In 2015 Nintendo brought out a brand new IP Splatoon. A silly little team shooter that was focused not on killing your opponents but covering the most amount of ground. Fun little squid kids running about squirting ink all over the place. BUT several years before, in 2007 another squid kid emerged from the sea, not to have fun team matches but to invade the surface world and crush all mankind. All roughly 20 that she thinks exists.

Squid Girl or Shinryaku! Ika Musume as it’s known in Japan had an anime series in 2010 with a sequel released the following year.

The series follows Squid Girl (yes that’s her name) as she rises up from the depths, attempt to take over the Lemon Beach House, utterly fail and be put to work at it by the 3 siblings who work there. Over time treating her as part of the family – though Squid Girl still wanting to take over the world, even after being made to realize just how big a task that would be. (She didn’t know what an army was)

Each episode consists of around 3 sections each being their own little story. These are usually very light hearted: like a scientist lady tries to convince Squid Girl she’s actually an alien; Squid Girl finds the one person on the beach who’s actually afraid of her; or going to see a beach show.

I suppose the best series to compare it with is Miss Kobiyashi’s Dragon Maid. Both have regular world meeting strange being, though Squid Girl is both less and more crazy than Dragon Maid. While Squid Girl is less insane of a creature than the dragons of Dragon Maid she acts far more crazy than Tohru and Kanna. Also the humans are generally crazier in Squid Girl while in Dragon Maid they were far more the straight man role.

Now to talk about the 4 main characters starting with the titicular Squid Girl. Usually an overly ambitious fish out of water style person. Her main features that show her not to be human are her squint hat thing (that’s actually part of her head but looks like a hat) and her very strong and fast tentacles. She’s the main source of comedy in the show as her happy nature, ambition to destroy humanity while still being friendly all come together.

The second main character is Eiko Aizawa who primarily acts as the straight woman while reeling Squid Girl in and having to explain stuff to her. She runs the Beach House and forces Squid Girl to work there to pay off damages she causes right away.

Eiko Aizawa’s two siblings finish off the cast. Her older sister Chizuru Aizawa who is one of those people that normally always has their eyes closes in a smiling manner which means the moment those open it’s a (profanity) gets real moment. The other being her little brother Takeru Aizawa who is the friendliest with the lead calling him Squid Girly.

The show proved to be a success with a second season being announced and ovas, hey even produced Squid Girl clothes for the characters of Splatoon several years later. It’s a relatively fun watch, not the best and I still would always pick Dragon Maid above it but worth a check out for some light hearted silly fun without going too insane, not just a girl with tentacle hair trying to wipe out mankind.

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