Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 (Manga Review)
Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! Part 1 (If there aren’t any books, I’ll just have to make some!!)
Honzuki no Gekokujou: Part 1
本好きの下剋上 ～司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません～ 第一部 「本がないなら作ればいい！」

I don’t exactly recall what made me take a gander at Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1, but boy am I glad I did. Since this series is broken into five parts, I figured I’d review part 1 real quick.

–> Buy Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 1 from Amazon.com

The Story, in Brief (Minor SPOILERS!!!)

A book-loving Japanese college girl named URANO Motosu dies during an earthquake. However, she becomes conscious in the body of a dying young girl named Myne as Myne’s conscious disappears. As Myne, Motosu finds herself in another, European-styled medieval world. Further, her family is poor. And to make matters worse, there are no books to be had, except by the elite.

With Myne’s memories as well as Motosu’s memories, the new Myne sets out to to try to make her own book. Further, because she’s used to cleanliness, she also makes some shampoo for her hair and puts her hair up with a wooden pin. Her advanced knowledge also gets her some work as an assistant to her father’s coworker in the military. She eventually comes to the attention of a merchant named Benno, who buys her shampoo and hair ornament design. He makes a contract with her and her best, male friend, Lutz.

However, Myne has a disease known as the Devouring. Her Motosu persona allowed her to live on a bit longer, but Myne needs more help than is normally provided to a peasant. When the local temple learn of her condition, they take a keen interest in her. Now she has to decide whether to keep with her plans with Lutz to make a book, or become a miko in the temple to possibly access books.

A Fascinating Premise

There are a lot of isekai titles out there. I know they all have different ways for the protagonist to get into the other world. Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 has a somewhat dark entry as Motosu is “reborn” as a dying, young girl. However, this is quickly overshadowed by the fact that Myne’s family are happy their daughter/sister is alive. And thanks to Suzuka-sensei’s excellent artwork, I found myself quickly sucked into this new world.

Throughout this first part, Myne has to adjust to her life in this relatively primitive world where she has no access to books. I found it a bit of a stretch that as Motosu, she memorized so many things, like how to make shampoo, or how to make paper. But, Myne is adorable, so I can’t help but root for her efforts. And it isn’t as if Kazuki-sensei has Myne be successful right off the bat. She has more success with the shampoo, but when it comes to making paper, Myne has a journey to get it right.

I like the little puppy love relationship between Myne and her best friend and partner, Lutz. I know that inside, Myne should be around 20. However, Myne is physically a kid the same age as Lutz. So for me, I wasn’t bothered by this mental age-difference. Further, Myne does rely on Lutz quite a lot. As such, I’ve really enjoyed their wholesome relationship.

The final volume in part 1 is where Myne makes her decision on how her life moves forward. As such, even though I initially didn’t understand why a manga (and originally, a light novel series) would be broken up into parts, I get it now. Each part will cover a different part of Myne’s life in this new world.

J-Novel Club

I’m not a fan of J-Novel club, starting with how they fumbled The Slayers novels (IMO). They seem to be VERY adverse to using Japanese honorifics. Because Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 is set in a European-type fantasy setting, I get why J-Novel Club decided to flush the Japanese honorifics. Personally, I wish J-Novel Club included them because in a weird sort of way, Myne is using Japanese. This is why there are often times when there are words she uses that others don’t know. Clearly, her use of Japanese honorifics means something.

The adapters attempt to cover this. But as is usually the case with Japanese honorifics, if the translator/adapter can’t think of something to force-translate the honorific to, it gets ignored (which totally isn’t a lazy maneuver). Despite the fact that I’m yapping a lot about this, I let it ride for the most part. However, the lack of honorifics does remove one Japanese joke, where Myne’s dad gets jealous of Myne addressing his coworker as “Otto-san” (a pun on “otousan”, which is Japanese for “dad”). Oh well.

Beyond that, I don’t think the adaptation is trying to write their own story rather than the Japanese story.

Final Thoughts

Though the first seven volumes of Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 are small, there’s a lot of entertainment packed into them. As I read, I found myself not wanting to put the volumes down. And Suzuka-sensei’s art helps a lot. Now, onto the second part.