The Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2 release date is coming up soon and anime fans won’t have too long to wait for new episodes.
The official website for the Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen anime has confirmed that Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 will be releasing in 2020!
Based on the wording of the announcement, it’s apparent that the second part will not be titled as Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2.
Instead, the first season of the Bookworm anime is what is called a “split-cour anime” where the second half is based on half of Part 2 of the light novel series.
What’s a “cour,” you might ask? For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a “cour” is a three-month block of TV broadcasting based on the physical seasons usually composed of 10 to 13 episodes. A “split-cour” is where a single anime season takes a multi-month break before resuming TV broadcasting.
For the purposes of this article, we will treat the anime’s second cour as if it’s Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2. That means future seasons past Episode 26 will be referred to as the Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 anime, which was confirmed to be in production in July 2020.
Still, it’s a little bit confusing since the anime is adapting a book series officially divided into five parts. That means the first anime season adapted three books, while Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2 only adapted the first two books of Part 2
That means the Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3 anime will finish light novel Part 2 and then conclude somewhere in light novel Part 3, which is five books long.
(It should be noted that the third season’s announcement was worded as Part 3 (第3期) rather than Season 3 (第3シーズン). Could that mean the third season will multiple cours? (Please see below for more details.)
Director Mitsuru Hongo has confirmed on Twitter that Part 2 will not be delayed at all by the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic. Although sometimes anime studios will be working on episodes right before they broadcast on TV, in this case, all 26 episodes were submitted for release in advance since the production schedule had already been pushed up “due to various circumstances.”
“It’s been a tough time, but I hope you enjoy it for a little while,” he concluded.
Part 2 will have 12 episodes, so the story will pick up again with Ascendance of a Bookworm Episode 15 and finish with Episode 26 on June 21, 2020.
The Ascendance of a Bookworm English dub, which began streaming in December, didn’t catch up with Part 1’s ending until the winter of 2020. Part 2 will also have an English dub streaming on Crunchyroll.
The wait for Part 2 wasn’t bad at all since an Ascendance of a Bookworm OVA episode also came out on March 10, 2020. The OVA has two parts and was released with the limited edition of light novel Volume 22 (or Part 5: Volume 1).
Crunchyroll eventually began streaming the two OVA episodes with an English dub. For more details, including a story summary, please see our article on the Ascendance of a Bookworm OVA episodes.
The Ascendance of a Bookworm anime is being produced by animation studio Ajia-Do, which also animated 2018’s How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord anime and the 2016 Izetta: The Last Witch. Director Mitsuru Hongo (World Trigger) is helming the project with the help of Assistant Director Yoshiki Kawasaki (episode director for Monster Hunter Stories: RIDE ON).
Writer Mariko Kunisawa is handling the anime’s scripts. Yoshiaki Yanagida and Toshihisa Kaiya are the character designers.
The Ascendance of a Bookworm opening (OP) music theme song for the first cour was “Pure White” as performed by Sumire Morohoshi. The ending (ED) theme song music is “Hair Ornament Angel” as performed by Megumi Nakajima.
The opening for Season 2, “Commotion”, was performed by Sumire Morohoshi, who also sang the first cour’s OP.
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Updated July 12, 2020: Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 confirmed!
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Updated May 5, 2020: No coronavirus delays for Ascendance Of A Bookworm Part 2!
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Updated March 6, 2020: Added Ascendance Of A Bookworm Part 2 English dub trailer and Part 2 OP info.
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Updated February 10, 2020: Added Ascendance Of A Bookworm Part 2 OP info.
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Updated February 6, 2020: Added exact Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 release date and a new trailer.
This article provides everything that is known about Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2 (Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Ascendance of a Bookworm manga, light novels, and web novel compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on the Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen light novel series by author Miya Kazuki and illustrator Yo Shiina. But the story first came to life in 2013 when the writer began self-publishing the story as a web novel series on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website.
Finished in March 2017, the web novel is 677 chapters and divided up into five parts. Starting in January 2015, the web novel began being adapted into a light novel series by publisher TO Books.
