Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion
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At the beginning of Ep 20, when everyone is lined up waiting for Georgine, the front row is the ducal family. Then behind them they each have a guard knight --- except for Rozemyne, who has four guard knights. What is with that?
Georgine's departure takes us to the end of P3V4, so the remaining episodes (four?) need to cover all of volume 5. The major plot beats:
40% of the volume is the side stories (although Bonifatius's part in the fight will be merged into the main timeline in the anime). The volume gets four episodes, so this should be almost two episodes of stuff-which-happens-while-Rozemyne-is-asleep. I'm boldly predicting that some of this will get an OAV or two instead. Whether in the main series or an OAV, I particularly don't want to miss out on Myne's family reacting to the news, and Charlotte trying to fill in for Rozemyne.
Episode 22 will probably end with the start of the attack. Episode 23 will be the big action episode, ending at an appropriate cliffhanger point. (There are many options: Rozemyne starts to pursue Charlotte's kidnappers, Charlotte falls, Rozemyne gets webbed, R gets poisoned, Bonifatius extracts R from a bag, R gets diagnosed, R put into Jureve, R starts to wake from jureve dream.) Then episode 24 will cover anything in that list that episode 23 didn't, some of the while-she-was-asleep events, plus her awakening. The interrogation of Joisontak and Gerlach and the conclusion to Daumel/Brigitte in particular I think need to be covered in the main series. I think I'd put everything else into two OAVs, given the chance.
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According to this video, AoaB ranks quite highly for anime this season for all female demographics in Japan, but doesn't make the top 12 for any male demographic. (Complicated by the fact that for some reason teens are not split by sex in the data reporting.) I don't get the impression that for the English speaking audience there is much imbalance either way.
I don't have any useful insights to draw from this.
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@Libri-Liberorum i kind of get it. The emotional, family scenes are all done well. But the scenes with magic or adventure (gathering, high beast training) are really underwhelming and fall short. Don't know if it matches the demographic who read the LNs.
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@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
Then behind them they each have a guard knight --- except for Rozemyne, who has four guard knights. What is with that?
Probably because Rozemyne's guard knights are known designs but not the others' guard knights.
I also found it odd that Georgine has no retainers behind her. Was it explicitly mentioned in the LN? -
And so we have the redo of the Ruelle gathering which was successfull.
We had the included statement that Georgine found the key to the foundation so to speak and the FVF starting to formulate a plan...
We also had the Volk marriage (without Myne's comment on how she would not lower the price considering her education with Benno). We also had the continual of Operation Grimm in Hasse and the cute story Gunther says to Myne about the 3 siblings. Finally we have the RMCM being essentially introduced and Damuel's growth.
And, of course we have the setup (and from the trailer, the actual side story) for Wilfried's marring of reputation. Next week: Charlotte is getting introduced and Wilfried is going to pull something stupid again.
We may or may not get in the Jureve making.
No post story shenanigansSpeaking of which I wonder if Damuel kept that high quality feystone and if he will give it to a certain blond haired and green eye'd scholar in the future...
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@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
Comparing my plot-beat list with this episode:- Visit Hasse, educate Richt about what it means to offer Rozemyne sweet fruits and beautiful flowers, and acquire new orphans.
Unfortunately they didn't explain Richt's terrible mistakes, just that he'd made them, nor did they acquire new orphans.
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Leaving some grey priests to educate Hasse.
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Travelling for harvest festivals.
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Ruelle gathering.
All done.
- Damuel's performance during the gathering alerts people to the power of R's mana compression. Conditions for teaching it are negotiated.
The conditions for teaching aren't covered, but it may well be that this will be done later. The anime has a history of moving set-up closer to the payoff.
- Illgner's harvest festival, the Carya/Volk relationship, and Volk's price.
Done. But it seemed to me that the marriage request came out of nowhere in the anime. It was treated as if it was something we already knew about, but I don't think we did.
Still to come:
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Introduction to Charlotte
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Wilfried attacks
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Response to Wilfried's attack
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Brewing the jureve
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Teaching mana compression
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Charlotte's baptism
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Kidnapping, rescue, poisoning.
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Jureve dream and awakening.
and all the side stories.
I've seen a short preview on youtube. I'd expect such a thing would be for next week's episode (ep 22 of probably 24). But we get an ingredient-gathering-flashback-montage, and events up to Lessy getting lassoed during the attack. That seems insanely much to fit into one episode when I look at how many plot beats have to happen before the attack even starts. Also, this short preview is very heavy on spoilers. If I was anime only, I'd be furiously avoiding these previews.
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There was sadly no end of episode chibi.
Somehow the lower city dream was portrayed as something just Rozemyne was happy about. I didn't see any poignancy to it.
They already reveal that they want to use Wilfried unlike the LN where their scheme was a surprise. I'm any case nice that they included that Gloria PoV SS.
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@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
That seems insanely much to fit into one episode when I look at how many plot beats have to happen before the attack even starts.
My anime-only spouse was noting how unpleasant Bookworm society and politics is. This speedrun thru the story is stripping it of its charms. 8( Why not take the many many volumes of story and commit to adapting it well over time instead of treating it like a chore?
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I'll have to reread the novel to see how it was there, but in the anime:
The white tower is normally unguarded, yet there was a guard there when Wilfried arrived, who gave the useful information that W could enter the tower, and omitted the useful information that doing so was treason. The only explanation I can think of for this is that he was name-bound ordered to be there, because what he did is near certain to get him, and likely his family, executed.The anime doesn't address why Wilfried was able to rush off without any guard knights or retainers. I wasn't entirely convinced by how the novel handled this, but at least it tried.
Although they did show it, I felt they underplayed Wilfried's shock when he realizes he had totally laid himself open to being murdered.
