Nothing says success like starting an Invasion Club.
What They Say:
The owner of Minamikaze has invited the girls of Lemon to his home, once there the mood changes drastically. How can the girls escape? Squid Girl is suffering from amnesia and everybody is trying to convince her she is an alien, girlfriend, or sister, but what about invader? The Invasion Club has been formed, join and watch how they systematically invade the city.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I’ll admit it, I’m still riding a high from last week’s episode that involved that mini Squid Girl who wasn’t able to talk but had grand adventures. We only had one instance of that in the first season, so getting two (so far?) this time around is definitely a treat. But it can’t define the show because it’s just a cute piece separate from everything. For this episode, things kick off by going in an amusing direction by having the girls go over to Minamikaze’s place after getting an invitation, which was pretty friendly, but then turns rather unusual once it gets going because he’s so gruff and brusque. It’s like he invites them over for just casual conversation and the like but is just angry about everything. So the girls try to find a way out of the situation but it just gets harder and harder to escape in a polite enough form.
The middle segment of the episode is pretty cute as well, obviously going in a different direction though, as Squid Girl ends up with amnesia after falling down the stairs on her way to dinner. She gets much props for playing classic Golden Axe console games though before going into the silliness of the episode as she’s cautious and nervous about where she is, even as she retains her speech patterns and affection for shrimp. There’s the expected silliness when it comes to everyone’s reactions over it and the way some of them try to use it to their advantage, but there aren’t any real surprises to it. Seeing everyone trying to sway her to their way of thinking is cute as is how Squid Girl herself tries to suss it all out.
The final story is another one that is, like a lot of the stories about Squid Girl, is cute and adorable. She decides that one of the best ways to get her invasion plans going again is to create an Invasion Club. And she actually gets a number of schoolgirls to sign on for it that are about her age. They’re all keen on the idea as something fun to do and start working out maps and plans, though it’s fun to watch how she gets to claim that she’s invaded and conquered the shop and Eiko’s house. The girls see it as a positive though because it leaves them so many places to “invade”, which is basically them going to lots of places and having fun. While I’d like to see a full on real invasion with more of her kind coming ashore, I do love this kind of approach to it as well as she’s further co-opted by the surface world.
In Summary:
The charms of Squid Girl are made clear once again as she has a lot of fun here while also letting the supporting cast get their time in the sun as well. While she is a dominant personality, it’s also the kind of show where it doesn’t feel like the spotlight is being forced on others, rather others are sharing it with her as they expand the comedy and storyline. The weakest of them here is the amnesia story since it goes in the expected directions, but even that has its fun. The bookend stories are my favorites though as they cover very different things and left me smiling throughout. The more time she spends on the surface, the more like us she gets while still holding onto her desire to punish everyone. If we ever learn her true motivations, it’ll certainly add an amusing wrinkle to the series as a whole.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
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.
