The day is as normal as it can be in high school as the students peacefully go about their everyday activities until an unprecedented catastrophe strikes the school, killing every person in its wake. Guided by what seems to be a miracle, a handful of students are fortunate enough to be reincarnated into another world as nobles, princes, and other kinds of people with prestigious backgrounds.
One girl, however, is not so lucky. Being reborn as a spider of the weakest kind, she immediately experiences the hardships of her dire situation. Even so, she must press on to survive the numerous threats that endanger her life. Discovering that her new world has a system like that of an RPG, she tries her best to hunt prey and defeat monsters to level up and evolve. As she gradually grows stronger, she hopes one day her efforts will be rewarded, and that she will be granted a better life.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Comentários
Stark700
We all have dreams about what we want to do or who we want to be when we grow up. In today's modern world, there are limitless possibilities. One dream I'm sure most people don't want to become a reality is being a spider. I mean, who actually wants to be a spider? Announced back in 2018, there were some concerns about the production schedule of the series. Promotional material surfaced online but they caused some controversy with the amount of CGI content. It also didn't help that studio Millepensee helms the production. It's a studio that have produced mediocre projects and seems to specialize inCGI content. Don't believe me? Just check out their infamous Berserk project or Cop Craft. Watching this show at first glace gave me a feeling of uneasiness and it didn't take awhile until I realized what the show really had at its disposal.
Now imagine being stuck in the body of a spider and then thrown into a danger with some of the most dangerous creatures you can imagine in a fantasy world. That's the raw fate of Kumoko, a former high school student who was hit with some misfortune. Kumoko must adapt, survive, and with her new circumstances, she's going to need all the help she can get. Do note that Kumoko isn't her real name but was given by universal fans. Thankfully, she lives up to her name because not only is she a spider, Kumoko also retains all her human personalities and knowledge. In essence, she's almost like an RPG character in a vast and mysterious world.
But that's not all. Kumoko isn't the only character that reincarnated. In fact, a whole group of students got reincarnated and has their new roles set. These include Sophia, Katia, Filimos, Shun, among others. It seems when the author made these characters, they wanted to dress them into RPG skins. Let's face it, we got vampires, elves, princess, heroes, and just about any light novel trope you can imagine. Of course, it's not an original idea although Kumoko remains one of the more unique characters. In fact, why don't we talk about a bit Kumoko and know who she really is?
Kumoko's character and personality is protrayed as a happy-go spider with a hopeful vision of survival. Yes, she feels terrified and overwhelmed at first but is also prone to make sarcasm at any chance she gets. It's to prevent her psyche from being harmed and honestly one of the more unique dynamics about her character. What I mean is that despite being a spider, she thinks like a human and even retains useful knowledge. Kumoko's main goal is to survive and escape the dungeon that she's trapped in. Think of her situation as a video game protagonist trying to beat a level or even the game. The world she is in is one huge game playground and that dungeon is only a part of it. Kumoko's progression also translates into a RPG-like system with skills, development, and learning to level up. It's funny to see just how far she make use of her system and it isn't an easy task to adapt. That's because the monsters in that dungeon are easily some of the most dangerous in the world. Like with its core characters, the author threw in dragons, giant arachnoids, wyrms, and the typical type of creatures you'd find in a light novel. There's even a danger level scale that determines how deadly these monsters are. Kumoko's personal challenge is to survive against these monsters because she's only got herself to rely on. And trust me, it's no simple task. There's no reset button or an "easy mode" like in video games. She has to rely on the skills she learns and her human knowledge. Watching Kumoko overcome such obstacles shows that no matter how small she is, there's always a beacon of hope.
Then, there's the other side. I'm talking about the main core cast besides Kumoko. Unlike them, they took on more advantageous roles such as vampire Sophia or the warrior hero Shun. In particular, we follow the adventures of Shun and his former clasmates as they take on personal challenges of their own. And that doesn't come easy either. This is seen an in early example when they face off against Hugo, a character with dangerous abilities of his own. Every prominent human character in the series has his or her agenda. The bottom line is, when getting transported into a new world, characters needs to learn, adapt, and find their place. That's exactly what the cast has to do in this show to not just survive but ultimately discover their purpose. And true to its premise, this anime aims to entertain with the personalities of the cast. Every relevant character has a role whether they are human, spider, or demon. Among the most prominent character in the demon community is Ariel, perhaps being Kumoko's biggest obstacle. Indeed, Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka feels like playing a RPG alongside a spider and a group of daring adventurers.
Although I've mentioned about the art style of this anime, it's still hard to ignore the fact that it's animated in CGI style. Fighting scenes can look a bit clunky at times but qualifies for fast paced action that you should expect. Hilariously, your eyeballs will probably be glued to Kumoko as a spider trying to beat enemies multiple times her size. Watching the fighting scenes in this show convinced me that when she needs to, Kumoko will do anything to ensure her own survival. She has truly untapped potential and with each level up, Kumoko feels like a video game character bought to life.
Set at 24 episodes, Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka is not a very easy anime to get into at first, even for a fantasy isekai. There's also the novel series that the anime didn't fully adapt. I mean, how many anime do you know about a main protagonist turned into a spider? Not many I assume. Fantasy isekai these days tends to jump the gun with its themes and indeed, this anime does love to flirt with its RPG-style ideas. However, rest assured that along the way, you'll be entertained with this little spider at the web.
Rhapsody-
This show is how an isekai should be made… but at the same time how an isekai should not be made. Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka doesn’t look very promising at first glance, the premise is pretty much the same as your average isekai anime, with our main character dying and reincarnating in another world with RPG videogames terminology. Not even the fact she revives as a spider monster is something new or original at this point (but at least is more striking than a lame slime!). But what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in personality and self-awareness, while taking enough care ofimportant things that other animes of the genre don’t bother to even show. Let’s address it by parts.
Our protagonist, simply and unofficially named Kumoko, was reborn as a spider monster, the weakest monster race, inside the most dangerous dungeon in this new world, while still remembering her previous life as an antisocial loner otaku (of course it should be that way). Sooner than later we are introduced to the main selling point this serie has: Kumoko struggling really hard to survive in this new world, trying not to get devoured in the process, while getting new skills, becoming stronger and learning about the world. All this is done in the most energic, charming and amusing way, thanks to Kumoko charisma and positivism. Now, this is not the only thing we’ll see, alongside Kumoko, her classmates and the teacher died and reincarnated as well, having enough luck to get way better lives.
Don’t let this innocent and rather simple premise taunts you. Which may initially appear just a fantasy story about a spider monster striving inside a cave, turns out to be a way vaster and more convoluted plot as it appeared, borderline on pretentiousness. Outside of the dungeon we see there are factions, nations and politics issues, going for wars between races and churches ideologies clash, which get more fraught as the series moves on, to ancient god and demons scheming over the world origins. Not only that, the skill system by itself, initially just appearing as a hook for RPG fans like in many other isekai animes, ended up being an important part of the mystery of the world, and the reincarnation itself.
