Ascendance of a Bookworm starts off in one of the least unique ways an anime can start these days: the main character wakes up to find themself in a fantasy world. But instead of the overpowered protagonist or chosen one that you might see in other shows, the main character Urano finds herself in the body of a sickly young girl. To add to the unusual start, instead of fighting to get home or overturn some sort of demon lord, our main character has only one goal in mind: reading books.

This mundane goal sets the tone for all the events that proceed it, but as unlikely as it might seem this show knows how to make each moment exciting and memorable. With an objective of reading all she can, you’d imagine that there would be no real conflict—but just because it sounds easy doesn’t mean it actually is. You quickly learn that being in a more primitive era has left staple technologies—including books and the process of manufacturing them—only in the hands of the rich and royal. That is, of course, ignoring completely that this world doesn’t even have a written language in common with our Earth.

That is the core element of the first season’s story progression: Urano (who now goes by “Myne” in her new life) doing her best in a bid to eventually find—or perhaps even craft—her own books in a place where that task feels all-but impossible. From investigating methods of production from clay tablets or wooden blocks, to venturing into the nearby woods for materials; anything that helps meet this goal is par for the course in this story.

When watching Ascendance of a Bookworm I could not help but make comparisons to other shows with this tone. If you’ve ever sat down to enjoy Spice & Wolf or Maou Yuusha then you’ll know what I’m talking about when I talk about the joys of medieval economics and marketing. These shows feature a character trying to make their way in a new world where there is a large need for investigating, learning, and bargaining to get anything done. With each respective main character from these shows delving into a world where the main conflict is trading and bartering to deal with people, it stays interesting without getting too complicated.

This is where the show incorporates many tropes from the popular isekai (“another world”) genre. Although she's just a little girl, her modern-day knowledge allows her to introduce a variety of “inventions” to this underdeveloped castle town. These vary from simple commodities to more complex concepts. My favorite among these: bringing forth the wondrous invention of pancakes to the people.

The characters are where this show surprised me the most. There are a few one-off unimportant characters and an uninteresting villain or two, but a majority of the characters are likeable and surprisingly well fleshed out despite their often-stereotypical roles. There are generic types like greedy merchants and loyal soldiers but (nearly) every character feels real and fleshed-out when interacting with Urano and the world around them. This allows for their day-to-day struggles to become part of the greater plot, but introduces the worrying fact that our protagonist is not born of this world, but has taken over the body of someone who was while having to deal with a new setting, a new culture, and a new family. It would not be fair for me to spoil too much by going into detail, but needless to say it is something that is at least addressed enough to produce many dramatic—and even touching—scenes. As long as you aren’t looking for intense action or world-changing stakes, Ascendance of a Bookworm is a great watch, and I’m looking forward to future seasons.

This article was written by Kyle Buttigieg