Reviews for The Squid Girl 2

Gentlemen, the new second season of the most addicting shit ever made is finally here. Ika Musume is back! After a year-long time since it has started airing in October 2010 (9 months break since it has finished airing in December 2010) we finally get a new season a couple of days before October 2011, before the new Fall 2011 anime season starts. And this time, Ika-Musume is more ADORABLE and BADASS than ever. Story: 10 The story is extremely simple yet shows some layers of unheard complexity. The most ADORABLE and BADASS humanoid squid creature of the bright blue sea comes to shore to invade humanityyet she is 1000 years too young to actually do this particular invasion so instead she spends her time with two Hoes named Chizuru and that Orange haired girl who nobody cares about. Oh yeah, and some other characters thrown in the mix also. All the story occurs near the sea side and shows the lives of the Bland characters along with the most ADORABLE and BADASS Ika Musume. All the other characters support her overflowing Sex Appeal.

What is complex about the story you ask? If a story contains the most ADORABLE and BADASS Squid humanoid creature that comes from the sea it has automatically become complex beyond words.

Every episode of the first season and the new first episode of the second season shows amazingly complex and splendid writing (following the manga from tooth to nail). The staff that works on this anime knows what he is doing.

Each episode is split into 3 parts of 3 short stories, and fuck, every part is better than his predecessor. The stories are simply stunning!

The story flows so naturally because of the character of the most ADORABLE and BADASS Ika Musume. Without her, the story won't move. She is an essential piece in this "game", like a "KING" or a "QUEEN" in chess.

She is the core of the story.

Art: 10

The animation studio reprises the art of the first season with some fluid new additions. The art never looked so crisp and beautiful and the sea-side scenery is simply breathtaking.

And you know, without the good art you can't make a story so believable because the animation breaths life into the characters, and especially to the most ADORABLE and BADASS Ika Musume. Most of the care of the animation goes into animating her antics: There is alot of animation job to do because of her, and mainly because of her tentacles.

Sound:10

TWO WORDS: Kanemoto Hisako.

FIFTEEN WORDS: One of the best voice acting jobs that fits the character like a condom to a penis.

Aside from that the music and voice acting are great. The new OP and ED never before sounded so fresh and the animation in them fits in today's standards.

The sound effects are also believable.

Character: 10

Like I said before, Ika Musume is the core of the story. All the story revolves her, and without her I would not give the characters a full 10. Her presence is what makes the anime to what it is.

Other mildly notable supporting characters are Sanae the lesbian stalker that is gay for Ika Musume, and Chizuru, who is extremely frightening at times. There are some many other characters showing up at times, but they are not very important for the story.

Enjoyment: 10

TBH, this is the most enjoyable show I've ever seen, and I have seen many. This show stands out from other shows that I have seen because of the comedy and the most ADORABLE and BADASS Ika Musume who is the new Jesus (Well... for me that is, no offense for religious people). The existence of Ika is what keeps my life moving. Yes, she is THAT important for me. She will be always more important than my future wife, she is my TRUE WAIFU!!!!!! (Don't tell that to my future wife though)

Overall: 10

ADORABLE. BADASS. ADDICTING. 10/10 across all the board!

Ok, so what we have here is a season 2 of the original "Shinryaku? Ika Masume," so far it still maintains the same kind of plotless slapstick comedy genre, were every episode is compose of a couple of omake. And as usual the squid girl still hasn't successfully conquered the surface world and she's still working on it, degeso. So how does this season 2 fare up, degeso? Let's see, degeso: Story- fair number 6, degeso. Ok so according to one of the commentators from the form, this anime still focuses on a couple omakes which for every episode would either hit or misses ones funny bone andshe right, there are certain instances that you'll feel irritated with Ika chan. But then again the slapstick comedy genre makes up for it, degeso.

Art-mediocre number 5, degeso.

It's very obvious, that the art used from the previous season is still the same for this season, degeso.

Sound - poor number 3, degeso.

