Toybox REVIEW: Figma Ika Musume

Despite this being the fourth Figma I've bought, it'll be the first time I've done a review for one for this blog. Not sure why I never did the Evangelion girls (long story short - they're great figures and well worth buying if you're a fan), but there we go. Therefore my first Figma review (but probably not the last) is of the 123rd entry into the mainline, and none other than Ika Musume (or Squid Girl if you prefer), star of the Shinryaku! Ika Musume anime and manga series. Tired of failing to conquer the surface world in the name of the sea, she's trying new tactics by invading toy collections instead.

Much like her animated self, Ika Musume is pretty short. In fact, she's around 2/3 the height of your usual Figma. Her skirt is made from soft PVC to allow lots of flexibility, and has a full range of motion in the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and feet. The fact she has pretty big shoes means her she has a good centre of gravity too and can be posed quite easily without a stand if you don't want a big obtrusive arm sticking out of her.

Like most Figma, Ika comes with a huge array of accessories. These include two front hairpieces (one cut short like in episode 12 of the first season, and another that I'll go into more detail on shortly), and extra head for the short tentacled hair), three facial expressions (happy, determined and upset), a huge selection of hands varying from pointing to fists, a pint glass (with removable beer!) and two plates of food. And of course, as with every Figma release (Bandai should take note) she comes with a jointed arm stand which can be plugged into her back. The hands may seem small but are really easy to remove since they use a hinged peg rather than a ball joint like similar scaled figures, but balancing the food using them is a real pain - protip: don't mess around with the open hands for ages only to realise using the open fists is far easier.

But by far her best accessory is the second hairpiece, which has two very long POSABLE tentacles. These tentacles are pretty durable, and can be used to hold things and even curled. Using the stand to lift Ika into the air also means you can pose her terrorising other toys while walking on her extended tentacles. I was a bit scared to test the limits of them (I'm always worried I'll break wired things) but there are plenty of possibilities to explore.

If there's one problem with Ika, it's one that plagues a lot of Figma and isn't just exclusive to her - the problem of paint transfer. I'm not sure if this is a common problem with the figure, but the short hairpiece on mine doesn't slot into the headpiece well (it stays in place, but not as firmly as it should) and I had to apply a bit of extra pressure to force it in. When I removed the piece after taking a few photos, I noticed the blue colouring had transferring onto her forehead, and the same applies when I removed her bracelet pieces. To be fair these areas would be covered when displayed so it's not a huge issue, but still one I thought worthy of attention.

I don't buy Figma very often so I don't know what is the norm in terms of quality, but Ika Musume is a fantastic figure. What she lacks in stature she makes up for in posability, accessories, movable tentacles and just plain fun. If you only have one water dweller invade your shelves this year, make it this one.

Anime REVIEW: Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

Squid girl is back, with a whole new season of adventures! Broadcast at the tail end of 2011, this 12 episode second season continues the story of Ika Musume (aka Squid Girl in English), a tentacle haired girl who vows to conquer the surface world as revenge for human polluting the ocean. Only her invasion hasn't gone quite according to plan, and she's found herself working in a beach restaurant in order to pay for damaging a wall upon her arrival. With her friends Eiko, Chizuru, Takeru, Kiyomi and more, Squid Girl continues to fend off the advances of the oh-so-slightly-obsessed Sanae, learns new things about the world she's come to conquer and forms her own 'Invasion club'.

While I did enjoy the first season, all in all it was a pretty average show at best. So going into the second season I was happy to discover that the show had really upped its game, and the stories were a lot more enjoyable. The format remains the same (2 or 3 short stories in one 22 minute episode) but since the characters are already well established, it meant it could dive straight into the action. The new opening might not be as catchy as the original, but the actual episode content is much more infectious.

Episode highlights include bikini-clad scientist Cindy Campbell holding an English teaching class (which is played a lot better than most Engrish anime jokes), Eizo and Chizuru's discovery that Squid Girl has the ability to change her weight at will, Squid Girl losing her memory and the aforementioned formation of the Invasion Club. The jokes were a lot funnier (but still the same style of humour) and the only real flaws the show had was the overuse of Sanae and the 'serious' final episode (which wasn't half as good nor as effective as the first season finale). But once again, as usual, the mini-Ika short manages to completely steal the show.

So for anyone who enjoyed the first season of Ika Musume, I highly recommend the second season as it only builds upon what was great about the original. Those looking for a light hearted anime but haven't watched the original - it might take a while to work out the who's who of the show but I wouldn't say its impossible to jump in with season two. But at only 12 episodes each, its not much of a chore to enjoy a whole 24 episodes of ink-vading shenanigans.

Anime REVIEW: Shinryaku! Ika Musume

Shinryaku! Ika Musume (Invasion! Squid Girl, or simply Squid Girl) is a 2010 12-episode anime series based on the manga of the same name. It tells the story of a squid girl named Ika Musume, who vows to conquer humanity as revenge for its pollution of the ocean. Her first task is to make the Lemon beach house, a restaurant owned by the Aizawa sisters, her base of operations. However, when she accidentally breaks a hole in their wall, she is forced to work as a waitress to pay off the damages. As she continues her life on the surface, she also meets a lifeguard named Goro, an obsessive fan named Sanae and Cindy Campbell - the leader of an American scientific team who believe her to be an alien.

Ika Musume's episodes are split into 2 or 3 smaller episodes, which each focus on a different theme with very little connection to the last (although sometimes things might be brought over into future episodes). While most of these episodes are light hearted and comedic, some of them are actually quite touching. This is especially true of the "Aren't you Going to Keep It?" segment in episode 5, which really stood at to me as the highlight of the series. Episode 12's climax is also a very touching story, and a nice way to round off the series. The comedy in the series itself varies - some of it is excellent, other episodes kind of fall flat and are largely forgettable. Luckily there isn't an episode of wholly bad stories, so the bad is nicely interspaced between the good to make the series enjoyable on the whole.

The primary source of enjoyment for the series though is definitely from the characters itself. There are a few weak links in the cast (mainly the males), but otherwise each character serves a unique purpose in the series and they all work well together. The series is at its strongest when Squid girl herself is the focus - her naïvety at how easy the surface world is to conquer is a constant source of hilarity, and Squid Girl is a very unique character in both design and characterisation (particularly when you consider that she can actually be perceived as the 'villain' of the series). But even then a main character is only as strong as her supporting cast. From Sanae's unhealthy obsession with Squid Girl to Chizuru's hidden dark side, there's plenty from each character to appease whatever you might be looking for.

Finally I must make a note of the series' opening theme - which is perhaps one of the catchiest openings I've heard in a long time. Usually I skip openings after one or two episodes, but here I found myself listening to it all the way through for all 12 episodes. Judge for yourself.

Ika Musume is a very enjoyable series - and its especially nice to see a series made up of short stories that isn't overly kawaii, but on the whole it isn't anything particularly ground breaking. If you're looking simply for a short light hearted series to kill some time this is definitely recommendable, but it's not "must see viewing" by any stretch of the imagination.