Fujimura Ayumi sure can pull off some pretty FOB-like English. Cyndi on the other hand can’t pull Ika away for the life of her.

I see the similarity.

「宇宙人じゃなイカ?/学校に行かなイカ?/飼わなイカ?」
(Uchuujin Janai ka? / Gakkou ni Ikanai ka? / Kawanai ka?)
“Aren’t You An Alien? / Won’t You Go to School? / Won’t You Raise Her?”

Just when I thought this show was way too cute (in a good way), they take the cuteness to a whole new level with a skit on “mini” Ika Musume. Similar to what Mitsudomoe did last season, the skit was completely devoid of all dialogue save for the noises coming from Ika; however, that’s exactly what made it as awesome as it was. All the “talking” happened in Eiko’s interactions with the mini squid girl she took in, which included some miniature squid ink action against a “deadly” shark. Amidst the utter cuteness overload, they even threw a curve ball in it by showing how Eiko and Ika’s relationship blossomed over their lifetime before finally coming to a close when Eiko eventually passed away from old age. In the end, it may have all been Sanae’s dream about a squid girl with a 150 year lifespan outliving her owner (who wasn’t even her), but if this is how she sees Ika, I can definitely understand why she loves her so much. I can see the light Sanae!

Quite frankly, that skit pretty much stole the show for me, but the stuff before wasn’t too shabby either with the introduction of Cyndi Campbell from the U.S. Extraterrestrial Life-form Countermeasure Investigation and Research Department 「地球外生命対策研調査究所」. (Whew, what a mouthful.) From deeming Ika an alien who she wants to study to eventually “convincing” her that she is one and give rise to “Ika Seijin” (i.e. Squid Alien), most of the quirkiness came from Chizuru using Ika’s love of shrimp against her to manipulatively fix her. I still haven’t grown tired of watching Eiko say it like it is right in front of Ika’s face either, like when she defended Ika by saying she’s their valuable ink-spitting servant. While Ika may not have felt very appreciated by the sound of that, it’s pretty hard to deny how useful having a waitress with ten extra hands is, let alone one who keeps working for free.

As for Ika’s visit to the school in the next arc, I have to say it’s pretty refreshing to see characters in school uniforms when they usually aren’t in them. The same goes vice versa for high school anime series, as does a squid girl infiltrated the grounds and believing it’s a military facility. It’s Solid Squid on another covert op, who also happens to know how to use a computer for some reason. Of all the things she doesn’t know about the surface world, computers apparently aren’t one of them. I guess they have the Internet in the ocean as well. The submarine cables are just lying there for them to tap into after all. Anyway, it was cute seeing her take the principal hostage and try to force feed him some shrimp, before she received a swift dropkick to the head courtesy of Eiko. Where was that elite bodyguard Sanae to protect her!?

 

Oh now it’s on! Squid Ink Cannon!

Yeah… I don’t know what to say about a girl who’s smiling about being tied up and having fluids splattered all over her face other than… *******

E.T. doesn’t eat shrimp. He sucks cow and pig blood! (…apparently)

Hey Ika, you got a little something on your cheek there.

Ika doesn’t appear to be looking forward to some alone time with Chizuru while Eiko goes and “cosplays” at school.

This sneaking scene needed some of Harry Gregson-Williams’ Metal Gear music to go with it.

She can’t recognize an anatomic model, but computers and typing come naturally. I guess it’s true what they say about the Internet connecting the entire world, even the one under water.

At least Ika recognizes who runs this facility, whereas Eiko takes the facepalm to the next level by falling out of her seat.

As dumb as this looks, it actually constitutes torture because the principal is allergic to shrimp.

“SUPER INAZUMA EIKO KICK!!!”
Ika sure didn’t look any worse for wear after receiving that blow.

Mini Ika Musume combines helplessness with cuteness in the bottle, plus provides 24/7 entertainment.

The one time that Eiko’s actually nice to Ika, she runs away in tears. We’ll just ignore that giant fish tank she placed her in.

