Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?

The day is as normal as it can be in high school as the students peacefully go about their everyday activities until an unprecedented catastrophe strikes the school, killing every person in its wake. Guided by what seems to be a miracle, a handful of students are fortunate enough to be reincarnated into another world as nobles, princes, and other kinds of people with prestigious backgrounds.

One girl, however, is not so lucky. Being reborn as a spider of the weakest kind, she immediately experiences the hardships of her dire situation. Even so, she must press on to survive the numerous threats that endanger her life. Discovering that her new world has a system like that of an RPG, she tries her best to hunt prey and defeat monsters to level up and evolve. As she gradually grows stronger, she hopes one day her efforts will be rewarded, and that she will be granted a better life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kumoko Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Shiraori Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Ariel Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Keren, Sophia Supporting

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Feirune Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

D Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Wrath Supporting

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Anabald, Karnatia Seri Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Harrifenas, Filimøs Supporting

Okuno, Kaya Japanese

Harrifenas, Potimas Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Tokumura, Kenichi Producer

Kurakane, Chiaki Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Reviews

Jul 3, 2021

Stark700

Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 3, 2021

Rhapsody-

Mixed Feelings

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 such a thing to happen, right, Rimuru?), so the change of perspective was more a win than a miss. But actually… there is a third side here! Kumoko goes in her way, humans go in theirs, but there are a bunch of character that walk another path, this includes other three reincarnates (only two of them are worth it), some demons, and even Kumoko can be placed here under certain circumstances. What makes this group different from the other reincarnates, is that they were born under different circumstances, which push them to live under this new world rules, instead of being attached to their previous lives like Shun group. This group is by far more interesting that Shun groups, it’s a shame they weren’t fully showed in this season.


Having this ambitious story and this charming MC would be worthy of a decent direction, right? Sadly this was not the case. I don’t really need to explain why this show has a very hideous animation, especially the CGI, everyone can see it, but the direction has to be the worst I’ve ever seen in many years. Not only it was disastrous in action-packed moments, where transitions and cuts were so random that was really hard to tell what was happening, and it seemed director forgot some frames in the middle, but also covering up all the scream with that hideous CGI instead of trying to hide it a little at least with dust or light rays. Even in slower or more serious moments it was a mess, like the catharsis of some characters like Katia and Filimos, they were so shallowed portrayed it’s hard to even care about what they said, even more to care about them at all. Luckily the music was decent enough to partially conceal this, and seiyuus work is really good, especially Aoi Yuuki as our favorite arachnid girl, big part of her charm was there. Yet there were a couple of good action moments with a decent -in this context- direction, like Kumoko vs Alaba.


Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka is how an isekai should be made, with an interesting and promising new approach to an already burned-out genre, focusing on a deep plot with a witty narrative but shallowly developed, and a great main character to carry the serie.

Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka is how an isekai should not be made, with really bad side-characters, going hand in hand with an appalling animation, and a very weak direction that doesn’t do justice to such an ambitious premise.


Even with all its cons still is one of the most decent isekai animes out there, and I'd love to see another season, considering all the potential it has.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 12, 2021

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Not Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Episode 22 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 11, 2021	128 replies	by LadyLeeMing »» Yesterday, 9:13 AM
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