Reviews for Bibliophile Princess

Mushikaburi-Hime is a must watch for any shoujo/josei fan, because for one, we don’t get enough of these shows, and for two, this is a really cute watch with a couple that will quickly become one of your favourites. Mushikaburi-Hime, like most other shoujo/josei is a character driven slow-burn in which your entertainment depends on how much you like the couple. Fortunately, Chris and Eli have one of the cutest relationships I’ve seen in a while. Premise is straightforward and honestly there’s not much story to speak of. It’s very slice of life based and through their daily struggles Chris and Eli get closer and developa stronger bond. I personally enjoyed seeing their love blossom, but also the personal growth that Eli goes through. Going from a shy bookworm who could not express herself, to being a fitting future queen was a really cool journey and it was organically done with incremental steps over the season.

The show is of course pretty cliché and plays into many of those 90s style shoujo tropes with a beautiful princess being courted by all these different guys and a main guy who fawns over the MC, etc. And that would probably be one of my biggest complaints. While I loved Eli and Chris’ relationship, I felt the male MC did not really have any growth. If anything, he regresses from a cool noble prince to a simp who can only fawn over Eli. This is cute for a couple episodes, but over a 12 episode run time... it can get kind of old. I would have liked to see him get more development and come into his own as a character more. Obviously with it being a female demographic, that probably was not the intention of the author and I still enjoyed the show without it, but it holds it back from being higher rated IMO. I’d point to Fruits Basket as a gold standard of how that should be done.

As with most Josei and most Madhouse projects, art is amazing. Has a really unique look to it and while it doesn’t 100 percent recreate the light novel art, it stays true enough to it.

While it’s not the best Josei this year, or even this season, Mushikaburi-Hime is still a must watch for any fan of the romance genre and shoujo/josei fans in general. Our selections are just so slim we don’t have much opportunity to be picky. The plot may not be the strongest, but it is still a very cute story with a loveable MC that you can’t help but want to protect, and a fairy tale type feel.

Mushikaburi-Hime gets 8 out of 10.

I want to make something very clear: I NEVER go into watching, reading, or playing something wanting to hate it. Whenever I see something that seems like it appeals to my tastes, I actually try to keep an open mind about it. Similarly, there are certain shows and genres that I avoid like the plague. Don't expect me to talk about any ecchi anime ever and don't expect me to watch shows such as Haruhi Suzumiya, Redo of Healer, or Ranma 1/2 or anything of the like. If you like those shows, cool, good for you. So when I first heard about Bibliophile Princess andits upcoming anime adaptation, I thought it seemed cute, so I decided to try it out. Since the light novels are only available digitally, I can't really rent them, and I don't want to buy something and then find that I don't like it and be unable to return it, y'know? I thought, "Hey! Maybe Bibliophile Princess might be good! I'll give it a watch and see for myself!" Boy howdy do I regret that decision so, so, sooooo much. Dear lord, I wanted to like this show so badly. I really did. But seriously, watching Bibliophile Princess was like being made to go through a muddy river with the promise of a prize at the end, only to find out too late that there was never a prize to begin with. By God, not only is Bibliophile Princess one of the most utterly generic, mediocre, frustrating anime I've ever seen, based on what little I've read of the light novels, it completely fails as an overall adaptation.

In the kingdom of Sauslind, Lady Elianna Bernstein and her family of self-professed bookworms live in relative peace, with no desire for power and content with spending their days doing nothing but reading and acquiring knowledge. During Elianna's debutante season at court, she is proposed to by the dashing Prince Christopher, the heir to the kingdom. At first, Elianna balks at the idea of being married to him, as she feels there are better candidates out there, but Christopher makes an offer she can't bring herself to refuse: If she marries him, she'll have special access to the fabled royal archives, a repository of rare tomes, and her social duties will be intentionally limited. Unable to resist the allure of reading new books, Elianna accepts and becomes Christopher's fiance, but she does wonder why he of all people would rather marry her and make her his bride when there are other, far better suitable people that want it more?

Man, I honestly thought Prima Doll was going to be the worst anime I saw this year, but Bibliophile Princess took the throne by virtue of the fact that everything about it just screams "I don't give a shit." Seriously, there's barely anything redeemable about Bibliophile Princess as an anime. Everything it does has been done way better in other shows, some of which I'll mention further down. Bibliophile Princess at best is a boring cliche-fest that has zero ambition. Now, cliches in and of themselves aren't inherently bad, and I abide by the philosophy that as long as you flesh out the characters well and care about the story you want to tell, you can make anything good whether it's cliche or not, as there's no such thing as a truly original story anymore. But everything about Bibliophile Princess just feels extremely passionless, listless, and workman-like, like the staff on the show only produced this because they were mandated to do so to fill out a light novel adaptation quota. From the obnoxiously bright, washed out, and shadowless animation to the similarly mediocre and generic soundtrack, the whole production feels like a poor man's Ascendance of a Bookworm. Speaking of Bookworm, does anybody else think that the only reason Yuka Iguchi was brought on to sing the opening was because the producers for this wanted to cash in on Bookworm's fame and popularity? Ironically, the opening song is actually the best thing about this show.

