Review - Ascendance of a Bookwork (Episode One)

Before the fall season began, there were a number of shows I read the manga sources and wrote a blog piece giving what I thought would be great shows to watch this fall, however there were inevitably a few that slipped through the net and I didn't hear about, one of them being Ascendance of a Bookworm.

I wasn't going to make a post about this show at first after the first episode aired, but I felt like I had to after watching it. Ascendance of a Bookworm is a rare form of isekai that doesn't follow the basic "rules" that most abide by. The protagonist isn't completely overpowered or pathetically weak, there's no magic, no half animal/half human characters and nothing about heroes that have to save the world.

It's a refreshing change from the norm that in the storm of new isekai that are more or less the same thing coming out every season to have something completely new and original. Don't get me wring, I still love the token isekais and I always watch at least one per season, but it just felt so nice to have a change of things for once.

The story follows a young woman who adores books and had just landed her dream job as a librarian. Unfortunately, however during an earthquake a massive pile of he own books fall and crush her to death. She is reborn as a young child called Myne (flashback to Rising of the Shield Hero from earlier this year) in a world very similar to the European middle ages. She is born into a regular family in a town with a normal life for that period. However, there is one problem with her new life, there are no books! Due to this world being akin to the middle ages, before the printing press was invented and books became mainstream, each book had to be copied out by hand, meaning that they are too expensive to afford, even for some nobles. The first episode ends with Myne very disheartened after finding this out, and her deciding that if she can't buy books in this world, she'll just have to make them for herself!

The entire first episode had me gripped and I can't wait for the second. In my opinion this has to be one of the best shows released this fall ad I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone!

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Hi there,

MHAM here! Thanks for reading my post, be sure to check out some of the awesome anime-related products on TheAnimeSupply's website