Ascendance of a Bookworm episode 31

Rating: 4 (of 5)

One of the many things that I adore about this series is the very studious way that it examines the potential wide-ranging consequences of its titular character’s actions; that’s something that far too few isekai tales do. Yet that is a major point in this episode, and hardly the only important thing going on in yet another packed episode.

The examination comes about as a result of Ferdinand and Sylvester finally taking a look at what, exactly, Main has been doing with her studio. (Presumably this is part of security precautions.) Even given what Main has already showed him for finished products and what he know about her isekai nature, he is still utterly underestimating what she is capable of and how much he’s going to have to rein her in. Claiming that Main could disrupt the fabric of society in her new world if left to her own device is not an overstatement, and she’s even more dangerous because she has no idea (or at least has not set down and thought out) the full ramifications of what she’s doing.

Thankfully, the much more worldly Ferdinand is thinking about it. Putting the whole book-copying network out of business with her printing press development is not a trivial matter, as people tend to get nasty when their livelihood is interfered with. Such is always the case throughout history when new technologies change workload burdens, and Main in her book-making glee is utterly unprepared to deal with that fallout. Main also isn’t wrong in her answer to Ferdinand’s questions about the impact of the printing press in her world, though she may even understate the impact. Printing did allow the more ready dissemination of both news and scientific (and especially mathematical) knowledge, but it also fueled radicals. For instance, witch hunts were not entirely dependent on printed materials for their propagation, but the explosion of them in Europe in the late 1400s heavily depended on printed books. They can also be credited with enabling the Protestant Reformation and spreading the philosophical though which eventually developed into the American and French Revolutions. So yes, in the long term Main absolutely is not exaggerating in what she tells Ferdinand.

Her point back about how “that’s not necessarily how it will happen in this world” is a fine bit of world-building, though. That the health of social structure and even land is dependent on the mana supplied by nobles introduces bedrock elements which could interfere with anything too radical happening; some system to replace the mana provided by priests would have to be developed before anything too major could happen. (This raises the interesting question of whether the current system developed out of necessity – and thus is the reason why nobles are nobles – or whether nobles constructed the system to make commoners dependent on them, but I don’t expect the series to get into that anytime soon.) Even so, stability depends on people carefully considering the consequences of any major development.

The episode also throws out a ton of other little details. “Devouring soldiers” is tossed out as a thing but, frustratingly, not followed up on; it seems out of character for Main to not pursue that one further. Of course, Ferdinand is stonewalling her on how he knows/is related to Sylvester, who is clearly someone pretty important among nobles, but at least Sylvester seems to be on Main’s side. The exact nature of the offer Sylvester gave Benno which has left him so flustered also makes for a good added mystery. And by the end of the episode Main’s a big sister, too! The details at the end, where chibi-Main is talking to her father in the after-credits scene, also are interesting; her parents in this world had three other failures with children both before and after Main and Tuuli, so their overall success rate so far is only 50%. Sadly, that’s about the norm for the medieval era, where half of children typically didn’t survive past age 5.

The episode covers all of this and still throws out an additional plot hook as well: a noble is coming to the church who is going to have a big interest in Main. Will be interesting to see how quickly that plays out, since the next episode’s title suggests a different focus. Still, it’s all good for how the series is currently progressing, with even little details like Wilma being nervous around Sylvester being attended to and suggestions that the High Priest’s servant Jenni might be a potential source of eventual conflict as well. Keep it coming, Bookworm!

Spy x Family episode 5

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Despite the episode’s ominous title – “Will They Pass or Fail” – Anya getting into Eden College was never in doubt; Master Henderson’s evaluation gave them an edge if even if plot necessity didn’t mandate it. The slight drama over this does allow for an amusing opening sequence about our featured family experiencing omens of bad luck on the way to learning the results, and for Yor’s finely-depicted scene where she contemplates murdering someone to force a withdrawal to get Anya off the waiting list (liked the color contrast there!), but all of it ends up just being an excuse to give Anya a really elaborate reward for her hard work in contributing to this key event happening. So of course that means acting out a scenario from Anya’s favorite spy cartoon.

