Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3

Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3

Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 anime series cover art
Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3

Season Overview

Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 (Honzuki no Gekokujou 3rd Season / 本好きの下剋上 ~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~) includes episodes 27 – 36. At 10 episodes long, this is the shortest of the three seasons that have aired so far. But, it’s also the best of the seasons.

Season 3 picks up where Season 2 left off, with Myne performing her duties as a priestess with the church. From what we see, Myne appears to be the main source of mana in the country for the church. She travels all around the domain, offering her mana to the gods so that the people will have good harvests.

Myne also continues her work with the Gilberta company to produce books. And in this season, we get to see her develop a few more advancements that will bring her closer to her goal. In particular, she begins developing both a movable-type printing press and colored inks.

What I’d say makes this season the best of the three, though, is that there’s a lot of interesting conflict. This isn’t conflict like we had in the previous seasons. There aren’t battles against out-of-control plants. This time around, the conflict is a lot more political. But, that doesn’t mean there’s no action.

And, this political conflict comes from both sides of Myne’s life. There are those in the church who want to get rid of her because she’s a commoner. And there are rival businesses that want to protect their own financial interests.

Unfortunately, there’s not too much new lore in this season. On the bright side, there are some new characters that sort of make up for that. Well, it’s a bit hard to call some of the new characters actual characters, as you’ll see in the next section. But, one of the real new characters is good.

New Characters

Let’s get the two new characters who aren’t really characters out of the way first. Kamil is Myne’s new baby brother. As a literal baby, I can’t say Kamil is all that much of a character. He doesn’t have any dialogue or anything. The only things he does are laugh and cry.

Next up, we have Dirk, who’s also a literal baby. But, unlike Kamil who has a family, Dirk is an orphan. We don’t know who his parents are, though I have some theories. What makes Dirk more interesting than Kamil, though, is that we find out he has the Devouring like Myne.

While not exactly a new character, we also have Sir Damuel. He’s one of the knights from Season 2. But, in this season, he’s charged with being Myne’s bodyguard. So, while he was a background character before, he got an upgrade to the role of supporting character now.

Myne, Kamil, and Tuuli from the anime series Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3
Myne, Kamil, and Tuuli

Heidi and her husband (I don’t remember his name) are two more new characters. They’re Myne’s new business partners who help with sourcing the ink used for her books. I wouldn’t call them all that important. But, they do show up a few times throughout the season.

A more important character is Count Bindewald. He’s a newly-introduced antagonist of the season. Count Bindewald is a lord from a neighboring domain who happens to be friends with the High Priest. He’s not a very interesting character, but he’s more important to the plot than the others mentioned so far.

The final new character is the only one I’d call good. Sylvester is an eccentric blue-robed priest whom Ferdinand introduces to Myne. Sylvester is both an important character and an interesting character. In the last episode of the season, he adopts Myne as his daughter.

Setting Up for Season 4

From this point on, I’m not going to be tagging spoilers. A discussion of how Season 3 sets up for Season 4 with tagged spoilers would end up being a wall of black bars. If you don’t want spoilers, go watch Season 3 (and then come back).

I also should point out that a 4th Season isn’t actually confirmed yet. But, considering this series got 3 seasons already and people seem to enjoy it, I don’t see why it wouldn’t. This isn’t a one (season) hit wonder like No Game No Life. It would be a bit odd to cut the anime now.

So, the biggest change going from Season 3 into Season 4 is Myne’s status. Sylvester adopted her. And he’s not a normal noble. He’s the Lord of the domain. So, that means Myne, now called Rozemyne, isn’t a normal noble either. At least, I would imagine that’s how it works.

Sylvester from the anime series Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3
Sylvester

Does Myne’s adoption by Sylvester now grant her a higher status than Ferdinand? He’ll still be her senior in the church. But, it could be a situation like how Ferdinand seemed to have held a higher status than the High Priest.

Speaking of the High Priest, now that his crimes have come to light, he’s no longer going to be a threat to Myne. He was the main antagonist of the series up to this point. So, the next season should introduce a new antagonist.

My guess is that the next antagonist will be a noble from another domain. Myne’s enemies in the church are gone. And as the daughter of Sylvester, I don’t see many other nobles causing issues for her. The next antagonist could be from the same country as Count Bindewald.

Conclusion

Overall, I gave Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 a 5/10. It was fine. But not all that much happened until the end of the season. Most of the season focused on things like figuring out how ink works. I’m hoping the next season has a bit more going on.

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