I’ve been on a Toshokan Senso (Library War) kick lately, and so when I found out that there was not one but TWO manga adaptations of the light novel series by Arikawa Hiro, I had to check them both out.

Quick recap: It is 2019. At the dawn of the Seika era (corresponding to the current Heisei era IRL), the government of Japan authorized the Media Betterment Act (MBA) which allows the censorship and/or confiscation any publication that it deems unsuitable for the public, using force when deemed necessary. Opposition legislators within the Japanese government pass another law, the Library Liberty Act (LLA). Under the LLA, the Library Defense Force is created, permitting Japan’s Libraries to defend the freedom of information, and thus become the sole opponent to the MBA. 30 years after the enactment of the MBA and the LLA, Kasahara Iku, a hot-headed young woman, joins the Kanto Library Defense Force to protect books, just like the Library Defense Force member who helped her when she was in high school…

This here is the shonen adaptation, currently running in monthly Dengeki Daioh (home of Yotsubato! and Gunslinger Girl, among others) since November 2007:

Toshokan Senso SPITFIRE! (Vol. 1)
ISBN: 9784048670777
Art by FURUDORI Yayoi
Cover & sample panel

And this is the shojo version running in monthly LaLa (home of Ouran High School Host Club and Natsume Yujincho), which started in September 2007. Note that the tankoubon is published under the Hana to Yume imprint.
Toshokan Senso Love & War (Vol. 1)
ISBN: 9784592180463
Art by YUMI Kiiro
Cover & sample panel

Plot & Readability:
Story-wise, both versions cover exactly the same material, but with different takes on the original source. Despite both volumes having exactly the same page count (after excluding the afterwords and extras) L&W covers more ground in 4 chapters than SF does in 5. (For those who’ve seen the anime – SF vol 1 corresponds to the events of episode 1 & 2 up to the aftermath of the Bear incident; L&W covers the same, and includes the library stacks training incident. Yeah, compared to the anime, the manga moves a lot more slowly.)

SF is more thorough in depicting the events that occur, and also works more background information into the dialogue – with the result that it appears to be more faithful to the original novel (confirmed by conversations with a friend who’s read the novels). L&W expands a little more on character relationships and restructures non-key events (such as the discussion of the Nightmare of Hino incident), so the story moves faster in fewer pages. It’s sort of Library War “Lite” – which I don’t mean in a derogatory way, as it has its own charms.

The text of L&W has furigana, which helps with looking up military terms (not that there are very many in this version), while SF only has furigana when the kanji is to be read in a nonstandard way.

Art:
As expected, SF is more action-oriented with a little more fanservice. The art is a little rougher around the edges, with loving detail paid to the military hardware; and the character designs are all over the map, resulting in a more realistic-looking cast. But at some points, it’s hard to tell Dojo and Tezuka apart, and Captain Genda comes off looking like the hippie cousin of KochiKame’s Ryotsu.

L&W is a little more… pretty than SF, with delicately rendered art, uniformly good-looking character designs, and unmistakably shojo influences, complete with sparklies and bubbles and blushes. Main character Iku is depicted as a willowy blond, and all the men are archetypal bishonen who wouldn’t look out of place in a boy band. (contributing, for better or for worse, to the overall Library War Lite impression.)

Overall:
Reading the manga – both versions – was an eye-opener for me, as I had no idea that so much had been left out of the anime. (That’s not to bash Production I.G. at all – considering they had to cram three novels into 12 episodes, it’s amazing how much they were able to pack in. Maybe it’s just as well that the 4th novel wasn’t included in the adaptation.)

That said – it’s hard to say which is the “better” manga version of Toshokan Senso, as both versions have their strong and weak points. For maximum effect, of course, read both; however, my personal opinion is, if you want a quick read that’s easy on the eyes, go for Love & War; If you’re after something more substantial that’s closer to the original novel, Spitfire! is the more satisfying choice.