In other words, this is easily the most absurdist episode to date, and boy, does it get played to the hilt! Twilight’s curly-haired contact seems to take a perverse glee in setting up and acting out the scenario; guess a spy’s gotta have fun when he can, right? And what better way to act out a scenario based on a cartoon than to have the whole thing operate on cartoon logic? Forget practicalities, like how the mask Loid gets cornered into wearing wouldn’t hide anyone’s identity, how this is an abusive waste of time and resources, or how all the other agents buy into the belief that this farce needs to be played out because either A) the elite spy Twilight would never do something so unprofessional, B) it’s an opportunity to go head-to-head with the nation’s legendary spy, or C) both of the above. Anything which keeps things entertaining – and especially makes Anya happy – is justifiable here.

And that includes manipulating circumstances so that Loid and Yor get their first head-to-head fight scene. The whole second half of the episode is an action extravaganza, with a number of low-danger-level, slickly-animated action sequences; a personal favorite was the one where Loid dives onto the balcony and rolls. Out of all that, though, the highlight is unquestionably the completely soused Yor losing track of the fact that she’s supposed to be just play-acting and going after Loid for real. That’s a sequence that I expect to se GIFs of and people still talking about come to the end of the year, as it’s not at all clear that Loid could have beat her if she hadn’t passed out in the middle of it.

In the end, the series once again nails its overall formula: mix in quality action with lots of fun, more good Anya reactions, and the occasional tender moment between Loid and Anya. Maybe not the best episode to date, but it still works and primes Anya to do her best at school, which will apparently be the focus of next episode.

Ascendance of a Bookworm episode 30

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Because of the series’ nature, true action scenes have been sparse at best; outside of the trombe incident in episode 25, there haven’t been any major ones. Likewise, while magic has been a significant element since it was first introduced, only Main’s restoration of the land in episode 26 qualifies as a truly flashy display; otherwise, magic use has been of a more practical bent. Episode 30 thus offers a rare exception to the norm, while also continuing a trend towards peripherally putting her in more danger.

Ironically – but also perhaps as expected – the same force which was once killing her, and which allowed her to increase her status and value, is now endangering her in a wholly different way. In a society stratified on mana, Main’s level of mana is vastly out of proportion with her rank, which means high-level nobles are apparently willing to make a move on her even under the nose of Ferdinand and Karstadt. When a direct attempt fails because Main’s in a room of lower status than expected on her Spring Prayer circuit (or was she placed there deliberately under the concern of just such an attempt happening?), a noble goes more directly for her servants in a presumed move to coerce her into compliance. However, the perpetrators, despite having some idea of what she can do, underestimate both how dedicated her defenders are and how potent her own abilities are when applied to a combat situation. After this, no one will think Ferdinand was exaggerating in his comments about treating Main as a threat to be eliminated if she cannot get her mana under control.

Added to this scenario is new blue-robed priest Sylvester, a man who confounds even Ferdinand. His background isn’t even hinted at, but he must be of a status at least nearly as high as Ferdinand’s since the latter cannot effectively order him around. Though a show-off and general annoyance, he nonetheless shows that he is quite capable in a pinch, and despite the hard time he gives Main, he does seem on board with protecting her. Amusingly, Main also seems to be making inroads in how to manipulate such as chaotic spirit.

While the arrival of Sylvester and the action elements may be the episode’s highlights, the world-building going on here is at least as important. The series has intimated multiple times before that the role of the Church in this setting is far from just being ceremonial, and the details shown about how the Spring Prayer is administered firm up just how critical the role of the church is: presumably, the mana distributed to the various villages and towns during this process is used to invigorate the surrounding land. That only further emphasizes how the High Priest wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest about how much of a godsend Main was when she declared that she had The Devouring; they were in a dire situation on providing the necessary mana to keep the whole system working. Why Ferdinand was willing to deal with Main – and why the High Priest was forced to back off – now makes even more sense, too. (This also raises the question of what the Church will do when Main is sent off to Noble Academy, but that’s a problem for the future.)

