Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen - Ryoushu no Youjo

This anime series is in a weird spot for me: while I was initially not really impressed by it (even though I could not point out what exactly is missing), the first three seasons were interesting enough plot-wise to make me go and read the source novel - that I enjoyed a lot. But now, after reading the source, I am just totally disappointed in how S4 went and I know exactly why - adaptation simply underdelivers in each and every way that is possible. Sound. I will start with the easiest to point out problem - the sound design of S4 is atrocious. All of the background music is the cheapest, lamest and the most annoying kind - at best you don’t notice it, at worst - it ruins the scene it plays in. It doesn’t fit half of the time and half of the time it just starts and ends abruptly. Whoever thought that was fine should be fired. Visuals. Those watered down, flat visuals simply don’t cut it at this point. Maybe while somewhat dull and bland visuals were a nice fit for a commoners district and a rundown temple in earlier seasons, it makes a poor impression when S4 goes into the richest and the most impressive part of the entire duchy. The fact that all of the animations are either extremely simple ones or reduced to still frame cut-ins doesn’t help with making the anime more impressive. But well, at least I can somewhat say that “it is not what the viewer came for anyway”. Story. And this is exactly what people are watching this show for - and exactly the reason why I am extremely mad. While I totally agree that the source has a lot of additional descriptions of everything, I will also note that those descriptions gave depth to the story, weight for characters actions and seriousness of situations, not to mention important worldbuilding - so how come anyone would take half of it and just remove it from adaptation? To the point where impactful scenes start to seem like they came out of nowhere, events that made the character rethink his life seem hollow and almost nothing happening this season seems to have the weight it should? I know that adapting LN to anime 1:1 is basically impossible, but if you throw this much out - what is the point of making the season if it seems rushed, incoherent and sometimes even forced? Characters. The source gives a lot of time to the characters to build them so they look natural later (well, maybe excluding the villains, they were never great here). And exactly like with the story, this adaptation rushes important events, doesn’t let the characters show us the gravity of the situation or their thoughts on events - the anime just rolls on without a single care about all the effort that went into developing the cast in the previous seasons. Overall, I am, once again extremely disappointed by the season - with too many corners cut and too many scenes dropped it simply fails to properly deliver its strongest points - world, characters and story. Considering how good studios Wit story is, I am surprised by this fumble and I do hope they will do better in the next season. But for this one - you should just read either LN or manga, anime just doesn’t cut it.

The story is still great as always, and I still enjoyed it, but this season by WIT Studio is a bit of a letdown, especially in its direction and music. I don't know if it's because of my high expectations (because it's from the animation studio that made Spy x Family and Attack on Titan), but I was disappointed by some parts of this season. Here's the PROS compared to the Ajia-do seasons: The art style of this show has improved. I really liked how detailed the characters are, and most of the backgrounds in the actual show are well-designed. Now, here are the CONS that I didn't like in WIT Studio's adaptation. The direction and storyboarding are all over the place. I feel like they could have done a better job pacing the story and making the scenes entertaining. Some of the scenes didn't flow properly, and some scenes in this show feel soulless and don't make sense. I would rather have the director from the Ajia-do seasons, who had to fight for 10 episodes for season 3 instead of the 8 episodes proposed by the Production Committee. At least the previous director tried everything they could with the resources they had. The current director should really improve their game. (Or just change him to with a better director lol) Another thing that really disappointed me is the music. Back in the Ajia-do seasons, the background music really elevated the scenes. But in this season, some of the background music used in certain scenes doesn't really fit at all. I don't know why they haven't used the music from the previous seasons, especially in the commoner family scenes. Also, the music this season is bland compared to the previous seasons. Now that Season 5 has been officially announced, I just wish that WIT Studio would really improve the direction of this show.

