First Impressions / Shinryaku! Ika Musume

As the only person afraid of Ika, Nagisa is turning out to be just as fun to watch as Ika is when Chizuru messes around with her.

If Sanae’s this fired up about seeing Ika with Nagisa, I think it’s safe to say she has a squid fetish.

「買わなイカ？／乗りこまなイカ？／ニセモノじゃなイカ？」
(Kawanai ka? / Norikomanai ka? / Nisemono Janai ka?)
“Won’t You Buy It? / Won’t You Come In? / Isn’t That An Impostor?”

Compared to last week, this episode was a lot cuter than it was funny and had some slightly unsettling moments to boot. However, by the time the third skit rolled around (with gigantic mechanical Ika Musume heads and all), the laughs were aplenty again thanks to Ika’s tunnel vision perception of what her squid species’ looks like. i.e. A squid hat with blue tentacles. de geso!

I probably sound like a broken record at this point going on and on every week about how much this show utterly rocks and how it’s a cute and funny series to mislead introduce friends to anime (only for them to find out what it really entails later on, mwahaha), but until this series gets the fifty plus comments a week that it deserves, I shall continue to fight the good fight! Okay not really, but with Nagisa joining the cast and in constant fear of Ika, Sanae taking her love for Ika to a whole new level of shameless shrimp cosplay, and Ika entertaining herself with “Super Soy Sauce Wars” when the television left her, there’s so much quirky humor revolving around our naive invader from the sea that anyone who enjoys lighthearted series would be doing themselves a great disservice overlooking this one. That’s not even including the other stars of the show, Eiko and Chizuru, who are the go-to people for putting Ika in her place for our enjoyment (…and their own). In short, “Watch Ika Musume!” Blatant promotion done.

As for those already on board, a lot of the cuteness came from watching Ika go through ten thousand yen’s worth (~$100 USD) of shrimp after she was given that money as a reward for picking up someone’s wallet. There was just something adorable about watching her squirm in her seat after Eiko told her she has to learn how to show some restraint when faced with her favorite food, and something absolutely hilarious when Chizuru threatened her with her killing aura, daring her to eat before she’s allowed to. Ika’s stopover at the Aizawa household on the outskirts of the beach wasn’t too shabby either, though most of my personal enjoyment came when Eiko wouldn’t let her come over and made her stay at Lemon like the pet squid that she is. While Ika may complain a lot about the mistreatment she receives, it’s funny to see her actually make a statement about it for a change. In addition to that, she ravaged Eiko nicely in her semi-asleep trance. It’s the revenge of the squid invader before she even invaded!

Finally, there was the undisputed highlight of the episode with the manager of another part of the beach milking Ika’s popularity by creating his own fully functional version of her. Still, the real thing is something else in the competitor’s eyes, and thus began a hilarious chain of events to try and get Eiko to hand Ika over. Ika tunnel vision is a great thing when you’re watching from the sidelines. See the captions for the rest.

 

Ika is in paradise with her mountains of shrimp. Leave it up to Chizuru to point out that she could have bought her freedom by fixing the wall with that ten thousand yen though.

Squid Newtype sense is tingling from Chizuru’s pressure.

Being able to bring someone to tears with a smile on your face. Now that’s talent.
Ika did get to eat to her heart’s content after some good ‘ol hazing by Chizuru.

Ika claims to have a second stomach when it comes to shrimp, except when they’re human-sized ones in a cardboard box and breathing deeply.
“Let’s put it in the trash and never speak of it again…”

When hand meets squid face, Ika winds up staying at Lemon.

The television has forsaken her loneliness and the fridge is off limits due to Chizuru’s all encompassing killing aura.

Someone’s feeling almighty about showing her superiority through named soy sauce bottles.

Eiko may have wanted to rip her a new one for making a mess, but Ika’s one to get pissed off and still accept the grapes.

It’s like Chizuru is looking for an excuse to have her way with Ika.

Ika does get to spend the night, but it definitely won’t be in Chizuru’s room.

Well I’ll be damned. There’s tentacle rape going on but the clothes are staying on!

As far as the competitor is concerned, it’s all about functionality over aesthetics. That head will be as big as it needs to make sure it can move its tentacles and throw up ink!

The manager of the beach house “Minami Kaze” (Koyama Rikiya) wants the real deal and puts ten thousand yen down as an ante for their duel.

