Ascendance of a Bookworm - General Discussion

LurkingMcLurk

On the new volume (Part 5 Volume 3) there is a little sleeve on it which mentions the series exceeding 3.5 million sales. For reference there was also a sleeve on Part 5 Volume 1 (March 2020) announcing it exceeded 3 million sales and one on Part 4 Volume 8 (September 2019) about it exceeding 2 million sales.

LurkingMcLurk

Spanish version of the Part 1 manga.
https://twitter.com/manganimelist/status/1299469603328983047?s=21

hopebestman

I was thinking about Myne's temple life. Delia become spy because smart ass Ferdinand made a bad job dealing with old HB.

Why did he such a bad job that caused some future major problems. I think Ferdinand would able to find a smart way to hide the info. Am i wrong about that?

pcj

@hopebestman yes. The HB outranks the HP in the temple, and the HB had political backing from the archduke's mother. There was only so much he could do. Ferdinand and Myne did successfully withhold a lot of information from Delia because they knew she was a spy.

hopebestman

@pcj im not talking about outranking. When Ferdinand talking with HB, he showed close interest with Myne as putting spy himself and stuff. So HB thought there could be a reason "Ferdinand put a spy to that commoner brat" and he put a spy as well. I wondering that, were there any better way Ferdinand could take.

pcj

@hopebestman I guess I'm not really following what you're suggesting. I'm guessing maybe English isn't your first language and something's getting lost in translation by the feel of it.

MasterLillyclaw

@pcj I think they’re suggesting that it was Ferdie saying “I shall use one of my attendants as a spy” that gave HB the same idea, and they’re wondering if there was a way to avoid the HB adding a spy (since we know a spy ain’t good).

The issue, @hopebestman, is that Ferdie wouldn’t be able to hide loaning/giving an attendant to Myne, as HB would either recognize them tending to Myne or notice the gap in Ferdie’s crew. Ferdie wasn’t about to not give an attendant, so he needed to report it somehow. As he couldn’t straightforwardly admit that he was doing it to try to help her out (well, mostly, there was some spying too lol), spying is the best justification he can give that HB would accept.

Both Ferdie and HB giving Myne an attendant is a better outcome than Ferdie not, as HB could still end up deciding to add a spy anyways.

hopebestman

@MasterLillyclaw I see. Although, i still think Ferdie could find a way, your argument is still fair. Also thanks for the help for my lack of communication skills :D

alfonso_rd_36

@LurkingMcLurk said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - General Discussion:

Spanish version of the Part 1 manga.
https://twitter.com/manganimelist/status/1299469603328983047?s=21

EWWW! It'0s Spain's Spanish....!

Fan Scanlations are usually better...

@MasterLillyclaw said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - General Discussion:

@pcj I think they’re suggesting that it was Ferdie saying “I shall use one of my attendants as a spy” that gave HB the same idea, and they’re wondering if there was a way to avoid the HB adding a spy (since we know a spy ain’t good).

The issue, @hopebestman, is that Ferdie wouldn’t be able to hide loaning/giving an attendant to Myne, as HB would either recognize them tending to Myne or notice the gap in Ferdie’s crew. Ferdie wasn’t about to not give an attendant, so he needed to report it somehow. As he couldn’t straightforwardly admit that he was doing it to try to help her out (well, mostly, there was some spying too lol), spying is the best justification he can give that HB would accept.

Both Ferdie and HB giving Myne an attendant is a better outcome than Ferdie not, as HB could still end up deciding to add a spy anyways.

Pretty much,. I'd say Ferds found the girl so odd that he decided to use one of his trusted pets to take care of her, so the pet would report the weird things that the shumil might do and be better prepared to put a halt to it before it damaged the temple and the Duchy...

Afterward, Good old POS saw Ferds, someone that he begrudgingly admitted to being superior to himself did put Fran, one of his most trusted pets in service of the "commoner brat", which made him realize after Ferds himself had to spell it out to him, that maybe having a spy on the commoner brat. Of course, he decided to send one of the many supplicants of him instead of someone competent...

hopebestman

Karstedt couldn’t help but grin at how clear their reverence for the man was; only a few nobles still admired Ferdinand after he had been sent to the temple

First time i read this when it was pre-pub and stuff, I thought Ferdinand "still" had a difficult life. I know that we are living "after Veronica" period but still when i read the Part 3's volumes, Ferdinand seems to me like member of the Beatles. All the women preparing to drop their panties while he is walking normally. Even Paul got easy compare to Ferdinand.

hiroto

A random video popped up in my youtube search.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl6K2WwhwHE

I hope somebody do this with a red-panda.

hopebestman

TL:DR well i dont think that would be necessary for this forum?

As a boy, when i read a fantasy book, i imagine im the mc in that story. That doesnt change for this story as well. However, in this book, mc is a girl. So for the sake of the context, i am changing the genders of the main characters.

Gunter, Effa, Tuuli, could stay as they are, and like Lutz's family as well.

But

Myne, Benno, Mark, Corrina, Lutz, Otto, Ferdinand, Wilfread, gone and gone. As for the name and character traits, how would you change these characters?