My regular architecture criticism, this time of the White tower: It seems a staple of Ehrenfest architecture to have ridiculously long flights of stairs to reach the front door of any noble building. Maybe it is to ensure everyone gets a regular workout?
A couple of weird scripting choices: They gave us tens of seconds of animation of nobles hunting. Given how compressed everything is, I don't see why this warranted so much screen time. (Incidentally, we see nobles riding horses to hunt. I presume those are real horses? They use real horses for carriages.)
Second weird choice: Rozemyne narrates "then we discussed what to do with Wilfried" followed by watching them discussing what to do with Wilfried. Cutting that narration would have subtracted nothing from the story.
Cutting those two bits would have left us enough extra time for an end-of-episode chibi scene. Perhaps Ferdinand dumping on Rozemyne everything she has to learn in order to baptize Charlotte. It would even have been cheaper: chibi scenes are much easier to animate than galloping horses.
As an aside: How do anime fans in Japan watch anime? The weekly schedule strongly implies that broadcast TV (presumably with ads) still dictates scheduling. Are there also online streaming services? Does being a paid subscriber let you watch ad free?
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And so, the Wilfried Incident happened.
I did like the fact that they weaved in aspects of the Wilfried sidestory into the narrative.
Why is there a guard at the Ivory Tower? My guess is that it's a FVF member sent there to make sure the other kids do not enter the tower (because it was reiterated in the episode that the tower has no guard).It's funny to think that Wilfried never really changed as he still acts like a fool even during Hanner's 5th year (where he went rogue to give his support to Ortwin not knowing that could be interpreted as Ehrenfest supporing Ortwin's side in the Bride Stealing Ditter :p )
@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
As an aside: How do anime fans in Japan watch anime? The weekly schedule strongly implies that broadcast TV (presumably with ads) still dictates scheduling. Are there also online streaming services? Does being a paid subscriber let you watch ad free?
My guess it's on TV in Japan as there where a few times during the season that the episode was pushed back a week because of some priority programming. As to what channel it is on, I have no clue.
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@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
How do anime fans in Japan watch anime? The weekly schedule strongly implies that broadcast TV (presumably with ads) still dictates scheduling. Are there also online streaming services? Does being a paid subscriber let you watch ad free?
For Ascendance of a Bookworm specifically, there are a lot of ways to watch it, depending on how quickly you want to see it, all documented on the anime website.
https://booklove-anime.jp/streaming/
As for streaming specifically, just as it is with other countries, some streaming services have ads, and some streaming services gives you ads depending on your subscription level, and some have no ads at all.
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@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
I'll have to reread the novel to see how it was there, but in the anime:
The white tower is normally unguarded, yet there was a guard there when Wilfried arrived, who gave the useful information that W could enter the tower, and omitted the useful information that doing so was treason. The only explanation I can think of for this is that he was name-bound ordered to be there, because what he did is near certain to get him, and likely his family, executed.There was a man in the LN, to make sure Wilfried would commit a crime. (Just walking to the Tower isn't illegal.) Rozemyne even briefly suspected Bonifatius, before Wilfried pointed out he'd have recognized Boni.
Maybe a devouring soldier in disguise? They did read Wilfried's mind (and punished those who talked the most shit about Sylvester's decision to jail his mom), so if it was a real Ehrenfest noble, they'd have found him. There can't be more than 30 noble men his approximate age. If he didn't disguise his hair and eye color, the suspect pool shrinks even more.
The anime doesn't address why Wilfried was able to rush off without any guard knights or retainers. I wasn't entirely convinced by how the novel handled this, but at least it tried.
Yeah, the heir to Ehrenfest's throne and serial runaway is guarded rather more carelessly than the sick girl you can more or less trust to wait right where you left her as long as you also leave her enough reading material.
Although they did show it, I felt they underplayed Wilfried's shock when he realizes he had totally laid himself open to being murdered.
My regular architecture criticism, this time of the White tower: It seems a staple of Ehrenfest architecture to have ridiculously long flights of stairs to reach the front door of any noble building. Maybe it is to ensure everyone gets a regular workout?
Yes, what they call "the basement" is what Americans call "the first floor". It's where kitchens and servant quarters are. Not really a place for nobles, especially guests, so they need a way to access the first floor directly. Their "first floor" is what the French call the "first floor".
A couple of weird scripting choices: They gave us tens of seconds of animation of nobles hunting. Given how compressed everything is, I don't see why this warranted so much screen time. (Incidentally, we see nobles riding horses to hunt. I presume those are real horses? They use real horses for carriages.)
It is surprising they learn how to ride, though. A real, live animal ought to be pretty different from a highbeast, and they have so little use for it.
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@Almond-Magnum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
@Libri-Liberorum said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
My regular architecture criticism, this time of the White tower: It seems a staple of Ehrenfest architecture to have ridiculously long flights of stairs to reach the front door of any noble building. Maybe it is to ensure everyone gets a regular workout?
Yes, what they call "the basement" is what Americans call "the first floor". It's where kitchens and servant quarters are. Not really a place for nobles, especially guests, so they need a way to access the first floor directly. Their "first floor" is what the French call the "first floor".
To further elaborate and complicate things, sometimes the basement is partially underground, at least as depicted in the anime and manga, and Americans may or may not refer to a partially underground floor as a basement depending on how deeply it is underground and the local topography. I have lived in a house that was built into a hillside such that both floors had a ground level entrance (on opposite sides of the building), the bottom floor was referred to as the basement. This is not an unusual arrangement in hilly areas, as building into a hillside allows for reduced excavation needed while still gaining most of the benefits of an underground level. I don't know what the British or French would call this arrangement
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