As someone afraid of spiders this took me off guard a bit and a little to get used to settle down the idea of a SPDIER ARMY AT YOUR DISPOSAL. MC is totally crazy which I love. She accepted her situation pretty quickly and decided to use her queen powers for good. THIS MANGA IS NOT FOR HTE LIGHT OF HEART. IT IS GORY. AND BRUTAL. But for good. I really enjoyed it. I just fear spiders so this was difficult for me to read without getting heebeejeebies

Basically, this is what would happen if you woke up as Kerrigan in a world that had never heard of The Zerg.

I'm going to call the main character Mushi-Oneesan because I don't think they ever actually give her a name beyond that. Sorry, if I'm wrong and just missed it.

Mushi-Oneesan wakes up in a world similar to but not quite that of a popular MMO she plays. At first, she is terrified but quickly decides to take on the role offered to her by her new minions, the Archnea, as Queen of the Swarm, the monarch who will lead them hive to victory.

The expected beats the story hits are: how will Mushi-Oneesan return to the real world, is the collective mind of the hive changing her as a person, and where/how did she get here. Honestly, those beats don't interest me as much as how Mushi attempts to take a species designed by the game developers to be antagonistic and hated, and use them ethically in this new world. She is basically switching their alignment from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Neutral, and that is delightful and fascinating. Will the swarm blindly follow her or will they push back? How will the other races react to this change? How will this affect whatever residual metanarrative from the game transferred over to this new world? These are the questions that kept me interested and are what will keep me buying the series.

3/5 stars

I received an ARC of this manga, and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

A girl wakes up in a cave full of spider-scorpion monsters who are calling her their queen. She realizes these creatures are from a game she used to play in her world. Since the creatures believe her to be their leader, she decides to embrace the role as she searches for a way to go home.

This was an isekai with a lot of promise, but I had some issues with it. I liked the concept of the hive mind and thought that was an interesting touch. I also thought the spider-scorpion things were...cute? The way they respond to praise and have their own personalities (despite all being part of the swarm) was kinda adorable in my opinion. (Just ignore the fact they will happily rip your guts out.)

I don't really feel like a lot happened here though. Girl wakes up in another world, is ruler of an army, and then the army kills a lot of people as girl adjusts to new world. It just seemed like not much happened outside of people dying. Maybe the story actually picks up from here, I don't know.

My biggest problem was all the unnecessary nudity. Why is it that the isekai genre seems to love drawing naked women all the time for absolutely no reason? The nudity is nondescript (it's shadowed or vague, lacking explicit details), but it was pointless. She would stop to contemplate something and she would suddenly be drawn naked as she worked things out in her mind.

I have really mixed feelings about this one, but I don't plan on continuing this series. The concept is fascinating and I actually love the spider army, but that's not enough to override my issues with this.

Content: nudity (nondescript, no explicit details), language, violence/gore, death, human trafficking/human slaves

Also, you might not want to read this if you're afraid of spiders. Just saying.

The main character finds herself in a cave surrounded by spiders and scorpions with only a vague memory of how she got there. She realizes that the creatures are the same that she likes to control in her favorite video game. They call her their queen, which she tries to refuse but then realizes there is no one else and she doesn't know how to get home and so she agrees. She doesn't recognize the outside world and realizes that they are not in the game. She uses her knowledge of the game to utilize her monster creatures and tries to take care of them and herself.
There's a lot of set up in this volume with not a lot of reward. there's also a lot of unnecessary nondescript nudity of the main character when she's explaining the monster's symbiotic relationship as a clan. The illustrations are good and easy to follow but it wasn't terribly interesting.

MUCH more violent than I normally go for but also... what a baddie the mc is. I think I'm in love.
However, I probably won't continue reading this series and it'll be a pass on getting a copy for the library. Too much cutting people in half and spider scorpion monsters lol

While I myself have arachnophobia, I have to admit that I wasn't bothered nearly as much as I thought I would be reading this manga. Which is definitely a plus since I really liked the plot and concept of the series.
The thought of a humanoid leading raiding parties of giant spider/scorpion monsters against whomever she decides to target (current target: Slave Traders) was definitely amusing to watch and I enjoyed how they decided to weave the 'Hive Mind' concept into the plot; Is Mushi-nee truly this vicious or is it the thousand of others' thoughts invading her mind and corrupting her?

I'm definitely excited to see where this story plans on going and if she's going to actually become a 'benevolent leader' or a 'tyrannical overlord'.

Mushi-nee (nickname for our main protagonist) awakens in a world similar to a game she had previously played where she was the leader of a barbaric and vicious faction of spider monsters called the 'Arachnea'. While she's not sure how she got to where she is, she becomes certain that this world is not the one she's played in.
The Arachnea claim she's their queen and will lead them to assured victory against their enemies, whomever that may be,

Wow! I am already addicted to this.

This first volume is creepy, horrifying, and bloody. It touches on themes of hive minds vs. individuals, and I especially appreciated the main character and her emerging bloodthirsty feelings she has to battle with. Do bad people deserve to be killed? I sense that is a theme to come.

