Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion
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@Justaidan said in Bookworm Part 3 Vol. 1 Discussion!:
@Shiny said in Bookworm Part 3 Vol. 1 Discussion!:
Good list. She also seems to have the power to communicate great distances (when she called out to Lutz during the Trimble extermination) which might or might not be an unprecedented ability.
Notably she also did this without using a magic chant or calling on the gods' assistance.
[hehe, "Trimble" :D]
The anime just got to this episode, and the anime portrayed it as being enacted by the ring she was wearing, and visualized it as a kind of mana beam that went into town to find him. But indeed, she cast it without a prayer or chant.
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@pcj OTOH I took a peek at it and I noticed that Arno disappeared and Shizka got his lines, so take what the anime does with a grain of salt.
(Only a peek because I can't stand anime, especially adaptations... my crunchyroll subscription is for the manga)
My talking sword has a point. And is also right.
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@Gamen @pcj I'm with Garmen in that I don't want to read to much into what the anime does when dissecting the LN.
There are too many bits omitted or misrepresented in the anime. In fairness Bookworm is extremely content dense, subtle and detailed so it is hard to adapt.
If the anime manages to get more people reading the LN then it has done its job.
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Yeah, this episode (from what I've heard anyway) and the ones about the orphanage, are kind of a reminder of how censored TV needs to be, and how Bookworm is actually a darker series than it first appears. The anime and a lot of the marketing seems to want to portray it as a family friendly kids thing when the actual novels are a lot more mature and heavy. In a way I wonder if the anime is stopping at the end of P2V2 just because shit gets way too real after that point to keep pretending it's family friendly. Or well, they could always keep censoring/toning things down, but yeah.
If the anime keeps going far into the series I'll be very interested in seeing how many of the harsher details get cut.
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@Justaidan said in Bookworm Part 3 Vol. 1 Discussion!:
If the anime manages to get more people reading the LN then it has done its job.
Sure damn worked for me.
Also this current Part 3 and it's volumes arc is probably going to be one of the most interesting to watch the discussions for various reasons. -
@Justaidan said in Bookworm Part 3 Vol. 1 Discussion!:
@Gamen @pcj I'm with Garmen in that I don't want to read to much into what the anime does when dissecting the LN.
There are too many bits omitted or misrepresented in the anime. In fairness Bookworm is extremely content dense, subtle and detailed so it is hard to adapt.
If the anime manages to get more people reading the LN then it has done its job.
Can tell you it worked on me and I'm someone who doesn't normally take the time to read due to the many issues I have...
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@Quof said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
In a way I wonder if the anime is stopping at the end of P2V2 just because shit gets way too real after that point to keep pretending it's family friendly.
I genuinely thought with everything they were cutting they were going to end at the end of the Blue Shrine Maiden arc especially with the Head Bishop being featured in the opening and the really bittersweet moments of Myne dancing with her family and friends. They'd need another 12 episode season to reach that point though I guess with everything that happens.
They definitely could cut a lot of the more heavier moments though, I saw on Reddit someone was calling this basically a workplace series with Ferd as the Boss and Myne as the new hire they could definitely squeeze the story that route especially if it's not going to go to the end. With their budget and animation limitations (serious side mouth obsession) I can't see them doing the series long term. -
@Quof I'm not in this case complaining about lightening the darker aspects of the series. I'm complaining that this episode should have been heart stopping action (not only allowed but common in kid-oriented shows) but was instead people pausing their action scenes to stand around talking. It's OK to ask "what happened here?" so long as you are simultaneously doing martial arts and using far! Too! Many! Exclamation! Marks!
Also, Myne didn't bleed enough to justify that the trombe was still getting mana from her (someone else already commented) and when she got cut it looked very contrived.
I'm rewatching the scenes now and making notes as I go.
Shikza (Schicicoza in the anime) should have been waving the knife over her head instead of standing still with the knife in front of him which Myne somehow contrived to poke her hand into. Then Myne stands around as the trombe sprouts underneath her instead of trying to jump away. (If they'd made the trombe's grab her in the first half second instead of in about 3 seconds (10:25 to 10:28) it would work much better.)
Myne says "I can't breathe" at 10:59, after which she has a discussion with Ferdinand.
Ferdinand jumps off his highbeast at 11:51 and takes no action until 12:24. Included in this time is such vital communication as Ferdinand saying "I don't believe this. You were supposed to guard her you imbiciles.", gets reply "We're terribly sorry", then continues "There is no point fighting them off if the wound remains open." Even after he heals Myne he wastes more time discussing the nature of the healing he did, and the rules around blessing weapons. Then more discussion after Karstedt arrives, and the trombe is finally attacked at 13:41, about 2:40 after Myne complains of being unable to breathe. Note that a plant that grows from nothing to strangling its victim in 30 seconds gets another 2:40 of growth before anyone successfully acts against it.