Yet those topics are touched in a very basic way, the serie fills up this ambition with a solid narrative going hand in hand with the story. The narrative switches over two different POVs: the inside of the dungeon with Kumoko, and the outside world with a little group or reincarnates. Yes, this isekai does focus on story and worldbuilding, and while these two perspectives are rather different, they actually complement each other really well, sharing information actively, and explaining terminology that is going to be used in the next segment, without feeling forced. Subtlety is well-handled as well, mentioning topics or terms that are going to be important later on the serie in a very natural way (ex: talking about a skill that will be important to explain the MC motivations, or why the skill system by itself can be dangerous). Some people couldn’t notice at the beginning that both perspectives, Kumoko’s and the reincarnates’, are actually from different timelines, considering they were born in this world and the same time, but we see Kumoko from her birth, while we see the reincarnates when they are teenagers, and it’s only later on when the reincarnates’ side mentions Kumoko existence as a kind of legend, without directly telling it’s her; they don’t even cross paths until the very end of the serie. This kind of subtlety and naturality to show and explain important topics in a narrative this ambitious is pleasant to see nowadays.
Story and narrative are very good by themselves to support all the serie, because the rest of it is… not so impressive. Characters, for example, are like day and night:
>On the one hand, we have Kumoko. As previously stated, she’s pretty much the main selling point of the serie: if we search the definition of “charisma” in a dictionary, it would be her. Kumoko is charming, funny and very optimist, always doing her best to survive even with all the rough situations she goes through. Her role in the serie is pretty much acting like a guide to the viewer, constantly breaking the 4th wall and making comedy with a lot of references to popular culture, yet she’s witty enough to be aware about her situation without unnecessary edgyness; this serie touches dark themes in the least dark way, and Kumoko it’s the living proof. For a lot of people she alone carries all the serie over her thorax, but she’s not so perfect, she got little to no development along the serie (it’s not like she needed it) and remained pretty much the same even with all the harsh moments she went through, the things she learned and the power she got. Still the most solid character in the serie.
>On the other hand, we have a little group of reincarnates who were Kumoko classmates (and the teacher). While Kumoko, as plain as she is, can still be described with a lot of adjectives, those guys can be described with just two words: boring and generic. Unlike our eight-legged MC, this group reincarnated as humans (most of them), living in prestigious families, so most of the outside world is showed by them:
-First, we have Shun, we can say he’s the deuteragonist. There’re not enough words to explain how PAINFUL and INSUFFERABLE is to see this guy taking the lead. He’s pretty much your generic isekai protagonist, with all the cliches included in the pack: bland design, lack of personality, cringe hero complex (and yes, he was born in the Hero family, so he got blessed by the power of script) and harem pandering. He’s basically an Emiya Shirou, less pretentious but way naiver. And is this naivety by far the worst part, to the point every time he got the spotlight, the serie handled to make fun of it for being such a silly. He’s so misplaced to the point he got into a war he has noting to do just because “I can’t allow these people to suffer” (yep, even his sentences are prefabricated). Honestly, I can’t blame people for thinking human side is boring just because this dude.
-Katia is Shun best friend in this and previous life, and your typical tsundere chick, with the plot twist that she was a boy before reincarnating. Actually there was a moment when this character faced her inner conflicts and decided to be honest with herself and becoming a full girl instead of a boy trapped into another body…moment that was never well-developed.
-Hugo is your edgy vain and power-thirsty villain who thinks he’s better than anyone else.
-Filimos is the students’ teacher who got reincarnated as an elf (excuses to introduce a loli character it seems). While started as a mysterious and a bit interesting character, later on it’s revealed her motivations, which are very dull, and she’s way naiver than Shun.
-Generic crazy yandere girl is a generic crazy yandere girl who got brainwashed by the church.
-Fei was actually the most decent character in this group. She, like Kumoko, reincarnated as a monster (a dragon), and she was a bully in her previous life, especially with her (she doesn’t know she’s alive living as a spider). She feels guilty, she feels this new life is a divine punishment for her actions, and she was always concerning about Kumoko and wanted to meet her to apologize. Sound like something that could drive to an interesting catharsis… except when she gets a human form and forgets about all of this.
Initially, the serie got a 50/50 split between Kumoko and humans sides, but in the second part of the serie, when the politics themes and war calls became the main focus, human side got more spotlight. If it weren’t because, again, story and narrative by themselves are good enough, this would be really painful to watch because of this bunch of generic character. But at the same time, watching Kumoko getting stronger and destroying any trace of tension would be even more boring (and we don’t want such a thing to happen, right, Rimuru?), so the change of perspective was more a win than a miss. But actually… there is a third side here! Kumoko goes in her way, humans go in theirs, but there are a bunch of character that walk another path, this includes other three reincarnates (only two of them are worth it), some demons, and even Kumoko can be placed here under certain circumstances. What makes this group different from the other reincarnates, is that they were born under different circumstances, which push them to live under this new world rules, instead of being attached to their previous lives like Shun group. This group is by far more interesting that Shun groups, it’s a shame they weren’t fully showed in this season.
Having this ambitious story and this charming MC would be worthy of a decent direction, right? Sadly this was not the case. I don’t really need to explain why this show has a very hideous animation, especially the CGI, everyone can see it, but the direction has to be the worst I’ve ever seen in many years. Not only it was disastrous in action-packed moments, where transitions and cuts were so random that was really hard to tell what was happening, and it seemed director forgot some frames in the middle, but also covering up all the scream with that hideous CGI instead of trying to hide it a little at least with dust or light rays. Even in slower or more serious moments it was a mess, like the catharsis of some characters like Katia and Filimos, they were so shallowed portrayed it’s hard to even care about what they said, even more to care about them at all. Luckily the music was decent enough to partially conceal this, and seiyuus work is really good, especially Aoi Yuuki as our favorite arachnid girl, big part of her charm was there. Yet there were a couple of good action moments with a decent -in this context- direction, like Kumoko vs Alaba.
Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka is how an isekai should be made, with an interesting and promising new approach to an already burned-out genre, focusing on a deep plot with a witty narrative but shallowly developed, and a great main character to carry the serie.
Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka is how an isekai should not be made, with really bad side-characters, going hand in hand with an appalling animation, and a very weak direction that doesn’t do justice to such an ambitious premise.
Even with all its cons still is one of the most decent isekai animes out there, and I'd love to see another season, considering all the potential it has.
Snapshot426
So I’m a spider. Well, not really, but so what? This is an anime that has been on my radar for some time now, mainly because it was originally slated for last year but got delayed due to production issues. Covid-19 must have not helped things there as well. But we did eventually get this year in the stacked winter 2021 and pretty much got overshadowed by Re:Zero season 2 part 2, Mushoku Tensei and Slime season 2. But I definitely thought to myself that I should not sleep on the spider isekai, especially as more episodes aired as time went on. And of course,I’m writing this review to tell you that you should also not sleep on the spider (mainly because you’ll squash it) but because it’s definitely one of the more interesting narratives that I have watched recently, even if it is burdened of being an Isekai. Which honestly, wouldn’t have worked anywhere else.
So get your drink, put your feet up, sit back, relax and don’t squash that spider next to you as I present to you the anime review for So I’m a Spider, So What? Let’s begin shall we?
Story: 8.5/10
A great catastrophe strikes a school and kills everyone hit by it. But fortunately for some, they get reincarnated to a fantasy world. Some even more fortunate than others. Like one of our main protagonist Shun who gets reincarnated as a son to the king and his brother (or one of his brothers) being designated the hero of the kingdom as well as reuniting with some of his former classmates and appreciates the life he have. But one was not so lucky. Kumoko was reincarnated as a weak spider at the bottom of a labyrinth with dangers from all over the place. Alone with no help, Kumoko must adapt and get stronger to survive the horrors in the labyrinth.
