WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 18 of So I'm a Spider, So What?, "You Guys are Kind of Awful, huh?," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
One of the year's surprise isekai hits, So I'm a Spider continues to weave an unusual path through the genre's traditional story beats. One such trapping is the reincarnation process itself. The fact that the title character, the nameless protagonist (also known to fans as "Kumoko") has been reborn as a spider -- or, Small Lesser Taratect, to be exact -- is trend-bucking enough. So much so that one other unusual detail of that rebirth is easily overlooked: she is literally rebirthed, introduced as a hatchling in the Great Elroe Labyrinth who escapes her cannibalistic newborn siblings.
Though probably not unheard of, going through an actual birthing process to arrive in another world is a peculiar one for isekai. Reincarnated people usually emerge fully-formed in a body (or sometimes object) of a similar age to their original one. Episode 18 of So I'm a Spider confirms that this isn't the case for the anime. Not only has our protagonist grown from an infant to at least an adolescent throughout the series, but the other humanoid reincarnations have, too.
This detail comes to light when we're made privy to the POV of the vampire baby, Sophia, that the titular spider has been guarding. Having made it out of the labyrinth in Episode 15, she quickly stumbled across Sophia's family being attacked by a group of elven assassins, and, for whatever reason, felt compelled to intervene. The latest episode puts the family back on her radar again while also replaying the daring rescue mission from the baby's perspective. What's particularly alarming is that Sophia, as a reincarnation, has all the self-awareness and life experience of her previous existence.
Whatsmore, when the episode switches to Schlain, the new, reluctant reincarnated Hero of this world, a flashback to his childhood reminds us that... well, he had a childhood. What this all implies is that those who are reincarnated into the world of So I'm a Spider have to cope with being trapped, for the first few years of their lives, inside bodies that are small and frail and be openly infantalized; unable to do anything about it other than wait until time has taken its course. While our nameless protagonist appears to have matured in no time at all, her monster physiology may greatly differ from that of a human, vampire or elf.
Living the pampered life of a cared-for baby or child might sound like a nice idea, but the fear in Sophia's eyes when she was under attack from the Elves -- knowing how helpless she was to defend herself -- really says it all. As it turns out, not even being reborn as a noble like Schlain or an immortal like Sophia is that good of a fate in So I'm a Spider. At least not to begin with.
