<So I’m a Spider, So What> Volumes 1-8 - True to my word from last week, I decided to read Spider Isekai instead of continuing The Magic In This World Is Too Far Behind and I don’t regret it in the slightest (in case you couldn’t tell from me reading a whole 8 books in a week). I loved the anime, which covers the first five volumes, and I would say the anime gets about 95% of it right. In fact, I love how the anime changes some minor points to express Kumoko’s feelings with motion rather than text or narration. For instance, Kumoko’s home/nest getting burned is a huge plot point and source of motivation in the book. She brings it up a lot. In the anime, they just have to show Kumoko being super happy with her home and the viewer gets it:

The book also handles the

spoiler that's revealed in the anime

timeskip

quite well so even though I already knew about it from the anime, it was still nice to pick through the details and see how the author gives subtle hints about it. I HATE it when an author pulls a fast one and just deus ex machina’s a twist out of nowhere and just blindsides the reader. But if the author throws in hints with very specific wording. It makes you exclaim, “wait, that can’t be right, can it?” and then later on there’s this explanation it’s just like “wow, so cool!” I will say that after volume 5 where this particular reveal happens, the author hasn’t revisited it.

More about the spoiler revealed in the anime

I’m guessing that the story will continue from before the timeskip until it meets back up with the present. The only somewhat crappy thing about this is we know where the timeskip ends up so we know our protagonist will be fine.

Still, the author puts in other secrets and twists that it’s still very though provoking and doesn’t get boring.

Speaking of things the author does really well, I like how the story can switch to different characters and perspectives each chapter. The author keeps it manageable by prefacing each chapter number with a letter signifying which perspective you’re reading from. So chapter “S1” would be from Shun’s perspective, “O1” would be from Oka, and a plain “1” is our protagonist Kumoko. There are also “Interlude” chapters from one-off perspectives just to give extra context. Even better, the writing/narration style takes a huge shift depending on the perspective which keeps things fresh as you read. It’s all really well done so it doesn’t get confusing.

Considering the mid-week question from last week, So I’m a Spider does have a decent amount of inner monologue. While there are occasional bits where it gets a little silly, the author does a good job of NOT letting it turn into Flung into a New World? Time to Lift the 200-Year Curse! levels of terrible. Most of it is self-reflection and/or callback jokes and any action sequences are NOT done through inner monologue. In fact, given the differing perspectives it’s pretty great. Since Kumoko is a monster but also a reincarnation, her actions seem baffling to an outsider’s perspective. But then we see her inner monologue and get the reasoning and it all makes sense and comes together. We even get a few instances of people reading too much into things which makes for some interesting twists. Even better, it turns out our protagonist is actually REALLY shy so when she finally meets up with other people in Volume 6, seeing the difference from her super talkative inner monologue to her reserved barely-speaks-at-all outer dialog is particularly crazy and fun.

One final thing… the art in these books is AMAZING! Apparently the author got an artist known for their depiction of monsters so it works out very well for this fantasy setting. But even the non-monster art is fantastic and dripping with style and purpose.

Anyway, yeah, I’m going to keep reading Spider Isekai. Don’t be surprised if I’m almost done with the whole series by next week.