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Ika Musume (Squid Girl)
Ika-chan
Bio
Japanese name イカ娘
Romaji Ika Musume
Race Squid
Gender Female
Hair Color Blue
Eye Color Blue
Occupation Waitress
Status Alive
Relatives
Unknown
Miscellaneous Info
Anime Debut Episode 1
Manga Debut Chapter 1
Japanese voice Hisako Kanemoto
English voice Christine Marie Cabanos

Ika Musume (イカ娘, lit. Squid Girl) is the main protagonist of Shinryaku! Ika Musume. She is a squid-human hybrid who comes from the sea with plans to invade humanity as punishment for them polluting the sea. However, after causing damage to a beach house, she is forced to work as a waitress to pay for the damages. She later begins living at the residence of the owners of said beach house.

Personality[]

Ika has understandable grievances regarding what humans had been doing to the sea, but it appears to be the only driving factor behind her attempt to invade humanity by herself. The first person to address her, Eiko Aizawa, quickly learns that Ika has never been on the surface before, and thus greatly underestimates the human population and their capabilities. The series as a whole focuses on Ika's development as a character on the surface world.

Ika is scared of her species' natural predators, sharks and killer whales, that she even fears inflatable swimming floats shaped like them. Shrimp is her favorite food, and her strong craving for it is shown regularly. Ika recognizes her own kind through the "hat" on her head resembling a squid's mantle, such that she easily mistakes white paper hats for actual squid. All of these facets to her personality are quickly noticed by the humans she interacts with, and hinder her invasion plans.

Ika has a distinct speech pattern. She often ends her sentences with "de geso" (でゲソ) and her questions play on the double-meaning of "nai ka" (ないか, "isn't it"), which are used for the show's segment titles (written as なイカ). In the English dub, this is instead changed to using puns on specific words ("squid", "ink", "jet", "fish", "gill", "sucker", "kraken", "beak" etc.) During the time Ika lost her squid-based abilities, she tried changing the way she talked in order to fit in better.

Abilities[]

Squid-based[]

Like a squid, she has ten fully controllable tentacles that protrude from the top of her head like hair. These tentacles are very strong, incredibly dexterous, and can be controlled effortlessly by Ika. They can also stretch a huge range and have a variety of offensive capabilities. As such, Ika essentially has ten extra limbs, and can use them to master a range of human activities, including several sports, drumming and art.

The squid ink she spews from her mouth is noted to be of high-quality taste, and is used for the squid ink spaghetti dish at the Lemon Beach House. Her mantle-shaped hat contains her fins, which she apparently never had to use while underwater, but when she learns how to control them, she usually uses them to deliver physical blows. This "hat" is also an extension to Ika's head - attempts to remove the hat would kill Ika, however, the pain caused by a single tear can help recover from amnesia.

Due to her small stature, she can adjust her weight in order to pick up larger objects without being toppled over. Adjusting the bands on her wrists allows her to go from anywhere between 0.0005kg to 20,000kg in an instant. She can float on an updraft at her lightest, allowing her to take "flight". She can also emit light from her body like a firefly squid, however, if she moves while illuminated, she takes on a different appearance.

All of her squid-based abilities are prone to atrophy, which can occur suddenly after a prolonged period outside of water.

  • In the manga, Ika recovers them after being faced with her natural predators, real or not.
  • In the anime, Ika recovers them due to a desire to save someone who was drowning, in this case, Eiko Aizawa.

Human-based[]

Ika is also adept at learning new languages, such as English after a short lesson from Cindy Campbell. She can also solve advanced mathematics problems, although the way she understands such problems is unintelligible to humans.

Appearance[]

Ika is the only employee of the Lemon Beach House to not wear their uniform, instead being allowed to remain in her standard white dress and shoes. It is later revealed that her dress can instantly dry, cannot be stained and repairs itself within minutes.

Ika wears a white one-piece swimsuit whenever she goes in a body of water, or enters a beach-related competition. It is unknown whether this swimsuit has the same qualities as her dress.

Ika only changes to other clothes when the occasion deems necessary, such as a baseball kit when playing an official match, a yukata during festivals, or when forced to cosplay by Sanae Nagatsuki.

Ika's human skin is also tan-resistant.

Manga ending[]

Ika Musume eventually pays off all of the debt she has for causing the hole at the beach house, which allows her to go free to do whatever she wants. She hesitated to leave the beach house for all the bonds she has made with the people there, and after learning that as long as she is indebted to them she'll have to stay and work the debts off. Which gives her the idea to cause even greater damage in order to stay forever, she trashes the whole beach house, shocking every customer present. Chizuru, knowing her intentions, warmly welcomes her to work in the beach house again.

Relationships[]

Level of intimacy based on how one addresses her:

Chapter277

Squid Girl after a week with Gorō's mom.

