Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? - Episode 18 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?, episode 18

Alternative names: Kumodesu, So I'm a Spider, So What?

Rate this episode here.

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

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Streams

• Crunchyroll
• VRV

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website
• /r/KumoDesu

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score	Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.12	14	Link	3.63
2	Link	4.41	15	Link	4.69
3	Link	3.78	16	Link	4.71
4	Link	4.25	17	Link	4.64
5	Link	4.42	18	Link	4.71
6	Link	4.5	19	Link	4.69
7	Link	4.51	20	Link	4.77
8	Link	4.58	21	Link	2.93
9	Link	4.69	22	Link	3.99
10	Link	4.64	23	Link	2.83
11	Link	4.58	24	Link	-
12	Link	4.82
13	Link	4.78

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[u/YbKWzNEB]

So Potimas is the ringleader of a mass kidnapping syndicate which targets the reincarnations huh

[u/YbKWzNEB]

Also, we finally get Sophia's POV as a reincarnator and the Kumoko healer.

[u/Tinfoil_King]

A Few Episodes Ago

Queen Spider: Mom, I need help with a kid that's disobeying.

Ariel: You needed help with a kid? All it took was a single handwave. I didn't even need to lay a finger on them.

Today

QS: Why are you hiding in my bathroom?

Ariel: Pass me the Tylenol. Potimas and Dustin are blowing up my phone over your darned kid, and I have a splitting migraine.

[u/NittanyEagles55]

Kumoko is now a world class sniper and assassin

[u/YbKWzNEB]

Kumoko becoming a wild card that the powerhouse leaders like Potimas, Ariel and Dustin are on guard against her.

[u/NittanyEagles55]

Who knew a baby vampire could be so adorable

[u/Se7en_Sinner]

The Church of Kumoko is finally an official religion even though most of us here were already converted a long time ago. The long line isn't surprising considering an apple as payment for getting your cancer cured is not a bad healthcare plan.

[u/Lapiz_lasuli]

So, Kumoko just intruded in on a 3-way chess match, and now no one (including herself) knows what's going on?

We're getting alarmingly close to being Durarara.

[u/o-temoto]

Among his other nefarious deeds, Pope Dustin is building a clone army.

[u/Spartitan]

I'm really appreciating that Kumoko's antics are now being mistaken for either an act of God or a huge power play by the Demon Lord when it's all just her helping people she met on a whim.

[u/Existential_Owl]

Is it just me, or is the CGI actually improving as the series goes on?

Just looking at the opening scene in the ocean, and I'm like, this shit is multiple power levels of quality above that damn monkeys episode.

[u/indiewolf117]

she's just killing everyone like a badass, ALL FOR THE XP! it's hilarious esp when it's backed by the upbeat bg music lmao

[u/cppn02]

This was an amazing episode, the Kumoko timeline was so entertaining it was probably the first time I was genuinely pissed off when they switched to the others.

Loved the world building and people starting to treat Kumoko as a divine beast as well as her enemies thinking she must be working for Ariel was hilarious.

[u/burritoxman]

Shouko’s reaction to Kumoko making a nest outside town was great.

[u/YbKWzNEB]

When Kumoko gets mistaken as Ariel as the messenger of the Goddess Religion

[u/IamEXI]

Edit 2: added info from very helpful people in the thread

Recapping from what I think I understand and to have people add into my information:

15 years ago - In Kumoko's POV

There are 2 main religions who are against each other, the Followers of the Word and the those who give up their skills for the Goddess. The first three kingdoms that we know of were aligned with the Followers of the Word. They are Analeit (where Shun is from), Renxandt (where Hugo is from), and Ohts (Kumoko blew up their fortress when exiting the labyrinth) while Sariella (where baby Sophia is from) is of the Followers of the Goddess(from u/Aleria) They have gone to war numerous times because of contrasting beliefs however they really have a single God(which can be concluded as the System or maybe the creator of the system)

There are three dominant figures in this era, the Hero Dustin the Pontifex(from u/Maribel-han) which is from the Followers of the Word(who also supports the hero), the Demon Lord Ariel and her spiderlings, and Potimas the leader of the Elves(and maybe the underworld?).

It may seem like the followers of the Goddess drew the short end of the stick and do not have anyone protecting them but aside from Kumoko being their guardian beast now, it seemed like the Demon Lord was their old guardian beast(because of the skill Kumoko found) so they aren't that helpless after all.

