So I'm a Spider, So What?

So I'm a Spider, So What? (蜘蛛ですが、なにか？, Kumo Desu ga, Nanika?) is a Japanese light novel isekai series written by Okina Baba and illustrated by Tsukasa Kiryu. The story follows a class that is killed in a mysterious explosion and reincarnated into another world with one girl reincarnated as a dungeon spider. The spider evolves and ends up having a significant influence on the world, becoming one of its most powerful creatures, while the students and their teacher deal with the fallout from her actions and those of other armies. The series has received a manga adaptation, and an anime television series adaptation produced by Millepensee aired from January to July 2021.

Synopsis
The last thing that a high school girl remembers is a strange explosion ripping through her classroom. In the aftermath of the tragedy, she finds herself reborn as a lowly spider hatchling, one amongst thousands in a vast cave. Furthermore, the world she is reincarnated into is a point-based skill system, prompting her to level up as quickly as possible if she is to survive the treacherous environment and persevere in the face of insurmountable odds.

Thus begins a little spider's journey of clawing, biting, and plotting her way to the top. Forced to confront the powerful beings that reign over the Great Elroe Labyrinth and beyond, she will gradually uncover the truth behind the mysterious fantasy world and the explosion that sent her there.

Novel
Okina Baba originally serialized the series as a web novel on the user-generated content site Shōsetsuka ni Narō starting on May 27, 2015. Fujimi Shobo acquired the series for print publication, and published the first light novel, with illustrations by Tsukasa Kiryu, in December 2015. Yen Press announced during their panel at Sakura-Con on April 15, 2017, that they had licensed the series. The series' main story ended with its 16th volume released on January 8, 2022.


 * Includes setting materials collection, store bonus SS collection, and author interview.

Manga
Asahiro Kakashi launched a manga adaptation of the web novels on the Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace Up manga website on December 22, 2015. The manga is also licensed by Yen Press.

Style
The perspective of the main story side centered on "I" reincarnated as the main character, Sophia (blood), Lars (demon) and others, and the human side centered on "Shun (S)" starting from the future time axis. An ensemble drama in which the two seemingly unrelated viewpoints, which alternate alternately, turn out to be in fact closely related. The basic settings of the web version and the book version are the same, but there are minor differences and differences in development.

The comicalized version conforms to the book version, but with some exceptions, it is developed only from the main character's point of view. By the way, in the comicalized version, the character design of Kiryuji cannot be reproduced and it is not suitable for manga expression.

The author started reading "Shōsetsuka ni Narō" one year before he started writing, and was particularly influenced by "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime". Started serialization of this work that falls under the genre called. In constructing the work, he deliberately removed the conventions that were popular on the site at the time. Also, in an interview with Asahiro Kakashi, the person in charge of comicalization, he said that he was a fan of the game "Monster Hunter" and was influenced by the main character's fighting style. It is said that the main character was set to be a spider because that day he happened to have a dream of being chased by a huge spider.

As the volume progressed, as a result of correcting the trajectory of the development from the web version, one-third of the whole in volume 1, more than half in volumes 2 and 3 were revised, and from volume 6 onwards, all the text was newly written.

Character
She high school girl was reincarnated as a spider monster in another world and desperately tries to survive. His favorite phrase is "no". His official nickname is Kumoko, which is also used in related goods such as figures. Initially implied to be the reincarnation of the classmate Hiiro Wakaba, she is later revealed to have actually been the class' pet spider and was implanted with the real Wakaba's memories. Following the revelation that the planet is dying, she forms a plan to save it by destroying the RPG system and using the freed-up energy to heal the world, indifferent that half of humanity would die from the backlash.

Although he was born into the lowest race in the great labyrinth where he was reincarnated in, he was blessed with human knowledge and intellect, as well as the status-enhancing skill "Idaten" as a reincarnation privilege, so he made full use of traps and strategies. Survive the survival competition where life and death are a fine line. When four intentions lived together with the skill "parallel intentions", he played the role of "in charge of information". At first, it was nothing more than a spider, although there were differences, but after repeated evolution, it became one of the best races in the other world, "Arachne", and although it was only the upper body, it acquired the appearance of the previous life.