The first four parts, or 460 chapters of the web novel, were adapted by 21 light novel volumes, with the last having released on December 10, 2019. Part 5 has 217 web novel chapters left to cover, so the final part could easily be over 10 books by itself. The light novel adaptation has revised the web novel significantly by adding scenes and shifting some things around.
Artist Suzuka is illustrating the Ascendance of a Bookworm manga adaptation. Began in October 2015, Part 1 has finished with seven manga volumes. Both Part 2 and 3 of the manga started being adapted concurrently in 2018.
Warning: Just reading the titles for Parts 2 through 5 reveals significant spoilers.
- Part 1: Daughter of a Soldier
- Light Novel Volumes 1 – 3
- Web Novel Chapters 1 – 77
- Manga Volumes 7
- Part 2: Apprentice Shrine Maiden
- Light Novel Volumes 4 – 7
- Web Novel Chapters 78 – 172
- Manga Volumes 2+ (unfinished)
- Part 3: Lord’s Adopted Daughter
- Light Novel Volumes 8 – 12
- Web Novel Chapters 173 – 277
- Manga Volumes 1+ (unfinished)
- Part 4: The House of Lords’ Self-styled Library Assistant
- Light Novel Volumes 13-21
- Web Novel Chapters 278 – 460
- Part 5: Goddess Incarnation
- Light Novel Volumes 22+ (unfinished)
- Web Novel Chapters 461 – 677
J-Novel Club has licensed the official English translation for the Ascendance of a Bookworm manga series and light novel series. The English light novels are only up to Volume 5 (or Part 2: Volume 2) as of January 20, 2020. The English manga is only up to Volume 2 (or Part 1: Volume 2).
One massive change that fans of the light novel series might object to is literally the opening scene in the anime. The TV show starts by showing Ferdinand the priest using a magical mindreading crown on Myne, which in itself was a massive spoiler.
When Myne first realizes there is magic in this world, it’s a shock to the reader, as well, since up until that point, the world had been depressingly medieval. Since anime audiences were shown from the beginning that magic exists, the big reveal lost all of its shock value.
Otherwise, like all anime adaptations of a book series, the story is condensed, and some content skipped to fit the story within the limited time constraints of the episodic format. The overall pacing is good, diligently telling the story in a fashion that retains the heart of the books.
The first season’s Part 1 adapted the three volumes of the book series’ Part 1 with 14 episodes. To maintain the same pacing, the anime’s Part 2 would need around 19 episodes to adapt the four volumes of the book series’ Part 2.
However, since Part 2 is only going to be 12 episodes, the anime studio decided to only adapt half of Part 2. The final scene in Episode 26 corresponds to the prologue of Part 2: Volume 3.
The good news is that the source material is set up in such a way that Ascendance of the Bookworm Season 3 could faithfully finish adapting the book series’ Part 2 with a single cour, or around 13 episodes.
Since the July 2020 announcement specifically referred to the third season as Ascendance of a Bookwork Part 3 it’s possible the anime could adapt the entirety of the books’ Part 3, but that would require three cours. Therefore, I’m predicting the third season will be a single-cour, still.
The tricky part is adapting the final three Parts. Part 3 needs at least two cours. The nine volumes of Part 4 would require Ascendance of the Bookworm Season 4 to be at least three cours with 14 episodes each (or 42 episodes in total).
It’s hard to say how many episodes Part 5 will require since the light novel series is currently unfinished. Most likely, the final part of the anime series would be split up into multiple seasons, assuming the anime adaptation ever gets that far.
English-only readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can read the second half of Part 2 right now. By the end of 2020, the English light novel series should have reached Part 3. Unfortunately, manga readers will have to wait a while before the manga catches up with the anime episodes.
Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Season 2 release date
The Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 release date occurred on April 4, 2020, the spring 2020 anime season.
Historically, Ajia-Do has only produced one or two anime projects per year. Besides Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2, the only project they’ve announced for 2020 is the anime adaptation of the Hidden Things (Kakushigoto) manga series.
Assuming the Bookworm anime series is popular enough on streaming platforms, the anime production committee could greenlight an anime sequel. Since anime projects are scheduled years in advance, it’s likely the Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3 anime won’t be produced until late 2021 or 2022 at the earliest.