English Dub Review: Ascendance of a Bookworm “Blue Robes and Uncommon Sense”

Overview:

Main struggles with her retainers.

Our Take:

Here Main deals with something rather important: her retainers. As shown last episode, she doesn’t deal with handing out orders to others very well, namely because she hasn’t been in the position of giving out orders to people. She does so as an employer, but since her work is done via commission, that’s still a little different than bosses handing out mass orders to a large group of employees. Most of the time, in fact, Main is in the opposite position, trying to prove that she is an asset and a person with knowledge instead of simply a child.

She initially dismisses her retainers, especially considering how two of them are out to sabotage her and make her life harder. As she confers with Benno, she starts to realize something that she didn’t think of being in a peasant family: the status of a noble. She can’t do things like casually walk in the street, speak informally, and other things because she’s been granted blue robe status. To do so would be offensive to her position, and she’d lose face not just for herself but the people who work with her.

Who this episode ends up focusing on is her relationship with Ran, the person appointed to her by the high priest. Ran is not her enemy, far from it, but he is uncomfortable with his position. He believed that he once had the high priest’s trust, so being sent down to be Main’s retainer is frustrating to him. He has been trained to serve nobility, and to be a good servant, and he takes pride in doing so. Main acting callous and doing her own thing, specifically not acting the way a noble would, frustrates him.

By the end, the two of them realize the miscommunication and understand their positions. Not only does Ran realize he still has the high priest’s trust, but also that Main doesn’t know any better, he begins to help her and give her advice. Main in turn, decides that she will become someone who is worthy not just of his advice but his service.

It’s nice that Main’s flaws isn’t necessarily from arrogance, but because she doesn’t know any better. She has no context for how nobility would act because she has been a normal person in both worlds. Once she is given context for how to behave, she makes strides to better herself. That’s pretty good!