Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen 2nd Season

Ascendance of a Bookworm is now a well-known anime with a relative unanimity around its quality. I review the S1+S2 here. (english is not my primary language) I have been quite disappointed by these two seasons... The anime is the story of a 20-year-old librarian who is reincarnated in a 5-year-old girl body after her death, in a new fantasy/medieval world. All the anime spin around the fact that this new world has not yet invented the printing and so books are rare and expensive. The anime have a lot of problems in its writing and I will discuss about them, but before, let's talk about theart and the OST. The art of Ascendance of a Bookworm is a bit "cheap", with a bad animation on certain scenes and a drawing a bit strange, particularly on faces. The OST of this anime is not good at all. We have not a single one recognisable theme and OP/ED are not good. This last point is a very bad point for me : in this type of anime I like to be transported by a strong OST. The story and the universe of the anime is, from my point of view, not well written. The loop of the anime is simple : the girl knows technologies and things that don't exist in this new world, she recreates it and this is a success which permits the girl to progress in the social structure of this world in order to achieve her final goal : creating a lot of books. The main problem with this loop is that the universe is constructed to permit this, and this is not done delicately ... All the world of this anime is improbable and not well executed. The absence of some tech is not credible for the level of civilisation of the world, and the success of the girl invention is too quick to be credible. The writing has also a lot of inconstancies : one scene the heroine, after having created a book with soot ink, smell the book and say « huuuummm, the good odour of the ink », referring to the nostalgia of books smell in our world. But hey, you just print a book with soot remember, it should smell soot, not modern ink ... It's a small detail, but all the anime is written like that, and after 27 episodes it is very visible. Another problem is the reactions of adults to the heroin experimentations and inventions : everybody give her full trust, way too easily. She is a five-year-old girl, her inventions should, sometimes, bring some suspicion. It is never the case in the anime. The last bad point of the anime is the nature of relations between the heroin and the other characters, specifically in the season 2. In the season 2, the anime takes a strange turn : it becomes an anime on commercial relation between people and on servant/master relationship. And this is strangely executed. The heroin will always construct her relationship with her acquaintance in a mercantile like way : contracts, or material rewards/punishments . For example, at some point in the anime it happens that the heroine picked up the management of an orphanage with a lot of starving children, and to remotivate orphans she will cancel the charity organisation (everybody had the same meal in the orphanage) to go to a commercial organisation : those who work better will have a better meal. It's a bit choking, for me, to see that. It's like, in kindergarten or middle school you change the meal relatively to the notes of the student in class. It's a bit revulsing. And the fact that here it's starving children didn't help with my feeling about that. Another part of the anime is about the relation master/servant. The heroine has some servant and will act in the same way : material rewards and punishment to construct her relation with them. It's very cold and the feeling of the « superior noble enlightened heroines » who manage her herd of servants with a good little candy and pat on the back to motivate them to be good servant is a bit too much for me in this anime. All the S2 is like that : cold relationship based only on mercantile considerations. So well, I didn't like the direction of the anime in the S2. The combo of inconstancies, strange orientation of scenarios and relationship between characters in the S2 and poor art and inexistent OST make, for me, the anime not very good. It's still watchable, so for me it's a 6/10 for the S2 and a little 7/10 for the S1.

And we are back with Mayne! The first season was a great discovery, and this second season remains in its lineage and goes even further Story: 8/10 The second season makes a fairly radical change from the first, because now the story focuses on the Church and Mayne's new position as a blue robe We thus discover the mode of operation of the Church, as well as the whole system of caste and nobility (where the first season revolved more around trading, merchants and peasants) The story is cut out in the form of challenges and obstacles that Mayne continues to encounter. After having finally obtained what she wanted(access to the library), her preoccupations will move away (only partially of course!) from books in order to take an interest in the people around her. Art: 5/10 It's the only flaw of the anime in my opinion The level of animation is low and this is particularly felt in certain scenes (such as the last arc with the Knights and the gorgeous non-animation of their mounts) The artstyle is sometimes shaky but I don't mind at all. It is really the lack of animation during certain scenes which gives a certain ridiculity to this anime However, note the effort not to use CGI in anything It is however a shame to see that Ajia-Do apparently sacrificed the animation of Bookworm and preferred to focus on Kakushigoto, another anime from the studio having been released at the same period. The lack of animation is visible but personally it does not lower my general appreciation of the anime Sound: 8/10 It is generally the weakest point of my reviews because I do not pay much attention to music except when it is impressive If most of Bookworm's OST are...normal, I noticed some remarkable and surprising pieces at several times The anime also uses a good number of traditional instruments (or at least, it gives the air of it), which strongly strengthens the integration into the universe of Mayne Character: 9/10 The cast of Bookworm has grown significantly with the arrival of Mayne at the Church The introduction of her servants (not to be confused with those of Fate) allowed several key characters to intrude It was very nice to see the evolution of these characters (my favorite being Fran), even if I find that the mini-arc of Delia resolved a little too quickly The development of the character of Mayne is more discreet but is present enough to be noticed, without it making a 180 ° so far My favorite character of this season will however be a new one: Ferdinand He is understanding, affectionate towards Mayne (and even becomes his confidant) but that does not prevent him from berating her when necessary, and guiding her in normal times. Mayne owes him all the good things that has happened to her in the Church. He is a very well written and highly sympathetic character Enjoyment: 9/10 Following Mayne's adventures is always a pleasure I never thought I would appreciate an isekai like this, a slice of life moreover, and that it could distract me as much Overall: 9/10 This second is in line with the first If we can blame it for its weak animation, we can forgive it because this anime is really a hidden gem !

