it's yapping time: main characters whose whole personality is being smarter than everyone
I know this seems completely out of the blue, but I'm currently watching Ascendance of a Bookworm with my bf and I just keep thinking about them. The nerds. The geniuses, actually, that sometimes pop up in some anime and inspire equal amounts of love and hatred in me.
It's a complex topic because smart characters are rarely done well in anime to begin with. Death Note ends up falling apart towards the end, Classroom of the Elite is just kinda stupid and other anime nerds end up being perceived as smart only because everyone else near them is dumb as fuck. I'll not even get started on the Promised Neverland cause that thing still makes my blood boil.
So yeah, we don't have a nice track record there. But there are some nice examples, like Dr. Stone. I still have some nitpicks because of course I have, but all in all it's a solid anime that entertains you with a curious premise and cool execution. And the best thing? Senku is depicted as someone much more intelligent than everyone else not just because he's from a time more technologically advanced, but because he was already much more science-focused than the average in his own time.
He also works well in his context, and his friends' knowledge of modern inventions or lack thereof can be easily explained by the peculiarity of the story. After all, it does make sense if in a rustic post-apocalyptic village people didn't know of some medicines, a very specific knowledge, but knew other stuff because their ancestors managed to make it last through anecdotes.
But things get dicey when we are explained the context of Ascendance of a Bookworm. There are a lot of things bugging me in this anime, but one of the small details that bugs me the most is Myne's intelligence and knowledge. She was a normal girl that reincarnated in a kid's body in a fantasy world, so HOW IN ALL HEAVENS DOES SHE KNOW THE STUFF SHE KNOWS?
Okay, okay. I get that this isn't so far fetched, because I'm a girlie of many special interests too. Just like Myne, I love learning about the most random things, and I'm proficient in the hobbies I do even though I'm young. But what annoys me is, in addition to that, everyone around her never knows enough about life than her, or knows just enough to be a match to her. Cooking with sparse provisions? Myne does better even with ingredients she doesn't know. Manual work like making baskets and hairpins? Even with different materials she still does it better than other people. Bargaining with a merchant with a lot more experience than her? He's impressed by her skills.
And this here is the problem: you have to be REALLY naive to believe people didn't do all this shit in a medieval setting. Because if in real life we could do it, in a fantasy world with magic OF COURSE people would do all this stuff. Just because a world isn't that technological advanced, it doesn't mean people didn't do art, complex inventions and the like. And what irks me the most is that POOR PEOPLE ALSO DO ALL OF THIS. I'll even say that in terms of survival and using the most of materials, a medieval person would know better than the average modern person, because we live in a pretty wasteful society.
So yes, I think it was stupid that NOT A SINGLE WOMAN working with weaving knew how to make some flowers for a hair decoration. I think it's stupid how nobody thought of cleaning their hair with some soap, even though nobody likes to live filthy. I also think it's stupid that a poor family with limited resources wouldn't know many uses for each and every thing they get. It's just so weird and uncanny that every adult looks at Myne's inventions and balk as if they couldn't possibly have thought about it (also why doesn't anybody question that this is coming from a 5 year old? lol).
"But Yas", you might say, "this is a fictional world with a fictional character made for some low stakes intelligence power-fantasy, just like most isekai!" Sigh. You're right. I know. Truth is probably nobody cares about this stuff but me, and there's no reason they should, either. I guess it's just wishful thinking, in the end. I love the care and thought authors put in their work, and I also know smart characters CAN be done right, so it's just a shame that in anime it is so rarely done. But this applies to a lot of stuff, so it doesn't actually matter that much lol
In the end, this is just something that's been on my mind that I wanted to put out to the world, so don't be too hard on me, okay? I still appreciate Ascendance of a Bookworm despite its many flaws, and it doesn't mean people that love it are dumb!! I just love it when authors are also nitpicky like me lmao
I think I was just too hyped up and then disappointed by the story, as many people told me I would absolutely love this anime. Just shows how we can't trust blindly another's opinions, and it's best to see things completely and form opinions on your own.