Ascendance of a Bookworm

Crua9 Nov 10, 2019

9

Who is this show for? This show is for someone who isn't looking for action moments, someone who wants to relax, and someone who wants to learn about books. The overall story is of some girl who loves books, but is sent to a medieval world upon dying. Due to the time, only nobles have books and only a few can read. She is a sick girl, so this forces the story to not put too much in front of the viewer in 1 sitting. Over time, the main girl brings minor technology to the new world like shampoo. And the show uses this to build itself on. Anyways, the reason why I marked story much lower than all the others is due to the show being so slow. I actually don't have a problem with it because it is relaxing. But, I wouldn't recommend this show for the story if it came down to it. I would however recommend it due to the slice of life aspects and seeing how she overcomes problems.

WolfgangHype Dec 15, 2020

4

I'm writing this after watching 8 episodes. Not sure if I'll continue. This show is very tonally weird to me. When I watch it I feel a tension in the background that keeps it from feeling chill or relaxing as others have described it. Maybe that's because I'm not familiar with the source material but I'll try to explain. The college girl stuffed into a kid body variety of isekai is just a really weird take on the genre for me. This show at least tries to address the fact that she just wakes up in another person's body, but acknowleding it just adds to the clashing tones. This is exacerbated by the fact that she has the super-obsession with books that drives her to behave in a way that really should tip people off. Honestly, I found the obsession angle more compelling in the LN about being reincarnated as a vending machine. Between her character constantly doing things to raise suspicion, the fact that she took over this kid's body, and the new body's mysterious illness there's a thread of tension that just clashes with the attempts at being cute or silly. The world itself also lends itself to a more subdued tone- her new family is fairly poor and the world seems to be trying to go for a realistic medieval setting. We see hints at magic in the beginning but beyond weird plants we don't really see anything magical for a while. I think this along with the tension I mentioned before makes it more jarring with the chibi Main shows up to start giving exposition or explain what she's thinking in an upbeat way. I also don't know what to think about the characters as I keep expecting them to figure out something is weird with Main and I don't know how they will react. Every thoughtful expression at Main's antics just winds that spring tighter. Looking at other people talk about this it seems like I should be expecting something heartwarming, but watching it myself it just feels like there's these underlying themes that have been lying around and I'm not sure if there's going to any payoff. It's like walking barefoot on a carpet, but you know some pins have been dropped in it and you don't know where they are.

MustangMan Jan 3, 2020

8

I really didn't think I would like this Isekai at all...  However its a very heart warming twist on the genre.  I have only watched the first 5 episodes and am already hooked.  As the previews show the girl likes books, gets squashed by books, Dies under avalanche of books.... Awakes in a society where books are rare and expensive.  So far its all hinged on the premise that she either wants a book or wants to make one if she cant buy one.  Seems like a little romance might be brewing as well :)  I'm looking forward to the rest of season one just as soon as the dubs are released (weekly). 3/7/2020 I have watched all of season 1 now.  I do have to say that I found some parts slow, but entertaining non the less.  I will be watching the second season which has been cleared for dub as well.