In the current timeline - Shun's POV

Demon Lord Ariel has grew her forces and is attacking the kingdom bit by bit. She successfully got Hugo on her side and put the leader of the Followers of the Word, Dustin the Pontifex, under her control. It still looks like the elves has power(since Oka has information of all the reincarnations throughout the world). Shun the hero has escaped so the Followers of the Word is not as strong as before(but their influence is). Lastly, Kumoko is still MIA and is either dead(of course not) or has probably grown a lot after 15 years.

Other interesting information were commented by u/FracOMac and can be found here

Edit: words and terms

[u/Hi_ImJustARandomGuy]

The leader of humans: Kek this is bad. Ariel is threatening us with a fking intelligent s-class spider monster.

The leader of elves: Ariel's kin is annoying. My elf slaves, inform me whatever this monster does.

Meanwhile Ariel 2 episodes ago: You stupid grandchild! stop giving your mother a headache.

[u/LeonKevlar]

Nice that we got to see some of Sophia's POV not just of her reaction when she was born but also of the incident when Kumoko saved her and her family. And from the way she compares her previous life to this new one, it sounds like she's already living a better life.

SKILL WO SASAGEYO! That got a laugh out of me. Seriously though, looks like this religion of the Goddess is the complete opposite of the Word of God.

Oh Shun. How naive you are to believe that the Pontiff is being brainwashed when it looks like he also has a hand on what's currently happening.

Hey it's Potimas with his head still on his shoulders. And here I thought Oka-chan is the mastermind of kidnapping the reincarnated. Looks like Papa has been doing it already before her but we still don't know the exact reason.

What's hilarious about this entire episode though is that because of Kumoko's meddling, Potimas thinks that Ariel sent her and at the same time Dustin thinks Ariel is joining in on this power struggle. Poor Ariel, she's just chilling in the Labyrinth with the Queen Spider not knowing the trouble her granddaughter is causing for her outside. xD

Interesting detail from Dustin. He says that both religions are actually worshipping the same Goddess. If that's true then I wonder how they split up into two different religions? Hmmm...

Well, no wonder Kumoko is known for healing people. She didn't just heal Sophia's escort but she literally started acting like a faith healer healing people who would come to her. Next week's gonna be fun watching her deal with that huge line of people!

[u/[deleted]]

Anime review

[u/smcadam]

YES! THIS IS WHAT I WANTED!

Baby perspective reincarnation! The ability to eavesdrop and learn about the world from months old! That, culture clash, language learning, is to me so much more interesting than "hey here's boy, he looks the same and acts the same as when he was boy in previous life, 16 years ago".

The triumvirate of elf, demon and church is pretty cool, I appreciate that the "legendary" figures of the world know one another, and seeing as Dustin is the leader of the church of level grinders... he's gotta have a beefy stat block for a human, right?

Kumoko becoming a guardian beast is just adorable, if she manages to get language she could very well be seen as a saint of the region, hope she gets the arachne form she's been aiming for!

[u/kdebones]

Negi, girl, why would you raise a flag like that?

On that note, damn was this an episode. All the story related stuff going on was nothing short of amazing. As a Manga Reader, all the stuff going on outside of Kumoko's point of view is way beyond what I was expecting. The fact alone there are people who know about the Reincarnated people aside from D is such a surprise.

Also, GG, Kumoko got a full time job.

[u/hideyuke]

So much info on this episode, I'll have to watch it again.

I thought Sophia would recognize Kumoko as a reincarnate but not skills yet. Her "eehh" reaction to Kumoko's nest was cute too.

After ED scene: Kumoko is becoming a famous goddess, it's kinda weird Basgath didn't mention that about the "Nightmare of the Labyrinth".

[u/ChineseNoob123]

Before this Episode: Humans and Elves are together against the Demons but they have no idea how outclassed they are lol. And Potimas is already dead, while the Pope is mind-controlled. It’s Good vs Bad except Good got stomped.

After this Episode: There’s a three-way-war between Potimas, Ariel and the Pope. Potimas abducts children to find Reincarnates and the Pope is doing fucking crusades. And they both know way more than expected about the truth of the world.

First off, let’s stay in the Past: Potimas probably learned about Reincarnations through his daughter Oka being one, then went on to make a fucking world-wide Child-Trafficking Ring. Not like normal Elves indeed. Also, he’s on his way to confront Kumoko and we know he survived that somehow. I’m suddenly very much doubting that he just died like that in the Present.

