I Forgot How Bad this Anime Looks

Originally, I was going to be reviewing Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 episodes on Tuesdays. But, since what I had planned for Mondays fell through, this series is now going to be reviewed every Monday now. Mark it on your calendar.

Now that I’ve gotten that scheduling notice out of the way, let’s get right into the biggest complaint I have about Episode 27. It looks like garbage. This episode probably doesn’t look any worse than the previous 26 episodes of the series did. But, I’d forgotten how bad it looks.

Ascendance of a Bookworm is also easily the worst-looking anime I’m currently watching. It probably isn’t being helped by the fact that most anime I’m watching this season look surprisingly good. And, last season had some beautiful anime, such as Akebi’s Sailor Uniform. Ascendance of a Bookworm just can’t compete, visually.

Most viewers who enjoy this series probably don’t care too much about how it looks. And if you’ve made it to the third season, you probably enjoy it. But, I don’t think that’s an excuse to ignore criticism of the fact that it looks terrible.

I’m bringing that up because I know there are going to be some people who think I’m just being a hater. However, these are also the people who will try to say that I’m being biased because I gave Ping Pong the Animation a 10/10 despite how it looks.

Ping Pong’s art and animation style were deliberate choices made for artistic purposes. That’s not the same as Ascendance of a Bookworm having bad art and animation because it saves time and money to have fewer frames and less detail on those frames.

Myne’s Next Invention

In a lot of ways, Ascendance of a Bookworm is just like Dr. Stone. Myne and Senku are both constantly reinventing objects from their old worlds. Surprisingly, of the two, I think I actually like Ascendance of a Bookworm more.

Anyway, I brought that up because Myne introduces her latest invention in this episode: movable type. Myne explained what it is fairly well in the episode, but I’ll give you some additional information on it in case you’re not familiar.

Basically, movable type is a printing technology that allows letter blocks to be arranged so that an entire page of text can be stamped onto paper at once. This is much faster than having to write out each page by hand. Why? Because once you set the type for a single page, you can mass-produce that page very quickly.

As it currently stands, Myne is running a sweatshop of laborers out of the cathedral. She has them in a basement hand-writing each and every page of her books. Even just a single movable type printing press would be able to out-produce Myne’s current system.

Additionally, it would allow Myne to mass-produce other books, as well. Her workers wouldn’t need to spend time learning new pages to write out. They’d just have to copy her original manuscript once for each page using the movable type.

Something else about the movable type Myne’s commissioning from the apprentice blacksmith is that she’s probably going to sell the technology. As far as I remember, Myne has sold the rights to all of her inventions — including her ink in this episode.

And out of all of Myne’s inventions so far, movable print is the one capable of making the biggest impact on her new world. Newspapers can exist now. Suddenly, the masses will be able to learn about current events.

The Ink Guild

I mentioned that Myne sold her ink in this episode. She sold it to the Ink Guild, which previously had a monopoly on the production of ink. They wanted to buy out Myne’s ink patent for two reasons. First, it eliminates competition. And second, it eliminates knowledge of how to produce ink from spreading.

If the Ink Guild is the only producer of ink and its members are also the only ones who know how to make ink, then everyone who wants ink has to buy it from them. This allows the Ink Guild to dictate the price of ink.

Unfortunately for Myne, her ink has turned her into an enemy of the Ink Guild. Even though she’s now sold her ink to the guild, that doesn’t change the fact that she figured out how to produce it in the first place. That knowledge alone is dangerous to the guild.

Since I haven’t read the light novels, I obviously don’t know how this situation with the Ink Guild is going to be resolved. But, I do have a guess. Myne mentioned that even if she sells her ink to the guild, she should still be able to purchase it at a reasonable price.

It’s possible that part of the sale contract states that the guild has to sell ink to Myne at a discount. However, I’m thinking that Myne intends to appease the guild in order to have them lower the price of ink.

How would she do this? Well, by selling, or simply giving up, the rights to her movable type press. If she does that, there will suddenly be other publishers in need of large amounts of ink. And who benefits from that? The Ink Guild, of course.

Conclusion

What do you think of Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 Episode 27? Are you willing to admit that it looks bad? Do you think Myne will sell the rights to her movable type? And how do you think the Ink Guild situation will be resolved? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 28 is available now.