The story does start off quite slow and in a rather typical Isekai fashion with our characters learning about their surroundings and the fact that there is a RPG like system that helps make people stronger and uses that system to get stronger themselves. It’s the standard Isekai affair to get viewers comfortable with something familiar but the problem with that is that it does make the first few episodes rather boring because it very much feels like we are going through the motion to get us introduced to the series and characters.
Now, the real meat occurs around episode six and where things start to get interesting. I won’t spoil anything but let’s just say that the thing that kept me most interested in the story and the show in general was how Kumoko and Shun’s story were connected to one another. Throughout the show, we are given clues and leads as to how this connects to that and how this one action can affect the other story. It was essentially playing connect the dots to see how these two stories connected to one another. It did make me engage with the story a lot better than it did to begin with because I wanted to see all the little details that can have effect on the show overall. After an episode finished, I didn’t immediately move on to the next show I needed to watch, no I sat there thinking of what could this mean in the future. It got me thinking after the episode was finished and made me want to find out what happens next to see if I am right with my thinking. The show does a great job with how it leaves clues and hints to keep you theorizing and get you hooked to watch what happens next.
What also helped with this was the show’s good world building. It’s not amazing but it was solid enough to help me understand the world better, especially as we get more episodes and more things are explained due to the situation going on in that episode. As well as the RPG like system that helps tell how strong an individual is. Although the walls of text you have to read when looking at the skills is just ridiculous. But the show does highlight the skills and titles that are important to the story so you won’t get swamped or confused when trying to read that wall of text.
Characters: 7/10
I want to start with the characters from Shun’s story because honestly, I didn’t care too much about them but still enough to be interested (So a sort of middle ground). I mainly was interested in them and their side of the story was to see how they were connected to Kumoko’s story and vice versa. They all have a role to play in the overall story and I will admit that they do a solid job when it comes to it. Some of them I do like more than others like Sensei who who definitely has some secrets to hide behind that lively personality. By the end, I was interested to see what would happen to them and if they make it through alive. Although I will admit, I don’t remember all of their names but their personality (as well as their designs) do help them distinguish one another.
The star of the show though was obviously Kumoko (mainly helped by a great voice acting performance by Aoi Yuuki). Being alone and no restrictions with the harsh environment she’s in and well, being a spider, she does a great job at being entertaining and try to have a positive outlook on things. What I like about her character though is her growth but not by sheer luck or by just being born overpowered. Through strategy and thinking quickly on her feet, we see how she progressively gets stronger, both mentally and physically. While she does get really strong as we go through the show, she’s always having to go against characters and monsters that are clearly stronger than her or not being simple pushovers and having to adapt and stratergise makes her fights more enjoyable than the ones in Shun’s story because of them being well paced and fleshed out to be more engaging. In fact, more attention was put into Kumoko’s fights and Shun’s fights but I will get into that in the animation section.
Animation: 5/10
Okay this is going to open some unnecessary can of worms because I actually do think the CG looks good. Not top tier but good enough. Monster designs look good and some of the human looking cgi models like Ariel look good as well. And then there are the fight scenes which look fun, fast and has plenty of action without it looking jarring at all; making for the best fights of the show. Kumoko looks great as well, skittering along like a spider and her expressions are quite funny. What I also like is that while Kumoko’s perspective, she is a cuddly little spider, but from everyone else’s perspective, she is a scary ass spider that has the ability to kill you just by looking at you. Though that being said, they kind of phoned it in at the end, especially during Shun’s story segments. It looked rough and did not have the same polish as before.
That’s where I think the animation budget went to because the traditional animation just looks really sub-par with the exception of the character designs as they do look good and do transition alright into CG. Compared to the CG fights, the 2D fights don’t have near as much attention put into them and sometimes boils down to still images that seem to be poorly ordered as well as to how the fights transpire. Episode 14 is the peak of this. Anyone who’s watched that episode can agree with me that the main fight scene looks janky as all hell and was difficult to keep up what’s going on. It’s weird that that the CG animation looks better than the traditional animation.
It was clear near the end of this show that there were some major production issues going down relating to this show. And while we did get confirmation about what happend, it didn’t change the fact that it caused the animation to suffer by the end.
Sound: 6.5/10
I didn’t really care much for this show’s soundtrack in all honestly. It’s not bad but it’s the usual standard fantasy orchestra you hear from other shows with little to make it stand out on its own. The only exception to this is any ost that relates to Ariel as it does help with her menacing and overpowered presence. It’s the only part of the ost that stood out to me because it does help set the tone of dread that Ariel has her sights set on you. In fact, all of the haunting tracks do a good job at being, well, haunting and setting the tone. So it ain’t all that forgettable.
Really, the standout thing when it comes to the sound department were its OPs. Both, "Keep weaving your spider way" by Riko Azuna and "Bursty Greedy Spider" by Konomi Suzuki are both very similar as they both have great songs, great visuals and are chock full of spoilers. Considering both seemed to be tailored for this anime, they both nailed it out of the park for getting you pumped and ready to go to watch the episode. So it really comes down to personal preference as which one is the best and I would give it to “Keep weaving your spider way” because I like the fast craziness the OP provides with a little bit of a dark undertone to capture what the show is like from Kumoko’s perspective.
I would group both endings together because they are basically the same and something I would believe Kumoko would do given the opportunity and are appropriately sung by Aoi Yuuki herself. "Ganbare! Kumoko-san's Theme” and "Genjitsu Totsugeki Hierarchy,” are both fast paced and crazy EDs and relay to us how Kumoko feels about her situation while still acting like her usual self. I actually did like them because they do rub off Kumoko’s personality well and they are fun to listen to and watching them as well.
Conclusion
I really liked, “So I’m a Spider, So What?” The way the narrative is structured combined with its solid cast made it turn from a show I was ready to dismiss to a show that I want to see more of. It gave me incentives to keep watching and to find out how the two narratives connect to one another. It was the main hook that kept me going and wanted to find out what happens next and to see if I was right. As well as actually having good CG; which most modern anime out there can’t really say. Yet despite that, it still has some noticeable flaws. The narrative was slow to begin with and it started tapering off in its last few episodes, Shun’s cast of characters could be better but are thankfully not bad, the 2D animation was sub par and the ost could’ve been better. It’s a show that has plenty of flaws that prevent it from being a truly great show. But it didn’t truly affect my enjoyment of the show. Again, the interconnecting narrative was the core of what made this show so enjoyable and thinking about how this relates to that while waiting for the next episode made this show so engaging to watch.
There is clearly more to be told and more that is going on so I really want to see what happens next. But given this show’s past production issues, we might not get it and if we did, it might not be for a long while yet. Which would be a shame because there are plenty of things to work with here that could lead to one of the best narratives for any Isekai anime. One that actually gets you to think about what it all means instead of it being strictly another bog standard power trip fantasy or light hearted comedy (Not to say they are all bad, but there are quite a lot of them). It is an imperfect show, I will give you that, but I found this show better than I thought it was going to be and something I would eagerly wait to see if we get any more of this show (Or you know, go read the light novel or manga but where’s the fun in not waiting with anticipation?)