I simply hate both opening and ending themes.

Characters- mediocre number 5, degeso.

Well, isn't it very obvious that the same main characters are still there and nothing much has change regarding their roles, there may some additional characters in this anime but then again they're merely support roles that adds to the content of this anime. Oh, I kinda like to see Cindy just in her striped bikini without the red jacket and I still find Sanae very funny being kicked in the butt by Ika chan's tentacles, degasso.

Enjoyment and overall- fair number 6, degeso.

Well I'd probably say that even if the omakes in each episode is either a hit or a miss, I'd say that everything does hit in a comic sense, so I don't mind getting pissed at Ika's stupidly as long as she provides the laughs. How will this anime ends? I guess it's very obvious that she still gonna be working for the sisters as one of their waitresses, she still gonna keep working on her plans to conquer the surface world, and possibly become a human, as it did from the previous episode, then again, I'm just guessing. By the way if there's is another thing that has change is anime is that she can fly.......or float in the air since she can alter her weight with the help of her magic bracelets, degeso.

After a year of absence, Ika Musume returns once again to invade the anime world, bringing along with her all the gags and skits of the first season back for another run. For those who have watched season one of Ika Musume, this is definitely a must-watch. But even for those who haven't watched season one, you won't be missing anything if you jump right into the second season. All you need to know is that there's a squid girl "attempting" to invade the land. Shinryaku!? Ika Musume is essentially the exact replica of the first season except with different stories so don't go intoit expecting something totally brand-new. So, let's begin the review ~de geso.

Art (7/10)

The artwork for the show has always been simple but good. The characters and backgrounds generally look lively, with the designs taking a more comedic style once in a while. It's nothing to cheer about but it's watchable and does what it's supposed to do.

Characters (7/10)

Surprisingly, there weren't any new (and notable) characters this season. Even though I was glad that the entire cast from season one returned, I can't say I wasn't disappointed at the lack of new faces. The characters have barely changed - Ika Musume is still the center of attention and comedy, Chizuru is still extremely creepy when she's mad, Sanae is still obsessed with Ika Musume, etc. I guess the idea of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" was in the mind of the mangaka as he continued Ika Musume after realizing it was successful.

Sound (8/10)

Like last season, Ika Musume opens with a fast-paced and upbeat OP that readies one for the comedy in next twenty or so minutes while the slower and softer ED wraps up the episode. I personally liked both songs, with the OP slightly getting the edge over the ED. As expected, the same BGM and seiyū from season one return for season two. Not many changes to note in this category.

Story (6/10)

While the first season was generally plotless, I was more forgiving considering that the series was still new to me. However, with the second season now finished, I'm starting to wonder if the original premise of Ika Musume invading the land has been completely forgotten. It's actually not the lack of plot that bothered me this season, but how unfitting the show's title is. Sure, maybe the question mark is there to hint that the invasion may not happen after all, but I'm still quite confused as to why the word "Shinryaku" is even there in the first place. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the three skits (or "stories", if you prefer) in each episode. They were generally entertaining and amusing.

Overall (7/10)

To be honest, the second season of Ika Musume didn't live up to the first season. I think it's the repetitiveness of it all that made it lose its charm. Still, that is not to say it was bad in any way. In fact, I am slightly looking forward to a third season, though I have a few doubts here and there. And with that, we bid farewell to squid girl once again and wait to see if she'll appear again next year.

Here we go again! The second season of Shinryaku!? Ika Musume is very much like the first season however with some changes here and there, for one, no more new characters are permanently added to the cast, it's the same cast we know with all their running gags only amplified. For one, Cyndi and the Three stooges' invention gets ramped up into more bizarre inventions that utterly don't help the situation in their venture to make Ika Musume their test subject, Sanae's obsession with Ika Musume is amped up as well with her obsession going into masochist mild yandere states at times. Once again many of Ika Musume'sventures are like making the more mundane things humans go through making Ika Musume seem to make it intense and awesome in alot of ways.

