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 because I know I wont like them from the onset. Dont expect me to talk about any ecchi anime ever and dont 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 and its upcoming anime adaptation I thought it seemed cute so I decided to try it out. Since the light novels are only available digitally I cant really rent them and I dont want to buy something and then find that I dont like it and be unable to return it yknow? I thought Hey Maybe Bibliophile Princess might be good Ill 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 Ive ever seen based on what little Ive read of the light novels it completely fails as an overall adaptation. In the kingdom of Sauslind Lady Elianna Bernstein and her family of selfprofessed bookworms live in relative peace with no desire for power and content with spending their days doing nothing but reading and acquiring knowledge. During Eliannas 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 cant bring herself to refuse: If she marries him shell 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 Christophers 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 dont give a shit. Seriously theres barely anything redeemable about Bibliophile Princess as an anime. Everything it does has been done way better in other shows some of which Ill mention further down. Bibliophile Princess at best is a boring clichefest that has zero ambition. Now cliches in and of themselves arent 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 its cliche or not as theres no such thing as a truly original story anymore. But everything about Bibliophile Princess just feels extremely passionless listless and workmanlike 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 mans 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 Bookworms 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 whats 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 wouldnt be able to tell apart even if you swapped their hair styles and costumes. The shows 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 isnt. Speaking of Elianna I hate to say it but shes 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 and shilling her to the nth degree...but the thing is the anime doesnt 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 girls bad attempt at trying to usurp her as Christophers 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 girls accusations when she has all the power to do so and everyone else just does everything for her. Tldr 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 someones bad fan fiction and Ive both read and written my fair share of bad fan fiction My fics were a lot worse as a kid and I can say Ive vastly improved my writing since then Furthermore Eliannas personality doesnt change all that much and her views are never challenged. Theres one arc where a military guy points out a lot of the flaws in Eliannas 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 rather than jumping to outlandish unfounded conclusions about it. 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 shes 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 didnt bother to bring her guard with her. Gee its almost like trying to confront a powerful nobleman without any weapons or selfdefense 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 didnt do anything she saw through Irenes ploy and even snarked about it in her head and the LN establishes that the only reason she didnt speak up was because she didnt 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 its really hard to feel any sympathy for anime Elianna because she basically brought a lot of her own issues on herself and doesnt 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 Im 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 selfesteem 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 shes made to marry a rich man named Kiyoka but marriage alone doesnt magically resolve all of her trauma and issues with the series empathizing that Miyos path to healing will be a long one. In that series Miyos arc is about her regaining her selfworth agency and autonomy and allowing herself to become a more selfassured individual now that she interacts with people who genuinely love and care about her. Elianna doesnt have that excuse so her problems again come off more like a girls insufferable whining than anything truly genuine. Thats 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 Eliannas cousin on her mothers 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 youre 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 youre into shows like Bibliophile Princess thats 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 Ive named. All in all Bibliophile Princess is not only a hopelessly blank generic anime but also a terrible adaptation. But dont just take my word for it. ANN writer Rebecca Silverman did weekly reviews for the serieshttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/bibliophileprincess/.190868 and since shes read the light novels she also recognizes the adaptations failures in capturing the spirit and essence of the source material and even other ANN writershttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/previewguide/2022/fall/bibliophileprincess/.190157 dont 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.