Forum - View topicAscendance of a Bookworm
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5959 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 2 Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 4
Was released a couple days ago digitally, not sure when the physical release happened. Of all the Ascendance of a Bookworm novels, this is the one I have reread multiple times in just two short days. Why, because it will hit you hard in the gut, and keep on slamming you down. Using the Kindle completion metric the first 64% of the light novel will feature the spoiler[showdown with the High Bishop] and its immediate aftermath. It will be a ride that will make some of you cry and some of you rage. There will also be a reveal. The last 36% of the novel, doesn't feature much of Myne, and when it does she is not the POV. Which I think hurts this part of the novel, because we want to know what she is thinking and feeling. But the following is the massive rage inducing part. If the novel had ended at the at the 64% mark, it would have been okay to some degree. spoiler[The bad guys are defeated and you have a painful and a traumatic event.] I could have lived with that, after all they have been hinting that way. But the 'Cleaning up the Mess' chapter, lays bare some dark stuff with the three central 'good' nobles. I personally consider what Ferdinand did to be a gross betrayal of Myne, even greater than the mind reading. It hurts even more because Myne spoiler[blessed him too]. The hot take you can get for Ferdinand, is yes he does like Myne to some degree, but he is a Noble first. So it sucks to be a commoner. In some ways the good nobles are just as bad as the evil nobles. Really, I just want to wall up Ferdinand in some alcove, with just an opening for air and slotting him some gruel. You will hate the good nobles for what is mentioned in the last third of this novel, they have no problem killing innocent commoners, and it is mentioned several times what they are willing to do. This novel hit me a good one. If there is a continuation of the anime series, I wonder if they are really going to show us what these good nobles are actually are, or are they just going to offer a sanitized version of their priorities. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5959 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 3 Adopted Daughter of an Archduke Volume 1
This new volume dropped digitally yesterday. Much lighter in tone than the previous volume. Mostly just Myne adapting to noble ways, advancing her printing agenda, and learning about her new family. You see new ways of the use of magic, one which would make any fantasy dwarf angry with envy. Myne or Rozemyne does use her new found position to her advantage and even can butt heads with Ferdinand. I highly enjoyed it, even without any real nemesis in this volume. Lutz even gets 'woke' when he realizes that perhaps he has been sitting on his laurels (or not pushing himself enough), spoiler[when he discovers just how far Rozemyne has moved ahead of him] (and not just because she is the Archduke's daughter now). What made me angry was The 1st Ascendance of a Bookworm Character Poll. Myne got second place to first place Ferdinand. It has been mentioned before that he is really popular in Japan, and I just don't know why. In this novel, even Karstedt mentions that it might be a thing if Rozemyne and Ferdinand marry. Yuck. I get the feeling that the writing intends to have Rozemyne soften Ferdinand's edges and have that type of 'foil' relationship. It seems the Japanese reader base loves Ferdinand so it might become reality. Who are the demographics reading this in Japan, I'd be very curious. |
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shosakukan
Posts: 334 |
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Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) is a large Japanese printing company. (When Kōdansha started Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Shōgakukan started Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1959, DNP printed them.) DNP also has some companies that deal in books, and one of them is honto, which is a company that deals in both physical books and e-books. Recently, honto did 'What light novels are popular and who reads them?' research. According to the results of the research, 61% of the readers of Ascendance of a Bookworm are female. 16% of the readers of Ascendance of a Bookworm are 30-something people. 38% of the readers of it are 40-something. 