~Story~
The setting of the story is generic, the highschool girl Alice being tormented by her uncle everyday, until one day she encounters him murdered by an assassin called "Kumo". After falling unconscious, she wakes up in the very house of the assassin which she will be raised by. While this may seem somewhat interesting setting and character-wise, it doesn't expand on that, rather it just focuses mainly in the action scenes. There is also smut and sex scenes present, which had no purpose in the manga at all, being fan service its goal, which was quite a drawback.
The main problem with the manga is its story and goal: readers are abruptly presented with the assassin and for no apparent reason he decides to train Alice as one. Furthermore, it seems that the protagonist must be killed for a very lackluster reason by a mysterious organization. While story progresses, there is no real goal presented to the reader, rather mainly focusing on the afore-mentioned action scenes as well as the introduction of quite a cast of characters. From the several plot twists that happen throughout the story, most are not hinted at in any way, while at the same time being generic. There are significant issues with the characters as well, but to this I will come back later.
The redeeming aspect of the manga are the battle scenes are interesting to see and how these develop; however, it is soon apparent that these fights can be rather tensionless, as the story is mainly a survival game being Alice its focus, and thus naturally there will be no danger for this character. The fact that sudden power ups were on the order of the day didn't really help it either. There is also the fact of the different abilities of the characters: these have their foundation in the different insects that roam this world, such as spiders, cockroaches, beetles, you name it.
It is certainly interesting to learn all the different abilities of these insects, yet its implementation on the characters are rather unbelievable. Ranging from having glandular secretion of fluids all around the body, or having organs protected by iron plates are such examples. Although amusing, it breaks a bit with the immersion of the story. Nevertheless, it can make fights unpredictable in some cases, particularly when affecting the secondary characters.
~Characters~
The cast of characters in Arachnid is big, especially considering the amount of episodes released: some are interesting, yet the vast majority are archetypes, being demented ones the biggest portion. There is also another problem linked to this: all the different characters are introduced in a very short period to maintain the manga interesting. This has as consequence that these are severely underdeveloped, in addition to reader not having enough time to care at all for the characters. The fact that these had infinite amount of toughness didn't enhance those either. The various motives of these are very lackluster as well, which is a negative aspect.
The protagonist herself is quite the stereotype, being a typical lead who is caring, kind and just. In addition she is quite the overpowered character as well, possessing a natural ability to concentrate immensely, enabling her to learn at an unbelievable speed. The supporting characters and its interactions with these are dull and unrealistic, charters behaviour changing when the plot demanded it.
~Art~
The art of Arachnid was well done, having a consistent background which was detailed enough: good shading techniques, albeit not outstanding. The panel placements were overall done well, giving the reader a sense of continuity to the narrative. The character's design was varied, yet every femalemale character had similar body builds, being adolescent and huge bodies the respective characteristics. Battle scenes are well drawn, yet never really stood out.
~Enjoyment~
Arachnid was a somewhat enjoyable read, yet it failed miserably in the story and character department, being a goal-less story and generic characters the main culprits. The action scenes, in particular the character's abilities related to insects was its redeeming feature, as it was quite informative, albeit exaggerated in some cases. The fights on its own were fun to see, yet it will become soon apparent that these are tensionless. So do I recommend this manga? Not really, unless you can ignore the lackluster story and characters, or are interested to see the comparisons with insects; otherwise I would stay away from it.
Thank you for reading.
