I’m back from a weekend at Otakon, Rosemyne is back from her adventure gathering materials, and it’s back to business as usual for both of us. Maybe it’s best I’m getting back in the swing of Bookworm reviews with a two-for, as the season’s 16th episode on its own is absolutely one of those “workaday recap of Rosemyne’s to-do list” entries. There are some fun highlights, of course, and plenty of momentum propelling the overarching story, but it’s thoroughly pedestrian proceedings barely above the action of a montage before things shift around only a little more in the next episode.

Maybe it’s my fault for snarking about the Bookworm anime’s occasional dip into this kind of material converse to all the action in the previous episode. And as I said, there are advancements! The bookkeeping behind this Bookworm is business brought to the Gilberta company by Rosemyne’s advancements in study materials. It’s funny seeing Benno vacillate between coveting the extra customer base and trying not to let slip that his ability to actually manage it all is only a little overwhelmed. These are the realities of economics that Bookworm isn’t entirely based around depicting (it’s not Spice & Wolf or anything) but still has to acknowledge in its setting and scale. So the natural conclusion reached at the end, to spin off the bookmaking business into its own independent company, makes sense as a next step. But these are just the beginning and end of an episode that’s littered with a lot that’s only tangentially connected—to that plot or any of the others.

Otto quitting being a soldier to join as a merchant? Makes sense, and a nice way to keep components of Rosemyne’s previous life moving up through the story. Same for the reveal of the completed, working printing press itself. This is the big advancement that’s going to boost that bookmaking business, obviously, and this show is, as usual, going to linger on the loving depictions of the actual mechanics of the thing. It’s cute seeing Rosemyne react to it, but beyond presenting the press for its own sake, there’s not a lot of immediate tie-in to everything else that happens this episode.

That “everything else” is to the point that I’m actually glad I had to put this off to a double review so that it doesn’t simply wind up being a bullet-pointed list of every vignette. Seeing Brigitte get the titular new dress and tease at a relationship with Damuel is cute. But the dalliance with Hugo potentially becoming Rosemyne’s personal chef feels like an aside to the aside that the Italian Restaurant subplot has always come across as in this show. It’s the weakest of stock isekai storytelling: introducing something into the fantasy world purely for novelty because the writing thinks it might be neat for the main character to have. The only actual engaging instances are as fleeting as the rest of those: Rosemyne inadvertently sending a magical reply to a correspondent of the previous, executed High Bishop, and she and Wilfried learning to hold down the fort of the Mana Replenishment Hall while Sylvester is off at an Archduke Conference. But the actual occurrence of ArchCon 2026 doesn’t actually take place in the episode, so even these nominally dramatic elements feel like naught but casual errands run at this point.

Not that the story shifts up to rip-roaring as soon as Sylvester does head off to the conference in the next episode. Sure, it’s not like I was expecting Rosemyne and Wilfried to throw a raging house party now that their parents aren’t home (I’d watch it), but I was still a little taken aback by how much this shifted structure simply leads to another string of daily life being depicted. The most major shift is that Rosemyne is able to sneak in some extra reading time during these days, being flustered when it’s still not enough.

Seeing this in line with the previous episode does make the continuity of some of these tasks clear. Brigitte’s still showing off her new dress with the plot teasing that Rosemyne will need to find a way to get her and Damuel together. But of course I’m mostly going to be delighted by Angelica coming back. At first I was mildly annoyed that they just skipped over her studying and passing her classes, but in hindsight that sort of busywork wasn’t going to be the entertaining part. No, now I get to be here for her “reward” in Rosemyne charging her manablade, Ferdinand’s interference, and the resultant talking sword Angelica gets saddled with. It’s a very dryly amusing inclusion, which also showcases the outside-the-box ways Rosemyne manages to help people with—sometimes unintentionally! So Angelica basically having her own virtual assistant in the form of a sword that sternly talks with Ferdinand’s voice is a funny way to make sure she stays on top of things, even as I don’t expect it to come up a ton in the show after this.

The other continuing element is much more impactful. Gilberta company splitting off the printing business makes sense…except then the show reminds viewers that part of the plan was for Tuuli to start apprenticing with the company, meaning she won’t get to stay close to Rosemyne if her bookmaking portion gets spun off. As Lutz laments, it’s something all those close to Rosemyne must consider as her efforts and influence grow. Being brought to Rosemyne herself resonates the same way: they’re able to finagle Tuuli’s apprenticeship to keep her close for now, but the logistics of Rosemyne staying close to those she cares about are only going to get more complex. It goes in hand with Rosemyne learning about the compromises she needs to make in her principles and leadership style as she gains more authority and learns the “real” way of serving as a high-ranking member of the church. The detailed, “real-world” stylings of Bookworm‘s constructed fantasy world can’t let things shake out conveniently or optimally all the time, so goes the slow process of Rosemyne growing up.