We do in this season get some mild character development (if LA can call it that) to some characters in this season such as Chizuru (still LA's favourite character in the series) showing off her more emotional side as well as showing off some of her weaknesses due to her being Ika Musume's biggest obstacle in her invasion in the first place. Ika Musume shows off some more of her new powers, showed development of showing that not ALL humans are bad which culminated into getting an emotional moment in the finale with Eiko showing that even though Eiko is Ika Musume's biggest minder (and the tsukommi to Ika's boku) she still somewhat cares about Ika Musume as harsh as she is to her. Some minor characters like Kiyomi gets expanded upon as well what with Kiyomi's click getting added to the cast but only as something of a satellite characters to Kiyomi.

So essentially Shinryaku!? Ika Musume is just many of Ika Musume's daily lives with even goofier and wackier scenario's for her to be put in, that and the "flavour" of the first season of Ika Musume is still in this second season, by not only showing off Ika Musume's daily life and all but defying expectations to MANY of skits LA mentioned above.

Ika Musume's humor comes from one situation that leads into another THEN having our expectations of Ika Musume winning or the outcome but then ONE factor screws/changes the outcome of Ika Musume (or the character in focus) that allows Ika Musume to be put back to square one. Now this is saying the status quo is in place for the most part and in this season LA thinks it got the brunt of it due to the no follow through besides those setup in the first season. Now is LA saying the humor isn't the same as the first season due to this, no, it's just the factor of isolated incidents of Ika Musume going through the motions and even if the status quo is in place, LA got a chuckle from a couple of skits in this season if not because of how much crazier or unexpected the result DID become be it if LA knows the outcome or not.

Unexpectedness is key for Shinryaku!? Ika Musume and it nailed it even in this season.

In terms of animation once again done by diomedea, the character designs and backgrounding is through and through the same as the first season...really not much too talk about the animation besides the rare times of art style changes for exaggerated reactions and everything but the animation is the same as the first verse just consistent.

The voice acting is again the same as the first season, the only annoyance LA actually found this season happen to be Kanae Ito as Sanae, nothing on the voice actor on this one as Sanae's obsession peaked this season so she's even more obnoxiously annoying compared to her first season portrayal. Hisako Kanemoto doing her squid-esque accenting is consistent as ever and Rie Tanaka as Chizuru is her typical caring older sister but DON'T F*** WITH HER vocals as well. There are some actually decent "English" in this anime dubbed by Sarah Hauser for both Cyndi and Ika's English...it was more or less uncanny hearing that. But yeah..same as the animation, the voice acting is consistent at best.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume's second season is going through the motions of Ika Musume's daily life, trying to invade the world but failing time and again, however what Ika Musume fails to realize is all the time she's spent with Eiko, Chizuru, Takeru, Cyndi, Sanae and Kiyomi and everyone else, sure she hasn't invaded the world but she has "invaded" and oddly enough helped all the people she's encountered to be together and if it wasn't for Ika Musume, they would have never meet the people that they did. "Invasion" is a strong word, more like "friendship" at best and that is what Ika Musume is to everyone by the end of it, the hilarity, craziness or mundanity of it all.

Nonetheless Shinryaku!? Ika Musume was a nice wrap up to the Ika Musume series even for a status quo rather unpredictable skit based comedy anime about a humanoid squid girl wanting to take over the world.

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 thebushel, 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.

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 makesweird 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.

The invader returns for a second season. What I'd call a surprise hit from late 2010 was not going to go unnoticed this time around, it had a lot to squid up to. If you've seen season one (which I'm assuming you have), season 2 is exactly the same. There is absolutely no plot outside of Ika Musume came from the sea to invade the Earth for polluting the ocean and is now working at a beach shack. All the characters from last time are back too, and pretty much the same. Eiko still has a tsundere relationship with Ika Musume, Chizuru is still scary,Sanae is still in love with her, Nagisa is still scared, Cyndi and the three stooges still want to run experiments, etc. Kiyomi also returns with some side characters, who get no development, but are there to show Ika Musume made friends.

