User blog:NoGround/Why you should read Kumo Desu

Synopsis
In another world, the Hero and the Demon King continue to oppose each other. The grand magic from the Hero and the Demon King crosses over worlds and explodes in the classroom of a certain high school. The students who died in the explosion are reincarnated in that alternate world.

The protagonist, who has the lowest standing in the class, was reincarnated as spider. This is a story of she who has become a spider doing whatever she can in order to live.

Spoiler Free Review of Why You Should Read Kumo Desu
So, as you can garner from the synopsis, this story is another isekai with a funny title. In light novels, there are a lot of isekai, so it is difficult to find titles worth the read, especially when so many are just a concept about some weird self-insert main character in a ridiculous situation. The basis for the "other world" situation is simple in Kumo Desu, but at the same time pivotal to the plot: otherworldly death of an entire classroom of individuals (teacher included) and subsequent reincarnation in their new new world with no explanation, but all their memories intact as newborns.

That's enough about the reincarnation explanation; though I consider the type of reincarnation used to be important for first impressions. Anyway, what makes Kumo Desu worth reading? Well, there are a few reasons for this, starting with the word "isekai" itself and ending with literary techniques used to craft the story, and then everything in-between from characters and their relations to world building.

So, many of you know the isekai shtick, right? MC dies by some wayside accident on Earth and is reborn in another world and has some incredible overpowered ability, or quickly gains said ability, or was already overpowered in the first place. Well, first and foremost, that's thrown out the window in Kumo Desu straight away. Not only is there no convenient character to explain the situation of their reincarnation to any of the students that where killed in the opening chapter, but the main character (henceforth referred to as Kumoko), is born as the weakest monster in the world inside of largest, most dangerous labyrinthian cave on the planet. If you're tired of overpowered main characters who face very little opposition before gaining their power, that's already one point in your book. Kumoko fights for survival in a world that is stacked against her before gaining any sort of power. She earns her strength.

On top of this, isekai are often presented with a baked in game-like system much of the time. Sometimes it's a minor thing like "Skills" and "Spells" and "Stats" that is used to give a quantifiable value of strength for the reader to reference such as Arifureta, but other times it's overblown to the point of ridiculousness like Re;Monster. Often, though, what makes this game-like state natural to the world is not addressed, or it is eventually left in the wayside like in Overlord. Needless to say, Kumo Desu has one of these systems. To alleviate a concern, though, I can say that not only is this system structured in such a way that all of the details are organizable and quantified, but that it is never left in the wayside, and as a matter of fact is a major point of conflict in the story. Saying any more than this would be encroaching on spoiler territory, so I will refrain from speaking further into this topic.

That's just a minor thing, though. The real golden nugget of this story comes from the writing of the plot itself. See, another big thing with isekai is that rarely is the mystery of the reincarnation or summoning ever really addressed. There are some that deal with it as a part of the current world, but with no interest in Earth, like Slime Tensei, others that make pivotal to the main character, like Re;Zero, and still more where returning to Earth is a major goal, like Arifureta. Generally in the community these types are considered isekai light novels worth reading, though, with much of the rabble of isekai barely even addressing the reincarnation aspect after the first few initial chapters. So, where does Kumo Desu land itself in this regard? Well, the whole reason for the reincarnation in the first place ties back into a great secret that slowly unveils itself as the story moves forward. This is a constant technique that gets used.

See, what makes Kumo Desu such compelling writing is that it uses a writing technique called "backwards scriptwriting;" coined by Yoko Taro - director and writer of Nier:Automata. The entire story and web of interconnected characters and events was planned out long before the pen was put to paper and the real writing started, from end to beginning, and then everything in-between. The further you read into the story the more the secrets are unveiled, but at the same time the more questions start to stack onto each other. On top of that, the narration style and perspective shifts allow for Okina Baba to lead the reader where they want them to, allowing for fun engaging reading to those who try and figure out the mysteries beforehand. Good use of a lot of not-so-obvious foreshadowing makes rereading fun as well. You can find details in the first volume where that won't be answered until much later in the story (beyond what is currently serialized in Japan, believe it or not). The perspective shifts between characters, comparable to Game of Thrones in this sense, also presents rich character interaction and growth, as well as moments of hilarious misunderstandings that only the reader is aware of. The use of backwards scriptwriting, amazing foreshadowing, and perspective shifts to create an intricate plot that all ties back to the very first chapter of the story is the heart of Kumo Desu.

Now, that isn't to say the story isn't without its faults. The main one being that the secondary character in the first five volumes, Shun, is the very stereotype of a dry, boring, OP isekai protagonist. He's completely unrelatable as a character; the ideal "hero" that no one would realistically strive to be. This is a constant complaint about the series that is impossible to ignore, and so I will address it: he is written like this on purpose. If you are having difficulty relating to him as a character and find his actions frustrating and difficult to understand, congratulations! You are among the majority of people that are feeling exactly what Okina Baba intended when she wrote Shun. Though his chapters are a dry spot in the series that takes away from the humorous and charming main character, I would like to point out a few key things: the chapters in Shun's perspective are short, really start to ramp up into a fast-paced chaotic spiral by the end of Volume 3, and reach a crescendo at the end of Volume 5 that doesn't get continued for a long time. By the time you reach the end of his side of the story, you'll be wanting more of it.

Now that Volume 6 has been released, though, another set of strengths of this series comes into play besides the constant battles Kumoko deals with in the first five: character relations, personalities, development, world building, and pacing. See, there's a lot more to Kumo Desu besides the constant battles and struggle for survival. You'll get hints of it throughout the first few volumes, interspaced between Kumoko's antics and Shun's story, but the heart of the story doesn't really begin until Volume 6, which is why I've waited so long to write this post. Needless to say, Volume 6 slows things down and changes the focus to character development and world building. Okina Baba is extremely good at developing each character's internal conflict and personalities, as well as how they interact with each other, properly creating unique characters with proper relationships. At the same time, world building is expanded upon from the web novel, which many current readers consider to be a true rough draft of the story. The world building is also not narrated in a dry, boring tone of a reliable narrator, but through the experiences of the people on the ground. It is not like Overlord or Youjo Senki, which are detailed to an extreme degree of precision through narration, but the events and speech of the characters themselves that build the world. In a way, it presents itself in a more western-like writing style than most light novels, such that the flow of events and world building is smooth and written in almost nonchalantly, even though it is just as detailed as other light novels when you begin to analyze it. Although Volume 6 begins to change the pace of the story, it is still strengthening everything that came before it.

All-in-all, Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka? is my number one favorite series of all time, across all media. That's a subjective opinion, and I do realize that it has faults in some places, but the compelling story, written as a web of character relations, events, and mysteries, is one of the best written pieces I've ever had the joy of experiencing. Having read the web novel, I can wholly recommend the light novel for a multitude of reasons: the humorous, sarcastic, and prideful main character, the sense of unveiling mystery, the cool battles, the properly structured and plot-critical game-like system, everything about the other characters (except Shun), the style of writing and world building, and more. Okina Baba has written so much new content for the light novel, properly tying up loose ends that are present in the web novel and adding so much more detail to her world that I can recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone even remotely interested in the isekai genre. If I haven't convinced you to at least try it out, I don't know what will.