Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke ‒ Episode 21
At least the Bookworm anime still understands the bookending strategy to keeping its episodes feeling well-formed this season. Georgine is being kept as a backbone of the current plot, with her ongoing machinations leading in this episode, while it closes on her and her faction's current scheme starting to unfurl. That's, expectedly, routed through her cultivated relationship with Wilfried and the hunting competition he's kicking off, but that's also set to actually happen in next week's episode. This episode also uses discussion of Rosemyne and Damuel's mana management to tie that subplot into plans to protect against Georgine more broadly at other parts of the story.
But then Rosemyne relenting to assist nobles by imparting her mana compression technique is still ultimately framed as one more business piece on her ongoing to-do list—complete with conspiring to receive payment for it. Yes, it's funny to see Rosemyne utilizing the habits she picked up from Benno to raise funds wherever she can. But it also potentially foreshadows this as being less of a subplot on its own and rather one more bit to tack onto the montages of Rosemyne visiting workshops and orphanages and so forth. Then again, this season hasn't been indulging those format fillers as much. It ultimately works as a way to build out the background leading up to a proper confrontation with Georgine. Also, it's a little surprising to confirm that Ferdinand hadn't actually clocked Rosemyne's mana compression previously. This gives him something more forward-thinking and constructive to do with the information rather than just scolding her about withholding it and moving on. Again, there's momentum.
That sense of progression continues to be the main metric by which Bookworm's story continues. One point involves Ferdinand and other higher-ups heading to inspect the workshop in Illgner, and Rosemyne thus needing to ensure that Brigitte's people have an understanding of how to behave in their presence. She's worried about the potential for another Hasse, which seems overtly paranoid given that Hasse's issues were brought about by conspirators trying to perpetrate violence against the Church, and not just them being rude. But Rosemyne's seen the worst that can happen when commoners literally have their lives held in the hands of the organizationally powerful. This is her demonstrating her compassionate leadership style to guide these people in "what's best" for all of them. It's still not necessarily "fair" in the modern sense of power structures, but that's working within the system. Rosemyne pilots a program using Gray Priests to teach folks manners, in Hasse and in Illgner, and it's shown to be a success. This tacit compassion within the system even seems to be rubbing off when Ferdinand knowingly backs her plan to provide guidance to Volk in raising funds for a marriage certificate that's initially turned down. This too is based in old-world mechanisms of marriage as transfer of value and property, but if Ferdinand can be at least a little swayed by Rosemyne's bleeding heart, it's a sign that maybe the times really are a-changin'.
All these incremental inches forward (including Rosemyne finding a new way to bond with her former father as he tells her "stories" about her original family) frame the big setpiece of this episode, in that ruelle-gathering rematch. And it's here that I come back to the point about those increases undercutting the base excitement this anime could otherwise provide. That is, this sequence is all about showing how far Rosemyne's come since last fall, as thanks to Ferdinand's assistance and her own increased mana abilities, getting the magic fruit this time goes off utterly without a hitch! It's so brisk that she proposes getting another one for Damuel as bonus points, which initially made me think that was going to be the complication to extend the drama of the exercise, but no—Damuel also easily nabs the ruelle and the show shuffles onto the next scene.
The perfunctory-ness is the point in this case; I get it. But it also makes the last of these gathering scenes, which have been the peak of this season's action, into another checkbox on Bookworm's presentational list. It's frustrating, because I technically like the arc it's confirming and the concept behind having it go off this way, but I wish there could be more to it from a raw storytelling perspective. Maybe this works better in novel form, where the writing can describe the escalating feelings that come with closing the book on this long seasonal situation, but simply showing without telling, in this particular case, leaves it wanting. It's not bad. There is actually a ton going on in this episode that demonstrates the value of ordering things around these ideas. Rosemyne is really growing up, and they're showing that well. Maybe I should take it as a sign that she's ready to tackle denser threats, like the looming one of Georgine, rather than worrying that picking magic fruit wasn't as hard for her the second time around.
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.
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