“Chapter Twenty-Two – Wilma and Holy Scriptures for Kids”
What They Say:
Avid bookworm and college student Motosu Urano ends up dying in an unforeseen accident. This came right after the news that she would finally be able to work as a librarian like she had always dreamed of. When she regains consciousness. She was reborn as Myne, the daughter of a poor soldier. She was in the town of Ehrenfest, which has a harsh class system. But as long as she had books, she really didn’t need anything else. However, books were scarce and belonged only to the nobles. But that doesn’t stop her, so she makes a decision … “If there aren’t any books, I’ll just create some.”
Content (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With Wilma staying at the orphanage to take care of the younger children, Myne and Rosina visit to test a narrative for the blue-robed apprentice priestess’ new project: a picture book for her upcoming sibling. However, as she tells of the Three Little Pigs, it is obvious all listening are confused by the concept of the tale, with none of the kids understanding what was happening. And to further the problem, Wilma cannot draw anything since she does not know what either a pig or a wolf looks like, so it would be impossible to proceed with this fable. However as they finish an unsuccessful story time, Urano discusses the other reason they planned this excursion – to ask Wilma about her fear of men and not being able to travel outside of the building. Although she did not try to hide this problem from her new mistress, the blonde woman is still troubled by the shame, but Myne is reassuring that she will attempt to solve the problem and not complicate matters by only having Rosina accompany whenever they need to drop by.
The next morning Myne and Lutz go to the forest to gather more materials for her plant based paper, using the newly discovered technique of converting tau fruit into trombe, but as she throws one and it voraciously sprouts, allowing Gil and the others to chop down saplings, she ignores all questions about how much to gather, too absorbed in thinking about a new story for the picture book. It is only then does she contemplate the church might be the answer, deciding that using a simplified version of the holy scriptures would be the best solution, allowing for teaching of the writings and the alphabet at the same time. However when she goes to Benno to buy ink, her former mentor gives a stern lecture of how a merchant always takes into consideration the cost of a project before attempting it, explaining using ink for a children’s book would be too expensive. Even after they visit various craftsmen to order supplies, it is only then does Urano conclude parchment dye will not work, so they must create something new – a concoction utilizing soot and oil. With the Ferdinand now approving this project and Wilma illustrating something more appropriate, the image is converted into a woodblock, but the final result is too dark to discern the picture and also hard to read. Although it may have been a failure, the children who watched the process are delighted by the results, readily coming back to the orphanage to regale the adventure to their caretaker. But as the little girl takes Wilma by the wrist to draw her in closer, the blonde reflexively jerks away, remembering this action was what initiated her traumatizing memory and causing the child to cry and her to run away in an attempt to shelter herself from more pain.
In Summary:
After almost two years in a new world, Myne finally has her first book, and yet this accomplishment is minor considering how much it took reach this plateau. However even after this goal has been reached, I still would have liked to see more attention paid to Wilma’s trauma, even if it may have been too mature for the show, considering her name is in the episode’s title. Too much time was spent showing how the picture book was created, almost ignoring the grey-robed priestess’ trauma even though Urano stated she would be there to help, thereby brushing aside the event in favor of a more lighthearted conclusion and sadly forcing Wilma to cope with the problem by herself.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
