Shinryaku! Ika Musume | As seen on Netflix

Who here remembers that Anime about a squid girl, raise your hand if you do. Why thank you, to all those who did. If you took the hint given by the title, then you probably didn’t know that for a period of time, the Anime itself was available on Netflix – not too sure if it’s still there now. I just so happen to be one of those guys who watched the entire Anime on Netflix. As it’s something all the cool kids are doing nowadays.

As like all Anime I review, you either like or dislike the Anime. For me personally, I really enjoyed the Anime, I myself had a lot of fun. Shoutout to Netflix for providing me with this Anime.

Story:
This is a very episodic Anime and doesn’t really follow a story, so all I can rate here is the premise and how it is dealt with. Ika Musume is a squid who is fed up with humans who throw their trash into the ocean, so she decides to conquer the humans. Too bad she is just a little girl with no knowledge of the human world. The idea is very interesting and reminds me a little of Yostuba, though the main characters are quite different. The premise is often made fun of, as it is a mere excuse for all the comedy. This show never takes itself very seriously and it shouldn’t. I would’ve liked for some more conquering failure, but I’m okay with what we got.

Art:
The artwork is very simple like in most comedies. This allows for better focus on the characters and the gags. On occasion, it showed us what it could be capable of, but never did it really inspire awe. It still works quite well – I’ll definitely give it that.

Sound:
That opening will be stuck in your head for days. Sure, it’s a very stereotypical cutesy song, but I think it’s really good. The ending is very calm and relaxing, almost like a heavy axe coming down to end the wacky ride, but I like it. The Anime itself doesn’t use much music, the sound effects work well. Nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible.

Characters:
Are these characters bland? Maybe a little. Does it hurt? Not at all. They all fill out their roles perfectly and combine to an eccentric cast with great chemistry. The hothead, the secretly scary one, the innocent boy, his mean friend, the Ika addict, the scared one, the alien believer; they all work and that’s what counts. Ika herself is easily the best-written character of the show. She does not fall into a stereotype, she’s not brave, not completely dumb, not a tsundere, not innocent, not even a bad luck magnet. She’s a little of everything, almost like a real person. Sure, she isn’t very deep, but did you expect or even want that? No, you don’t.

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