So I'm a Spider, So What? LN: Volume 1

Ach ja, after eventually finding a use for my tablet of four years (and reading the entirety of the Tokyo Ghoul and :re manga first), I will now finally be able to dive into the long, for me at least, unattainable world of light novels. At the very top of this list: Frog-kun’s homage to the “Little Sister” sub-genre. But after that, it’s So I’m a Spider, So What?!

Honestly, I kinda adore this series. Not only did its anime adaptation convince me to give this series a shot at all, as it basically looks like yet another gimmicky isekai in a well of an oversaturated market, but also bring me back from my YouTube hiatus and also land a spot in the list of anime I rewatched relatively soon after watching it the first time. Naturally, with no second season in sight, I was also interested in the light novels, as I really wanted to read how the story goes on. I even bought volume 6, the one continuing from the anime… twice. I do not own the book to this date (“In progress” my ass!). Incidentally, Thalia removed the item from their store both times after I purchased it. Truly curious (it is also up again…). So, while I probably will never get my hands on the physical novels, I now have a means to read the eBooks. Also, might as well start from the beginning.

While planning to document my journey through the novels, I initially wanted to go through them arc by arc, beginning with volumes 1-3, though the first volume already gave me so much to talk about, mostly in the way it compares to the anime, that I had to break my goal at the first step. Let’s just hope this post stays the exception and the next ones will cover several volumes at once. Trust me, I do not want to write 16 individual posts!

Until volume 6, I will probably divide the posts into a segment talking about the novel itself and another segment about the anime series covering parts of the novels. The later is not supposed to be an extensive list about all the differences in the adaptation (This ain’t a wiki), but rather how the different presentations of the story changes its reading and impact on me. Anyway, with yet another long preamble out of the way, here are my thoughts about the first volume of So I’m a Spider, So What?.

Overall Impressions

If Kumoko has a million fans, I’m one of them. If Kumoko has tens fans, I’m one of them. If Kumoko has one fan, that one is me. If Kumoko has no fans, I’m no longer alive. If the world is against Kumoko, I’m against the entire world. Till my last breath, I’ll support Kumoko! In all honestly, Kumoko is such a fun character to follow around. Bonus points if you randomly decide to read all her lines in the voice of Aoi Yuuki, because your own head voice just can not compare :D.

Kumoko is such a fresh breath of fresh air, not just comparing to most isekai protagonists, but most protagonists in general. She has no ambition to be the hero, no obligation to do the right thing, without also going down a villain route and most importantly, she is also allowed to just be herself, without restrictions from the plot or other characters with which she has to keep appearances up. Nope, she just is the frightened, scared, petty, angry, obsessive, careless, unstable and funny spider she wants to be, making her one of my favorite characters, even without her later development. Just peak character introduction all around. I can also relate to her in so many small ways, like her utter overconfidence turned luck and the straight up comedic denial of her doing anything wrong or making errors. No no, I did not just forget about *insert important plot point*. Not me. Absolutely not! She is the best kind of obnoxious. Probably a huge pain to deal with, but letting her roam free and acting unhinged is just so entertaining to read.

Not that she actually does a whole lot in the first novel. In fact, despite its length, not that much happens at all, as the majority of the pages are just spend on character thoughts and internal monologues… and I am a huge fan of that in this context. Beyond just getting a better grasp of the characters, these specific circumstances allow for a rather analytic approach of their surroundings and also serve as subtle exposition. Kumoko is constantly accessing her circumstances, planning her next move or commenting in great detail what is currently happening around her (and complaining about it). Pair it with her rather fun inner voice and you get a great understanding of what is happening, despite not a lot happening. Seriously, Kumoko deciding to just sit down and eventually looking up all of her skills, once she was able to, is not something I can just absolutely see myself doing, but also herself, making her seem surprisingly grounded in moments of relative levity. Despite being knowledgeable about video games and isekai tropes, there is a lot she doesn’t understand about this world and beyond just letting the reader understand what is going on, seeing Kumoko being kinda off or even wrong about most of the skills was a delight.

The limited scope of events also helps another aspect I really like about this series: The multiple perspectives. Especially in the first half of the novel, almost every chapter is followed by a shift in perspective, talking about the same theme or event, just from another characters point of view. Not only do these perspective compliment each other, as the reader is aware of information often only one group knows about, but the literal shift in prose tells you a lot about the characters attitude. Just comparing the way Kumoko and Shun describe their reincarnation speaks volumes about their inner conflicts and circumstances, with both approaches being not only understandable, but, at least for me, equally interesting.

