Shinryaku!! Ika Musume OVA

Although few things are worse than dropping your Nintendo 3DS and breaking it beyond repair, it isn't quite such a big issue when you're a genius MIT graduate who can make your own handheld games console at short notice.  Thus begins this Squid Girl OVA bundled with the latest volume of its Japanese release.

The trouble is, our "Three Stooges" seem to have taken most of their time in making the console in question indestructible, leaving the quality of its games to be rather less impressive like some kind of reverse Gizmondo.  When even powering on the console is a test of strength, you expect a decent gaming experience out of it, but it appears that the phrase "learning curve" is lost upon our alien-obsessed geniuses in a story that is worth watching for its final punchline alone.

For the second segment of this traditional, three-part episode, Chizuru finds herself in the same boat as Squid Girl herself - that is, being labelled as a non-human being on account of that fact that Ayumi can talk normally to her while she finds herself tongue-tied against actual humans.  But what can Chizuru do to make herself seem more normal with everyone watching her closely?  Even her attempts at slipping on a banana skin in a naturalistic way backfire, but thankfully for her she isn't the only one with some impressive abilities...

Finally, this OVA sees Squid Girl deciding to play an impromptu game of hide and seek in her guest's family home, largely in the hope of getting to see just how much they miss and fret about her in her absence.  Of course, this doesn't work out too well for her, and it's only when Takeru joins in the game that she sees any kind of concern from her buddies.

I'm not sure that any reminder was needed as to how fun Squid Girl can be in animated form, but regardless this OVA episode provided it anyway - admittedly its final segment was pretty weak sauce, but the other two segments were both pretty fun, and the whole "video game parody" concept rarely seems to fall flat in anime such are the riches to be mined from such an idea.  Is this bonus instalment enough to convince me that a third season of Squid Girl would be a good idea?  You know, I think it probably is - if nothing else, this OVA proves that the series still has legs (not to mention tentacles) and feels like it could probably support plenty more well-written episodes.