Beyond that, the writing is just outright stupid. This is the kind of show that was written by people who think that its target audience has the mental capacity of a lobotomized squirrel. Characters act solely on what’s convenient to the plot and make the most bizarre leaps in logic at times. Any attempts this show makes to try and be genuine is overshadowed by their complete stupidity. Add that to a story that is just chockful of plot devices and inconsequential politicial babble that we never even see portrayed on screen, and you basically have a bland mess. Even the character designs have no passion put into them, as the men are all just generic bishounen that are carbon copies of each other save for Alan (Who, ironically, is the only character in this show I liked even though his whole running gag is that nobody remembers him at all), and all the women have similar faces that you wouldn't be able to tell apart even if you swapped their hair styles and costumes. The show's attempts at political intrigue fall flat because a lot of it just consists of catty girls trying to sabotage Elianna with absolutely no sense of subtlety whatsoever. Characters telegraph their evil intentions like blaring neon lights. The show thinks its smart when it actually isn't.

Speaking of Elianna, I hate to say it, but she's the absolute worst aspect of this show. Bibliophile Princess is constantly beating into our heads that Elianna is this super awesome lady who does great things for her kingdom and others, even showing other characters praising her for her feats...but the thing is, the anime doesn't actually show her doing anything of note on screen, so any praise she winds up getting feels not only unearned, but completely undeserved. For example, episode 2, which I feel encapsulates every single flaw this show has, has Elianna be caught up in some girl's bad attempt at trying to usurp her as Christopher's fiance, and the nobles all wax poetic about all the wonderful things Elianna has done for them. What does Elianna actually do throughout the entire episode? Nothing! She literally just stands at the top of the stairs like a deer in the headlights, making absolutely no attempt to refute any of the mean girl's accusations when she has all the power to do so, and everyone else just does everything for her. And she spends THE ENTIRE FUCKING EPISODE JUST STANDING AROUND!!! The fact that everyone worships the ground Elianna walks on even when the anime makes no effort to show her actually doing anything of note on screen just makes Elianna come off as a blatant Mary Sue straight out of someone's bad fan fiction, and I've both read and written my fair share of bad fan fiction (My fics were a lot worse as a kid, and I can say I've vastly improved my writing since then)! Furthermore, Elianna's personality doesn't change all that much and her views are never challenged. There's one arc where a military guy points out a lot of the flaws in Elianna's proposal about storing food and putting less money into war weapons, and the guy actually makes some fairly reasonable points considering Elianna has literally no experience with military affairs and is a bit too idealistic about preventing war, but after she makes some overly cheesy speech, the guy just laughs it off and accepts Elianna without a second thought! Plus, Elianna never makes the effort to actually talk to people about any issues she has, especially when it matters (Again, episode 2 is the worst example of this), and any time she tries, somebody else steps in and does everything for her, or claim that she did nothing wrong when a lot of conflict could have been avoided if she had just talked to SOMEBODY AT ALL. All throughout the series, Elianna just comes across as a whiny, listless, passionless waif who only cares about books and nothing else, yet is constantly shilled by the entire narrative as this amazing person when she's done literally nothing to deserve any praise at all and is given little to no agency or autonomy. The one time she does try to do something (During the Star of Sissel arc) also falls flat because she recklessly throws herself into a situation where a nobleman could easily kill her right then and there, and she didn't bother to bring her guard with her. Gee, it's almost like trying to confront a powerful nobleman without any weapons or self-defense training is a bad idea!

And the thing is, Elianna does have established reasons for being the way she is in the light novels! The LNs establish that she mostly stayed away from social gatherings because she was picked on by aristocratic girls for her love of books and her plain looks, which the anime never bothers to establish in the beginning. Even during the Irene incident, Elianna, while she still stood around and didn't do anything, she saw through Irene's ploy and even snarked about it in her head, and the LN establishes that the only reason she didn't speak up was because she didn't know if she was supposed to act or just stay put and follow the mental script everyone was acting out. So basically, the anime deliberately left out what little personality Elianna had in the LNs in favor of making her into a swooning, spineless waif who jumps to conclusions at the slightest thing and barely does anything of her own initiative, even when she has all the power and freedom to do so. Any reasons she has for being the way she is are left out, so it's really hard to feel any sympathy for anime Elianna because she basically brought a lot of her own issues on herself and doesn't even make the effort to solve her own problems! Do you want to know an anime that features a character that actually does shit and has legitimate reasons for being the way she is? Raven of the Inner Palace, which is airing right now! In that anime, Shouxue is shown to be lonely and isolated because not only does her position as the Raven Consort dictate such, if certain people find out what she really is, they will literally kill her, yet Raven of the Inner Palace actually shows Shouxue going out of her way to help people and solve their problems, whether by their own request or because she wants to, so any loyalty she receives from her new friends and acquaintances actually feels earned. Plus, it is possible to write a heroine who starts off listless and dispassionate as long as the reasons for her being such are plausible. For example, I'm reading the light novel My Happy Marriage right now (Which is getting an anime fairly soon), and in that series, the heroine, Miyo, is quiet and has zero self-esteem because she was abused and mistreated by her family for her entire life, with the series making it clear right off the bat. Her life improves when she's made to marry a rich man named Kiyoka, but marriage alone doesn't magically resolve all of her trauma and issues, with the series empathizing that Miyo's path to healing will be a long one. In that series, Miyo's arc is about her regaining her self-worth, agency, and autonomy and allowing herself to become a more self-assured individual now that she interacts with people who genuinely love and care about her. Elianna doesn't have that excuse, so her problems, again, come off more like a girl's insufferable whining than anything truly genuine.

