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「猿、ホアー？」 (Saru, Hoa?)
“Monkey, Wha—?”
Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka has mercy on us this week by having Episode 04 focus entirely on Kumoko. It’s probably one of the best episodes we’ve had so far in terms of action because of how harrowing and intense it was to see how Kumoko would be able to pull through her fight against the ape army.
Of all of the risky situations that Kumoko places herself in, her battles in this episode were some of the worst she’s faced yet. Right from the get-go, her first interaction with the Lower Stratum that greets her is getting poisoned and killed immediately. It was pretty hilarious to see all of this play out when she dies instantly and hits the anime’s ending screen, prematurely finishing the show’s run five minutes into the fourth episode.
But while this plays out as a joke, she would later be brutally maimed and dismembered several times throughout her fight with waves of monkey creatures. While most of her fights usually involved how she could catch a single creature off-guard to kill and eat, she hasn’t faced a full-on brawl where she had to survive as she slowly picked off swarms of enemies. There was actually some well-done tension with regards to how Kumoko could survive this situation when she has to barricade herself on one small ledge and surrounds herself with protective webs.
This tension amps up to its highest heights as she is regularly forced to change her strategy multiple times to accommodate losing a limb or being bitten in half while trying to dodge and poison any of the creatures that break through her defense. Some of the tension is taken when she is given level up skills that help her shed any of her damage or master her poison abilities. At the same time, it’s a more than welcome change of pace to see Kumoko having to constantly rethink her strategy and think situations through as the stakes skyrocket higher than she would’ve hoped.
One detail about Kumoko that I don’t want to overlook is how we get a little bit more development about who exactly Kumoko was as a person and what she brings into her next life. As she gets accustomed to an environment that is more accommodating towards her poison abilities, she reflects on the positives that come from being able to explore new, open spaces. We only have glimpses of the escapism she dabbled in during her human life, but one new detail was learning about her fascination with nature. Her desire to travel and venture out into unknown and untouched territory lends itself to both her interest in trucking on as a spider and what motivating factors she has for surviving to explore another day. She might not be happy with the new lava territory she’s discovered, but it should offer different obstacles that should be a refreshing change of pace from all the fighting she’s been forced to do.
Not fair to make a comparison with the manga, but the way Kumoko handled the monkeys in the anime didn’t give me a sense of any actual threat to her.
There’s an infamous season finale of Star Trek the next generation, where Riker orders them to fire on the Borg Cube that Picard is on before going to credits, then when the next episode starts, they just say it had no effect.
The first few seconds of this episode just made me roll my eyes. I really wish they wouldn’t do lame stuff like that.
The rest of the episode was really was good though. I assumed we’d probably reach some point that caused her to level up way faster than her species normally would, and allow her to be competitive.
“The first few seconds of this episode just made me roll my eyes. I really wish they wouldn’t do lame stuff like that.”
I’m assuming you’re referring to the short section about the Earth Dragon Araba scaring Kumoko ****less? If so, it might be interesting to know that the scene in question was greatly truncated from the Light Novel version.
Kumoko spent a lengthy period of time trying to work her way back up the pit, which turns out to be a nest of those giant wasps, which could very nearly kill her with a single sting, forcing her to build herself a base of operations and utilize both it and some new, innovative tactics to take out the wasps one at a time.
And then, just as Kumoko’s starting to feel like she’s got this situation handled, Araba shows up and blows it all away in a fraction of a second, causing her to gain several levels of the Hiding and Fear Resistance skills just trying to stay beneath the Earth Dragon’s notice and reminding her how far down the totem pole she really is.
It’s a far more traumatizing event than the anime version lets on.
Plus the struggle against the monkeys in the manga was way longer but more gripping and high tension.
The LN and the Manga essentially captures how the events surrounding Kumoko’s early days in the dungeon were basically a touch-and-go situation for her, forcing her to constantly stay on her toes and improvise her way to survival. And just when things seem to start to show promise of a brief period of peace, that peace gets shattered immediately.
The anime is more lighthearted and cute. Which is fine anyway.
Nah, I was referring to ending the previous episode as if it’s some big cliffhanger lie how she’s going to get out of this, and then when the next episode starts, it just walks away
Fake cliffhangers
Hence my star trek comment
Yeah. I’m glade that this episode was all about Kumo.
I had this one down for 3 episode rule and then gave it an extra one because lots of people seem to be enjoying it, but it’s not for me. I get that a lot of isekai shows feature game mechanics, but they’re just too prominent here. And that makes things too repetitive as well, because it just seems to be an endless cycle of getting beaten the shit out of followed by a level up.
Oh, and I guess my arachnophobia isn’t helping either!
Can’t say much without big spoilers, but if that is what bugs (or spiders) you, then the payoff down the road will be very, very worth it.
To me, this seemed like a budget-saving episode and I have to say I enjoyed it less than the previous ones. The talented VA really saved it, but otherwise it felt sub-par.