English Dub Review: So I’m a Spider, So What? “The Hero, and the Demon Lord?”

Overview

The Spider-Lady encounters a new monster as she makes her way through the magma-filled middle layers of the labyrinth. She finds herself outclassed in every category except speed, in a hopelessly one-sided conflict! Making use of her new skill, she searches for a way to turn the battle around…



Our Take

This episode primarily worked as a “David vs Goliath” scenario. Despite Spider-Lady being outmatched in some way. As a person who appreciates character awakenings and immense growth in power spurred by conflict or an innate desire to protect, I most of the time like some serious shit going down. But this spider show has thrown my entire perspective on what makes an epic power-up into new realms of appreciation in unexpected ways.

Spider-Lady also managed to unlock the ability to successfully control a mental part of herself that feels reminiscent of the Disney movie “Inside Out”, which is probably going to lend to more mental gymnastics that make this show fun to watch when the spider is on screen. If she already had mental gymnastics with herself all the time, both in combat and outside, I can’t imagine the discussions the storytelling could potentially pull. As for the human side of the story’s proceedings, after hearing Shin talk about his hero big brother it was good to see Julius in action. Facing that strong completely unrelated nightmare spider barely beating it but only after the demon Lord stepped in and straight-up murdered the creature. Since she’s been promoted a decent amount I’m guessing we’ll see more demon Lord soon.

Overall, this was a passable episode with character progression and new character designs mostly for the Spider-Lady herself due to how much she’s developed during the course of the plot. There’s a lot of nasty monsters down there and it should be interesting to see how she’ll encounter them with her newly acquired skills. As for the post-credits scene, it also looks like the human side of the plot could have actual Intrigue for once, but who knows how it’ll play out in future episodes…