Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke
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Panino Manino
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#10
Still watching the episode but already enough for what I wanted to discuss. All these cuts aren't giving proper thinking to what they are doing to the tone and flow. Myne's Health Checkup was finally mentioned, but barely explained anything. The Health Checkup should had happened in the first episode! After the traumatic end of preview season, with Myne trying to be strong and still not knowing who she could trust in Noble Society, there's this added stress to the situation. Myne was a "sick street mutt", no way they'd allow that filthy thing inside the Palace, inside the Archduke's Family Chambers, right?!! Not only that, Noble Society doesn't allow weakness, so they need to know exactly how sick she really is and hide everything from others, they need to pretend she is healthy. Myne contact with others is always limited and controlled for at least this reason. And how sick she is, actually? Previously Ferdinand had hinted that it didn't made sense for Myne to faint so much just because she had the Devouring, specially after she entered the Temple and started draining her Mana. During the Health Checkup, besides the stress of Ferdinand trying to undress her by force and Karstedt being an useless father figure, Myne is reminded that she died. For her is not a surprise, it just makes sense, but Ferdinand and Karstedt gets horrified. This unfortunate reality is something that makes the two admire her, in the case of Ferdinand admire her more, because it's a shown of how strong she is mentally. Anyway, Nobles are "Fey Humans", meaning that when they die they become Feystones. They have a "Mana Organ" that produces Mana, and that Mana in their bodies returns to their Mana Organ and makes it solidify after that and is all that's is left from them. When a person gets seriously hurt or ill and close to death but recovers, the process may start and leave a bit of hardened mana inside the body. This is what Myne's disease is, is not that she has/had Devouring, is that she entered a stated of death that hardened Mana inside her body. Multiple times. Because of these clumps inside her body, Mana (and other things) don't flow properly, leaving her body physically weak and in order to not die suddenly it shuts down automatically to protect itself. That is the actual truth that must be hidden, you can't have a child of the Archduke be a half-dead person. Plus, may encourage direct assassination attempts if people knew you can kill her just by jumping from behind and screaming "boo!" The Jureve was half explained. EVERY NOBLE have a Jureve ready at home, and knights carry with them vials of Jureve to drink when hurt during battle. Is a healing potion that can dissolve hardened Mana. The problem is that the person must collect the ingredients by himself, because they need to be dyed with their own Mana with no contamination (exception is a family using their Jureve between them because of their Mana similarity, but only for emergencies). And because of how much hardened Mana Myne has inside of her and her Omni-Elemental strong Mana she needs the highest quality ingredients. She needs ingredients from the Four Seasons to be collected during the day the Season Element is strongest, meaning it'll take not only a whole year for her Jureve to be made but also they'll have a single attempt to collect the ingredient per Season. For a whole year they need to hide how sick she is, and them come up with an excuse for her to sleep for a Season while she bathes in her Jureve. There's TOO MUCH STRESS involved in all this and the anime is making light of everything. EDIT: Finished the episode and again the attention to detail could be better. For the knights, materializing their armor and weapons takes Mana. Doing an attacked takes Mana. That's why isn't recommend for Laynobles to be Knights, or at least they will be limited as support. That's why Damuel attacks were not killing the beasts with a single hit and why he was tired early. His Mana is very limited in comparison with Brigite (a Mednoble) and Eckhart (an Archnoble from Archduke Branch Family). And that is also why it's a lapse in attention to detail to show Brigitte and Eckhart equality as tired. There's also Mana Potions to recover during battle that was omitted. Other lapse in detail probably caused by this cheaper than it looks production is that the Big Beast stayed close to the tree instead of following the group. Myne needed to use Schuzaria's Shield to hold him to prevent the beast from causing damage to crops and houses. There's no necessity to do this if the Big Beast stays in place. |
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Rogueywon
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On the reverb issue in the review - it threw me as well, but I think it's supposed to indicate that they're using a sound-blocking magic tool.
They've definitely popped up in the show before without that odd reverb, but I'm not sure whether they've done so in this season. |
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Panino Manino
Posts: 853 |
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There are two types of sound-blocking. One where you have to make direct contact with a magical tool and other that affects an area. In that scene they were using an area affect type. |
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jagerlach
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They are 100% holding sound blockers. The yellow magic tool that Ferdinand put on the table at the 2:56 mark are the sound blockers. Each person holds one in their hands so that only those holding them can hear what is being said.
That's why at the 4:30 mark, they are all shown having one hand on the table. That's when the "tinny" effect comes in. And since they are discussing such a sensitive issue, it makes sense why they wouldn't want to risk being overheard. So no, there were no technical issues. They actually trusted the audience to understand what was happening, which I find refreshing. |
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Troyen
Posts: 81 |
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Yeah, that's not the first time they used the sound blockers. Ferdinand had brought them out for some private conversations with Myne a couple times in previous seasons when they were tiptoeing around the high priest.
