Ascendance of a Bookworm is not a show that’s one to bury its ledes or worry about setting up seriously dramatic shocks. There are exceptions, of course, like Sylverster’s true identity from the last season. But generally, the show is strongly procedural, keeping the audience up on each step of the processes of Rosemyne’s projects and many, many side-hustles. So I shouldn’t be too surprised that, after I spent some time theorizing about it last week, the boss bookworm just drops in this episode that the plan with having Zack and Johann construct “competing” waxing machines was simply to use both of them (and more!) for the multiple workshops she’s going to be operating. It’s straightforward, and that’s the way of the show, so I’ll just acknowledge that I’m a plot-perceptive genius, as always, and continue on.

This is very much the way in a Bookworm episode that’s as straightforward as ever. It’s mostly about delivering on several plot points (and finishing up what passes for “arcs” in this series), and there’s not even much to get in the way of major moments like the episode-titular harspiel concert. The first point of order is rounding back to the creation of Rosemyne’s highbeast, as started, and seemingly forgotten, a couple of episodes ago.

The section in this episode similarly comes and goes in such a way as to feel obligatory. There are also some places I could snark about the world-building behind this. See, the people of this world aren’t enslaving creatures into magic summons purely for convenient transport! They’re creating new life whole-cloth that only exists for their servitude! That’s much better! Again, I’m cracking wise, but the real fact is that the perfunctory vibe of this scene and its underexplored world-building questions don’t leave me nearly as cold as the version from a couple of episodes ago because…well, put simply, it’s really cute.

I’d already been considering that Rosemyne’s unique conception of her highbeast was intended to be inspired by the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, and while there’s no direct namedrop here, she does acknowledge that she’s taking inspiration from “anime and stuff.” Once again, I am always right. The clash between her odd sense of style and the rest of the setting (embodied in Ferdinand’s exasperated reactions) makes for some charming, funny interplay. It’s cute to watch her snuggle and defend the goofy crime-against-nature car from his criticisms. As long as I’m throwing out comparisons to less-impressive story takes, this isn’t too dissimilar from other isekai plots where the hero simply magics themselves up something cool with little fanfare. But the simple rascally irrelevance of it makes it work, even if it’s all swept aside afterwards to show off the concert plot.

The concert mostly goes off without a hitch. Some of the technical details are intermittently interesting and dissonant to see. Like using magic for speaker systems is a cute idea, but I don’t know how to feel about Rosemyne talking into a tablet effectively shaped like a smartphone to work the magic microphone. She properly demonstrates her deep understanding of working this kind of fundraiser, selling not just thirst-trap program pics of Ferdinand to his adoring fanladies, but also using them to show off the very printing technology said ladies are funding.

The episode doesn’t quite overplay the harspiel-concert-as-idol-show thing, either. Yeah, there’s a built-up punchline of these ladies fainting from getting so hot and bothered that they need to be carried out by knights. And they do a thing at the end where they raise their magic wands like phones at the slow song in an arena show. But it’s all pretty reasonable. Even the major hiccup in the proceedings, Sylvester catching wind of the arguably uncouth way Rosemyne is making money off Ferdinand’s sex appeal, is countered quickly by her letting Sylvester himself join the action.

Like I said, plenty of cute moments, but nothing that could really be called “climactic” after this concert was built up so much. Bookworm just isn’t that kind of show, not in this phase. There isn’t even much fancy movement on the animation (not a lot of singing and dancing in a harspiel show), so there’s nothing to show off there save for a few extra-handsome drawings of Ferdinand surrounded by shoujo sparkles. It’s cute to see Rosemyne acknowledge to herself that even she thinks he’s got it goin’ on in these moments, though that once again makes me beg the show to keep things measured and platonic between these two, regardless of how one chooses to measure Rosemyne’s “true” age. But otherwise it’s perfectly satisfactory, and means Bookworm will likely get back to focusing on its bread and butter: highly technically detailed explanations of printing technology development. Only now they’ll occasionally be delivered from the back of an adorable raccoon-car-thing.

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Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Chris is back to hit the books. You can see him posting about anime, transforming robots, and other quality reading material over on his BlueSky.