Overall, this is a very solid episode which pushed forward strongly on many fronts.

Spy x Family 4

Rating: 5(of 5)

To give you a feel for how the anime community is reacting to the series, it is the most-watch and highest-rated series of the season on MAL (even over the return of Kaguya-sama) and in just a bit over three weeks has nearly as many ratings on Crunchyroll as last season’s big hit, My Dress-Up Darling, had for the entire season – and a with a virtually perfect average rating, too. Episode 4 shows that such a high opinion and popularity is not misplaced. Whether on humor, action, or dramatic fronts, it nails all of its components so completely that it almost seems to exist in some magical zone where it can do no wrong.

The humor side shows first, with the Forgers having to go through a veritable gauntlet of challenges just to get into the interview at the prestigious school. Some of those challenges are planned, but others are not. Here the episode shows its fun side, whether it’s Loid impressing an elderly teacher with his elegance in the face of all challenges or Yor taking a charging cow down with pressure-point attacks that she has to immediately feebly explain come from yoga. (The reaction of the other animals to her in the background of the following shot is easily one of the episode’s two funniest moments, the other being Anya’s thought on saluting the statue of the school’s founder in an earlier scene.) The reactions of the elegance-obsessed teacher, as over-the-top as they are, are also pretty funny.

The meat of the episode comes when the Forgers finally get in for the interview and all three have to dodge assorted pitfalls in order to look good there as well. This part is also fun, even if it is more serious. One interesting point is how they actually aren’t lying that much about their family status, with the amusing point here being how the three gentlemen conducting the interview cannot possibly imagine the full truth behind the words of all three of the Forgers or the depth of meaning behind the absolute sincerity of Anya’s words about her “parents.” But then the hard pivot comes when Anya is forced into a distressing emotional reaction, and that is when the episode really shines. Despite their real reasons for being here, and despite their own personal motivations, both Loid and Yor jump to Anya’s defense as if they were real parents, even to the point of walking out (and thus effectively abandoning Loid’s mission) to avoid putting her in any more distress. They of course cannot know that that was ultimately the correct move under the circumstances, as it was the final element in winning over the elegance-obsessed gentleman, but it also serves as the episode’s great irony: for all of the other meticulous preparations Loid made, he did not prepare for that.

The episode also wins points for the emotional resonance of the scene at the end. Both Loid and Yor still keep trying to convince themselves that their ulterior motives are all that matter here when clearly that’s not the case. Both care for Anya more than they would like to admit, and I love how that scene shows that they are all at their best when they are together. It is a wonderfully heartwarming finish to an episode more exhilarating than I expected it to be.

Special: Summer Time Rendering episodes 1-2

Note: This series is on Disney+ in Japan but is not currently legally streaming in the U.S. This review is based on a stream from a secondary source.

Rating: 4 (of 5)

Disney+ has started to get into the game of licensing anime series, but apparently they are adopting the original Netflix model, and so will not likely show either of their two acquisitions – this series and Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall – until after the end of the season. That’s a shame, because this one has potential. However, I do also have to wonder if Disney realized what, exactly they were getting here, as this is a far cry from a family-friendly Disney staple.

Summer Timer Rendering is based on a manga series, but it feels very much like something originating from a late 2000s/early 2010s visual novel instead. (I would be surprised if such titles were not a heavy influence on original manga-ka Yasuki Tanaka.) It is a suspense/horror series somewhat in the vein of a Higurashi franchise title or the isekai series Re:ZERO, one where the protagonist’s (often bloody) deaths result in time rewinds back to reset points, resets which are possibly guided or at least influenced by a recently-deceased childhood friend. Based on the first two episodes, the protagonist needs to figure out how to keep both himself and veritable younger sister Mio alive while investigating the terror lurking on the island.

