Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

Here we go again! The second season of Shinryaku!? Ika Musume is very much like the first season however with some changes here and there, for one, no more new characters are permanently added to the cast, it's the same cast we know with all their running gags only amplified. For one, Cyndi and the Three stooges' invention gets ramped up into more bizarre inventions that utterly don't help the situation in their venture to make Ika Musume their test subject, Sanae's obsession with Ika Musume is amped up as well with her obsession going into masochist mild yandere states at times. Once again many of Ika Musume'sventures are like making the more mundane things humans go through making Ika Musume seem to make it intense and awesome in alot of ways. We do in this season get some mild character development (if LA can call it that) to some characters in this season such as Chizuru (still LA's favourite character in the series) showing off her more emotional side as well as showing off some of her weaknesses due to her being Ika Musume's biggest obstacle in her invasion in the first place. Ika Musume shows off some more of her new powers, showed development of showing that not ALL humans are bad which culminated into getting an emotional moment in the finale with Eiko showing that even though Eiko is Ika Musume's biggest minder (and the tsukommi to Ika's boku) she still somewhat cares about Ika Musume as harsh as she is to her. Some minor characters like Kiyomi gets expanded upon as well what with Kiyomi's click getting added to the cast but only as something of a satellite characters to Kiyomi. So essentially Shinryaku!? Ika Musume is just many of Ika Musume's daily lives with even goofier and wackier scenario's for her to be put in, that and the "flavour" of the first season of Ika Musume is still in this second season, by not only showing off Ika Musume's daily life and all but defying expectations to MANY of skits LA mentioned above. Ika Musume's humor comes from one situation that leads into another THEN having our expectations of Ika Musume winning or the outcome but then ONE factor screws/changes the outcome of Ika Musume (or the character in focus) that allows Ika Musume to be put back to square one. Now this is saying the status quo is in place for the most part and in this season LA thinks it got the brunt of it due to the no follow through besides those setup in the first season. Now is LA saying the humor isn't the same as the first season due to this, no, it's just the factor of isolated incidents of Ika Musume going through the motions and even if the status quo is in place, LA got a chuckle from a couple of skits in this season if not because of how much crazier or unexpected the result DID become be it if LA knows the outcome or not. Unexpectedness is key for Shinryaku!? Ika Musume and it nailed it even in this season. In terms of animation once again done by diomedea, the character designs and backgrounding is through and through the same as the first season...really not much too talk about the animation besides the rare times of art style changes for exaggerated reactions and everything but the animation is the same as the first verse just consistent. The voice acting is again the same as the first season, the only annoyance LA actually found this season happen to be Kanae Ito as Sanae, nothing on the voice actor on this one as Sanae's obsession peaked this season so she's even more obnoxiously annoying compared to her first season portrayal. Hisako Kanemoto doing her squid-esque accenting is consistent as ever and Rie Tanaka as Chizuru is her typical caring older sister but DON'T F*** WITH HER vocals as well. There are some actually decent "English" in this anime dubbed by Sarah Hauser for both Cyndi and Ika's English...it was more or less uncanny hearing that. But yeah..same as the animation, the voice acting is consistent at best. Shinryaku!? Ika Musume's second season is going through the motions of Ika Musume's daily life, trying to invade the world but failing time and again, however what Ika Musume fails to realize is all the time she's spent with Eiko, Chizuru, Takeru, Cyndi, Sanae and Kiyomi and everyone else, sure she hasn't invaded the world but she has "invaded" and oddly enough helped all the people she's encountered to be together and if it wasn't for Ika Musume, they would have never meet the people that they did. "Invasion" is a strong word, more like "friendship" at best and that is what Ika Musume is to everyone by the end of it, the hilarity, craziness or mundanity of it all. Nonetheless Shinryaku!? Ika Musume was a nice wrap up to the Ika Musume series even for a status quo rather unpredictable skit based comedy anime about a humanoid squid girl wanting to take over the world.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume is the second season of the Ika Musume or Squid Girl franchise –a highly risible anime series about an adorable and bumbling anthropomorphic squid christened Ika Musume (unimaginative name, eh?) who originally intended to invade the surface to punish the filthy and callous human race for polluting the ocean. Unfortunately, a high school girl (albeit with superhuman powers) trounces Ika in her first battle, which quickly puts an end to the underwater threat to human civilization. Of course, this hardly dissuades Ika Musume (because she is a numbskull) who ardently continues to pursue her quixotic idée fixe and concocts outlandish schemes, by thebushel, to conquer the world, all of which result in her being hoist on her own petard, in hilarious fashion. Over the course of the series, Ika Musume also meets an eclectic and eccentric cast of characters, which include a crazy teen girl called Sanae (the second best character of the series) who desperately wants to test if love (and a lot more) can flourish between two species; a bodacious and brainy American-cum-MIT graduate-cum-alien hunter-cum-bikini babe named Cindy, who wants to dissect her (and yes, I am probably insinuating something by repeatedly using that word; are you sagacious enough to guess what?); and many other less remarkable ones. As the story is in episodic format, it primarily depends on Ika’s interactions with the characters for humor. The second season continues in the much the same vein and introduces a few new side characters; albeit completely unmemorable ones. Unfortunately, for a show that is completely character driven, the second season has little to no character development and I quickly got bored of the shticks and quirks of the side characters. However, this did not dissuade me much, as the piece de resistance of the show –Ika Musume, retained her ineffable and inimitable charm that made me like the show so much in the first place. I think that it has to do with the fact that I really adore gamines like Ika (only in anime) because they evoke wistful memories of my vivacious and mischievous 9-year old sister –who stays 2,000 KMs away from me with my parents. Still, there is only so much that one outstanding character can do for a poor show and by the penultimate episode, my interest was flagging considerably and I was certain that the show would end up with a rating of 4. Thankfully, the last episode turned out to be an absolute gem, wrapped up the season in spectacular fashion, and tugged a few heartstrings as well, which made me reconsider my decision and resulted in the score being bumped up to 5. As for the audio-visuals, I thought that the show could have been better animated and I did not like most of the character designs–with the notable exception of Ika Musume. The voice acting was mediocre overall, although I think that Ika’s seiyuu did her job consummately. As for the OP and ED, the former is fast-paced and ebullient while the latter is slower and beautifully expresses the bonds that Ika shares with her human counterparts; I really enjoyed both. To sum it all up, I felt that the second season of Ika Musume is more or less a rehash of the previous season and gets boring very soon; so, I would only recommend loyal and devoted fans of Ika-Chan (like myself) to watch this season; others can skip it or can watch the only last episode, if they wish.