That's not even getting into all the other little problems the anime has as well. In one episode, the series just randomly introduces a character named Lilia and expects us to already know that she and Elianna are acquainted without even showing us how they know each other. Like, the hell? I know Arte had this problem with its anime, but Bibliophile Princess is actually worse about it because even though this girl is in the opening, she just disappears after that arc and never shows up again. The LNs establish that Lilia is Elianna's cousin on her mother's side, and yet again, the anime just chucks her in there without rhyme or reason. Like, why even put this girl in the opening if you're only gonna have her be in the series for two or three episodes and then never again?! God, just thinking more about this series makes my head hurt. Overall, if you're into shows like Bibliophile Princess, that's totally cool, more power to you. If you like it, great! I personally feel the Bibliophile Princess anime is frustrating and terrible, mainly because it commits a cardinal sin that no adaptation should ever do: It made me question if the source material is even that good to begin with. Seriously, there are so many other things out there that manage to tackle their premise and characters better than Bibliophile Princess could ever hope to do, some of which I've named. All in all, Bibliophile Princess is not only a hopelessly blank, generic anime, but also a terrible adaptation. But don't just take my word for it. ANN writer Rebecca Silverman did weekly reviews for the series, and since she's read the light novels, she also recognizes the adaptation's failures in capturing the spirit and essence of the source material, and even other ANN writers don't feel the anime is worth much. But ultimately, you should make your own judgment and see for yourself whether you like or dislike Bibliophile Princess, or anything else, really. At the end of the day, my reviews are just my personal opinions on the stuff I read, watch, and play, nothing more and nothing less.

Simply put, this show was just not for me. I’m all for more shoujo anime being out in the anime world, but this was not the best showing of what the shoujo genre can offer. It’s just a simple story in a royalty setting, where someone who doesn’t really belong tries to fit in, and people get jealous because she’s the prince’s fiancée. It’s quite the bland story with a very straight forward romance, and boring politics that I couldn’t bring myself to care about. STORY: In a nutshell, Elianna Bernstein, a noble from the Sauslind family, which was not the most renowned family out there, isinvited by the Crown Prince, Christopher Selkirk Asherald, to become his fiancée, in exchange for being able to enter the royal archives filled with books to satisfy her craving to read, as she’s a bookworm. Elianna believes the relationship is just one devoid of real love, but just convenience, so she constantly thinks that she’s no match for Christopher, and that she’s a burden to him.

This sentiment from Elianna lingers for most of the series, and eventually, she does try to prove that she is worthy of the prince’s hand in marriage, but these doubts in her mind constantly hold both her, and the show back, because it just dances around this theme, and is quite slow in developing effectively.

ART:

It looks fine, though the movement is quite limited. I would have expected a bit more from Madhouse, but they haven’t been nearly as good of a studio for quite a while now.

MUSIC:

Not very noticeable, the OP and ED are quite generic and average, and so is the soundtrack.

CHARACTERS:

By far, Elianna does have the best development out of all the characters, but it’s still quite slow. She learns over time that her words matter, and that her knowledge due to reading books can be put to good use to help others. She’s sadly quite gullible while being smart, and I suppose that’s due to her limited interactions with others since she spends a lot of her time reading. She’s so much a bookworm, she’d probably care more about books than Prince Christopher.

Most of the other cast members, including Christopher, just didn’t really do anything for me. Most of them support Elianna well, and for Christopher, there are some good romantic moments, but he didn’t do anything too memorable.

ENJOYMENT:

I never really liked it, or hated it, it was just consistently average all the way through.

THEMATIC EXECUTION:

If anything, the romance was executed decently, but not very memorably. The political themes were not really intriguing at all, and I struggled to care about them. Some of the normal royalty tropes were there, with the drama, but they were only decent at the start.

OVERALL:

There wasn’t much to take away from this, other than the aesthetic being quite decent. There could have been more done around the dramatic aspects of this show, and it felt more slice of life than anything else. It’s not bad by any means, just very average and bland for me personally.

This is garbage. Elianna, the protagonist, has no personality outside of reading books, and the love interest’s only personality trait is being a creepy boyfriend. Yay! Her love for books means basically nothing by the way. It’s pretty much a gimmick to show she isn’t a piece of cardboard. Unfortunately, possibly the most boring gimmick imaginable was used so it doesn’t work. These characters are so bland it’s ridiculous. Almost every episode goes one of two ways. First, some girls are jealous of Elianna and try to take her place while being gross toward her, and this somehow makes Elianna question whether her obviously obsessed boyfriend actuallylikes her, only for him to save the day. Second is there’s a villain doing evil things. Of course, there’s book damage involved because there has to be a reason for Elianna’s existence. And then her boyfriend saves the day, either directly or indirectly. The plot is truly obnoxious.

