@vangoz It's very far behind in two ways.
For one, the light novel is (obviously) ahead of the manga by several volumes. But on top of that, the novels covers the classmates since it's first book while the manga skipped them.
Meaning that, on top of being behind, the manga is currently missing 40% of the content of the light novels.
When the anime released, i was so happy they added other classmates (since my jp friend bought the LN and lend it to me)... to bad the manga skipped those part @w@
@vangoz To be fair they weren't entirely removed as there's a few chapters with them, but for an even more obscure reason they made those only available in physical copies of the manga. Meaning that anyone who only reads this online wouldn't known about it. But even then, there's only 4 of said chapters so far, and the anime will probably have shown more of them by the second episode.
The main reason I can think of why they skipped them is in part to avoid spending months without the protagonist (with the current release pace of the manga, that'd probably be the case), but also because
they only meet Kumoko several years later down the line, meaning that it's arguably possible to have their part later instead.
However, doing so changes the expectations of the story. The anime makes it clear from its first episode that our protagonist is not the sole reincarnation, and future episodes should provide parts of the world-building and narrative that we simply can't get (and still haven't gotten in the manga) from our spider's perspective. Just like in the novel, doing so allows the readers/watchers to understand that while our spider struggling through the dungeon is currently the center of attention, something bigger is coming (and that their stories are actually intertwined without them even realizing it, minor example that will likely be covered in Episode 2:
remember the egg the soldiers took back in the early chapters? That was the dragon girl
)
The manga technically works without them for now, but even then as of this chapter I'd say this is where knowing things about the surface (and specifically elves) would help paint a better picture of what's really going on.
@Xian_Sama it should be book 6. You might have to reread from book 1, however, since the portion of the manga I've read leaves out the S-type chapters, which are important to the story.
@Pulse456851 @Xian_Sama
It's book 5 actually, but yeah like Pulse said if you start there, you'll be in the middle of the parallel story that the manga skipped and likely be very confused as to what's going on.
The manga already reached the arcs that need the information presented on the other students chapters.
Also it doesn't help that novel Kumoko and manga Kumoko are almost 2 different characters.
Difference between personalities (marked as spoiler to not make angry the mods)
Aside from the first humans she killed which were only by accident, all the humans Kumoko kills later were 100% on purpose and didn't felt even a silver of remorse.
Fortress Destruction
-Novel: The only witnesses have passed on to the next life by now, making it the perfect crime. The statute of limitations’ll be long over before you get any proof!
Smell ya later, suckers!
-Manga: I.. I didn't mean to... This is... Umm... It's not my fault!!! *Runs comically away*
Carriage
- Novel: In the novel Kumoko said that she was ready to kill the carriage group (including the woman and child) too if they tried to attack her and that that would actually be the best case scenario 'cuz it would mean more EXP to her.
Also, let's not mention how Kumoko actually says out loud that she eats humans and actually enjoys it.
@lessermonk
At volume 1 for the side story, the current volume for the main story that the manga is following is volume 5, BUT the side story's climax and ending is right at this volume. Side story helps with the pacing of the first five volumes.
Also if the last chapter felt kinda over kill with introducing Sophia, its because Sophia showed up in volume 3 in the side story,
and is one of the main "antagonists" of the side story. The fact that Kumo got a head start ahead of her classmates was a huge reveal for the side story back when she talked to D for the second time.
Seriously, you could just skip the main chapters and just read the side story chapters, but start at volume one please.
@linkhuesitos15
I don't know about the personality difference. Her reason for not wanting to take the corpses with her is almost word for word the same as in the LN compared to the manga.
I munch on one of the robber corpses I absconded with.
I didn’t actually intend to take them with me, but one of my Parallel Minds picked them up.
Just stuffed ’em into my Spatial Storage with Spatial Magic.
I guess I don’t really mind, but I’m a little surprised that my Parallel Minds did something I wasn’t planning on doing at all.
Parallel Minds is a skill that essentially makes copies of my consciousness, sort of like an intentionally induced multiple personality disorder.
But the copies have the same thought processes as I do, so there’s more of me.
All of them are the real me, with no particular distinction between one or the other.
Together, these split-up copies form my mind, my consciousness.
At least, that’s what I thought. But after they were away fighting Mother for so long, my Parallel Minds’ behavior has been surprising me.
Grabbing these corpses is one example.
I fully intended to leave the corpses there, yet the Parallel Minds collected them like it was the most natural thing in the world.
And when I asked why they did that, the response was: [Why in the world wouldn’t we do that?]
The other Parallel Minds agreed, so I was the only dissenter.