My Personal Enjoyment: 8.5/10
Overall Score: 7.1/10 Recommendation: Watch it
ThatAnimeSnobRE
The spider isekai is another case of trying to subvert a few things, only to fail in the longrun because you focus on the wrong things. One twist the anime went for was about having two storylines developing independently while at the same time feeding off each other. In one story you had the main heroine getting reincarnated as a spider and having to survive in a very dangerous cave, and in the other story it was about her fellow students reincarnating as various people and monsters in the human world where they are given proper upbringing and military training. The antithesis of seeing thespider having to fight hard in order to survive while the humans are having a mostly easy-going life was funny for a few episodes. Another twist in the second half of the show is the characters helping out the demon lord. Instead of having the heroes being the good guys who are gradually leveling up in order to defeat some distant evil party, in this show they become the evil party. With proper presentation, the anime could have been a very good subversion of a done to death formula. But as I mentioned already the presentation was far from perfect for the following reasons.
1) The production values are not very good. The CGI monsters are standing out too much and that takes you out of the experience. The artwork is also getting worse after awhile, resulting in the final episodes where things get more serious and should be given more attention to come off as very ugly to look at.
2) The tone shifts are not transitioning well. When the show wants to move from comedy to tragedy, or from lighthearted moments to more grimdark ones, it usually does it in a sudden way, which again takes you out of the experience. For example, the spider is constantly joking about things that a second later will try to kill her, and that can be very jarring.
3) The storylines are uneven. Instead of being treated as equally important, the spider side of the story is far more interesting than the human side. Every time the scene changes to show what the humans are doing it can be very boring since it comes off as a generic fantasy adventure with way too many bland characters who are doing close to nothing. As a result, you never care about the humans as much as you care about the spider, which means half of the show is very bland.
4) The videogame terminology is off-putting. Since everyone has levels and skill trees, you get this constant narration of an AI telling you how many experience points you earned and what skills you unlocked. If you are not fine with everything playing out like a videogame, you are not gonna like the show. In traditional stories you learn something new by studying or training. Over here it just appears as an extra ability in your mind because you did something. It’s artificial since it doesn’t happen in an organic way and it’s always followed by huge infodumps and statistic screens.
Thus, despite its good intentions, the spider isekai is another failure of an anime that doesn’t improve the image of isekais as overused, badly written and badly presented escapism.
shinepwintaung
Could have been really good or something more I would say. The first few episodes were enjoyable regardless of me not really caring about the shun and other humans. The CGI was bearable at the start but does it goes downhill real fast, the last few fight scenes actually gave me eye cancer. The movements are so ass, the robots are turbo ass. The pacing is also absolute garbage. The original light novel has 16 volumes and by the end of 24 episodes we are almost at the ending already?? HUH??? I was so surprised when some endgame shit showed up like we didn't getto see shit. Terrible execution of a good source material overall. I am hoping this get a remake since I really enjoyed the light novels.
Overall : Enjoyable first few episodes, turbo ass as it progresses(especially the last parts oh boy, this shit is comparable to berserks 2016 level: note ofc they are by the same studio LMFAO). Terrible pacing, if you are interested in the story or just have some level of respect to the author just read the light novels.
Harazi
As far as isekai goes, while this one is already a few years old - it is still one of the best ones out there. The story is unique, the protagonist is strong but the story is not without actual struggle. I scored 9 overall because - I loved the protagonist story: so much so it is 11/10, but then you have boring human side story that is ~25% of the screen time (-1 from total score) and the timeline is jumping back and forth which makes it somewhat hard to follow, I would rather like it to be in order of events (though I getthat human story is so boring that you need to layer it with the good stuff, even thought that might be true, still -1).
sukinana
There are two reasons as to why a lot of people are hating on this show and it's the CGI and confusing way the story is presented, Yes there is a lot of CGI in this anime and most fights are done in CGI and there are even moments where there is no fighting but somehow we still get CGI shots and I understand as to why some people might hate that but this isn't even one of the worst CGI's we've seen in anime there are some other Isekai shows that have it way way way worse than this one and to be completelyhonest despite the fuckton of CGI in this show it did not reduce the amount of enjoyment I got when I was watching it.
Now Let's talk about how the story starts off, Basically an explosion happened while the whole cast of students in japan we're in the middle of class and all of them got reincarnated in the fantasy world that they now live in.(that's basically how it starts and don't worry the reason for the explosion will be explained in the anime).
Now lets talk about the story and why some people hate it, The story is presented in this show is that there are 2 timelines that are presented at the same time (MC's POV of when she got reincarnated as a spider which is 15 years prior to the other story) and there is the other classmates who were reincarnated as humans and elves 15 years later after the events of the MC's reincarnation. And it makes you think that both of these stories we're occurring at the same time when it is not, that's why most people are confused, Yes you will have some questions about the story and its world and about the plot holes but as the story goes on most of your questions will eventually be answered although some of the plot holes you're seeking answers might not be answered but most of the things that confuses you will be cleared after you've seen all 24 episodes of the anime because it gives you the answers as the story makes it's progress. And the reason why it is like this is because if the anime we're to be faithful to the original source material or the LN then probably the first like 10 episodes of this anime would just be solely focused on one single character which is the MC and the POV of the other character like the classmates and elves wont come until later as the story they are in is in a different timeline than what the story of Kumoko's evolution is, I mean imagine the first 10 episodes of this anime just the MC grinding her skills and levels and evolving I mean personally I'd like it but most people might find it boring and maybe that is why the anime is directed this way and not like the LN or Manga. And oh yeah they skipped some parts of the LN but that's just normal in anime adaptations so yeah.
Most of the characters in the show we're pretty generic I'd say, none of them particularly stand out as an interesting character or anything other than I guess our MC Kumoko who is also the best girl of this show, She's a cutesy hyper girl who is just the best character to vibe with and her spider form is cute too(human form slaps tho fr fr). Compared to her most of the other casts weren't really anything special I mean there is the other classmates who we're reincarnated as nobles and royalties, hero, adventurer's, elves, vampire, and there are a few who we're supposedly dead but yeah no one really did stand out to me I think they're all very typical and all but they're fine, Kumoko is just way too lovable and cute she solos fr fr.
Now the animation and art, Animation is good if I'm being honest probably the only bad thing about it is the large amount of CGI in it but personally I don't mind it that much because first It's watchable and second is this is not the worst CGI I've seen and other shows have it way way way worse with CGI than this show so there is that. And as for the art I'd say it's pretty good, I liked the monster designs and the Kumoko Spider design was cute as for the human characters though I think they're okay more on the average side but nothing too bad just fine. Lastly we got the music, Don't have much to say about them but the first ED was super catchy and the the OP's we're good too and the other ED was pretty nice as well and as for the OST's I didn't really notice much about them but I guess they did the job.
Overall I highly recommend this show if you're an Isekai junkie like myself, If you're only here trying to look for action then this show is definitely not for you because the fight scenes in this show isn't crazy good because of the CGI. But I'm not telling you to skip it at best I'd say give it a few episodes and you can decide whether you will continue or not because trust me this is one of the best Isekai shows you can find in the mass of 5/10 Isekai's you will find.
