Spider Riders

""Never give up.""

- Hunter

Within the Earth exists the Inner World, created and blessed by a being known as Spirit Oracle. There, a war has been waging between the humans and Insectors (or Invectids). Following the journal of his late grandfather, 13-year-old Hunter Steele finds himself drawn into the Inner World. He soon encounters the independent spider Shadow, who eventually becomes his partner despite their initial attitudes towards each other, as well as the mysterious girl Corona, one of the elite warriors known as Spider Riders, who welcomes Hunter into their team.

Along with Corona, Igneous, Prince Lumen, Princess Sparkle, and the former wanderer Magma, Hunter fights against Mantid and his Insector army, trying the prevent them from collecting the four Oracle Keys.

A rather underrated anime, due to its strange title and premise, a broadcast cut short on American TV, and its genre busting. Despite its inability to generate interest to most serious anime fans, the show did relatively well in Canada, where it was dubbed and funded.

There is also a novel series, online game, and canceled manga as part of the franchise.

"Grasshop: So you finally finished transforming? About time!"
 * A Boy and His X: A boy and his ten-foot spider.
 * A Child Shall Lead Them: Lumen is 12 and Sparkle is 8. There's no king or queen to be mentioned.
 * Action Girl: Corona, Aqune and Sparkle.
 * Audience Surrogate: Hunter, in that he's new to the Inner World, thus things need to be explained to him, as well as viewers.
 * Backup From Otherworld: even though he's dead. The Lost Mariner, also dead, helps the Riders escape an attack at sea.
 * Badass Normal: Stags and Buguese.
 * Bait and Switch Credits: Unlike in the first OP, Hunter never fights against Magma. It's unclear why blood is coming out of Aqune's mask in the 3rd ED.
 * Battle Couple: Hunter and Corona, who consider each other battle partners, and clearly have feeling for each other, though they aren't officially a couple.
 * Beast and Beauty: Buguese and Aqune, in a way.
 * Bee People: The Insectors/Invectids. Though ironically, Mantid is more their "queen" than Beerain.
 * Beginner's Luck: Subverted, in that Hunter begins as a complete loser. In his first fight against a member of the Big Four, it's Corona who deals the final blow. He's also humiliated when fighting Igneous to prove himself as a Spider Rider.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Sparkle.
 * BFS: Stags' sword definitely counts for this one.
 * Bishonen
 * Bloodless Carnage
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Aqune is frequently mind controlled throughout the show, but towards the end.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Lumen.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: There must have been a reason the dub cut a certain scene of Lumen watching Sparkle play and calling her "cute." And that's not the only instance that comes to mind.
 * Bug War: It's there, but very much subverted in that the Insectors are both humanoid and sympathetic.
 * Calling Your Attacks: All the Riders do this.
 * Catch Phrase: "Never give up" is Hunter's phrase in both versions, though his Japanese secondary catch phrase, "It's Alright" (often mimicked by the others as well) was turned to the much cheesier "Arachna Power" in the dub.
 * The Chessmaster: Mantid.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Hunter,.
 * Cosmic Keystone: The Oracle Keys
 * Cry for The Devil:.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Katydid fits into this trope, but Beerain subverts it.
 * Dark Is Not Evil:The spiders themselves, also..
 * Dead All Along:
 * The Lost Mariner.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Shadow.
 * The Determinator: Hunter.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Mantid.  In all fairness he said he'd sufferd MANY losses.
 * And for whatever reason he decided to throw Imma go to the outer world  and take it over in.
 * Dub Text: Hunter and Aqune's promises to each other. Actually, most indication that Hunter had romantic interest in her. The same could probably go for Buguese calling her "my beautiful" and "my sweet." Considering that the dub even went as far as to remove some of the Hunter/Corona, perhaps they just wanted to hook Aqune up with someone.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Stags is seen briefly in the first two episodes, but has no significant role until the 14th
 * The Emperor: Mantid, although the specific term isn't mentioned in the dub..
 * The End of the World As We Know It: Well, just the Inner World
 * Everything's Better With Princesses: Sparkle.
 * Evil Redheads: Beerain
 * Expository Theme Tune: U.S. dub, "Calling All Spider Riders"
 * Expy:
 * Similar to other Bee Train anime(Madlax, Noir), Spider Riders features Corona and Aqune, two girls with no memory of their past, and some sort of connection. Aqune and Madlax even share the same seiyuu.
 * Slate/Grey is debatably an Expy of Petra from the novels, with a gender flip.
 * Facial Markings: The Insectors/Invectids have them. Whether they're genetic or painted is never bought up.
 * Fantastic Racism: Between humans and Insectors/Invectids.
 * Five-Bad Band: Mantid and the Big Four fit this perfectly. I guess that would make Aqune the sixth ranger and Portia team pet.
 * Finishing Move: Any of Hunter's Oracle Key attacks
 * Flying Dutchman: The Lost Mariner.
 * Genre Busting: An action/adventure story with a twist... The Hero riding a Giant Spider! Way cooler than it sounds.
 * Giant Spider
 * Gladiator Games: On several occasions, the Riders are to fight minor Insector soldiers, or Machine-sectors inside a generated "Coliseum."
 * Green-Eyed Monster: At first, Corona refuses to accept as an ally, mostly due to her jealousy of her closeness to Hunter. In turn, Buguese despises Hunter for multiple reasons, one being Aqune's affection toward him.
 * Handsome Lech: Lumen.
 * Heel Face Turn: Applies to.
