Review of Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2

Ascendance of a Bookworm has a special place in my heart since it is a story that I never knew I wanted. A certified bookworm myself, I've always loved fantasy, but seeing a great fantasy story combined with the deep love of books that this series brings to the fore is absolutely magical. Now, to the business of the review. If you loved the first season of Bookworm, you will love this season as well. First, the world-building in this series continues to be on point. The medieval period is a popular stomping ground for fantasy, but this series does a muchbetter job of portraying the nitty-gritty aspects of every day life in that culture. For the vast majority of people, life was dominated by the concern "how am I going to keep myself fed and clothed." Bookworm hits this nail directly on the head. Considering the otherworldly nature of our protagonist, it would also be easy for the series to fall into the trap of people in the past are stupid, while modern people are smart. Bookworm does not do that in the least. People in the past are respected as intelligent, even superior to our protagonist in many ways. To wrap up the topic of world-building, I must mention that Bookworm also dodges the bullet of "all nobles are bad, all commoners are good," quite an accomplishment considering that a major driver of the plot is class conflict.

Second, Bookworm has amazingly authentic characters. While each character has a primary drive, Bookworm keeps that from completely defining them as a person. Characters are unique individuals, and the size of the cast given this respectful treatment elevates this accomplishment to the next level. If you love seeing well-realized characters each with their own personalities and motivations, then Bookworm is an anime for you.

Third, the second season has a great mix of slice-of-life style plot with portent of greater events to come. For those of you who love slice-of-life, you will love bookworm. While some slice-of-life anime tend to be episodic, with marginal character or plot advancement from episode to episode, Bookworm has the full slice-of-life feel while actually feeling like real life. Things change from day to day, week to week, month to month, and when you look back you see that life results in progress. Myne matures as a person, she makes progress in her goal of making books, Lutz become a better merchant, etc. To me, this shows true mastery of what the slice-of-life genre can be. For those coming for the fantasy, believe me, you will not be disappointed.

Bookworm is not without its flaws. Though I wouldn't call the soundtrack bad, neither is it at the level of Made in Abyss (though the OP and ED are simply excellent.) The art style is well suited to the work, and the backgrounds are clean, but the animation quality can be a little lacking. For a work that isn't high action, the level of animation is definitely excusable, but still nothing to write home about. One thing the animation did succeed at is in Myne's facial expression repertoire, which has impressive diversity and is often quite unique.

All in all, Bookworm was the anime I looked forward to most every week this season. It was an excellent continuation of the prior season, and I'm not ashamed to say that it is a masterpiece (at least in my book.)