Vandervekken
I re-watched the whole of Spider prior to writing a review and thoroughly enjoyed the whole 24 episode series in two extended sittings. I highly recommend this show, although it was marred somewhat by production issues. First let's talk about the setup: our protagonist is reincarnated as a Spider in a fantasy world following an explosion during a classics lesson in her classroom in Japan. Now being reincarnated as a monster of some sort is not exactly Earth-shattering, but the fact that she has been reincarnated specifically as a spider is actually part of the plot, as is the explosion itself. So we're already a coupleof points up on the standard Isekai trash. The author here actually cares about what is going on and why.
Two of the shows biggest strengths are made very clear from the very first episode - firstly the MC has a HUGE personality and her VA does an outstandingly enthusiastic job of letting us in on Kumoko's hilarious inner monologue. Secondly, the MC is a long way from being OP, in fact she is actually born as the weakest monster type there is - not just a Taratect (spider), not just a lesser Taratect, but a small, lesser Taratect. She is constantly being thrown into life threatening situations in the vast Monster-filled labyrinth she finds herself in (her being here is part of the plot by the way). She can't go so far as to repeatedly experience death, like Subaru in Re-Zero, but her constant scrapes with mortality are genuinely exciting and far better executed than in most other shows of this genre. Kumoko suffers horrific injuries in her fights, losing limbs and eyes, suffering severe burns or being impaled, and is frequently saved by a strange ability she has to instantly regenerate on level-up. And guess what - that's actually a plot point, not just a contrivance.
The game-style level, evolution and skills System come across as very thoroughly worked out, with actual stats being shown on screen as a sort of HUD that Kumoko can browse when she appraises herself or other entities, human or monster, including some very long lists of stat points, skills and titles. And - this is something of a spoiler but, again - this is actually part of the plot.
I hope i'm getting this across, because it is a major part of why this is such a great story: everything about Kumoko's Isekai'ed circumstance and the very make-up of the RPG-style System in this strange world is bound up tightly with the main plot (I must confess to being partly spoiled by the wiki here). This level of coherence and fore-thought in approaching an apparently tropey story and setting is second to none that I know of in Anime.
Spider actually interweaves a second narrative into Kumoko's survival story - it is made explicit very early on that she is not the only person to have been reincarnated, and we follow a secondary protagonist - Shun - as her follows a more standard Isekai Hero's journey parallel to that of our loveable MC. Shun has an antagonist, a group of girls around him and falls foul of political and religious shenanigans. Many viewers have been critical of this second thread, but it actually does almost all the hard work of world building beyond Kumoko's very limited scope.
The human-side narrative also acts as a counterpoint to Kumoko's experiences - it should be very clear to the viewer that our poor, endangered spider is getting considerably more experience than her fellow reincarnations while she fights her way out of the most dangerous place on the planet, than Shun and his friends are coming across training at the academy. And at some point everyone watching realises that there's an additional catch that makes Kumoko's hero's journey far more advanced than poor Shun's.
I'm afraid we have to talk about the CG. Quite a bit of the spider animation looks CG to me, but it is very well done - with the camera smoothly panning around Kumoko as she spiderman's her way around the labyrinth and its denizens. This quality does not last, alas. During the second cour there is a noticeable drop in some of the quality and this becomes positively glaring during some of the human-side story towards the end, particularly when CG models are used for fight & battle animations. They look very clumsy compared to the earlier or more traditional work.
Apparently the production was farmed out and came back at such low quality that much of the CG was re-worked but the time, and presumably budget, available grew less and less as the series came to an end. The final episode itself was actually delayed by a week, but honestly it was worth it, it's a cracker, with a thrilling fight and some key reveals for the future.
I have to dock spider a few marks for the art quality, but in all other respects i'd regard it as a classic in terms of writing, voice-work and direction. You must watch this show. The second OP 'Bursty, greedy Spider' is a classic to boot. Looking forward to a S2.
SanaeK10
Spider represents a real dichotomy when it comes to anime. On one hand you have Studio Millepensee and director Itagaki Shin, creators of the excellent wacky comedy Teekyuu delivering much of the same with the Spider segments; on another you have Studio Millepensee and director Itagaki Shin, creators of the dreadful CG mess that is Berserk 2016 delivering much of the same with the Human segments. It is a show of two distinct halves where one is clearly much better than the other. The Spider stuff with Kumoko is great, playing on the conventions of an Isekai with an intriguing plot and ends nicely, while theHuman stuff is boring generic isekai shit with an admittedly interesting hook that is poorly executed and ends on a "Read the LN for More!" ending. Honestly, if they made a cut with solely the Spider segments, not only will it look better, but it'd be also more entertaining with actual likeable characters instead of the Human's segment's awful unlikeable jackasses. Even then, the show rarely uses this dual narrative to its benefit. I can maybe think of one moment where it's done well, though benefiting only the Spider side of things. I understand that the novel is really lengthy, but if they had done a 13 episode show with just Kumoko, not only would it be paced better, but it wouldn't end on a terrible cliffhanger.
It really can feel like total whiplash as episodes switch between the two narratives. Every time the human parts are on I just zone out and keep on hoping that I'd be getting more Spider. No one is likeable, and the plot is frankly a mess that is taken absolutely seriously, highlighting a compete contrast with the lighthearted-but-with-a-dark-secret plot from the Spider segments. To highlight the discrepancies, in the Spider segments, Kumoko is a talkative girl with many weird and wonderful things to say about her predicament despite having no one to talk to, while in the Human segments, Kumoko is a mute despite being surrounded by many others.
The only fair way to recommend this show is to do so with an asterisk: Whenever the Human parts come up, just skip the show to the end until you see a spider or the end credits. It's a damned shame such a good show is mixed in with a lousy one. It really does sour the experience.
Spider parts: 8/10
Human parts: 4/10
Average: 6/10
NekoAkiraLee
For me, this season has two isekai masterpiece: Tensei slime and this. I write review because this anime had been underrated. After watched 24 episodes, my score is 9 out of 10, but I give 10 because it is underrated. Story: 1) Story of spider side is interesting. 2) Story of other human side is boring, I always hope the story turns back to spider side. Art: 1) Story mode: 2D animation is good.2) Fighting mode: 3D/CG animation is always not good for most anime.
Character:
1) Spider side has good characteristics. Spider is funny, brave, good resolved and helpful. Demon lord, vampires and villagers has their own good characteristics and charisma.
2) Characteristics of other human are not good. Younger hero boy and his mates are awkward, reckless and no charisma. Elves and kingdom people are just boring puppets.
RebelPanda
Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? is two different anime paradoxically forced together. One is hideously ugly, and the other is mind-numbingly boring. The hideously ugly plotline is led by an overly enthusiastic girl who was reincarnated as a spider. She must fight for her life in monster-infested caves. That explains the English name: "I'm a spider, so what?!" If that sounds intriguing, you will be disappointed. The title is misleading because the mind-numbingly boring half of the show is a bog-standard isekai plotline: A high school class gets reincarnated in a generic fantasy setting… How original. The first plotline follows Kumoko, a high school girl whowas reincarnated as the titular spider. It primarily takes place in caves where she first hatches. Wherever her journey takes her, she is isolated in the body of a spider—talking to herself, personifying the ghoulish monsters she fights, and creating imaginary friends. Her portion of the show is practically plotless, and it is written like a stream of consciousness, often repeating the same events with no progression. Unfortunately, her plotline is marred by repetition, plot armor, and hideous 3D animation ripped straight out of a Playstation 2 game. The second scenario was produced on the generic isekai anime assembly line: It follows Kumoko's classmates, who were also reincarnated, but primarily as humans. It takes place in the same world, years in the future. All of them were reborn as babies, though the story is about their trials and tribulations as teenagers in a strange new world. The show randomly swaps between scenarios 1 and 2—sometimes, the whole episode will follow Kumoko. Other times all we'll get is the infinitely less interesting teenage class (much more common in the second half). Needless to say, I preferred Kumoko. She is the only reason why I continued watching.