Unlimited Mana Works

The final episode of Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2 was a pretty good one. While it might not be the most interesting part of the episode, my favorite part was when Myne shows the Knight Order, Ferdinand, and us just how much mana she really has.

This scene is mainly good because of the visuals and music used during it, but I think there are still a few important things to discuss regarding it. First off, the fact that Myne has so much mana is important. We know that Ferdinand also has a large amount of mana and could have done what Myne did, but even he’s surprised by how much she has.

And this revelation of the vastness of Myne’s mana pool is what leads to the events throughout the rest of the episode.

However, there are a few things I don’t really understand about Myne’s mana and its connection to the Devouring she’s afflicted with. We know that the Devouring and her mana are directly related — the Devouring occurs when a non-noble is born with mana.

Later in the episode, though, it seems to be implied that Myne’s vast amount of mana is somehow related to her previous life. It could be that she has an immense amount of mana even for someone who suffers from the Devouring. So is mana related to how long someone has lived? And why can’t commoners survive with mana?

Then, there’s also the question of how the Devouring affects her body. I thought using her mana was supposed to stop it from eating away at her life force. So why is she bedridden from using mana? Originally I thought she used too much, but it really looks like she had a lot to spare.

Dreamlike World

I don’t know about you, but I found the fact that Ferdinand, the head priest of the church, drugged a young girl within his secret chamber so that he could look into her memories without her permission to be a little creepy. Obviously, he drugged Myne because he knew she wouldn’t consent otherwise.

At first, I thought he was just having her taste test his new mana potion because she had previously said they tasted horrible. And to some extent that may have been true considering she mentioned that this potion tasted sweet. But it quickly became apparent that this was essentially a date rape scene.

Sure, it worked out in the end (for now), but there’s no denying that the casualness with which Ferdinand spiked a young girl’s drink while the two of them were alone is a bit worrying. Is this something nobles routinely do?

I don’t remember what episode review it was in, but earlier on in the series, I mentioned that I think Myne and Ferdinand could end up in a romantic relationship of some kind. This idea was furthered by the events of this episode, including when the two of them sync their minds together.

It’s at this point, when Ferdinand learns of Myne’s past life, that he also learns she was an adult. And as we see, he relays this information to Karstedt, basically laying the foundation of his relationship with Myne.

Him telling Karstedt that Myne has memories of her life as an adult is basically the equivalent of him saying, “I know she looks like a child, but she’s actually legal.” So now we have the fact that Myne will be married off at some point “soon,” that Ferdinand is an eligible bachelor who’s pushed his own interests onto Myne, and that he knows Myne is mentally an adult.

Ehrenfest Noble Society

However, all of those factors aren’t enough for Ferdinand to marry Myne. There’s still one, very important issue he needs to solve: Myne isn’t a noble like he is, so he would never be allowed to marry her.

So how does Ferdinand plan to get around this little inconvenience? He asks Karstedt to adopt Myne so that she’ll be a member of a noble family. You may be thinking that he asks this because he wants to protect Myne and also use her knowledge for his own benefit, but that line of reasoning doesn’t entirely check out.

If that were the case, Ferdinand could simply adopt Myne himself or have another member of his family do it. But if he did that, he probably wouldn’t be able to marry Myne. By having Myne become a member of the Karstedt family, there’s no issue with him marrying her.

I think that Ferdinand and Karstedt are both members of some movement to overthrow the ruling class of the country (which was revealed to be called Ehrenfest). Whether this ruling class is the church, a king, or even the nobility itself, they need Myne’s help to accomplish their goal.

So, yes, they do want to protect Myne for their own interests. But you have to question whether or not Ferdinand has an ulterior motive when it comes to his involvement with Myne. There are just too many things lining up for it all to be mere coincidence.

Conclusion

I’m looking forward to the next season of Ascendance of a Bookworm. It will be nice to see if Ferdinand’s grooming of Myne continues, or if everything I’ve speculated about was all actually wrong. But what do you think about a potential relationship between Myne and Ferdinand? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 27 is available now.

