Written by: Gabriel Castillo | Published on: January 25, 2021
The spider's back on the grind after evolving but life just keeps throwing unreasonable obstacles her way! Somewhere else in the world the other students show-off a bit as they duke it out with a menacing monster.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Summary
After obtaining enough levels through battle and a quick hibernation, the spider evolves into a small taratect. She ventures forth but humans appear once again and she is forced to flee deeper into the labyrinth. Meanwhile, the other reincarnations are practicing magic near a forest until a dangerous monster rudely interrupts their session.
The Spider is Evolving!
The spider’s first evolution is a solid milestone and an exciting concept as it opens up new branches of development for the character. However, since this evolution is merely the first, Kumoko does not look very different and her skills do not seem astonishing just yet. Interestingly, she chooses to learn an ability called detection but it has some strange inadvertent effects on Kumoko rendering the new skill temporarily useless. To no surprise, she learns the new ability called thread manipulation to further strengthen the use of webs. Seems like there will be a lot more web-slinging action as the series goes on. She even dreams of someday becoming like the friendly neighborhood spider in a big city like New York!
Despite the brand-new evolution and confidence, the main character has another humbling encounter —level 29 human adventurers. Even though she wants to fight back, the disparity in strength forces her to escape. Another sad loss for Kumoko. This feels like a recurrent theme: the little spider beats a few monsters and levels up but eventually runs into a more powerful enemy forcing her to take flight. The grindy feels of this anime are becoming more obvious.
Human-Monster Mash
The human reincarnations head to the western woods in order to practice the use of magic. However, the session takes a very dangerous turn as an earth dragon (in all its CGI glory) appears and attacks the students. Despite the fact that the accompanying teacher is obliterated, the human reincarnations face the beast. On top of the action, these characters display more of their personalities throughout the episode.
VERDICT
Author's Rating: 6.7/10
The episode started off strong with the main character’s evolution followed almost immediately by a reality check and a deeper exploration of the labyrinth (technically she fell further down). However, the time with human reincarnations felt a bit unsatisfactory. In fact, some viewers wished for more of the spider rather than the humans. The dialogue between characters was a bit bland and the action sequence fell short of exciting. The happiest surprise was Fei’s ridiculously powerful chomp!
On a more positive note, the episode succeeded in depicting the vast difference between the experiences and personalities of Kumoko and that of the other reincarnated students. For example, when Kumoko received the title of cannibal she merely shrugged it off whereas Fei was mortified and Schlain even vomited. Looks like the two sets of characters will develop very differently! Thankfully, the episode ended with an exciting reveal for the spider as she stared into the eyes of a new formidable and humongous foe. Apart from the new enemy, Kumoko was in an entirely new portion of the labyrinth. This means new baddies, new levels, new challenges, and more fighting!
What will the little spider do about the gigantic threat at the bottom? What other dangers wait down there? What will become of the other reincarnations? Find out next week!
Official Anime Website: So I'm a Spider, So What?
Official Anime Twitter: @kumoko_anime
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