Ascendance of a Bookworm, also known as Honzuki no Gekokujou, is an anime series by Ajia-Do and is based off the Japanese light novel Miya Kazuki and illustrated by You Shiina. The story was initially serialized online from September 2013 to March 2017 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shousetsuka ni Narou. The Japanese light novels were later licensed and published by TO Books, and the official English translation is licensed and published by J-Novel Club. The series received an anime adaptation in 2019 and 2020, with the third season airing in 2022.
So it’s been a while since I’ve felt compelled to binge-watch the first two seasons of a series and then need to suffer the weekly wait on the release of episodes one by one of the third season. I saw the third season just as it had been released and started watching the first season in order to catch up so I could watch the newest season without being entirely out of sorts, needless to say, it wasn’t long before I was completely hooked and couldn’t stop myself from binge watching all the episodes available.
As a reader and book lover, the main character in this anime, Myne, was super relatable. She’s reincarnated into a world, after an accidental death caused by books, with very few books that are only available to the noble class with money. Myne loves books so much that she decides that her new life mission would be to create books for herself and make books more accessible to those around her that are part of the lower class, the catch is that the body she’s born into has a rare condition where her magical power is too much for her body which causes her to be frail and sickly and her knowledge from the world she had come from as well as her overwhelming amount of magic, poses a threat through the noble society who would want her magic for themselves as well as her knowledge from her home world such as the recipes and methods for making things which the isekai world has not yet discovered. At the same time, she is at the mercy of these nobles as only they have the resources that can help with her condition and keep her magic from consuming her.
The narrative for these three seasons packs a lot and the light novel series is still ongoing which makes me hopeful of a fourth season. I’d say this is hands down one of my favorite animes. The story follows Myne who despite her condition and practically being an adult who has been reborn with all her knowledge and memories into the body of a child, still manages to show growth as she’s met with various obstacles in achieving her goals and following the goals she’s set for herself of what she wants to do differently from her past life. She’s faced with various challenges and promoted by the head priest who’s a really tough love kind of guy and through these lessons also matures especially with regards to self-restraint and decision-making. Myne is a likable character who is thoughtful when prompted, but mostly impulsive and quick to jump to action. She learns to approach matters more patiently and with a plan supported by her friend Lutz, and a couple of adults in the new world whom she allies herself with.
The story is well-paced, and each ending of an episode has you anticipating the next one. The story is well written and watching this series is time well spent. It’s certainly a candidate for a rewatch and would still be just as entertaining the second and third-time around which for me is an obvious indicator of a good anime.