As a heroine, Kumoko has potential. She's charismatic, resourceful, and she has a unique character design to boot. Her sarcastic quips are funny, at first. Over time, I grew gradually less entertained by her overdone and forced sarcasm. Kumoko's wide variety of facial expressions were consistently amusing, reminiscent of Konosuba's ridiculous character art style. The animators chose to give Kumoko a CGI model with facial expressions drawn in during close-ups. That creative decision suits Kumo’s chaotic fights with monsters and beasts, allowing for dynamic camera movements. At first, I was charmed by her zany personality and Aoi Yuuki's energetic performance. That stopped being the case halfway through. Her 'jokes' devolved into yelling loudly (no, that doesn't count as a joke). Either the dialogue is yelling or bland exposition dumping. The screenwriters included pointless light novel narration rather than using visual storytelling. This obsession with "telling" rather than "showing" is the root cause of every mundane light novel adaptation; this is no different. From the start, Kumoko fights for her life against horrid CGI monsters, but each one follows the same pattern. The monster is far stronger than her; she nearly dies, then a contrived mechanic will keep her alive. Right before getting "killed" Kumoko either cracks a joke, ruining any chance of taking it seriously, or she gives a long monologue as the animators slowly zoom in on the giant CGI monsters looming over her.
You will hear her say HP, MP, SP hundreds of times. The show spends excessive amounts of time explaining surface-level RPG mechanics, but Kumoko is so plot-armored that, ultimately, none of it matters! I know someone will say, "She's not like other isekai protagonists because she worked for her skills." No, shut up. Stop. Even if a character starts weak then becomes overpowered, they are still overpowered. Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with that; One Punch Man is one of the most successful comedy anime, and being overpowered is the whole joke. Just because Saitama trained his ass off to become all-powerful doesn't change what he is. But Kumo desu ga doesn't realize that WE KNOW Kumoko is overpowered—so it puts on an act: pretending like she's in danger. Tons of censored blood spattering, limbs get torn apart, screaming, ripping and tearing sound effects—then she gains a power-up to save the day!
Kumoko's fights have no stakes, but there's an effortless way to fix this. Suppose she had something, anything to lose. A companion, a McGuffin, a tiny spider buddy, or some power that could get taken from her—then there would be a sense of danger. What about her personality? Characters who go through traumatic events should have some long-term mental effect. In a better anime, for sure. After the most violent and harrowing fights, Kumoko is still the same old peppy spider. Her near-death experiences never cause a lasting impact on her personality. In the second plotline, the generic male protagonist has more to lose. He has friends and family to create stakes, even though he is torturously dull.
Above ground, the archetypal isekai characters stare at each other with unconcerned looks as they deliver exposition in the most literal manner possible. Perhaps the animators just couldn't be bothered to animate facial expressions and body language. If we're lucky, one will make an ill-timed joke to keep us awake—but even if there's a punchline (very rarely), it bounces off the protagonist's thick skull. Shun, the protagonist in question, is about as compelling as watching paint dry—and he has even more plot armor than Kumoko. Even when he grieves or suffers due to some contrived conflict, it's impossible to feel anything for a piece of cardboard with eyes and a nose.
The rest of the students are either one line nobody's destined to die unceremoniously or mouthpieces to dump exposition. All of them are named, but trying to remember them would require caring. There are a few intriguing characters; one girl was reincarnated as a dragon and another as the opposite gender. Of course, neither of them gets enough screen time to be memorable. A running theme was: What would happen if you were forced to live out as a different identity? They could’ve used this theme to explore the insecurities it’d cause each character to feel. None of that happened, it was swept under the rug in favor of generic male isekai protagonist #304. One thing all the characters have in common is plot armor. The show hints at them having more depth in the source material. A few minutes here and there are spared to info dump one of their backstories. Of course, that information is utterly irrelevant and never brought up again. At least the light novel fans got some scraps amid the doubtlessly butchered adaptation. I feel sorry for anyone who likes the source material, you did not deserve this affront to humanity.
There's an antagonist for both storylines—A vacuous demon lolita in dominatrix gear and a kid with an inferiority complex for the cardboard protagonist. They’re 1-dimensional, but they cause enough harm to motivate at least one of the protagonists. Neither do much except attempt (and fail) to look menacing. How do they expect us to get engaged in a 'Good vs. Evil' power struggle if the 'Evil' is neither intimidating nor relevant?
Four years ago, studio Orange animated Houseki no Kuni with luxurious CGI... Unfortunately, Studio Millepensee is not Orange. Previously, they made the stunningly awful Berserk (2016) CGI adaptation, and since then, their animators have not improved. Houseki no Kuni had excellent fight choreography, it utilizes 3D art for smooth dynamic camera motions, and the CGI models look good. Unfortunately, Kumo desu ga has none of those. The fight choreography is incomprehensible: Nauseating camera movements flying around dark 3D caves. Splotches of dark colors spurting everywhere, random magic circles tossed in, and that's only Kumo's half of the show. The 3D models constantly phase through objects like a poorly made video game. The 3D models have different lighting from the background art, so they stick out like a sore thumb. The jarring visuals look similar to a video game running at 5 frames per second. The only thing that prevented me from dying of boredom was my struggle not to vomit.
Once the studio ran out of either time or money, they began using low poly CGI models for every character. I don't care if people call me a "CGI elitist," but someone has to say it. The final four episodes of this anime are some of the hideous I've seen in an anime, rivaling Hand Shakers, Arifureta, and Ex-Arm for the worst three-dimensional art in a TV anime. But unlike those three, it wasn't enjoyably bad. It was just nauseating and boring. Imagine a burning dumpster filled with used diapers that rolled off a cliff and landed in a pile of steaming manure.
The 2D art is hideous too, though at least it's not as nauseating. First, there's almost no animation. It’s entirely panning shots, still images, zooming, and animation loops. Second, the transitions look like they were done in IMovie—simple fade to black and jump cuts. Third, the character designs are entirely forgettable. In both worlds, the sound design is amateurish. They used the bare minimum stock sound effects. It took me time to realize the vocals don't sync with the mouth flaps. Sometimes the voices cut out altogether while the character's mouth is still moving! It's no surprise the two subplots look and feel entirely different from each other: Studio Millisenpe made the 2D half, and they outsourced the CGI to Exsa, a studio no one has heard of. The first OP and ED are good, but the second two are ear piercing. These intros might have the worst credit integration in any anime ever: With text barely fitting on the screen in a jarring font that blocks the intro visuals. They would’ve been better off letting high school students design it.
