Wasurenagumo

Legend says that centuries ago, a colossal spider ravaged Tokyo. Resistance was futile, as none could quell the havoc wrought upon the city by the beast. Fortunately, one man—the legendary exorcist—stopped the devastation. Using his divine powers, he sealed the monster away and the world has enjoyed peace ever since.

Mizuki Henmi is an adolescent girl who is acquainted with Shu Suzuri, a dull young man who runs an old Japanese bookstore. During a routine visit to his store, Mizuki learns of a mysterious and valuable book that Shu is planning to sell. Unfortunately, the unrestrained Mizuki handles the book roughly, breaking the seal that kept it shut and revealing an odd entity—a cute spider.

Wasurenagumo tells the story of Mizuki, Shu, and their seemingly harmless spider. However, ominous winds begin blowing. While Shu is infatuated with his arachnid friend, Mizuki becomes wary of its every move…

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Spider Main

Kaneda, Tomoko Japanese

Henmi, Mizuki Main

Shimoda, Asami Japanese

Suzuri, Shu Main

Tsuchida, Hiroshi Japanese

Geppou, An Supporting

Hoshino, Mitsuaki Japanese

Kumo Kaijin Supporting

Yoshida, Masumi Japanese

Terakawa, Hidekazu Producer

Kaiya, Toshihisa Director

Koizumi, Kisuke Sound Director

Ogura, Hiromasa Background Art

Reviews

May 19, 2013

MisanthropElii

Recommended

Short but sweet. Animation is nice and stands out at certain part. While there's not to much of a real plot going on in the story you still get a feel for the characters and find them pretty enjoyable.

Now that twist tho...
just a warning, it will cause you to stare into the abysmal space of nothing any where from 5 min to the rest of your life wondering if whether you're angry or not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 11, 2012

Infinite

Recommended

The young animator project produces episodes of varying quality, and I believe this is one of the better ones.

With it being a single episode, there isn't time for a complicated plot or deep characters, however the characters here are quite likable, and I was surprisingly attached to them by the end. The plot is simple and the premise isn't even that interesting, but the show sticks with it, and the end you will be in for a surprise.

As to how the end to such a simple plot could be surprise, you'll have to find out, but I thought the defining point was done well, with ... almost perfect timing. It's what's made me rate it a 7. Many may not like the show for what occurs, but I think it works well here because of the one episode format.

So, if you have half an hour spare and you don't know what to do with yourself, I think it'd be well worth your time to give Wasurenagumo a look.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 16, 2015

literaturenerd

Mixed Feelings

A friend of mine here on MAL asked me to review a series of 1 episode anime shorts that were entered in a 2011 contest to find talented, budding anime directors. The first of these "one shots" I will be reviewing is Wasurenagumo, which roughly translates to Little Spider Girl.

Before I review the anime, I feel it is necessary to give a tiny bit of background info. In traditional Japanese folklore, there is a creature called the Jurogumo which has the body of a spider and the torso of a beautiful woman. The Jurogumo will attract men looking for love, only to quickly devour them ... after mating just like a real spider. This animal bottom/woman top that lures men to their doom is very similar to the Siren from Greek mythology. It is interesting that people in 2 cultures completely isolated across the world both thought this was a cool concept and independently created their own versions of basically the same creature.

WARNING! HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!

The anime begins with a narrator telling what is supposed to be an old Japanese folk tale. A giant spider demon attacks a village only to be badly wounded and chased off by a powerful samurai. While fleeing, the spider dropped some of its hatchlings and the samurai discovers a baby spider demon with the torso of a little girl. It is simply too cute for the samurai to kill, so he takes it home and raises her. He is later horrified to discover the spider girl has been eating people behind his back, so he seals her away. In the present day, a bimbo highschool girl is working at her grandfather's used book store and decides to open a book that clearly states it has a demon sealed inside it. Seems like a good idea to me! The demon is released and it is of course the spider demon with the torso of an adorable little girl. The assistant shop keeper instantly falls under her spell because I guess he likes lolis. Eventually the bimbo and minimum wage cashier Humbert Humbert decide to take the little spider girl back to the temple depicted in the story. Inside the temple, the giant mother spider from the story attacks them and sends the shopkeeper and bimbo flying off a cliff. The little spider girl saves them by catching them with her web...only to pull a Goldeneye and let the bimbo drop towards a grisly death. The shopkeeper doesn't mind this though, and takes the spider girl home where she will inevitably devour him soon. The End.

The art and animation was pretty decent considering this was made with an extremely low budget. This anime didn't win the 2011 contest, but I don't think that was due to poor animation.

The only question I had after watching this was, "What the hell was the point?" It didn't really work as a comedy. It didn't work as a horror story. It didn't have engaging characters. I guess the director just thought it would be amusing to inject modern Japanese pop culture like "moe art" and "lolis" into a modern variant of a traditional Japanese folktale. The concept of injecting modern pop culture gags into traditional fairy tales CAN work if done right. After all, Shrek is one of the most beloved heroes of the internet! Although 99.9% of that is due to 4chan rather than a genuine admiration for the quality of the Shrek Franchise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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