Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Ascendance of a Bookworm (本好きの下剋上 ～司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません～, Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan o Erandeiraremasen) is a 2019-2020 television anime series based on Miya Kazuki’s light novel series of the same name with illustrator Yō Shiina. The series was produced by studio Ajia-do Animation Works, and the staff credits include director Mitsuru Hongo, screenplay writer Mariko Kunisawa, character designers Toshihisa Kaiya & Yoshiaki Yanagida, and music composer MICHIRU. The first season aired in Japan in October 2019, followed by the second season in January 2020.

Background:

“When a sickly young girl suddenly becomes obsessed with inventing new things, her family and friends are all puzzled. “What has gotten into Myne?” they wondered, never dreaming that the answer is not a “What” but a “Who”: Urano Motosu, a book-loving apprentice librarian who died in an earthquake in Tokyo who somehow found herself in Myne’s body! And since Myne’s world is still in a medieval stage, where books can only be owned by the elite, the new Myne intends to do everything she can to bring her beloved books to the masses in the time she has left. Unfortunately, that may not be very long, as Myne’s body is still failing, and she may only have a short time left to achieve her lofty goals”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, November 2023.

A decade ago the isekai genre started to boom and we had many different varieties of light novels from harems, reincarnations and overpowered main leads. Ascendance of a Bookworm is another reincarnated series but it’s all about a girl who wants to read books so it stands out differently to the likes of ARIFURETA and Mushoku Tensei that were more action focused. In fact what surprised me is how well-beloved the light novels were within the reading community, especially when J-Novel Club started translating them into English. The series in Japan currently has around 32 light novel volumes already (and the author also divided the story into parts and there’s a fair amount of it) with more to come.

Eventually the anime adaptation for Ascendance of a Bookworm was announced which excited the readers, though there is one hiccup which I’ll mention in a bit. The anime has received at least three seasons so far, and there’s tons of content left to adapt. The first season adapts Part 1: Daughter of a Soldier story arc, whilst the second season adapts two volumes in Part 2: Apprentice Shrine Maiden story arc (with the third season covering the latter two volumes of that arc).

Crunchyroll licensed the streaming and home video rights for the first three seasons of Ascendance of a Bookworm, and sub-licensed the home video rights over to Sentai Filmworks for US & Canada and Anime Limited for UK & Ireland. Sentai decided to combine the first two seasons together into one set which does make sense considering they were airing back to back with no seasonal breaks. Crunchyroll did release the third season under their name. Anime Limited’s release had numerous pushbacks due to issues with materials for their collector’s edition.

Going to address the book in the room and that’s in relation to how it’s localised. When Crunchyroll licensed Ascendance of a Bookworm, they localised a fair amount of the names and terminologies differently to the light novels that J-Novel Club worked on, for instance ‘Myne’ is called ‘Main’ in both the English dub and subtitle translation. ‘Myne’ is an interesting one because whilst the Japanese text does use ‘Main’, from what I have read online I believe its in reference to the German name which they pronounce it as ‘Mine’ (hence why J-Novel Club went with ‘Myne’ to keep it consistent). When Sentai Filmworks sub-licensed the home video rights, they didn’t update the localisation and Anime Limited didn’t bother either, so if you were hoping for consistency to the J-Novel Club English light novel releases, you won’t be getting it here.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Ascendance of a Bookworm has a beloved following and it makes sense for Anime Limited to provide them with a collector’s edition package, though they did admit it was a challenge due to limited resources that they could access for their release.

The package is presented as a rigid box housing an Amaray case that includes the Blu-ray discs. Also included with the set is a 112-page booklet, featuring tons of character and background designs from both seasons of the series.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £79.99. A standard Blu-ray is expected to follow suit later.

I pre-ordered my copy through Anime Limited’s store during their 12 Days of Christmas sale back in 2022, so it’s taken 11 months to finally receive it after numerous delays. The early bird sale offer was £54.99 but I used the 15% discount code which I had bundled with The Deer King and Goodbye, Don Glees! which was available as part of my membership.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 112-page booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 27th November 2023

The collector’s edition release for Ascendance of a Bookworm contains all 14 episodes from Season 1, all 12 episodes from Season 2 and the two side stories released in-between each season (known as Episode 14.5 Parts 1 & 2) across three Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring produced by Sentai Filmworks. Audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! English dub commissioned by Crunchyroll.

The yellow subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are accessible to Blu-ray players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	3 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 3:

• Clean Opening Animations “Mashiro” & “Tsumujikaze”
• Clean Closing Animations “Kamikazari no Tenshi” & “Ephemera wo Atsumete”
• Japanese Promos
• Sentai Disc Credits

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland territories. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can acquired through Amazon UK and Anime Limited’s store.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)