Nothing’s ever developed in this anime. Elianna’s wrongly accused of something? Let’s spend half the episode on flashbacks that never happened on screen during the same scene! Someone’s mad at Elianna? Time for a flashback of what she did because nobody knows what he’s talking about! This abysmal writing is all you get when her boyfriend isn’t busy being a total creep. I don’t know if this is just the fault of the adaptation, but it feels very much like someone’s first attempt at writing a story.

This review is based off entirely on an anime-only perspective as I have never read the manga. It is really true that Shoujo Anime as a genre has been slowly lacking and becoming more and more obscure. Bibliophile Princess is one of the few shows for this year under this genre. So I was hoping this show should do good. Premise is quite cliche and just your standard Royalty/Monarchy settings & it does not try to pretend to deviate away from it. It does not over do things to make it bland and does a good job to keep you hooked at least for the first4 episodes.

The characters are well-written but some are pretty predictable at best. The first 2 episodes introduced a female antagonist that we can say is your standard Shoujo Anime antagonist. How strong is that second episode? Well it felt like it should have been the season ending.

This may be your usual prince and princess romance but the amount of romantic scenes and banters from both Elianna & Chris will make the female audience fan-girl in romantic excitement like what a good Shoujo Anime should be. So if you enjoy shows that will make you feel terrible being single - you should at least give this a try. If you are a fan of this genre, you should give the show a chance.

I will always prefer a manga to an anime. I felt that the anime isn't doing the manga art justice, nor the story. The anime feels a bit fast-paced but maybe that's because reading takes a bit longer than actually watching an anime. Although I like the story, I am not as invested as I am with the manga. I definitely am amazed with the accuracy in their voices and such but I am not too fond of the execution of the story. Who knows, maybe I am being biased from reading the manga first but I'm not too invested in the anime.

if miscommunication and anxiety had a baby it would be this anime. Or should I rather say no communication. But the series is not inherently bad there were some scenes I genuinely enjoyed but it does tent to become boring after a few episodes. But still it’s cute and at the end it showcases a rather healthy relationship. So if you need something cute to shut down your brain to then this is for you but if you want exciting please retain your self from watching the bibliophile princess The story is not unique in any way and not a good representation of the Shojogenre I was we would be adapting better story’s like Queens quality. Bibliophile princess is just a mother show in this niche of series of which we seem to have always one of in every season but as sad it can be enjoyed as a adorable romcom on a depressed Sunday night or something

Hope this was helpful ^^

i'm actually proud of myself, i used to watch the entire anime even if i saw obvious signs of it being garbage but now i don't waste my time and simply drop it i love books, i thought i would like this anime even if the mc is 1 dimensional,generic,not having a single fucking personality trait besides reading,mary sue. but i was wrong, in episode 2 i realized it's over, elinna agrees to be married to a prince because she gets access to a special library with rare books and she 'slowly' falls in love with the prince, now that's the plot, first off what awhore!, she marries someone not out of love but for personal gain, second off after 4 years the prince is talking to another female character named Irene and elinna realizes oh i love the prince actually! there is no interaction between elinna and the prince, NONE, but what really sealed the deal for me was how in episode 2 Irene out of absolutely nowhere framed elinna for pushing her down the stairs and how prince tried to "solve the mystery" acting smart and all. that was so fucking cringy that i had to take a hot bath

don't watch it, it really is as bad as other reviews are warning you it is

Look, I wanted to like it so bad but I just can't do this anymore... Apart from the Fruits Basket remake, shoujo romance has honestly started to feel more and more like a dying niche these last few years. Shounen romance has been dominating the scene instead, so when I heard of a cutesy old-school shoujo romance directed by the same guy who did One Week Friends airing this season, I was extatic. Extatic to the point that I was willing to ignore multiple warning signs along the way, only to realize I can now feel my own brain actively trying to stop me from pressingplay on episode 8...

Bibliophile Princess is about a bookish royal lady that's engaged to the crown prince of a country. They like each other but she's shy about it, other girls want to have him but for some damn reason he treats her like she's God's gift to mankind or something yadda yadda yadda and every now and then they get wrapped up in insufferably boring sociopolitical stuff that I could not for the life of me care to try and follow. (Also I think the second half of the show is building up to some larger conspiracy but I just cannot bring myself to be bothered anymore...)

You would think a show like this would at least make the characters interesting to make up for the lack of plot, but you'd be wrong. Eliana feels like a 13-year-old wattpad writer's Mary Sue self insert. I wouldn't be so mad at the whole smart yet gullible sheltered princess archetype if this damn show was self-aware enough to make her face some sort of consequence for her naïvety, but no: everytime she messes up she's got some pawn there to save the day for her. Hence, her default is passive, polite and inoffensive except if someone dares to even look at a book the wrong way - then the little wallflower suddenly goes badass mode like straight out of a 2011 "don't fck with me, you wouldn't want me to unleash my dark side" tumblr post. And it's not epic or cool. It's embarassing.

Prince Chris has a few decent moments of characterization here and there but really, everybody else barely matters because dialogue that could have been used to establish the personalities of a nice little supporting cast is instead spent explaining historical backgrounds and politics that noone watching this for the romance actually gives a shit about.

