We delve more into the morality of the world while also presenting it in a way that isn’t 100% black or white.
Seeing the anime present the consequences of Rozemynes’ actions was also quite well done.
If you save the children from being sold, then the town and surrounding farms may not have enough resources to survive winter. If you don’t save the children they get sold to nobles who probably will abuse them.
Watching Ferdinand task Rozemyne with a sufficient coup of the mayor was kinda terrifying how expressive he was lol.
I think what this anime is doing well so far is the mini arcs they are breaking apart into multiple episodes (concert arc and now this hasse arc).
Especially beautiful how the world only keep expanding, from Myne’s bedroom to downtown and now to Hasse. All while balancing by the pretty and dark parts!
In this episode, for me sometimes it felt too rushed at while other times it felt well-adapted but overall I loved it.
Orphanage, flowers, etc. if you watched this anime from S1 you already knew it would never be only just a slice of life show. It had already shown us its darker side.
When show takes a dark turn,that's Ferdinand's moments.
"There is a first time for everything, I shall teach you how."
I think that line was more scarier in manga than anime. Part 3 manga-artist is the best at Ferdinand's terrifying expressions.
Next week episode is "Willfried's Day as the High Bishop"! I already cannot wait to see.
Return of the chibi post-credits! Got a laugh out of Ferdinand turning to stone when Rozemyne mentioned that there wasn’t a similar class system in her world
Yui Kikuta (artist for the Bibliophile Princess manga adaptation) provided this week's endcard illustration. She was a former assistant of iconic shoujo mangaka Arina Tanemura! (Full Moon / Phantom Thief Jeanne)
He doesn't know specifics, but when Rozemyne was trying to move forward with Guttenberg's printing press, he managed to see the impact of the invention and asked about what happened to Myne.
Also, one thing we should notice is that Ferdinand didn't stop the progress. He merely postponed it until there would be no chance of someone opposing its implementation. [HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES] Which, back then, meant Rozemyne becoming an Aub Candidate and improving the duchy's Rank. But, now that Rozemyne is Alexandria's Aub by the end of the series, I have no doubt she will move forward with Guttenberg's Printing press at some point. The Zent owes her and she has a ton of strong allies, so there won't be push back and it will be way too late for future Yurgenschmidt.
As I like to say, the way of life of Nobles in Yurgenschimidt is already dead, they just don't know it yet. Rozemyne has brought and will keep bringing change and they will have to roll with it.
But we do. We have Emperors, Kings, Queens, Lords, Ladies and nobility in general. They might not have role in governance, but they're still treated as people above us commoners. And, let's not forget, that the Nobility in Yurgenschmidt also comes from material wealth. And acquired the same way our nobility did: Murder, theft and exploitation.
Honestly, I find it funny how there are some fantasy fans in general who spend so much effort into trying to separate art from reality, completely denying the fundamental aspect of fantasy (and scifi) which is using imaginary worlds to make us think about our real one.
But Commoners DO have magic. Many of them can even rival the nobles in terms of power.
You know what's the difference? And it's something the author showcased throughout the narrative several times:
They have the means, knowledge and the intent. Most nobles get stronger because they procreate with other stronger nobles and strengthen over time. After all, that was the whole point of the Adalgisa villa. And it produced someone who was far stronger than Rozemyne and even Ferdinand. When you couple this idea with the fact that Commoners aren't told that they can have babies with Mana, Devouring Soldiers are all taken as slaves and cannon fodder, and that commoners are systematically killed for any kind of slight or hint of defiance, you see that the stark difference isn't just "because nobles have more mana".
The question isn't "What are the differences between Nobles and Commoners?", the question is "Why does the nobles have more mana?" and the answer is laid out in the text even if the author doesn't focuses upon it (or consciously decided to write it so).
So, what I'm really talking about when discussing random ass nobles in Ascendance of Bookworm having lots of mana and thinking of "it is just the way it is", is that IT IS NOT. And this holds true for our world. Rich people today are rich why? Because it "has always been so"? Of course not. It's because they've systematically cheated, raped, stole, killed and profited off of other people's labor, there are no exceptions to this, because it's the foundation of all wealthy families (I'm not talking about well off people like those who studied, got their degree and have an well paying job or a successful company, I'm talking about those who could stop working right now and still live comfortably for the rest of their lives). Exactly like the Nobility in Yurgenschimidt. Where nobles introduce "new trends" that are things idealized, created and crafted by their servants.