I also enjoyed how the artist made spiders cute and sympathetic. (As well as scary.)

The first book leaves a lot of mystery that I assumed will be answered in the next volumes, but all the immediate mysteries were solved in this volume, which I appreciate.

The translation was well done. Although I know Japanese, I liked the translator's note, since that'd help any non-Japanese speakers out there.

I'll be picking up the next volume, probably in Japanese since I can't wait for the English any longer!!

So the first couple chapters of this manga is a bit rough. It screams of being written by a man, with the her being drawn naked in a few of the scenes, her easily being willing to be the leader of the Arachnea. Additionally, in those first few chapters I was confused in the scenes that detail her writing down information about herself. Was that occurring in the "real world" or in her "game world". That said once you get past those chapters you get to know Mushi as a leader and see the actions of her decisions.


Content warning: There are some scenes in this manga that have gore in them, though because it is in black and white it doesn't bother me.

* I just reviewed Her Majestry's Swarm, Volume 1 by By 616th Special Information Battalion and Akira Minamoto. #HerMajestrysSwarmVolume1 #NetGalley

Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the opportunity to read and review this.

A young woman, with a username of "Mushi-nee," suddenly finds herself transported into a world, not unlike the online real-time strategy game that was her only escape. She is hailed Queen of the Arachnea, which people in the above world seems to know nothing about. Rather than shrink away from her fate, she embraces her new title and faces this new world head-on.

This is just the beginning of the series, and I look forward to seeing more of Mushi-nee adventure.

Rating: 5 out of 5
-Characters: 5/5
-Cover: 5/5
-Story: 5/5
-Writing: 5/5
Genre: Fantasy/Military
Type: Manga
Worth?: Yes

Want to thank the publisher and Netgalley first for letting me read this manga. I haven't really read much war/military manga but I have read a good few of people going to their favorite books or games. So when I saw this I was really excited to request it. I wasn't disappointed. I was left wanted to read more. The only thing I had a slight problem with was the cover. It was very busy and all over the place.

Also I suggest a 16+ audience. It can be gore-ish at times.

I now have a new manga series to follow and I have no regrets. This is a gory, dark kind of story, with the main character being a young woman transported into a strange new world with giant insect monsters that she controls. It’s an interesting concept, with great art and good build up so far. Personally, I can’t wait to see what she does next with her swarm.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

4.5

This manga was deliciously dark. There are definitely adult themes and gore in it. It also gave me some “Overlord” vibes—although it’s been quite a while since I’ve read and watched that. I enjoyed the premise, and the art was amazing. I’m wholly invested and am dying for volume 2.

ARC Copy...yep this is by far one of the most over the top, violent and interesting Isekai premises so far. You got the typical premise of ordinary human awaking in another world (which in this a beloved fantasy game) and then...ok this gets interesting if the protagonist is in charge of "evil" spiders with complex world mechanics. Promising so far.

4.25 stars

So, interesting premise on this one. I enjoyed the anthropomorphization of the swarm, while still keeping their insect, hive mind characteristics intact. I also really appreciated the struggle the main character felt trying to balance her survival in this "new to her" world with her values and conscience as well as the influence of the swarm.

Curious to see where this goes.

I requested this book through net galley because the title and the cover art looked very interesting, and I'm really glad I did!! The story pulled me in and I love how the author created the main character the main character, it's fast paced in my opinion in a good way, the story keeps flowing smoothly and more characters are already being introduced. I would and will definitely be reading more of this series. I will be honest, the art style isn't my favorite but it's easy for me to look past it since the story is so good.

first of all, the premise is interesting because it's an isekai that's NOT based on a typical RPG game, and isekai is my favourite genre but it is a genre with the most overused similar plotlines ever.

it starts off interesting-with the idea of a hive mind (wherein she'll lose her mind but technically she chose to do so in a way but gain so much more understanding of the world), the hero is a villain in a different sense, the queen of low-lifes. the hive-mind consumes her extremely quickly and she quickly loses her identity and becomes a power hungry maniac.

it's all very typical but i can see how this might be popular, there's a power-hungry, brutal woman who is consumed utterly by a hive mind and she kills, but she doesn't kill innocents. i suspect that she might go down a different route soon though, depending on how the hive mind changes.

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Her Majesty’s swarm follows a young woman, (online nickname "Mushi-nee," roughly translated to bug woman per the book) who finds herself sucked into an alternate world. She finds this world to be like her much visited online strategy game which she has spent many hours playing. Once in this new world she suddenly finds herself face-to-face with giant arachnids who believe her to be their leader (content warning: spiders!). The book has parallels with Alice in Wonderland but is considerably gorier so be warned!

I really enjoyed the fast-paced story and beautiful artwork, it is some of the best manga art I have seen to date. I am very much looking forward to continuing this series and learning more about our heroine and her swarm.

Please be aware this Manga contains adult themes.

Thank you again to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for allowing me a copy of Her Majesty's Swarm for review.