Spider-Man: Octopus Girl
Spider-Man: Octo-Girl

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

DISCLAIMER: While overall I recommend this manga, the biggest issue by far is that it relies on the reader being somewhat familiar with comic book lore for Doctor Octopus. If you've never heard of Superior Spider-Man, then this manga might get a little bit confusing. If you have genuinely zero interest in Spider-Man, then this is probably a skip, but if you're in the Venn diagram overlap of fans who like Spider-Man and manga, then Spider-Man: Octopus Girl is designed to precision strike that niche.

This manga feels like a Nickelodeon or Saturday morning cartoon in the best way possible, it's a cute all-ages ... story with great art. If you know or are a kid who is into Spider-Man, this is an easy recommendation. While I do think older readers can enjoy it (I certainly did), the story appears to be written with children in mind as the target audience. That's not inherently a downside, but if you're looking for something more in line with adult-oriented Marvel comics or even other mainstream Shonen, then you're not really going to get that here. This is more like Dexter's Laboratory than Dandadan if that makes sense. If you grew up watching western cartoons or early 2000s anime dubs, or if you hold any fondness for that period of TV, then this manga is the peak of that flavor of storytelling.

So I recommend this manga very highly, but with the caveat that this is good wholesome comic book fun and if that's not your thing then you might want to try something else. If anything I've mentioned so far is a deal breaker then this is probably not for you, but if all this sounds like a good time then 100% give it a chance. Sometimes Saturday morning cartoon fun is what you need, and this will hit the spot with style. At the very least, if you need to buy a kid some manga as a gift for a birthday or holiday, this series is certainly a good one to consider.

This manga is somewhat strange. I'd think I was reading a quirky fan made doujin if I wasn't seeing Shounen Jump+ listed as the company serializing it.

So this story revolves around Otto pulling stunts in a last ditch effort to save his life after a mishap during a fight with Spider-Man in New York, and in the process he ends up sending his consciousness into the body of a girl. A middle schooler. In Japan. This is basically isekai no matter how you stretch it. And a lot about this manga won't make sense so you should probably view this manga with the same ... mindset as a gag anime.

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) & Otto's normal personalities are dialed down and parodied a bit in order to make this anime spidey fantasy work. The girl Otto is sharing a body with (Otoha) is as nice as can be, so Otoha's good & Otto's bad personality often clash when deciding to to deal with elements of Otoha's life such the bullying as well as clashing with villains & various alternate variations of known figures in Spider-Man's mythos.

Side characters consist of the girls who bully Otoha as well as introducing a new Spider figure said to be from another universe. Hasn't brrn too mich to write home about so far, but I want to hope this new Spider figure gets fleshed out more by the end of this story's run.

It doesn't feel like must-read material, but it's somewhat interesting enough for me to want to keep following it. And as I mentioned, you shouldn't go into this expecting a fully serious Spider-Man story. It's silly similarly to an OK comedy movie, but it still has time to concoct a decent enough narrative. I'll update this review again once it's completed.

This is a manga series serving as a Spiderverse spinoff, I believe. It follows Doc Ock getting isekai'd into the body of a Japanese schoolgirl, making a split personality type of thing. Sadly, the series was quite underwhelming. Doc Ock's motivation as a villain here felt too righteous than what I expected but I'm sure there's probably a storyline somewhere that did the same thing. The characters are not all that engaging. Otoha, the girl harboring Ock's mind in her body, is probably the only likeable character in the manga, mainly because she's a bundle of sunshine. Although, she's still a pretty "safe" character and ... her arc is not all that compelling because of it.

Taka is our other main character serving as this universe's Vulture. Her arc also felt middling despite it encompassing the entire series. I just didn't really connect with her and her teenage angst which felt forced in some ways. Other characters like Maruko and Deirogi had their own arcs and they were also both very bad, particularly Deirogi's. I did not care for her becoming a less selfish person. She was a bully character who was just an annoying thorn with no screentime and the arc's purpose was to make us care for her, albeit unsuccessfully. Maruko's arc also came out of nowhere and both generally feel like they just had to pad out volumes or something.

The appearance of Superior Spider gave me a bit of hope that we were gonna get something interesting but the presentation of how he was handled after his introduction was not at all noteworthy. He was just there and the same goes for Sakura Spider, whom was even more "just there". The consistent streak of mid never stopped even when we got to the final arc. Otoha's teacher became crazy for literally no reason. Dunno why they did that. Not to sound like i'm thirsting for edge but I think this story would've been better if it was a little darker. Cut out everyone else except for the Ocks and the main thing with Otoha and Taka. A lot of unnecessary fat for characters nobody's gonna care for. Also, Superior and Sakura should've frenched. That is all. Octo-Girl gets a 5/10.