She’s got others looking out for her. There’s a cute, mildly funny subplot in the 17th episode about Rosemyne’s adoptive grandfather watching over her, stricken by the fact that his resting bitchface might aggravate her mana-overloaded condition. It is kind of too bad that Rosemyne never actually realizes he’s got his heart of gold, but there’s time in the future for that. And it’s nice to see Otto formally transfer in to start working for the company through Rosemyne. It’s narratively satisfying for the guy who originally loaned her his tablet and initiated her quest for reading and writing in this world to loop back around into her story this way—it keeps Bookworm‘s story feeling rich and interconnected in its long-term ambitions. Touches like that make the 17th episode come off stronger than the 16th, even as it’s ostensibly the same sort of day-to-day checklist. It’s a good comparison of what the show does effectively compared to some of its lesser habits as I return to it this week.

Rating:

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.

The Onimusha franchise has been around since the PlayStation 2 era and has gone through a few significant changes. However, at its core, it was always about being an incredibly powerful samurai, killing creepy and powerful oni. CAPCOM allowed us to check out the latest game in the franchise, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, where I played as Miyamoto Musashi, brandishing a special gauntlet that granted me abilities to fight the powerful Genma that threatened the land of Kyoto. As someone with a passing knowledge of the Onimusha franchise, this is definitely shaping up to be a solid action-adventure series from jump.

I played for roughly two hours. However, I wasn’t allowed to fully take in the opening setup or initial story premise. I could piece certain things together, but I’m going to have to wait until the official game comes out for me to really sink my teeth into the narrative. From what I can tell, I appear to be playing as Miyamoto Musashi in an alternate fantasy timeline where demons and oni are real. Given context clues, it appears that my character was killed or on the verge of dying, and thus needed to be brandished with this special gauntlet to survive. This gauntlet is the main catalyst for all of my abilities throughout the game. Not only does it allow me to absorb special orbs called oni souls that spill out of enemies, but it also acts as a catalyst to communicate with a mysterious woman whose spirit resides within the gauntlet. Given the information provided, it appears that there’s a clashing divide with different factions, including the Ganma, so it’s up to me to take down the rampaging oni who are spreading their miasma to negatively affect regular citizens. There is also another mysterious samurai with a similar gauntlet, and I believe Mushashi is hunting him down for personal reasons, but I did not make it that far into the playthrough to see him pop up again outside of a brief initial cut scene.

The majority of this preview was focused on the gameplay, which does appear to be very standard. It is an over-the-shoulder third-person action RPG. I ran around dazzlingly rendered 3D graphics, which look amazing on the PlayStation 5 with very well-masked load times. While the game is very linear during certain segments, there are a few branching paths to take by keeping a discerning eye to find hidden treasures or save extra citizens. These hidden treasures can take the form of currency or items that can be crafted or utilized to augment my abilities. I wasn’t able to augment my abilities much until towards the end of my two hour play through because the ability was tied to fulfilling specific story requirements. It seems like what I was allowed to unlock was limited to how much story progression or how many enemies I took down. For most of my playthrough, I was stuck with a lot of the basic mechanics.

The game didn’t feel overly punishing. The difficulty balance seemed relatively solid, with the biggest hurdle being recognizing different attack patterns when it came to mini and large bosses. Fodder and basic enemies were relatively easy to take care of, with only a few taking on distinct forms that needed to be countered. I had a basic swing attack with my sword, and a basic bow to shoot from long distance, which was particularly helpful when there were some enemies shooting flaming arrows at me. There was a parry system that was a little difficult to immediately execute due to not fully understanding the timing, but the parry was probably the best way to execute finishers and diminish an opponent’s stamina.

Every character, including myself, has both a health meter and a stamina meter. The gameplay reminded me a little bit of Dark Souls, where everyone would lose stamina by either having moves countered or breaking away from blocks. By getting rid of stamina, it’s easier to deplete health in as few as one or two blows. The best way to get rid of oni stamina is to either counter or perform specific attack moves. However, the same goes for me. If I parried wrong or tried blocking too many times, I could deplete my own stamina and leave myself open. It’s ultimately superfluous when it comes to the fodder enemies, because even just hacking away at them mindlessly takes them down in just a few seconds. Even if I ended up getting hurt by them, some orbs they dropped immediately heal me, some replenish my stamina, and some are held onto as a means of utilizing skills later on. I could also use held items mapped to the D-pad to replenish these meters in the middle of combat.

