So I'm a Spider, So What?, Vol. 6

We’ve reached Volume 6. Has Okina Baba done it again, or is series fatigue setting in?It’s funny I ask that, because I don’t series fatigue being a thing for this series. Especially if things continue the way they did in this Volume. Gone are the future chapters covering what’s happening with the other reincarnations as they’re older. And while I’m curious to see how things play out in that part of the story, I much prefer focusing on one timeline at a time. And our spider’s part of the story is easily the more interesting of the two for me. But that’s not to say the human side of things isn’t good in it’s own right; I just prefer our spider more. And she is so cute in this volume!We get to see her develop more as a character and a person (half person?). After the events of the last Volume, she’s become an Arachne, a half human-half spider monster, and is traveling with Baby Sophia (who she calls Vampy), the butler/servant Merazophis (Mera for short) and the Demon Lord, Ariel. She’s named White by the Demon Lord, and now the beast of the future timeline makes more sense. I always wondered who White was initially and how she was so strong, and now we know for sure. It’s no wonder, she’s such a force in the humans’ story.We get to learn more about the Mera and Sophia (that we see in the humans’ story) and it’s a treat. Not that it’s all slice of life mind you, but a lot of this Volume deals with the internal problems our little group suffers from. Be it White and the Demon Lord’s relationship, Mera and Sophia’s relationship or any combination. We learn more about the motivations of these characters, which only works to make me care more about them. The author does a great job humanizing these monsters, so much so that you can’t help but care about what they’re going through. Their troubles seem so real, and you want them to resolve them, you want them to come out on top against whatever adversaries they face. It’s an odd thing, I know: To care about monsters more than humans…While we don’t see what’s happening with the human reincarnations this Volume, we do get to see more of the strongest human mage studying magic under the Parallel Minds White has left in the Labyrinth (and this group’s reaction to him is freaking hilarious!). Though, studying is a bit of stretch. He’s basically witnessing and trying to take part in the hellish training the Parallel Minds are putting their army of spiders through to grow stronger. I won’t say what the training is, because experiencing it alongside, Ronandt, through his eyes is fun…for the reader at least.I feel like I say this often, but this was the best installment so far. It just keeps getting better, and seeing things real time, instead of jumping from one timeline to another makes following things much easier. The chart of events given in Volume 4 puts everything in order, but I like reading just one timeline at a time if possible. Some of the tension is removed when you know the characters in one timeline make it out of sticky situations because they’re in the future timeline as older versions of themselves, so missing those future segments helped a little when fully immersing myself in the lives of the characters. I’m not sure how long the future parts will be absent, but at least I was able to enjoy one great Volume without any timeline hopping.

I started reading with the fan-translations of the web serial that started all this, and I loved a lot of the basic concepts but the execution was very rough (several characters with potential that seemed to be squandered, major decisions which seemed to be made for arbitrary or contradictory reasons, etc.) I liked it a lot, but it was never as good as I knew it could be.I picked up the official import of the first volume partly to support the author and partly to see how many of the flaws could be attributed to translation errors. And for the first book or two that was all it was, a cleaner, better edited review of the early days of Kumo-chan's adventures. But then the changes started adding up. Minor characters, but fully fleshed out with personalities and backgrounds and motivations. Major events that played out the same from a historical perspective, but with completely different motivations behind the decisions that made it all fall into place more naturally and feel better overall. The order of events being rearranged for better flow and clarity.More and more little changes added up, each making the story a little better, until finally this book here seems to be 100% new content and all of it is great. Maybe not as many major world-shaking events happened in this book as the volumes before and after, but by taking the chance to focus on the goals of the major players and the development of the relationships between them it sets us up for a much better over-arching story, an epic adventure instead of just a series of events.This volume proves that the author has been getting more skilled all the time, and I can't wait to see what they can produce for us in the future.

(instead of the usual nonstop battles, this volume focuses more on the characters’ inner turmoil and relationships with others, which also makes this volume unusual.)<Source: volume 6 afterword>I think this part was done brilliantly. The termoil between the characters was lovely and not overly intense, hilarious at times, and most of all (to me at least) very fascinating. I would like to say that my praise for the "s chapters" remains and that even if they aren't in this volume I will also admit that this volume is likely my favorite regardless. Though it seems every volume I read after the other is my favorite... Well, anyhow, cheers.

This volume, as Baba states, is a little different than the action-packed scenes of the previous novels; there are so many new things and changes that happen in this volume compared to the Web Novel (I'm up-to-date on). There are some characterization changes and some significant shifts from the WN storyline, which are not bad, in my opinion. There are a lot of internal conflicts that were needed to be shown to better flesh out characters, and some of the new scenes make me really curious about how the future is going to be shaped in comparison to the WN. There are some fun changes to Kumo's character, and she finally gets her nickname.Overall, an enjoyable read that centers on some emotional attachments and many characters finding their purpose or finding reason in looking for a purpose (after so long of just trying to survive).

Less action heavy, more character focused, and overall very enjoyable.

I LOVED this book. Our silent spider doing her spartan baby training. The naked crazy old man trying to be ignored by monsters. Puppets going full glam to the concern of the Demon Lord. Guli having to get involved and vampires figuring out their own mental/personality issues. There was a lot of fun things going on in this book. It also ties up a few (nine) loose ends and gives more perspectives on how relationships in the human storyline got setup before the humans ever encountered them.

I liked the story, it followed whites evolved state more in depth and flushes out a lot more character between vampy and white. Great and over all a fun read.

My son absolutely loves these books

War ein Geschenk, kann nicht viel dazu sagen!

Muy bueno este volúmen, aunque tiene menos batallas que los anteriores fue bastante bueno porque nos mostró el crecimiento de los personajes, aunque me habría gustado que incluyera mínimo una historia de Shun por lo bien que se quedó el anterior volúmen

How not to like characters with so much personality, and Baba is genius, I am in love with this writer an with this series of books.