English Dub Review: Ascendance of a Bookworm Episodes 14.51, 14.52, 15

A completely new territory.

Our Take:

After Main successfully manages to join the church as a priestess, she manages to luck into some good fortune: the bishop is quite reasonable. Although she has to follow church restrictions, she is able to gain blue robes right away, still live at home, and keep Lute with her. However, her business is something frowned upon by the church– even though they seem to be willing to take the donations she’d be offering.

The church sends spies to investigate her, and while they aren’t the best and don’t cover their tracks very well, they still manage to find out information about her business, specifically hidden information where her storehouse is located. While Main has gotten better at negotiations, even to the surprise of her family who are shocked that she can contend with adults, she still has to be aware that information can be used against her as well. Her family, friends, and business partners support her, but they also have very little influence within the church. Just because she can leverage economics doesn’t mean that she is able to do the same within the church confines- well, at least not without making connections in the church itself.

Of course, the head priest hasn’t forgotten how Main nearly killed him, and holds a grudge. His grudge comes in the form of the retainers appointed to Main: one of the bishop’s men, one sent by the high priest himself, and one of the more belligerent orphans. Indeed, Main seems to be having a hard time with them, unused to commanding authority by example. Of course, it’s likely that she can draw on some external knowledge, but it also might be something that needs adjustment.

Just like her dealings with finances and the guild, Main has her wits about her and a knack to pick things up quickly, but she is at a disadvantage by not knowing the structures of the world. She knows about religion from her studies, but that’s a little different from knowing church politics. She jumped into the clergy impulsively, so she doesn’t have much of a knowledge base to begin with. Although I think she will definitely be able to turn the tide, it seems like she’s starting off on the wrong foot.

This is a clever show, and I’m glad it got a season two. Main is closer to her goal as ever, but with her health and income on the line, it looks like the coming season has a lot of potential things to address. She will need her wits about her, at the very least.