Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

A second season of Ika Musume made sense. I can only imagine a show with this much moe energy sold all the merchandise and made a killing, why wouldn't they make more? A problem you run into very quickly with these moe comedy slice of life anime series however is one of staleness. In a market that's already heavily saturated in the genre, it's difficult to keep things fresh between series yet alone trying to keep the ball rolling with just one show for multiple seasons. I'm not saying there's nothing here that's enjoyable, it's just more of the same.

Some people like more of the ... same. It's familiar, comfortable. I'll give it this, this type of show is incredibly easy to watch. Sometimes I feel daunted at the idea of slogging through another 4 or 5 episodes of some heavy seinen sci-fi thriller with "deep" philosophical messages thrown in there about the complex implications of human suffering or whatever. Sometimes it's nice to just turn on mind-numbing entertainment like this and laugh along with the same old predictable tropes.

Nice, fluffy and comfortable content that gives me sort of the same feeling I'd get watching American made cartoons growing up. 7/10

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 makes ... weird 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.

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 the ... bushel, 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.