The Squid Girl OVA
侵略!!イカ娘 (Shinryaku!! Ika Musume)
- Comedy
- Anthropomorphic
- Episodes
- 3
- Duration
- 24 min per ep
- Aired
- Aug 8, 2012 to Sep 8, 2014
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
The Squid Girl OVA is a set of original anime episodes released on DVD as special bundles with select manga volumes.
These OVAs were included with volumes 12, 14, and 17 of the manga, offering extra comedic content featuring the anthropomorphic squid girl cast.
Otaku Consensus
The Squid Girl OVA lands as a compact extension rather than a reinvention: critics who respond to the series praise its segmented gag pacing, clean Diomedéa production, and the way localization and subtitles make the squid-wordplay easier to take than expected. Its strongest material is the same character-first absurdity reviewers singled out in the TV run, especially gags built around Ika Musume’s biology and found-family friction, while the real ceiling remains its dependence on puns, simple supporting roles, and little long-term character development. Fan scores are steady rather than ecstatic, with MAL at 7.47 and AniList at 73, which fits an OVA best treated as a breezy bonus for devotees rather than essential comedy canon.
Why You Should Watch
The Squid Girl OVA is for viewers who want low-stakes gag anime with a monster-girl hook and zero homework: punchlines arrive in short bursts, the cast chemistry is already locked in, and the three-episode length prevents the pun-heavy comedy from overstaying its welcome. It scratches the same after-school silliness itch as Azumanga Daioh and the chaos-in-miniature appeal of Nichijou, but with a more beach-shack, cute-girls-doing-cute-things flavor and a stronger emphasis on one mascot-like protagonist. Come for slapstick, subtitle-friendly squid wordplay, Ultra-Prism’s bright opening energy, and Hisako Kanemoto’s instantly readable lead performance; skip it if you need plot escalation, dramatic continuity, or a supporting cast that evolves beyond sharp comic functions.
Key Characters
- IIka Musume(VA: Hisako Kanemoto)
The series’ entire comic engine runs through her: a monster-girl lead whose overconfidence, alien logic, and instantly recognizable vocal delivery turn ordinary social situations into punchline setups.
- EEiko Aizawa(VA: Ayumi Fujimura)
Eiko works as the practical straight man, giving the slapstick a grounded counterweight whenever Ika Musume’s enthusiasm starts bending reality around her.
- CChizuru Aizawa(VA: Rie Tanaka)
Chizuru is memorable because her calm, polite surface lets the comedy pivot from cute nonsense to sudden intimidation without changing the show’s relaxed rhythm.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
This is a three-episode OVA series tied to manga volumes 12, 14, and 17, with releases stretching from August 8, 2012 to September 8, 2014. That spacing makes it feel less like a conventional season and more like periodic bonus material for readers who stayed with the manga.
- 2
Diomedéa’s production preserves the short-form, segmented rhythm that reviewers associated with the source’s gag-comic structure. The OVA format suits that approach because each installment can function as a compact set of sketches rather than a plot-driven episode.
- 3
The comedy’s wordplay is unusually translation-dependent, and reviewers specifically noted that the squid puns survive more comfortably in subtitles than expected. That matters for this franchise because its humor often lives or dies on whether the linguistic jokes feel playful rather than exhausting.
- 4
The music credits keep the franchise’s bright character-anime identity intact, with Ultra-Prism credited for opening theme performance and Kanae Itou credited for ending theme performance. Even reviewers who found the broader soundtrack uninspired treated the show’s surface energy as part of its charm.
- 5
Its reception profile is niche but stable: 14,692 MAL voters place it at 7.47/10 with popularity rank #4708, while AniList lists a 73/100 score and 67 favourites. Those numbers point to a comedy OVA that satisfied an existing fanbase more than it expanded the audience.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The OVA’s AniList tag profile is highly concentrated: Female Protagonist sits at 100%, Monster Girl at 95%, and Primarily Female Cast, Slapstick, and Cute Girls Doing Cute Things each register at 79%. That tag mix captures the franchise more precisely than the single Comedy genre label.
- Fun fact 2
- Hideo Hariganeya is credited for key animation on episode 1b, a granular credit that points to the OVA’s segmented production style rather than a single uninterrupted episode structure.
- Fun fact 3
- The Brazilian Portuguese version has unusually visible localization credits in the available data: Glória Barão is credited for ADR script, while Júlio Muzzi and Jhonny Ferri are credited as ADR directors.
- Fun fact 4
- A video reviewer recommended streaming rather than hunting down the DVDs, noting that physical copies were out of print at the time of the review. That makes the OVA’s original bundle-based release history more relevant for collectors than for most modern viewers.
- Fun fact 5
- Critical reactions to the wider Squid Girl anime repeatedly converge on the same split: reviewers praise the lead character, solid visuals, and translated jokes, but often call out limited character development, a weak supporting cast compared with Ika Musume, or music that does not match the comedy’s spark.
Studios
- Diomedéa
