Review of Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2
Goat's review of Honzuki no Gekokujou STORY: 9/10 This one takes a interesting spin on the isekai genre in that avoids some of the more common tropes. For example in many a isekai our protagonist is an overpowered teenage magical male who must go on a great adventure to save the world from a demon lord or some nonsense. Here our protagonist is a little girl whose magic is hindering her and her only goal is to find a book. Such a simple a idea but by putting in the the classic isekai medieval setting and applying real world how real world economics would effect the rarityin those circumstances drives our protagonist on a "Spice & Wolf" like economic driven journey to make the book. Later in the 2nd season you start seeing more magic which with the build up if feels like your learning more about the world with the main character which just made me want to keep learning.
ART: 10/10
The art of this anime is beautiful. The backgrounds and places where are characters interact are detailed look like paintings and you can tell whatever animators worked on this put all their effort into making this. The more cartoony parts that show our main character's inner thoughts are adorable and hilarious. The characters are all unique and distinct in designs and then there is completely amazing thing that is done with the characters designs in that whenever our main character, Myne interacts with another character and becomes part of their life, that character's hair gains a distinct shine in their hair via more detailed shading, The story explanation is that Myne has or influenced them to wash their hair and that change in appearance sets those character apart from every person in that world and shows their importance and how Myne has altered their own lives for the better. A brilliant use of art/story integration.
SOUND: 10/10
Along with the art the sound is beautiful. The OP and EP are charming and this extends to the background music of the series which of whimsical flute and other instruments that gives life to the medieval setting and can be oddly calming at time. The voice acting (Japanese deb) is well done, giving the character's voice fitting the right pitches to emphasize their emotions with well done matching of mouth movements.
CHARACTERS: 9/10
The characters all seem like simple folk trying to scrape by in a poor medieval society, but the series puts great effort focusing on their goals, worries insecurities, and their relationships. As characters interact with our protagonist they develop, changing from their more stand-offish and bland attitude to being people who are enduring the main character and by extension us the viewer, and when this happens you notice the art shift in the design of their hair mentioned above. The one thing that I didn't like is that moving into the second season many a characters that are prevalent in the first season become less seen in favor of new characters, which is a shame.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
I intended to watch this series over the course of a week. I ended up watching both seasons that are currently available in 1 day. Simply put I fell in love with show and hope a season 3 happens soon.
OVERALL 9/10:
With a great story and characters, and absolutely stunning art and music/sound. Honzuki no Gekokujou is an amazing anime which again I really want a 3rd season. I highly recommend watching this show and I myself will be picking up the light novels to see how the story continues in the meantime.