The first segment of this episode probably was the funniest segment of Squid Girl so far. It’s just brilliant!
At first it seemed pretty boring, as everyone was inside due to heavy rain and they started to make Teruterubouzus (those things that Japanese people hang up next to their windows to try and make it stop raining), but then Squid Girl suddenly revealed her amazing drawing skills, and then proceeded to draw everyone in the way that they appeared to her. Some of these drawings were utterly priceless, like the one of herself, the one of Takeru and the one of Shizuru. It was a bizarre glimpse in what goes on in the mind of Squid Girl.
And there’s much more in this episode than just that, since it also spent quite a bit of time on Takeru making a Teruterubouzu, which eventually led to some of Squid Girl’s interpretations of it, including dressing herself up as one (very cute, by the way), a giant one, and some rejected ones with the most hilarious faces. I also loved that scene in which Squid Girl threw her Teruterubouzu dress on top of Eiko: we only saw the aftermath of it and she didn’t say anything, but her reaction was just awesome.
The second and third segment in comparison were rather mellow, although I do have to give the second credit for its creepiness factor. It’s a bit lame that it ended with a reset ending, though: Sanae is again exactly the same at the end, which is a bit of a pity. The third segment though… was just too predictable. Squid Girl enters a baseball match and blows everyone away, it wasn’t that special except for the end in which the opponent team suddenly begged Squid Girl to join them.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Even though I only watched the raws and can barely understand japanese, the first segment seemed like it was the funniest I’ve seen in a while. I think though that it should have been placed in the third segment because it kinda eclipsed the two following segments too much. The third segment was more about character building than being funny. It seemed more like about showing Ika’s sense of loyalty and friendship. The second segment was about showing how creepy Sanae was, which is a kind of characterisation.
Actually, I feel that the anime skipped lots of chapters that fleshed out characters and instead chose to focus on the humor so in the anime, a segment about character building would seem weird I guess.
For example, early on in the manga, you see that Ika hates literers and after watching one, she decides by herself to pick up the trash. Eiko then agrees with Ika that litering is bad and help her picking up the trash and some passerbys end up helping Ika as well. It showed Eiko in a rather different light than in the anime. You also see in small examples that Shizuru does care for Ika (hugging/patting on the head/ complimenting her).
All those things are small but they give a different feel of the characters.
Uhm… ok with Sanae being creepy at the eye of Ikachan, but… let’s ask what did really happen that time she was left alone with her, except some cosplay picture session? It doesn’t look something like that can scare some kid, let alone a squid… Was it something XXX they can’t show on tv? 😛
@Solaris
I think the second segment pretty much explained why Ika finds Sanae creepy. Moreover, given how she views herself and others as well as her artistic sense, what she drawed wasn’t that creepy by her standard.
I don’t know if you have noticed but when takeru pissed on the bed, the liquid formed the world map. I just noticed now….