Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?

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 in CGI 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.

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 of important 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…

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 the spider 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.

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 Ari…

Since the story itself isn't too deep, I won't spoil anything. Tl;dr: Don't watch it, it's a MASSIVE waste of your time. Go watch Highschool DxD, story and visuals are way better. Story: 3/10 | Getting reincarnated as a spider was something new, but the story itself was wayyyy too shallow. Sound: 1/10 | Feels like at some point they just completly gave up on sounddesign, the fightscenes are flat, there's barely any sound. I kid you not. Imagine a dragon running through a cave, what do you expect to hear? Correct: Ton of bass, stomping, echoing, dust and rocks falling from the ceiling. But insted it just sounds as if your neighbours doggo runs through their yard. Visuals: First 12 episodes 5/10, last 12 episodes 2/10 | Maybe it was due to corona, but the studio just switched to cheap looking renders, the fight scenes are more than repetitive, the CGI looks sloppy, colors just don't match aswell as the framerate switch from CGI to animated. I'm really disappointed to say the least after what I heard and read about the anime. I'd like to dive deeper into the story, but most of the times they just skip a lot of the deeper story segments. Not gonna lie, but the show was a waste of time imo. Could have been done better in 2 or 3 seasons with way more background and work on the visual and audio side, but ay, it is what it is.

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 get to 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.

Waste of time. Timelines are all over the place jumping between years without any notion whatsoever, badly interpreted intermissions. Huge amounts of stuff missing/changed therefore a lot of story doesn't make sense. I get it makes some things mysterious, but at the very least stick to original story ffs. Director was probably on drugs. CGs are of extremely bad quality. Just read the novels because this is show is literaly shitting on a masterpiece. Overall not recommended to watch. Supposedly I need more words for this review to go through, but sadly this show doesn't even deserve more than this.

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 get that human story is so boring that you need to layer it with the good stuff, even thought that might be true, still -1).

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 the Human 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

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 completely honest 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.

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 who was 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 dif…

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 couple of 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.

Dear Production Team, I hope this message finds you well. I am a passionate fan of “Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?” and I would like to share my sincere thoughts and suggestions regarding the continuation of this wonderful series. Despite the criticism about the CGI used in the first season, I strongly believe that what truly matters in an anime is the strength of its story, world-building, and character development. Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? stands out with a unique and captivating plot that many fans, including myself, greatly appreciate. Therefore, I kindly suggest that negative criticism about animation quality should not discourage the team from continuing this project. It’s okay to ignore harsh comments. Instead, please focus on constructive feedback and continue improving what truly matters — the storytelling. I also sincerely hope that Season 2 will be released soon. The source material has already provided plenty of content, so there is no reason to delay. Many fans around the world are still waiting and fully supporting this amazing series. I have full confidence in your team's creativity and dedication. Please keep pushing forward, and don’t let visual critiques overshadow the brilliance of the story you've created. Thank you for your hard work so far. I’ll be supporting this series all the way! Sincerely, A loyal fan of Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?

( 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 push pass 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. 🤌🏻🫶🏻

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 to a 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.

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't say. 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

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.

I read the manga and was really excited that it was getting animated. The anime has a huge downfall: it keeps focussing on the humans. Who tf cares about the humans???? We read and follow the story to have fun watching MC be a spider and do dungeon things. Nobody cares about the humans in the story. Stop spending so much screen time on them. They are boring and annoying. Kumoko is the the best part of the whole story and she is the only reason we're here!! Idk if the directors didn't have the confidence that Kumoko could carry the series on her own and bailed, but it was the wrong choice. In the manga we never look much at the human characters at all and it's better that way. This weird focus left me wondering why tf were we spending so much time on these people - who even are they?? Give me back Kumoko!!

