I've watched a few episodes of the anime and, to be honest, it felt a kinda tedious. I wasn't exactly paying full attention to it but it felt tiresome nevertheless. I wanted the human's part to just go away and the only thing that I liked was the spider lady with anime eyes strategizing to murder other monster and eating their flesh afterwards. But even that experience got ruined since in between the spider scenes, irrelevant and confusing human plot-lines kept shoving themselves in like some third wheel on a date. I never thought I could even find fantasy elements as tiresome as that in the anime.The human characters were given the bare minimum amount of time to make an impression upon myself and due to that, their conflicts felt like I was watching a movie from the middle. A very bland movie at that. And I was just left wondering, is the novel any better than the anime? Do the humans appear just as much in the novel or is there a bigger focus on the spider lady with anime eyes going full survival mode on us? I actually do like the concept of the novel but just want the excessive human part to just go away. So, is Kumo Desu Ga's novel better than the anime?
I would say so. In the novel you get more of her inner thoughts, giving you more of a feel for her character. The human (and demon) sides generally only appear in the side story chapters, where they helped to build on the story and the world. They are kind of important, like most of the sidestorys. But imho, the anime had too much of the human side, so much that I was beginning to fast forward chunks of it, which I normally wouldn't do.
Is it done nicely though? In the anime, it really came out of nowhere and it took me good second to figure out that they were her classmates. I really wouldn't mind it if it were present if it were to be more comprehensive.
I do feel like the novel did fill you in with details better, but that's to be expected. Animes generally substitute some substance for action. The style that the novel was written in might have made it hard to translate though, because I had a bit of a hard time understanding things at times. I really enjoyed the novel though after getting over some of the intial confusion. I didn't notice what you felt with the anime, but I watched the anime after reading the novel, so maybe my subconsious was already filling in details that the anime missed.
for me the manga is it!!!!!!!!! so good!!!!! the novel formatting is weird and im sure the anime isnt as good as it could be, like always. please read the manga i love so much
The manga is nearly 100% spider side for the whole Elro Dungeon arc, as it chose to pretty much skip the side chapters (aside from the magician group perspective of the encounter with the MC). That was definitely a good choice, sounds like the anime chose to emphasize the human-side backstories. Most of the stuff in the side chapters could be done in flashback once those characters have, like, any importance. I went from manga -> WN and didn't feel the need to go back and read those side chapters. I think I eventually did so, but not because they were vital to understanding anything. Aside from the forest battle, anyway, but the anime likely hasn't reach that one (Read manga/WN, haven't seen anime)?
the translation quality of the novel really drops after the ones made by blasto? ( i think that was the name) i really found it hard to enjoy because of that, i preffer the anime, i guess.
Try out the comic, I found it better than the anime. It's not a mind-blowing difference but it suited my taste more than the anime.
I felt exactly that way from reading the novel. The side stories were necessary for contrast and information but they dragged on way too long and were honestly not that interesting, maybe because the main character didn't really show interest in any of those characters? If anything, the novel makes it easier to skip non-spider parts, so that's a point in its favor.
I vaguely recall a forest fight thingy happening but barely understood anything. I might just read the manga since I've understood at least a little of the human side of things. It really sounds like I would enjoy the manga then. My only regret is that the spider lady doesn't seem to have anime eyes there. I've been hesitating a bit since I've read comments stating that they completely skipped the human part but now that I think about it, it doesn't matter that much? I can always read the novel if I feel to confused. There's that too huh? Novel translations, for some reason, always seem to be of worse quality than manga translations and anime subs. Maybe because novels are easier to translate? Eh, I should be grateful a translations exists at least I guess.
The thing is, which I'm not sure is obvious in the anime, is... I guess this is a spoiler but it's a super minor one that probably doesn't even deserve the spoiler box... Spoiler: Honestly, safe to read this one even if you dislike spoilers IMO The thing is, that all of the reincarnators started as infants, not just the MC. Since human babies don't exactly go on adventures it is implied and is indeed the case that the dungeon arc is happening years before the side stuff. The author was trying something fancy with that, and IMO, it just didn't pan out. The forest fight, if we're talking about the same one, won't make sense until the MC's plot is much further than the dungeon arc, and that's when I went back and read it. The manga has been going *mostly* in chronological order, outside of one scene*. I imagine it'll bring up the more important human stuff when it actually happens. Okay, this one leans more towards being an actual spoiler. A little bit, anyway: Spoiler: The scene When the MC hits Taboo 10 there's a brief scene of the Maou talking to their generals. That's not in chronological order.