SPOILERS AHEAD — Lessons From The World God Only Knows Part 4

Shiori Shiomiya (Flags 13–16)

Libraries, the largest physical accumulations of human knowledge. From your humble middle school library, through large university ones, all the way to gigantic ones like the British Library, they all have at least one person in charge of organizing the whole place and helping people find what they need — the Librarians.

And the focus of this arc is on Shiori Shinomiya, the librarian of the surprisingly huge Maijima High Library. This library is her fortress, where she is safe from the outside world, where most of the interaction is between people and their books. She’s a quiet girl, but almost overflowing with all sorts of thoughts, bottled up by her insecurity.

Shiori’s biggest problem is a combination of the overwhelming amount of thoughts in her head and her substantial fear of the judgement of others. It’s only when pushed by our main character that she finally lets some words and, more importantly, some feelings out, even if it was just an insult.

Her inability to express herself leads us to her main conflict within the arc — her disagreement with the removal of a large amount of books from the library for the purpose of adding a media center to the library. This change is discussed by the library committee, but Shiori finds herself incapable of openly disagreeing with it, partly due to her insecurity and partly because of the overwhelming amount of thoughts within her head.

She eventually finds a way to express her discontent, though in a surprisingly rebellious way — she locks the library one morning, leaving a sign on the door explaining her motives. The main character then infiltrates the library with help from his sidekick to be able to speak to Shiori, convincing her that however nice living and interacting with her books might be, escaping to a safe place where she doesn’t need to fear judgment won’t help her.

It can take a lot of courage to speak openly to other people, but it’s important to communicate your intentions and your feelings — fear of judgement shouldn’t stop you from expressing yourself. Let yourself be heard!