Japanese Romaji Dubbed Characters Relation
イカ 娘ちゃん Ika Musume-chan Squid Girl Chizuru Aizawa Though Ika fears her, Chizuru considers herself a motherly figure towards Ika.
イカ 娘 Ika Musume Squid Girl Eiko Aizawa, Gorō Arashiyama Rivalry, sometimes vitriolic companionship
イカ 姉ちゃん Ika Nee-chan Squid-girly Takeru Aizawa, most children younger than Ika Musume They view Ika as an elder.
イカ ちゃん Ika-chan Squiddy Sanae Nagatsuki, Kiyomi Sakura One has a crush on Ika, the other voluntarily becomes friends with her.
イカ 先輩 Ika-senpai Ms. Squid

Squid Master

Yuka Nishimura, Tomomi Mochizuki, Ayano Watanabe They view Ika as a leader (of their Invasion Club).
イカ 様 Ika-sama Squid-highness
イカ の嬢ちゃん Ika no Jō-chan (miss) Gorō's mother Motherly figure, feeds Ika until she becomes fat[1].
イカ さん Ika-san Squid Girl Ayumi Tokita Is comfortable around Ika.
イカ 星人 Ika Seijin (alien) Squidian Cindy Campbell Considers Ika an extraterrestrial specimen.
イカ の人 Ika no hito (person) Squid person Nagisa Saitō Considers Ika as a threat to mankind.

イカ 女

Ika onna (woman) Aiko Saitō

Considers Ika as a rival.

Eiko Aizawa[]

She is the first human Ika interacts with. Eiko does not take Ika's invasion threat seriously, and becomes her boss at work after she causes damage to the Lemon Beach House. Though Eiko objects to her living in the Aizawa residence, Chizuru allows it, and Ika ends up sharing Eiko's room. Though Eiko merely views Ika as just an employee, she takes time off to look after Ika when she falls sick. By the end of Season 1, Eiko becomes Ika's team-mate in volleyball, and is sad when Ika decides to return to the sea, as well as happy when she comes back. It is due to their bond that Ika is able to grow her tentacles back and save Eiko from drowning.

Chizuru Aizawa[]

She is the first human Ika encounters who proves to be more than a match for the latter's tentacles, and as a result, ends up being the first human that Ika genuinely fears. On the other hand, Chizuru views Ika as a welcome addition to not only work, but also family life, and wishes the best for Ika whenever possible.

Takeru Aizawa[]

He sees Ika as someone to play with. On his debut, he wears a squid hat and ribbons in order for Ika to view him as a comrade. Takeru is also the first person to notice Ika's fear of floats shaped like her predators, but also respects her other abilities that he gets to witness. On Ika's return from the sea, Takeru notes Ika's loss of tentacles and changed mannerisms do not make her happy.

Gorō Arashiyama[]

Ika sees Gorō as a rival to due the latter's claim that he protects the sea, which is not in line with Ika's own belief about humans. He also becomes Ika's last opponent at a beach volleyball tournament. In Season 2, when Gorō gives Ika a chance to try out his profession, Gorō ends up disagreeing with Ika's heavy-handed approach to patrolling, although he forgives her after she saves some boys from drowning.

Sanae Nagatsuki[]

Sanae develops an obsessive crush on Ika from the moment they first encounter each other. Ika does not return Sanae's affections, and is often disgusted by Sanae's attempts to approach her, that she would hit Sanae back with her tentacles and spray her with ink, though Sanae seems to exhibit a strange masochistic pleasure out of this. Eventually, Sanae is able to dodge Ika's tentacles, although she also stops trying to approach Ika physically.

Nagisa Saitō[]

She is the first human to be genuinely scared of Ika, such that Ika views her as an angel. Ika would often freak Nagisa out for her own pleasure. However, there are times when Nagisa manages to act normally around Ika.

Ayumi Tokita[]

She credits Ika as one of the ways she eventually emerges from her shell. Her father views Ika as a competitor to his own beach house trade, and would often make Ayumi wear gadget-laden masks shaped like Ika.

Kiyomi Sakura[]

She is Ika's first genuine friend, befriended after a doorbell ditch went awry. She later helps form an Invasion Club with some of her sports team-mates for Ika's sake.

Trivia[]

  • Ika is quite similar to Keroro of the Sgt.Frog series, as both characters plan to invade Earth for a reason (Sgt.Frog invades Earth/Pekopon to relay information to the awaiting Keron Invasion Army whereas Ika invades Earth because humans are polluting the oceans), both ended up as a slave after they did something bad (i.e., damaging property), and both characters ended up befriending a human but decided to use them as part of their so-called "invasion plans". Both often have crazy misadventures while trying to "invade" Earth.
  • In the drama CD, Ika is shown to have the ability to break any material (such as glass) with ultrasonic resonance.
  • She likes to tickle people but is weak against tickling as well.
  • The voice of Squid Girl, Christine Marie Cabanos, is the only voice to reprise the role for Season 2 of the English dub. And she also was voiced Hapi from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
  • In the anime, segments which feature a miniature version of Ika are almost entirely without dialogue - this version of Ika can only say the word "geso" (or, in the dub, "squid")
  • There's a gag in Subnautica when entering the Cyclops, the AI will say "You are the best captain on this planet, I'm not even squidding." Which is a reference to one of her iconic lines.
  • She has Galeophobia (Fear of sharks), Cetaphobia (Fear of orcas/killer whales) and no specific phobia of Chizuru's open eyes

Images[]

For the rest of the Gallery see here: Ika Musume/Squid Girl Gallery.

References[]

  1. Manga Volume 15 Chapter 277
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