OP Sequence

OP: 「真っ白」 (Masshiro) by 諸星すみれ

「本のない世界」 (Hon no Nai Sekai)
“A World With No Books”

Honzuki no Gekokujou is an insanely down-to-earth look at what happens when you thrust someone into an isekai without any bonus perks and a lot of disadvantages.

General Impressions

Man, I’m not sure where to even begin with this one. For a first episode, I think the show did a great job at introducing and building the world that Myne (formerly Motosu Urano) now lives in. Similar to our own except a few hundred years behind when it comes to technology, it’s rather interesting getting to see things from the perspective of a common person. Without the comforts that we enjoy in our everyday lives, the whole situation really helps sell just how out of place Myne is.

On that note, let’s talk about Myne for a second. As the protagonist of this isekai, you have to hand it to her for being as spunky as she’s been. Trapped in the body of a young girl who seems to be a bit too frail, it must be frustrating to be unable to the things you want to do. Imagine, having all this knowledge of future technology but being unable to leverage any of it!

Okay, real talk that will be a bit spicy — if you don’t want to read anything that could even be considered a spoiler, go to the next paragraph. So, if you’re like me, this first episode probably piqued your interest especially if you’re an isekai fan. Let me tell you — I couldn’t hold back and went to consume anything and everything related to Honzuki and came out the other end feeling so full of emotions and happiness that I was rather pissed when I caught up to the most recent chapter. Essentially, if you’re wondering whether or not the story will be able to pay off the investment of watching Myne try to figure out how to find her place in this new world, you will definitely not be disappointed.

Overall, a fun first episode that took the time to build out the world we’ll be spending a lot of time in. It may have been a little slow, but sometimes good things just take some time as you slowly get more and more invested. Invested to the point that you’ll forget just how invested you are and will question what happened to the past four hours. Anyways, I hope you give this show a shot and let me know what you thought!

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「髪飾りの天使」 (Kamikazari no Tenshi) by 中島愛

End Card

18 Comments

  1. Considering Honzuki’s shoujo/josei nature, it’s occurred to me we still haven’t actually gotten many anime adaptations of shoujo/otome isekai LNs from female-targeted publishing imprints or similar (not counting the upcoming My Next Life As a Villianess next year).

    Despite a very active female-targeted market and a recent surge in manga adaptations of otome/josei/shoujo novels, the anime market has largely stuck to covering shounen/seinen isekai from male-targeted imprints.

    zztop
    1. There’s no such thing as “shoujo/josei” nature. Bookworm is from a male imprint which is TO Books. And many otome works actually are from male focused imprints like Duke’s Daughter.

      Satan
  2. i am wondering where this adaptation will stop. honzuki no gekokujou is a novel that has no real good stopping point for anime adaptation unless you are fine settling with a “buy the novel if you want to know what happens next” when this anime adaptation ends.

    Jeffers
    1. Show Spoiler ▼

      Admittedly that’s a long way to go, and it’s been a while so maybe I’m remembering it wrong.

      hmmm
      1. Yah mean her Show Spoiler ▼

        true, that might be a good stopping point. But I doubt the series adaptation will reach that point because correct me if i am wrong this will be just a 12 to 13 eps right? In 1st volume alone, there’s so much that already happen. Add the events of volume 2 before her (spoiler) then 12 or 13 will not be enough.

        Jeffers
  3. I’ve read the original Japanese on Narou, back when it had just completed its final chapters a few years back and though I never really got attached to any particular character, I was impressed with the story for how intricate and well made it was. One of those where you can tell the author had a solid plot path for where she was going from the very first chapter.

    For the anime, the designs…aren’t the best. Overall, I was a little disappointed with how generic and bland it looked, especially things that aren’t immediately plot relevant but will be, if the anime gets to it. And just random flowers for the eyecatch? Oh, come on anime staff, a little more passion for your project! I really do hope they step up their game.

    Pretty op and ed music though.

    hmmm
  4. This and Choyoyu (of the ones I watched) are the most hopeful of the season so far.

    A similar premise to the Kenja no Mago series except without any of the perks that
    helped Shin and no magic (I think), this looks like it’ll be pretty good. My only
    problem, based on other people’s comments, is with the amazing amount of quality
    source material available, we’ll either:
    – get a 12 episode series paced correctly, but won’t get into the real depth of the work;
    – get a super compressed and rushed series which will loose many nuances of the source.

    I’m hoping for a 2-cour for this one ’cause I can’t see how 12/13 can do it justice…

    mac65
  5. Not that it really seems to matter, but I wasn’t clear on the basic premise. Clearly Motosu had died in our world, but had she been reincarnated the usual Buddhist way as Myne but then a near-death experience caused by her fever had made Motosu’s memories come flooding back, or had Myne (or at least, her soul) died from the fever and her personality was then overwritten by Motosu’s?

    Anyway, I know some people found the whole thing totally tedious but I wasn’t one of them. There were some small annoyances, like if everyone empties their chamber pots out of the windows (as you did in medieval times), how come the streets and the walls of the buildings are still so clean? Perhaps because otherwise nobody would watch it! But on the whole I think I’ll be watching this one.

    Angelus
  6. I’ve heard this one talked about for a long time, but never read it. I’m glad the anime seemingly didn’t botch the delivery (at least it’s nothing like Arifureta). So that’s 1 isekai so far this season that I like. Steady characterization of the protagonist, moderate cuteness, attention to detail without feeling too rushed, consistent art.

    I skipped that one paragraph, as I’d like to try to minimize my expectations. Though I’ve heard a few things here and there in the past so I think I have a general sense for what kind of story it is anyway.

    Player
  7. This first episode was pretty good and the story seems interesting with it being about making books from what I’m guessing. Also starting off the show with a priest drugging a little child lol.

    Chisel

Leave a Reply to Saburau Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *