This series has a lot going on, so I wanted to review it. At the time of writing this I have read all the English LN volumes (up to part 4 volume 1). Throughout this review comparisons will be drawn between this series and other isekai since most of the interesting aspects of this series can be seen that way.
I am going to ‘oversell’ this series. Don't take that to mean this is an inaccurate review though, I will be as accurate as a I can, but it is hard to accurately review this series without making some generalizations due to its uniqueness. If you
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haven't read this series and don't want high expectations of it being put on you, turn back now. TLDR, this series is excellent (however you need to stick with it/read the whole thing for it to pay off, and its long). Spoilers.
Isekai anime are not a paragon of innovation and quality, however Bookworm is just that and in general highly enjoyable. It could even be said that Bookworm is the ultimate isekai due to how ingeniously it utilizes the structure of the story its advantage, Bookworm is far above its competition in the isekai genre by such a degree it is laughable. Bookworm is by no means classical literature, still the presentation and story are tight where it feels like it is.
Now forget everything I just said because we need to go over everything wrong with Bookworm. Contrasting with earlier made statements, there are some aspects of this series that certainly are not perfect and warrant mention. Firstly, this series suffers from "growing pains" that become visible as the plot continues. Most of these growing pains can be found in the world building changing as the story moves along. Initially, it is evident the author was aiming to keep the scale of this story on the smaller side or that they didn’t have a complete vision for what this world would look like. As events unfold it becomes evident that some aspects of the world established in the first part are rendered inaccurate. For example, inaccuracies can be seen in how the city of Ehrenfest is described as having a neighboring town across a river which is under the protection of a neighboring lord. This town and neighboring lord change, however, into a neighboring duchy ruled under a separate archduke, geographically being nowhere near the city of Ehrenfest. The author like ran into problems surrounding the world building in the series, resulting in problem such as these. There are a couple more instances of these kinds of problems with consistency, but ultimately these problems are small enough to not be noticeable to the point that they don't affect one’s suspension of disbelief. Yet, another set of problems of greater importance are the issues with the cast of characters. In specific, as Urano ascends from the lower to upper classes of society the cast of characters continuously increases to a point of slight discomfort. Personally, I think the author doesn't handle increases in cast size and changes in setting particularly well, sometimes forcing characters who shouldn't be relevant after a certain to remain relevant. This is most clearly seen with Uranos lower city family which, annoyingly, persist within as rather important characters in the story after Urano enters the nobility which undermines the climax seen at the end of part 2 of the series. Had the author been more decisive with this issue and instead cut these characters to a greater extent, it would have served to accentuate the struggle Urano undergoes at the end of part 2, transforming it from an emotionally charge scene to an emotionally charge scene that the audience can identify as significant due to its finality. In general, the cast of characters is somewhat bloated and can undermine character development. As far as issues go this is all that's worth mentioning (that I could find).
To understand why Bookworm is so special looking at the entire anime industry is key. While isekai at the time of writing this aren’t quite as popular as they once were there is no denying that isekai anime have enjoyed great popularity. In specific isekai that are adapted from light novels have been very numerous. As an isekai light novel itself, Bookworm is in a very competitive field.
Bookworm quickly presents itself as something well outside of the norm, however. This can be most clearly seen in the gender of the lead, Urano. Female leads among isekai are uncommon, with the only notable example being inuyasha. Additionally, inuyasha had a male co lead, which Bookworm does not have at all. Urano completely dominates the story as the main character. The entirety of the series is told from the perspective of Urano (with only a few exceptions). Due to the lead being female, unlike the commonly male lead isekai, Bookworm sidesteps isekai cliches and tropes. In general, as well, the female lead makes Bookworm refreshing for the genre by allowing someone to approach the concept of a foreign world from an uncommonly utilized perspective. This can most clearly be seen in the fact that there is no harem of girls always surrounding the lead, meaning that the superficial romances found in isekai are not present in this series, actually there is no romance at all and it pulls this off nicely.