Lutz, name couldnt find but as character "she" grow up with 3 big brothers and strong silent father. So she is kind a tomboy and good with her hands. She doesnt want to marry like other girls so she doesnt know to sew or other girly stuff(except cooking). And because Myne name will change as my name :D, because he is so weak, small and sickly. She is taking care of him and after he tought nice recipes and helped for being merchant she become loyal also depends on the future volumes, romance could be a thing. (not a fan of Lutz x Myne tho)

Benno, Corrina and Otto needs to go :D As for now i will use their original names plus swap genders.

Gilberta Company created from a strong female with sharp mind. Good with tricks, schemes and stuff so she were successful merchant. Father tho, grow up with all females with no dad. So he learn many womanly things like sewing, cooking etc so that they become really good couple. As for tradition, women from Gilbertas, rule the company and men do the work. Otto grow up as traveling merchant. So she is little tomboyish with dealing with bandits and stuff while traveling. When she got enough money bla bla bla, same as man otto. Because she is tomboyish and stuff, she find a job as guard like Brigitte.

As for Benno well i think she would act little more motherly to Myne but orijinal is treating fair enough.

Nobels kind a problematic tho. So i changed the story as women have much more authority than men. Queens higher than Kings, Duchess>Dukes and stuff. Still mana is important but ruling is women's job and men do the errands :D Also in original woman more important for the high mana baby. So for the story sake.

Similar amount mana is important, Low mana male cause problems for the high mana female when the birth starts. Child could be sick and other magical problems. However women have usually have high mana from birth but high mana male are rare in nobel society. So when Ferdinand found male devoring child with really high mana, "she" took him and started teaching nobel stuff the moment he become blue robe.

Freida should be fine i think, it would help for romance and stuff.

As for grey robes, i think they should stay normal as well. Their stories should be change a little like Delia send as spy but not for same as girl could be trusted but she could seduce the commoner brat. Fran has PTSD from former mistress and Ferdie showed kindness to him and stuff. Wilma would be a problem but who cares. She is a saint she could adjust quickly to other saints :D

Sylvester, Wilfread and other nobels has to change but they are not that important.

PS: Still didnt decide about Mark. Because one part of me is ok Benno X Mark but one part of me not. And if Benno would be a woman, Mark would be marry to the family in the future when things slow down(yeah they will slowwwwww down in "near" future)

what do you think? any advise about characters, names and stuff?

Zehd

I just finished watching a recent episode of Nova: season 47, episode 12, 9/30/2020: A to Z: How Writing Changed the World.
I think this episode has a LOT in it of interest to Bookworm fans, from papyrus to the printing press.

SomeOldGuy

@Zehd You should have at least linked to the show... :)

carolinefelicity

Thanks for sharing that fascinating episode of Nova. I never realized Myne’s name (Main in other translations) probably came from the town in which Gutenberg lived (Mainz)

MasterLillyclaw

I had an open tab on Etsy of the most adorable 6-set of acrylic keychain charms (Myne, Lutz, Tuuli, Freida, Benno, Ferdie) for ages. Refreshed some tabs today and suddenly it seems the store has been shut down D:

If anyone knows what I'm talking about, was that merch available somewhere else? I hadn't looked into it that much, I was just keeping the tab open to remind me of a possible splurge self-gift once I got a job, so I don't even know if it was official merch being resold or something handmade.. It was super cute, I was really hoping to get some nice Bookworm merch (that isn't as steep a price as the tea set lol).

LurkingMcLurk

@carolinefelicity said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - General Discussion:

Thanks for sharing that fascinating episode of Nova. I never realized Myne’s name (Main in other translations) probably came from the town in which Gutenberg lived (Mainz)

The author has spelt out how she came out with マイン and the city of Mainz was not mentioned.
Read this: https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/2140/ascendance-of-a-bookworm-anime-discussion/132?_=1603090237327

Ingraman

@MasterLillyclaw said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - General Discussion:

If anyone knows what I'm talking about, was that merch available somewhere else?

I have purchased merchandise for other series from amiami.com in the past, but when I just did a search for “bookworm”, it looked like most (if not all) of the results came back with an “order closed” result. Maybe stuff is still floating around out there (Mandarake or Yahoo Japan maybe?), but AmiAmi can’t get more of it.

That search also turned up three or four results for merchandise from the ‘60s live-action Adam West Batman tv series. I didn’t know that there was a character named Bookworm in that show. ^^;

MasterLillyclaw

@Ingraman It's "order closed," but that website did have it! And there was apparently a second set that's closed too gosh...

Mandarake struck out, although the first set appears to be currently sold on a site called AliExpress, not that I've ever heard of it.

hiroto

TO Books now claims the accumulated sales figure of 4 million copies for the bookworm series. Here is the historical sales numbers:

06/2016 - P2 V4 - 150K
09/2017 - P3 V4 - 400K
11/2017 - P3 V5 - 500K
04/2018 - P4 V2 - 650K
09/2018 - P4 V4 - 750K
03/2019 - P4 V6 - 1M
06/2019 - P4 V7 - 1.2M
09/2019 - P4 V8 - 2M
02/2020 - P4 V9 - 3M
06/2020 - P5 V2 - 3.5M
11/2020 - P5 V3 - 4M

EDIT: 4 million number would make the series scrape the bottom of the top 50 list light novels by series sales number, where top ranking are in 20~30 million copies.