Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion
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@OSRizzo Notably, anime can now have their episode budgets mostly or entirely covered by licensing: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2021-08-02/how-much-does-it-cost-to-license-anime-series/.175579
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Whether you like it or not, Bookworm sells only a fraction of the big shounen titles in Japan and the west. It's only those that get continuous long running anime, the economics just aren't there for that otherwise.
So let's hope the slow wait for a possible season 4 and beyond isn't so long! -
@Sam-Pinansky When you see successful animes like One Piece and compare quality of writting it does not even get close to Bookworm. Problem is that ppl want action over substance. Just look at Marvel movies (pre Corona ones). They earned lots of money and are quite popular but when you take closer look you see that moveis are hollow fluff. It is basically bunch of cool scenes that you can cut and put on youtube.
I preffer story over visuals. One of my favorite animes is 12 Kingdoms and it has horrible animation. Sadly I am in minority with such oppinion. As long as things stay that way good books like Bookworm will strugle to get fully adapted.
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Hello,
Let's leave all the real world politically charged comments for another site.
Thank you
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At last... Main is dead, long live Rozemyne!
While it certainly had issues, as others have pointed out, I think the ending went about as well as I could expect. Sylvester showing up and seeing both the reaction to finding out that he's the Aub AND that he's Ferd's older brother was probably the highlight of the ending.
I also am thankful that while they showed us her grave, they didn't actually show us them having to announce that she's dead and go through the whole funeral scene. That ripped my heart out just reading it, I was legit dreading having to watch it.
Credit where it is due as well, they did manage to slip in nods where they could for the future. I can only imagine the reaction to anyone that's only seen the anime seeing Freda at Damuel's bedside when he gets blessed, with nothing to explain why though.
@talisein said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
Still, life is rough for the producer. I believe he respects the work; the budget constraints are just so tight..
Yeah, this has pretty much been my take on the series from the get-go. It's obvious that they are working with a very limited budget, but while some series in the same boat feel hacked together cough Infinite Dendrogram cough the Bookworm anime has always felt like they are really trying their best despite their limitations. Trying doesn't mean they always succeed of course, but still...
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Ehrenfest High School mobile game announcement!? Exclusive to the Taue store and Gilberta Play. Gilberta's always overpriced, but every taue I've ever had never lasts more than a year..
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just realized that the latest season of AoaB anime ended last week, so waiting for get my weekly fix
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@isekai-geek There were only 10 episodes, so my guess is that there will be side-stories to make up a full season.
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@Axehand instead of guessing, if you'd read earlier in the thread you'd know it was confirmed to be a 10 episode season long before we reached this point.
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Mynedays continue with the English dub. I’m pleased with how they had done the dub for this series. For example, they paid attention to how nobles address temple attendants. In this episode, Damuel called Delia “You there” to catch their attention.
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@Alexander-Evans said in Bookworm Part 4 Vol. 9 Discussion!:
@ShibariUsagi said in Bookworm Part 4 Vol. 9 Discussion!:
But whatever happens, there's plenty more to come, and she's going to be involved somehow.
She's doing something big on the cover, so we at least need that to happen too. Is it possible she's supposed to be making a wind shield to test hearts, and that's why she's looking bittersweet? I don't remember any illustrations or the anime showing a circle when that was happening, but I could be wrong.
I wouldn't use the anime as evidence, especially season 3. Season 3 was by far the most egregious when it came to adaptational problems. It honestly felt to me like the people in charge were contractually obligated to make it but didn't want to deal with it anymore so they put the bare minimum effort into it that they could get away with.
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@AliceCheshire said in Bookworm Part 4 Vol. 9 Discussion!:
@Alexander-Evans said in Bookworm Part 4 Vol. 9 Discussion!:
@ShibariUsagi said in Bookworm Part 4 Vol. 9 Discussion!:
But whatever happens, there's plenty more to come, and she's going to be involved somehow.
She's doing something big on the cover, so we at least need that to happen too. Is it possible she's supposed to be making a wind shield to test hearts, and that's why she's looking bittersweet? I don't remember any illustrations or the anime showing a circle when that was happening, but I could be wrong.
I wouldn't use the anime as evidence, especially season 3. Season 3 was by far the most egregious when it came to adaptational problems. It honestly felt to me like the people in charge were contractually obligated to make it but didn't want to deal with it anymore so they put the bare minimum effort into it that they could get away with.
Even so, the author does apparently give direction and consistency checks when it comes to stuff not visualized before.
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@AliceCheshire Converting from one media to another will always involve compromise. Sure, detail will be missed when going from a book to a video but I was OK with that.
Most important thing is not to be a Christopher Tolkien. A person who whines about every little difference from the source material while simultaneously producing ghastly, dreary fanfic. Or worse yet, a Brian Herbert.
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@Axehand said in Bookworm Part 4 Vol. 9 Discussion!:
@AliceCheshire Converting from one media to another will always involve compromise. Sure, detail will be missed when going from a book to a video but I was OK with that.
Most important thing is not to be a Christopher Tolkien. A person who whines about every little difference from the source material while simultaneously producing ghastly, dreary fanfic.
I didn't have too many problems with the first two seasons. Though some of the things they glossed over in season 2 (such as the Italian restaurant barely even getting a passing mention and the future Gutenbergs barely getting any screentime) were a bit baffling and them whitewashing some of the darker parts of the story were questionable, it was still tolerable. Season 3 was just a total shit show though. To the point where I'm actually dreading how bad season 4 will be since it should conclude with the Hasse incident and with how badly they've whitewashed the darker parts of the story they've basically painted themselves into a corner when adapting it. Either they'll refrain from whitewashing it and there'll be a massive tonal whiplash or they'll whitewash it and it won't have anywhere near the impact it's supposed to.