One of the saving graces of this show seems to be that it's pretty - at first glance... While the character designs might not be the most original, I do still find them pleasing to look at, especially the many lovingly designed dresses worn by the main character. However, the problem here is that they're obviously made for pictures in a light novel rather than fluid animation. So by the time episode 4 rolls around, movements have become stiff, proportions have gotten wonky, shot composition and camera angles are now boring and even the few action scenes are disorienting and almost impossible to follow. It is also around the same time that the show completely abandons the rule of "show don't tell", so even if unlike me you're actually a fan of creative depictions of fantasy politics, forget about it. It's literally just pictures of two people talking with some lip flaps on top of it.

The audio of this show too is all in all forgettable; the opening is cute but nothing special, I have never once bothered to listen to the ending all the way through and I can't remember any track on the OST sticking out to me either. The voice actors' emotional range is extremely limited by the fact that firstly, 99% of the dialogue is dull exposition dumping and secondly, they are for the most part constricted to this frustratingly calm and polite court language that allows for almost no real feelings. Basically, if you want to hear some good Reina Ueda, watch Hanayamata, and if you want to hear some good Ryouhei Kimura, watch Haikyuu; this show will not be the one to sell you on their talent.

I think, what upsets me the most is that this review isn't even coming from a place of hatred (not as long as there's a show about a sentient fcking ASMR microphone airing at the same time...) but rather from a place of disappointment. I wanted to like this so bad, I kept clinging to it because I wanted this to be my new Earl & Fairy, my new Snow White with the Red Hair but it just isn't. I can maybe see someone who is into all those royal palace isekai webtoons giving this a 6 or even a 7 but I've just had enough and will now be learning to be okay with the fact that I have ended up dropping the first promising-looking shoujo romance in years.

I see that there are mixed feelings about this anime... If I could describe it in a few words it would be; Cute romance. Determined. Intelligence. Subtle. Passive. (Unconventionally) Strong Female lead. Slice of Life. Political I wasn't really expecting anything when I first started to watch this anime. I walked in with no context nothing. If I had read the description. Where to start? The main female character doesn't have major super powers but her character development was subtle, gentle and slow. I will admit that there are flaws in her but that's what, to me, made her more loveable. She starts as a character with one solefocus and purpose, but as she's ushered into a new world faced with different challenges she learns how to branch out of her one dimensional character. There was a significant moment where she was in the wrong, she knew she was in the wrong, she knew that she had hurt someones feelings. This misunderstanding caused a lot of trouble for herself, but she was able to acknowledge it and move forward and do what was needed to fix it.

Issues I have with her, is that she is naive and comes off easy to push around, and that character flaw never goes away... However she starts speaking for herself and she starts explaining her thought patterns behind why things should be the way that they are. This is not a Female lead that will spark a heated argument, nor is she a character that will fight in the front lines. She does what she does best, which is be herself. There was something else in this anime that I really liked and that was that there is an idea of perfection that we seem to have, "It's okay to strive for perfection as long as that is not the only thing you strive for." There was a sense of you don't need to rely on yourself and what you are bad at, others are good at. This isn't something that you pick up straight away, in fact it wouldn't be something that you'd think about unless you are writing a review or talking to someone about it.

The cute romance part captured my attention, this guy is determined to have Eli and he fights for that right... Not physically. But it was nice to see a Male lead that didn't really have a gaggle of girls around him. This would, I think, classify as a political anime too. Maybe not in the same way as others but I think that this is a hidden gem and maybe a little niche.

There is so much to say about this but I don't want to give it away. I understand what everyone else says is there own personal opinion, but I thought I would throw my 3 cents in.

A simple story of the awkward princess becoming betrothed to a prince and the trials and tribulations that happen as a result. It leans into politics a bit however it isn't a fantasy story. Which is what I liked about it. No other world main hero, no magical chosen one powers. Just a simple story about a princess to be that actually READS and learns and uses that to solve problems. The greatest drawback of this anime is how abbreviated things are from the books. There's a lot cut out about her reading about stuff and knowing things. It just seems she pulls it out ofthin air when that's not the case.

I also like the touch where the king isn't some old dude with a beard, but is actually around the same age of the queen.

Overall if you want a shoujo/josei series that isn't super action packed and is more iyashikei, this is a good one to watch. Also has a lot of pretty boys as supporting cast.

This story is a slow one with some dry humor sparingly used as a nice accent. Overall it’s an okay series and consistent pace. The animation is pretty much nothing special, but is still pretty art and color choices. Voices, music, and sfx are similar pleasant. The cast isn’t anything special but they work well with a solid world setting. Now, the biggest hurdle this series can never overcome is nuance. There is next-to-no depth given to any scene and, unless you’re already overly familiar and nearly exhausted from this type of genre and its usual tropes, you’ll be left confused. Because everything that’s neededto build-up the plot points is effectively ignored and, in effect, leave the desire for an actual story unlike the generic SoL wherein viewers aren’t teased with such a thing.

And this is likely an issue of adapting straight from the comic. This animation should’ve built where it was overlooking. It sadly would’ve used nearly no additional effort in regard to the actual animation that prides itself in aesthetically pleasing filters with hardly moving figures. Thanks to 90% of action is off-screen...

All that said, there is some touching romance. But as it’s between a young man who’s rarely blunt and a young woman who’s only now realizing she has feelings beyond her love for books... it’s not particularly romantic? Depending on tastes, this might mean nothing beyond its cuteness.

