History YMMV / Arachnid

*** [[spoiler:The revelation makes Sara a good candidate for this, as it turns out that she was never actually evil, and was once a perfectly normal and incredibly lonely girl. She just had the bad luck of running into Kuramoto, and her life is ultimately completely ruined by nothing more than her [[IJustWantToHaveFriends desperation to make a friend]]. After being mind-controlled and raped by Kuramoto, she spends the rest of her short life enslaved through some form of extreme StockholmSyndrome, then sees her beloved master get gruesomely murdered, before being turned into a brain-dead zombie.]]

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The official English translation at the Manga UP smartphone app came over a decade after ''Arachnid'' first started and changed the spelling of the protagonist's name to "Arisu" even though Anglophone readers around the world were long used to calling her "Alice" because of either scanlations or the official French translation. It also changes the "Kumo[=/=]Spider" codename to "Arachnid" for a forced TitleDrop, even though Alice and her mentor only represent spiders and not any other arachnids.

* EvilIsSexy: Sasori, Ageha, Ichijikukobachi and [[spoiler:Kuramoto]] are all pretty, shapely and also not at all right in the head.

** Back in 2012, Murata was really into ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'' and [[https://www.crunchyroll.com/pt-br/anime-news/2013/07/02-1/video-latest-watamote-anime-ad-and-burger-promotion drew himself hugging]] Tomoko Kuroki's official body pillow in support of the anime adaptation. He also got married to Sato (''Manga/{{Fragtime}}'', ''Manga/LivingDead''), the mangaka with whom he worked on a H-doujin circle ("Japan Onany Network". Look it up if you dare). This resulted in them inserting a sexualized {{expy}} of Tomoko named Geji as an antagonist who... just gets beaten up and [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse abruptly written out]], with Oki [[UncertainDoom assuming]] she got infected by the ant zombies (the sequel reveals she's fine). ''Then'' Murata specified that Geji [[https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/46128452 shares her birthday]] with Sato, making the character seem like an AuthorAvatar for her. It sounds so wrong it wraps around to being funny, and ''[=WataMote=]'' authors Creator/NicoTanigawa are [[https://twitter.com/harimoguni/status/1415620618439958529 perfectly fine]] with Geji.

** Geji is an obvious stand-in for Tomoko Kuroki of ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'' fame who seems like she's going to be a recurring character but just gets worfed and [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse abruptly written out]], with Oki [[UncertainDoom assuming]] she got infected by the ant zombies. Getting "Tomokopede" apparently raped like that is kind of a low blow, but Shinya went through the trouble of adding her at all because he was a fan: when some Gangan authors drew Tomoko illustrations to promote the ''Watamote'' anime, [[https://www.crunchyroll.com/pt-br/anime-news/2013/07/02-1/video-latest-watamote-anime-ad-and-burger-promotion his picture]] was of his avatar hugging a Tomoko body pillow. This was around the time Shinya married ''Manga/{{Fragtime}}'' author Sato, who drew the short ''Watamote'' parody in one volume... and Geji [[https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/46128452 shares her birthday]] with her, which adds some interesting implications to the character and her supposed fate.
** The idea that Japan nuked itself on purpose during World War II because of the whims of an ageless child who brainwashed Hideki Tojo.

** At the end, Gokiburi ''thinks'' [[spoiler:Kamadouma and Geji]] got [[spoiler:zombified]] since she last saw them, but that proves nothing.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: This series' [[CrapsackWorld setting]] is under the control of a very unorganized Organization [[WorldOfJerkass full of violent, selfish and sadistic psychos]]. Even the most endearing among them, such as Hibiki and Dinoponera, are arrogant bastards who want to screw Alice over for next to no reason. Alice herself ends up enduring such a comically high amount of misfortune that even she goes kind of crazy, all while Japan falls apart around her. And yet, for something that somehow ends with a [[spoiler:"rape zombie apocalypse"]], it knows [[NarmCharm to be whimsical]] and never quite got as gory or as doomy and gloomy as its contemporaries like ''Akame ga Kill''.

** Kabutomushi fighting Dorcus in the ''Caterpillar'' prequel is pretty much Dinoponera's arc all over again, which is not helped by how the story is following about four plot lines at once. Again, once the chapter count surpassed that of ''Arachnid'', it made the latter quarter of that story look kind of rushed in comparison.

** When ''Caterpillar'' caught up with the events of ''Arachnid'', readers expected it to pick up from where the latter ended and give a proper ending to both stories. Instead, this POVSequel arc turned out to be only a 4-chapters long epilogue with a SequelHook. Fortunately for them, ''Manga/{{Blattodea}}'' started on early 2020.
** Oddly enough, Paraponera's relationship with his smarmy daughter Dinoponera isn't ever explored from his point of view during ''Caterpillar''.

** [[spoiler:The butterfly villainess in ''Caterpillar'' is actually Imomushi's own sister with a few screws loose. Other than it being an obvious twist to have, she and the woman who she replaced are lookalikes.]]

** Dinoponera spends several chapters wrecking the other characters [[AwesomeArt with a lot of care being given to the visual appeal of those scenes]]. Of the series' cast, one could easily make a fighting game character out of her, and her alone. Naturally, the [[TorturePorn fetishistic violence]] of her fights became one of the most known aspects of the story: after already pummeling both Kabutomushi and Imomushi, Dinoponera repeatedly stabs Alice on her limbs and ''butt'' with incredibly painful venom and then beats the snot out of her until the girl wets herself and [[IWantMyMommy cries for her mom]]. Alice then takes revenge by forcing Dinoponera to stab herself on the leg for a long time, which makes the ant-girl an even more broken peeing mess.

** The sheer volume of TorturePorn in the fights involving Dinoponera is one of the most known aspects of the story. After already pummeling both Kabutomushi and Imomushi, Dinoponera repeatedly stabs Alice on her limbs and ''butt'' with incredibly painful venom and then beats the snot out of her until the girl wets herself and [[IWantMyMommy cries for her mom]]. Alice then takes revenge by forcing Dinoponera to stab herself on the leg for a long time, which makes the ant-girl an even more broken peeing mess.

* GeniusBonus: Through both stories, one can find scenes where characters act like their bugs in some interesting way that aren't given any wild life documentary exposition by the narrator.

* CriticalResearchFailure: When ''Caterpillar'' went on a year-long hiatus due to the passing of its artist, Isuka Hakozaki, some Western sources mixed him up with the author, Murata Shinya. This misinformation stuck well enough that many readers thought for years that Murata was really dead.

* FriendlyFandoms: Ever since ''Manga/KillingBites'' began and got adapted into an anime, people caught on to the author's [[RecycledInSpace recurring]] [[AuthorAppeal themes]] in his multiple concurrently published works and often discuss all of them at once on imageboards and the like.

** Alice is called moe in-series by Oki when she puts an [[BandageBabe eyepatch]] on. She's plenty cute, clumsy and kind-hearted; and the sheer amount of misfortune she goes through, to the point she starts believing she's nothing but a murdererous psycho, can get on one's nerves. It doesn't help that by ''Blattodea'' she's as lonely and traumatized as ever and can't even be an overpowered heroine anymore.

* EndingAversion: The ending of ''Arachnid'' has [[AndTheAdventureContinues next to]] [[NoEnding no closure]]. It also shafted nearly all of the supporting cast, either leaving matters related to them [[LeftHanging up on the air]] or offhandedly confirming [[spoiler:them [[BusCrash to have been zombified offscreen]].]] Fortunately, as of 2020 [[Manga/{{Blattodea}} the sequel]] can adress this.