The scenario is basic enough: Shinpei was raised on a small island near Wakayama City (in Japan’s Kansai region) but left two years earlier. He returns for the funeral of Ushio, a childhood friend who was virtually a sister to him, since her family took Shin in after his parents died years earlier. But even from the very beginning of his return, something is ever-so-slightly off. Ushio drowned while saving a child being swept out to sea, but there are suspicious details about the incident and unsettling accounts from Ushio’s younger sister Mio, ones involving Ushio and her seeing Ushio’s double a couple of days before her death. A local legend speaks of Shadows, doppelganger-like entities who replace an individual and then kill off their family, and one seems to be afoot. And it isn’t shy about killing and replacing anyone in its way, as Shinpei finds out the hard way. But for as-yet-unexplained reasons, Shinpei is getting additional opportunities to make things right.

The bare minimum that a story like this needs to do to succeed is to establish a constant state of tension, one where even little details might matter and everything points towards dark truths. This the first two episodes do well – almost to the point of overkill at times, in fact. Even by the second episode, though, bits of the truth are already starting to come out, and the truth behind some of the seemingly-innocuous details in the first episode are already starting to come into focus. A woman that Shinpei has an unfortunate encounter with on the way to the island also proves to be more than just an innocent, as she seems to know more about what’s going on here. But with people already being replaced by doubles, who can be trusted? The paranoia is already starting to grow.

The first two episodes are solid on the visual front, with character designs and setting porn both being featured characteristics. The first two episodes also have a surprising degree of fan service; these are mild scenes but are already being established as a staple element. So is intensely graphic violence; even with the worst of it shown from angles where the goriest details are not fully visible, scenes involving killings with a gun and a knife can still have an impact.

In all, this is a series worth checking out if horror-grade suspense stories are your thing. I may try to continue episode-reviewing this (perhaps every two weeks instead of every week?) if the streaming source I’m using proves reliable.

Ascendance of a Bookworm episode 29

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Though its attention to detail can sometimes make the storyline of Ascendance of a Bookworm progress slowly, the series also occasionally has spurts of an almost dizzying level of activity. This is one such episode. So much is going on here that the storytelling jumps around a lot and keeps most scenes short as it covers a period of an entire season. However, the episode never exactly feels like it is short-changing anything, as the points it is making get conveyed in these brief scenes. The storytelling also makes it increasingly clear how everything is contributing to the bigger picture.

The significant regular addition here is Damuel, who is now actively serving as her bodyguard, so several scenes involve him feeling out the role he is playing. That includes his tentativeness at offering suggestions (he’s not used to an environment where suggestions might be readily accepted), meeting everyone in Main’s sphere, and getting used to the smell of the commoners’ side of Ehrenfest. For the most part he’s fitting in well, and now taking more seriously how much Main is worthy of such protection, but in perhaps my favorite scene of the episode, Ferdinand doesn’t cut him any slack. He is firm about how Damuel, despite being outranked by Shichicoza, still had options and is at fault for not using said options when Shichicoza started going too far. The fairness of Ferdinand’s explanation is another story, but it does show the high standards that knights are held to in this setting and that there are at least some mechanisms in place for cases where a noble is abusing his authority.

On Main’s front, she has reason to be both ecstatic and forlorn, and this episode allows her to display her full emotional range. On the plus side, the movable type that she had commissioned from Johann is complete, which clears a big hurdle to her book-printing ambitions. Probably nobody but her (despite losing herself to Gutenberg-worship) yet appreciates just how revolutionary this will eventually be. On the minus side, danger still lurks. Ironically, the reported death of the man investigating her may put her in even more danger, since it indicates that whatever noble was behind him is making moves. That and a level of mana which makes her either invaluable to Ehrenfest (if she can learn to control her mana) or a threat to it (if she can’t) puts her at so much risk that even her parents cannot deny Ferdinand’s directive this time; couching it in terms that they can appreciate, rather than just forcing the issue, makes a big difference. The parts about the Dedication Ceremony are also interesting, since they hint at how precarious a position Ehrenfest is actually in. The High Priest offering thanks to the gods when Main first revealed that she had The Devouring was not an exaggeration at all, since the city might be in dire straits for mana supply without her.