Trombe and Battles

It looks like my prediction that Myne was going to be kidnapped by Schicicoza of the knight order was incorrect. I really thought it was going to happen considering the whole kidnapping flag has been raised numerous times and this was the first time Myne was “alone” with a noble who seemed like he would do it.

Of course, it could still happen at some point later on in the series, but I don’t believe Schicicoza would have anything to do with it if it does happen. I wouldn’t say that he’s learned the error of his ways, but he’s definitely learned not to mess with Myne.

I’ll come back to Schicicoza in just a bit, but I want to first discuss the new information we’ve learned about trombe. Well, the new information isn’t really about trombe, but more about Myne and her connection to the mana-absorbing plant.

We still don’t really know what a trombe is. However, it seems to be implied that trombe aren’t a plant that exist on their own, but rather spontaneously appear due to high levels of mana. We first saw this when Myne turned a fruit into a trombe simply by picking it up and putting mana into it.

This week, that theory seems to have gained more traction, with Myne’s (mana-filled) blood causing a trombe to burst out of the ground. Ferdinand makes it seem like a trombe was hibernating in that location, but I think the blood actually created the trombe.

And we’re also told that all of Myne’s bodily fluids contain concentrated mana. Not only can her blood produce a trombe, but her tears can too. I wonder if the blood of children with the devouring was ever collected by the church.

Who Holds the Highest Rank?

The best part of the entire episode was seeing Sir Ferdinand flex on all the knight order plebeians (nobles). Last week I discussed how Ferdinand appeared to be a much higher ranking noble than anyone in the knight order based on how they followed his lead, and now that’s been confirmed.

I actually think Ferdinand is from an even more important family now than I did previously. And the reason for this is due to how he spoke about the knights being punished by their lord for failing in their duties.

At first, when Ferdinand mentioned their lord, I thought he meant Lord as in a deity. This seemed to be the case when he first mentioned how Myne was chosen by their lord to serve the church on account of her vast mana reserves. However, upon further inspection, this doesn’t really add up.

There are multiple gods and goddesses in this world, so would Ferdinand really be referring to a singular Lord? It’s possible since there is a king of the gods. But what I think is more likely based on his continued reference to the lord punishing the knights is that he’s actually referring to the lord of the region.

We haven’t heard anything about how the region is actually governed and there’s been no mention of a royal family of any kind. So perhaps this region is controlled by a powerful lord instead.

And if that’s the case, could it be possible that Ferdinand is actually a member of the lord’s household? We know he is exceedingly wealthy, is highly educated, wields a vast amount of mana, and holds the highest rank of anyone we’ve met so far (other than the High Priest within the context of the church).

Disgraced Knight Order

We know that the knight order has disgraced itself by failing to adequately protect Myne after Ferdinand ordered them to. But what does this mean for the series going forward? Are the knights really going to be punished? And if so, won’t that cause them to bear a grudge against Myne?

I don’t think the knights are actually going to be punished. At the end of the episode, Ferdinand mentions that Myne needs to show the knights her true value by finishing her duties and putting an end to the trombe fight. This seems like a setup to bring the knight order over to her side.

The knights will be shown Myne’s value and will be indebted to her for their transgression against her. So the “punishment” that they’ll probably receive is that they’ll be called upon at some point in the future to help Myne when she needs it.

When Ferdinand mentions the fact that the knights will be punished, he also fails to specify the nature of the punishment or when it might occur. He simply states that their lord will punish them at some point in the future. This also seems to be setting up the idea that the knights will be called upon to help Myne at some point.

But why would Myne need the help of the knight order?

I think Ferdinand is plotting to take down the church, and he’s going to use Myne to achieve this goal. We know he has a secret reason for joining the church, and I had previously predicted that he planned to reform it from the inside. But perhaps his plans are greater than mere reformation.

If Ferdinand truly is from the lord’s household, then the lord could call upon the knight order in the future to repay their debt to Ferdinand and Myne by helping them overthrow the church.

Conclusion

What do you think of Ascendance of a Bookworm season 2 episode 11? Do you think trombe are spontaneously created by mana? Is Ferdinand a member of the ruling family? And what do you think the knight’s punishment will entail? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Knight Orders and Requests

Although Ascendance of a Bookworm is a slice of life fantasy series, episode 24 shows us that the world still has action and adventure in it. We just, unfortunately, don’t get to see that action and adventure most of the time. I know I’d like this series more if it was more of an adventure series.