She truly has a second stomach when it comes to crawfish, though it looks like even that one can get full when she eats a hundred times her body weight.

It looks like a certain squid girl forgot she can breathe under water again. She hasn’t forgotten about the squid ink though.

Go mini Ika Musume! Give that shark everything you got!

I actually thought she grew over time, but apparently not.

A lifetime of memories…

…comes to an end.

Awwwww…

If Sanae can’t even fantasize properly, that’s her own damn fault. 🙂

Preview

A hero show with a squid monster? Oh this should be good.

62 Comments

  1. Third part of the episode was the worst case of mood whiplash i’ve had in a while. Went from D’AAAAAAAW to almost B’AAAWWWW. That was really well done even if I knew it was a dream.

    fall3nbs
      1. Woohoo! I passed the test!
        Can my prize be another guess-the-seiyuu quiz?
        Maybe one that has the same seiyuu multiple times (and of course multiple seiyuu as well).
        For instance..
        Show Spoiler ▼

        runedot
  2. come over it with the computer – she just played minesweeper
    I hope we see more school action and Ika school “cosplay” like the OP promises 🙂
    E.T. Ika was win 🙂
    Mini Ika on a snake: “HNNNNNNNGH”

    alex
  3. Ika mistaking school for a military facility was priceless, though, if somebody remembers the ominous role schools had in preparing military ranks of both world wars, it can be seen in a different light… sailor uniforms do have a reason.

    ewok40k
  4. Argh, can’t get Mini Ika Musume out of my head.

    About the computer thing, Show Spoiler ▼

    An
    1. She won minesweeper hardest level in eno go without even knowing what’s a computer…

      I bet Ika is a hidden genius and when she learns enough she’ll hack into military networks and launch a massive retaliation attack 🙂

      alex
  5. Does anyone notice that Eiko’s hair keeps changing places? I mean the part sticking out.

    The third part was a short omake in the manga, but they adapted it pretty well. The part where she resisted coming out of the bottle was funny 😀

    The part where she got brainwashed into believing she was an alien and doing the ET thing was cute 🙂

    Zaku Fan
  6. srsly, i didn’t expect myself to tear-up a bit at the near end scene.it’s like watching HACHIKO again(dang man,the HW ver. was rather a tear-jerker) albeit it’s about a dog.L0L.

    and man,MINI IKA IS SO ADORABLE!!! *huggles mini-ika* SO CUTE!!! X3 she’s so tiny.XDD i hope to see more mini-ika!

    keiOnDaisuki
  7. Only thing I didn’t like about this episode was how American’s are portrayed in anime. Most of the time Americans in anime are loud over the top bullies that steamroll over everyone else in the cast. Yumeiro Patissiere S2 introduced an american named Johnny thats also loud and annoying. Other then that I loved the episode and the series in general.

    Yet again another example of a good comedy series that doesn’t need fan service to get people to watch.

    Karmafan
  8. This episode was priceless but like D and many others, I think the last skit stole the show. I mean seriously, I want more of this cuteness overload. The 2nd part where Ika scouted Eiko’s school was fun and adorable at the same time. LOL @ trying to force a shrimp on the principal.
    Ika Musume can use my place as her base ANYTIME she wants to. ^^

    Shinjiro
  9. Hey Divine, you keep putting “breath” instead of “breathe” – breath is the noun, breathe is the verb. I just thought I’d point it out D:

    ..I love that the aliens were wearing suits xD
    also Eiko’s english lol

    Crystal
    1. Yup, it does.

      That scene alone beats all 700hours of crappy CG (not to mention the paltry 6 minutes of actual gameplay) from the last Metal Gear game.

      Mini-Ika scene was as cute as everyone has already stated. Nintendo should make some pet game out or it… would be light-years ahead of Nintendogs.

      Litho
  10. Damn…. it caught me off guard and now I’m crying like there’s no tomorrow T___T It happened to me sometimes, the Katanagatari episode with that snow-chibi also made me cried like hell…. Men do cry you know.

    MD

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