His personality is extremely optimistic, and even if he reflects on himself, he doesn't back down and is inspired by a sense of humiliation. On the other hand, according to her memories of her previous life, she had no place in her family and was in a lonely position where she was left behind in class, and her self-esteem was quite low. For that reason, he cherishes his own place, "My Home," which he was able to obtain for the first time after her reincarnation, and is proud of it. By the way, maybe because she started out in an environment where she only had poisons and bad things to eat, she has a strong attachment to food and delicious things. It serves as both respect for the person he killed and preparation in case of an emergency, and basically sticks to the principle of eating everything even after his eating habits have improved to some extent.

In addition, although he himself is not aware of it, he is surprisingly good-natured and carefree, and even when he encounters a few humans inside and outside the labyrinth, he defeats monsters and thieves that attack him and saves those in danger, free of charge to an unspecified number of people. He did good deeds such as giving treatment. On the other hand, there was a time when humans could only be seen as experience points due to the disadvantages of the ruler skill "Arrogance". The person in question really hates having his ego violated, and the main reason he became hostile to Mother was to notice her control and get out of it. Naturally, she expresses disgust when she receives mental interference from other third parties. On the flip side, he is kind to others who act with their own pride and determination, and responds to them with her own respect.

Possibly due to memories from his previous life, he has a self- proclaimed communication disorder and lacks interpersonal experience. Even though he is talkative and talkative in his inner voice, he tends to have trouble when dealing with people, and his inherent expressionlessness and taciturnity make it difficult for others to understand what he is thinking. On the other hand, he has a bad drinking habit. While occasionally performing eccentric behavior that is unique to drunkenness, he also naturally gives accurate advice based on his observations, but perhaps because he is drunk, he has no memory of what happened during this time.

Personality:


 * Shiraori is an introvert because she has little to no experience dealing with people due to the seclusion she experienced while trying to survive as a spider in the Great Elroe Labyrinth. She can read people's thoughts and intentions well enough and responds to their speech in her head, but often fails to communicate these thoughts with words. She has slight mannerisms that people close to her can understand, but she does her utmost to avoid interacting with people she is not familiar with whenever possible.
 * The only time her speech is clear is when she is in shock,  or drunk. Most other times, she speaks in broken phrases that are just enough to get her message across. It is also important to note that she cannot hold her liquor and blacks out almost instantly. During this time, she behaves in outrageous ways, and her extraordinary power makes it impossible to contain any situation she may find herself in.
 * It takes a while, but Shiraori eventually warms up enough to Ariel to be able to speak to her like a normal person. This occurs after she has a “change of heart” and decides to fully commit herself to help the Demon Lord with her goals. This is not the case with others, though; she still ends up relying on her mannerisms or others that are close to her such as Ariel, Sophia, Merazophis, or Wrath to relay her thoughts and goals.
 * Although she rarely speaks, she likes to write. Since realizing that verbal communication is too difficult, she prefers to communicate with others through writing instead. She ends up writing several books worth of information about the System, her plans, and the state of the world.
 * As the teacher of Sophia and Wrath, she drills into them the idea that stats aren't everything, and that strong individuals should never underestimate those below them.
 * As stated by her, Shiraori herself has shown to be fiercely independent and somewhat selfish. As admitted by her, she cannot fathom nor understand the way of thinking of people like Sariel, who continuously and recklessly strives to save humanity despite their incredibly foolish actions that ended up endangering their planet, even if ends up sacrificing herself in the process. Shiraori believes that one should always strive to do what one wishes and live freely, with her truthfully and honestly not caring what other people have to say about it or do. In her opinion, the only important thing is what one wishes to do. Shiroari herself admitted that she was perfectly fine with trampling over complete strangers in order to accomplish her goals and do what she wants.
 * This self-centered personality traits has been noted by Güliedistodiez to make Shiraori very similar to D who similarly does not care about other people while doing whatever she pleases.

