Squid Girl Season 2 - Episode 1

Ahh, Squid Girl - the only anime series where every episode is a beach episode.  Despite not 'blogging about its first season here, Squid Girl was a bit of a rarity for me - a series that I initially decided not to watch, but picked it up for review at UK Anime and ended up watching it every week on account of the enjoyment I derived from it.  Thus, it would be dumb of me to make the same mistake twice, meaning that this time around I'm on board the good ship Ika Musume from the very start.

As you might expect, little has changed in the world of Squid Girl, as it introduces us to the same character roster while splitting each instalment into three sub-sections to bring a little variety to proceedings.  Thus, this first episode brings us a Squid Girl who has been watching two many movies and thus sees everything and everyone as a threat to her half-hearted "invasion", Sanae gets a serious bout of jealousy as Squid Girl hangs out with Kiyomi and the friends from her club, and a jellyfish problem on the beach evolves into a full-on jellyfish collecting competition in which surely Squid Girl's tentacles cannot be beaten... or can they?

Although Squid Girl has never quite been a laugh out loud series (although such moments do crop up from time to time), it does largely succeed in allowing a sense of fun to pervade its every pore, and little has changed in those terms judging by this opener to season two.  The terrible yet endlessly snigger-worthy squid-based puns are there, the menagerie of normal and decidedly subnormal characters are present and correct, and the colourful art style is the icing on a cake that is far more entertaining than it probably should be.  In a way, it's hard to figure out quite why Squid Girl is so engaging, but engaging it is, and I for one am more than a little happy to see it back.  Bring on the next squidding episode already!