The parry definitely comes in handy when it comes to the boss fights, which is where I died the most. Boss fights had multiple stages at specific story points. Whether it was Daidara the massive tank or Rasho-gan, the crazy slasher, I love how cinematic they were. All of these boss fights had immense presence and tied into this narrative of destruction, feeding off of human pain. In fact, the final boss I ended up taking down actually warped the perceptions and emotions of humans in order to get them to commit atrocious actions. This game doesn’t shy away from body horror or the implied violence. It leans into how deplorable some of these oni can be and how they view humans as a source of negative energy. This also leads to the designs for the oni being incredibly distinct, whether it’s huge gaping mouths or contorted bodies that can morph into various weapons. The boss fights were a highlight because none of them felt similar, even if the way to take them down was straightforward.

The idea is to not only hack them with your sword, but to counter them at specific times to deplete their stamina so that you can diminish their health as quickly as possible. However, the bosses can move so quickly and so erratically that it was hard to do so in a way similar to taking down the basic oni. It’s not that Musashi is slow, as there were some dash options that were also available. But the enemies definitely can move faster than him as their attack stages get progressively more intense. The boss fights even have specific quick time events in the finishers that I needed to pay attention to in order to make sure that those definitive blows do the most damage. Sometimes the bosses give off orbs after enough damage is dealt, so I was able to recover a little bit in between stages, but the bosses can ALSO absorb orbs, and if they do, they get even stronger. I took down about three boss fights in my two hours of gameplay, and I can say with confidence that they were exhilarating moments that left a definitive impact. If the idea is that there will be even stronger enemies later on that will force me to think critically about timing and moving, then I have a lot to look forward to when this game comes out.

However, what happens in between those boss fights? Musashi is tasked with investigating various different oni sightings and occurrences that are affecting people in Kyoto. This part feels a bit more open, as I was able to investigate parts at my own pace but the end result was the same, find oni and kill them. While taking down these basic enemies that are terrorizing citizens is easy, it’s so easy that it borders on being tedious, especially when there isn’t really a lot of mission variety. The boss fights almost feel like puzzles and there are even some side puzzles that can be carried out at my leisure. But the running around and investigating aspect of the game feel boring. There are some games that feel like they’re just implementing filler content in between the major moments of the narrative and this game is certainly guilty of that. I’m thankful that these moments don’t last too long but again, I was only playing two hours of the game. I don’t know if this will be a prevailing issue after investing more hours into the game or if this is something that will streamline itself as the game goes on.

This preview only scratched the surface of what can be accomplished, and I mostly like what is here. While a lot of the foundation is pretty basic compared to other games in the genre, what is here is far from disappointing. There are a lot of great highs with the graphics and boss fights with some middling lows that could make things overstay their welcome. Consider me cautiously optimistic about this one.

Uchiyama voices homeroom teacher Satomi Hiratsuka

The staff for the television anime of Muchimaro‘s Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! (Seitokai ni mo Ana wa Aru!) four-panel manga revealed the character promotional video, character visual, and cast for the character Satomi Hiratsuka on Saturday. Yumi Uchiyama voices this homeroom teacher for a first-year high school class.

 

Seven Seas publishes the manga in English and describes the story:

In a student council filled with weirdos, one new member is about to have a hell of a school year! Mizunoe Ume just wanted to avoid repeating a grade when he joined the student council. After all, it seemed like an easy fix to his current academic problems. But then, he met his fellow council members. Each of them is eccentric in their own way—one’s an airhead, another’s scary, one’s secretly a pervert, but all in all, they’re just really weird! Yet somehow, they’re also oddly cute and endearing. Which means Mizunoe is stuck with them and all the chaos they bring to the table. Get ready for a slice-of-life manga that’s irresistibly charming, quirky, and a little bit naughty!

The series stars:

Naoyuki Tatsuwa (Ōmuro-ke, Gourmet Girl Graffiti, Nisekoi – False Love, Promise of Wizard) is directing the anime at Passione, Ryo Imamura (ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister!) is designing the characters, and Masahiro Yokotani (Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Beelzebub, The Devil Is a Part-Timer!) is overseeing and writing the series scripts.

The anime will premiere in October.

Muchimaro launched the manga in Kodansha‘s Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2022. Kodansha shipped the 12th compiled book volume on March 17. Seven Seas will ship the first volume on September 8. K MANGA also publishes the series in English digitally.

The manga received an animated ad in July 2024. The manga won in the print category of the ninth Next Manga Awards (Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taishō) in 2023.

Sources: Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! anime’s website, Comic Natalie