It's a bit sad to give an Anime "mixed feelings" when the light novel was one I'd recommend to everyone any day, but I guess that's what it is. "Daughter of a Soldier" was adapted perfectly one to one and it took a full double season (24 episodes - season 1). "Apprentice Blue Shrine Maiden" was also adapter perfectly, but, being longer, it took a double season and another short season (34 episodes total - seasons 2 and 3) to adapt. Which brings us to this season - "Adopted Daughter of an Archduke" is longer than the previous arc, and yet they tried to compress everything into one double season. The result? Everything is very rushed. The Anime skips large portions of the story, and sometimes entire chapters are compressed into a single spoken sentence - I found myself in several cases filling plot gaps from memory (i.e. from what I remember from reading the LN). I'm pretty sure people who haven't read the LN or the manga would struggle to follow some parts. I'll get to the point - It's "better than nothing", so if you're not the type of person who likes to read and won't read neither the LN nor the manga adaptation, sure, go for it. In any other case, do yourself a favor and read the original LN or at least the manga. If you intend to both read the LN and watch the anime, I actually say watch the anime first, because watching it after reading the LN makes it really disappointing. I really hope they don't plan to compress "Founder of the so-called Library Committee at the Royal Academy" to one season, because it's almost double the size of this arc.

I absolutely LOVE this series. Specifically the light novel. That said I feel like this is a poor adaptation. I encourage everyone to read the books over watching the anime. That said, if you arent ready to read 30+ books... Then watching the first few seasons instead, whilst not as nice as the books is an ok way to catch up quickly. Though, trust me when I say you'd wish there was more by the end. But I feel like watching the end of this season before reading part 3 volume 5 is doing yourself a disservice. (like this feels like the last good point to move over to the novels without missing too too much.) So if you got this far and care for the series or want to like it, then drop whatever you're doing and go read the novels already!

its good, but theres aspects of the show that bother me greatly. generally things happen and they have an appropriate amount of setup and payoff, but the story and the adaption at large can be a bit slipshod. often it feels like you will skip large amounts of time in between episodes, and be made to dwell on scenes that you didnt need to dwell on. one of the more infamous examples of shoddy adaption involves a scene where they have her explain leverage to her craftsmen. given the society is vaguely 15th century, our society would have understood leverage for thousands of years in advanced of her giving such info, but as it turns out, she was explaining how she wanted to use leverage, but the adaption crudely adapted the scene to make it appear as if she invented leverage. issues of contrivances, illogical activities, and weird choices overall tend to permeate the show overall, but its still an enjoyable enough romp. myne spends her time as a dog on a leash just as much as the seasons prior, but she is actually capable of acting upon her own desires more than before, given access to magic is given to her much more freely now. it was extremely frustrating to know that she was effectively a nuclear missile with no launch codes in the past, but now she is more of a gentle person who lacks the aggression required to react fast enough to protect herself. meaning, she can actually protect herself from harm should the show have someone remind her to make her versatile wind shield. adjusting the framing does a lot to make her seem less like a toy others carry around, though her apparent inability to use magic without being told is an issue i dont see going away in the future. much of this season is a scavenger hunt for the 4 precious objectsn and truthfully, for all the fanfare of a multipart quest, the way they use the quest in the story is a bit lacking. something that requires a lot of spoilers to get into, but rest assured that for all the special effort, the outcome was not special. instead, much of the time is spent building up side characters, such as her adopted brother and knight attendants, whom while functionally useful, are generally very cardboard characters with very few traits. her brother goes through more of an arc through the show, but the knights are very flat very boring lawful goods within a show with a complete surplus of lawful good characters. having an overarching narrative with the enemy factions does some work to give the story a point for existing, but any time i see a character with a purposefully ugly face voice acting by dio brando's voice acting, its hard not to feel like the show is disrespecting my intelligence. we see magic due fairly godly feats to force the truth out of people throughout the season, so the gaps when they dont use magic when they should are all the more confusing. despite that, its still a strong improvement from the other seasons, so if you liked those, you will like this, but my impression of the series overall is relatively tepid, with this one being warmer than the others, which prevents me from recommending this to anyone who had not already invested into the series. 7/10 seems high for a mixed feelings rating, but astoundingly high production quality is dragged down by the story itself being at times completely trite, predictable, and at times, very poorly adapted. if rosamyne continues on her current character arc, the next season should be much more enjoyable and something worth recommending, but for right now, this is what we have.

