Forum - View topic

EP. REVIEW: Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke

I'm torn between "Urano has a lower probability of knowing this because she's Japanese which doesn't have a huge cultural penetration for Christianity" versus "Urano DEFINITELY read that because she absolutely read the Bible because she reads everything".

Yeah, I think option 2 sounds the most legit here.

Panino Manino wrote:

#9 <snip>

Agreed with all of this. Now I wonder how much of the nerfing of the character emotions has been there all along or if it's only a problem with this season.

For previous seasons, I hadn't read the novels yet. For this season, I'm ahead a little bit and am seeing a ton of flaws. It's like Rozemyne can't get angry, even though she gets plenty angry in the novels (especially in this episode). And that Ferdinand is always calm and collected but firm, even though he has other emotions too. But also, he's violent in the anime??? At least, I do not recall a scene in the novel where Ferdinand tied Wilfried to a chair. Or threatened to crush Lamprecht. Unless that was in the extra chapter; I haven't read that yet.

Ep 9: That scene was also sufficient to show me that Sylvester's mother is a potential problem spot.

9:
This week Wilfried got quite the harsh lesson. He needed it though since he still has a future ahead of him now, if he had continued as is he would not have had a great one (or one at all). Not being able to read or write while you see the children in the orphanage do so must be a severe blow.

I wanted to say "was", but...
She ruled the Duchy, until that trap at the Temple finally put her in jail.
Now that Sylvester is finally ruling his Duchy he has to deal with the lasting consequences of all the ills her mother did.

Panino Manino wrote:

I wanted to say "was", but... She ruled the Duchy, until that trap at the Temple finally put her in jail. Now that Sylvester is finally ruling his Duchy he has to deal with the lasting consequences of all the ills her mother did.

This is is interesting. Is this something that was brought up in the novels to this point that the anime has skipped over?

There's much more court drama in this story than in Apothecary Diaries.

Panino Manino wrote:

There's much more court drama in this story than in Apothecary Diaries.

Hmmm. I'm guessing we haven't really seen more than the barest hints of that yet because we're still mostly operating with Myne's perspective on things, and she hasn't really been formally introduced to that aspect yet. Something to look forward to as the story progresses.

Azure Chrysanthemum wrote:

I've always found the "He who does not work does not eat" saying and expression Myne uses as her putting words and voice to a truism of the world... I'm torn between "Urano has a lower probability of knowing this because she's Japanese which doesn't have a huge cultural penetration for Christianity" versus "Urano DEFINITELY read that because she absolutely read the Bible because she reads everything"...

It's not that I think Myne would have read the Bible but I wanted to point out it's not original with her and where it came from. It is an example of how Christian teaching has spread through many societies that haven't wholesale adopted the beliefs or consider themselves "Christian". Japan has had a long exposure to Christianity starting in 1549, by 1637 at least 0.3% of the population professed affiliation rising to about 1% today. One million Christians are enough to make sayings and some core beliefs to become known.

While Ep9 here might seem like a "side story", there were a lot more character moments than we've had of late. I especially thought it was interesting that Ferdinand's eyes shown with rainbow hues like Myne's did when she was "out of control" which reinforces a thought that he is "unemotional" not from nature but by force of will to keep his very strong emotions in check. Some complain this episode that he should be more emotionally demonstrative given the context, but I'd point to this characteristic that his emotions are in his choice of words and phrasing. When he reminds Sylvester what was said to him by the Aub's mother and that he was younger than Wilfried at the time, he made a very emotion laden point without raising his voice...

The reviewer severely underestimates the writing of this series. There is a reason for everything. We focus on Wilfried because we need to.

I've always found the "He who does not work does not eat" saying and expression Myne uses as her putting words and voice to a truism of the world that was politely swept under the rug.

A Non wrote:

The reviewer severely underestimates the writing of this series. There is a reason for everything. We focus on Wilfried because we need to.

If this is code for "there's a payoff in the novels," that's irrelevant to the anime. As an episodic review, you can't assume 1) there will be a payoff at all, or 2) the payoff will be satisfying. You can only judge the episode presented in front of you, which the reviewer still thought was pretty okay.