Haiyore! Nyarlko-san W – 11-12 [END]
Is this the end for Mahiro and Nyarlko?
Welcome back readers it is time to say farewell to Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W this week and I have to say thank you to Highway for tagging with me on these posts! Anyway time to start this crazy final review.
Finishing up a season is always somewhat bittersweet. Shows you’ve enjoyed are going away, and new ones you’re uncertain about are coming soon. So as we bid adieu to Haiyore! Nyarlko-san W, what kind of feelings are we left with?
The Series Wraps Up
Hastur’s going for a new audience.
Highway \\ With the last two episodes, we get a stand-alone haunted house with a twist and an existential threat. First, everyone goes on a camping picnic, and due to Mahiro’s aversion to any of Nyarlko’s comestible procurement, he’s the only one who doesn’t fall under the influence of the love potion the chocolates are spiked with. So when they all go to a haunted house, the potion takes effect , and everyone goes a bit wacky. But at least it wasn’t ‘Everyone is after Mahiro’. Just almost everyone. At least Luhy was after Nyarlko, and Shanta-kun was after Mahiro’s mom. And boy was Luhy after Nyarlko, going with tying her up and demanding she say ‘Hanyaaa” all the time. But even though Nyarlko should have been going after Mahiro, she actually doesn’t, and helps him out with everyone else. I mean, it would be a change in behavior for her NOT to be obsessed with Mahiro.
Yuri time!
And then they learn about the existential threat: The defense mechanism for the Earth Deities that Nyarlko and company are standing in for, the Banshin, has been rebuilt (in a day, instead of 500 years). And with it operational, Nyarlko, Kuuko, and Hastur won’t have a reason to be on Earth… or with Mahiro. But in visiting it to see what’s replacing them, they get to challenge the new robot with the goal of destroying it. But it causes its own destruction, because who wants a yandere robot around? That’s right, they based it on Nyarlko’s brain, and got her obsession with Mahiro. So Nyarlko and company destroy it, for the low price of head pats for all.
Robot Love!
That’s what Kuune and Luhy want to see.
Nyaruko Reference Corner
Nyarlko goes Mecha!
Fosh \\ Let’s jump right into the odd ball references of episode eleven starting with Disney’s Fireball, The Idolmaster Cinderella girls t-shirt “but I refuse” worn by Futaba Anzu, more Kamen Rider poses! I guess it wouldn’t be a Nyaruko episode without those. Moving right along into episode twelve with a mecha instructional guide from the original Gundam, H builder or AGE builder from Gundam AGE, the Banshin RX-02 or Gundam RX-78, Aquarion with Hatsur saying “Boku to Gattai!” Complete with Mahiro’s mom clapping her hands together and that just about covers most of them, but I probably missed a lot with these two episodes.
More Fun with Nyarlko!
While I was only covering the references for the Haiyore! Nyaurko-san W I honestly feel that this second season failed in terms of laugh out loud comedy! Did I laugh? Sure there were moments that had me dying countless times, but I can tell that the creators were running out of ideas to keep things fresh and entertaining. Personally I think we did not need another season or did we? I just found they reused the same old gimmick of Mahiro struggling with the thought of having Nyaurko as a possible girlfriend and of course Kuko’s desire to get with Nyaruko? I mean really come on give me something new to work with! That said, the only new stuff was Hastur and Shanta-kun’s transformation, love triangles and Kuko’s cousin for some random incest? I guess that did make things hilarious for certain episodes? So would I want another season? At this moment I don’t want another season because I feel that the creators really have nothing left to explore other than Mahiro accepting Nyaruko’s feelings? Maybe if they do something like an Amagami SS style series where EVERY character gets their chance to get with him? You could even have a random BL route with Hastur finally getting with Mahiro! I mean can you imagine the popularity from the girls watching? Anyway thanks for reading these posts and leaving all your awesome comments!
I’m with Fosh in that I kind of think the show’s pretty played out. So much of this season just felt like a retread of the same stuff from before, and it almost seemed like they had already used up all their sources for references, too. The storyline with Kuuko falling for Mahiro wasn’t bad, and probably provided the best moments of this season, as it did change the dynamic up a little bit, but that also had the effect of turning it into a pretty standard harem. And Hastur continued to be a pretty disappointing ‘Me Too!’ character, never really coming up with anything besides random Mahiro chasing. Some of the setups were ok, and made the shows amusing or interesting, but there really wasn’t anything that grabbed me and made me take notice. It ultimately turned into a show to watch, but not really one to look forward to, particularly.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hmmm… To put this mildly, Nyaruko-san was bittersweet. It kept the same formula and did what it could to improve which is admirable but sadly it wasn’t as funny as last season. Something was missing and the atmosphere gradually felt forced letting you know the story was beginning to run on fumes.
There weren’t enough references or maybe not enough that could be recognized. Not to mention it lost greater significance this season being easily overshadowed by other animes that excelled in performance. All and all, if there isn’t a possibility of improvement, the series is better off ending here despite us missing the characters later on.
Side note: There’s a reference you guys missed. During the fight against the Banshin, Kuune, in her drunken state of mind, screamed out the sentence “I’ll splatter your guts!” which is a tribute to Tokiko Tsumura from Buso Renkin.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah this s2 kind of failed on a lot of things like story progression for Mahiro x Nyaruko! I thought this season would finally bring the two of them together but nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! WTF and yep I think they ran out of nyaruko fuel to keep going.
99.9% of the references were Kamen Rider and Lovecraft with the rest being some anime related or lack of! I guess it is hard to recycle through them unlike Gintama who rarely does it anymore but when they do it is CRAZY!
Yeah I saw that one on the Nyaruko Reference blog xD
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Played out like a wore out rag? Probably not that bad, but if they can manage to inject a new formula, say a change of setting, or just perhaps get those kids together, and have the wacky stuff happen as a result of. Let em move on a bit; as it was “W” was very repeated of the first outing.
Oh, and I loved the Futaba Anzu reference.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Kana Asumi, Eri Kitamura and the rest of the cast were back on mark with roles but sadly it wasn’t enough to get the round-about story off the ground. Because of lack of story development outside of what was already used, it pretty ended up in the same disappointing fashion as Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride. It would have been something of note if Mahiro started to accept Nyaruko’s advances. They did make it apparent that Kuuko was showing interest in him.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I thought that Samurai Bride actually pulled the show up from abysmal to acceptable with the second half of the series. Overall, I don’t know if I’d classify that show’s second season as really ‘disappointing’ except in that we wish it was more. On the other hand, Nyarlko-san just didn’t seem to go anywhere, and there really wasn’t any overarching storyline to help pull the whole thing together. Instead it was just stagnant, with the same jokes and no progress.
I guess on some level there are plenty of comedy harem shows that don’t really ‘progress’ in that the end state is significantly different from the beginning state, but usually they give the impression of movement throughout. And that might be what is the ‘disappointing’ part of this show, that it didn’t ever seem like it was moving.