I have been and continue to be traveling at the moment, so my watch time has been limited, and this post will be short. I have even fallen behind on many weekly shows that I normally watch. However, to try to restore a weary brain, I tried watching Squid Girl, and I have some thoughts.

For context, I am currently reading my way through the manga, and I absolutely love this series. It is such a silly, no-stakes SOL; which I thought would be perfect after a long day of work/travel. However, I found that the anime version just wasn’t doing it for me. I much preferred just reading a couple chapters of the manga over watching it play out on screen.

I have struggled to pinpoint what about the anime I haven’t been able to connect with. Overall, it seems like a competent adaptation. The jokes are there, the voice work seems fine, the animation doesn’t really stick out as a problem either. I suspect that it is probably just the fact that I love the manga so much that the anime was never really going to live up to that with a straightforward adaptation. It would need some kind of transformative adaptation (eg Bocchi the Rock) to make it fresh.

All that said, I think this is where I landed: if you haven’t read the Squid Girl manga, then the anime is probably going to serve its job. However, if you already know/love the manga like me, then the anime isn’t really adding anything.