Regardless of Kumo desu ga appalling art, animation, sound, and directing—the storytelling and character writing is still awful. It is filled with tedious exposition and stale comedy. If the anime was true to its title and focused on the spider portion, perhaps it could've been halfway decent. The production suffered from overwork, constrained budget, and limited resources, even leading to the final episode getting postponed. I’m seriously worried for the health of whoever was forced to create this abomination.
quezgot
( Hood Review) HEADS UP ! This is something you need to know before watching ! This story has TWO DIFFERENT TIMELINES HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME, IT CAN GET CONFUSING!! The future: the reincarnations are older and start to gather around each other The past: the main character is leveling up and learning the world Honestly it was rough, the first 6 episodes felt like i was watching Dora the explorer. Even after, i still felt like this anime was made for a 13 year old.. the main character acts like a 8 year old so it’s hella annoying . But if you can pushpass that, which is going to be tough for some people it’s pretty decent. The main character fights super bosses that could 1 hit kill them, almost every other episode . So it was giving Elden ring vibes pretty much. People were saying this anime is like the time I got reincarnated as a slime, but for me. It wasn’t even close. Slime is way better, I would love to see an RPG game with the same skill point mechanics, so if you love RPG games you’ll like this, i do recommend this, but it’s plenty better anime to watch . Don’t let that discourage you though. 🤌🏻🫶🏻
Rektaur
TL;DR, Read the manga or light novel, both are significantly better. I absolutely love the story of "蜘蛛ですが、なにか？", I have read both the light novel and the manga before the anime released; and both do a significantly better job portraying the story. The ONE saving grace of the entire anime is the spider side, Aoi Yuuki did an absolutely perfect job portraying Kumoko and I could sing her praises for her role in this show forever. It is a little strange at first that spider side is all in cg, but it looks significantly better than the human side all told. It really felt like thehuman side of the story suffered throughout the season.
SaintZeph
This has got to be one of the most memorable shows I have ever seen. It had the biggest rating jumping between episodes I've ever witnessed. By episode 6 I had this at 1/1.5. By episode 12 it was at a 6. By 18, it back down to a 3. And finally, now at 24, it's at a 7. Seriously what the hell. Its animation at times is absolutely atrocious. And I hate, hate, [b]hate[/b] the human side. It was just so dull and uninspiring. Typical shounen shit. Loved Kumeko though. It's such a conflicting show. Would I recommend anyone watch this? I really, really can'tsay. If you followed the 3 episode drop rule, this show might not pan out. I don't drop, so it wasn't too much of an issue there.
The op is actually pretty nice, sonically at least. Visuals wise, it was pretty standard. The ED was pretty rough unless you're into Iruma-Kun styled music (ie: brainless dancing and vocals).
It was really hard coming up with a rating for this. It made me smile at times for sure, but just as many times it made me cringe and question your taste in anime. Nevertheless, I'm glad I stuck through this and I'm excited for a Season 2 whenever it releases.
Final rating ~ 7/10
~SZ
Mugiwara_MonkeyD
The story is quite engaging. And based on the high ratings of the source material light novel, I can assume that the story will only get better. The anime was developed and released in two separate cours, each cour lasting about 12 episodes. The first cour is so much better. The animation is good, and the pacing is decent. But the second cour was sort of a let down. They really didn't do much justice to the light novel with its poor animation and pacing. It seems like the studio outsourced half of the work out. And it's that half that shows the greatest problems inquality.
I still believe the story is great and I will pick up the light novel to continue the story. But I believe the adaptation was pretty lacking, especially in the second cour. Still, it's nice to see the action scenes animated. And the voice acting for the spider is top notch. The spider scenes definitely felt like she had come alive. Still, I feel like this was a poor introduction to the series, especially the 2nd cour. I am still a bit annoyed that they spoiled something in the 2nd cour OP as well. If I knew there were spoilers, I wouldn't have watched the OP.
If I could do it again, I would read the light novels first. Then watch the anime just for the action scenes and spider voice acting. I don't think this really did a good job introducing us to this world or the story.
TheEtherea
I like it despite the fact that production quality by the end was pure trash and the way it goes back and forth in time is confusing to follow. It should be noted that CGI while been mediocre across the show ends up been hideous in latter episodes (sadly). Kumo Desu ga, works because the VA pulls out an incredible job doing a one person Manzai with her "other selves". This makes her commentary and observations enjoyable to follow throughout the show. It also works when it shows the world from her perspective where she is a cutesy spider, while the rest of the world views heras a horrible monster freak.
The fun part of it is the fact that it's a world of Overpowered demons and creatures who continuously gain even more power which is also played out during the fight scenes themselves. MC gets OP only to meet something even more insane along the way and it's a recurring theme of the show.
World building in this show is great with many layers and details to create a fun experience.
It's enjoyable that you have several sides of conflict with their own points of view, and this story follows a path of modern Isekai where
good side isn't as good as you think it is" with cliché Isekai heroes blindly doing what they seem is right.
I score it this high because it made me want to read LN\Manga and it was a good enough story\level of detail that can't be entirely ruined by quality.
beast_regards
This show embodies everything that is wrong with an anime industry where shows are nothing more than a glorified advertisement for a usually very generic and repetitive light novel. It goes far beyond just being bad or generic. No, it isn’t that, this is worse - this show aims to confuse you, and confuse you a lot, making you scramble to buy the source material in a desperate attempt to make sense of what is going on. Horrible graphics and animation only prove they never had a budget or even a genuine interest to turn this into a decent story... Imagine this anime as a puzzle.Or rather, several boxes of puzzles, all mixed into one pile, with a third of it burned and another third of it shipped to another continent. Have fun trying to piece together a cohesive story from a mangled mess of two protagonists, several timelines divided in both space and time, several changing viewpoints, joined together with an abrupt cut designed to leave you as confused as possible, even resorting in jumping between the same character in two different timelines next to each other in one instance. There is almost zero worldbuilding done in this - or to be more precise, there is worldbuilding, someone just deleted, to force you to pay for an explanation to even the basics, as almost nothing is explained to any meaningful degree. References proving that there was worldbuilding once are usually thrown in a random conversation, but you will easily miss that if you don’t have a context from reading the light novel, and considering how dedicated this anime is to obfuscate even a piece of the basic information you may also miss something that is actually present too. Actually, it is quite shocking how little exposition there can be in the show where the protagonist is almost constantly monologuing.
I was repeatedly accused of not paying attention as something was clearly foreshadowed in volume 11 of the novel. But I didn’t read the novel, and the anime adapts events up to volume 4. 4 is before 11, so it can’t be foreshadowing, but … who cares, this anime doesn’t understand the passage of time either, why should anyone else.
This is something that makes this anime the worst, it straight away expects you to see the future, be precognitive, psychic, or be at very least able to memorize the events of the novel till its latest chapter, because the anime you are watching is not the anime you are supposed to like. It actually abruptly changes to a very different show, changing the genre from fantasy to sci-fi, without any real explanation, and it expects you to somehow see this through from puzzles.
I hate puzzles.
This show isn’t even a mystery, it’s a pretentious puzzle where its own narration either straight away lies to you, forgets things, or at least leaves out important bits in order to create a fake sense of mystery. Answers are either not worth waiting for, or are completely absent.