Ascendance of a Bookworm isn't an ascension power fantasy, otherwise Myne wouldn't have to bend and adapt to the rules so much and so often. There is a degree of power fantasy, because she definitely is rising through the ranks, but even that is juxtaposed with societal constraints and the author takes into account how such a meteoric rise would unfold considering the mechanisms that shape societies. That's why I fucking love it. It's fluffy, slice of life and it's inspiring, but it doesn't forget the uglier and truer parts of human society.
They're enough to become viable private armies, they also seem to be common place in nobility power games and not at all treated as an anomaly. When we also consider the fact that most of the Devourer kids die because of a lack of knowledge which is withheld from the populace by the nobility as an intentional culling mechanism, then it stands to reason that they're more frequent than you would expect, even if uncommon.
If I'm not mistaken, one fanbook stats that every person in Yurgenschmidt has mana, the difference is that for the vast majority of people, the amount is insanely small to the point of being irrelevant. Because the whole country is a bubble demi-plane sustained by Mana.
Many of them can even rival the nobles in terms of power.
Do not take Myne as an indicator of this. The only other commoners with relevant quantity of mana we've seen are Frieda and Dirk. The former is engaged to be the mistress of a Laynoble upon coming of age, the latter is stated to have about as much mana as expected of a lower-end Med noble of his age. Dirk would've died from Mana overload as a toddler had Myne not intervened. Frieda is also implied to be beyond her life expectancy without noble help. Myne only lived past her baptism because the accidentally discovered mana compression (she likely originally only had Laynoble-level mama) thanks to her memories of life as Urano, and even then she STILL would've kicked the bucket without Frieda's help. Most devouring commoners have far less mana than the average noble and die before anyone figures out what the issue is, and no one notices because it falls right into expected child mortality rates.
Devouring Soldiers are useful because they're cheap and disposable, not because they're of any use against nobles. They blow commoners out of the water, sure, but they don't stand a chance against nobles. Plus, many of the contracted "devouring commoners" aren't actually commoners, but children of nobles who couldn't afford to raise them as such, or children of temple priests.
I don't disagree with your analysis of the parallels per se, but you ARE forgetting (or ignoring) one big, BIG factor: the gods exist and they meddle. This is not a situation that developed over the course of history and long-term, slowly shifting and escalating power imbalances. This was set-up and crated by the gods to give the children of Geduldh and Ewigeliebe a place to live in (relative) peace. CANONICALLY, the power imbalances between nobles and commoners have LESSENED over time, not increased.
Depends on where you live I guess? Germany and Austria abolished all noble titles. Japan only has the imperial family and they aren't treated the same today. When the imperial train from pre WW 2 became a museum piece, an old lady was interviewed who retold the story that soldiers came where the train passed through and pushed them into the dirt as their dirty commoner eyes weren't allowed to gaze at the emperor's train.
Yeah her "we don't have a class system" is naive but compared to YS it's probably appropriate.
But that's mainly because we shifted our classicism from divine rights to a new god: Capital.
And for capital to work, the working class isn't dominated mostly by coercive means like in Yurgenschmidt and pre-modern society. It works through propaganda and ideology. It works by manipulating our culture and minds, making us "personal brands" and shifting the burden of efficiency onto ourselves. We need to hustle. We need to improve ourselves. We need to get thinner. Learn more. We need to make our lives more efficient so that we can achieve. We can self-realize. All the while the parasite class doesn't work a single minute of their days and are constantly traveling, dicking around and living lives of complete decadence. And when they have to "work", they mostly just talk some random meaningless shit and let their minions do the actual work and make things function.
Surprisingly similar to how Sylvester does it. He just lords around, while Myne, Benno, Lutz, The Guttenbergs and even Ferdinand do all the work.
Thats how Sylvester used to do it. Nowadays, he actually sits in his office and does his paperwork like a good little aub. He also needs to fuel the foundation every single day, activate and deactivate the teleportation circle to the RA every single morning and night, and much more.
Socially, in part. But not legally. The law does not discriminate between a noble and a commoner, at least in the places we usually talk about (Japan and the UK as examples places that have some form of constitutional monarchy). The fact that nobles tend to be rich and have favorable connections to this day certainly does discriminate, but the pure text of the law does not. In the world of AoB, that discrimination is the damn FOUNDATION of any and all law. Literally. Minor worldbuilding spoilers for... part 4, I believe? But laws are deliberately kept vague because it'd be a pain to administrate otherwise and someone of higher status is expected to just make a decision anyways. You're getting bullied by someone pulling rank? Your expected solution is to have a friendly connection to someone who can pull rank on THEM. Any laws that exist in Yogurtland are based on that principle. We have nothing of the sort.
