to Huey and Dalian, but their game mainly focuses on insults such as “piece of junk”. It became a bit repetitive in comparison to the more original infighting we’ve become accustomed to.

I spent most of the episode wondering when Hal was going to fulfill his title of Libricide and start burning books. But I was still surprised by how he did it— by placing a book into his Raging Heart-style staff of Sutr and burning it to cast a powerful single use AoE spell. It’s a cheap shot but limited ammunition.

I have to wonder— the title of Libricide suggests that Hal and Flamberge’s goal isn’t to prevent the misuse of Phantom Books and collect them, as with Huey and Dalian, but to eradicate them and their influence on humans. Will this be a cause of conflict between the two groups in the future? Dalian has the world’s largest library of Phantom books, after all, and didn’t worry about letting those children who were corrupted by the books live. And it appears that the two keepers from this episode are chasing another book keeper who gives away books. I kind of thought it was Dalian at first, but I highly doubt she would give away books like that. This episode seems as if it could be the beginning of an overarching conflict.

One last thing about the two book keepers: try comparing how their books are extracted. Flamberge’s extraction resembles a Caesarean section. Hal reaches in to pull a beast out of the womb (or fallen world) as Flamberge screams in pain. On the other hand, Dalian’s extraction sequence is dignified and nearly orgasmic. Dalian loves books so checking them out is pleasurable, and the checkout counter is located near her heart. Flamberge and Hal seem to despise books, so checking one out is painful and the checkout counter is located in the nether regions of Flamberge’s body.

This episode’s villain and short story were solid, but it was more by the book (ha ha ha ha) than what we’ve become accustomed to: a woman raises an army of puppets to comfort the living in a town devastated by war.

This week’s book is a collection of Taoist sutras. The most famous Taoist work is the Tao Te Ching, if you’ve never read it before then knock yourself out, it’s great. The other item of interest is Hal’s staff, the staff of Surtr. Surtr is a Norse giant who will destroy the world at Ragnarok with his flaming sword (sword / staff, close enough).