How about those three stooges?
What They Say:
Takeru was stopped by a foreigner and couldn’t respond. It is up to Cindy to teach him English. Squid Girl won’t miss this moment to invade English. Squid Girl has learned about tickling and out on the prowl to find victims. It’s time for a boat ride with “Black Tiger”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the things I love about anime is when characters speak English. There’s just such a level of fun to it, much as when they likely hear when it crops up on our side, that it makes me grin. There’s been a lot of English in anime over the years, with the Japanese actors doing their best to speak it to random people pulled off the street to handle a role. With this episode, Takeru kicks things off by asking Cindy to teach him English since he met someone that needed help and he couldn’t do it. What makes it hilarious here is that Cindy speaks it very well and Takeru catches on quickly. Yet Eiko is unable to understand any of it and it’s made worse by the fact that Squid Girl picks it up really well, with some heavy accent to be sure. It’s just priceless watching as she ends up becoming a teacher of sorts. For those that love to hear Japanese voice actors speak in English, it’s a treasure trove of comedy here.
While the opening story has a lot of fun with Eiko, the second one puts Squid Girl on the offensive when she discovers what tickling is. It may make sense that tickling doesn’t work underwater to some degree, so when she finds out that her tentacles and fingers can do the trick, she treats it like an invasion pretty much and goes to town on all the unwilling subjects. The willing subjects she passes over, which is hilarious when that happens. When she decides to go up against Chizuru though, everyone is kind of fearful but really intrigued at the idea of her rolling around the floor in laughter. The whole bit about the tickling is just priceless throughout and it runs through a number of very cute moments repeatedly.
As is to be expected, Squid Girl does get introduced to some fun new things beyond tickling. When the kids end up taking her out on a trip to the countryside, she gets to see her first river which actually fascinates her. With the kids, she ends up working with all of them to make little boats which they can then race down the mild current. It’s cute how they all come up with different ideas about things and the way she’s so into her boat, named Black Tiger of course, where she’s the only one with a rock in it which should cause it to sink. When she visualizes herself as the rock, all chibi in nature, it’s so completely and utterly adorable that even I wanted to squee over it. Squid Girl in this form is a dangerous weapon to be sure.
In Summary:
Squid Girl once again conquers my Monday’s by giving me 23 minutes of straight fun, silliness and utter cuteness. The show was one that won me over handily with its first season and this one has managed to work along the same lines, teasing with what it does and can be while also going straight for what does work. The three stories here are all very distinct and would have been trashed if stretched out to a full episode. But by keeping the stories short and focused, all three are winners for different reasons and are all quite memorable. There’s just a whole lot to like here and it’s the kind of series that makes sure the viewers know different types of humor while avoid the raunchy side of things or going for gutter humor. Very, very fun indeed.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
