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EP. REVIEW: Ascendance of a Bookworm [2019-10-26]


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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:23 pm Reply with quote
Leviathonlx wrote:
Ascendance of a Bookworm can get pretty dark/grim which is partly why the author has a 'anyone under 15 shouldn't read this' warning on the novels.

This surprises me quite a bit based on what we've seen in the anime so far and what the opener looks like. Without getting into spoilers, are we likely to see that side show up in earnest before the end of the season given how the story is pacing itself so far?
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2019 12:16 am Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
...0:11:32.77,0:11:36.66,I was surprised that you managed to write your name perfectly.
0:11:36.66,0:11:38.73,I was taught how to write it before....I know I might be putting too much weight on one word,,.
While I'm not so good with Japanese I think this is a case of CR's subtitles/translations being off sometimes. What I heard Lutz say was "because Main taught me" which goes back an Ep or two when Lutz asked her to teach him how to write his name too. I assume she did and he was just insinuating some annoyance that she would be surprised.

Also, the scene when she returns home I believe was meant to be all in the same dream because after the odd familial behavior she goes to get the water and things devolve into unreality. However, I do think the scene is meant to get the viewer in the same mental frame of her becoming aware of the potential for unsettling changes to people's attitudes toward her if her "oddness" becomes recognized.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:09 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
Leviathonlx wrote:
Ascendance of a Bookworm can get pretty dark/grim which is partly why the author has a 'anyone under 15 shouldn't read this' warning on the novels.

This surprises me quite a bit based on what we've seen in the anime so far and what the opener looks like. Without getting into spoilers, are we likely to see that side show up in earnest before the end of the season given how the story is pacing itself so far?


I have read the first four translated novels.

Warnings for 15 year olds is way overboard. Possible timeline spoiler: spoiler[If the anime is going to show Myne's of age ceremony, then you will probably see it.]. But the idea that it is too much for teenagers and adolescents is beyond belief.
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yuna49



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:51 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
Warnings for 15 year olds is way overboard. But the idea that it is too much for teenagers and adolescents is beyond belief.

Last Sunday's episode of GeGeGe no Kitarou depicted a spoiler[child being orphaned because he was forced to kill a yokai that had reanimated his already-dead mother]. No age warnings for that. In fact it airs on Sunday mornings at 9 am. Hard to imagine Bookworm has content that would be more disturbing for kids than that.
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Kami-koto



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 16, 2019 7:30 pm Reply with quote
I wouldn't say it gets all that dark, but part 1, which is what the anime will show, is basically the (mostly) happy part, with the parts after that having more serious (and sometimes even heartbreaking) content overall.
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TarsTarkas



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2019 6:54 am Reply with quote
Kami-koto wrote:
I wouldn't say it gets all that dark, but part 1, which is what the anime will show, is basically the (mostly) happy part, with the parts after that having more serious (and sometimes even heartbreaking) content overall.


As that after the translated novels?
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Kami-koto



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2019 10:51 am Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
Kami-koto wrote:
I wouldn't say it gets all that dark, but part 1, which is what the anime will show, is basically the (mostly) happy part, with the parts after that having more serious (and sometimes even heartbreaking) content overall.


As that after the translated novels?

Well, I'd say volume 4 already has some serious stuff with spoiler[the orphanage thing]. And the scale of the problems she gets involved in will only get bigger. Since Myne is usually pretty cheerful, the tone remains lighthearted most of the time, but all parts after part 1 are definitely more serious.
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HannoX



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:49 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
This surprises me quite a bit based on what we've seen in the anime so far and what the opener looks like. Without getting into spoilers, are we likely to see that side show up in earnest before the end of the season given how the story is pacing itself so far?


The next episode should get into some darker material. spoiler[Myne meets a girl her age who accepts the fact that she will have to become the mistress of a noble when she gets older and it's probably not when we would regard her as being at the age of consent. And as the mistress of a noble she'll still be in a precarious situation, but she really has no choice.]
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Yuvelir



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:58 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The novel twist here is the introduction of the trombe root, which is the first supernatural plant or creature that the series has revealed so far.