I'm just left feeling empty now. I'm kind of bummed that we may never get more of squid girl. So the second season i can't really say if it's an improvement over the first season. Second season seems to have more shorts stories. While the first season seemed longer. But we do get a lot more creative idea's in this. I don't like that the Three Stooges or Scientist got even more screen time. I genuinely dislike them and feel they only hamper the shows quality. I still like Cindy. She can be fun by herself. I also don't like the shy girls dad that makesweird robotic helmets of Squid Girl. First time i found it to be kind of fun but they kept bringing him and his heads back and it got old and annoying real quick. I kind of wish we got to see Squid Girl going to school with the group of friends she made. I honestly like this part a lot. Her friends are actually nice and don't feel annoyingly hype, pushy or just mean. The group of friends ( Including SG) are a fun group. I'd also love to see SG become the schools mascot within the first couple days. I do kind of wish we got more of SG's background. I'd love to see SG's mom. I'd imagine she'd be the smartest of the family. I do think seeing SG grow up more would be interesting. I'd love to see how SG looks when she has the body of whatever age Eiko and Chizuru is. Also wish the story had SG get another Birthday this season. I do like that they made Chizuru a lot more fun and appealing to have on screen. In the first season she could be kind of annoying with how everyone treats her and how she acted. But in this she is more humanized. I like the relationship between Eiko and SG. Honestly is nice. Their bickering about each other but how they actually do care for one another. They have some underlining tones of Yuri in this between the two of them. Some is obvious and others you'd have to pay more attention to find. But i'd love that to be the case. They do seem like a good pair. More of a side note. But i'd love if both Eiko and SG were someplace by alone and SG for what ever reason found the infamous Japanese Tentacle porn even just for a brief gag. Have Eiko then have to explain it. I'd imagine SG would either be horrified , Interested in what's happening or completely obvious to why Eiko is freaking out. Overall i liked the second season a lot. They expanded on characters and made them a lot more fun to have on screen and we also got more Eiko and SG.

The invader returns for a second season. What I'd call a surprise hit from late 2010 was not going to go unnoticed this time around, it had a lot to squid up to. If you've seen season one (which I'm assuming you have), season 2 is exactly the same. There is absolutely no plot outside of Ika Musume came from the sea to invade the Earth for polluting the ocean and is now working at a beach shack. All the characters from last time are back too, and pretty much the same. Eiko still has a tsundere relationship with Ika Musume, Chizuru is still scary,Sanae is still in love with her, Nagisa is still scared, Cyndi and the three stooges still want to run experiments, etc. Kiyomi also returns with some side characters, who get no development, but are there to show Ika Musume made friends. Like S1 there are some Mini-Ika segments too. While they are kawaii to the core, they do feel kinda out of place. As far as quality of the episodes (each one has about 2-3 mini parts like in S1) there are a few that are better than the ones in S1, but in my opinion, a lot of them missed the mark. Don't get me wrong, they are still enjoyable, and funny, but they just aren't as funny for some reason. It's really one of those things you can't judge unless you've seen both. While I normally don't go into the music, I do have complaints about the OP. It's just so... un Ika Musume like. The original OP was great, it was about invasion and really fit the show. This time around it's just... nice. The ED is pretty good though, like last time it's basically Ika (this time walking) and a stillish scene, but that changes based on what happened in an episode. Overall I'd say Ika Musume S2 is an enjoyable anime that will keep a smile on your face, but failed to meet the charm that S1 delivered.

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