Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka?

Is Kumoko supposed to be amoral/evil though? I didn't get that impression at all from the first two volumes. I do know some spoilers due to our page on the series but even then I never got the impression that she was amoral/evil.

I mean, as a pure manga reader, she does have evil titles but she hasn't done anything evil yet. Maybe that changes once she reaches the surface and has to embrace the fact that she is, strictly speaking, a monster.

The manga is based off of the light novel, not the web novel, which is why you're not seeing her as evil. It might just be that the web novel is more seinen and the light novel basically shounen because it's not the only change to make things a lot lighter. Like Yuugo not saying anything about intending to rape Oka and Katia not having to decide her parents can't be saved, so they survive. Both of these are of mild to moderate importance because Yuugo is supposed to have the Lust skill and the origins need to be shown properly while Katia's pragmatism as opposed to Shun's heroism is supposed to be a minor thing.

But anyway, yes, by the current point in the web novel long long into the story she's pretty evil, but with a lot of sympathetic and redeeming factors. At this point in the story for the manga and light novel, there's quite a few different factors to make her more sympathetic to the audience. Like the spider she ate early on wasn't scavenging, it was a sibling she flat out killed and ate after it attacked her. No real hesitation, not nearly as desperate for food.

When she hit Taboo 10 in the story she was a lot angrier and more violent about it, basically considering it a mistake to have helped those people from the snake. There's no mitigating factor involved of just wanting to get off the planet, at least not that actually gets mentioned. There's a reason she becomes so much more aggressive and it's not her fault, but it's definitely a change.

Now for stuff the manga is only getting to just now: In the light novel, the first humans she killed was an accident. After killing the arch taratect she's away from home briefly and they come in and burn her stuff after getting trapped in the web. In the web novel she slaughters them without a second thought, in large part because Taboo makes her think people should just die. In the light novel she's kinda pissed but only intended to lightly punish them, only for the first ones to drop dead and cause her to figure she might as well kill them all at this point. It's the same result, but less amoral.

The light novel also establishes early on that Sue was not brainwashed. In fact, she wasn't brainwashed the whole time. It sounds like she was probably still threatened into helping but still, this makes her a lot more responsible for her actions.

Also, this is only a guess based off her final monologue in the novel, but after leaving the labyrinth she sounds much less likely to level that fortress just for being there or trying to bait people into attacking her so she can kill them without pissing off Gyurie.

There's some other little things but that's the basics for the first three volumes. It's not entirely a bad change^note her being less evil makes it much less likely that she'll need to die to redeem herself or something, which is something I'm a little afraid of, or at least make the heroes more willing to work with her to take down a bigger threat like D or something but the conflict between her basically sympathetic nature and her unsympathetic actions is kind of a plot point.

Edited by Arha on Oct 24th 2018 at 11:05:26 AM

This is... Rather interesting.

Although judging by character pages... It seems that D is the great evil I guess

Yeah I'm hoping the later part of the story after Kumoko inevitably loses to Shun is about the two of them teaming up to take out D, who is genuinely horrifying and doesn't have the excuses Kumo does for her behavior. ...Probably, there's a bit of leeway that could make her actually turn out to be something like a stealth mentor, but I don't want the story to go in that direction.

She could still punch her at the end of the dsy regardless. That kind of mentoring can be pretty dickish and just accepting the end result as good would be too logical especially since people aren't logocal.

Gotta read the manga/LN nao cuz why naut :P

LN is better than the manga. The manga doesn't show a single chapter from Shun's perspective which is a pretty big problem. The LN switches back and forth between him and Kumoko for variety and to emphasize that he's supposed to be a genuinely important character. But I think you'll have to buy the LN yourself.

The stealth mentor angle doesn't work for me because she's pretty sadistic and there's no way of spinning somethings she does as anything but being a petty asshole. The LN actually added another one. I don't think she'll turn out to be have been good all along, but the story may just end with her not being confronted because she's just so strong and there's nothing the cast can do about her.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, but that first group of humans? She ate them. Mixed feelings about changing that.

Edited by Arha on Oct 24th 2018 at 12:17:17 PM

@Arha: When Shun appraised her in volume 3, Sue's status indicated that she was hypnotised, charmed and brainwashed, just like in the WN.

And as for Yuugo/Hugo and the rape business, I'm pretty sure it's a translation thing. Because in the original Japanese version of the LN, he still does explicitly swear to rape Oka after she removes his skills in volume 2.

Edited by HanabiraKage on Oct 25th 2018 at 8:52:22 PM

She and Sophia talked about how she wasn't brainwashed. And that brainwashing starts to break down the moment you suspect you aren't in control of your actions. So she's not under Yuugo's control.

The web novel is back. Gyurie is indeed getting wrecked. What's more surprising is that he knew he was going to get wrecked. But that much was kind of obvious because this was never his story. And he still has Hyrinth to fall back on, maybe, if the author wants to keep using him in a different capacity.

