這いよれ！ニャル子さん/Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Episode 04

Mahiro gets a call from his mother that she’s 40-seconds away, so he throws Cthuko and Nyarlko out before rapidly cleaning up the messy house. However, when he’s done, the girls are back and in the struggle to get them back out, his mother arrives. Mahiro is in a bind, but when Nyarlko introduces herself, Mahiro’s mother produces a lot of forks and says she is a jashin (evil deity) hunter. Nyarlko and Cthuko explain how they are protecting Mahiro, but it takes the small Shanta-kun to win over Mahiro’s mother. After she explains more about her part-time job as an evil deity hunter, she agrees to let the two girls stay, though she rejects Nyarlko’s request to become Mahiro’s bride.

Mahiro’s mother reveals herself to be an old-school gamer, so she and Cthuko play games while Mahiro and a very bride-like Nyarlko prepare something to eat, though Mahiro has to make sure she uses Earth ingredients. While this is going on, a human-looking female with green hair arrives in a DeLorean. The following morning, Nyarlko has a Yes/No pillow for Mahiro, with text that basically makes both options a “yes.” Mahiro is not amused, but when Cthuko steals it, Nyarlko is not amused. Their fight does not amuse Mahiro’s mother, who politely asks them to stop fighting, then produces forks to back it up, causing the two to decide to go to school and not wait for Mahiro.

Mahiro leaves and runs into what appears to be a blonde haired girl, who’s looking for something. At school, Tamao and Nyarlko discuss Nyarlko’s lack of progress with Mahiro, then at lunch, Nyarlko, Cthuko, and Mahiro have their normal odd meal on the roof.  On the way home alone, Mahiro finds the “girl” again, and treats “her” to fast food. While eating, Nyarlko and Cthuko find them, where the “she” is revealed to be an alien “he” named Hastur-kun, who went to school with Nyarlko and Cthuko. As they chat, Hastur reveals that he’s looking for YASAKA Yoriko, Mahiro’s mother. This is overheard by the green haired woman.

Har! If only cleaning up a mess were that fast.  Only in anime.  ^_~

Anyway, ecchi aspects aside, I find myself liking this anime a lot.  That’s because I get a kick out of whacky comedies, stemming back to my introduction to British comedies back in 1989 in Japan. ^_^

The yes-no pillow joke made me laugh. However, it is making me wrack my brain for when I first saw the use of this type of pillow in an anime. It is possible that I saw it in Excel Saga, which had quite a bit of ecchi humor.

Yoriko’s introduction gave me a good laugh as well, especially since (1) she’s apparently a master of using forks as weapons and (2) she’s a jashin hunter. Which reminds me, since “jashin” is specifically referring to an evil god/deity, why would a translator drop “evil” from the mix?  Just asking.  Actually, it probably should have been left as “Jashin Hunter,” which apparently is a term decently known among otaku in Japan.

The trap stuff is not going to be an element I’m going to like. *_*  Seriously, I’ve no idea why Japanese otaku want to fap to a young boy who looks like a girl.  However, traps are apparently a hot thing in Japan. *_* (As an aside, I didn’t recognize Hastur-kun’s seiyuu, KUGIMIYA Rie, the voice of Nagi from Hayate the Combat Butler, Shana from Shakugan no Shana, and more.)

Two fun parody references this episode (on top of the demon/deity name-dropping).  The first was from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The second was from Back to the Future (I’m guessing since a DeLorean is used).  I guess that means that Nyarlko’s slip up about being from the future might not be a mistake after all.

This episode makes it seem like we might be getting into more of a plot-driven aspect of the series. Well, the plot takes a back seat to all of the whacky comedy aspects, which tends to be the case in all such whacky comedy series (Excel Saga, Hayate the Combat Butler, etc.).

In the end, another fun and funny episode.