And if you think you can watch the show for an eccentric spider talking to herself while killing stuff … Well, think again. She was turned into a side character in her own show, with a generic harem protagonist taking up all the screentime with his idiotic harem drama.
If it was about a psycho spider killing people with laser eyes, I would have fun with it. Eight laser eyes out of ten. But it isn’t. It's a barely coherent mess of contradictory information.
If you are even remotely interested in the story, read the novel straight away.
Or just forget about the show. This show deserves to be forgotten. Author forgot about its own plot powers in her own self-insert character, she forgot what genre she is writing, so why shouldn’t you forget her in turn?
Ernacram
What a cursed period Winter 2021 was! In the same season, three awful anime series with horrible animation quality started airing. The worst was Ex-Arm, with a CGI animation so bad nobody could actually watch it. There was also Redo of Healer, a very badly animated rape fantasy targeted at incels. And lastly, there was Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?, or “So I'm a Spider, So What?” in Shakespeare’s language, the train wreck of an anime that I’m reviewing today. --- The premise This is yet again another “isekai” (or should I say, “shitsekai”), that is to say, an anime where the protagonist is transported toa parallel world. In that case it’s the whole classroom – teacher included – that are reincarnated as newborns, and the parallel world is a RPG-like fantasy world featuring elves, demons, monsters, and also tons of video games mechanics. Our protagonist is a girl who is reincarnated as a spider in a cave full of atrocious CGI creatures, and must fight them to survive and get experience, levels and skills. That’s the spider arc. Then you have the generic isekai arc which follows the boring adventures of the rest of the classroom, who got the chance not to be reincarnated as ugly monsters.
--- One of the ugliest shows
The spider arc is mostly animated in CGI, and oh boy does the CGI of this anime sucks ass. It is ugly, badly animated, and the movements are very jerky. Most of the spider arc happens in a cave, so the backgrounds you get to see are boring 3D backgrounds that look less detailed than the caves in The Battle for Middle-earth, a real time strategy video game that was released in… 2004. The spider looks very ugly, too. With her human eyes and her spider body, she looks like one of those abominations I used to make in the video game Spore when I was 10. The other CGI monsters look even uglier than the spider, and when these cursed creatures fight it is hard to understand what the heck is happening on the screen.
The animation of the generic isekai arc isn’t better. In the first half of the series or so it consists mostly of 2D animation, but as the series progresses there is more and more CGI. Just as in the spider arc, the CGI is very ugly. It is not an overstatement to say that the 3D hentai game Koikatsu Party looks better than the CGI of this anime. Some characters such as Sophia or the demon lord are made out exclusively of CGI, and you often see 2D characters and CGI characters on the same image. CGI is also used for monsters and armies, not just for background crowds. Towards the end of the series CGI is used in all fight scenes, making them look like utter shit. This is supposed to be the climax for god’s sake! Oh and did I also mention that the ground looks uglier than old video games’ textures?
The 2D animation is also very bad. Character designs are comparable to those in The Irregular at Magic High School – they are generic and soulless. 2D backgrounds look like they come from a low budget visual novel from the 2000’s. There is little actual animation, and most of the time it is jerky. 2D fight scenes don’t look good and consist for the most part of static images with movement lines. Not only this, but as the series progresses, the animation gets even worse! There are more and more face inconsistencies, with ugly faces and characters’ eyes looking in two different directions. In the second half of the series or so, there are entire scenes with absolutely no goddamn animation. Characters leave or appear on the screen with no actual animation as if it was a shitty PowerPoint presentation! There are some episodes where the animators tried very hard to spare effort by hiding the characters’ mouths when they’re talking, for example by putting a character in front of them, or by showing static images of silent characters.
In short, the animation of this show is so ugly it’s near impossible to take the story seriously.
--- The most insufferable protagonist ever created
There are three things that make the spider insufferable. First, as I mentioned earlier, she looks ugly. Second, her voice acting is extremely annoying. Third, she can’t help complaining and yelling all the time with her irritating voice. Since for most of the series she is alone in caves, she is always talking to herself, describing what’s happening to her, reading stats and skills’ description, talking to the AI, making cringe-worthy jokes and references, and so on. And this is what makes her insufferable: she is always talking. When the spider appears on the screen you should have your Paracetamol ready because her high-pitched voice is going to give you a goddamn headache. And if her dialogues aren’t enough to make your ears bleed, do not worry: she also sings the ending song!
--- The rest of the cast sucks ass
The rest of the cast on the generic isekai arc’s side is a bunch of stereotypical and soulless characters. There are too many of them to remember about and I will not waste my time describing why they suck. In a nutshell: there’s the generic anime main character who is kind, brave and whatnot, and the bad guy who is mean and pretentious. Oh, and the demon lord is a little girl with a cuteness fang, how original. With the former teacher there’s a failed attempt at character development which can be summed up in this: “I wanted my students to like me so I studied video games and light novels”… absolutely ridiculous. The only thing that’s good with these people is that they are less annoying than the spider.
--- The story is nonsense
The first thing that’s wrong in the story is that it follows two arcs – which are actually two different timelines – at the same time, making the show confusing. To my knowledge, it wasn’t the case in the light novel or the manga adaptation.
The spider arc is about accumulating experience, leveling up, getting new skills and evolving. It has everything a MMORPG has, including skill points, MP, HP and SP. There’s tons of talk about skills and other video game mechanics, lots of annoying terminology, and walls of text that are unreadable. Video-game skills play a huge role in the story, but they also make the fights unfathomable. Stuff happens on the screen (stuff meaning orgies of bad CGI), that’s all. There’s no real tension because you know that the spider is going to win any fight thanks to some skill she pulled from her ass.
The generic isekai arc is about generic isekai stuff. In the beginning of the series the characters are in a generic magic academy where they do nothing relevant to the plot. Then there is a conspiracy and they are forced to leave the academy to fight the demons in atrocious CGI battles.
As the series progresses the story gets more random and ridiculous. There is an “administrator” who talks to the spider with a smartphone and gives her overpowered skills, there are elves with mechas, there are clones, there are computers, there is future technology… And in the last episodes, which is supposed to be the climax of the series, we get to see disgusting fight scenes between ugly CGI models and mechas that have nothing to do in a medieval fantasy universe.
--- Sound
Perhaps the least failed aspect of the show, but it’s still horrible. The quality of the background music ranges from meh to alright. The voice-acting is meh, as the lip-sync is sometimes badly done, and as I said earlier, the spider’s voice is insufferable. The openings and endings are also very bad and skippable.
--- Verdict
One of the worst anime series I have seen in my life, both in terms of story / characters and technical value. The only reason I give it a 2 instead of a 1 is because Ex-Arm exists. It is absolutely not enjoyable. Avoid it at all costs, it is not worth your time or the money spent on Paracetamol.
SagiriSmug
This has to be one of the most enjoyable anime i've ever seen. While the art isn't great, and it suffers from quality issues as it progresses, the pacing, storytelling and general progression of the series is top notch. The story starts of kinda odd, with you following 2 perspectives, and then slowly starts to connect the stories as the series progresses. While this seems kinda boring in the beginning, it really starts to add to the character of the show as it progresses. Most characters also have their own agendas and objectives, really adding to the character detail and story. Without spoiling too much, the story twists in areally unique way, completely changing the context of previous episodes with a satisfying twist.
I would heavily recommend watching this.
