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Category: Books and Stories

Ascendance of a Bookworm *DNF

So I read Ascendance of a Bookworm recently:


A decently interesting reincarnation/transmigration manga. I didn't know it had an anime so I haven't watched that, but the manga is decent. It follows Urano, a Japanese woman who became a librarian after graduating college but got crushed under a pile of books during a earthquake and thus was reborn into the body of 'Myne', a little girl with a weak constitution, and a 'commoner' family.

I'll start with the things I liked:

I really liked seeing the process of them 'inventing' and engineering all the different things she wanted/needed (usually to make books), it was really interesting to see how they came up with different things and solved the issues they ran into while manufacturing all the items they needed. Of course, this means that it is by no means a action series, but I personally found the pace to be okay and I actually don't have a particular preference for action so I rather liked the manga overall. Also, the cast of characters are relatively endearing, like Benno, Lutz, and Ferdinand the High Priest who all did their utmost to help Myne/Urano. All this made the manga interesting for me and is why I binged a good amount of the manga.

However, I did not finish it because of some gripes I have with the story/Main Character:

Myne is supposed to be a extreme bookworm judging by how she acts (crying when she finds out there are no books, crying because her first attempt at a primitive book failed, etcetc) but honestly, it just falls flat. Like, I'm being told that she just really loves books and I'm seeing her very averse reactions to not being able to get books but like it still feels really shallow. Why does she love books to such an extent? You don't need a grand reason for liking books of course, but I dunno... when you're writing a story, I feel like these kinds of details need to be added. But that's just my personal opinion on the 'bookworm' part.

Another thing is that the MC feels rather spoilt/inconsiderate considering she's supposed to be a grown woman that's graduated from college? Looking at how much she loves books, I would assume she is very well read, yet she is so ignorant to her family (and others') plights. Her personality comes off as whiny and selfish to me even though I think it's supposed to serve some comedic purpose sometimes, but other times it's gotten her and the people around her into trouble that moves the plot forward, but it just solidifies her uncaring personality for me. There's also the fact that she has such disregard for her family's situation; her family is not rich but she's always having to do this or that without sparing a thought for them. She does grow as a character and person, but I just felt that I would rather read other stories.

Despite all this, I think it's a decent manga to read because it's still interesting, and I think the story and characters will grow on you. 6.5/10 for me for this manga.


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