So I'm a Spider, So What?, Vol. 11

So I'm a Spider, So What? Light Novel #11

by Okina Baba, Tsukasa Kiryu (Artist)

What does it mean to be a Hero?

As the chosen of the gods and defender of all humanity, everyone expects me to do great things. From the tender age of six, it’s been my duty to serve humankind, and during my first trial by fire in Keren County... I failed miserably. Since then, I’ve devoted my every waking moment to becoming someone worthy of my position. Though I’m still too weak to accomplish much on my own, as long as I’m with my friends, I’m sure there’s something we can do to help people. Hmm? Where’s the spider? What are you talking about...?

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction, Comedy, Action, Novels

247 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2019

Reviews

[Luigi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This volume is just terrible. Plain and simple.

The whole book was literally just about Julius, yes, the dead hero. I don't get why you would write a whole volume for a DEAD MINOR CHARACTER, also the guy died like 8 or 9 volumes ago. You could literally skip this whole volume and I doubt you'll miss anything important, maybe except the Hero Sword. That's it. The volume was just full of backstory of Julius, which could be summarized in very few words, He a good guy, he a better hero than Shun. That's it. The whole volume is done.

The content of this whole volume should've been trickled down within the first 4 volumes when the character actually mattered, rather than made into a whole volume this late into the story where he's dead and pretty much just a motivational drive for Shun.

[Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not thrilled about this one.

Sorry, but this was far too removed from the actual story I was reading before. Had I read a snippet before purchasing this volume, I may have just skipped it. No real new characters or information. Just a filler.

[DJay · Rating 3 out of 5]

TBH, out of all the books in this series, you can skip this one. It's pretty much a giant flashback for the hero and the way he never outgrew his chunni stage. That's about it.

[Daniel Washington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eh

I like a good change in perspective as much as the next guy. Truly an odd saying given that I dont the next guy’s perspective. However, while the story was interesting and is certainly well written. I am disappointed that we don’t hear as much from the protagonist. Don’t get me wrong there are definitely some gaps in the plot that the author can only cover from different perspectives, but im here for White’s hijinks. I found myself very much looking forward to the interludes of Sophia’s Diary.

All in all its a good story, same as can be expected. The author even manages to take a completely different tone to the writing than they usually do since its a narrative from a different character.

But again...I miss my overpowered spider lady and her silly yet sharp logical conclusions.

[Pogonophobia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's all julius

Book is pretty much is all julius, none of everyone's favorite spider. she shows up for a single page in the background but that's it. I feel like I waited a long time for this to come out for nothing, I'm pretty bummed.

[Jaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my personal thoughts! It's the weakest of all the volumes so far, It was really hard to keep reading it, I don't really like the hero or his pals, neither all the humans! But I DO loved to bits Sophia's Diary entries, my gosh, the baby Vampy IS WILD! Her diary is really something else hahaha, rip when White got to know what she's been up to hahaha. I hope we get to see more.of her perspective! Can't wait to read V12!

[Chaos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pointless

I can’t remember reviewing any other book of this series, but this volume is the doesn’t add anything to the story really. The main protagonist barely shows up, which even the author admits its a blunder in the afterword. This volume can be easily skipped without losing anything to the plot of what is otherwise a fantastic isekai series.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

MC Never shows up, whole story is about Julius and his story. Not worth the read. Excited for next volume when we (hopefully) get to read about White some more!

[Chad R. Merkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lack of Kumoko-chan, but still good

It's cool to see how much the author and translator both have grown since volume 1. Story is getting deeper, things are flowing and fitting together, and tension is building towards the climax. The author found a great way to bridge the years that separate all the major pov characters. Totally getting ready for epic stuff to happen in the next couple volumes.

Translation is smooth and clean. Really enjoyed it.

[Simon Thivierge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something I didn't know I needed

It was a breath of fresh air to see another character grow and it really shows how "lesser" Shun actually is.

