Myne

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 rinsham, others often comment on how glossy her hair looks.

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 five, she is sometimes mistaken as a child of three 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. She has a deep-seated dislike for blood, death and suffering, to the point where she sometimes faints at the sight of blood.

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. Her father died in an accident when she was young, leaving behind his book collection. Her closest friend was Shuu, a neighborhood boy, but she also enjoyed gathering around other friends who had niche interests like hers.

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 a commoner child in the city of Ehrenfest. She was born the second daughter of Gunther, a soldier, and Effa, a dye 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.

She was an unhappy child who was somewhat childish and self-centered. Her mother Effa recalls that she used to throw tantrums out of jealousy of her sister's strong body and stamina. Because of her poor health, she didn’t participate in neighborhood social events, and the local children rarely saw her.

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

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 * Mana Capacity: Myne has an unusually large mana capacity for a Devouring commoner, on par with archnobles of the same age.
 * Blessings: Myne has shown great proficiency with blessings, including successfully praying to multiple gods at the same time. She occasionally gives blessings unintentionally by praying or singing religious songs. At least once, she successfully improvised a blessing that did not follow the exact wording of established prayers.


 * Math: Myne is very good at math and is able to calculate large numbers in her head quickly. Her method of doing written arithmetic makes her unique in the new world, where most people calculate numbers using an abacus.
 * Language: Myne has strong reading, writing and linguistic skills. Not long after learning to read the new world’s alphabet, she rewrote the archaic language of the temple’s scriptures into simpler language suited for children to create her children's bibles.
 * Education: Myne is a good teacher. She helped Otto teach apprentice soldiers, tutored Lutz, taught the children of the temple orphanage to read, write and calculate at a younger age than even most nobles do.
 * Music: Myne learned how to play piano in her past life as Urano. She has a good ear for music and near-perfect pitch, which allows her to learn harspiel quickly under Rosina's instruction.
 * Needlework: Myne is decent at sewing, although she does not enjoy it and is not particularly skilled. However, she is familiar with several techniques that were previously unknown in the new world, including crocheting.

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, macramé 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.

As Myne begins to make more complicated inventions, such as the printing press and the water pump, she is only able to remember the broad strokes of the design. She communicates them to Lutz, Johann and Zack, who develop prototype blueprints based on her description. After she makes the first printing press, she gives the honorary title Gutenberg to everyone who helped bring printing into the world.

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 on both "belonging to me" (mine) and "main character" (main).
 * Myne was born in the summer, which is the season of Leidenschaft, the God of Fire. The season symbolizes strength and growth, which is ironic because Myne suffers from poor health and stunted growth.
 * Myne's final memories before being subsumed by Urano were "...It's so hot. It hurts. I hate thiiis..."
 * Myne had dreams of Urano's world, where she could run and play and eat all she wanted. She wanted to sleep forever so she could stay in the other world.
 * Myne's favorite fruit are raffels.

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