Hey, don't forget that tree made of ice that you have to thaw with your bare hands to collect its fruit.
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Gina Szanboti



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 7:10 pm Reply with quote
Unless they had done something really egregious, like Myne fan service or something, I would've given this a 5 star just for having her be upfront with Lutz about what was going on. Ninety-nine percent of other series would've made her shine him on with lame excuses (lookin' at you Conan) for at least a dozen more episodes (or until the end of the cour), so it was just a wonderfully refreshing and cathartic scene to let her lay it all out. And how it was done was exceptional as well, with just the right amount of drama, not slipping over into melodrama. I really loved this episode.

Watching the trombe sprout and spread somehow made me think of kudzu. Very Happy But it also surprised me that it was a plant, since I was so expecting fire Saimyoushou to come bombing out of the hole to attack her.
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meiam



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 11:38 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Unless they had done something really egregious, like Myne fan service or something, I would've given this a 5 star just for having her be upfront with Lutz about what was going on. Ninety-nine percent of other series would've made her shine him on with lame excuses (lookin' at you Conan) for at least a dozen more episodes (or until the end of the cour), so it was just a wonderfully refreshing and cathartic scene to let her lay it all out. And how it was done was exceptional as well, with just the right amount of drama, not slipping over into melodrama. I really loved this episode.


Conan usually has to fool adult, here Lutz is 6 years old, iirc... Myne is what, mid 20? The fact that she can't fool him is pretty pathetic, considering the reality is pretty preposterous as it is. What's sound most unlikely, someone dying but their body been inhabited by a soul from another, more advanced, world where magic doesn't even exist or some kid that was bed ridden all her life started changing mentally as she grew up, gotten slightly better physically and experienced new things (becoming an assistant)?
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Alan45
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:21 pm Reply with quote
@meiam

Myne had no chance of fooling Lutz (or anyone else for that matter) he is with her most waking hours and she is demonstrating knowledge and skills she had no way of obtaining naturally. She is even telling him how to do things that she cannot do now and never could. He is young not incredibly stupid. What is surprising is that her family is not more freaked out.

In a society at that level of technology where magic actually works, possession is a perfectly rational explanation.
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TarsTarkas



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 3:06 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
[What is surprising is that her family is not more freaked out.

I believe that the anime had to cut some parts out. The sister did complain to her parents. But I think the parents parse out her strange behavior and knowledge as a symptom of her constant and chronic sickness. They are just grateful she is alive, considering how sick she is.

Light novel future spoiler:
spoiler[Family is not clueless, but Myne's father just attributes her knowledge as a gift of God or higher power.]
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mangamuscle



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 3:40 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
@meiamWhat is surprising is that her family is not more freaked out.


It makes perfect sense if you think about it. I remember hearing for the first time in Shiki that one of the obligations of children is not dying before their parents (remember also that in oriental religions children go to hell for that offense). The agony of losing a children is so great that if by some miracle your bedridden sick child manages to survive and even shows higher levels of vitality (albeit still lower that most kids) most parents would be overjoyed, no questions asked since no unnatural calamity* has appeared since Myne recovery.

So yeah, I can imagine the big sister doing a Phyneas & Ferb moment "Mom, Myne is inventing the rotary printing press!" Anime hyper

*I am obviously talking about your average horror story where a children returns from the grave as an undead craving to eat the living, albeit my favorite is a comic I have long lost about a kid that returned from the dead, his hair turned completely white, only to die later on, living on borrowed time.
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meiam



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 5:39 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
@meiam

Myne had no chance of fooling Lutz (or anyone else for that matter) he is with her most waking hours and she is demonstrating knowledge and skills she had no way of obtaining naturally. She is even telling him how to do things that she cannot do now and never could. He is young not incredibly stupid. What is surprising is that her family is not more freaked out.

In a society at that level of technology where magic actually works, possession is a perfectly rational explanation.


Lutz: How do you know how to make paper?

Myne: I just talk to some merchant from another country at the gate.

Lutz: I never heard about that!

Myne: How many people from out of this town did you ever talk to?

Lutz: Hummmmm 0.

Again, Lutz is 6. Most 6 years old still believe in Santa Claus, it's super easy making them believe anything. Hell the fact that magic exist is such an easy escape. "Oh some shooting start pass by and magic magic magic I had a bunch of knowledge I never had before". What is he going to do, call her out on something he literally doesn't know.
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