So I'm a Spider, So What? - Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

[Kraco]

It's interesting the humans are already so high level, with so many skills. I guess merely growing up and training, going to school, and such gave them all that. They couldn't have done much else since this trip as well was only supposed to have weak monsters present. Kumoko has had to defeat real, relatively strong monsters to get where she is now, yet she's not necessarily stronger than the students based on stats alone. She might have weirder skills and a whole lot more battle experience, though.

but how does the teacher even know about all the students? apparently she knows about kumoko, too? and then wont tell the others about her, for "reasons" :/

Or she knows about everyone on the humanoid side, plus the dragon that's pretty obvious hanging around them. So, by the process of elimination she would know the rest have to belong to the monster side. This would mean she merely knows some of them were reborn as monsters but not exactly what they are.

also, it jeopardizes all the grinding and skill unlocking when there's some person that just randomly listens to players' requests and gives them what they want ... or might take away stuff unfairly. Hope it's being used carefully.

Not necessarily. Kumoko still has to grind. If there had been an evolving skill after Appraisal 10, she would have got it. But she still needed Appraisal 10. Unless there are other conditions, I'd suppose anyone with Appraisal 10 & Detection 10 will also get the new next level skill. And some juicy Taboo to go along with it. However, it's also possible few would fulfill the additional conditions, such as Taboo already at a certain level.

At the end of the day the new world is what it is, and we are only learning it bit by bit. It was very game-like from the beginning, though, so nothing happening here is a huge surprise.

[DarthEnderX]

I gotta say, I already love the interactions between the brains. This show needed that.

I'm excited for he going full Beholder with 8 eye beams!

At the end of the day the new world is what it is, and we are only learning it bit by bit. It was very game-like from the beginning, though, so nothing happening here is a huge surprise.

Lots of isekai take place in game-like worlds without actually BEING video games. Slime, KonoSuba, Shield Hero, Girls in a Dungeon, etc.

[Kraco]

Lots of isekai take place in game-like worlds without actually BEING video games. Slime, KonoSuba, Shield Hero, Girls in a Dungeon, etc.

Yeah, but it still seems pretty funny that an isekai with lots of game-like elements would by some kind of subversion of what we know if it actually was a game, regardless of if it seemed to be a reincarnation/summoning isekai, not something entered as a game originally. It's far more strange, in my opinion, to have the usual game elements in what ought to be a fully functional, steady fantasy world. That being said, if the game world is your whole reality, is it still relevant to call it a game world, despite all the weird things like interfaces, experience points, system voice, etc?

[Ryllharu]

but how does the teacher even know about all the students? apparently she knows about kumoko, too? and then wont tell the others about her, for "reasons" :/

I would actually think more that the "Adminstrator" like whoever this 'D' is, cursed her, Cassandra style. She may know exactly where they all are, has been granted some degree of power to rebaseline them, but if she actually says anything other than, "It's a secret-desu~" they wouldn't believe her anyway. The evasive and roundabout way she was saying things when Schlain and Katia were probing her made it come off that way to me.

She is their former teacher. Perhaps she was granted with some powers to watch over them like she used to, since she said she feels responsible for them still. Kumoko bitched and got a new superpower, I bet if Oka had begged, or sobbed, or whined hard enough, she got a similar but doomed power.

Go too far over whatever "line" there is, and Oka is able to use her supervisor powers.

Kumoko is arguably much farther over the taboo line, she just hit Level 8 Taboo. I guess we'll find out how "taboo" being on the demons' side is, or if Kumoko and Fei really are across the line all on their own.

edit:
I guess the next question after that is will Kumoko and Fei get so powerful that Oka can't do anything to them because she'd have to physically or magically stop them first?

[Munsu]

but how does the teacher even know about all the students? apparently she knows about kumoko, too? and then wont tell the others about her, for "reasons" :/

Obviously, it's a secret.

[Buffalobiian]

And yet despite all this she hasn't managed to figure out spell casting yet.

Vision powers were pretty cool but.

[David75]

Since there's a video-game background looming around, it could be elf-sensei was playing said game prior to the collective death of that classroom ?
Also, numbers were only stating that one classroom. But since the incident felt like a huge explosion, or at least a wide area/volume catastrophe, the whole school body is dead I guess.
Would it be possible there's a comp beetween classrooms ? Former teachers being captains ? Or if not a comp, teachers have meetings and think strategies to find their students, protect them in that new world and groom them so that they can survive longer ?

[DarthEnderX]

Since there's a video-game background looming around, it could be elf-sensei was playing said game prior to the collective death of that classroom ?
Also, numbers were only stating that one classroom. But since the incident felt like a huge explosion, or at least a wide area/volume catastrophe, the whole school body is dead I guess.

Or they aren't dead at all and just got, like, sucked into a virtual world.

Them dying in "a mysterious flash of light" is a hell of a lot less conclusive than the usual visit from truck-kun.

It's far more strange, in my opinion, to have the usual game elements in what ought to be a fully functional, steady fantasy world.

I completely agree and kinda hate it when they do that.

The title should be "I'm a spider, so what?" or "I'm indeed a spider, got a problem with that?" to make it sound more natural.

"Yeah I'm a spider. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?!"

[MFauli]

Btw was has always bothered me: Isn't the english title of this anime, like, REALLY bad? "So I'm a spider, so what?". Why is there a second "so" at the beginning? Wouldn't it sound much better if it was "I'm a Spider, so what?"?

