Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen

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.

Isekai Bookworm: the Isekai we needed but didn't deserve, and furthermore, the most underrated and least watched Isekai of the season, that's at least getting a continuation in Spring 2020 for its 2nd cour...like how great is that! It's almost like in the slew of all-too-familiar Isekai LNs that purge the same formula as if that's the ONLY way to make it interesting, that Ascendance of a Bookworm FINALLY saw the change towards that formula to forge and become its very own thing. *Spoilers be warned* In the sense of realism, Isekai Bookworm retains the fantasy that the genre is all but known for, but with thetwist that this is actually more of a slice-of-life than the fantastical elements it bargains at the beginning, and all but perishes it right from the start, as evident from the MC Maine (or Myne as the manga/LN states). Originally a girl named Urano Motosu who has substantial interest in books and literature with a dream to be a librarian one day, her life was cut short but not without hoping to see the dream be realized in her reincarnated afterlife. When fate strikes her a chord, she awakes into a 5-year old girl living in the Medieval era town of Ehrenfest, except that body that her soul is tugged into isn't as healthy as she'd thought. The body, frail and weak from an occurring disease, can only be cured if her passion is kept reeling in a.k.a books and literature, and so that dream she had from before, becomes her conquest to make and create modern things in old times. First things off the bat, Isekai Bookworm is unlike similar brethrens out there trying to play the Hero counterpart to defeat evildoers, but rather, focuses on the one element that keeps it going: to find books in primitive times, because paper isn't common at all. Furthermore, the sole reason for Maine's purpose to find paper can even be referred to as a kid's struggle in trying to find something of interest in a world that the word "invention" doesn't really ring a bell towards its citizens. To make matters even worse, Maine's "upbringing" in a poor family doesn't make things any better for her as materials of paper and even books are only available for the wealthy, not to mention the ancient language that she supposedly has a hard time settling into at the start. To counteract all this, Maine would befriend many of the character cast, starting with the family who has it rough to always take care and watch out for her flailing health: father Gunther, mother Effa and elder sister Turi, who were the first people to notice Maine's progress in both her wellbeing and inventive innovations whilst prepping her for the medieval world's terms and conditions. Along with Gunther's friend Otto's help to teach Maine about the ancient language, and Lutz, Maine's childhood friend shows up along the way when she decides that her paper-making process (that he has witnessed) be turned into a for-profit business, all looks set for the plan to be in motion. And whaddya know, his dream of being a merchant coincides with Maine's interest of selling her stuff, much to Otto's rejection being an afterthought, the two decided to cooperate, and taken to Merchant Benno, who'd supervise their business and lay off others who'd want a slice of their business for ulterior motives. And you know the intricacies of mere 5-6 year-olds in business where Maine literally has an adult's mind that shocks even the most seasoned merchants, but could still potentially be cheated due to the aggravating giveaways of her weak health. Regardless, this character cast, especially MC Maine is what hooks me onto this show for reasons. Probably what will turn people off from this anime is the entire slice-of-life regime that is flushed all around, but trust me, that same regime is what draws me into this show with awe and fascination, at how the world could be different for what it is, going back to being children and solving problems with mistakes and failures that aren't offset from growing human life. Maine makes no attempts to sweep her failures under the rug, as her experimentation allows her to know what does and does not work to make her paper-making business flourish, and along with her "secret stash" of modern-day knowledge and education to teach the others and be wowed by such items. If you don't get what I'm trying to infer here, is that everything is damn wholesome and educational that I can't shift my eyes away from it to see what would Maine's next step forward is gonna bring onto the table. Ajia-Do Animation Works' visuals are just perfect for this anime, the art being reminiscent of one being very light and a great mix of color palettes along with the many Maine-chibi forms of educational explanation content that are easy to watch and have fun alongside it. On the animation side, I'm just glad that there was just the right amount of animation, given that there are still sprinkles of the bits and pieces of low-budget work that exist within the anime, but are not glaringly noticeable that it affects the overall quality. Music-wise, lots of lightheartedness (and some serious notes) with the world and its worldbuilding established from the setting that it does mimic so well, and same goes to the cheery atmospheric and lovely OST by both Sumire Moroboshi and Megumi Nakajima. For one, I'm sure that this isn't the end of Maine and her world-building shenanigans, as we'll have to wait until the 2nd cour to flesh out more of what's to come of her sickness and how that affects the people she abides by. But as much as this Iyashikei of a feeling this anime has, it's certainly one to take on a chill ride. It's very personal too and it never stops being intriguing to see things through, if that is ever anything to win hearts by.

*NO SPOILERS* I watched this anime due to the high ratings it has been receiving on this website and I can say that it most certainly did not live up to them. Honzuki no Gekokujou is an isekai in which a japanese bookworm gets reincarnated into a sick five year old's body and lives as Myne/Main, the daughter of peasants. One of my primary gripes with this anime is the MCs mental age. Myne is meant to be at least a young adult, but instead acts and thinks like a child with the knowledge of an encyclopedia. Subsequently, she fumbles around social interaction with the emotionalintelligence of a child, not knowing how to handle her own position. People are praising this show for changing the isekai formula, but there isn't much substance past that. It's a slice of life show where the MC invents things from the future in a Middle Ages setting, if you enjoy that coupled with some wholesome family and friendship moments, you'll enjoy this. However, saying this show is anything more than a moe primitive technology from Youtube is giving it too much praise. Also, this idea of an MC inventing technology in an isekai is hardly unique to this show, and is handled with more thought in other novels and manga. Story: 4 There really is none, as I said the MC invents things in a Slice of Life manner while attempting to deal with the illness plaguing the body of Myne, who she spawned into. Art: 8 Art is good, around what one would expect from a modern anime. Animation is clearly a bit choppy at times, with the budget clearly not reaching Ufotable levels, but show still does a good job conveying the emotions of characters and the mood the author intended to create. Sound: 9 Quality sound, nothing to complain about especially, not extraordinary either. Characters: 4 This really is the major flaw with this show, most of the characters are extremely shallow and the MCs actions are not what one would expect from one in her position. Myne is incredibly naive and the majority of the world reflects that same design, not testing the limits of her character. Would have made for a more interesting plot if there were characters that truly challenged the mood of the MC and show, but instead it stayed monotonous throughout, the characters interacting in a very fantastical and ideal manner to suite the others desired world. Thus, the characters were very cute but also quite shallow. Enjoyment: 6 Was a fair waste of 5 hours or so, obviously watching the inventing process and cute relationship interactions was fun, but not anything overly stimulating either. The drama fell flat for the most part, as did the majority of the show, still was a decent time killer however as I had nothing else I wanted to do [Sry government, I'll do my taxes eventually].

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