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@Quof @CamChar @LIbri-Liberorum
Bookworm does a lot of world building, foreshadowing and character development in the LN that can't make it into the anime and the anime is removing the darker elements. I don't see how these issues won't compound upon themselves in the quality of the adaptation if the anime were to continue for a third season and may even lead to a severe mood whiplash for viewers if the anime tried to move closer to the LN.
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@LIbri-Liberorum That's actually what I mean. This scene being more intense and frantic would maybe even scare kids.
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@pcj said in Ascendance of a Bookworm - anime discussion:
@Justaidan said in Bookworm Part 3 Vol. 1 Discussion!:
@Shiny said in Bookworm Part 3 Vol. 1 Discussion!:
Good list. She also seems to have the power to communicate great distances (when she called out to Lutz during the Trimble extermination) which might or might not be an unprecedented ability.
Notably she also did this without using a magic chant or calling on the gods' assistance.
[hehe, "Trimble" :D]
The anime just got to this episode, and the anime portrayed it as being enacted by the ring she was wearing, and visualized it as a kind of mana beam that went into town to find him. But indeed, she cast it without a prayer or chant.
I think the anime got that part right, actually. Even when I read it in the LN I figured the beam went out from the ring since (1) the beam was blue, just like the feystone in her ring, and (2) it has been stated multiple times that magic tools are needed to work magic.
Magic without invoking the gods is pretty common for minor things (like “rott”, “ordonnanz”, and changing a wand it into a weapon), and in some cases without any incantation at all (like when summoning a wand or a highbeast, or for some activities in P2V4 that only required gestures but which I can’t describe without spoilering anime-only fans). But magic without magic tools just isn’t a thing.
Myne has done some things that most people consider impossible in practice, but not anything impossible in principle. Not so far, at least. She hasn’t broken her world’s laws of “physics.” So I think the anime was right to have the blue beam shoot out of her ring.
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Part 2 Volume 2:
It all happened right after I cried for help as loud as I could with my hands in the air to try to stop the bleeding. A beam of blue light shot high into the sky, and then immediately black somethings rained down around me as I heard the sound of flapping wings.
No mention, but coming from the ring would mke the most sense.
There is only one form of magic we have seen done without tools: crushing.
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@LIbri-Liberorum I think this is a problem that is in all anime that themes and events tend to get streamlined and compressed. Given that the entirety of the web novel was out before the anime ever started production, I think they will have at least an idea of how they want the arcs to go for each season so that even if the mood changes somewhat from the LN, the major plot points could be mostly the same.
A good comparison to the amount of content that is converted to the number of anime episodes (these are ones I'm actually aware of):
Rising of the Shield Hero - ~ 5 episodes per 70,000 word book
Goblin Slayer - ~7 episodes per 60,000 word book
If it's for my daughter... - ~4 episodes per 50k book
Ascendance of a Bookworm - ~4 episodes per 100k bookGranted these are just rough estimates and not THAT useful because a couple of episodes back there was basically a 5 min montage that covered 1.5 books worth of material and there is going to be a 3 episode stretch that only covers a couple of chapters. There is just way too much stuff to not have to stream-line and cut out. That means they have to be hyper-focused on preventing redundancy even if it accidentally changes parts of the world.
An example of that I noticed the last episode was when Myne gives her combat prayer. I remember in the book a lot of the knights were super happy, but in the episode no one said anything. Damuel a few moments later thanks her and says that it will be a big help. A small change to cut out a few seconds of dialogue, but then the anime is presenting that all nobles hate commoners where the LN are more nuanced, some like them and some don't.
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I just had the horrible realization that the anime is probably not going to cover
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@pcj Like @db0ssman, I think that will be what they end with. It is foreshadowed in the opening credits and neatly
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@LIbri-Liberorum I don't think they could hold off until the end of the season to do that because from what I understand season 2 is supposed to run until the end of part 2 and event in question is a pretty big catalyst for all the events that come after it. Moving it earlier makes sense to speed up ratcheting up the stakes, but moving it to the end would kind of make some of the things that happen make less sense. They might do something like a shorter version in an episode and then have an extended version in one of the between-season filler episodes like they had with season 1.
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There's only one episode left in season 2 (according to the various anime databases). I don't think they're going beyond P2V2.
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@pcj Oh, I thought that it was supposed to be longer than S1, not shorter. I guess then that is why it feels like they couldn't possibly get everything in, because they aren't.
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@db0ssman It's all 1 season of 27 episodes (if you count the ova) split into two parts. It was commissioned and animated all at once.
And we would have seen character art for Sylvester by now if it were getting into P2V3. We have no idea yet if there are any plans to continue after next week's final episode.
