Alright, today's the release of Season 2 Episode 1! We've got a new opening sequence, to start things off! Though all the references I spotted were to stuff in Volume 3...

(Including one shot of things Maomao holds throughout the season... which includes a frog for some reason...)

As I recall, the announcement is that its a two cour adaptation again, so I assume this opening is just for the first cour and the second will cover Vol 4.

Anyway, here we go! Episode 25: Maomao and Maomao!

Gyokuyou: "Looking for something?"
Jinshi: "No, I wasn't trying to get her to look at me as though I was an insect again!"

Maomao, looking at Gaoshun: That's what he noticed? I thought maybe he was a closet pervert.
Maomao, looking at Jinshi: ...Like this one is...

Maomao, please don't bring up manure when Xiaolan's eating...

It feels so weird seeing Maomao be affectionate to someone. Can't say Xiaolan's a bad pick, though!

Xiaolan: "Are these commonly used words?"
Well, for Maomao they are!

Hongniang: "Lady Gyokuyou, no! She'll teach the princess all sorts of nasty things."
Maomao: Puts on a 'busted' face and doesn't even bother trying to deny it.

And we also get to meet the other Maomao! And a mysterious nameless woman who totally won't be showing up again later...

Maomao: accidentally describes every way in which she is similar to a cat
Jinshi: "I'm starting to see [the appeal of cats], too."

Aw, how cute, Maomao brought Maomao her catch as a present!

So, the progress report! We've covered Books and The Cat this episode, with a line or two of The Caravan as the teaser for next week. We skipped over the Prologue - I assume it'll come up closer to when its used. I'm guessing somewhere around the middle of the season.

@Lily-Garden The manga is definitely easier to follow than the LN. I also enjoyed the anime (season 1), and I'm looking forward to season 2.

@Ingraman said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:

TO Books announced on Thursday that the new anime from Wit Studio of Miya Kazuki's Ascendance of a Bookworm (Honzuki no Gekokujō - Shisho ni Naru Tame niwa Shudan o Erandeiramasen) "biblia fantasy" light novel series, adapting Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, will premiere in 2026. TO Books also revealed the new anime's television series format. Along with the announcement, the light novels' third volume of short story collection (featured in posted image below) will release on December 10.

Considering how many volumes part 3 has, hopefully the series format has a bunch more episodes. 8-)

Now Allen can grind even more.

@Jon-Mitchell Even more importantly, times change. Some of what worked in the 80s and 90s isn't really working with today's audiences. Public sentiment is ever evolving, and media needs to keep up with that evolution to remain relevant and profitable.

@HarmlessDave cool

Season 2 apparently started streaming on Crunchyroll last week though I didn't notice.

The first episode was a partial rehash of the last episode of Season 1, but from Miharu, Aki, and Masato's perspectives.

It's kind of interesting how they handled Miharu and the others while Celia was present... in a wedding dress. I assume that topic came up in one of the many skipped conversations, but it was otherwise not explained or acknowledged at all.

I imagine the conversation must've gone something like this:

"Celia is wearing a rely pretty outfit."
"It's my wedding dress."
"Right, I abducted Celia from her wedding and she hasn't been able to change her clothes yet."
"I see. That's understandable."
"Well, she didn't want to get married and wanted to run away so I helped."
Celia making eyes at Rio.
"I see. That's understandable."

As for episode two, it's got Hiroaki's introduction and, as titled, a combined shopping trip, with the mandatory fashion show montage, rather than having essentially two identical shopping trip sequences like the LN.

I wonder if they're planning on keeping the audible representation of the translation magic. It's quiet background track, but I'm finding it somewhat distracting. OTOH:

Random aside:

Hiroaki apparently had a poster with the Volume 1 cover of The Hero and the Sage, Reincarnated and Engaged in his room before getting transported. The poses the characters had looked familiar so I had to go and check. I was initially thinking it was just an inspiration, but was surprised that it was the same image. I guess it helps that they both have the same publisher.

Season 2 now green-lit. Teaser trailer here. Well, sort of, looks like that's almost all from S1.

Volume 9 essentially covers the festival. Just under half way through the 19 published volumes.

@NakamiJun That's people being people. If we're looking for a reason to see others as less than ourselves (jealousy or psychopathy or paranoia, etc) we'll find one. Whether that's streamers saying vtubers aren't real compared to them, or reality TV stars saying they're more real than streamers, or script actors>reality actors, stage>TV, on and on, until we get "Go two blocks over and those folks are strange!"

FWIW there's the Guy Debord idea that any media personality is a spectacle for real life. As soon as you make someone's image into a painting, or have them read the weather in front of the camera, or read about a fragment of their life in a tabloid, they're reduced to a representation of their self that is other/a smaller fragment than their material self.

You're right that "indie" is more free than "corporate," of course. You control more of the means of production, can decide to keep doing it if it's not profitable, etc. It's why indie art/entertainment generally takes more risks, and IMO is more interesting.

@Lily-Garden

The anime probably won't get that far though.

@HarmlessDave well at the worst it will make a cracking drinking game, take a drink everytime he thinks he's to old or that he's weak and lacks talent.

If they don't fix it at least a little you would be hammered 5 minutes into every episode.

@Seandrake said in Anime: A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring:

It's so horribly generic even for a LN adaptation that the term generic does not do it justice.

Still a better love story than twilight isekai than Isekai Tensei :)

It is indeed 100% generic but I do think slime A and slime B and the other pets are cute.

Well, we have our first trailer for it: https://youtu.be/4apF6kwl4hk?si=kzYoluEsPlQD3swW

So far so good... comes out in 2025 it seems

This is one of my favorite shows this season. This is one of the rare times I do not mind Kugimiya Rie's voice. Which is strange because I loved Shakugan no Shana.

I am really enjoying Arai Satomi as Phufun