Anyways, my point is I'm not simply whining about them missing some details or anything like that. It's specific choices they made that I'm criticizing that were significantly more egregious in season 3 in particular.
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@AliceCheshire Well, to be honest, the Italian Restaurant is little more than a few paragraphs until part 3 of the written story. It got a couple of mentions in the anime - mostly Benno whinging about how little attention was being paid to the venture - but that fits.
Darker parts of the story - that's a harder thing to say. But they have to choose an audience. My primary grouse about season 3 is that they omitted the epilogue where Ferdinand/Sylvester talk and make it clear that the whole scenario with Bindewald and Bezewanst was engineered to force Rozemyne into adoption. But that could come as an additional chapter, much as was added to season 2 of the anime.
On the whole, I would rather have the anime than not. Especially since I started there and came to the written version. On that point alone, I have to love it.
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@Axehand said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
@AliceCheshire Well, to be honest, the Italian Restaurant is little more than a few paragraphs until part 3 of the written story. It got a couple of mentions in the anime - mostly Benno whinging about how little attention was being paid to the venture - but that fits.
Darker parts of the story - that's a harder thing to say. But they have to choose an audience. My primary grouse about season 3 is that they omitted the epilogue where Ferdinand/Sylvester talk and make it clear that the whole scenario with Bindewald and Bezewanst was engineered to force Rozemyne into adoption. But that could come as an additional chapter, much as was added to season 2 of the anime.
The issue with the Italian restaurant is that it is important though. By leaving it in the background more than it already was in the light novel, it's just going to be more confusing when it finally does get featured in season 4+.
For the darker parts, as I said they're painting themselves into a corner. The light novel only gets darker as a whole after part 2 and by whitewashing those darker parts, they're only making it more difficult to follow the source material. As I brought up: Hasse, which is likely going to be the season finale for season 4, is something that really can't be whitewashed without departing from the source material rather significantly. But due to them whitewashing all the darker parts up to now to begin with, by actually being faithful to the source material they're going to introduce a massive tonal whiplash that will only serve to net them a ton of criticism from people who were expecting the series to continue to be as lighthearted as they'd presented it previous.
Agreed on the Sylvester/Ferdinand meeting thing though. I have quite a lot of complaints about season 3 in particular and that's one that got lost in the huge amount of them. (For seasons 1 and 2, my only real complaints are what I previously mentioned, a very minute amount in comparison to my complaints about season 3.)
On the whole, I would rather have the anime than not. Especially since I started there and came to the written version. On that point alone, I have to love it.
I started there as well and I do quite enjoy the first two seasons, even with the flaws I previously mentioned about them. It's season 3 in particular that is especially egregious. I honestly can't see myself even bothering to rewatch season 3 because it rubbed me the wrong way so badly. You can like something and still criticize it. In fact it's specifically because I do like the anime and light novel so much that I'm railing on season 3 so hard. (If it were another series I'd just drop it without complaint and move on to something better.) They didn't come close to doing the latter half of part 2 justice in the slightest, and that's taking into account the fact that even good adaptations have to pick and choose what to feature.
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A lot of the stuff cut from season 3 (such as the italian restaurant stuff) was background material for things coming up in Part 3/Season 4. It would make sense to leave it out if they're not planning on ever doing season 4, because there's no reason to foreshadow things they're not going to cover.
Also, as you mentioned, the story gets a lot darker in Part 3, and the anime has obviously been trying to stay to a more family-friendly target demographic.
I think they planned to end the anime adaptation after Part 2, and mean to use it as advertisement for the novels and manga (which it's actually done a marvelous job of advertising for -- it's how I found it in season 1. :-)
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@pcj said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
...and the anime has obviously been trying to stay to a more family-friendly target demographic.
It didn't flinch over the flower offerings, in fact you could argue that the scene (albeit in silhouette, if I remember correctly) of Wilma being dragged off to a flower offering went even further than the LN because she looked really young in it.
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@pcj said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
A lot of the stuff cut from season 3 (such as the italian restaurant stuff) was background material for things coming up in Part 3/Season 4. It would make sense to leave it out if they're not planning on ever doing season 4, because there's no reason to foreshadow things they're not going to cover.
I'm a bit late to respond to this (consequence of seeing the post but then not having time to respond, oops) but the end of season 3 actually suggests they do intend to continue with a season 4. Before the credits there's something about "the story to be told has been completed" but after the credits it actually goes on to say something about the "new story" making it fairly clear that they were referring explicitly to Myne's story being completed but Rozemyne's only just getting started.
Also, as you mentioned, the story gets a lot darker in Part 3, and the anime has obviously been trying to stay to a more family-friendly target demographic.
Which is rather poor planning. Season 1 aired at the end of 2019. At that point, p4v8 had just released in Japan so they had plenty of source material to look through when deciding how to design the anime. (On a side note, it's actually kinda interesting that what Japan had when the anime was just starting is only a volume less than we currently have in English.)
I think they planned to end the anime adaptation after Part 2, and mean to use it as advertisement for the novels and manga (which it's actually done a marvelous job of advertising for -- it's how I found it in season 1. :-)
I would actually be somewhat inclined to agree if they'd ended with season 1 but it was fairly clear from the conclusion of both season 1 and 2 that they intended to continue the anime and the conclusion of season 3, as I addressed above, seems to suggest the same.
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@AliceCheshire said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
after the credits it actually goes on to say something about the "new story" making it fairly clear that they were referring explicitly to Myne's story being completed but Rozemyne's only just getting started.
That could well have meant "to be continued in the novels."