That’s not the only event happening here, either. The end of the episode sees the introduction of the other blue-robed priest featured prominently in advertising copy. We don’t know exactly who he is yet, but Ferdinand’s reaction to making the declaration that he will be joining Main on her spring tour and his behavior towards Main already indicate that he will be a handful. That should make next episode very interesting indeed, and it’s not like this episode was at all lacking in that category.

Overall, the series is hitting in top form right now. More, please!

Spy x Family episode 3

Rating: 4 (of 5)

Now that all three of the principal trio have been established, episode 3 gets down to the business of working on Loid’s mission. This reveals three things:

Loid has no idea how to rely on other people to get things done, and is going to have a hard time adjusting to circumstances where he cannot completely control the behavior of others.
Yor has a thing for cutting implements that goes beyond just her job as an assassin and is, frankly, a little disturbing.
Anya doesn’t just steal nearly every scene that she’s in; she can also direct or upend the flow of any scene just by being a 5-year-old. (Or however old she actually is.) And neither adult has the faintest clue that at least some of the time she’s doing this deliberately; in fact, one of the episode’s most ironic moments comes when they see Anya’s scrawling depiction of what’s going on with her parents and completely mistake it for having to do with the spy cartoon she watches – since of course a 5-year-old couldn’t really know what’s actually going on, right?

This combination of elements percolating together helps make the series’ third episode fully entertaining despite it having the lowest action content so far (and by a wide margin, too); really, the only thing which could count as an action scene is the brief chase-down of the purse snatcher, and that seems more like an acknowledgement that it’s not a proper spy show without at least some action rather than a core plot element. The trio look good together and play off each other well, to the point that they would be convincing as a family even if they weren’t pretending; the scene featured in the screen shot above shows that there may be more chemistry building between Loid and Yor than either probably cares to admit.

The episode gets its other little details working, too. The miserable efforts to train Anya and Yor for the school interview make for solid comedy, while the crowd scene simultaneously shows both that the environment in which the story take place has some decidedly unstable and potentially dangerous elements afoot and that Anya’s vulnerability as a young telepath is getting overwhelmed in crowd scenes. (This has long been acknowledged as a main problem to overcome for young telepaths in comic book stories, so such a revelation is wholly expected.) The series may lean towards the fun side, but darker elements are only a short distance away.

In all, this is a somewhat weaker episode, but it would be hard to constantly keep up with the first two. I have no doubts that a lot more sparks have yet to fly.

Ascendance of a Bookworm episode 28

Rating: 4 (of 5)

Episode 27 was mostly set-up, so episode 28 is the first of the season to delve into the real meat of the story. And that begins by establishing Main’s status while living directly at the cathedral.

In fact, the first half of the episode is completely devoted to this. Main not only has to adjust to being apart from her family for the first time, but she also has to understand better the boundaries under which she, as a wearer of blue robes, must operate. She can’t apologize or get too personal with her attendants (not even hugs), should not be the one teaching grey robes beyond her immediate attendants, and for her own safety after the Ink Guild incident, is heavily restricted on her movements. This leaves her more isolated than ever before, which the episode direction takes great pains to depict; one scene where she is eating a meal alone is especially effective here.

For as forlorn as Main is over this, it is also the point in the story where she is most relatable. When I moved to Indianapolis for my first full-time job, it was the first time I had lived away from home, and in a city where I did not have family or friends close by. It was nearly as rough as what Main is facing here, to the point that for the first few months I drove 2½ hours each way every other weekend to visit family and my old gaming groups. I eventually adjusted, and have comfortably lived solo for a couple of decades now, and Main will have to as well. Of course, I didn’t have such a high level of mana that it was going to attract lots of the wrong kind of attention. . .