The reversed squid head definitely has some creepiness to it, but when that head fell off it was a whole new type of fear to Ika.

Ika vision somehow saw that abomination as the spitting image of herself.

So the improved “real version” is supposed to be more uh… realistic. You know, in that hideous kind of way. It’s fully functional in the kitchen at least, even when it comes to setting itself on fire.

I can’t see that hideous head drawing more customers in than the gorgeous girl (Kawasumi Ayako) wearing it.

She may not attract the children, but she has all the guys covered!

The two heads were added to the ending sequence this week. I really hope it’s just for this week. -_-;

Preview

Cyndi (Nabatame Hitomi) arrives next episode, meaning that Ika’s in store for some extraterrestrial-like treatment.

50 Comments

    1. The speed of the introduction of characters is much faster than in the manga but also there’s less development of the characters. Eiko for example has several moments where we see she’s pretty nice to Ika-chan, including picking up the trash with her (such as in the opening scene this episode). So far she’s just been bad to Ika.

      Chizuru does get to show her concern for Ika (same in the manga) since she noticed the TV was spoilt, so maybe we see more later.

      I really liked the scene where she was playing with the soy sauce bottles. Childishly funny.

      Also her comment on removing the hat = dead is interesting

      Zaku Fan
      Reply

  7. For the first time, the third segment clearly shows this was written by the mangaka of Hare + Guu! It has the outright weirdness and little art shifts that pop out of the most mundane things, and manages to be funny from nonsense. More like this!

    starss
    Reply

  11. L0L @ the 2 ika-heads! XDD esp. the 2nd one.HAHAHA. yeah,agreed the pretty gal could’ve attracted more people..uhh..guys.L0L

    i like chizuru! X3 and i go for sanae x ika! lol.

    the 2 heads at d end were unexpected.but it’s funny.XDD

    keiOnDaisuki
    Reply

  12. Seriously, more people need to follow this show! It’s one of the best this season, I’m so glad I listened to you Divine and started watching it. It needs more comments too!
    Can’t wait to watch this this afternoon. Looks hilarious as usual.

    Innerchihiro
    Reply

    1. I want to see that misunderstanding blown up in proportions a la Mitsudomoe. But who can blame Sanae for being all possessive. I mean, I have issues now about buying, eating or looking at dried squids at the supermarket/resto.

      Shinjiro
      Reply

  18. LOVE this series. These feel-good anime series are always enjoyable to me. Great to just relax and enjoy and forget the troubles of the world. Never fail to put a smile on my face.

    Ika Musume = best show this season ~de geso

    Skizzit
    Reply

    1. I don’t know about feel good but we love the show. It’d be really much more of a feel good if the Lemon staff/owners were actually all nicer to Ika (I mean seriously, they should know she is pretty inoffensive by now). Good GOD, she is freaking adorable.

      Shinjiro
      Reply

    1. I usually see them pop up wednesday night for me. I wouldn’t hold your breathe that early while waiting. Haha. Speaking of subs, I need to go check the episode out since it finished downloading. Bleh! My phone’s net is too slow.. I should have payed my bills on time >_<

      Trystinia
      Reply

  21. OMG AYAKO<3.
    Such a small part, but on such a pretty girl.
    I’m so glad I’m watching this. I didn’t know what to expect, but it has been such an amazing show. Then again, I don’t really know why I like the shows I like.. de geso.
    KLAJSDKLFJASF.

    Takaii
    Reply

  24. The part where Ika musume was left alone and looking at the house made us feel bad for her. She looked so lonely. Man, we would welcome Ika over our place…She is so adorable.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Shinjiro
    Reply

  33. Ika playing with the soy sauces bottles was too cute but also sad. I’m glad chizuru let her stay in their house. I love how she managed to switch spots with Eiko after she fell asleep. Maybe she shouldnt be so mean to Ika if she doesn’t want to get tentacle raped in the morning! 😀

    Trystinia
    Reply

    1. I’m thinking it would only increase the impression that anime are cartoons and for kids. Ika is great if you already know about the various anime types but doesn’t display the complexity of other anime types (eg Bokurano which is pretty opposite Ika)

      Only one i have seen that is good and crosses a lot of genres is cowboy bebop

      Zaku Fan
      Reply

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