Like S1 there are some Mini-Ika segments too. While they are kawaii to the core, they do feel kinda out of place.

As far as quality of the episodes (each one has about 2-3 mini parts like in S1) there are a few that are better than the ones in S1, but in my opinion, a lot of them missed the mark. Don't get me wrong, they are still enjoyable, and funny, but they just aren't as funny for some reason. It's really one of those things you can't judge unless you've seen both.

While I normally don't go into the music, I do have complaints about the OP. It's just so... un Ika Musume like. The original OP was great, it was about invasion and really fit the show. This time around it's just... nice. The ED is pretty good though, like last time it's basically Ika (this time walking) and a stillish scene, but that changes based on what happened in an episode.

Overall I'd say Ika Musume S2 is an enjoyable anime that will keep a smile on your face, but failed to meet the charm that S1 delivered.

Inkvasion sorta kinda suckcessful somewhat to a certain extent... Whilst FUNi was waiting for Geneon so they can get their DVD+BD combos (as well as releasing fanservicy animu that feature "herbivore shounen"), Media Blasters (along with the non-"Poof Sputter" arm of Bang Zoom) managed to release season 1 onto DVD here pretty quickly. Kraken-chan Season 2 is more of the same, unfortunately. There's nothing new about this animu. * Chizuru is STILL an undefeatable Mary-Sue. * Goro becomes her punching bag. Literally. * Ayumi now falls into the "I can beat a guy up" category. If this series wasn't so charming and endearing, I would've set it near the lot ofother animu and cleaned it with fire.

But all in all... To the people who complain about the wack time slots they get on TV and cable: Remember that televangelists and salespeople also use these time slots. THERE'S A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR IT. The lot of people don't like when others shove their ideologies and such down their throats. Moe and fanservice can only take something so far.

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 thesame. 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

The devil plan of invasion continues……. Yeah right! It hasn’t even started yet. Well, if she’s not too distracted with all her much curiosities to almost everything. Still, like Chizuru said that in many ways Ika-chan already invaded their lives. With this sequel, there are more funny and cute moments. It gets more interesting as it gets more dramatic and there’s more touching moments. The jokes and gags are a lot cleaner and nicely done now. The storylines are a lot more sophisticated and interesting now. Well, not that season one was not interesting enough. The characters are as weird, funny and unique as ever.Though, I absolutely think Sanae’s “hentai” – ness is tripled. After Ika-chan, she’s mostly the source of gags and funny moments with all her perverseness. But of course let’s not forget our extremely cute and irresistible protagonist, Ika Musume-chan. She started off as a weird and annoying stranger but now people that loves and adores her keeps piling up. I think she’s a lot closer with her new found family and friends in the land. They are close enough to have serious bickering and fights. She’s more affectionate and sensitive now. She’s experimental as ever with her naivety to almost everything which is the main source of her cuteness. It is just funny that she’s already used to being in the land and rarely seen in the sea that you end up wondering if she’s really from the sea. I also love that there is more airtime for the extremely cute mini version Ika-chan. Though, I am just a little bit disappointed that there’s not even a single new character as sequels always have to make it somehow really looked like a sequel. Well, not that it affects the quality of this nice series. I am just expecting another addition to these fun and cute characters. And again, the mysterious character appears once again at the end of the series when they are having dramatic moments again. I just wish they would give even a small hint as to who she is or what she is.

Well, it’s not that long since the last season so there is not much difference. However, I honestly think that though it is not obviously visible, there are still improvements to it. I even think that if in season one Ika-chan is the only cute one and the rest are just nicely done but this time I think most of them are a lot cuter. They can be as adorable as Ika-chan is. And boy did I miss those irresistible blue tentacles!

There is no question that almost all the elements of it really improved. It definitely feels like a sequel. I am absolutely looking forward to more squidy adventure from this fun and nice series.