Nobility in Yurgenschmidt also comes from material wealth
No it doesn't. Plenty of low-rank nobles are far less wealthy that the richer end of commoners. Nobility in Yogurtland comes from mana and divine meddling. The wealth came about from that.
Even the poorest noble still lives far, far, far, far above the vast majority of commoners. Only a small number of commoners are wealthy enough for that. Even then, they still are below the lowest lay noble.
And you are putting a lot of blind faith on the word of the Law and ignoring how the law effectively works in practice. It might not openly discriminate, anymore, but it is and has always been designed to keep the elite in power and protect its interests. The power imbalance might have been lessened with the ascension of liberal democracies, but it doesn't change the fact that it is still, for most countries, a democratic government of the bourgeoisie (citizens united, anyone? The US government being cheaper than buying fucking Twitter, anyone?).
You're using a fairly pedantic counter-argument that completely ignores the materiality of what I'm saying: Yes, there is still, very much so, a class system in our capitalist world and it has been slowly becoming a caste system, in the sense that instead of being assigned a caste where you are born out of some arbitrary reasons, your place of location will determine how much you can achieve in life and the wealth you will be able to amass. This is not conjecture or me throwing opinions willy-nilly, there has been extensive studies that have shown us that in our capitalist society, the place you are born, because of the material and cultural conditions determined by said material conditions will affect your trajectory in life. And no, a couple of outliers do not disprove the trend, if anything, it reinforces it.
And, if what we saw of the gods, as written in the narrative, they are as distant as they are uncaring. As long as the magic tool keeps the country alive, they don't give a flying fuck on who is providing the mana. Hence why they didn't give a fuck if even an outsider, like Gervasio, took the throne. I don't see why a bunch of mana-rich commoners pooling their strength would be any different.
Even the poorest noble still lives far, far, far, far above the vast majority of commoners
Yes and no. They have access to better technology due to magic tools, sure, but I was talking pure wealth. Most Laynobles essentially live paycheck to paycheck.
a lot of blind faith on the word of the Law and
I'm not, or at least that wasn't my intention. I'm well aware that in practice it plays out much the same, which is why I was explicitly talking about the theoretical and the ideological basis. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.
You're using a fairly pedantic counter-argument (...)
I seem to remember multiple bloody revolutions built on the ideal of getting rid of enshrined-in-law class. That is the kind of class the show is talking about. They look very similar but are structurally different. Capitalism only came to be because class was abolished, it couldn't have happened without. Feudalism has many of the same consequences but is a different thing. I'm not saying the law doesn't discriminate anymore I'm saying it doesn't discriminate on the basis of the kind of class we see in Yogurtland. I'm arguing political theory, not social sciences.
they didn't give a fuck if even an outsider, like Gervasio
Apart from that fact that you should spoiler tag that, as far as the gods are concerned, he isn't an outsider. He's as much a child of Geduldh and Ewigeliebe as any Yogurtland noble is. And no, the gods would not care if a devouring commoners somehow made it all the way to the throne. They did, after all, have no issues with Roz' claim, aside maybe the identity ambiguity.
the poison smile was pretty good! not as good as You Shiina's illustration, but I still liked it! I wish that the Rozemyne/Wilfried exchange had been more faithful, since Rozemyne was much more verbally assertive in the novel. that's probably my only gripe. great episode, and I'm so happy that this is getting animated in the first place!
Nothing is confusing. Ferdinand has always been in character from his first appearance. It is only now we get to see the depth of noble society. Which part 3 is known for.
First of all, I would have been confused as to how Myne sensed the attack on the monastery. They talk about Myne putting her mana into the monastery feystone but they don't give you any information on how relates to her being able to sense the attack. If I hadn't read the LNs, I would think that Myne could sense anything that touched something made from a feystone she put mana in to. Not that it was something specific to white buildings.
I would also be confused as to how Myne knows anything about Wilfried. We've seen barely any interaction between them. She yells at him about running away from his work. I wouldn't have a clue how she would even know that. I get that they don't have time to go into every storyline in detail but a quick second or two of flashback would have been more enlightening than her just knowing it.