In this episode, we’re introduced to the Knight Order, which is the military of the nation (the name of which we still don’t know). The inclusion of the Knight Order is actually something I find really cool because there’s a distinction between them and the standard military/town guard.

Myne’s father is the captain of the guard — which is to say that he’s higher up in the military than your standard grunt soldier, but he’s still a commoner. If he were a grunt soldier, he would probably live within the barracks. But he’s also not a knight, because that would mean he’s a noble.

Just as the church has a distinction between commoners and nobles (gray and blue robes), the military is the same way. And this distinction between classes in the military isn’t some fantasy construct — this is how real militaries used to function.

War is expensive. Not only are arms and armor expensive, but so are horses and everything else you need to travel from one battlefield to another. For this reason, knights (samurai in Japan) were men who belonged to the noble class because only they could afford all of this.

Of course, random commoners fought in wars as well. But when you think of a stereotypical knight, you’re thinking of a noble.

But, Ascendance of a Bookworm does have one more distinction between knights and standard soldiers. Since nobles in this world are the only ones who can use mana, that’s the primary distinction between a knight and a soldier. Myne’s father simply can’t do the things the knights can.

The Noble District

To further drive home the point that the Knight Order is made up of nobles, Myne and the head priest must travel into the noble section of town to meet them. This is a walled-off section of the town that requires mana to be entered — so commoners can’t get in even if they try.

It’s unclear whether the head priest still resides within the noble district or at the church. I would imagine he lives at the church, but at the same time, he appears to be a fairly high ranking noble. We know he’s wealthy enough to donate a bunch of magic books to the church library, and we see that even the captain of the Knight Order follows his lead.

Fran also states that the reason the head priest isn’t the one who’s going to be giving the Knight Order the blessing of the church is that his duties as a noble come before his duties as a church leader. I imagine this would only be the case if he was from an important noble family.

In the picture above, you’ll see that the captain of the Knight Order, Karstedt has a tan cape while the head priest’s is blue. I wouldn’t read too much into the color of the head priest’s cape. His cape is probably just blue because that’s the color of the church — and it has nothing to do with his actual standing as a noble.

The head priest’s status aside, let’s take a look at the noble district itself.

From what we’re shown, the noble district seems to be primarily residential. The entire district is laid out on a grid, with each block being a single, gated residence. There’s no town square (there’s an open area in front of the gate), no markets, and notably, no castle — though the buildings do get larger the farther from the main gate they are.

I’m still interested in who exactly rules over this unnamed country. Is it a joint effort between the church and the nobles? Or is there actually a ruling family with a king somewhere?

Battle of the Trombe

We’ve been told in the past that trombe plants are dangerous. They suck the mana out of their surroundings and grow uncontrollably. And at the beginning of the series, it even took the town guard to defeat one of these magical plants. But as the series progressed, trombe seemed to be less and less of a threat.

It got to the point where Lutz, Gil, and other boys wielding cleavers were able to dispatch trombe plants before they got out of control. This, in turn, likely led Myne to believe that trombe plants were a good source of fiber for her paper — and apparently a good way to release her mana without the need for magical items.

But all of that is about to change. The battle the Knight Order is heading to isn’t against an opposing army or a dragon — it’s against a massive trombe in the forest outside of town.

Two things are likely to come out of this battle against the trombe. First, it seems pretty obvious that something’s going to happen to Myne. One of the knights who was left to guard her is pretty suspicious, and in the previous episode (or two episodes ago) Myne was told to be careful because she’s a target for kidnapping.

If she does get kidnapped, it’s a 50/50 chance that the perpetrator is successful. On one hand, I think Myne has enough mana to protect herself. But on the other, she is wearing a magic ring that’s using her mana up.

The second thing that’s likely to happen is that Myne will understand the true dangers of using trombe fibers to create her books. Until now, I don’t think she (or the viewers) really understood how dangerous these plants can be.

Conclusion

What did you think of Ascendance of a Bookworm season 2 episode 10? I liked it more than most of the series so far. And I hope we actually get to see the battle between the knights and the trombe in the next episode. Let me know what you think is going to happen to Myne in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.