Anime was good and it was fun and relaxing to watch. There were few scenes were missed in anime but was there in novel. Like the scene where Rozemyne teaches her Mana Compression method. She actually teaches to few Nobels in her faction. But here it is not mentioned. Although it feels kinda rushed compared to novel but Anime was actually well made and I am looking forward to watch more next season. Though I have already completed the novel, anime actually depicts what I have imagined while reading better compared to other animes. Animation was good and artstyle was fitting for the story.

Bookworm is a show I remember trying to get into once quite a few years ago. I bounced off of the first episode back then; I think the slow pace and the disjointed feeling of the cold open turned me off of it. I tried it out again this season, and I don't think any other show has ever had so drastically negative an effect on my productivity. I simply couldn't put it down. Over just a few days I binged the first three seasons and caught up with the fourth (this one). As a series overall, Bookworm is pretty stellar. Myne is a fun and interesting character, and the cast has plenty of other complex personalities to bite into. The worldbuilding is great, the magic is pretty unique, and it's part of the surprisingly small category of "isekai stories that actually do something cool with the MC being from another world". The storytelling is deeply compelling, and watching Myne make her way in this world, learn to understand its culture, and work bit by bit towards her goal of creating books is incredibly entertaining. That said, I think this season might be the least gripping of them. A large part of that is that Myne is thrust into a new setting where most of the existing characters and relationships are pretty much irrelevant, and she's already invented printing. The way things develop is still interesting, and they give her plenty of new things to do in this season, but she certainly feels like she has less agency, and I don't find the political intrigue quite as interesting as I did the plots of the previous seasons. Of course, everything here is still pretty dang good, it just doesn't match up to the incredibly high standards set by the previous seasons.

(Spanish review on my list) We continue the story of the girl who just wants to read—now that she’s part of the nobility. The story is very well-structured; it increasingly delves into darker themes—politics, betrayals, and sacrifices orchestrated by those in power (on both the "good" and "bad" sides). Our protagonist remains highly valuable, both as a source of limitless mana and for her knowledge from the other world and her entrepreneurial spirit. A lot happens this season, and that’s what I love about the series: it doesn't stall just to drag out the plot. It moves forward and isn't afraid to kill off characters or show that this is a cruel, harsh world where everyone’s life is at risk and punishments are meted out to anyone. Even children are vulnerable to betrayal, exploitation, and forced labor... ultimately, there’s a sort of forced "time skip" that also lends a sense of loss to the series. My point is that the story genuinely progresses; time constantly moves forward, and the world evolves with or without the protagonist. That might be my only complaint: while the wider world exists and gets the occasional passing mention, it hasn't been fleshed out enough to show distant regions, the state of the world outside the duchy where the story takes place, or relations with other countries... but then again, that might come with time. All in all, I love this series; it’s made me cry several times and laugh out loud quite a bit... I just hope they don't take too long to release another season, or I’ll forget everything that happened, haha.

This is a series I absolutely love, it is an isekai done well, it is compelling with great characters and some of the best worldbuilding out there. I do have a problem with this season though as it is simply 'good' and not 'great' it falls short because you can tell there is so much content that has been cut from the adaptation, at times it feels a little rushed, the pacing is not quite even and feels 'off' and there are scenes that could have either run for longer or build up to moments that are just missing. The adaptation is trying to cram a lot of content into one season, and the problem it has is this season doesn't have a tight story that it can focus on, it is broad, full of political maneuvering and how Rosemyne is able to navigate the world of nobility. Little details matter which is why it is harder to cut things out. We have so many new characters who we need to get to know, a whole new world we've been tossed into, and while season 1 allowed us to take it slow and developed those things in a satisfying way, here in season 4 it feels like everything is a bit more 'surface level' it doesn't have the time to develop everything to bring out the same depth we are so used to, it's there in places, it's great in places, but in other parts you just want a bit more, you want a bit more time with events, you want a bit more background, and you want a bit more time with characters to know them better. It needed more episodes just so it didn't have to cut so much out of this. I also wasn't a big fan of the first OP and ED, I didn't feel it suited the series that wall, the second OP and ED fitted much better. I'm going to look forward to the next season because I absolutely love Bookworm, I'm just hoping that they are able to take their time with Season 5 in terms of pacing / episode count