Trivia / Blattodea

---

• Author's Saving Throw: Back in 2016, the author remarked in the afterword for the final Arachnid volume that Alice became an Invincible Hero second to none and as such was unsuitable to be the protagonist of the planned sequel. In the end of that story, Alice was already nerfed by the loss of her Kumoito and apparently not being able to concentrate as well anymore. She appears more vulnerable in Blattodea and has to share the spotlight with newcomer Chiyuri while also not losing her overall badassery or dignity the way Dinoponera does. It is also implied in the afterword for Blattodea volume 1 that Alice will face powerful opponents based around bugs that prey on, parasite or are simply superior to spiders in general.
• The Bechdel Test: Actually passes at the first opportunity, when Chiyuri fights Setsuna and they trash talk each other, bond over being Sailor Moon fans and talk about how lonely Setsuna is before she leaves to Shouran High to fight Alice.
• Blooper: Multiple chapters had noticeable oversights in their original releases that were for the most part fixed on the collected volumes.
  • A really odd change is both Alice and Kabutomushi being depicted without the battle damage from Arachnid at the time Alice was saved from being killed by Yoriko: Kabutomushi had been slashed and Alice isn't supposed to have her usual blazer and pantyhose on (she suffered a Shameful Strip and stole Sara's uniform afterwards), and only a single flashback panel copy-pasted from Arachnid portrays the spider-girl in that state. Then on chapter 5, Gokiburi is also drawn with her missing blazer on the same page she's correctly depicted without it. On three pages the artist also forgets to depict Kabutomushi with tights.
  • There are several other errors like that in multiple chapters. Chiyuri's antennae and the turtleneck on Dinoponera's undershirt sometimes disappear and reappear in the same page. At one point Dinoponera is left knocked out while she's topless, just to appear in the same spot and time but instantly fully clothed again a couple chapters later.
  • Volume 5 had multiple unfixed instances of Dinoponera being incorrectly portrayed with her Clothing Damage in flashbacks to the Arachnid Hunt, Alice wearing her blazer on a panel of a page in which she isn't supposed to be wearing it and even the loop on Dinoponera's shirt being transparent at one point seemingly because the illustrator forgot to set a layer on before publishing the redrawn page!
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: As is the norm for manga sales, each volume has a set of bonus illustration cards for purchasing them in different Japanese stores during their release month. Those are difficult to obtain afterwards and are very rarely scanned and uploaded online.
• No Export for You: Since 2009, no installment of Arachnid ever made it all the way to America in physical form, with an official online English translation for both Arachnid and Caterpillar only happening in 2022. Even then, they seem to be in no hurry to translate either Choubu no Shinobi or Blattodea.
• Schedule Slip: After a delayed launch, the series had multiple breaks and split chapters in the COVID-19 era due to various reasons.
  • The manga was originally announced towards the end of 2018 for a 2019 release. Nearly a year later, it was confirmed for a January 2020 release with Blattodea as a "tentative" title.
  • Chapter 4 missed its May 2020 release date with no warning, and a couple days later the illustrator explained it was due to health concerns. A bit ironic considering the author's Killing Bites was also in a break due to its illustrator's own health issues.
  • Another hiatus happened on September 2020 due to data loss from the illustrator having hardware troubles. Also, some chapters have been released in two parts — something previously unseen in the series.
  • The series also skipped April 2022 without warning, though the illustrator did mention on his Twitter that he had a lot of trouble fixing his office's work desk over the month.
  • The staff's work on Kaminaki Sekai no Onee-chan Katsudou since November 2022 naturally required taking breaks on Blattodea as well. By this point, they have settled on making each individual chapter, with few exceptions, around only 20 pages long.
  • The series went on break on December 2023 due to health concerns, as did the Kamikatsu spinoff chapter for the month. It was the same for February 2024.
• Sequel Gap: Downplayed; Arachnid ended in 2015, but also relevant is Caterpillar which ended in 2018 and to a lesser extent the Choubu no Shinobi spinoff that ended in 2019.
• Trolling Creator: The marketing for the series' launch and the prologue are entirely focused on former protagonist Alice, with an appearance by Hanakamakiri at the end. The most obvious interpretation of the title "Blattodea" was that Megumi "Gokiburi" Oki would get promoted to protagonist, but instead the story introduces a different roach-girl named Chiyuri.
• What Could Have Been: Dinoponera was supposed to be missing her skirt in the volume 5 cover like in the story proper, but likely due to censorship they settled on her showing cleavage from Clothing Damage instead. The original artwork in its full resolution was posted as a New Years gift on the illustrator's Twitter account.
• Working Title: "Blattodea" was curiously given as a tentative title a short time before it was published. Some news sources on Twitter were also using "Arachnid 2" as a hashtag, presumably for clarity in its marketing.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: In a roundtable with other Gangan Joker writers, Murata said he was writing Blattodea on a chapter by chapter basis.

---