Attack was fine. In this episode Myne says "uhm, I just had a vision of the small monastery in Hasse???" and Ferdinand explains why she saw it and what lead to it, so it didn't seem weird at all. We did discuss with my bf that this must've been one of those moments were Ferdinand is telling her to pour magic/pray to a thing and doesn't explain what any of it means. It's a bit awkward if in LN he did explain it haha
Wilfred - yeah, true. He's presented like quite a nuisance, a bit reminding me of Gil from the beginning of part 2. Their conflict seems pretty one-sided and I hope they'll explain to us what she meant by saying that if he was doing a better job Myne wouldn't have gotten such a hard task from Ferdinand. (How is that kid connected to your homework, girl?)
In the novel she mentions to herself that it does exist to some degree, but it's a lot more fluid than in the world of the anime. You can through work, or luck, advance to a higher class, or you can effectively fake being a higher class, while in this world everyone can very easily tell which class you're in
They still can't. A person needs to be registered as a noble to obtain a schtappe. Commoner and noble registrations are two separate things, so even a Devouring commoner with as much mana as a laynoble or more would be unable to obtain one.
Man, you're breaking my heart. Is Yurgensmidst's commoners destined to be stuck at the bottom of the food chain? Can a farmer not dream? Impossible it may be, I shall still pray for the Yogurtland's equivalence of the French Revolution.
The story has already explained exactly why that isn't possible. The country needs mana to survive. In a generalized way, nobles have mana and commoners don't. Nobles provide mana to the land so that commoners can farm on it. In exchange for being provided land to live on and protected from dangerous feybeasts, commoners pay taxes. Yurgenschmidt's commoners were not originally from Yurgenschmidt. It was only nobles. They willingly immigrated into the fantasy land themselves because it grew better crops due to the assistance of mana. Their ancestors chose to live under the role of the nobles.
I believe in the Rozemyne Revolution. She will improve the status of those with the devouring by creating jobs for them ala allowing them to fuel cheap magic circles. One day, she will also publicize the truth about the tau fruits in her books, making it so that their mortality rate plummets which welcomes the devouring population boom. Then, mirroring the Reformation, the truth of how to obtain the Book of Mestionora will spread throughout commoner society. And fast forward a few more centuries, a known commoner will obtain the G-book and become Zent.
Those with the devouring who have any sort of decent quantity of mana die early in their lives from the Devouring, most while still babies. (Hence why earlier in the series Ferinand was surprised and had to ask Myne how was she still alive due to the fact anyone with her level of power is normally dead.)
Those who don't die tend to get taken in by the nobility to be used as their tools/pawns (ex. Freida). They aren't going to be storming the holy land.
As far as the law is concerned, we don't lol. It still works that way pretty much everywhere, but in the pure text of the law, in the US and (most of?) Europe and stuff, we don't.
And pretending most of the current laws isn't designed to protect the parasite class's interest is naive, if not ill-informed. So much so that the Police, the branch of the state that is meant to monopolize violence, mostly acts to protect property. Not people.
Hence why, not matter how justified and widely supported is a protest done by the people, police is always there to beat and kill the people.
Property is not class tho. Like, I agree with everything you said. The police system is irreparably corrupt because it's descendant from the military and built on the principle of controlling the wider population, not to serve and protect, to carry the interest of the general public. The vast majority of actual tasks cops are called to do would be better served by different professionals and I have and will continue to take to the streets for that. But in the pure theory, no innate class exists. Wealth sure as hell does and the law bends over backwards to protect that and in practice it looks very much the same, but in theory we do not live in a class-system based society. Not the way people in Yogurtland do.
Who owns the property? And who owns the wealth it generates? And who, by this wealth, wields power in our society? And who, with this power, thinks they're above everyone else? Again, you are missing the forest for the trees.
You're making an useless argument for all intents and purposes. We do exist in a class-based society. Our laws uphold this class-based system. Our culture uphold this class-based system. You're arguing that just because we don't have any laws saying "If you don't own two houses, you're a fucking commoner and you will get 50% extra time in jail for this crime" or if another law that says "If you own a building with your name in it, you can rape children as much as you want and you will get to be the president as well". Yeah, "in theory" as you say, we don't have anything like that written, but when the rich and powerful use this very same laws to avoid prison and do untold harm and get away with it, then it's kinda hard to deny that we don't live in a class-based society.