[Lisa Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting, and a little gross. Buyer beware

After binging the first 10 books 3 weeks into the anime I was incredibly hyped for the 11th book, especially given the cliffhanger of book 10. Full disclosure: im skipping the last 17%(according to kindle) of the book to write this because after what I just read I'm honestly disturbed, and want to warn anyone if it's not too late. This book focuses on the hero Julius's exploits before the great War broke out, with alternating chapters from Sophia's diary while she's at a boarding school. Now, this is a whole class isekai, everyone reborn, and so while they were early teen or preteen when they died, reborn as humans(mostly) means they're still incredibly young, and im incredibly disappointed that the author decided to sexualize this little girl's body. One of the chapters mentioned being webbed up in a way that resembles bondage after trying to leave. Ignoring that a minor in the previous life *shouldnt* know about this, it then goes on in a later excerpt from her diary being webbed up naked on the ceiling and how this could quickly turn rated R. This is a child. It doesn't matter that mentally she is (minor) + however many years, her. Physical. Body. Is. A. Child's. This is disgusting, and what went from a disappointment where a whole book was taken off from the main plot for backstory and fluff turned into actual pedophilia.

[Hammerhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 11 is a Julius story, so that's why it's all about Julius, why people complains about that is beyond me. Judge it by the the writing and not "lack of Kumoko".
That said, this book contains important character developments for Julius, and other characters only briefly seen before, it also includes new stories not in the original Web Novel that expands the universe.
Julius is a crucial character to explore the world of Kumo Desu, since he's a native, without any knowledge of the deeper secrets, he's genuine in his efforts and left a lasting influence on people long after his passage. Julius's story explores the life of the natives of the world without the biased lenses of outsiders.
Julius himself is thematically important, since he share many commonalities with Kumoko. Confronted by death and overwhelming odds at a young age, he shared Kumoko attitude of "do what I can", "not running away" and obsessed with getting stronger. This book will explore Julius's path and what led him down it.
Volume 11 also started laying new groundworks for important reveal much later on. Moreover, volume 12, judging by the arts, will continue Julius's story, readers risk missing out on many details if they decide to skip this one. Overall, this is a book worth paying close attention reading.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel sucked. I liked all the other ones and was excited to get to this novel but it’s filled with filler and boring predictable unlikeable (to me) characters. I should’ve skipped it. The gross sexual remarks/harassment and poorly written female characters I coukdve done without, especially with kumoko herself being so interesting. Overall, took me effort to get through it. Created an account just to give this review bc of my disappointment. Book only served to lessen my opinion of the author.

[Adam Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt like a side story arc, but not a good one

The whole book is from Julius’s perspective. There’s a few interesting parts (not from his perspective), but it took effort on my part to slog through it. Which is a staunch departure from my experience with the other books so far. I really wish “Sophia’s diary” had been a much more in-depth look at her experiences, instead of simple diary entries, I find her character to be much more interesting then Julius’s. Hoping this was the only book written this way.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like an unnecessary flashback filled with more unnecessary “Fan service.”

Book 11 is told mostly from Julian’s perspective, with bits of Sophia’s forced school life mixed in. 

I started this book sometime last year, left it in my old purse when I got a new one for Christmas and then proceeded to forget completely about this series while I started Eye of the World until I realized I was falling behind on my book goal and panic looked for a shorter book. Honestly, I don’t think it’s completely the book’s fault that I forgot and moved on. I read books 1-10 in the span of like two or three weeks. I probably wore myself out of the same material. The problem is that when I came back… I noticed something I absolutely hate in Japanese media. The fan service. Specifically, the sexualization of underage girls.

The first few books, where the main character is a spider didn’t have that. ‘Cause she was a spider. But now that everyone is presenting 13-17 it’s a lot. I don’t understand why it’s necessary or what it adds? Why did we need to hear about a tentacle monster who likes to “keep” young girls and pervy nobles who like to keep the monster around because they like what they “do.” Is it supposed to be funny? Because it’s not…

I was really excited to see Julius’ perspective of everything through the years and of his death, but the book ended without showing that. The beginning with the group hunting for the human traffickers was interesting but after that fell apart I kinda felt like the rest of the book did too. It was more of snapshots into Julius’ life that didn’t wholly matter that much. Tiva’s perspective was definitely my favorite part. Those chapters felt well written. I guess we got to see more of why we hate Potimas but eh.

