Haiyore! Nyarlko-san F OVA Review
這いよれ！ニャル子さん F OVA
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san F OVA

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mahiro has a vivid dream that he marries Nyarlko. When he wakes up, he goes to confront her, finding her with Cthuko and Hastur getting ready to upload a video online. Nyarlko doesn’t know anything about a dream, but assumes Mahiro had a wet dream, leading to the usual antics between Nyarlko, Cthuko, and Hastur. After punishing the three, Tamao and Yoichi arrive with tickets to a new escape game attraction in town, so the group, including Shanta-kun and Mahiro’s mother Yoriko come. They arrive at the place, which looks like a Western haunted house, and enter a waiting room, where they are served free drinks. Everyone is paired off, with the happy Nyarlko ending up with Mahiro. Everyone does the escape game competition with Tamao and Cthuko winning. Everyone, including Mahiro and Nyaroko, who now have bandannas around their necks, leave to get something to eat.

Meanwhile, the real Mahiro and Nyarlko find themselves in a cavern filled with monsters, making it different from the other event attractions they did. Nyarlko pulls out her Space CQC crowbar weapon, but it vanishes. She pulls out her grenades, but they too vanish. A monolith comes to life and tells them that Nyarlko has been infected with a virus that will continue to weaken her and eventually cause her to lose all her memories. The monolith drops two swords for them to use to battle the monsters, but the weakened Nyarlko has difficulties that get worse. Eventually, they escape, but by now, Nyarlko has forgotten everything but Mahiro. Taking a break, she gets Mahiro to tell her stories of their life together and after hearing them, she notes that his memories aren’t bad ones.

Elsewhere, the group calls it a day as Tamao and Yoichi leave. Immediately, Cthuko, Shanta-kun, Hastur, and Yoriko turn on the bandanna Nyarlko and Mahiro, understanding they aren’t the real things. The two turn to monsters whom are easily defeated. With that, the group races back to find Mahiro and Nyarlko. Meanwhile, Mahiro and Nyarlko make it to the final challenge, where the monolith produces a problem too difficult to solve. Mahiro tells the monolith that he gives up and he’ll get Nyarlko, Cthuko, and Hastur to help it with its illegal game activities if it restores Nyarlko. The weak Nyarlko doesn’t want Mahiro to become a criminal for her sake. Nyarlko says she’s OK with losing her memories ’cause her love for Mahiro will never be lost. Mahiro kisses her and the exit opens. The two are found unconscious by the others. Nyarlko is restored, but the two only have vague memories of their time at the place. Later at school, Mahiro gets a letter from Atko, explaining that his exchange of body fluids is what cured Nyarlko. This causes the usual hijinks.

Thoughts/Review:

While this episode trods on ground the franchise has already covered, it was still nice getting back into the world of Nyarlko-san and company again, especially since Atko (Atoko) gets a cameo.

The episode had its normal stuff for a Haiyore! Nyaruko-san title — ecchi jokes, ecchi content, Nyarlko’s undying love for Mahiro, followed by Mahiro fending her off, Cthuko, and Hastur with their affections, etc. As such, it is the usual mixture of funny, parody (and if you want all of the parody references here, the NyaruReferences blog has those), and of course wrongness.

As to the story itself, this isn’t something we haven’t seen before in the Haiyore! Nyaruko-san franchise. Mahiro certainly doesn’t act like a normal teen male, mainly so that there can be the comedic conflict between him and Nyarlko, who’s desperate to become his girlfriend and eventual wife. So even though the franchise to date has shown that he does have feelings for Nyarlko, he just won’t go there on his own. It always makes me want to smack him in the back of the head, even though I can appreciate him not liking the clingy aspects of Nyarlko.

The event that Atko set up was perfect in that it was designed to force Mahiro to more deeply admit his feelings than he ever has before. If Nyarlko could just show the restraint she’s shown in the past, Mahiro might better respond to her feelings. That being said, in this episode, Nyarlko’s memory loss of everything but Mahiro and her love for him (as well as her weakened physical state) caused her to be restrained and prove she wasn’t just after sex. I couldn’t help but be touched by her pleas to Mahiro to not become a criminal just to save her and her vow that she would continue to love him even with no memories.

Speaking of memories, I liked how when Mahiro was telling Nyarlko the stories of their adventures together (which she could no longer remember), she noted how his memories of their time together contained no bad memories. It was a sweet moment.

Although it has taken the entire franchise for him to do so, Mahiro finally acted a man and initiated a passionate kiss with Nyarlko. Even better, we got to see their hands touching after the event was over, and he didn’t get all boneheaded and act ashamed or embarrassed or irritated or flustered at being in contact with Nyarlko.

And, I appreciate that at the end of the episode, Nyarlko basically returned the favor to him by passionately kissing him, even if he did keep his eyes opened. (Well, when he kissed her earlier, she did the same.) At least he didn’t do anything else stupid there.

As to Atko’s actions in causing Nyarlko’s relationship with Mahiro to finally blossom (Atko’s name was never spoken, but in the letter Mahiro received, her name was in the signature section, confirming the woman in the black, spider web motif kimono was indeed Atko), she clearly has a darker intent. If I recall correctly, she loves stealing the boyfriends of her friends as she gets great pleasure from this act. After she successfully steals the boyfriend, she dumps him and moves on. That’s why she says she’s going to allow their relationship to grow more before doing more. That more is going to be attempting to steal Mahiro from Nyarlko, presuming we ever get another TV series or OVA episode.

In the end, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san F OVA is a fun return to to the franchise, and may well be the last trip to the franchise. I hope not ’cause I’d like to see more, especially with Mahiro and Nyarlko becoming an actual couple.