Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke ‒ Episode 10

I'm an anime-only for Ascendance of a Bookworm, so I can't speak to the exact approach it's had to adapting the original novels. But I am given to understand that Adopted Daughter of an Archduke has been doing some pretty significant skipping and acceleration in its plotting in the name of getting its story to the screen. To its credit, it's never really felt like anything was "missing" unless one knew the specific bits to look for. However, there is still a sense of glossing over some segments, as I've remarked before, and that's especially apparent in the initiating half of this week's episode.

That is, the big event serving as an arc-marker in this episode is the Harvest Festival, and said big event…just comes and goes. I can see it underscoring how Rosemyne's ascent to this position has turned these sorts of festivities into just another job for her, as she flits between venues, gatherings, and services she has to preside over. There's another sweet moment glimpsed between her and her birth father, but for the most part, it's very brisk and montage-y. Not necessarily a bad thing, just noticeably reduced after all the lead-up, and leaves me questioning if some was left out, and how much, with the context of how this anime adaptation has been handling things.

That's in the name of priorities, though, because the real focus of this episode is the material gathering that arrives alongside the new season this festival is heralding. Say what I will, Bookworm does have some sense for what to focus on in its pacing. There's an expositional conversation early on in which Rosemyne, Ferdinand, and the others recap that the Ruelle Rosemyne needs is part of the process to cure her Devouring. That's a nice refresher, but here it also comes with the new point that anyone who catches on that Rosemyne suffered from Devouring in the first place would give away the fact that she was originally a commoner. It's a neat trick that works for a series that's been going as long with as many players and points as Bookworm.

Overall, this conversation is about tying the old to the new in the narrative. Rosemyne gets new supervision in Eustachius, who turns out to be both the son of Rihyarda (that's Ferdinand's old nanny, who's been around this season) and one of the guys who was caught investigating Myne way back in her commoner days. And this section would probably function better if the audio for this conversation, at least on the version I was streaming on Crunchyroll, wasn't weirdly fried for most of it. Everyone's voices suddenly contract a bizarre, tinny reverb that had me thinking I'd fat-fingered a setting somewhere that I futilely tried to fix for several minutes—decidedly distracting in a season that's been trying to promote more polish since its studio switch.

That said, the back half of this episode is definitely about giving Wit Studio something actually to do after so many weeks of talking heads. Rosemyne's got her cute little outdoorsy material-gathering outfit, and she's heading out supervised to pick some magical nighttime fruit, and of course it's not going to be as easy as hoped. We're talking about getting attacked by hordes of wild feybeasts while having to take time to magically infuse the fruit before she can pick it. It's funny to cast Rosemyne's part in the action as a "hurry up and wait" job, but in practice, it still creates tension while the guards spend time actually attacking and dealing with the beasties. And that effectively weighs on Rosemyne's conscience, since she has a job to do and can't directly step in and help her fellows. That's empathetic conflict, and even if she ultimately subverts it by projecting a magic shield to hold back one of the biggest big beasties, it still speaks to the high-stakes learning experience this is. This is a situation that Rosemyne could only find herself in as part of her newfound noble station, as she takes on escalating responsibilities for those around her. Like the powering-up feybeasts, that's an evolution that comes with a long-running story like this, and positions this point of the material-gathering as another step on her long journey of dealing with her Devouring.

Also, not for nothing, but the magic lightshow and Rosemyne's casting of it is probably the best-looking part of this showcase—the rest of the more routine brawling with the feybeasts mostly looks okay. But also, it ends on an escalating cliffhanger, so there may be even more impressive stuff on the way with Ferdinand.

So this is a noticeably lopsided episode with pacing choices I can't help but question, which is also marred by odd technical issues. But the back half it does prioritize is a distinguishing showcase for the series that looks to swing up before the end of the cour. Trying to figure out how to rate something like that comes with the territory of an adaptation like Ascendance of a Bookworm. It's very clearly just one chunk of a larger whole, but the best part—the part that works—does so as well as I'd hope for. I like when series like Bookworm can last as long as they do to grow with portions like this. But that makes it a bit sorer when they still stumble into ill-advised craftsmanship choices and technical glitches, as this season has.

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.