The best way to describe this manga is like a fire. A newly lit fire, struggling to keep burning, gets stronger and stronger, and it burns itself out, it peaked but it definitely want at the end, it died, hard, like a car crashing into another car and swerving off a bridge
The 6-7 first chapters are excellent. A good mix of action, emotions, etc.
It is the dark tale of an assassin, refusing to kill his target, but instead raising her as his daughter (so they're both in trouble, because he belongs to a super dangerous organisation), and giving her an intense training (so intense you're not even sure one of them won't die in the process, actually!). So he teaches her plenty of super cool spider-like techiques, and it's quite epic. =)
Then the pacing completely changes, and little by little the story becomes mostly fillers with little actual progress of the plot. There'll be lots of combats, some lewd situations, then plenty of combats & some lewd situations again.
The end is utter crap:
THE WORLD IS BEING TAKEN OVER BY RAPIST ZOMBIES!
I think that says it all (maybe it could be interesting in some mangas. But not here, and not the way it's recounted). And the explanations about the fate of the various characters are rather sloppy.
To redeem the manga, the combats themselves are entertaining, and the biological explanations about arthropods are super interesting. There are some fun moments and truly unexpected events, and the characters are not all devoid of interesting motives & feelings.
To sum up:
1) Read the first volume. Absolutely! It is worth it =)
2) You can read what follows if you find it entertaining, but don't expect too much of the plot! You may find it very disappointing :'-(
3) You'll learn plenty of cool things about arthropods in this manga! =)
There's also a spin-off manga named Caterpillar. The beginning is good too. It also loses some quality at some point but I'd say not as much as Arachnid. (Caterpillar isn't completely translated yet, so we may even hope there'll be a nice end this time) So give a try too!
The first chapter of the sequel just released today in japan.
I added the manga ( Blattodea) already, so let's hope someone will translate it once enough chapters are available.
@Hejti hmmm Well other than some sexy poses or cloths ripped in combat I don't really remember anything serious. There are like 2 instances of naughty stuff happening but it has nothing to do with the mc for the most part.
I had stopped reading this since it started to get stale and finished it now. It started strong, continued fine until the half and then things went downhill. It's not a bad read, but things start to get stupid halfway. I don't understand why things have to get rapey for shock value tho, it's overblown and overused.
This is what you call a rise and fall of one hell of a good manga. It really is a deception when you go deeper into it. Not one that makes you hate the entire manga (even if this is really bad in the end, it's still something that managed to make it pretty much decent, even kind of good at the end) but still, it subverted my expectations... In a dissappointing way.
First of, the story. The premise itself is one that I loved, with dynamics and interesting parts that seemed... Believable and not totally pulled out of one's arse. After that, we have the rest of the story clouded in mystery and grim stuff. It's fine at first but the rest of the story will go "Meh" in the second half with plot twists, both good and bad. Some are quite easy to see through (
At least, for me it was easy to see the betrayal of the Queen Ant Senpai because NO F*CKING NORMAL PERSON imo could adapt to the idea of having COLD BLOODED SERIAL KILLERS, PSYCHOPATHS AND THE LIKES in their school and not even ask about anything... Which probably explain why I kind of suspected the "Bully" to be the "Boss" from the start
) while others are pretty hard to even grasp fully (
Cue "Last Surprise" after discovering the current right hand of the Boss was Alice's father. I actually was surprised at that
). But yeah...
Fight scenes are pretty good. Each of the characters showing the personality of each "Insect" with impressive details.
The characters are all symbolized by an Insect that define their fighting styles and personalities to an extent. Simply talking about Kumo is already enough to understand to an extent what she is. When they display their impressives and inhumans abilities, the story also shows that it is related to to their "Insect Totem" with a little explanation accompanying it. It really shows how far the author is going (I already read until chapter 34 of Himenospia, from the same guy so I saw it coming but still, Good job). Also, it made me realize I hate bugs. Especially their detailled drawings. I already hated spiders to the point of a phobia but now...
Now spoilers on the last part of the manga.
The end is underwhelming, with just a standard "Ah, everyone is a zombie that just thinks of raping and killing" and "Actually the Boss want you to come to the Dark side because she loves you" and "I'm an immortal mastermind that worked in the shadow of the world for more than a century" (Basically the wasp queen from Himenospia again...)
Some other characters literally never got mentioned afterwards like Caterpillar (at least, she received a spin off but still) and some others that I don't really want to remember because.... Why would I remember if the story just push a end to them in ONE PANEL after passing a part of the whole manga followed them?
I'll probably read the sequel but I'm not expecting much.
In short, this story is fine reading. The start is probably the best part and the middle will kind of get chaotic and/or annoying as the story pass on but I can still recommend it.
Now, if you excuse myself, I'll go try to forget about all the spiders that are now haunting my mind and keeping me up at night from that manga.
At some point I was thinking, so, that's what Cinthya the mission could have been if it hadn't devolved into a shounen battle manga. That was until Arachnid did the same.... An entire volume is dedicated to a single combat between two guys that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot. And it's always the same I punch you with my brand new technique and you wreck me with your not technique....
It's like watching Endless Eight all over again, except endless eight had a plot. And it was shorter, too.
Well, finished it, and indeed, it sucks.
First part is good, and then it's the descent to hell. not for the character, but for the reader.
The plot is introduced as an organization killing people and stealing their identity, the main character is told she should keep her identity and try to to destroy the organization. Sounds like a plot, right? yeah? Well forget that.
Remember what I said about Cinthya the mission above? It's exactly like that, the plot quickly disappear and it becomes a mess of fighting and obvious plot twists, and the "story" only and finally moves on for the 4 or 5 last chapters....
Really shit ending with a bunch of pointless heelturns. Half the cast just disappears too. It feels like the author got sick of his own creation by the end and just wanted to end it in the most melodramatic way he could.
Masterpiece, right through to the end. Sometimes you just really want to enjoy what is pretty much just a battle royale, and this one definitely delivers.
a great start and interesting concept which has that bit of dark and the good classic feeling to it. but the aftermath of the first 10 chaps or so could've been differently executed, because it's still GOOD but my main prob is just what @lilypadlim said, and the ending just left such a bad after taste.
IN SHORT, There IS epic and cool stuff, that just got mixed with the lot that causes problem, as such it kept carrying great potential TILL the very end, wich was disappointingly not made in value.
Not gonna lie, from volume 1 I got my mary sue senses tingling.
I'm cool with the superpower autism thing.
I'm cool with Alice getting recruited by a hitman who disobeyed his boss for it.
I'm cool with her having some talent.
But getting better than a veteran underworld leyend in what is apparently two weeks of free time sparring really pushes suspension of disbelief. Also, she fired a gun on a school, in japan. That somehow doesnt come up afterwards.
And I'm cool with the flashy speshul weapon knife on a string but the kind of shonen bs it can pull fits more on a fantasy series. Like, sure it's cutproof and fiat 'indestructible' but wrapping it a few times on your arm is not armor.
It's only the first volume for me but I think imma bail out