And that is what the second half of the episode ends up being about. The Ink Guild’s doings are a more earthy threat, and Main is certainly in danger from that, but she has also become desirable to ambitious nobles as well – and while they may not know much about her identity, they certainly know that she exists in the cathedral at the Lord’s decree and there are many witnesses to how vast her mana is. This was, to some degree, expected, but Main is only now starting to appreciate the very heavy implications of her actions at the trombe. That’s also without factoring in that Shichicoza’s actions towards her got him executed. While that may seem extreme by modern standards, it ironically reinforces the point Shichicoza was trying to enforce on Main and Damuel back in season 1: status is everything in this world, and you defy it at your peril. Ignoring your superior’s orders by mistreating, threatening, and then injuring one approved by the lord (and with nearly disastrous consequences on top of that) warranted death, even if you are a mid-ranking noble. That it was passed off as him dying in the line of duty seems like a compromise move to assuage the family, or perhaps to protect Main by not drawing even more attention towards her. Only her relative anonymity is protecting her from even more danger at this point.

Connected to that is the return of the two nobles involved in that incident who received lesser punishments: Karstedt (who had to pay for Main’s replacement robes) and Damuel (who was demoted within the knights’ order). Bringing the latter in as Main’s bodyguard is a wise move, as he is someone Main knows and is likely to trust and he is unlikely to have objections to the duty, both because of his shame over being unable to stop Shichicoza and after Main unwittingly impressing on him just how valuable she is. The move to have Karstedt offer to adopt Main was far less wise (even if possibly necessary) and shows that Ferdinand still does not fully understand the strength of familial bonds. Despite getting reports about it, he is still woefully underestimating how much Main needs that family connection for her emotional stability and how deeply being forced to leave behind her original family affected her. As Main herself says, he still has a ways to go on those fronts.

Still, the plan to have her enter the Royal Academy at age ten sets a long-term path for Main’s personal situation as much as making the first steps towards developing a printing press have set in motion her book-creating ambitions, while also raising questions about how Main’s family is going to fit in (or not) when the time comes. The one minor complaint I have is that the episode tries too hard to compensate for relatively limited animation by using creative camera angles. This has varied effectiveness; a Main-level shot of Karstedt (making him look huge) enhances his imposing nature as a noble, but one overhead shot in that same scene just seemed like a blatant way to reduce needed animation.

Overall, the first two episodes amount to a fine start for the third season.

Spring ’22 Episode Reviews

As previously stated, episode reviews will continue with Ascendance of a Bookworm s3. After watching second episodes of a number of other titles, I have decided to go with Spy x Family as my second regular week-to-week title for the season. This looks like it could be a fun title to talk about, and it will almost certainly be the season’s biggest smash hit. I am not completely ruling out doing a third title, either; could be Summer Time Rendering if Disney+ starts making it available or I can find a reliable “alternate” option for watching it.

Other titles that I currently expect to follow this season, and thus may occasionally comment on, include the following:

Maybe Date a Live IV (this one is borderline for week-to-week)
Dawn of the Witch (though I’m leery about this one after the rather bad episode 2)
Healer Girl
I’m Quitting Heroing
Love After World Domination
Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie
Skeleton Knight in Another World
The Demon Girl Next Door s2
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
The Rising of the Shield Hero s2

. . .And maybe one or two others that I’m still contemplating.

Spy x Family Episode 2

Rating: 5 (of 5)

Normally I wouldn’t opt for the season’s top series (in terms of popularity) for something like this, but after seeing episode 2, I could not resist choosing this one. This could well be one of the rare cases where quality and popularity dovetail perfectly, and how can I pass up on an opportunity to talk about that?

The first episode introduced and firmly-established the male spy Twilight (aka Loid Forger) and the telepathic little girl Anya, whom he is taking on as cover for an infiltration mission, while she accepts him as her father because she’s excited by knowing he’s a spy. (He doesn’t know that she knows, or is even telepathic.) But he still needs a wife/mother to complete his cover and infiltration, so episode 2 introduces Yor, a 27-year-old woman who masquerades as an airhead while secretly being an assassin code-named Thorn Princess. She also has her own complications not necessarily related to her real work, such as needing a boyfriend she doesn’t have for an upcoming party. Hence the two coinciding needs, combined with an encounter of coincidence and a little push from Anya (who finds the prospect of a mother who is also an assassin even more exciting!), result in them winding up as a makeshift married couple, complete with a grenade pin used as a proposal ring. And only Anya knows the full truth of who everyone really is.