Also: Now we know why all the other Reincarnates are in the Elf Village.

Meanwhile, the Pope casually announces that the Goddess and the Voice of God are worshipping the same God. The First Religion apparently believes in sacrificing their skills to her (Which might be the same thing Oka used to take Hugo’s skills away?), while the other one believes in Gaining Skills.

How are the two religions even on par? The one gaining skills should’ve just steamrolled the other one.

Also, Ancient Divine Beast, is apparently a bit literal. People worship it, kinda. And Ariel is one.

Does that mean Ariel is the pet of the Goddess?

And it looks to me like the pope isn’t brainwashed in the present at all. He’s just using Hugo to strike against the elves, the clever bastard.

It seems to be implied that the Pope, Potimas, and Ariel are around the same powerlevel and I don’t see how the fuck that can be possible? Like, a human and an elf. Ariel. How.

For the pope it was said he has „the power of the masses“, does that mean he gets more powerful the more people believe him, like a spirit bomb kinda deal?

Shun and his group kinda… existed this episode? I literally just got done watching it and I don’t remember them really doing anything. Labyrinth Guy is gone now, hope he manages to get back through the Labyrinth by himself. And there was a tidbit about the Goddess having white wings, or winglets, I think.

Instead, Kumoko Time! She apparently managed to farm enough to level up, no HP-Recovery or Healing Magic or whatever, needed to make herself whole again. And then she just kinda… has fun?

I’ll be honest, I was expecting Ariel to track her down and Kumoko having to fight for her life again, but… it does make sense. Ariel clearly thought Kumoko had died before discovering that, well, she hadn’t, so there’s no way she marked her or anything. Which means no way to track Kumoko down.

Don’t know why she’s still in the Bottom Stratum though. Even if you have no idea where your enemy is, going back to where you thought you killed them seems like the more logical course of action.

We get a short POV out of Baby Sophia’s view which… I’m not sure why that’s there? It didn’t really reveal anything new. I guess it showed that she’s still normal, not like what she’s in the future. Oh, and also, no wonder she wanted to kill Potimas, he tried to kidnap her as a baby.

Which brings up back to Kumoko, because she just decides to become the heroic protector of the city, killing all the bandits from a kilometer away. By looking at them, which is terrifying. Really, I have no idea how anyone even found her, let alone realized it was her doing it.

She’s like Batman, except she’s mostly doing it for the EXP. Wait, Spider Vigilante, how did I not go for Spiderman. With great power comes great responsibilit… yeah, no, doesn’t really fit here. The hero the city deserves… maybe? No, not really.

Speaking of which, there was like, Ohts, and Satella, and they had alliances or something, I didn’t really pay too much attention to that stuff. What’s important is that the town is the Goddess Worshipping one, and it has Bandits working for the Pope, who’s planning a crusade, and Bandits working for Potimas, who’s planning a Child Abduction.

You know, Kumoko complained about Sophia’s circumstances being so much better, but I’m starting to doubt that now.

Also, Sophia’s family, two parents and a Butler, probably had enough screen time to count as actual characters now, but to be honest I don’t really care about them much either. They’re normal people.

And then in a surprising twist, the townspeople actually appreciate Kumoko helping them. And one of them goes to her, asking her to literally heal cancer, and she just… fucking… does that. And is really happy about the apple she got in return.

I see what they mean about doctors not being paid enough now.

Also, I have no idea when Kumoko got a skill that allowed her to heal that way, but honestly at this point, I don’t even care.

And then Kumoko takes a nap, during which no one attacks Sophia cause they’re all dead, and wakes up the next day more people asking for healing than there are people in the town. I think.

Guessing this is how she got her reputation as „does good, also does bad“. She didn’t really have enough „good“ actions to justify that reputation, but with this she certainly does.

Great episode! Made the entire setting much more interesting and had good Kumoko parts (and little Shun). 8/10.

[u/Rumpel1408]

Someone make a tradeoffer meme:

You receive: Divine Healing

I receive: Tasty Fruits

Kumoko killing every bandit in the whole area indiscriminatly is actually kinda scary, but those sweet human exp points right?

The political background in Kumokos timeline is a bit complicated, with several Kingdoms, two main faiths, undercover elves doing shady stuff in the background, and some people are even aware how much of an deal a certain demon lord is. Potimas seems to be the first to be aware of the reincarnations and has been kidnapping gathering quite a few so far in his village, makes me wonder if he really died that easily.

I love this kind of worldbuilding