This is review number five out of a thousand. Yes, I’m still going strong to reach that impossible goal. The anime I’m about to review is Shinryaku! Ika Musume. It’s a twelve episode anime that I’ve been curious to watch ever seen I’ve seen her face all over the internet. The tagline “Squid girl” also tickled my curiosity so I got a copy and watched the anime last night. It’s well….interesting, I guess.

My curiosity has played a cruel joke on me once again. Anyways, here is my review.

Story

Unforgivable! You unforgivable humans! I will invade… that putrid surface of yours! ~de geso

A little squid girl has had enough of humans polluting the waters with their trash so she decided to invade the humans. The problem is that she doesn’t know anything about the human world. She is oblivious of the things human can do. She tries to take a little beach shack as her base even threatening the people of her amazing squid powers. She shows them how she her tentacles and destroy but ends up leaving a hole in the shacks walls. She is then forced into working as a waitress to compensate for the expenses used to fix the wall.

Will she succeed in conquering the human race?

Taking the Pants Off

It was my mistake to watch this anime in a day. That’s usually how I watch twelve episode anime because they are short and easier to watch. I would normally write a review after I finish the anime. This anime is not for marathoning so I feel a little tired after watching it. This anime is greatly appreciated on a weekly basis. You must watch one episode a week or maybe two but after that the interest fades and it becomes a little bit bland.

The strong point of the anime is, obviously, Ika Musume. She is a very energetic girl who plans to rule over the world. She is straight forward and honest. She is bubbly and outgoing. It doesn’t take much to like this little squid girl. She instantly grows on you and her charm is hard to resist. She is a squid girl who shares some similarities to squids. Her hair is tentacles that act as her extra arms and she vomits squid ink. Tasty squid ink. I’ve never eaten squid ink but I don’t think I want to anymore.

The anime is divided into three mini episodes that all revolve around Ika Musume. Most episodes revolve around her everyday life working at the beach shack or interacting with people around her or experiencing new things foreign to her. At first I thought it’d be a good idea to cut the episodes into three so the anime can be easily followed. It won’t be confusing and you can focus on the anime much better. That’s not the case as some episodes are bland and very uninteresting. In some episodes my mind just wanders away because there is really nothing special there.

There’s really nothing special with the anime. For one, the rest of the cast falls on predictable pattern and they barely give us anything new. In fact, the anime often relies on introducing characters as often as possible. Some new characters are still being introduced on episode eight. You would think they would just dig deeper on Musume’s relationship with the rest of the cast but instead they just cram in more characters to make the anime interesting. I’m thinking really hard right now about some characters that are worth mentioning. None. Each character just serves as a platform to elevate Ika Musume’s charm and personality.

The anime chooses to focus on Ika Musume and, while I was expecting something deeper, the anime does its job on the comedy front. Some episodes are funny and it made me laugh a lot. Musume’s stubborn personality mixes well with the eccentric cast. I particularly love the cemetery scene. That being said, the comedy brilliance is few. For every three mini episodes, only one would make me laugh. The rest of the episodes are very slice of life. I mean, yeah, seeing Musume discover new things is a nice touch but it really isn’t all that interesting.

I was a little bit sad that the anime doesn’t dive deeper on Ika Musume herself. She is a squid girl and she came from the sea. It would’ve been nice to see some of Ika Musume’s aquatic friends if she has some. I was hoping we’d meet her parents, maybe? It kind of irks me that this girl just rose from the sea and she was suddenly taken in by siblings running the beach shack. So many episodes could be dedicated to the sea but the anime chose to stick on land.

I guess some people prefer anime like this. An anime you could watch whenever it’s on TV. You’re flipping channel and you see it is on so you just watch it. You won’t really miss much if you skip an episode. I actually slept through one episode but I was still able to complete the anime. Thinking hard about it, there really is nothing wrong with the anime given that scenario I just described. It’s just your generic comedy slice of life. Azumanga Diaoh, anyone?

Sight and Sound

The animation is pretty plain but it is smooth, clear and clean. The scenes are very bright seeing that the anime takes place in a beach. The animation is full of bright and vibrant colors. Some scenes like Musume’s facial expression and her tentacles are nicely animated. Her face going from normal to surprised to angry is clearly well done.

The opening song Hikari no Senritsu is the perfect theme song for Ika Musume. The song is just like her. It’s upbeat and energetic. The ED song is different though. It’s much more slow and solemn. It’s sung by Kanae Ito who voices one of the characters in the anime. I’m a huge fan of her giving her voice to one of my favorite characters: Ohana from Hansaku Iroha.

Overall Score

6/10 “It’s your generic comedy anime.”

The anime is built around Ika Musume so if you love staring at her face and feel her “moe” resound throughout your body then you’ll love Shinryaku! Ika Musume.