This is an outstanding set-up for a series. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Anya is already firmly-establishing herself as the season’s biggest charmer, while Loid and Yor both also show their own appeals in this odd-couple arrangement; any minor concerns I had about how Yor might fit in have been blown out the window, as she seems like such a natural fit for this situation. The writing does not skimp on elaborating on her feelings and concerns, either, and the way that she has not totally subsumed her normal identity to her professional one should make for an interesting contrast to Loid going forward.

But the appeal of the second episode goes way beyond that. It finds a superior balance between serious and more light-hearted moments while also working in some more fantastic action sequences – some of it not even in the foreground. The art style fully captures the flavor and feel of a ’60s or ’70s spy series, while the setting borrows liberally from East Germany without being a slave to that comparison. The musical score is also in high swing. Most importantly, the great late sequence where the two agree to pose as a married couple while in the midst of a running fight gleefully captures the spirit of cheesy spectacle that so many anime series aim for but few achieve.

This one is special, guys n’ gals. You owe it to yourself to check it out if you aren’t already.

Ascendance of a Bookworm s3 episode 1 (episode 27)

Streams: Crunchyroll on Mondays Rating: 4 (of 5)

Ascendance of a Bookworm ranks up with 86 as one of my most favorite series of the past three years, so it may go without saying that its return to anime form was my most-anticipated title of the year, much less the Spring ’22 season. Since I previously did the episode reviews for the first two seasons for Anime New Network, I intend to continue them here. Since Crunchyroll is numbering the episodes by total instead of by season, I will use their episode numbering going forward.

Note #1: While I used the spelling Myne throughout the earlier episode reviews, I will begin using the spelling Main here since that is clearly what is being used in-character.

Note #2: For those who may need a refresher, I recommend checking out Episodes 26.5 p1 and p2, each of which succinctly recaps major developments from each season; the former is narrated by Lutz, while the latter is narrated by Gil, and both are available on Crunchyroll as well.

It doesn’t take long for the series to get back to what it does best: advance both the world-building and Main’s ambitions while also furthering the timeline. In this case, that means preparations for winter, including new clothing, and funding that means putting additional copies of Main’s first book on sale for the first time. That also means advancing the tech level further. With the request of Johann (a character who had blink-and-you’ll-miss-them brief appearances in earlier seasons) for Main to be his patron for his upcoming graduation project (my term, but that’s essentially what it is), the steps are set in motion for the development of a movable type printing press. Though this invention originated in China in some form as early as the late 9th century A.D., it first appeared in Europe in the 1450s and eventually revolutionized Europe, proving critical to many social and religious breakthroughs later on. The impact in this setting is also likely to be immeasurable.

But that’s a development that I suspect may be in the works for most of the season, as Johann has about a year to get things done. The more immediate concern is that the Ink Guild is not taking kindly to Main’s development of her own ink for printing books, and that is already starting to cause enough trouble that Main’s security has to be taken into account. This is something that was bound to happen eventually in the story, as Main is just too valuable an individual for too many reasons, and the passive way that the commoners of Ehrenfest who know her are covering for her can only go so far. What’s more, the final scene of the episode suggests that a noble may be pulling the strings behind the Ink Guild to get them to go after Main, though to what end is unclear.

That is a particularly important development, as it represents a key shift in the storytelling. Up until this point, the challenges and threats facing Main were very straightforward ones: how to make her book a reality, how to survive her Devouring condition, how to deal with people at the cathedral, and so forth. For the first time, Main is facing more covert dangers, which was inevitable now that nobles are more aware of her. Seeing how the circle around her tightens to protect her provides great story fodder for this season, as does seeing how Main adjusts to living away from home for the first time. The scene where she’s crying herself to sleep shows again how completely attached Main has become to her new family.

In short, it’s all good. Between all that and a few guest appearances of familiar faces, this a solid continuation that should please any fan of the earlier seasons.