My original critiques were aimed at Main herself. Emotionally turbulent, inwardly focused and with a perverse attraction to the physical concept of a “book”. It sort of rubbed me the wrong way. In the context of the anime this feeling takes a different form though – Main is an anime character transported to a world of reaction blunted normies. Certainly side characters display emotion through the series, but the presentation is always very minimal, in stark opposition to Main and her mind cinema. Realism? Or just a lack of characterisation in the animation? Not sure. I noted both moments of strength and weakness in this presentation, so I really feel it’s a matter of preference to what extent this appeals.
Speaking of that, the anime adaptation takes small liberties in the continuity of the story. Leaving out certain details while stitching other parts together previously unmarried. The pacing felt brisk, which is good for a show that focuses so much on small efforts of economic enterprising. Even then it doesn’t cover up the fact that “Ascendance…” is a slow, meandering story. There are an extraordinary amount of mysteries left to discover about it’s world. Which is probably why the taste we got at the end of part 2 was so sweet to me. The rows of white noble housing. As if a Victorian was trying to copy the stereotype of white picket fence neighborhoods in the U.S. Sterile. A little strange…
Which brings me to something I only realised while watching the anime. This is a strangely sanitary fantasy world. What’s with all the buildings being tenements? I got the reference is meant to be Victorian Britain, but every shop of Downtown shows no variation in building structure at all. It feels like a city that has been very deliberately planned out. Sort of how the structure of the city in Attack on Titan would make no sense without knowledge of the Titans existing. I suppose I don’t know anything else about the world to say why it’s like that. If it does have a reason... The noble district is also just a sea of housing templates. I can’t help but feel this must be the weakness of the adaptation from novel, to manga and then to anime. I’m assuming the text does contain information about the structure of the city that does not paint it in such bland terms architecturally, but no attempt has been made to allow this to be visually represented. The church being the main setting for part 2 receives a least some development as an area. Despite the fact that we really have no feeling for the presence of other blue robed priests, their activities or much of anything else that goes on in the Church (even what our supposed antagonist, the high priest, is doing…).
This reminds me of a Mr Btongue video where he asks of Fallout 3, “what do they eat?”. The purpose being to recognise why Fallout New Vegas felt “lived in”, versus the desolation of Fallout 3. This is obviously not something that is directly comparable for a manga/anime, but it serves to illustrate a deficit I felt in the world building. This could probably be remedied by better visual representations of the inside of the temple and the city, but that would require resources, time and talent. While I think this anime adaptation is serviceable and generally enjoyable, I don’t think they are trying to do their utmost here.
So in the end, I’m sold on book otakuism a lot more than I am on the world of “Ascendance..”. You live to pull from your ass another day Ms. Main!
