Ascendance of a Bookworm

Stark700★ 9

You’ve probably heard the phrase “knowledge is power”. One of the fundamental elements of power comes from books and even in our modern world today, that phrase remains as true as ever. Ascendance of a Bookworm attributes to a bookworm named “Myne” who is reincarnated into another world as she hopes to regain her ability to read. With the amount of isekai anime coming out in recent years, it’s easy to paint this show as another clone. However, you should actually take a careful look into this anime and see it more of as a slice of life isekai. What does that mean? In some ways,Ascendance of a Bookworm contains fantasy elements but also relies a lot more on realism than what people will realize. The first episode drops main protagonist Myne into a world of uncertainty. It doesn’t take long for her to adjust to her newfound life as she carves for books and love of reading. To her, reading books is equivalent to a life necessity and she would do anything to get her hands on them. We shouldn’t judge on Myne too much. She’s a child who is eager to learn and explore. My impression of the show at first is that of a slow paced story to teach us about the person Myne really is. She’s an innocent girl who is staring a new life with a passion to collect books. On the surface, she is a kind girl who is also eager to make friends. Considering the difficulty to acquiring them in the new world, it comes to no surprise that she would have to use some creativity to further her ambitions. She experiments with inventing objects associated with books and begins to gain a reputation among their society. This is where a certain level of realism comes in. Throughout the anime, the show rarely relies on magic when inventions are made. Most of it comes down to trial and error in the hands of Myne’s ideas. Ironically, Myne seems to be suffering from a mystical mana related illness that often puts her into a weakened state. This happens often in the show where viewers may wonder if her life is at jeopardy. The main plot doesn’t devote too much time into this although it does limit Myne’s abilities to make books and inventions. Instead, we are treated with a show that focuses on the life of Myne and her character. Whether you like her or not, this is an anime that dedicates time into exploring the reincarnated life of a bookworm. And as the starring protagonist, it didn’t take long for Myne to establish meaningful relationships in the show. Myne is highly protective of her family where in one particular episode, she shows a dangerous side of her after they were threatened. It’s the type of bond that translates into how much she values her family. Similarly, Myne makes friends with the locals including a young child named Lutz. As someone close to her age, Lutz often looks after her well-being and they forge a close relationship. While the anime doesn’t truly dedicate them as a couple, there’s some charming amount of teases that fans can imagine. Other close relationships Myne develops throughout the show includes Eva, Ralph, Turi, and others who realizes how kind and gentle she is. Even someone as stubborn as the merchant Benno sees her good side despite not showing it. However, I should say off the bat that most of the anime is focused on Myne. Most of the characterization is limited to our protagonist so it may disappoint some people if they wish to see more depth into the other cast members. Thankfully, the character chemistry among the cast is charming and often embedded to get us to understand Myne more. I’m not going to lie though. Watching Ascendance of a Bookworm can be a bit of a chore sometimes due to its repetitive story nature. Most of the episodes revolves with the same concept of storytelling and recycled themes. With each passing episode, it’s easy to see how slowed pace the show is. Unlike most isekai, you won’t find much action. This actually feels more like a coming-of-age slice of life but taking place in fictional fantasy world. There’s a balanced amount of drama and comedy that shouldn’t be overlooked. The drama comes from Myne living her new life but often facing obstacles when she isn’t prepared for. Meanwhile, the comedy comes from Myne’s own imaginative mind that often takes the shape of cartoonish skits. I mean, she is a child after all and her imaginations are limitless. It’s often played for laughs but also shows how open minded she can be. For a bookworm, she definitely shows exactly why she loves books. As someone who has read the novels, the 14-episode anime adaptations serves more as a baseline to get viewers into the franchise. Make no mistake though, there’s definitely more that I wish to see being adapted. But on the plus side, I do welcome studio Ajia-Do’s effort into making the show as colorful and vibrant as it can be. As an anime that doesn’t rely on magic, the show tells some surprising amount of choreography with the body language and character designs. In fact, characters looks like they belong in this setting with their simple clothing and everyday lifestyle. The most noticeable character is protagonist Myne. Designed with a frail and petite look, there’s no doubt people will see vulnerability in her character. Also, I would also give praise to the voice acting to her character as taking on the role of a child is no easy task. Yet, voice actress Yuka Iguchi is able to portray Myne perfectly. It’s exactly how I pictured Myne as a character bought to life in animated form. If you’re a fan of isekai anime, this may be something unorthodox that you’re not used to. Rather than a decorating itself as a fantasy adventure, Ascendence of a Bookworm explores more of the mundane life of a bookworm. I can’t say it’s easy to recommend this show with the story’s slow pacing. But if you want a different type of isekai than what you see too often these days, then this anime might just surprise you.