The fact that I watched this to the end is proof of my desire for more anime’s of this genres because I kinda hated this show. I hated it so much that this is my first review. Cliches galore but beyond that the mc is just hopeless. Like girl go bury yourself in a ditch with your favourite books already let someone more interesting have a go. This should be rewritten as one of those otome isekais where a more interesting (or really anyone else) takes over her life and story. As a bookworm, I had high hopes for this but sis is irritating. Shedoes nothing. She is supposed to be smart but seemingly has no sense of awareness or perception of social cues. A lion could lead this girl into a den, eat her and all she’ll say is hai.

I tried to forgive her in the beginning but after episode 5/6 and her endless desire to just walk into traps, never fend for or defend herself or again really do anything of note but wait for the prince to come save her. I give up. I thought I can be passive but girl makes me feel like Joan of arc. A child literally bullies her at one point. It’s ridiculous. No one is this timid . Her character infuriated me so much I can’t even tell you who else was on this show. Everyone else is meh. Classic mean girl, princes (all the tropes), etc. this girl has everything on a platter but chooses to find problems where there are none, never communicates or ask questions and just blindly agrees to everything that is asked of her.

The only reason I continued to watch it is because I’m a sucker for a classic old timey romance and I needed to fill my cup with something. I am a fish in a desert so I did see it through to the end but I hated most moments of it. I especially hate the writers who could have been lazy while producing something watchable but decided to just give us nothing. Not a single f. This is the laziest story I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen things.

Watch it if you like the genre but prepare to probably hate it and especially hate the mc

It wasn’t a bad show, but the relentless miscommunication trope drove me insane. It’s definitely a light and airy watch and a good love story between the two leads, despite the drama. The artwork is beautiful and the premise is unique. Give it a watch but just be patient with the constant miscommunication. There were side characters that had potential of filling screen time that might have not been played out to their full potential. If there was a second season, and a lot less miscommunication drama, I would absolutely watch it. The FL is known to be an over thinker which causes a lotof the miscommunication but the ML is just as to blame. Overall, still worth the watch.

I thought reverse harem/regular harem "reincarnated in otome game" isekai was the most cringe combo ever, but it seems like the regular generic medieval romance shoujo gives it a run for the money. At least in "reincarnated in a otome game" type novels or anime, the rest of the cast is kind of bland or NPC-like for a reason. The characters are from a reverse-harem game or something, and thus, they kind of act more wooden and there's no reason to go delve deep into the characters. Similar to using the generic "medieval fantasy" setting, these types of shows thrive on having the MC be ina world of familiarity so the world doesn't need to be expanded upon, and knowing all of the basic personalities of characters. Thus, the spotlight is on the MC, trying to figure out her situation, and she generally ends up having a strong personality, since her monologuing and actions essentially carry the show.

Mushikaburi-hime does the exact opposite of having the most boring and bland MC while also having suffering same problem with generic characters. First of all, Elianna is a character that's a contradiction. Clearly, the emphasis on her knowledge and intelligence is highlighted over and over again. She's constantly reading books, her family is extremely smart and bookish as well, and she even reads more academic topics, like the history of her empire. Yet, you're telling me that a person with such erudite attributes is somehow also an airhead that's a doormat? Elianna shows no initiative. She gets thrown into the midst of courtroom politics and is unable to follow up. She doesn't really try to get information, and even when given obvious hints that something is brewing, she's completely clueless. All of the sudden, she can't connect the dots. She lacks the drive or motivation that an otome game reincarnated MC would generally have, but all of the characters are also extremely generic and don't have much going for them either. A majority of screen time is spent on Elianna, yet she still possesses very little characterization.

What ends up happening? The clueless girl that's somehow also an extreme academic that possesses a plethora of knowledge gets saved by her prince. Essentially, she does nothing. She gets plotted by, and in the end, gets saved by external factors. You could say that her contribution to her getting saved is zero. Nilch. A piece of cardboard would have done the same amount of effort to saving their own demise as Elianna did. Is this what shoujo is about? Being at the whim of others and hopefully, your loved interest will save the day?

Of course Elianna and the prince both slowly fall in love with each other over the course of four years. This is also conveniently time-skipped in order for there to be as little of a connection between the watchers and the relationship of Elianna and the crown prince. How could you possibly enjoy this show?

a generic anime with god awful characters, and enough plot holes to classify it as swiss cheese. the whole cast revolves around MC as if she's the center of their world. her chemistry with the prince is not believable, he acts like a cheesy obsessed knight from a kid's fairy tale. MC had more chemistry with a minor side character that shows up half way into the show, Anna. the main supporting cast is all generic "good" people who love her because she's cute, innocent, and clueless. every villain of the day is some petty dumbass who targets MC in the most predictable way. alsothe show goes at a snail's pace with tons of flashbacks. add to that how passive MC is, and you're in for a excruciating watch. i have nothing against passive characters but this girl has a pretty empty head and takes ages to process the info she has. she's supposed to be brainy but we're just told that instead of seeing her brains in action.

the basic character premise has potential - socially awkward introvert experiences a social life and gains self confidence etc. but if that's what you want, go for something like aharen san ga hakarenai, komi cant communicate, bocchi the rock!, etc.

i wish id checked the mal reviews before trying this one. giving it a 4 instead of 3 because i liked the art + animation, and have watched worse.