If I’m being honest, based off this particular book in the series, I wouldn’t recommend the series. If I didn’t have 13-15 already, I would probably stop reading the series myself, but I do so I’m really hoping the next few books more away from the fan service element, and are more plot driven then this one is.

[Tony-001 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a Spider so What, by Okian Baba involves Kumoko, an average high schooler, but one day she was killed due to an accident by two extremely powerful beings in another world, the Goddess of that world felt bad and revived her alongside her classmates into her world with new abilities.
In vol 11, the main premise involves Julius and his party, Yana, Hyrince, Jeskan, and Hawkin. They are the “Hero’s Party” of the world, but as they travelled, they sought after the Pheonix’s feather, a feather dropped from the legendary phoenix itself, as one thing let to another, Julius discovered a legendary sword capable of killing it touches, albeit only once. Just how will he use the sword, which evil will he slash?

This is a great book because it builds up the characters and world, showing how everything works. “I am the hero! And is the heor someone to be protected?! No, the hero is someone who protects others?!” This is amazing because it does not show anything else other than the fact that Julius wants to protect other people, no this and that, just an ideal good person. The only I can critique is the pacing, which can feel a bit sluggish and unnecessary.

Overall, I would give this book a 4.3 star out of ten, and I think late teens should read this because of some of the more edgier scenes and topics.

[Miso · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand why this volume exists. Its portrayal of "the hero's" (Julius) journey was out of the focus and it finally gives us someones perspective parallel to the MCs. We get to see what Shun (Hero 2.0) looked up to and why he's...well...the single-minded disappointment that he is so far. The issue is it just focuses on a character way too much who as far as we know died many volumes ago. We get no MC time apart from hints of her actions in the background, and she's really the driving force of the story at this point.

Unfortunately, just because it needs to exist doesn't make it that interesting as far as content goes. By making Kumoko just so full of energy and complexity compared to the human cast who we know are being led around by the nose the ENTIRE story up it's current point, it makes it difficult to care about them at all until they hopefully finally get the chance to make their own informed decisions. This is the first volume of the series that I was staring at my percentage to completion meter hoping for it to just end. Glad that it's out of the way and I hope that Volume 12 brings us back into the current timeline and get some much needed Kumoko time.

[Donte McNeal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't say this book was absolutely garbage like I've seen lot of people do. Was it my favorite in the series? Not by a long shot. Was it the worst thing to ever be written? Also, no.

I can understand the frustration of getting into a series and only wanting to follow the main character. It just so happens that that wasn't the case for this one book (out of 12 so far).

Julius is an okay character to follow, but I'm not his biggest fan, so I read this one just so I wouldn't miss anything. And while you do get to see things from a different pov/perspective, I don't think much would be missed if you skipped this one. I liked most of the characters well enough that I wasn't bored, but I definitely enjoyed the previous books more because we got to see the titular spider more. Thankfully things focus on her more next volume.

[SlytherinLife · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like had this been one of the first 5 novels in the series, it would have been a great way to world build and set motivations for so, so many side characters. But as it stands, having a novel where we watch the growth of a character, who we know will be dead by the time our main human heroes go on their adventure feels... pointless? It doesn't have the same impact as many prequel media where you know what will happen, but want to know how it happens. We already know from the human POV chapters that the human parts of the light novels are, honestly, the most boring parts. It's a lot of Julius going to location A, feeling bummed by the burden of the hero status, then XYZ happens to motivate him.

This book almost made me DNF the series, which would have been awful as I'd already bought the remaining volumes. If you are struggling to get through it, seriously skip and go to volume 12. You will not miss anything if all you care about is Kumoko's POV.