Goober-fish★ 9

To round off this year of abysmal drops in the bucket from the rusty spigot tapped into the vast ocean of low-effort isekai anime still waiting down the pipeline, “Ascendance of a Bookworm” hit me like a brief mouthful of ambrosia that I desperately desired. There are only so many ways to frame an isekai anime nowadays, it’s like when Fox announces they’ve renewed The Simpsons for another 3 seasons and realizes, “Haven’t we already done everything?” In this regard, Bookworm isn’t exactly novel when you think about how it recontextualizes this tired concept. It’s not an original concept, but it’s one that recognizes thecharming beauty of its simplicity. To put it simply, Bookworm is a tight and focused character-piece that neither preoccupies itself with empty flash or needless frills. It feels deceptively quaint and almost procedural compared to most high-concept isekai anime. Its scale is cleverly stripped back, its pace slowed to a manageable stroll, and its tone kept consistently light to taste. Bookworm’s centerpiece is Maine, a delightfully original spin on tired isekai protagonist tropes. Maine incrementally and deliberately progresses through her world much slower than you’d expect of normal protagonists. She is thoroughly constrained by the fact that she is now a sickly young girl on the lower-end of the tax-bracket and social pecking-order. The only thing that Maine really has going for her is her vast retention of book-knowledge, but don’t expect her to go full Senkuu any time soon. Bookworm embraces the mundanities of plausible conflict. Maine is a child (one who frequently suffers from an otherworldly fever) and at that one who actively lacks the resources to overcome short-term goals because of her social class. Bookworm never feels overbearing despite this. It never beats you over the head with misery-porn or begs you to feel sorry for Maine's situation, not that there aren't occasional emotional beats peppered throughout its episode count. Instead, Maine is both intrepid and charming, taking her failures in stride with a childlike irreverence. Save for towards the very end, I never really got the sense that the show was trying to hold Maine’s hand by introducing a plot-contrivance or hand-out that would get the ball rolling. Bookworm’s idea of trial and error is one of very gradual progression, and it makes those smaller victories all the more satisfying when Maine does clear her hurdles. Bookworm was a consistently low-key and understated viewing experience. Despite the darker implications of Maine’s reincarnation, the show never makes it a point to become overtly shocking for the sake of creating a tonal dissonance. I’m happy that Bookworm both decided to address this detail and show a commendable amount of restraint by not playing up the melodrama. Bookworm posits the question, is this world better off now that Motosu Urano has become a surrogate for this young girl who perished under the noses of her family? Is it fine for this family to keep living under the pretense that the daughter they once knew continues to live under their roof? Bookworm’s real meat comes in the form of Maine’s identity crisis. Maine is fully cognizant of how she has essentially deceived everyone into thinking there’s nothing going on beneath the surface. This is a subplot explored through the character of Lutz. Being forced to sort of play along with Maine’s antics, Lutz begins to cultivate a deeper relationship than he previously had with her, as well as a suspicion for her true identity. This eventually culminates in one of the most cathartic and emotionally potent scenes I’ve seen in an anime in recent memory, but you kind of just have to see it to believe it. It’s simply wonderful watching this character accept both her new identity and her new family as her own. Looming fever aside, there’s always a sense of dread that Maine will have to confront her conflict of identity again and that it might just come crashing down on her. It’s an effectively simple conflict that I wish more isekai anime would take the time to explore. Technically speaking, Bookworm isn’t all that impressive as it doesn’t particularly necessitate flashy action set-pieces. There are endearing gag sequences where the art-design will completely flip into a stylized chibi format but those don’t tend to last more than a couple of seconds and are mostly used as eye-catches to transition between scenes. The character designs lack the edge that you’d expect from an anime in this genre, although I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a bad thing. As always, Yuka Iguchi is excellent and characterizes Maine with her typical brand of saucy sarcasm. Ascendance of a Bookworm is Dr. Stone for those who were let-down by its over-the-top antics and seemingly infallible protagonist. It’s pragmatic almost to a fault, and a show that I wouldn’t easily recommend to viewers not willing to get caught up in its slower pace. If you’re like me and have resigned yourself as an unabashed isekai garbage-eater, Bookworm might just be what the doctor ordered. Ascendance of a Bookworm was a classic case of a show far surpassing my expectations and one I learned to love more and more with each passing episode. Bookworm is as warm and comforting as curling up with a good book, and I’m sure that’s the sentiment it wanted to leave us with until its second season.