 * Horrible Judge of Character:.
 * Humongous Mecha: All of the Machine-sector's fit into this,.
 * Idiot Hero: Hunter.
 * Improbable Hairstyle: Igneous.
 * International Coproduction: Produced with Cookie Jar Entertainment in Canada and Bee Train Production Inc. in Japan.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:.
 * Kid Hero: This one basically applies to the whole Spider Rider team.
 * Killer Yoyo: Sparkle's weapon fits perfectly here
 * The Knights Who Say Squee: Magma turns out to be a huge fanboy of Brade/Quake, to the point where the man is somewhat afraid of him.
 * Little Miss Badass: Sure, Sparkle's cute, but if you piss her off, she AND her adorable spider will kick your ass.
 * Lolicon: It's better not to think of the porn of 8-year-old Sparkle out there. 13-year-old Corona and Aqune (whose age was never stated but she can't be much older than Corona) have their fair share as well, but at least they look older. Furthermore, there's more than one way of interpreting Buguese and Aqune's complicated relationship. The dub doesn't help matters.
 * Love Dodecahedron: Beerain-Buguese-Aqune-Hunter-Corona. And Sparkle seems to have a thing for Hunter too. Lumen also hits on Sparkle in the Japanese version, and has declared his true love for Beerain. But he'll fall in love with just about anything female.
 * Love Martyr: Beerain.
 * Love Triangle: Igneous-Elma/Illuma-Toure/Solan..
 * Lull Destruction: Abused in the dub.
 * Mask Power: Oracle Key power boosts aside, Buguese and Aqune are easily the most powerful characters in canon. Beerain subverts this though, by being generally less combative.
 * Mentor Archetype: Brade to Hunter. Igneous also plays this role to an extent.
 * Miko: Corona and Aqune, though not in a traditional sense.
 * Mind Control Device: Aqune's mask. But then.
 * Miniature Senior Citizens: Quake/Brade.
 * Minion Shipping:.
 * Mood Swinger: Stags. Enough said.
 * Mook Promotion: The Big Four were minor characters in the novels
 * Morality Pet: Sparkle to Grasshop, and to an extent, Aqune to Buguese.
 * Motor Mouth: Grasshop.
 * My Sister Is Off-Limits: Lumen is jealous when anyone gets close to Sparkle
 * Mysterious Past: Corona and Aqune. But At least we get to find out most of Corona's.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Any of the spiders
 * Oddly Named Sequel: "Spider Riders: Yomigaeru Taiyou," (The Resurrected Sun) honestly made no sense until the last episode.
 * Older Than They Look:.
 * The Only One: The Arachnian military is generally incompetent, leaving the Spider Riders to bail them out on occasions.
 * Only One Name: Everyone from the Inner World. The dub gave Grasshop a full name, though.
 * The Pawn:.
 * Raised By Wolves: Aqune was raised by Insectors/Invectids. The Insectors/Invectids act like human beings, so she does.
 * Rebellious Princess: Sparkle.
 * Reincarnation: According to original plans for the series, Aqune was the Oracle's reincarnation. Because the plot was changed so much, there's no way of telling if that's still true.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Hotarla.
 * The Rival: Buguese vs. Hunter.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Lumen and Sparkle... although Lumen would prefer to be lazy
 * Satellite Character: Grey/Slate. And most of the spiders for that matter, aside from Shadow and maybe Brutus.
 * Say My Name: Watch any episode (besides the first). Try and guess Corona's favorite word. This is abused in the series in general.
 * Seashell Bra: Aqune's transformed outfit.
 * Shrines and Temples
 * Spell My Name With an "S":
 * Aqune is Aquine in the online game. Her name is often mistakenly written as Akune or Aquna by the fans.
 * Igneous's name in became Ignus in the anime (the dub bought it back to Igneous, as it was in the novels) because it was easier for the Japanese to pronounce.
 * Try to find people in fandom who know how to spell Buguese. You'll have trouble. Doesn't help that his name is written as Baggus in Japanese either.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: The show takes this trope very seriously. Especially during the Nuuma arc and beyond.
 * Spider Tank: The entire show is based around this trope.
 * Spoiler Opening: The second OP is really bad about this. . Next, it reveals the existence of.
 * Synchronization: Hurting the Oracle also harms Corona and Aqune.
 * Super Soldier: Mantid creates a stronger type of Insector/Invectid soldier genetically after acquiring a second Oracle Key
 * Sword Fight
 * Sword Sparks
 * Talking to Himself: Grasshop and his wife in English and Japanese; also in the English dub, Hunter shares a voice actress with the Oracle, Lilly and Queen Illuma. And yes, there's times when either women are talking with him.
 * Theme Naming: With Hunter and Aqune as exceptions, the humans have mostly sun related (Corona, Sparkle, Lumen) or Earth related (Igneous, Magma, Grey) names. There are even more cases in the dub, due to the name changes. The Insectors names are all bug-related.
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Aqune..
 * Transformation Sequence: Always a sign of lazy animators. In the English version, during one battle, Grasshop actually comments that the children take too long to transform.
 * Sword Sparks
 * Talking to Himself: Grasshop and his wife in English and Japanese; also in the English dub, Hunter shares a voice actress with the Oracle, Lilly and Queen Illuma. And yes, there's times when either women are talking with him.
 * Theme Naming: With Hunter and Aqune as exceptions, the humans have mostly sun related (Corona, Sparkle, Lumen) or Earth related (Igneous, Magma, Grey) names. There are even more cases in the dub, due to the name changes. The Insectors names are all bug-related.
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Aqune..
 * Transformation Sequence: Always a sign of lazy animators. In the English version, during one battle, Grasshop actually comments that the children take too long to transform.


