Squid Girl Anime Review
Humans are such destructive creatures. We litter parks, pollute the ocean, and kill the wildlife. What's a squid to do when her natural habitat's been defiled with unnatural garbage? Why, invade the surface, of course!
PRODUCTION INFO
Squid Girl, otherwise known as Shinryaku! Ika Musume, or Invasion! Squid Girl, was originally a manga written by Masahiro Anbe. It began publication in July 2007, and is currently still ongoing at 15 volumes. It was aimed at a shounen demographic. The anime, produced by studio Diomedea and directed by Tsutomu Mizushima, aired during fall 2010. In fall 2011, the second season titled Shinryaku!? Ika Musume came to air. The second season was directed by both Tsutomu Mizushima and Yasutaka Yamamoto. In August 2012, an OVA consisting of three episodes was released, and the final and third episode will be out in September 2014.
SUMMARY
Squid Girl is the outcome you get when you open a beach shop in Japan, where everything including squids are personified into cute girls! This comedy features an angry and childish moe squid who has come to take revenge on the human race for polluting her waters. Immediately after appearing ashore, Squid Girl declares war on a beach restaurant named Lemon, claiming the structure as her base for the squid invasion. Her plan quickly backfires whens he is forced to work at the shop as pay for breaking a hole in the wall. The girls who run the business won't let her go, but Squid Girl soon finds her affection growing for the humans who took her in.
WHAT TO EXPECT
There's more than a few laughs available in Squid Girl, and she's so darned cute you'll be entranced by her squiddy ways! Watch as Squid Girl attempts and fails to exterminate the human race with her adorable, feeble attempts! See her sulk over the loss of basic items that she's never seen before, having grown up under the sea! Finally, watch her develop deep feelings for the people around her, and make friends with the humans she used to detest.
CHARACTERS
Squid Girl appears to be very naive, but I suppose it is to be expected from someone who's never been outside the ocean until recently. Coming from a world of water, a lot of the things on the surface seem new and amazing to her. Of course, it doesn't help that she's gullible as well. This is apparent many times in the series, first noticeably when Takeru pretends to be a squid boy, using paper for his disguise. Despite Squid Girl's negative feelings for humans in general, she makes friends with the workers of Lemon over time and eventually admits that not all humans are bad. That doesn't stop her from carrying out her plans for the squidvasion, but it's more of a game to her at that point.
Eiko Aizawa was the first person to encounter Squid Girl at Lemon. Ever since they first met, Eiko has viewed Squid Girl as an annoying nuisance, but just like Squid Girl, she gradually develops feelings of affection for her. They do have their arguments, though, sometimes even threatening their friendship. Chizuru Aizawa is Eiko's older sister who also works at Lemon. She is very skilled at martial arts, to the point that she can control Squid Girl with Fear. This is displayed in the first episode when Squid Girl attacks Eiko and Takeru by suspending them with her tentacles. Chizuru defends her siblings by cutting Squid Girl's tentacles and leaving her cowering in terror. Due to Chizuru's power over Squid Girl, she has a hard time forming a friendly relationship with her later on in the story. Takeru Aizawa is Eiko and Chizuru's kid brother. He has an innocent and kind personality. He spends most of his free time playing on the beach where Eiko and Chizuru work, especially with Squid Girl.
Eiko's friend, Sanae Nagatsuki, meets Squid Girl while walking her dog Alexander and falls in love with her at first sight. Alexander, however, gets jealous and bites Squid Girl, resulting in a mutual feeling of dislike for each other. Sanae spends the day with Squid Girl, becoming more and more overly attached to her as time carries on, until Squid Girl starts to feel uncomfortable and inevitably becomes afraid of Sanae. Whenever Sanae appears at the beach house after that, Squid Girl increases her cautiousness. Cindy Campbell is an American researcher of extraterrestrials. When she discovers Squid Girl on the beach, she becomes intrigued with her, concluding that she must be an alien; specifically a Squidian from the planet Squid. Cindy is desperate for a chance to observe and perform tests on Squid Girl in her secret laboratory, but neither Squid Girl nor the Aizawa sisters are cooperative in letting her go.
OPINIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
I think Squid Girl is hilarious, and that it can easily appeal to a female audience despite it being shounen, largely due to all the cuteness! I really love the character of Squid Girl; how she is so childish about her plans of world domination... You can't take her seriously. You can only watch and squee. I definitely recommend Squid Girl to fans of comedy and moe alike. I recommend Squid Girl fans also check out Wagnaria!!, Azumanga Daioh, and Ramen Fighter Miki.
RATING
8/10