Beyond the way the novel tells its story, I appreciate not only how different it tends to be from other isekai, but also different in a way that is just straight up more akin to my tastes in fiction, specifically fantasy. I normally don’t want to compare a series to other ones, especially if it will devolve into me slandering an entire genre, but here it makes a reasonable amount of sense. Most isekai set-ups suck! Like, I can’t be bothered most of the time. I don’t care if you have a legendary sword or secretly OP skill, if you are already max level, abuse the system or are just born to the strongest mage. I couldn’t care less. Actually try doing something with your premise and only then I will start paying attention (Adding cute girls does not count). This is where the So I’m a Spider series differs for me. For now, at it’s core, the novel is a mix of survival and mystery, set in an isekai, but not really about it. It clearly has the appeal of a dungeon crawler, game mechanics et al included, but doesn’t solely rely on it, instead crafting a narrative about overcoming odds and moving forwards.

Kumoko is overpowered. I will not argue against it. I will however argue the way she is overpowered and what she is actually able to accomplish from a moment to moment basis. Physically, she is rather weak, being reincarnated as a simple spider without an OP catch that secretly makes her invulnerable. However, arguably her biggest strength is her human intelligence… and in there is also her biggest weakness. Kumoko doesn’t know a lot about this world. For the most part, she stumbles through the labyrinth aimlessly without a clear goal and hopes there lies no stronger enemy around the next corner. Her means of gaining new information is also limited with the Appraisal skill being mostly useless and engaging new enemies coming with the risk of death. This essentially means that despite her being able to deal with most monsters in the dungeon, it is only through the very narrow approach which Kumoko herself acknowledges as cowardice. Hiding from the enemy, until it is trapped in her web, so she can finish it off with her poison fang.

However, there are two flaws with her tactic: She needs to prepare her webs in advance, meaning she is vulnerable when another monster gets the jump on her. The second problem comes from monsters who are physically strong enough to destroy her nets, like the snake and later Araba. This is eventually the motivation for Kumoko to become active, as seen in the “I do not want to run away”-scene. She now has to actively engage strong enemies and while she is technically able to overcome great odds, just one mistake can spell doom for her, meaning there is an equal amount of risk involved. I don’t mind that Kumoko is “overpowered” for most enemies, as there is a narrative weight behind her decision to get stronger for those monsters she can not so easily defeat.

Well… this was an unintended and unnecessary tangent. Ehh… let’s see… I like that the world, while clearly based on classic RPG tropes, is not limited by them. Too often do I get the feeling that the isekai worlds are the most bland versions of what one can imagine from the word “fantasy”. The only RPG I ever played is Dragon Quest IX and I still get the feeling that I have basically seen everything most other isekai have to offer. This world, however, seems to be a bit more elaborate on both Kumoko’s side, as well as what little glimpses we have seen from the humans. I especially like the portrayal of the monsters. They are not just EXP fodder, but a distinct part of their environment with their own behaviors and lives. They even get actual species names that are neither just the most generic description for the monster or straight up latin. Taratect? Not sure what it actually means, but it absolutely fits for spiders. Randanel? Ferect? Finjicote? Definitely names and I am here for it. There are even small encyclopedia entries for the monsters.

Last thing I want to talk about is how, ignoring all the stuff set up for later confrontations and reveals, Kumoko’s side of the story is kinda able to stand on its own as a self-contained narrative. If you look at her story from a larger distance, it is about a literal hermit being kicked out of the comfort of her home and forced to engage in the outside world. There is absolutely something to be found in Kumoko’s resolve to not run away anymore and face her problems head on, though I also don’t want to force a reading á la Kafka’s Metamorphosis. However, the Spider Pride is real!

Comparison to the Anime

So, this is actually kinda weird and hard to describe. The anime adaptation cuts out a good chunk from the first novel, but overall, most of it doesn’t really seem to matter all that much in hindsight. Kumoko’s part is mostly intact, following her route through the labyrinth with only a few encounters either skipped or heavily abridged. While the point about the encounter with the centipedes gets clear without explicitly stated, I wish the anime would have hinted to the fact that a lot of monsters become really dangerous when large in numbers and not singled out alone.

Arguably the biggest change is Kumoko’s first encounter with Araba: After falling down to the Lower Stratum, Kumoko gets injured after being attacked by one of the hornet monsters. While in hiding, Araba just walks into the area without doing anything and shortly leaves. Kumoko is scarred. Like, fearing for her life by the sheer existence of such a strong monster. Until this moments she only encountered unevolved monsters with low levels and suddenly there is this huge dragon in its 30s. The chapter then continues with her getting out of the hole she fell down into, by continuously expanding a net and defending herself against the hornets, while struggling with her wound and decreasing HP. We actually get a surprisingly deep insight into how some skills, like the pain resistance/mitigation and by proxy most passive skills, work. While it actually was one of the more engaging encounters in the novel, I can understand why i was cut completely. Beyond a better understanding of how some of the skills work, it doesn’t really add a lot of new information and with the fight against the monkeys serving as the novels climax, it is the most likely candidate to be skipped. Still a shame, but it can’t be helped.