The Saint's Magic Power is Being a Bookworm. From the title I just conjured up in my mind you might think that I’m implying Bibliophile Princess is a sort of cross between The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent and Ascendance of a Bookworm, but in reality it has very little in common with those two shows. For one, Bibliophile Princess is not an isekai with overpowered, magical, cardboard protagonists thank christ (not to say The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent and Ascendance of a Bookworm are bad because they’re isekai, in fact they’re both rather good.), but a period, regency romance about a young, socially awkwardnoble lady called Elianna who loves nothing more than to read books, and a dashing prince called Christopher who bribes her with access to the royal library in exchange for her posing as his finance so he can keep all the greedy and annoying suiters being forced onto him off his back.

It’s a cute show stylised akin to a shojo romance manga thanks to Madhouses use a light colour pallet and shaders that thoroughly explores Elianna’s struggles and the anxiety that comes with the role of being the future queen, and how she deals with an onslaught of women and powerful families behind the scenes that want her out of the picture. However, the show itself restricted by the light novel story arc structure that it’s adapting. There are long stretches of episodes which feel like they go on and on -maybe because the director didn’t know how to adapted them from book to the screen- which results in a lot of tell-don’t-show instead of the other way around. This is unfortunately a persistent problem throughout the season.

A good example of this is the way Elianna’s achievements are not really shown to us, but rather told to the audience via the prince or someone else close to her boasting to the villain of the episode about what she’s done and how valuable her contributions are. What makes this boasting sillier is that Elianna achieved these feats by reading books and studying topics such as fallen/prosperous kingdoms, medicines or and other cultures, and putting the lessons and knowledge they provide into practice for the betterment of the kingdom and it’s people. The thing is though… any noble can do that(?), but it’s treated like a freak occurrence which begs the question, how is the kingdom still standing? Either the nobles can’t read or they’re just incompetent in my opinion.

I actually really enjoyed Elianna’s and Christopher’s relationship. They’re very sweet together, and although it’s slightly repetitive I think the struggles and pressures they both go through to balance their romance whilst acting in their respective roles is well depicted.

I can’t say I liked the rest of the cast though. I don’t hate them or anything. Apart from Christopher’s cheeky uncle there weren’t any stand out performances, but the characters who did stand out stood out because they felt like they belonged to different anime genre.

Overall Bibliophile Princess is fine. I don’t think it will particularly wow anyone, but if you’re looking for a chill, period, regency romance and drama with underlying themes of what it means to love someone and what it means to be in a position of power… then you could probably do better, but this is a good alternative.

6/10 It’s Okay *Thumbs Up*

I actually really love the art style but the plot and characters were all flat. There was no substance worth making the plot exciting or interesting it really felt like a “women are dumb and men do all the work” kind of stereotype. Eliana does absolutely as the FL and when it comes to her relationship she is a doormat. It was really annoying how many times she would tell herself she needed to speak up about her feelings and then run away when the perfect moments would come around. The males literally do all the work including in the relationship which is wrong andinaccurate and for this anime to have only been released in 2022 it’s like a regression in feminism. It was not even relatable to, situation wise. Eliana’s doorknob personality really pissed me off. She has such a supportive family that her personality literally makes zero sense. She has insecurities that the Prince always saves her from bad situations but, she doesn’t speak up in the first place. The Prince is basically forced to save her from her insecurities without knowing what she’s actually worrying about. It’s irritating.

“Bibliophile Princess” is what happens when an incompetent writer creates something so bad it should be saved for prosperity as a warning. I am a victim of my own expectations and a trusting nature. After reading the synopsis I was actually hyped. A girl in love with books caught in the middle of some political shenanigans? Sign me the eff up. The level of pain I experienced with each episode was immeasurable and my day was ruined. I was expecting something closer to “Ascendance of a Bookworm”. Something with an active, intelligent protagonist that has a goal, strives for it and learns some lessons that can’tbe learned by reading. You know, the simple but sweet story with maybe a little bit convoluted plot for added measure.

Oh boy… was I wrong.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…

I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:

“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”

“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

The story actually had potential. A story about a girl that was plucked from her element, that misunderstood her circumstances, got a reality check and now has to adapt to her new reality. I like that. That is a good story. At least it would be if the writer wasn’t a complete moron. There are 12 episodes in this show and not 1 is written in any way, shape or form I would call competent. In every one Elianna (the MC) is a victim of her own lack of backbone and someone has to come and save her (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally). Due to the fact that she does look like someone who would creak in a stronger wind I’m all for saving her where there is physical violence in play, but why save her when it’s a verbal confrontation? She has more than enough knowledge to deal with most, if not all, of those kinds of conflicts. But no. For all 12 episodes she’s timid, acts like she’s afraid to breathe and stands like an idiot until someone saves her. For effs sake. Do women like to be saved from even the most mundane problems?