I have a complicated relationship with this anime, it is hard for me to recommend this anime because it is objectively bad, and yet the things that are so good about it almost owe nothing to the anime, except the casting of Aoi Yuki This is my second review of this series, I changed my opinion of many things since my first review but not my score, I knew that I disliked it but it wasn't until I rewatched it with a clear perspective that I was able to properly figure out why I disliked it, whereas last time I incorrectly attributed issues to things I thought were a problem when they actually weren't. Also when I first watched it shortly after it came out, I didn't know anything about the source material, but now I have a better understanding of its source material which has inspired me to read the books myself. Firstly we have two parallel stories, and running two stories shouldn't normally be a problem but in this anime it is, the 'classmates' story is hard to watch and it comes down the the adaptation well and truly fumbling the bag, so much character, backstory and development is left out of it, it cuts out huge parts of the story and messes with the timeline of the series, changing events and it leaves you wondering how did they mess it up so bad. With the 'Classmates' story parts you end up disengaged as these parts of the anime are taking you away from the Kumoko parts which are after all the best parts of the entire thing, not just because Aoi Yuki dominates with her voice acting, but they actually allow this part of the story to develop in a reasonable way Again this is an adaptation issue, with Kumoko the story is mostly followed, we have her hatched as a baby spider and follow her growth, watch her struggles and get to know her character along the way. With the classmates it starts part way thought cutting out critical aspects, removing growth, we don't really get to know them properly as characters as they aren't given the same depth as Kumoko, Shun's whole personality becomes about how he looks up to his Brother, Katia identity is reduced to just being Shun's friend, Hugo is simply an egomaniac. And then there is the juxtaposition of the two stories, Kumoko's adventures are usually exciting, interesting and have high stakes, and the anime insists on ripping you away from the drama to waste time in a dull isekai magic academy setting with characters we don't even care for These are structural issues with the anime, it comes down to the changes in how the timeline was structured with the anime studio deciding to storyboard it that way, and as said, removal of huge parts of the other students stories and characters which just makes you no where near as engaged with them as characters. So yes the studio did a horrible job when it came to this adaptation, Something else that stands out about it is just how bad the animation is, the CG is beyond bad and it only gets worse as the series progresses, you can kind of get away with it when it comes to the monsters, kind of, it still looks bad and there is a heavy reliance on it, but when they start resorting to using bad CG on the humans, that's when things really go downhill. All the battles take place in barren wasteland because their CG can't render anything more complicated than that, and while you may think "okay, but it's just limited to when there are large groups right?" no... even when it is main characters, close ups, and dialogue scenes the CG gets deployed and it looks terrible, it's not in any way shape or form acceptable for it to be this bad, it feels like they hadn't learned a single thing from Berserk being the punching bag it became with its bad CG And then there is the ending, and I won't spoil anything, but this is a cliff hanger ending, at time of writing it looks unlikely that there will be a second season, which means this ending will only become more and more of an issue as time goes on, the ending is paramount and you need a conclusion, even if you are leading into a second season you have to find a proper stopping point to bring the first season to an end, you can't just stop mid scene. The story is great, the adaptation of said story is bad, they did their best to ruin it but it is so good that even after everything Kumoko is great, Aoi Yuki as Kumoko takes it to another level, it's the one thing that makes this anime palatable But as an anime, it is functionally terrible, the pacing, the animation, and everything that is the 'classmates story' is just bad. And if anyone thinks I'm being overly harsh, go back to episode 23, watch it and ask yourself, is this the standard you really come to expect from any anime? I know the studio had issues with Covid when it came to making this, but so did many other studios when it came to anime in this period, it led to delays and production issues for many a studio, yet we were still able to get many great anime during this time, so we can't just easily excuse it as being just down to covid. Instead the studio has to take accountability for it's own failures, and considering this is the studio responsible for the horrific Berserk adaptations and the laughably bad Isekai Cheat Skill anime, they had form at just being outright bad. If this had been in the hands of a more competent studio we might have had something great, it had the potential to be amazing, and for that reason alone I won't pull my punches when it comes to assessing the studio's performance when it comes to this anime I don't fault anyone for liking this, I enjoyed this, that is just the sheer strength of the source material and the wonderful performance of Aoi Yuki, if this anime was just Aoi Yuki reading the novels with static images displayed I probably would have given it a higher rating in all honesty

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 the human side of the story suffered throughout the season.