The fact that slowly, everyone around Main starts to have “glossy” hair is so heartwarming ❤️☺️

You say that Ascendance of a Bookworm has little to no wish fulfillment, how dare you assume that I don't wish to live my life as a poor medival peasant!

One thing I love about Dr Stone though is that the real action is in the building than the fights. With the climaxes being inventions, and slow emotional moments that make people feel supported and loved by the efforts of their ancestors to give them things like antibiotics, glasses, music.

sad thing is Dr. Stone DOES go into the more domestic/feminine technologies in the manga. It's all there in detail. They chose to gloss over it in the show

"The noble class owns most of the wealth, and the rest of the fiefdom have limited rights and work to support people they basically never see" I thought this was a fantasy series, not a slice of life.

I see Dr. Stone more as a celebration of humanity's progress. The series's progression is dependent on what very specific item Senku makes next as an answer to a very specific problem.

Dr. Stone makes me appreciate the complicated things we take for granted in our modern world.
Bookworm makes me appreciate the simple things that we take for granted in our modern world.

bookworm really did end up being my own "finally some good fucking food", im so glad someone else feels that as well

Fun fact: Myne IS a self insert, at least in a way. The author of Bookworm is sickly, had the tendency of passing out when she got excited and is someone who gets excited for the "weirdest" of things. Also, Ferdinand, also known as the blue robed high priest is pretty much the ideal man for the author.
But that's it. Bookworm teached me that a self insert can work on a story as long as the character is good.
And I also recommend checking the Light novels, they're great and the first one is 100% free in J-novel club (the page that does the official translation of Bookworm). I love the light novels even tho I didn't really like the anime for subjective reasons so you can imagine just how good they are.
Also, can confirm that the author is female. Is mentioned in the Q&A books and had been confirmed by the English translator of the LN, who has direct conversations with Miya. How can we know for sure? Well, her husband is always her first proof reader and she started writing after giving birth to her daughter. So yeah, Miya is a she.

I think I truely vibed with Ascendance because it was refreshing to see an anime with a loving family. You noted how much Gunther and Effa care for their children and Tulli being a fantastic big sister is so endearing. Additionally, the "lack of male gaze" as you put it makes the content easier to watch. As I've aged I become more uncomfortable with a lot of anime because of how it often it lewds characters that are minors. All this is besides the fact that Ascendance is just a fantastic story that I recommend to all my friends and family as a show with heavy themes, but light enough to help "wind down" with at the end of the day.

Gosh there is such a powerful moment in Ascendance of a Bookworm that just hits so hard to me....









Like at the beginning of the 2nd arc, there was a scene of her meeting the church orphans. She passed out from the horrible imagery, and when she comes to it hits her hard. When alive and hearing about starving children in Africa, she gave it little to no thought because it's "out of her control", and even when going to charities she doesn't particularly care if her donations help the kids or not. But now, with actual starving children right at her doorstep AND her being able to help, the guilt eats her alive.

She even contemplates spending all her hard earned gold to help those kids because she realized in her old life she was a hypocrite using donations and distance as an excuse to put everything not books aside. It kills her that even with all the gold she has she can't change something inherent in the system, and if she's gone it will all be back to where it was. Her resolution to fight against systemic evil is very endearing, and she doesn't even win most of the time, because in politics you kinda have to compromise. The audience grows with her and because of her. Definitely why Bookworm is only one of the few multi-Konosugoi 1st place winner alongside Haruhi.

The light Novel also point real early Myne knows she'll die with her sickly body if she doesn't do something about her home's hygiene issues, hence why she doesn't stop with shampoo but use the basic chore of sweeping her home as an exercise to build strength (two birds with one stone) and teaches her's big sister the importance of regular washing

Fun fact related to the weird genre classification of certain manga: Houseki no Kuni ist marketed under science fiction here in Germany.

I loved bookworm because she's doing small, super small things that are REVOLUTIONIZING EVERYTHING AT HER TIER IN SOCIETY. Just when you get how fleshed out the small world she moves up the ladder and the world shifts around her in such a subtle ways as the world expands around her.

From what I've seen in the Manga and without trying to spoil anything, Dr. STONE does end up focusing on more of a man vs nature type of story that Im still engaged with which is a pretty nice change of pace.

My grandmother taught me that sewing is a huge necessity to life, I find it degrading and despicable to see it hated or viewed as a girly thing. It's like I'm not allowed to stitch or sew or even work in fashion design.

Fun fact: The author of Berserk had a lot of influence from shojo manga. And to me, it really show in the peaceful moments in the manga.

13:50 The most depressing part of all this is that Sakura's fight here is probably one of the best fights in the series. In my recent read through I was stunned with how well it was framed, the interesting dynamic between the characters and their abilities, along with the fact that it actually gave Sakura SOMETHING.

God DAMNIT Kishimoto, doesn't this tell you ANYTHING.

Ascendance of a Bookworm helped me accept the fact that I enjoy doing "feminine" things. I used to be afraid it made me look weak (mostly because I lived with my grandmother who constantly watches Westerns where a woman gets slapped around by some male), but this anime helped me see that these things are essential and though we might just be seen as "food and baby makers," these things are still important and if we somehow get cheated out of doing them, everything will eventually fall. Long story short, be proud of feminine stuff because everyone (and probably everything) depends on it.

"I don't think anyone would describe it as wish fulfilment"
Me, a  person with several chronic illnesses not always capable of doing the shit I love and knowing I can never seek to attain my current dream job:  Is that a dare?

8:30 as someone who knows how to work with leather it would have been great for the show to explain how leather used to be sewn with boar hair as it is fine enough and strong enough to peirce leather and the tread is stuck to the "needle" with glue as you can't thread it through an eye like an metal needle. This skill also takes a lot of time to develop. So now we make holes in the leather with awls and stitching irons (spiky forks) and the needles are blunt because all they have to do it take the thread from one side yo the other.