Elianna is one of the most annoying, idiotic, nonsensical and pathetic protagonists I have ever seen in any medium (there are hentai with better female leads). She has no goal, no ambition and no personality. Are we sure this is targeted for adult women? I have a problem believing any woman would find her endearing as their gateway to the story. The most insulting thing for her is that she’s not even the protagonist most of the time. She’s a deuteragonist in her own show. The eff? She doesn’t propel almost anything forward, she does stupid shit and someone else deals with it. Kinda like my ex but that’s beside the point. Ok, one might make an argument, a pretty bad one but an argument nonetheless, that her doing stupid things, jumping into convolutions that make little to no sense is propelling the story forward. No. It does not. The only thing it does propel is the plot and in the most annoying way possible. A lot of the time there is no reason for her acting the way she does and a good 90% of the drama between her and Christopher (oh, I’ll get to this prick soon) could be avoided if at least one of them didn’t have the communication skills of a damn amoeba. It’s not even a problem with him, she has the same communication skills with everyone. The only moments when she shows some backbone are those when someone mistreats a book. Seriously. She gets more worked up because of a book than the fact that someone wants to get rid of her. Ehh...

I really don’t get it. Her backstory is solid enough (still bad), even if boring and lazy (personally I have cliches but I do acknowledge that when done right, they can be good, this is not one of those cases), enough to make her a rather competent protagonist. She has knowledge she could actively use for various tasks and yet we only see her use it two times and both at the tail end of the show. The worst part? There is an episode in the beginning where people are saying how she helped them or the nation. Ok. Let me see that. I want to see that. I want her to be active and I want to see that she’s intelligent, not told that. Show me her knowledge, don’t give me scraps of it in some half baked conversations. I want to see her doing the things people are saying. A lot of those could be actually interesting if written properly (yeah… it wouldn’t have happened with this writer) She’s a good idea for a protagonist but is absolutely butchered as a character and wasted on a show like this.

Episode 6 got my hopes up. Well, to be exact the ending of it got my hopes up. There was a set up for some amazing ideological conflict. Elianna is confronted by someone older and with more experience about her idealism. He actually makes solid points about her idealism and her flaws. I liked that. That was a good set up. I was hoping that finally I would see the MC step down from being just a deuteragonist and step up as a true protagonist. Damn… now I feel stupid. Of course nothing like that happens. To do that we would have to have a writer that has a solid grasp of at least politics and logic and I knew since episode 2 that this one ain't it. Instead what we get is a pointless, naive monologue that, if You stop and think about it, means close to nothing.

Let’s talk a little about the male lead — Christopher — blond hair, blue eyed Hitler’s wet dream (physically only of course) of a character. You know, I am sick of the trope that the crowned prince can do whatever he wants with no consequences. This show suffers from a bad case of sending one of the most important people in the kingdom into danger with little to no back up. For effs sake, there are two moments where he goes into dangerous places and it’s shown he has only 4 people as his guards. Who the fuck approves of that? He has a bodyguard that is not older than he is. What kind of backup is that? It’s almost like the king and queen want him to die. No one in their right mind would allow him to go deal with trivial cases personally and even if, he would have at least a regiment for protection. The fact he does what he wants with little to no guards doesn’t portray him as competent, it doesn’t portray him as cool, it doesn’t portray him as intelligent, it portrays him as incompetent, reckless and stupid. He risks the future of his people for a whim. It’s just so damn annoying.

His behavior towards Elianna isn’t much better. He’s actually the reason she gets into dangerous situations a lot of the time. In two last arcs he is aware of potential danger and yet he says nothing to her. No warning, no sending more than one attendant, not even a damn “have fun and don’t do anything stupid”. Nothing. It’s like he wants her to die. Of course at the end he swoops down and saves her… oh, now I get it. Mofo is doing that on purpose to play the hero. Now it makes sense. It’s not enough for him to have Eliannas love, he also needs her to think of him as the best thing since sliced bread. Narcissistic bastard.

He acts possessively towards Elianna but that is to be expected… for someone in the first stage of a relationship. For fuck’s sake, they know each other 4 years (if not more, the timeline is iffy in this show). You want me to buy into that nothing happened in that time to get their relationship to mature? I get it, those were (and still are) kids but come on. Read at least about Sternberg's triangular love theory before writing about it. I put it like that because it’s pretty obvious the writer was never in love or at least never matured to achieve as Sternberg puts it “Consummate love”, let alone any of the two types of love that come before (FIY there are 8 forms of love in that theory). Instead of talking to her like an adult, maybe make her feel comfortable enough to speak her worries, he is more interested in acting like a lovesick poppy. It’s funny the first time but as it happens more and more it becomes rather revolting.

Now listen. I am not a woman, so I’m not the target audience for this so maybe women out there are into this sort of thing but I hope not. As it stands this show is a waste of time, energy and is an insult to the art of writing itself.

Good art & interesting side characters, but Eli. Urg. Worst female MC I've ever had the displeasure of knowing. During the whole show I was waiting for her to grow and finally start doing things but no. The most she did was aknowledging her faults and then the prince is coming; saying to her "you're good as you are". No she is not ! She is supposed to be queen not some weak parrot. The confrontations scenes were terrible : "antagonist" : 'You are *mean thing*' Eli : repeating, '*Mean thing* ?' anta : 'yes you are, + good argument' eli : :( this,or she says something she read in a book or is protected by the prince.

Not Recommended if you want an interresting female MC