I literally just completed my viewing of Ika Musume, a show which I thought I would never pick up. What have I learned? Not really anything, but I really liked the show.
Shinryaku! Ika Musume
Okay, to be honest, I kind of wanted to check this show out at first, but then elected not to because I thought it might just be a bunch of moe crap. You see, this is what the world is coming to. I’m now second guessing myself out of anime because of delusions created from shows like K-On. It’s like I can’t even think for myself anymore!
So I guess I have learned something. I should trust my initial gut instincts when choosing a given show.
As for Shinryaku! Ika Musume, it was a good, enjoyable show. What I liked about it was that it stayed pretty consistent throughout it’s running, and I felt like it never really tailed off or anything like that. Here’s what I liked:
- Solid Comedy
- An Awesome Cast of Characters
- Solid Animation
- Solid Seiyu Work
- A Solid, Workable Premise that was Executed Solidly
- Solidness
By these standards, this anime should be given a grade of “solid”. But when an anime is all around solid, everything seems to get elevated by everything else, and the show as a whole just kicks ass. This is a scenario I just made up as I type this, and it holds true for SIM.
Ahhh SIM. One of the best yet also confusing acronyms for an anime. Am I talking about Shinryaku! Ika Musume, or am I referring to that game where you can build houses and shit?
Well, I don’t play stupid games with no point, so I’m of course talking about an anime when I say, “SIM.” I love acronyms that sound as if they’re a word. Things like SnS (Shakugan no Shana) and HOTD (High School of the Dead) suck because they can’t be pronounced except in letter by letter pronunciation. HOTD kind of works, but there’s no vowel between the T and the D, so you just end up saying HOT-D, which makes it sound like you’re talking about an erect penis or something. EX:
Sarah: How was Mark in bed last night?
Michelle: Well, he’s a fat piece of shit, but he really has a HOT D!
Wow I’m so off topic. Here’s a picture to get back into the show.
Okay, I can only assume that the other girl is a jellyfish girl or something. I mean....look at that hat.
Nice segway Glo!
Now that we’re back, I’m going to draw a comparison. I don’t know why I’m plainly stating that I’m going to draw a comparison, as it will become painfully obvious in a second. I guess I’m just bad at writing. Or over-tired. Or both. Either way. Here it is:
Shinryaku! Ika Musume is very similar to Working!!
I’m just going to list the reasons why, using the good old fashion form of bullets (bang bang!)
- The titles of both anime feature exclamation points!
- The animation seems similar for both of them.
- Both of them feature a group of crazy characters
- Both of them feature a setting in a restaurant.
- Both of them feature solid comedy and enjoyable situations.
- Both of them feature one female character with long straight hair who never really opens her eyes, yet is really strong when she chooses to be.
And this is where I break off.
Characters. I’ll pick three characters from each anime and display why they are weird. Check this out:
Working!!
- Inami – Phobia of Men
- Soma – Chef who blackmails people
- Yachiyo – Girl with a Samurai sword (comparable to Chizuru from SIM)
Shinryaku! Ika Musume
- Sanae – Stalker lesbian who likes to get beat up by Musume. Needless to say, one of my favorites.
- Nagisa – Surfer girl who is the only person actually afraid of Musume. She converts any situation into a reason to not trust/be afraid of Musume.
- Chizuru – Girl who seems polite and easy going, but also has superhuman strength, speed, agility, etc. (comparable to Yachiyo)
While the characters from both shows differ, they all share the same sort of weirdnesses that I like. And they both have a squinty eyed girl who can kick ass. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I think it’s a perfect time to tell you my favorite character.
Ahhh Chizuru. What an fantastic character. There were a lot of good….nay…..great characters to choose from, but in the end could not turn away from Chizuru, for fear that she might pop out of my computer screen and chop me in half with her hand. She did it to a fly after all. What I like about her is that she has a not-so-hidden yet oh-so-surprising mass of strength and agility that everytime she threatens someone, you can’t help but not love it.
I think I became hooked in the last episode, when she hit a vollyball through the sound barrier. That was nice.
Seeing as I judge my shows on how much I enjoyed them, and seeing also that I did, indeed, enjoy SIM a lot, I have no choice but to rejoice for the second season, and to award SIM with a
FINAL GRADE = 5
Bill got smashed by Ika's tentacles, as you can tell.
Eye Sedso 
Solid review.
lol
Damn kadian1364 said what I was going to say 😛
Lack of mentioning the manly tearfest that was the end of episode 5 makes me sadface. Still an awesome review though.
My two favorite chapters were hands-down the volleyball one, and the one where Ika isn’t allowed to eat any shrimp. The former because it had comedy for pretty much every character in one chapter, and the latter just because of the Ika and Sanae in a shrimp suit scene.
I was actually planning on mentioning that episode! It must have slipped my mind, but yeah, that episode had some emotion.
Of course, I was kind of my angry at Eiko. She pretty much died leaving Tiny Musume all alone. That’s messed up. She KNEW she was going to die sooner or later. At least have a grandchild or some kind of younger person become friends with her and Tiny Musume. Very poor planning on her part. That’s kind of how I felt afterward.
I too loved the volleyball chapter. Chizuru hit a volleyball so hard it went supersonic.
Unfortunately Working is like 50 times funnier than this. Or probably I still haven’t found a way to immedesimate myself into the characters of this. :[
Working was funnier. I rated it higher too. Working was awesome. That being said, I thought Ika Musume was very good as well, and I can’t wait for another season.
I loled so hard in this part: “so you just end up saying HOT-D, which makes it sound like you’re talking about an erect penis or something.”
and i realy likes the acronim pronunced as of HOT-D up to this point xD
I’m used to girls saying that about me, so it’s probably one of those “funny cuz it’s true” type of deals.
Obvious lie is obvious.
If one more person says something good about Working!!, I may have to watch it.
Oh well, guess it sucks.
I was waiting for someone to say something. Guess not. I think that no one commented because no one comes to this site anymore, not necessarily because Ika Musume is a bad show.
It’s fucking good.
Oh right….working….I meant working…..you’ve already seen Ika Musume. Yeah, Working is better.
Workings!! is a great show. Watch it. I would love to hear your spin on it.
I am still only halfway through this show. It was solid as first but in the middle it started it bore me. Also, I still didn’t see how this is similar to Working!! maybe because I absolutely adore that show (otherwise I won’t put it first for my 2010 anime list).
Working is indeed better, but I just get the same feeling from each series. Bottomline is, I’m always right.
Ika-chan is cute. That was probably my only reason for really enjoying the series. Her cute denseness. Thus why I will watch season 2.
Poor reason to watch a show if you ask me, but then again, who am I to judge?
Sounds like a perfectly good reason to me. De geso~
Hm… I also thought it was a “solid” show, but for some reason, it wasn’t a great show. I guess I just don’t love some of the characters as much as you did. I didn’t like Chizuru and found many others just bland. The only person I adore was Ika Musume. Still, it’s a decent show. Solid.
Watch out, if Chizuru hears that you called her bland then she might destroy you.