[William Moses Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this volume a 3.5 star rating. In this volume we mostly follow the adventures of Julius, seeing the kinds of things he went through over the years. I kind of understand the intent, where you want to pass a lot of time by until present day but don't want to zoom in on the main character's progress either because nothing much happened or because you want to keep the surprises for later. But since we know Julius's fate, the feeling of "I don't care that much" just starts to creep in. And that's why I didn't particularly enjoy this volume. It was fun to see Sophia's perspective on some things and it was fun to see a few incidents from Julius's angle, but overall, I just didn't really care that much.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surreal book in which the characters are sane and reasonable.... also its focus is on a character that I relegated to inspirational support for Schlain.

I don't know why this was written and I would consider it optional for anyone interested in the actual spider story.

... it dose make you hate the villain more though... and it did improve my disposition of Julius slightly, but unless he's coming back in a later volume I still fail to understand why I need to know his backstory so completely.

[Amelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second star I give this book is kind. I give it two stars because it is still well written, and there are some fun interludes. However, it is a pure unbridled filler containing mentions and cameos of the series's main characters.
The author admits this in the afterword. If you really wanted something that offers lots of backstory of what is going on with side characters and ALMOST nothing to the plot other than something the author slipped into the book's last pages, this is the book to you.

But I personally feel this is a book to skip in an otherwise amazing series.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A large portion of this volume is spent developing characters that, as far as the audience is concerned, are doomed. We know from earlier novels with portions later in the series chronologically that several of them will not survive.

This level of development, while somewhat welcome in fleshing out elements of the cast that were footnotes at best, comes at the cost of seeing many viewpoint chapters from the perspective of more interesting and more plot-central characters.

As a result this is the least compelling of the volumes I've read thus far.

[Brian Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty Off Brand

I feel like the author needed a break and let one of his fans write some fanfic for a contest and then stuffed it into a book as a side story. Julius and Shun, the heroes, are some of the most boring characters ever written, and I used to hate when they spoiled an anime episode with their appearance, and now Julius spoils a whole book. Even the very small Sophia chapters seemed so off that I'm sure this was not written by the original author, or he was very drunk or sick at the time.

[Skyler Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing in the book was really well thought out and provided more context to other characters in the story, however there were times where the immersion broke when realizing that most of the characters being developed were already dead some volumes ago. I suppose it gave more detail to Hyrince’s position and feelings, as well as good development to Aurel and the kidnappings, but I couldn’t help but feel it broke apart the story between volume 10 and what I’ve read so far in Volume 12.

Edit: After finishing volume 12 this book adds a lot more to the series than I originally thought. I had given this book 3 out of five stars originally, and i do think as a stand alone in the series it merits that, however in the context of the series I am giving it 4 stars because without this volume the events in volume 12 would not be nearly as impactful. DO NOT skip over this book, it would be a disservice to the author, the series, and yourself.

[Marycatlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Within two sentences I wondered if this had been machine translated. This book lacks any transitions or sequels between scenes, and seems very abrupt and jerky. I couldn't finish two pages. It completely lacks dialog tags. While cartoons graphic novels don't need them, this books does.

This is book 11 in a very popular series, so I must be missing something.

[Chwayita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Argh. Get back to the Spider. Who wants a rich and developed world and atmosphere if it means having to suffer through the dullest characters ever? Half kidding, there is an increasing amount of declining protagonist presence in these later volumes and I don't like it. The story is still compelling though and exciting.

[Adel Waheed · Rating 5 out of 5]

This iteration in the So I'm a Spider series was different from any of the previous ones. This is because this volume focused on telling the story of a boy by the name of Julius in his younger years aged 12-21. Actually the main protagonist of the series, White, was not even given a single chapter. Overall I really liked the story because it was a nice change from the usual.

[Nagendra Kumar Yadav T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bittersweet. From Julius POV. Kind of reminded me about Black Widow movie, where it would've had more impact if this volume came just before/just right after Julius death. I still hope that he is alive, but considering the way the author has done for some of the characters like Tiva, and some of the themes from vol 11, I think Julius has really died.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little different but still awesome

Even though there's is no first person spider action this book it is still really good on expanding the universe and timeline. Awesome book as usual!