這いよれ！ニャル子さん/Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Episode 10

With Nyarlko, in Mahiro’s body, making a loud, bold profession of love, Mahiro, in Nyarlko’s body, has to make a forceful rejection. Isuka, in Tamao’s body, comes in weary, having played an RPG all night long.  At lunch on the roof, she eats and revives, but lets it out that sometime in the future, Earth is destroyed by extremist, much to Mahiro’s dismay. Mahiro is worried about Yoichi not coming to school, but since he’s still trapped in Nyarlko’s body, he’s forced to take her along on a house call with Cthuko, Hastur, and Isuka-Tamao in tow. There, they discover that Yoichi has been taken over by a Yith extremist named Isurugi, who leads them on a chase to a nearby park as a barrier space is created to contain the forthcoming battle.

In the park, Isurugi-Yoichi reveals a machine to cause all minds to swap on Earth. After a brief jam-counter-jam battle between himself and Isuka-Tamao, he activates the machine, but it didn’t work. Instead, the leader of the extremist shows up in holographic form and is planning on destroying Earth, Isurugi included. Isurugi joins the others to fight, and Mahiro discovers he has Nyarlko’s skills in her body. During the battle, he’s about to get shot, so Nyarlko takes this hit instead. Mahiro weeps over Nyarlko’s apparent death, lamenting aloud. Hearing his words, Nyarlko takes advantage and snogs a deep kiss. Isuka gets their bodies swapped back, allowing Nyarlko to transform and destroy the device.

Cthuko and Hastur are still in shock over seeing the deep, passionate kiss by Mahiro and Nyarlko. Isuka and Isurugi leave their host bodies, Isuka promising to erase Tamao’s memories. However, Isuka returns in her true form to try to finish the RPG, causing Tamao to wake up and remember.  They chat for a bit, where Isuka says she has to erase the rest of Tamao’s memories.  Isuka promise not to reveal anything private about Tamao, including her love for someone she can’t admit she loves. The following morning, Tamao is with a stuffed animal version of Isuka (?) and at school, Mahiro thinks his life is returning to normal, only to discover that the other girls aren’t happy he’s coming to school with Nyarlko, and his teacher wants an explanation for his outbursts for Nyarlko on the day before.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the delights of this series is allowing stories to be told over multiple episodes, with previous stories having impact on the now (jokes about old foreshadowing included).

I got a good laugh out of Isuka-Tamao’s talk of staying up all night playing an RPG.  That’s something I don’t do any more, but I do remember back in the day when I played Bard’s Tale and Ultima III like there was no tomorrow.

I also laughed at the idea of a common, portable generator being used to not only recharge batteries, but recharging an alien artifact.

The imagery of the Earth being destroyed because a space station was dropped on it was right out of the Mobile Suit Gundam series.  Man, am I glad I watched that.  Nyarlko also made reference to a colony being dropped on Earth, which also ties back to Gundam.

Although stupid, I couldn’t help but laugh at Isuka and Isurugi canceling out each other’s canceling effect. The writers pushed it JUST the right amount, IMO, and then even cracked a joke about the joke.  Good stuff. ^_^

I feel pretty sure that the extremist rant against Earth based on the Space Decency Laws is a parody jab at the Tokyo mayor and the law passed to restrict anime/manga in the name of the children (it is amazing what one can do “in the name of the children”).  I guess some big city mayors like throwing their weight around, as folks in New York City can attest with all the bans on things there.

Anyway, the funniest moment was Nyarlko, as Mahiro, playing possum and getting a deep kiss in on Mahiro, as Nyarlko.  The whole time he was touchingly sad, it was obvious what would happen, and the payoff, right down to Hastur and Cthuko being stunned grey, made me laugh and laugh. It was awesome how Nyarlko managed to get a Neon Genesis Evangelion reference in about the kiss (to say nothing of her using an AT Field earlier).  Then, Hastur and Cthuko still not having recovered after the battle was over was a great way to continue the joke. I loved it.

So, I guess Tamao actually does like Mahiro, or so it would appear.  That was mildly suggested in episode 8, but I didn’t take it too seriously then. Heh. Well, harem titles, including unorthodox ones like this series, often like to add new members to the group. I wonder if her memories are truly wiped or not.

I could probably go on about how much I really enjoyed this episode, but I’m out of time and well, you get the point. ^_~  Regardless, this is indeed the series I wanted to see for some time now. I don’t know how faithful it is to the light novels, but so far, it is a win with me.