Before Kumoko can actually escape the place, Araba suddenly returns and absolutely demolishes her web and most of the monsters inside the hole. This is where the anime simply merged the two encounters into one, serving mostly the same point. What the anime underplays is just how affected, traumatized even, Kumoko is by his attack. Kumoko’s Fear Resistance skill jumps straight to level 5 and she even unknowingly levels her Stealth ability while hiding. But this is only what is explicitly stated. From here on out, she unconsciously mentions Araba in almost any kind of situation. Either by just walking through areas he could pop up in, constantly comparing him to other monsters and even in moments of simple levity. Araba simply doesn’t leave her head, despite her never actively thinking about him.

On the human side of things, the anime was rather straight-forward in its approach to its adaptation: It didn’t adapt anything! Concerning the first volume, literally nothing made it into the anime, which, while kind of understandable, is even a bigger bummer than Kumoko’s cut content. The beginning of the novel contrasts Kumoko’s thoughts with Shun’s giving him not only a good deal of much needed characterization, but also exposes the reader to some nice world-building and further information of the characters, like how Shun and Kumoko apparently played the same game and how Kumoko’s relation to her parents was basically non-existent. It is also nice to simply get another point of view, with Shun taking a more drastically more critical and realistic stand about this whole being reincarnated thing. Kumoko, being born a spider, doesn’t have to bother with most problems Shun has to, like not being able to move your body freely, not understanding the language and the fear of just being abandoned by your parents… though I do guess Kumoko’s mother would have no qualms eating her.

Also, the human side is, for the most part, a story about the circumstances of Shun’s family, political drama included. We even get a point of view from his brother and the king. It also makes the relationship to his sister more understandable, as the anime portrays Sue mostly as the “obsessive little sister”. While I understand that some content had to be cut and you essentially get the gist from later events, there are two things I really miss from the adaptation.

Firstly, the whole deal about the Appraisal skill: Kumoko already mentioned that Appraisal is a classic staple of your isekai story, being an overpowered skill that gives you all the information you desire *proceeds to appraise herself. Divine voice (temp): <Spider>*. While extremely powerful in theory, the Appraisal skill is essentially useless and failing most of the time, even more so for humans. It causes immense headaches, making it unattractive to level it at all and since you can’t just keep appraising the same object, there are only a few humans that have an appraisal skill high enough to be somewhat useable. Thus, most of the appraising is actually done via Appraisal Stones, though as they are incredibly rare, only the higher nobles are in possession of those. They are also used for a kind of “Coming-of-age” ceremony, in which the stats from Shun and his sister were revealed. There is a lot of hidden information in this scene, like how not every reincarnation was reincarnated equal, with Shun holding a whopping 100,000 skill points, compared to Kumoko’s meager 100, or how certain skills cost a different amounts of points, depending on your affinity towards them. It also doesn’t reveal what the mysterious n%I=W skill does.

Secondly, how Shun came into contact with Fei and Katia: The anime’s first look into the human world opens with Shun enrolling the academy with Katia and being introduced to two other reincarnations by his former teacher. In the novel, Shun was a bit suspicious of another girl’s stats, while introducing himself, he dropped a subtle Yoroshiku and later confirmed it by mentioning his old school. Also, two bros (one is a sis now) meeting after what is basically half a lifespan is peak content. Meanwhile, Fei, being gifted to Shun when she was still in her egg, actually taught herself to read the foreign language while constantly being around Shun and Katia, eventually leading her to acquire the Telepathy skill. The telepathy also explains why no one bats an eye about the talking pet mini-dragon in the anime. A side note, the egg is the first hint that the different perspectives are not told in the same time span… which I thought was weird, as the anime actually took a good amount of time before dropping the first hints. Later on, their teacher also made a quick appearance, confirming that their entire class was reincarnated.

Again, I understand why all those scenes are missing, as they are not at all crucial to understand what is going on moving forward, but like… come on! The human part is actually interesting, so skipping all this makes me understand the opinion of those hating on the human side of the story or even ignoring the human part entirely, similar to how the manga apparently handles its adaptation.

Last thing I want to talk about is the visual aspect of the adaptation. To be honest, it tends to be quit a bit rough around the edges. Kumoko, especially considering she is mostly rendered using 3D, looks fantastic, but everything else? I have absolutely seen more impressive productions. I know the studio suffered from heavy production issues, but at least the final product looks better than the first PV released in 2018. What I do appreciate is how visually engaging it keeps the series. Especially Kumoko spends most of the time talking to herself, so any unique portrayal of her thoughts is much appreciated.

Final Thoughts

I’m really glad I did start with the first novel and not where the anime left off. Not just due to the missing content, but also just how much I like experiencing the story. Kumoko is just such a fun character and now I am even engaged into the human side. I still have four entire volumes ahead of me, before I caught up with the anime, but despite having rewatched the anime just a month prior, I am already pumped to see more of it again. Truly living the spider life.

Until next time, when I will hopefully find a way to include writing Nai wa~ all over the post.

Nai wa~

So I’m a Spider, So What? (ePub) is available on BookWalker.