Squid Girl

Squid Girl, known in Japan as Shinryaku! Ika Musume (侵略!イカ娘) with the subtitle The invader comes from the bottom of the sea!, is a Japanese manga series by Masahiro Anbe, which was serialized in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion between July 2007 and February 2016. An anime television series adaptation produced by Diomedéa aired on TV Tokyo between October and December 2010, with a second season airing between September and December 2011. Three original video animation (OVA) episodes were released between 2012 and 2014.

Premise

Vowing to take over the world as revenge for polluting the ocean, Squid Girl attempts to make her base of operations the Lemon Beach House (alt. Lemon Beach Shack), a small beachside restaurant run by the Aizawa siblings. However, when she accidentally breaks a hole in their wall trying to demonstrate her power by trying to swat a mosquito, she is forced to work as a waitress to pay off the damages. Thus, Squid Girl begins her life on the surface, learning new things and encountering many curious visitors.

Characters

Main characters

Supporting characters

Arashiyama Gorō (嵐山悟郎)

[2][3]

Eiko's childhood friend who works as a lifeguard; he is dedicated to protecting the sea and the people on the beach. He is usually serious about his job but will sometimes get riled up when Squid Girl messes about, most often when she pilfers shrimp from his meals. Despite being attractive to many girls, he himself has a crush on Eiko's older sister Chizuru, but does not have the courage to confess his feelings to her.

Nagatsuki Sanae (長月早苗)

[2][3]

Eiko's classmate and neighborhood friend who develops an obsessive crush on Squid Girl. She keeps a vast collection of Squid Girl photographs and memorabilia, and often stalks her. Although Squid Girl often retaliates violently to her advances, she enjoys it. She has a pet dog named Alex who's jealous of Squid Girl.

Saitō Nagisa (斉藤渚)

[2][3]

A surf-loving girl who works part-time at the Lemon. Unlike everyone else, she takes Squid Girl's conquest talk seriously and fears her greatly. Squid Girl, on the other hand, enjoys the fact that there is finally someone who fears her and thus she constantly teases Nagisa whenever she can. For a short period, Nagisa started dressing up as a guy in order to attract female customers and stop Squid Girl from teasing her, but she gave up after assuming she needs to be the one who recognizes her as an invader.

Minamikaze no Tenchō (南風の店長)

[2][3]

The unnamed owner of a beach shack called Southern Winds (南風). A rather strict manager, he hopes to capitalize on Squid Girl's popularity by making his own creepy kigurumi (mascot head) based on her likeness, filled with various gadgets that often go awry. The kigurumi is worn by his daughter Ayumi. He hopes to get the real Squid Girl to work at his shop.

Tokita Ayumi (常田鮎美)

[2][3]

The daughter of the owner of The Southern Winds. Though her beauty attracts a lot of customers, she is painfully shy around people, especially men. In order to face people, her father fits her with a fake Squid Girl (ニセイカ娘) kigurumi mask. She occasionally works at the Lemon as a means to improve her sociability, and tends to be more social around Squid Girl and when interacting with animals. In the first drama CD, she confesses that if she isn't wearing her kigurumi mask, she can't properly express herself. She later gets a puppy, whom she names Rentarou, who looks up to Alex like a big brother.

Shindī Kyanberu (シンディー・キャンベル)

[2][3]

A blonde-haired American research scientist and top MIT graduate, Cindy believes Squid Girl to be an exterrestrial alien. She constantly tries to get Squid Girl to admit to being one, so she can take her back to her lab for analysis and examination. She has a light rivalry with Sanae due to their shared obsession with Squid Girl. In one episode, she suspects Chizuru of being an alien because of the latter's extraordinary abilities.

Harisu (ハリス) Kurāku (クラーク) Mātin (マーティン)

Harris [2][3]

Clark [2][3]

Martin [2][3]

Cindy's research colleagues who were also top graduates at MIT. Harris is the Head of Experiments; he has dark skin and is the tallest of the three. Clark is the Head of Development; a slim guy with grey hair in a ponytail. Martin is the Head of Research; he is overweight with short brown hair, glasses, and a moustache. Although they mean well and have the talent to make beneficial contributions to mankind, their obsession with researching aliens leads them to develop contraptions that cause trouble to the gang at Lemon, and they thus get the moniker of "The Three Stooges" (3バカトリオ).[4]

Sakura Kiyomi (紗倉清美)

[2][3]

A middle school student whom Squid Girl makes friends with after an attempt at doorbell ditching goes wrong. She has brown hair styled with two ponytails and wears glasses. She and her classmates form an Invasion Club with Squid Girl where they go do activities around town such as karaoke, bowling, and shopping.

Isozaki Tatsuo (磯崎辰雄)

[3]

A lifeguard who works alongside Gorō. He is often judged by his appearance as being no good and usually tries to pick up girls with no results.

Tanabe Kozue (田辺梢)

A young girl with wavy light brown hair who appears to be the same age as Squid Girl and Kiyomi. She wears a long red dress, and a matching beret hat. She sometimes talks with Squid Girl, hinting that invading might not be the best thing to do as not all humans are bad. It is implied that she also comes from the sea, as she has a hat similar to Squid Girl's and makes statements that indicate she isn't human. The first syllables of her name spell out 'tako' (たこ), meaning "octopus."

Saitō Aiko (斉藤愛子)

Takeru's elementary school teacher and Nagisa's older sister. Aiko is jealous of Squid Girl's popularity with her students as she was once popular with them before she came into view. She loves kids. And she was Ruka's classmate during their time.

Shirosugi Ruka (白椙留夏)

The beach nurse who is sometimes harsh towards people who end up in her clinic multiple times and towards the lifeguards whenever they slack off. She hates returning injured persons for the third time in order to not disturb her slacker lifestyle, as shown opening all appliances after the first aid clinic closes. It was revealed that Aiko and Ruka was once classmates and that the latter was a gangster.

Matsumoto Yūta (松本ユタ)

Takeru's best friend and classmate from school.

title	Shinryaku!? Ika Musume
type	tv series
director	Tsutomu Mizushima (general director) Yasutaka Yamamoto (director)
writer	Michiko Yokote
music	Tomoki Kikuya
studio	Diomedéa
network	TV Tokyo, AT-X
first	September 26, 2011
last	December 26, 2011
episodes	12
episode list	List of Squid Girl episodes#Shinryaku!? Ika Musume (2011)

Premise

Characters

Main characters

Supporting characters

Media

Manga

Anime

Other

Works cited

External links

References