Squid Girl Season 2 - Episode 12 (Completed)

All good things must come to an an end, and today sees us say goodbye to Squid Girl for the second time - is she also going to say goodbye to one of her most treasured friendships however?

The mainstay of this episode concerns itself with a falling out between Squid Girl and Eiko in the wake of the former over-writing the latter's hard-earned save game.  Once the argument escalates to the point of the two of them refusing to speak to one another, it seems as if nothing is going to repair the rift - indeed, attempts by the likes of Chizuru to resolve things ultimately only make it worse.  Even an evening out at a nearby festival doesn't resolve the issue, until Squid Girl manages to get herself lost in a sudden downpour, and Eiko finally shows her true colours as she rushes out to rescue her hapless friend.  Thus, all's well that end's well as her friends reflect upon how Squid Girl has invaded their (and our) hearts.

Before all that however, this final episode does begin with some outright comedy, as Squid Girl and her "invasion club" seek to train those around them in how to deal with an actual, invasion - a potentially pressing problem with no Chizuru around.  Of course, Squid Girl's real goal here is to train herself for her real invasion of the land, although as per usual it seems that things don't quite go to plan, whether it's because of a zombie uprising or other more practical problems.

As episodes go, this wasn't quite Squid Girl at its best - it wasn't a bad episode, but its emotional payload felt a little flimsy (in contrast to the first season, which I seem to remember made me cry) and its reliance upon it in turn reduced the comedy output of the episode.  Still, this can't detract from the fact that this was a decidedly fun second series - much like Working I fretted about it running out of steam, but also like Working it managed to keep finding enough entertaining premises and ideas to keep me laughing or at least smiling from beginning to end.  Even when you look beyond all the squid puns introduced by Crunchyroll's subtitles, there's a lot of easy-going entertainment and comic value within Squid Girl, making it a simple but effectively little show with a heart of gold that has done exactly what it set out to from beginning to end.