Myne (Anime)

Myne (マイン, Main) is the protagonist of Ascendance of a Bookworm.

Myne is a small girl with golden eyes and midnight blue hair. Because her hair is straight and silky, she uses a wooden hairpin to twist the upper half into a bun, while the rest falls loosely to her lower back. After Myne begins using her homemade shampoo, others often comment on how glossy her hair looks.

Compared to most commoners, Myne tends to look out-of-place. Because of her poor constitution, she spent little time outside and has sickly pale skin. Her childhood illness also stunted her growth, making her look several years younger than her actual age. At age 5, she is sometimes mistaken as a child of 3 or younger.

Myne has a strong obsession with books, a resourceful attitude, and a deep love for her family. She is straightforward and determined, continuing on with her plans in spite of countless failures and setbacks.

While Myne thinks of herself as a generally selfish person, she is generous to her friends and family and works hard to ensure their happiness. She also shows compassion for strangers and tries to prevent unnecessary suffering when she can, since worrying about others makes it harder to enjoy reading with a clear conscience.

Partly due to the cultural norms and values she learned as Urano, she has a deep-seated dislike for blood, death and suffering, to the point where she sometimes faints at the sight of blood. She also has some ingrained cultural habits that confuse the people around her, like her tendency to bow her head in apology and make indirect refusals.

Myne often runs into trouble by failing to consider the circumstances of those around her. Because of this tendency, Effa reflects that Myne looks like her on the outside but has her father's personality on the inside: Both often rush into plans without thinking and feel frustrated if they don't reach their goal.

Urano Motosu was a college student who loved books. She lived with her widowed mother, a caring woman who often encouraged Urano to try her latest arts-and-crafts projects with her. Not long after finally landing her dream job as a librarian, Urano died when she was crushed by her own book collection during an earthquake. Her last memory was praying desperately that her next life would be full of interesting books.

Myne was born the second daughter of Gunther, a soldier, and Effa, a textile worker. While her older sister Tuuli was healthy and strong, Myne was sickly, weak, and often bedridden by severe fevers. Her mother spent many days at home caring for her and telling her bedtime stories, and her father and sister often worried over her poor health.

Shortly after turning five, Myne suffered a fever that caused memories from her past life as Urano to awaken inside her, and their memories and personalities combined. The series follows the "new" Myne from that point on.

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Using her memories from her life as Urano, Myne recreates a wide range of products and dishes which were previously unknown in Ehrenfest. She knows a great deal about paper, ink and the history of printing due to her personal interest in books. She also learned how to make several home crafts, including hair ornaments, macrame handbags, homemade shampoo, and homemade paper, from Urano’s mother. She recalls that while her mother had a passion for trying new DIY projects, she usually gave up halfway through, leaving Urano to finish the rest of the project.

マイン is directly translated as Main, pronounced "Mine". The light novel translation uses Myne to avoid confusion among the English readers. The official anime translation has used both Main and Myne in different episodes. In both the manga and anime, she uses the spelling "Main" when she writes her name in the new world’s alphabet for the first time.


 * "Urano Motosu," Myne's name in her previous life, is a Japanese pun that means "All books should belong to me." Her new name, "Myne," is a play for both "belonging to me" (mine) and "main character" (main).

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