Volume four is out. I preferred the web novel version. I didn't think Mother was a threat that needed to be faced directly and I liked Ariel instantly going for Abyss Magic overkill. I'm wondering if the translators are cleaning up the script but being a little sloppy about it since volume three didn't mention Kumoko eating the knights but this volume referenced it in passing.

Volume five out. Sophia! Also I guess the elf on the cover that isn't Oka-chan must be Potimas but literally who cares, he's a scrub. But most importantly, Kumoko has an apple !

Aaand all pretense is gone that Kumoko doesn't eat people. Yay.

Yeah, this is one of the ways an editor can help. We've got some foreshadowing here for Ariel's bloodlust affecting Kumoko's personality because all the Parallel Minds that were in contact with the Queen have this insane hatred for elves.

Kumoko's response to the war was very different. Less amoral and destructive. This novel seems oddly fast paced with the way it's speeding through all these events but I guess most aren't that important anyway.

Plot hole! Gyurie knows Kumoko's personality before going out for drinks with her. Actually it seems to be skipping that altogether. And also Kumoko's excellent brats nooooo bring back the babies.

Yeah see this? This is what I was afraid of when they toned done Kumoko's evilness. The current plot developments don't really make a lot of sense with Kumoko just kind of bumming around doing her own thing. Even Sophia is being less of a total asshole.

Damn it. This is really going to screw with the parts of the story that I truly enjoy. Especially if Yuugo lives. Why is he still alive he should have been CHOPPED by Wrath already. Hmmm... Yeah, the way they're doing this isn't nearly as good. They cut out way too much stuff I liked and changed events in a bad way. Where is magic fetish Ronandt?? Where are the hunting Babies?? Where are Sophia's POV chapters?

I don't think I'll buy volume 6. Why is this volume so much worse than the web novel?

Edited by Arha on Mar 20th 2019 at 3:16:06 AM

Ronandt's in the next volume, and he basically gets almost half of it to himself (Kumoko gets the other half).

I bet it doesn't have the Babies being sent on hunting expeditions though so it doesn't count.

Okay but seriously even if it does the whole volume consists of a major writing fumble so unless the LN goes for a completely different plot then I just don't really care. I mean, there were points worth praising in volume five but altogether it was just a mess.

Edited by Arha on Mar 20th 2019 at 1:11:35 PM

If anyone is interested, the manga finally concluded the Alaba fight.

Edited by Cross on Sep 5th 2019 at 4:59:01 AM

Lately, a spinoff manga came out where in the dungeon, Kumoko realise that her split personalities now have their own bodies and she has no idea how this happened. Madness and hilarity ensue.

Also, it seem that Okina Baba has started to write another webnovel called FanMon (Fantasy Monsters)? I don't know the details because (as far as I know) it wasn't translated yet but the existance of both this and the spinoff might explain why there wasn't a new webnovel chapter lately?

I really didn't like the spinoff. And I've been hoping Kumo is just on hiatus because of the LN and anime, but if he abandoned the story I'm going to be mad.

Spinoff is hit or miss for, but it's a short read and has gotten a chuckle out of me.

Spider Wars is about to begin in the main manga.

Well, finally catching up. I'm all the way back in volume 6, just at the introduction of the Demon King, and I feel like this is all very red-herringy, what with her skills.

New manga chapter out. It's the beginning a LN exclusive arc I didn't really care for.

I'm assuming that some of the humans we were introduced to as well as Alaba himself were other side characters mentioned in the novels, right?

Which humans? You mean the soldiers that attached Kumo inside the labyrinth? Only two survived, one of whom is a recurring character. The other is a major player in another character's backstory.

Kumoko killed and ate the rest, including the few she tagged with Wisdom and let escape so she could find the exit.

Yeah, the two who were given names. Biulims and Roberwhatever.

Also, I've got to say, I love how this series - the manga, at least - handled that whole reveal. It's made clear pretty early on that Kumoko is delving into some disturbingly strong skills, but it's (mostly) unknowingly, and stuff like Taboo has only started becoming relevant recently. She is incredibly dangerous, but it's because she's smart and thinks about things people in this world take for granted, like throwing rocks at herself with telekinesis to gain earth magic resistance. We've seen her struggling to survive for 40 chapters, and then she meets a party of humans and she's terrifying.

Unrelatedly, I have to admit that I've grown fond of the "Information-In-Charge" style names for the sub-brains. It's technically not a great translation, but it's charming.

Edited by RedSavant on Nov 21st 2019 at 7:20:43 AM

It's funny how it's warped her values. "I'm weak to fire," she thinks "so why don't I fix that by exposing myself to fire?" As in, go stick her claws into the lava. Then she wonders why everyone else is so weak and find her idea of training troublesome.