Of course, I only started watching the show earlier this year, so I didn't have a multi-year gap to forget about them, and I don't think season 3 has employed them otherwise so far. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
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As an engineer myself, S4Ep11 was very relatable but seems unlikely that the principle of leverage wouldn't have been known. Maybe called something else, but people discover principles of physics/engineering in the process of doing things or solving minor problems and use them every day. The way Zach intuitively knew what the diagram implied made me think he already knew the principle in concept, but if not he understood it based on his practical experiences. Just like an engineer or physicist!
And not to put Johann down, he is just knowledgeable in a different discipline, material science. Really, how those two interact I wish people at my place would learn to do, find what you are best at, learn others are better at some things than you and rather than try to "eliminate" them as a threat, work together with them to make something better. Ingo also has the right idea, understand what is needed to make a device and put those who understand best how to do what's required together regardless of "political" associations... |
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jagerlach
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In the light novels, the problem is that Rozemyne only knows the Japanese words. So she has to convey the concept without the requisite vocabulary. Once they figure out what she's talking about, they pick it up pretty quickly. It's hard to convey that in anime form. In the novels, whenever she uses Japanese, the text is in brackets and no one knows what the heck she just said. |
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Panino Manino
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Yes, names are different, so she needs to find a way to explain things they already know. But is not just that, there is a lot of "common" knowledge and tech that are missing in this world, because there's no spread of information and magic gets in the way of development. This whole Gutenberg Plot ended uninteresting in the anime. This whole plot was author's take on "what changes would Myne bring to that world". She introduced/forced the idea of different specializations working together, collaborative development, immaterial work and intelectual property. Ingo's and Zack's drama is that the world only sees the physical work an artisan produces with his own hands. Ingo sharing works means that the work isn't his and he loses credit to receive authorization to start his own workshop, while Zack's ideas are invisible. Many of these problems end beign solved by Myne with the Hand Pumps. Each Pump that is sold comes with Myne and Zack names engraved on it, so everyone knows, and the blueprints can be purchased with the two receiving royalties for each Pump made and sold by others. His is HUGE, this changes the market (besides making the two rich). Oh, and there's also the bit that Ingo lost his mind because he couldn't take Myne's strangeness. He was hired to "create" something new, but everyone talked like they wanted to create something that someone had already created and knew how to make. None of the intermediaries knew how to explain how to make the machine, so he demanded to talk directly with the creator. Anyway, this was an important episode, it showing lot of relevant developments. Ferdinand praising Fran... yes, that is something that he wouldn't do before. Expressing himself like that is Myne's influence, as is the changes that are happening in the Temple. Individuality is being considered, which increases the quality of work. That scene with Sylvester's being refused (those Chalices were for the neighboring Duchy), he can do the work but is very lazy most of the time and have no idea how much others are working. He still don't understand how busy Ferdinand is. Refusing Sylvester means that he'll have to put more effort into his work, and other's will have to work more to keep up with him, affecting the whole Duchy, and Ferdinand will have more free time to his own work. Ferdinand training successors means that the Blue Robes will stop becoming a dead weight. Overall, this as the one of the most important episodes in this whole series. The "inciting incident" for most of future events happens here. |
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Covnam
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I'm surprised Myne could just refuse Sylvester like that.
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MagicianMan
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I think it's because it's bad form on Sylvester's part for accepting the chalices in the first place, and he knows it. It's kind of the duchy equivalent of getting bullied for your lunch money. Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, Ehrenfest's nobility has not been in particularly good shape relative to the country as a whole. It's getting time for them to start learning how to hold their own against their neighbors a bit better. |
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blahmoomoo
 SubscriberPosts: 587 |
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In the novel, Myne convinced Ferdinand that it's ok to say no. Then he was the one who refused Sylvester, basically telling him that if he's going to do something like that, he should be responsible for it (like using his own mana to fill them). I find that far more satisfying and a more realistic way to adjust Ferdinand's do everything himself mindset. It was also before the festival started, so it didn't look like it could have been as easy as filling up the chalices with mana on the spot as seen in the anime. |
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Covnam
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That would have made far more sense |
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Panino Manino
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Forgot to ask.
