Shinryaku! Ika Musume – 07

Big mistake on Nagisa’s part accepting an invitation to the Aizawa household. That’s where they keep that squid thing locked up at night!

「狙われなイカ？／研究しなイカ？／働かなイカ？」 (Nerawarenai ka? / Kenkyuu Shinai ka? / Hatarakanai ka?)
“Aren’t I Being Targeted? / Won’t You Research? / Won’t You Work?

Nagisa tries to foil Ika’s invasion, Cyndi puts Ika under the microscope, and the fake squid girl returns as the newest Lemon employee. It may not sound like much on paper — much like the idea of a squid girl doesn’t — but it’s a whole bucket of laughs in execution. In the last case, it was also cuteness overload from someone other than Ika. It’s just a bit of a shame that “fake Ika Musume” didn’t get too many lines without that hideous head on, nor a real character name for that matter. Regardless, it was nice to see more of the amazingly cute yet shy girl winning people over without even trying, while Ika gets shipped off to Minami Kaze in exchange. Despite all the abuse she receives at Lemon, it looks like Ika’s finally realized that it’s not about invading the surface at this point, but picking the lesser of two evils. This series has been a lot about “marine life abuse” after all, seeing as an abused squid girl leads to a cute squid girl, and quite honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Humor-wise, the first two skits easily walked away with my favorite moments this episode. For one, Ika’s “greetings” to Nagisa don’t ever seem to get old, especially not with the way she flails her arms around while wiggling her tentacles. Following up was the discovery that Ika’s “secret activities” at night were nothing more than sneaking in some gaming, which drew a priceless reaction from her when Nagisa passed that tidbit onto Eiko. Ending off the first skit was Nagisa bringing Ika to tears by feigning that she’d gotten over her fear of her, which together gave us three different looks of our harmless invader from the sea. They had me going there for a moment with the idea that Nagisa would overcome her fear of Ika, but it doesn’t look like this series intend to let this running joke die just yet. As for Cyndi’s scientists, Japanese from foreigners may always sound the same in anime, but the same can’t be said about how childishly they can behave when manipulating a squid girl. It was probably one of the best squid hazing moments thus far, because they took it straight to elementary school levels. While I can’t say I agree with their cheap reverse psychology, I don’t deny that I enjoyed seeing Ika get all riled up because of it. Ah, where will out squid adventures take us next?

 

Much like Cyndi, Nagisa seems to think that Ika’s some alien that’s here to convert mankind into squid people.

“Oogly boogly boo! Fear me!”

I’d sure like in on Chizuru’s mountain of korokke. Nagisa on the other hand decides to sleepover to protect everyone from Ika’s evil schemes.

Which apparently involves sneaking in some late-night gaming.

“WHO… TOLD YOU!?”

Even after seeing Eiko give it to Ika with some dual noogie action, Nagisa still thinks that something isn’t right how no one’s afraid of squid girl. It’s all a part of her master plan! (…not)

Nagisa pretends that she’s succumbed to Ika’s effects as well so she isn’t targeted. “Ika-sempai~”

You can just see the disappointment ripping right through Ika when she thinks she’s lost Nagisa as her prey. We got the tears, the shaky lips, the works.

There there. There there.

“Let’s be friends.” “OMG a slimy squid hand! Get it away! Get it away!”
There goes Nagisa’s undercover operation.

Refusing to be treated as an alien, Ika Musume makes her stand as the invader from the sea!

“Gorou, you’re my bitch! I know about those secret photos you have of Chizuru!”
Cyndi however tips the scales in Ika’s mind to become her servant… with benefits!

“Feel the wrath of my tickle torture human!”
Ika sure showed Eiko. Yeap, she sure did… >_>

Out of the lifeguard’s chair and into the test tube.

After begging Ika to declare she’s an alien so that they’ll finally have one to study, Harris, Clark, and Martin easily trick her into doing so. We have scientists in a high tech facility, but it’s no different than a bunch of elementary school kids in the playground.

After kicking away some guy trying to pick up the fake squid girl, Eiko swoops in to take her for herself. They really got to give her a real name.

She’s the shy daughter of Miname Kaze’s manager and ridiculously cute without that hideous giant squid head on.

It’s just a t-shirt but it fits so well! More business means more slave labor for Ika.

He wants Ika in return, and Eiko and Chizuru quickly agree after some quick calculations on the business they can get with the fake one. Ika’s traded like used goods…

…To serve as a living promotional statue that’s not allowed to sit or talk.

Forget the living advertisement bid, it’s the live Ika Musume show!
A squid ink fountain and tentacle walking. Now how’s that for improvising?

The godly drummer from the sea is here to entertain! She has her game face on.

“Squid on stage” is a success!

Except Ika finally realizes how much better she had it at Lemon.

Preview

The Ika victimizing continues with walking the squid, an Eiko lookalike robot, and flaming hot curry.