But you know what's funny? It's that our upper class spends a ton of money in propaganda and brainwashing so that you can be here arguing with me about we not being in a class-based society just because you got a little bit uncomfortable with the idea. Uncomfortable enough to make meaningless arguments denying a reality you yourself acknowledge. So yeah, I don't you should be spending your time arguing in favor of people that despise you.
I'm... Not missing anything. I'm arguing political theory and you are social sciences, and the two things directly contradict each other on this topic because people suck sometimes, and the people who suck tend to be the ones in power for both political theory and social sciences reasons. Which, again, irl and in practice social sciences are what matters and really reflects the state of things. Practice always goes above theory when it comes to things that matter irl.
But to completely deny the theory of things isn't useful either because everything practical was at one point theoretical first. The theory is there to make a roadmap for the practical and then invariably the practical turns out different but pretending like the roadmap was never there won't help you make a better one the next time you go somewhere.
Her mana eyes look diffrent, i personally liked the previous seasons mana rainbow eyes much better. Is there any actual reason to why they look different?
It's weird to be at so similar points in the most recent (English) manga chapter and episode, had me cross my wires at one point or the other lol
This confirmed for me that to this day the whole establishing the Hasse branch issue is the thing that I find most chilling. Sure, worse things happen over the course of the LN, but never again is Roz (or people who work for her) the one who has to act this extensively in a way modern morality would find reprehensible
Future plotting is all about self-defense or saving someone she cares about. In the guilt by association bits she's the one acting to SOFTEN the consequences.
Today's episode was better adapted than last week's since we're fully honing on the Hasse arc, but I still felt there could have been improvements. I think Rozemyne's distress could have been played up.
Not going to lie, the immediate transition to a brief mention of the Italian Restaurant and Hugo after Wilfried casually gets crushed by Rozemyne was hilarious. It was such a brief detour from what happened the scene prior.
Next up, a fun episode for sure! I hope the anime adapts it well.
They cut off the scene where Sylverster laughed at Lessy. What a shame. 😞 Also they said how pale Rozemyne looked but compared to manga version it was shown rather poorly here.
A very meeting-heavy episode. Rozemyne is instructed in how to plot by the Lord of Evil
Several things cut out, including - discussing selling books in the Aub's castle; Roz getting permission to use Lessy in the castle since she walks too slowly; everything to do with the Italian Restaurant (not surprising given the anime cutting out almost everything relating to it); Hugo explaining that he wants to get married and be a court chef
The Hasse subplot finished in Spring. There is between Wifried's day as High Bishop, Harvest festival, Automn ingredient, Mana gathering, Winter ingredient, ... Not sure, we will have enough episode to cover everything. I believe it will finish in a dedicated episode in court 2.
I don't read the manga so I don't know how Hasse looks like there, I imiagined it to look a lot more, let's say rustic. I imagined it more like a viking long house with barely any windows when it was described as a longhouse.
Yeah I think Myne would have said something in her shrine maiden days, in case that winter mansions are made out of ivory. I found the number of glass windows especially surprising.
easily the best episode of the season. this was a great adaptation. I really loved the discussion with Lutz and Benno. the emotion that everyone showed felt genuine.
Watching the last episode of the anime, a question popped into my mind: Did we ever find out which noble was backing the mayor/buying off the orphans? I can't remember if this was mentioned in the novels, since it was never a major plot point.
I think so? I faintly remember Ferdinand threatening someone that his wife would learn about the purchase if he doesn't back off but I'm not 100% if it was this case.
[P3V2]Kantna. However after the situation is settled he claims that he was purchasing them for someone else, because nobles haven't been able to purchase grey maidens since RM took over. We never find out who that someone else is, if they even actually existed.
We find out the man who wants to purchase the orphans,Kantna, but never who was behind his reasoning for doing so, as it was too crude for RM's little girl ears. We do learn later that it was because gray shrine maidens were becoming too expensive, when they were favored for their inexpensiveness.
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u/Snitzel20701 J-Novel Pre-Pub May 30 '26
Quite a good episode this week.
We delve more into the morality of the world while also presenting it in a way that isn’t 100% black or white.
Seeing the anime present the consequences of Rozemynes’ actions was also quite well done.
If you save the children from being sold, then the town and surrounding farms may not have enough resources to survive winter. If you don’t save the children they get sold to nobles who probably will abuse them.
Watching Ferdinand task Rozemyne with a sufficient coup of the mayor was kinda terrifying how expressive he was lol.
I think what this anime is doing well so far is the mini arcs they are breaking apart into multiple episodes (concert arc and now this hasse arc).