English isn't my native language, so maybe someone else can chime in and say something. But to me, that "so" in the beginning sounds like a bad amateur translation.

[Kraco]

Btw was has always bothered me: Isn't the english title of this anime, like, REALLY bad? "So I'm a spider, so what?". Why is there a second "so" at the beginning? Wouldn't it sound much better if it was "I'm a Spider, so what?"?

English isn't my native language, so maybe someone else can chime in and say something. But to me, that "so" in the beginning sounds like a bad amateur translation.

I would barely know enough Japanese to buy ramen in Japan, so I have to ask: Are the "ga" and "ka" in the Japanese name related to your question? Like, could you say it repeats something in a similar manner to how the English title repeats "so"? If they are, then I'd understand the English title, although otherwise I fully agree with you. I guess, generally speaking, it's trashy looking on purpose.

Btw, there's another isekai series (no anime), called "Murabito Desu ga Nani ka?" Its English translation doesn't have the first "So", it's just: "I am a villager, so what?"

[MFauli]

I would barely know enough Japanese to buy ramen in Japan, so I have to ask: Are the "ga" and "ka" in the Japanese name related to your question? Like, could you say it repeats something in a similar manner to how the English title repeats "so"? If they are, then I'd understand the English title, although otherwise I fully agree with you. I guess, generally speaking, it's trashy looking on purpose.

Btw, there's another isekai series (no anime), called "Murabito Desu ga Nani ka?" Its English translation doesn't have the first "So", it's just: "I am a villager, so what?"

The "ga" here simply means "although" and the "ka" is the usual question-particle that's usually omitted in spoken Japanese.

"Kumo desu ga" = "Although I'm a spider"
"Nani ka" = "is something?" aka "so what?"

The "so" at the beginning of the english title just sounds bad. Dunno. If you guys don't think it's weird, I guess I'm wrong.

[Munsu]

Btw was has always bothered me: Isn't the english title of this anime, like, REALLY bad? "So I'm a spider, so what?". Why is there a second "so" at the beginning? Wouldn't it sound much better if it was "I'm a Spider, so what?"?

English isn't my native language, so maybe someone else can chime in and say something. But to me, that "so" in the beginning sounds like a bad amateur translation.

Can't say if it's an accurate translation or not, but this little two letter word is very versatile, which can have multiple uses and meanings.

In the context of this sentence, if you read it with a bit of sarcasm makes better sense. Like the first part is like an "Apparently I'm a spider..." like pondering something absurd, then she goes quickly to "so what?" to accept it her happy go lucky way. That's ONE way to look at it.

But it's really not weird from an English standpoint, particularly if we give it a more colloquial use and trying to give it a more comedic inclination.

[David75]

Not a native English speaker, but I understand the "So I'm a spider" as "Oh, I'm a spider" with a notion of surprise. Then counterbalanced by the so what ?, leaning towards "so be it"

[Ryllharu]

Being overly focused on the title of a series where the protagonist gets excited about talking to herself and doing tons of chuuni things.

Nai wa.

[shinta|hikari]

Nai wa.

Weeb.

The title should be "I'm a spider, so what?" or "I'm indeed a spider, got a problem with that?" to make it sound more natural. The two "so"s sounds and reads wrong.

[Ryllharu]

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, a whole lot of you seem to have a particularly strong aversion toward English's many empty or otherwise meaningless reduntant words and phrases that really just don't mean much of anything at the end of the day.

[MFauli]

It's just bad/wrong 🤷*♀️

If it was 'so I'm a spider, so what', i'd expect this in Japanese:

"Saa, kumo desu ga, nani ka?'

[Munsu]

It's just bad/wrong 🤷*♀️

If it was 'so I'm a spider, so what', i'd expect this in Japanese:

"Saa, kumo desu ga, nani ka?'

And since when are Japanese titles translated exactly the same? I mean, the premise of your problem with the title was not that it was translated wrongly, but that it made no sense in English... and on this particular regard, you'd be wrong. It's perfectly fine in English.

#AttackOnTitan

[MFauli]

And since when are Japanese titles translated exactly the same? I mean, the premise of your problem with the title was not that it was translated wrongly, but that it made no sense in English... and on this particular regard, you'd be wrong. It's perfectly fine in English.

#AttackOnTitan

Is it "perfectly fine" though? If I were an English teacher, I'd put a red marker on that first "so" and write a comment next to it saying "try to avoid repeating the same word in the same sentence".

[Munsu]

Is it "perfectly fine" though? If I were an English teacher, I'd put a red marker on that first "so" and write a comment next to it saying "try to avoid repeating the same word in the same sentence".

We're not writing an essay or thesis or anything. It's just a title and a phrase mentioned colloquially just fine. This is not worth the discussion.

I agree with Mfauli. Just removing the first "So" is enough to make it better without losing any accuracy. The translation is lazy.

No one is really disputing that there weren't better alternatives, or that the translation is as accurate as it could be though. The basis of his complaint was that it sounded bad, as in it made no sense in English... as if the first "So" couldn't convey a different meaning than the second one. Or that in English no one can put sentences like that together, particularly colloquially.

The first "So" DOES convey a different meaning, that it had better alternatives? Sure, but that's a matter of taste. For titles, sometimes the repetition is what brings it to life and makes it stand out... kinda like an internal rhyme.

I mean, if all this discussion is simply to lead us to believe that there were better ways about it, then...OK, sure? Good job everyone.