Some shows I look forward to catching up on after a break. I have to admit, this season of Nyarko-san has not been one of those shows.
What They Say:
“I’m the chaos that always crawls up to you with a smile, Nyarlathotep.” A silver haired girl appeared with this nonsensical catch phrase!
The Review:
Three episodes, for our consideration: the second half of Kuuko’s efforts to get rid of Kuune by pretending to be engaged to Mahiro; Nyaruko finally being 100% direct with Mahiro about her feelings for him (not that it gets her anywhere); and the latest addition to Mahiro’s harem, when Shanta-kun get transformed into cute naked young girl. All wrapped up in the show’s usual heavy helping of references to other shows – some subtle, some less so.
I would be a lot more tolerant of Nyaruko-san if it weren’t for, well, Nyaruko. A fairly major flaw with a series when it’s the lead female who puts you off. While these episodes are focussing on Kuuko, Kuune and Shanta, there’s a decent amount of fun to be had from them – but, as befits her billing at title character, Nyaruko has to get into the act regularly, and the steady ramping up of her already high-level obsession with Mahiro quickly counteracts any enjoyment I was getting from the rest of the show. The ‘unique selling point’ of the show – that Cthulhu Mythos tie-in – isn’t even getting focus any more, leaving these episode being simply standard harem fare wrapped in a game of spot-the-reference to keep the boredom down to manageable levels.
To be honest, I can barely be bothered to watch it. Of the list of shows I’m still following this season, Nyaruko-san is firmly at the bottom. While there were occasional glimmers of fun and decent action early in the season, we’re now firmly in a mid-season rut where there’s nothing you can point at to say, “This is the reason you should watch this show”. And that’s a damned shame.
In Summary:
Short review is short, mainly because there’s not a hell of a lot to say. The set-up for Nyaruko-san has huge potential, but this season seems to be almost going out of its way to avoid living up to it. Not holding my breath for the rest of the season to pick up, either.
Content Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
27” Apple iMac, 2.9GHz Core i5, 32GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.8.3
