First Impressions: So I’m a Spider, So What?

Haley started to do this one but chickened out cause they’re scared of spiders, and while I’m not a huge fan of them either, they’re like dogs and bees in that they get exponentially cuter the more degrees of separation there are between me and them. Besides, I’ve been planning on covering this one since the anime was announced because Dru’s a fan, and even refrained from checking out the manga specifically so I could. Unfortunately for poor Haley I kinda never got around to mentioning that to my subordinate reviewers, so, sincerely, mibad.

Hey, do you like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime? I sure hope so, because this is basically that, except with a spider.

There are more differences than that, of course. The skill system is different, there are more isekai’d characters than just Our Spider (though it’s unclear why they’re all teenagers while the spider is a newborn), and the plot (at least for the time being) seems like it’s going to center more on finding the other reincarnated classmates than Slime Time‘s political shenanigans, but tonally it’s pretty much the same thing. If we weren’t living in Plague Times I’d probably be recommending this as a replacement while waiting for whichever the next season of Slime would’ve been, but Slime 2: Electric Googaloo is airing this season so I guess if you can only pick one of them it’s gonna be a toughie. Flip a coin, maybe? I dunno.

This is one of those first isekai episodes (also just like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime!) where the majority of the runtime is devoted to the protagonist talking to themself and figuring out what all they can do and the spider is charming enough that it doesn’t become tedious. In fact, I was actually a bit annoyed when the episode shifted away from them to introduce the other kids, most of whom didn’t stick out to me at all. The only one who did was the one with the transgender reincarnation (by which I mean they went from one assigned gender to another; not that the character themself is or was transgender, since aside from an offhand comment about having to ‘get used to the difference’ they don’t really get into it and there’s no indication of how they actually identify), but only because that could very easily get Bad depending on what (if anything) the narrative decides to do with it.

If you’re deathly afraid of spiders like Haley, there’s some stuff especially near the beginning that might be difficult/impossible to sit through, but aside from that it’s a cute premier. Our Hero’s big moe eyes make them look more like a Pokémon than anything and they only really move like an actual spider when they’re walking or running; the rest of the time they’re doing stuff real spiders probably can’t do, like sitting on their abdomen and picking things up with their legs. I definitely recommend it, especially if you liked the Slime, and I’ll probably be sticking with it all season.

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Charge of the Random Joke Brigade:

• I know it’s every student’s most ardent wish for their school to explode, but I think most of them would prefer to not be inside it at the time.
• Bold move on the part of the writers to have the potato with the undeserved harem be a side character.
• I expect a clip of the spider saying ‘oh, Jesus’ on my desk within the hour.