Isekai Bookworm is back for Part 2, the continuation of the 2nd half of the remaining 12 episodes, and I'd have to say that while the content for the 2nd half was another solid effort, it was kinda downplayed after the strong foundations of the 1st half. Don't get me wrong, it is a good watch, but as a whole when it's compared to the source material, it lacks finesse and proper story progression. The story with Part 2 (the Apprentice Shrine Maiden arc) continues our blue-haired childish girl's dreams of wanting to read and make books, now descending onto the Church, whose noble state isone of disrepair, and attaching with it, the politics and power play that comes with tormented abuse. Myne is only there as a means to cure her growing mana (which she had from the Devouring back in Part 1), and of course, the library, because books come first than others. The measure of being a commoner in royal clothing is something that Myne constantly has to bear her position in the Church, to whomever resides in there as means to oppress people where and when they like it. All these is wrong, but Myne has no power to stop it, and besides, getting yourself in trouble only builds a bad rap to your name, and Myne doesn't want that, so it's really testing her nerves. Together with High Priest Ferdinand, Myne goes through her adding number of responsibilities and work, one day at a time. One good thing is her own personal growth, compared to the beginning of Part 1, Myne has fully grown and outdone herself in ways that I could say it's just character "development", but it's development truly different, yet fascinating. New to Part 2 is, of course the side characters, plus some new oddities of Myne's growing responsibility: the grey-robed assistants (or rather the untouchables). As a noble, every noble has to attach themselves to a grey-robed servant, and Myne has 3 in toll: the aggressive Gil, the annoying devil Delia and right-hand man Fran. It's easy to see why there is a lot of disdain between the nobles and commoners, but for Myne, the biggest challenge is to persuade them to her side and be fellow good people, regardless of their ulterior motives. Most certainly, flexing her position as a noble gives her the identity to do as she pleases, but with the rotten Church system, it's clear that something must be done, and she will take up any case, so as long as the dream of reading books isn't negated. All things otherwise, it's about what you'd expect from Part 1, with the same artwork and visuals. I certainly don't ever think that Ajia-Do would have perfected this even much given the seasonal gap to improve some aesthetics, but what is given to us the audience, it's passable enough. Same goes with the sound, the VAs still doing a good job at the character roles given and such, adding that blend onto the anime. And of course, new OP/ED which is good, but I'd take Part 1's set anyday as it expressed the emotions better. Overall, Isekai Bookworm was a good watch, and for the uninitiated, having to binge through all 26 episodes really spoke volumes about how this series really eventually came into all on its own and carving its sense of identity. If you can, I'd suggest binging from the beginning to get the full experience about this overlooked hidden gem that's an Isekai, but a vastly different type of Isekai out there. Fun times indeed.

If you’re watching this, you surely know the gist of the story and enjoy it, so I will save you the details of Bookworm’s plot. Bookworm II picks up right where the first season left off and does everything the first season did even better. We’ve got a wider range of characters who bring a diverse set of personalities and backgrounds to the stories as well as the continued development of Main as a priestess. Whereas the first season revolves around Main’s relationship with her family and local friends, the second season mainly focuses on Main’s relationship with the church and her retainers. I enjoyedthat quite a bit as it was an opportunity to learn more lore about the church and its role in society. The show continues to be very character driven and self contained. It’s not overly ambitious in its story and instead crafts a narrative about how the little things we do can affect others around us. I really enjoy the laid back approach that this series takes and found every episode to be enjoyable. The world is so lush and beautiful thanks to Aijia-Do’s great art and the direction continues to be top notch. If you enjoyed Bookworm I, you will love Bookworm II. If you’re new to this series and are thinking of giving it a shot, I highly recommend it. This is certainly one of the best isekai currently being written. Bookworm II gets 9 printing presses out of 10.

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