Abilities
Kumoko was initially the weakest reincarnated, being reborn as a Small Lesser Taratect; the "lowest-difficulty monster". Due to her low stats, she was initially forced to rely on her human ingenuity and creative use of her limited move set just to survive. However, Taratects jump in power with each evolution, causing her continuous struggles for survival gradually turn her into not just the strongest reincarnation but one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Furthermore, while most of her kind rely solely on size and brute strength, she adopted a fighting style focused on magic, webs, and agility. Kumoko's stat's varied greatly throughout her time in the Great Elroe Labyrinth. Initially, she was so weak that any directly attack against her opponents were utterly ineffective, forcing her to rely on ambushes and setting traps. The only thing of note was her speed, which was boosted by Skanda. As she evolved, though, her stats naturally increased. Particularly, she began to focus on developing her magic after acquiring Height of Occultism. However, her biggest increase came when she absorbed "Mother's" stats, giving her strength on-par with a legendary-class monster. After evolving into an Arachne, Kumoko possesses the second highest stats within the System, surpassed only by Ariel.

TV Anime
It was reported on July 6, 2018, that the series would receive an anime adaptation, according to an early look at the wraparound jacket band on the fifth volume of the manga adaptation. The report was confirmed at Kadokawa's booth at Anime Expo later that day, and it was announced that the adaptation would be a television series. Originally set to premiere in 2020, it was rescheduled to premiere in January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The two-cour (24 episode) series was animated by Millepensee and directed by Shin Itagaki, with Okina Baba and Yūichirō Momose overseeing the series' scripts, and Kii Tanaka designing the characters, Shūji Katayama composing the series' music, and Jōtarō Ishigami producing the series. The series aired from January 8 to July 3, 2021, on AT-X and other channels. The first opening theme song is "keep weaving your spider way" performed by Riko Azuna, while the first ending theme song is "Do Your Best! Kumoko-san's Theme" (がんばれ！蜘蛛子さんのテーマ, Ganbare! Kumoko-san no Tēma) performed by I (Aoi Yūki). The second opening theme is "Bursty Greedy Spider" performed by Konomi Suzuki, while the second ending theme is "Reality Convex Hierarchy" (現実凸撃ヒエラルキー, Genjitsu Totsugeki Hierarchy) by Yūki. It is licensed by Crunchyroll outside Asia. Medialink has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and is streaming it on their Ani-One YouTube channel and Bilibili. The final episode was delayed due to production issues and aired one week later on July 3, 2021.

Staff

 * Original story/scenario supervision - Okina Baba
 * Original illustration - Kiryuji
 * Director - Shin Itagaki
 * Assistant director - Shinichiro Ueda
 * Series composition - Okina Baba, Yuichiro Momose
 * Character Design - Nori Tanaka
 * Monster Design - Masahiko Suzuki, Ryo Hirata, Hiromi Kimura
 * Main animator - Tomohiro Yoshida
 * Art director/art setting-Shinji Nagaoka, Koichi Ejima (from the middle)
 * Color design - Chieko Hibi
 * Cinematographer - Hideki Imaizumi
 * Editing - Takashi Sakurai
 * CG Director - Kazuo Yamaguchi
 * CG production - Exsa
 * Acoustic Director -Yuichi Imaizumi, Shin Itagaki
 * Music - Shuji Katayama
 * Music Producer - Go Wakabayashi
 * Music production - KADOKAWA
 * Producers - Chiaki Kurakane, Takuya Yoshioka, Yureia Wakayama, Nobuhiko Kurosu, Kenichi Tokumura, Yoshinori Hasegawa, Toyokazu Middle East, Mitsuhiro Ogata, Toritomo Isotani
 * Animation Producers - Naoko Shiraishi, Takashi Sakurai
 * Animation Production - Milpansee
 * Crafting - So I'm a Spider, So What? Production Committee

Reception
The light novels and manga had a combined 1.2 million copies in print as of July 2018. The light novels ranked third in the tankōbon category in the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2017 rankings, and second in the 2018 rankings.

Trivia
'' to be added. ''

__INDEX__