With the beginning of the winter anime season comes a new slate of isekai anime along with it. As a result, this season also brings us the anime adaptation of one of the strangest yet most popular isekai visual novel series, So I’m a Spider, So What?
The Astounding Arachnid
The anime begins by showing viewers a classroom of unnamed students who get hit by what seems like some mysterious destructive energy. It then gives us quality time with our heroine Kumoko (derived from the Japanese word Kumo, which means spider). While her human name isn’t revealed, we do know that she was once a loner and pseudo-shut-in who never socialized with anyone in school. Yet, upon awakening in her new world as a spider, she’s seen to have a peppy, energetic, and almost chaotic personality which is completely opposite of what her personality should be.
Luckily, Kumoko quickly adapts to her new surroundings and is able to brush off and accept her current circumstance as if it’s nothing due to the amount of gaming and similar content she’s consumed beforehand. In a similar fashion to one slimy series, Kumoko awakens in a cave hatched from an egg amongst her million other less remarkable spider siblings.
She also finds out shortly after that she is able to learn skills and level up with points, so upon learning this, she quickly uses up all her hundred default points to acquire the Appraisal skill; a skill known to be highly useful in other games and similar series (such as the aforementioned Slime series). However, this unfortunately isn’t the case in this universe, at least not yet, as she quickly finds out, so she’s forced to learn the ropes on how to survive as a spider, which involves consuming other creatures to acquire their skills, cannibalism included. The episode tells us that Kumoko isn’t like the other overpowered isekai protagonists and shows that she needs to use all the skills she has, such as her intelligence and reflexes, to overcome her obstacles.
An Energetic Production
Unlike Kumoko who’s had the worst luck in reincarnation, the episode shows her classmates who apparently awakened sometime before Kumoko as they’re seen already established in this world. Some had better luck and were incarnated as royals and heroes, some were reincarnated with different genders, and some like Kumoko, as different species. All reincarnated students, along with their teacher, have gathered together aside from Kumoko, who seems to be the only one left out. It’s worth noting that the anime adapts the light novel directly, which plays out a bit differently from the manga hence the inclusion of all the reincarnated classmates from the get-go.
Production-wise, the anime includes mostly 3D animation that’s incredibly noticeable but thankfully isn’t terrible, nor is it distracting. The characters’ movements, while a bit slow, are well animated. What caught my attention the most however, is the anime’s opening and ending sequences. The opening contains a lot of flashy imagery, as well as the high energy song “keep weaving your spider way” performed by Riko Azuna. Whereas the ending sequence kicks it up a notch by highlighting Kumoko’s very chaotic personality as well as giving us a glimpse of how she’ll evolve biologically as the series progresses. It also includes the even more over the top song “Do Your Best! Kumoko-san’s Theme”, performed by Voice Actress Aoi Yuki as Kumoko herself.
Final Thoughts
So far, So I’m a Spider, So What? is a charming isekai anime that knows it’s an isekai anime. It doesn’t beat around the bush and proudly presents its tropes to the viewers, but thankfully in an interesting way. It’s boisterous main character also gives it the edge over other similar titles making it worth the time spent on it.
If you haven’t seen So I’m a Spider, So What? its available to stream right now on Crunchyroll.
Have you seen the first episode of So I’m a Spider, So What? What do you think of my impressions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.