First Impressions / Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka

「私の戦いは、これからだ？」 (Watashi no Tatakai wa, Kore Kara da?)
“My Battle Has, Only Just Begun?”

The light of the outside world is only a leg’s reach away in Episode 12 of Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? as Araba the Earth Dragon has one last stand for Kumoko. Although Kumoko fights her heart out to expend the Earth Dragon’s energy, her pride in her ability to survive this whole time makes her victory bittersweet.

With all of the limitations set for the CGI segments inside of the labyrinth, this episode still managed to capture an intense battle to the death between Kumoko and the Earth-Dragon. It harkens back to what makes this anime’s premise special in that it’s unafraid of putting Kumoko through the wringer. Rather than a boring back-and-forth, every move matters in their fight, and the anime doesn’t shy away from the notion that any mistakes Kumoko makes come at the cost of her limbs, eyes, body, and other parts of her that would set her even further back.

The risks she takes to survive also provide a more serious, passionate side of her as she is enraged by the Earth Dragon accepting its defeat as easily as it did once its fighting spirit was diminished. Knowing that she’s spent this whole time fighting tooth-and-nail to preserve the one precious life she has, she’s cemented the idea that she’d be dead for good if she was as reckless or careless as the Earth-Dragon. For the Earth Dragon to just burn through SP and acting as if it needed to expend all of its energy to fight a small spider, it hurts even more for Kumoko to see that stubbornness and imagine a human soul like hers would be bound to someone that threw the towel on a dime.

It’s also that side of the Earth Dragon that lends to the future Demon Lord’s understanding of dragons as a whole. The latter chunk of the episode gives us little glimpses of what’s to come as Episode 13 transitions into the next cour as Shun and his former friends and enemies get prepared for the future. At the same time, there’s brighter news for Kumoko as she makes her way towards a light that could lead to the outside world. Even though it feels like a bait-and-switch, hopefully, this will be Kumoko’s moment of glory as she ventures out into the desert of the real.

27 Comments

  1. Kumoko is so overthinking everything, it was clear from previous episodes the earth dragon is just a stationary monster, it always stood in place looking straight ahead when not in combat, basically on standby until next fight, and I’m guessing it only changed location after someone or something (other roaming monster) triggered it by coming into it’s attack range, and here’s she’s making this entire scenario in her head about nothing. The reason it used up it’s points was just in response to intense combat, sort of like boss in mmorpg getting baited by one tank to use his ultimate while rest of the team waits it out. I am disappointed in kumoko, she’s a terrible gamer if she’s not seeing these patterns.

    Johny
    Reply

    2. nvm that I don’t see how previous episodes made it clear that Araba was a stationary monster. for one, Araba came to Kumoko on their first encounter. then *left*. that’s not stationary on two counts. as Kumoko already stated as well, Araba definitely would’ve been able to notice her there as she did not have any stealth skills at that time

      and then there’s this episode where Araba came to the battlefield on his own as well.

      GoXDS
      Reply

    1. Was wondering what to do with the tagline, but with Araba being a huge dragon, that resonated with me. Also a fan of Prozd and the hilarious “choices in games” video it came from. It has to be between that one and the “meeting a character in a New Game + you know will betray you” video.

      Choya
      Reply

      1. Here is the 2nd cour key visual, and the uncropped one with a clearer view of the background characters.

        https://twitter.com/kumoko_anime/status/1375658838251163653

        https://imgur.com/fC6PRuG

        Notice that you haven’t seen all the characters on that yet. Also, there is at least one more important characters who won’t be introduced until we get a 2nd two cour season (assuming they end at the end of Vol. 5 out of 14 and don’t drop a Vol. 6 teaser).

        LoliHat
        Reply

    2. That gives me a lot to look forward to. It was fun to see her poke around the labyrinth, but this is definitely the kind of series where I have a gut feeling that once the story starts to shift in an entirely different direction, it’ll be even crazier.

      Choya
      Reply

  4. I was intrigued with that pile of unused SP before myself,, but it seems unlike Kumoko who was forced to use them as soon as they became available, some creatures are able to make “emergency stash” for unexpected foes who might be hard to counter with existing skillset.
    Kumoko’s regret is IMHO a bit different: than that: she is actually jealous of the Dragon being able to calmly face inevitable death while she is terribly scared of dying.
    As for the “T+15” timeline, we have now choice of two possible “future versions of Kumoko”,
    https://randomc.net/image/Kumo%20Desu%20ga,%20Nani%20ka/Kumo%20Desu%20ga,%20Nani%20ka%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
    Either white girl or Demon Queen.
    Whichever one is Kumoko,, the other is massive red herring on a scale not seen since IDK, first Higurashi series?
    (There is actually third option, Kumoko splitting off one or more of her minds into separate body and both of the suspects actually being Kumoko)

    ewok40k
    Reply

        1. Rewatch episode 10, there we get to see how she actually looked like back then as we saw it from the humans perspective, then after the credits so was it back to how she sees herself with bunny ears. But she have evolved since then and her current form is described as “death incarnate” and should look pretty terrifying.

          Znail
          Reply

    2. I actually thought that that will be the Demon Queen since she’s a spider as well. Somehow the possibility of it being her mother never crossed my mind. But we never really did find out what happened to her did we?

      I does seem strange how all those humans managed to get past her. At least one managed to get out with a dragon egg if we look at what was implied by the human side story.

      theirs
      Reply

  6. Question to Light novel readers:
    -Why did Kumoko try to fight Araba directly instead of trying to fight the lesser monster first? Like the other dragons she saw before.

    Chris
    Reply

    1. Araba was generally a loner, while Kagna and Gehre were basically always together.

      Individually, they were weaker than Araba, but not by all that much in the grand scheme of things, and unless she could get them separated, she’d have to fight both at once. Furthermore, Kumoko’s analysis of their respective Appraisal read-outs made it clear that their “builds” synergized really well – Kagna’s a slower, defense-oriented physical powerhouse, whereas Gehre’s a more fragile speedster – but even their individual “weaknesses” weren’t really so egregious that she could readily exploit them, particularly with the two covering for one another. Despite being weaker than Araba as individuals, as a pair they were probably just as dangerous, if not more so.

      Kumoko was fighting/grinding plenty in prep for her fight with Araba, just not against dragons. Indeed, in the LN version, she was simultaneously up to some stuff that put her in conflict with some of the more powerful taratect spider monsters in the area, so she wasn’t lacking in “training partners”, though that particular plot thread seems to have been rearranged so as to take place in the second cour instead, based on the EP13 PV.

      Veltharis
      Reply

  8. Kumoko Webwalker!
    she has slain evil Alaba the Hutt,
    but now she needs to overcome final trial to bewcome true Spider Knight…
    “You must confront Darth Mother…” – Yodaministrator D

    ewok40k
    Reply

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