First Impressions – Shinryaku!? Ika Musume S2

Ika- “Are you ready for this Squid-tastic first impressions!?”

IT’S FINALLY HERE. Though somewhat underwhelming. I mean sure, what was I expecting? I great return from show that was actually quite funny (not to mention there’s still a few days before the new season actually starts, right?)? Sure, the episodes had some laughs, but they need new jokes! Chizuru is still as threatening as ever, and it’s still really weird hearing Kyousuke as Goro (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…), but aside from a rather lackluster first episode, it can only go up, I guess.

Welcome to a fresh new season of anime and the start of season two of Ika Musume! I know I fell for this series so fast the first time around that it made my personal top three. Well this is a first impressions; on the brand new season; so sit back and enjoy this fun review with myself and Hato!Our three stories this week follow Ika on several random adventures. First we have Ika attempting to take her invasion plans more serious after watching an alien invasion movie. Sadly her attempts are quickly cut down by Chizuru and her evil strength. The second fun story follows more of a friendship story, as Ika learns she has some new friends who really like being around her. And finally the last story of the episode centers around a random contest to catch jellyfish with everyone on the beach.

Ika- “Bow before your new squid master!”              Eiko- “We did this last season didn’t we?”

Starting right off! Ika watching a random alien invasion movie in horror as the aliens get defeated by the humans. To Ika this is movie is more of a horror movie than any action one. However after watching the movie she suddenly gets a bit of inspiration to try out her own invasion plans, but finds out the hard way that she can’t really invade the beach while Chizuru is around to stop Ika and her silly invasion ideas. Yes you need to take Chizuru down before you do anything drastic! Well, she probably would cut Ika up and serve her to the customers…

Ika’s first objective, the squid tackle!

Ika’s new theme song.

Chizuru- “Yes, slave, now go clean the floor with that toothbrush.”

I guess the invasion will have to wait for now. The next section follows Ika talking to Kiyomi and a few new friends that decide to visit her while she works. That is until Sanae sees them getting really friendly with Ika. In case you forgot about this special character let’s just say she REALLY likes Ika a bit more than normal people and probably wouldn’t think twice about kidnapping her. She tries her best to listen in on the friends and learns they all like Ika too. Of course she feels a bit out of the loop and asks Ika what she really thinks about her? She sort of despises Sanae a lot, but Ika quickly says she likes her as we watch this get repeated over and over for some hilarious reactions from Sanae.

Ika- “So which one of you wants to be my personal slave for this new season!?”

Sanae- “Can I take you home?!”     Ika-“No Squid-ing way!”      Eiko-“That girl needs some serious help.”

Sanae’s love for Ika is really dangerous! Well as much as I love listening to her talk, we must move on to the final part of the episode, involving jellyfish. We learn there is a sudden increase in jellyfish activity lately, and they have been hurting people at the beach. This turns into a contest just to see who can catch the most jellyfish. Well, Ika takes it a bit too extreme and tries to put them all in one bag only to have them constantly rip causing her to get attacked. Sadly Ika is not the smartest character in this series and she’s a bit slow. After this crazy contest ends Chizuru calls out the winners. Some random scientists won but they cheated after creating a gun that multiplies the jellyfish. They get kicked by Eiko, which teaches Ika cheating really never works, that and she doesn’t want to get kicked by Eiko or Chizuru.

Goro- “Go use your squid powers and talk to the jellyfish!”   Ika- “What the squid?! DO I LOOK LIKE AQUA MAN?!”

Ika- “OH MY SQUID THIS HURTS!!”                Goro- “You could try eating them next time..”

Ika- “Muhahahaha! I shall win this contest hands down!”

Eiko- “You four are the worst characters ever…”

Extra squid-tastic fun

Eiko-“Somehow that looks so wrong….”

Activating super awesome shrimp vision!

Sanae- “I am so lonely without my daily squid groping.”  Eiko- “Why do we have the creepy stalker character.”

Ika- “Those jellyfish were the first wave of my master plan. Wait… why did I help catch them!? DAMN!”

End Thoughts:

One thing I did notice was the animation had improved a decent amount. Oh shut up people saying “Bah, of course it would improve!”. It’s still weird seeing this show decently animated. Though what they can do is not animate those scientists so well. That black dude especially. Like, not being racist or anything, but he’s just sweating so much the entire time and it’s really, really disgusting. That and the other dude is really wrinkly and old. Gah. They have to be the creepiest people in the entire show. Also, did I miss something last season? Did she go to school or something? I really can’t remember. Half the characters I don’t even remember, I kinda feel terrible.

One thing that did piss me off and that would make me stop watching the show is actually that OP. Good lord. What the hell were they thinking? Last seasons OP, I’ll admit, was not better, but at least it had, what’s the word, energy? That OP sounded it should be on some shitty show like Index or something like that. It was boring and I’m pretty sure I heard some auto-tune in there. Sure, it’s like a staple of modern pop music, but if you use it to your advantage, it works (case and point ClariS)!

It wasn’t a great episode, but enough to remind me that I enjoyed the first season. I’ll keep watching this one. Might even do some tag-teams with Fosh if he’s up for it…

Ika returns! Man I was really excited after season one ended and a few weeks later I got the news of season two returning in the fall. That news was great to hear, so did the first episode of the new season that reignited my love of this series? HELL YES! And I agree with Hato here the animation did get bumped up a bit from the previous one. And the new opening is really catchy and fun but I was sort of expecting something fun, because everyone remembers that other opening and how addictive it was.

I was reading the manga for a while and saw that whole Ika watches an alien invasion movie; still it was funny watching how she cried for the aliens that just so happen to look like squids. And right off Eiko still acts the same way around her, not to mention Chizuru; damn she’s just as dangerous for Ika as ever before. I died laughing when Ika stole the shrimp and then got attacked by Chizuru and giving up in an instant, ahahah good work Ika! I did enjoy watching those amazing facial expressions and glowing effects around her, yeah I will probably use some of those in future drawings.

So, yeah, this wasn’t the most amazing episode ever like Hato said, but it did remind me of why I love to watch Ika Musume so much, because this series can be somewhat Nichijou like as far as the random comedy. I know last season had one “touching” episode with a mini Ika, so I will wait around to see them eventually do something like that again. Sure thing Hato! It was fun tagging with you; we should do that again soon. Anyway thanks for reading this first impressions of Fall.

Preview

Yes I am ready for another Squid pun filled episode.

Next week, Ika goes to school and cosplays random things! And she can fly? Amazing! See you next week everyone.