The unique nature of this lead is further highlighted by her young age upon reincarnating. Child protagonists are also rare within isekai with jobless reincarnation being an exception (although Rudeus is even a child). Like jobless reincarnation, Bookworm uses the age of the lead to allow for a reasonable amount of time for them to adjust to the new world they have found themselves in. However, unlike jobless reincarnation, Bookworm builds on this and uses Uranos young age to throw a variety of struggles on the path towards her goals. This leads into how Bookworm addresses what I call the "convenience problem" within isekai. Isekai as a genre consists of leads who find themselves in exceptionally fortunate and convenient positions. You can test this yourself by looking at any given isekai and asking, "what could be the most absolutely disadvantaged position for this main character to be in upon finding themself in a new world?" If you do this you will quickly find that the lead of nearly every isekai are blessed with luck, skill, genius, wealth, good looks, and charisma (and plot convenience) upon finding themselves in a new world. That these leads retain their own bodies and can continue to use their own names is very fortunate. Isekais do all they can to make the culture of a new world insanely simplified and advantageous for the main characters it’s hard to stomach at times, all in service of making the plot nice and convenient. While I am not demanding that all series go out of their way to throw main characters into hardcore survival situations, this absurd convince of the story telling in isekai is most importantly just plan boring. If a main character finds them self in a pleasant situation, they don't have any need to explore the world they find themselves in or challenge themselves at all, no need to rethink themselves or consider their own values and priorities. But Bookworm shatters this norm. Urano, upon reincarnating, does in fact land in a disadvantageous position (though not worst-case scenario). Urano is reincarnated as a sickly child in a poor family in a filthy, undeveloped city. Myne, the person Urano reincarnates as, prior to her death had only spent her life inside, with atrophied muscles and a weak heart. Urano also must deal with an unknown, deadly, illness which she has no ideas regarding what it is or how to cure it. Her environment is completely devoid of her favorite thing, books, since she is now in a backwater medieval city with a near 0% literacy rate, high mortality rate and unsanitary conditions. Urano must cope with living with a family she has not known up until her reincarnation, and the realization she has lost her past life and family. Bookworm has enough roadblocks placed in front of Urano that it is impressive when considered wholistically. Even more important than these disadvantageous aspects of Uranos situation, is the way in which they are presented realistically and in a balanced fashion. This is because Bookworm never sets out with the intent of making a world for the characters to live in, the characters are made to live in the world and deal with it. Never does this new world seem unreasonably harsh nor does it seem unrealistically easy which, it maintains a balance between the lighthearted and grim aspects that make the world nuanced, deep, and most importantly, a reflection of our own world.
Bookworm further distinguishes itself from the crowd in how Uranos time and memories in the real-world affect her new life in this fantasy world. In specific, Bookworm avoids falling into another iseaki trope which is amounts to a superiority complex. What I mean by this is that isekai often portray the new world a lead themself in as "worse" than the real world to some degree (most typically on the grounds of science, technology, morality, and other easily observed things since most isekai don't even go in depth enough to begin discussing economics, culture, or education) and then use this superiority to enable the lead to easily achieve their goals. This can generally be summarized as the lead employing knowledge, they have of their previous life to ‘cheat’ themselves into a better life in world which is less developed. However, isekai do not try and reverse this relationship, except Bookworm. One of the central character beats of this entire series revolves around the turmoil Urano faces due to the friction caused by her old memories working against her in her new environment. Countless times Urano shoots herself in the foot by relying on her old memories and values. Urano is forced to reevaluate her own values and norms due to her new environment forcing her to do so, resulting in push and pull dynamic forming between her old values and the new ones she is being exposed to. This results in engaging character development where Urano must reconcile with the fact that she is changing in this new world as her values shift over time.
Another excellent aspect of this series is the descriptive world building. Bookworm fully utilizes the fact that the lead is a child by leaning into the natural expansion of the world as Urano comes of age and grows. Additionally, due to Urano being a child Bookworm basically locks itself out of focusing on combat for most of the initial volumes. By restricting its range of topics, Bookworm forces itself into unknown territory for isekai, fleshing out many aspects of its world from the bottom up. Likely, isekai commonly suffer from a disdain of the ‘mundane’ aspects of our world, instead focus on fighting and power systems because combat is easy to make interesting as it is a thing that diverges from the norms of our own world; however, this is flawed because beginning with combat is not a bottom-up approach to world building. No person after being born immediately expresses an interest in combat, people begin their lives by learning basic things through simple education, not combat. This means that iseaki which heavily utilize combat are missing countless basic foundational blocks for its world building, which often results in the world building and coherency suffering to a great extent. Bookworm avoids this by forcing its lead into the position of a child who, to survive, has no choice but to focus on fundamental aspects of the world it’s in. This world is a fantasy world, and we don't learn this for several volumes which I find amazing and hilarious. By limiting what it reveals over time Bookworm establishes a strong foundation that really begins to pay off exceptionally well as the volumes progress. Bookworm revels in transforming the ‘mundane’ aspects of our own world into objects of fascination for the reader. The world comes to life with economic and social classes, all with distinct sets of values and goals. New foreign elements are brought in over time, adding new cultures and agendas that interact with what has already been established. There is much more I won’t mention. None of this can be accomplished without an extraordinary attention to detail which Bookworm has in surplus. Bookworm holds nothing back in its quest for thoroughness as it fleshes out every aspect of the world Urano has found herself in. I would argue that Bookworm is not only the most detailed isekai, but also the most detailed and dense series I have ever seen that isn’t academic in nature. The amount of detail that goes into every aspect of this world is enormous.
Up until this point, I have mainly been talking in terms of generalities, but this review can’t continue unless I were to start referencing specific details and aspects which I can't do since there are too many things for me to cover, so I will stop here. To summarize, this is on another level fundamentally from everything in the isekai genre and many other works in general. 10/10
May 21, 2021
This series has a lot going on, so I wanted to review it. At the time of writing this I have read all the English LN volumes (up to part 4 volume 1). Throughout this review comparisons will be drawn between this series and other isekai since most of the interesting aspects of this series can be seen that way.
I am going to ‘oversell’ this series. Don't take that to mean this is an inaccurate review though, I will be as accurate as a I can, but it is hard to accurately review this series without making some generalizations due to its uniqueness. If you ... |