 * Transformation Trinket: Manacles.
 * Trapped in Another World: Hunter in the Inner World.
 * Turncoat:.
 * Upgrade Artifact: Besides the manacles that allow the Riders to transform, using the Oracle Keys allow more powerful transformations.
 * Whip It Good: Beerain.
 * Whip Sword
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Buguese.
 * Will They or Won't They?: Hunter and Corona. So much shiptease…
 * Writing Around Trademarks: Despite being known as Insectors in both the novels and the Japanese version, they were changed to Invectids in the dub due to legal reasons, or so says Word of God.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Igneous' is blue. Aqune's is purple, Hunter's is a pinkish-orange, Lily's is lavender, and Illuma's is green. Most other characters actually have plausible colors.

Episodes of this series provide examples of:

 * Against the Setting Sun: Used when Hunter declares that he'll save the people of Nuuma
 * A Simple Plan: The episode "Ghost Spider," easily the most pointless filler episode in the series.
 * Beach Episode: Somewhat subverted, in that it's one of the more serious episodes,.
 * Bedsheet Ghost: Hunter and Corona disguise as one to sneak into an Insector base
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: The dub does this in the very last episode.
 * Grasshop also does this at least once.
 * Class Trip: In the novels, Hunter was on one when he finds the Inner World.
 * Comforting Comforter: In the 2nd episode, when Corona sees Hunter's leaf blanket fall off, she puts it back on him. This is one of the first hints of her later romantic infatuation with him.
 * Cooking Duel: Corona and Aqune quite literally have one
 * Disco Dan: On one occasion, Hunter dresses up as "Dan the Disco Man" in order to help Lumen out in a scheme to get girls.
 * Driven to Suicide: . Pretty dark for a kids show.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Grasshop does this once... only with milk.
 * Dub Induced Plot Hole: According to episode 23 of the dub . What actually happened was  . The dub goes with the true story later, making the already bizarre edit seem even more awkward. One could argue that all the Invectids/Insectors believed and perhaps were told (by Mantid) the first story in order to make them hate the humans and The Oracle, when the second story was in fact the truth.
 * Hands-On Approach: As Hunter obviously isn't a handmaiden,.
 * Hostage Situation: Corona by Buguese, in exchange for both the Oracle Keys and Aqune.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Corona, in one particular episode. The rest seem to have no problem being Spider Riders, Hunter loving it enough to abandon whatever old life he might have had.
 * No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Hunter is treated quite well when taken prisoner by the Insectors. Mantid even offers him Aqune..
 * No One Could Survive That: manages to survive after purposely falling backwards off a building, which was already floating high in the air. More surprisingly, he didn't even appear hurt.
 * Obvious Trap: How about following the only villager left in a conspicuously empty village into a cave? Genius, if you ask me.
 * Plot Armor: Could anyone honestly believe ?
 * Recap Episode: Episode 41. It doesn't really use much stock footage, but it basically just re-accounts the Nuuma arc.
 * Romantic Runner-Up: Igneous
 * Save Both Worlds: Averted! The Big Bad says that he intends on conquering the Outer World, but he's defeated before he can even get there. Considering that this is an anime that involves a boy from earth getting sucked into a subterranean world beneath our own, the fact that we didn't even see some strange phenominon going on in the outer world, this is rather unique.
 * Shipper On Deck: There's been evidence on a few occasions of Magma trying to help Hunter and Corona's relationship, . There's Corona's sister's too, and many other residents of her hometown.
 * Take My Hand: Towards the end.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: in one episode, Aqune hums the 2nd ED theme
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Subverted in that it missed.
 * We Are Team Cannon Fodder: The last episode is Hunter vs. Mantid. Everyone else just sits there looking helpless. Corona and Aqune give him power, and then go back to looking helpless.