Anime gets the impression that the few scenes with character animation, specially when the arms and hands move, is using AI or something? There's something "strange" with this animation. |
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Panino Manino
Posts: 853 |
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12
This episode wasn't bad. Was it because this one was slower? A not bad episode can't make an anime good, but it was good to see so many familiar faces in the background! I hate this new season by can't wait to see them! Just complementary information. The Debut Performances: They barely showed Wilfred's performance, so it's impossible to know from the anime how variable quality is. There's a huge gap in quality because access to good music teachers is expensive, and some times the Laynobles don't even have enough money for their instruments. Philine's performance was sad... Also, Myne's Performance and Legend... more than two times reading the LN I as thinking, "was I fooled into reading a Hagiography?" Myne may not like being called a "Saint", but her story is writing like it's telling the hardships and triumphs of an actual Saint. About becoming a Librarian: Myne can very well use her fortune to own her own library, she doesn't need to be a Librarian to have access to books anymore. But if she could chose a profession, Librarian is what she wants to be. The problem is that children of Archdukes have their own exclusive and SECRETIVE Course at the Academy. The Archduke job requires a LOT of Mana and exclusive knowledge and spells. Those are taught for children of Archdukes only by other children of Archdukes that took the course before. That is Myne MANDATORY Course in the Academy, she is required to take that Course. Nothing prevents her from takes the other three Courses available, Scholar, Kinght and Attendant, but does she have the time and stamina? Karstedt and Elvira getting well: Until a few years ago Karstedt Household was HELL and Elvira had to do a lot of "ugly" things to keep their House alive. I say this again, Karstedt isn't "manly" at all, big disappointment, he would be nothing without Elvira. And as their marriage was as 90% of marriages in that society purely political, they only endured each other. Myne's presence starts to change that and it's only of the best subplots in the entire series. Cornelius and Lamprecht talk about their jobs: They took their jobs under duress. Lamprecht was the fall man to save their lives from Veronica and Cornelius decided to just ruim his own life out of spite. Again, Myne's presence changes everything. Cornelius never wanted to serve anybody, much less and Archduke's children, but he is a responsible job and gets very disappointed every time he fails like this. There's not to this story, by I can't talk about the other half, I'm only mentioning here things I imagine the anime will never go back to show and tell for lack of time, mostly is told in extra chapters out of chronological order. "Let Lady Rosemyne become the next Aub!" The political drama finally becomes visible. As for the Royal Academy, the fact that Myne is adopted is irrelevant. Equally the fact that she is adopted is irrelevant for the faction politics in Ehrenfest. She not being the Archduke and First Wife biological children can be an advantage to some. Veronica's Faction was entirely centered on her and Wilfred was supposed to be her sucessor. Now the Opposite Faction demands a transition for power to them and they have more leverage than Myne's Mana only. Rauffen mentioned: Minute 15, Second 15. Unexpected to see Rauffen being mentioned here. He is a very relevant character for the next Part 4, he is a professor for the Knight's Course and Manager for one of the biggest Duchies. This and the talk about Kardsted and Elvira situation is what we liked to see more from this Season, it's like someone there working at Wit is actually thinking how to adapt this story! Discipline in the Playroom The playroom is a battlefield, where many members of the Faction in power use and abuse their power. That was the state of Ehrenfest Playroom and one of the reasons why is the laughingstock of the whole Kingdom. But now with Wilfred humbled and Myne there it changes this year. Myne starts her Literacy Strategy there. She uses her authority as Archduke Candidate to put order and force the children to participate in educational activities with the goal of creating new clients for her book and printing business. Just to mention in passing... have you already seen the biggest "spoiler" in this series? The one that is so "controversial" that makes people screen and burn the physical books? If you did you man read the comment spoiler: spoiler[that marriage is not a problem at all, most people that thinks they have a problem with it end convinced by it after they read how it happens in the LN. What always annoys me is that there are other "controversial" marriages in this story that no one remembers. The main antagonist is a "victim" of one herself, and among Myne's retinue there are two girls that marry with similar or greater age gaps. Why no one remembers them?!!] |
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Hiroki not Takuya
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I really can't find any faults in the overall writing and structured approach to reveals and am now more impressed at the writer's skill in managing and keeping the audience's interest. I have very rarely been so excited to see what happens in a story in my life and that's not hyperbolic! And saying Wit Studio has shown care in adapting the story I find to be an understatement to say the least. The post-credits have always been a fun "bonus" to the story but this Ep the reveal that Lord Ferdinand had a "triple major" at the academy on top of the reveals of how much more capable he is at about everything, I wonder how he isn't running the place... I believe the adaptation team succeeded well enough at contrasting the levels of ability from Philine to Wilfried and on the latter, they presented just enough to show he (and the seiyu) sang excellently and were more adept playing the harspiel than the rest. I wanted to hear more too! I think I understand Philine and as an instrumentalist and amateur writer myself it strings a little to hear her performance called "sad" but the writer is setting up to show her real talent is likely to be a writer. The line "What stories would you like to tell?" gave me chills for how impactful such a question is, the answer can lead to opportunities that can change your life... Instrumental performance tends to be something you really love or don't and the performance will reveal, sometimes painfully, which it is. What's sad is that she was forced to do something she clearly didn't want to do in front of a crowd, but I suppose the writer had in mind that this was a test to see how debutantes would perform under those circumstances as a window to how they would react to difficult situations in life... "Not Bad" you say, I think this was the best of the season and one of the very best of the whole show. How Rosemyne "snuck" the portraits of Ferdinand into the program for the ladies' tea party was inspired, I got such a "kick" out of that! And how Rosemyne gets the debutantes playing in the otherwise ominous "Playroom" and getting them interested to hear stories from her books was genius. And Giebe's claim that Rosemyne resembles his sister, if true and not a lie designed to force a connection, touches on a thought I've had for a while now. Could her father Gunter be secretly related to nobility? What surprises me is that with all this there seems to be at least another episode before the finale...(?) |
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