25% of the readers of it are 50-something. So it seems that rather a large part of the readers of Ascendance of a Bookworm is women who are 40-something in Japan. (People who read Ascendance of a Bookworm on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website may be relatively younger, though.) The format of the Ascendance of a Bookworm books is a larger book than ordinary light-novel bunkobon, hence the price of a Ascendance of a Bookworm book is higher than that of an ordinary light-novel bunkobon. It, too, may suggest that readers of Ascendance of a Bookworm tend to be older persons who are likely to have more disposable income than kids. I have read an essay by mangaka Ishinomori Shōtarō about the genesis of seinen manga. Also in a scene in Ai...Shirisomeshikoroni..., which is an autobiographical manga by Fujiko Fujio A, some characters talked about the genesis of seinen manga. When people who had read manga aimed at children in their childhood became seinen or adults, they kept reading manga instead of outgrowing manga, and publishing firms and mangaka provided them with manga more suitable for seinen/adults. Perhaps the same applies to light novels. In the Japanese title of Ascendance of a Bookworm, the term which corresponds to 'ascendance' in the English title is '下剋上 gekokujō'. A good example of a person who did gekokujō is sengoku daimyō Saitō Dōsan (1494-1556). Saitō Dōsan appears as the protagonist of the 1st part in historical novel Kunitori Monogatari by Shiba Ryōtarō. (Oda Nobunaga is the protagonist of the 2nd part of it.) I recommend you to read Kunitori Monogatari if a North American publishing firm publishes an English edition of it. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5959 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Well that explains the love of Ferdinand. Even the noble ladies spoiler[love Ferdinand] as shown in the latest volume. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5959 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 3 Adopted Daughter of an Archduke Volume 3
Came out digitally a few days ago on Amazon. Another good novel in the series. I love the series, the characters and setting, so that drives my reading for it. Reading the light novels, reading the manga, and have watched the anime. Nothing major happens in the novel. Myne continues collecting her ingredients for her Jureve to help cure her mana clumps with the requisite monster conflict. Myne continues working with her Guttenbergs to improve the printing press. Myne gets to see how official executions are conducted in the Dukedom. The are of a magical nature, so it was quite interesting. The situation and resolution of the city of Hasse event, did stress Myne out and really brought home how the Nobles see the common people. Nobles really consider commoners to be an expendable resource. Razing the city of Hasse and killing "ALL" the citizens of the city is probably what would have happened if not for Myne. But Ferdinand used it as an object lesson for Myne to hammer home what Nobles think and believe. Not really pretty. There is also a thing that happened, which Ferdinand didn't find out the full details of due to his temperament at the time. Which will probably catch Ferdinand and Myne unaware until it is too late in future volumes. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5959 Location: Virginia, United States |
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I wished the publishers would keep a volume notation on this series instead of solely using Part 5 of Volume 4. There is no way of knowing how many parts each volume has.
Kinda sad that the third season of the anime, seemed a bit rushed, but still I hope their is a fourth season. The good news for us fans, is that they indeed now have a figurine of Myne out there. Expensive as hell, but they have it. Buy it while it is available, because for some reason this series has been merchandise poor. Long ongoing light novel series, three seasons of anime, and practically nothing for merch the entire time. Legal merch that is. I have just finished reading Part 5 of Volume 4 light novel, the latest chapter reads J-Novel has are Part 5 Avatar of a Goddess Volume 5. Rozemyne continues to get drawn into the Sovereignity's Zent issues, Wilfried seems to be having a melt down and starts seeing Rozemyne as an enemy, despite knowing better. This story has become brutal in some respects for Rozemyne. Where the royals she helped find each other, see her as just another pawn for the political game. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5959 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 5, Avatar of the Goddess, Volume 7
J-Novel is working on the weekly chapter translations for this part and volume. Major changes happening in this volume. The cover picture showcases one of them. I have read up to the fourth chapter of this volume. The third chapter deals with Rozemyne's physical change and the fourth its immediate aftermath. With that, new knowledge leads to clearer danger from Lady Georgine and Ahrensbach. The end is in sight, sadly, and things are drawing even closer. I get a feeling that the gods of this world, don't pay particular attention to the mortals of this world, unless they are directly in contact with them. The gods seem to know there is a problem with Yurgenschmidt, but not why the problem is happening. Nor do they seem proactive in doing anything about it. One wonders if they are even like what we would consider to be gods. They seem to be bound by roles and have no personal interest. Unlike the gods and goddesses of our many mythos. |
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